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Fandom Promo 2023!
Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!
Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign-ups!
Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!
EDIT: WE HAVE A SPREADSHEET! Thanks to Jaclynhyde we now have a spreadsheet you can access HERE.
Here are some areas you can cover:
<b>Title</b>:
Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment, too. This helps people find your promo again.
<b>Media</b>:
<b>Approx length</b>:
<b>Where to find it</b>:
(If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)
<b>What is it, in summary?</b>:
<b>What do you love about it?</b>:
<b>What sort of things are you likely to request for it?</b>:
<b>Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?</b>:
<b>Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence)</b>:
This is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
(Bonus options: What are you thinking of requesting for this? If you're thinking of nominating worldbuilding, what sort of worldbuilding topics might people explore?)
Useful tip (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.
Previous fandom promo posts can be found at this tag!
Echo (Visual Novel)
You all come back eventually...
Why do you try to run away in the first place...?
It doesn't matter...
Even though you're here, you're going to try to run away again...
Just stop...
Because just like this town...
You're only moving in circles...
Title: Echo
Media: Visual Novel
Approx length: 25-40 hours depending on your reading speed. There's a 20 minute side short story Benefits, a ~2 hour prequel Route 65, and a 4-6 hour sequel Arches if you're really invested in the universe and story, but they aren't necessary to the plot (Arches in particular only shares two characters with Echo and Benefits is 90% PWP). There's also a longer, historical prequel called The Smoke Room, but it's still in development and I haven't fully read it/am not considering its contents for this promo at all.
Where to find it: Echo is free on itch. If you end up becoming interested in the other stories in this universe, they are also all free on itch.
What is it, in summary?: Echo is an 18+ gay horror furry visual novel, set in 2015 Utah. Chase is a 21 year old otter, returning back to his hometown over spring break to reunite with his childhood friends and do a journalism project for his major, investigating the troubled history of the place where he grew up. His friends are the stoner college drop-out ram Carl, the sarcastic loner gila monster Flynn, the feisty and sharp fennec fox Jenna, the friendly and protective red wolf Leo (who is also Chase's ex), and the naive and wholesome lynx TJ. Although spring break starts off promisingly, old tensions and old wounds quickly come to a head, splintering the group. Chase then has to decide how he wants to spend the rest of break, and who to spend it with, and the mysteries that Echo is hiding - and that Chase's friends are hiding - slowly come to light with time...
Jenna's route can either be romantic or platonic depending on on a fairly obvious choice early on in the game, and your choice doesn't impact the plot that much, giving you the option to skip F/M romance without missing any plot if you don't want that in a primarily gay game.
You can play the routes in any order, but my recommendation is TJ -> Carl -> Leo -> Jenna -> Flynn. Definitely play Flynn's route after TJ's for the best experience.
What do you love about it?: It's been a while since I've read a VN that has characters that feel very true to people who I could meet in person, and I really like how all of the characters have at least one thing about them that doesn't feel very obvious from the get-go. All the charactersand settings feel very lived in, even when we don't know every detail about their lives and pasts. Chase in particular is a fascinating protagonist; I don't think I've ever met a protagonist like him in a VN before. He's surprisingly complex and a really fun narrator, especially after you have a better idea of what his deal is.
It's hard to put into words without spoiling a lot, but I also really appreciate what the game does narratively in terms of playing with tropes and structure - I know VN deconstructions are done to death, and I wouldn't call this a deconstruction exactly, but there are certainly preconceived notions about what a visual novel is and how it should function that are twisted slightly in ways that made me think a lot about how I'd want to write IF in the future, and I really admire what the narrative does to play both with this and certain gay tropes/stereotypes.
The game focuses a lot on getting stuck in cycles and what it takes to break free of them, or if it's even possible, which is id catnip for me, and it's done very well here.
There were also several moments that scared the crap out of me and it's very gay, which are wins in my book!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: There's so much I love about the game that I haven't seen explored much, and I'm still not completely sure what I'm going to request for it! Between me and a close friend that coordinated noms with each other, we've nominated Chase, Flynn, Jenna, Leo, and TJ, plus minor/secondary characters Brian, Keith, and Micha. I would likely be requesting character studies for any of these characters, or fix-it for Flynn. There's a lot of backstory for these characters that's only hinted at, and I'd love to see more of their past and relationships outside of the main game! I ship Chase/Leo, Chase/TJ, and Brian/Keith. For ships including unnominated characters, I ship Jenna/Heather and noromo Carl/Flynn (Flynn explicitly says he "doesn't do romance", and I find it cool that a VN love interest is more or less canonically aromantic). I would also be overjoyed to receive IF for this fandom!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Although I've mentioned side games earlier, they aren't necessary to create fanwork for this fandom. Just the main game is enough, although I do think reading Route 65 is helpful for fully understanding the dynamic between Chase and Leo. If you read Route 65, I'd personally recommend reading it after at least Leo and Jenna's routes.
Content warnings: fantasy racism, racism/xenophobia that is more true to "real life" (including slurs, prominently anti-Native American and anti-Latino racism and minorly anti-Asian), homophobia (including slurs), spiders/arachnophobia (this is fairly prominent), violence and gore (mostly text, although there is one CG of a corpse in Flynn's route), murder and death (including prominent child death), drug use (alcohol, weed, meth, LSD), sexual violence, mindscrew/interface weirdness, ableism (specifically against certain mental illnesses), hanging and lynching, off-screen hate crimes (towards Native Americans and separately a gay person), minor religious abuse (FLDS), child abuse, cannibalism, off-screen but heavily alluded to underage between teenagers 13-17, one line referencing antisemitism. This game takes place in a world similar to our own and references real world sociopolitical events/tragedies, including but not limited to 9/11 and the Challenger disaster, as well as their impact on American culture. Although the game is 18+, there is very little in terms of scenes meant to arouse the player; there are no drawn genitals and sex scenes are sparce, and what exists is usually meant to feel very creepy. If you need more details or if you need specific warnings that I haven't listed, feel free to ask and I'll get back to you. It's a doozy of a canon but it's worth it if the warnings don't put you off!