IT'S NOVEMBER ONCE MORE AND THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR THE ZOMBIES, RUN! SECRET SANTA EXCHANGE!
You read that correctly - the time-honoured tradition is back and you can now sign up for the 7th ZR Secret Santa!
And we know - you'll be used to seeing these posts from @runnerzero, who started the ZR Secret Santa a frankly shocking seven years ago. Zero's been snowed-under busy this year so this year @delucadarling and I are taking over the posting duties in addition to helping out with the behind the scenes part as we usually do.
Entries are open from now (right now, actually) until December 1st - at which point we'll shut down the form and get to work assigning each of you a gifter and a recipient.
Gifts can be art, fic, a combination of both, graphics, compositions, interactive fic, playlists (so long as the playlist is complementing something else!), or whatever you think will bring some joy.
SIGN UP: https://forms.gle/ERzeAQBzN8yLP2916
The only rules are to keep it secret, and spend some time on it!
Dates!
December 1st: Sign ups end!
December 2nd: You recieve your secret santa recipient
December 24th: Entries due! Post em here, send em direct to your recipient, do both! Up to you.
December 25th: We post all the entries in one mammothly festive post (if you'd like to be included!).
If you've any questions, concerns, confessions feel free to message me or @delucadarling here or on Discord.
I usually keep my private life off this platform, but I don't want to leave this behind without closure. I'm not running the ZR Secret Santa this year, and it's not exactly by choice.
Earlier this year, I was arrested in Georgia for distributing flyers related to the Stop Cop City movement and the killing of environmental activist Tortuguita. I was charged with felony intimidation and held without bail for weeks. Then, I was hit with a RICO indictment, which sweeps all forms of protest, from distributing flyers to minor acts of civil disobedience, under Georgia’s anti-racketeering law.
I was forced back to jail on the RICO charges, reliving the trauma of my unlawful imprisonment. Now that I'm out, it's time to prepare for a trial. With all of my charges combined, I'm facing more than 50 years in prison — all for flyering.
To learn more about my situation, as well as the charges myself and my 60 co-defendants are facing, here are a few resources:
I started this blog almost nine years ago. Being involved in fandom shaped my early adulthood, and I will never forget that. I might not be a ZR obsessed teenager anymore, but I still have so much love for the space and community we built.
With everything going on, I'm taking a step back from organizing the Secret Santa. I'll try my best to participate, but I can't make any promises. It's going to be a long and exhausting legal battle, which will likely play out over the next 2-3 years.
I may or may not delete this account, but either way, there's a good chance I won't be back. My world has been completely overturned, and nothing will ever be the same. It might be time to leave my old life behind.
Whatever happens, know that I love you all. Even the mutuals who haven't posted about ZR in years — I appreciate you and I'll miss you. My lovely friends are taking over the Secret Santa and I hope more people will step up to keep this tradition going.
I hope that one day this world becomes kinder and more forgiving. Until then, all I can do is try to fight for our future.
It’s this time of the again! Zombies Run Secret Santa, and here’s my gift for @runnerzero, who wouldn’t mind to be tortured with season 2 angst.
… as always, I am bringing the holiday cheer.
Thank you so much @runnerzero for organizing this event and letting a forgetful idiot like me participate. (Also, thank you to the whole zr fan community here, you spoiled me for any other fandom)
HOLY SHIT this gives me so much pain, but in the best fucking way possible. Thank you for dragging me back into my Simon feelings in the year of our lord 2022.
Here’s the full list for this year’s Zombies Run Secret Santa! Thanks so much to everyone who participated! I’m so proud of everyone who put work into this.
If you received a gift, be sure to thank your Secret Santa! Go show our writers/artists/creators some love! ❤️
Here’s the full list for this year’s Zombies Run Secret Santa! Thanks so much to everyone who participated! I’m so proud of everyone who put work into this.
If you received a gift, be sure to thank your Secret Santa! Go show our writers/artists/creators some love! ❤️
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Zombies Run!
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Amelia Spend/Steve Sissay
Characters: Amelia Spens, Steve Sissay, Sigrid Hakkinen
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, implied Season 4 spoilers, No Sexual Content, but lots of flirtation
Summary:
“Trust me, there are only three things I like about you — your high explosives, your upper arms, and that thing you did in Cardiff.”
Years before the start of the apocalypse, Amelia Spens and Steve Sissay are already getting acquainted. It goes exactly how you would expect.
My second ZR Secret Santa gift, this time for @wubbelwubbwubb! We have a shared love for both Amelia and Steve, so I decided to throw them together and see what happened. I hope you enjoy your gift and happy holidays!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Zombies Run!
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Moonchild/Runner Five, Implied 5am but could be read as either romantic or platonic, Runner Five/Sam Yao
Characters: Runner Five, Moonchild | Cynthia Hill, Sam Yao, Sara Smith
Additional Tags: Season/Series 03, POV Second Person, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Choose Your Own Adventure, Implied Female Runner Five
Summary:
YOU MUST BREAK THE PATTERN TODAY, OR THE LOOP WILL CONTINUE TOMORROW
Under Moonchild’s control, you struggle to remember who you were before. The more you fight, the more you start to question: Did you ever really have a choice?
This year, my Secret Santa recipient is abel-runners! I went for something a bit more experimental this year and turned the fic into a simple CYOA game, which you can find on AO3 or play here.
Happy holidays, and I hope you enjoy your gift!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Zombies Run!
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Moonchild/Runner Five, Implied 5am but could be read as either romantic or platonic, Runner Five/Sam Yao
Characters: Runner Five, Moonchild | Cynthia Hill, Sam Yao, Sara Smith
Additional Tags: Season/Series 03, POV Second Person, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Choose Your Own Adventure, Implied Female Runner Five
Summary:
YOU MUST BREAK THE PATTERN TODAY, OR THE LOOP WILL CONTINUE TOMORROW
Under Moonchild's control, you struggle to remember who you were before. The more you fight, the more you start to question: Did you ever really have a choice?
This year, my Secret Santa recipient is abel-runners! I went for something a bit more experimental this year and turned the fic into a simple CYOA game, which you can find on AO3 or play here.
Happy holidays, and I hope you enjoy your gift!
It’s time for the Zombies Run Secret Santa exchange!
Since the first exchange I organized in 2017, it’s now the sixth year of the ZR Secret Santa! It’s been a minute since I’ve been actively posting on tumblr, but I’m very excited to keep this going another year. ❤️
From now until December 1st we’ll be collecting entries from this form and assigning each person a Secret Santa. On December 2nd, you’ll be sent info about your recipient and their gift preferences. Your gift can be anything — fic, art, playlists, edits, etc.
The gifts will be due on December 24th, and the next day, we’ll make a post with who got who and what. Just remember, don’t tell anybody (especially your gift recipient) who you’re giving a gift to until December 24th.
SIGN UP HERE: https://forms.gle/jB3oJTDDWw9LHuJBA
Dates to keep in mind:
December 1st: Forms are due!
December 2nd: You’ll receive your prompts
December 24th: Secret Santa Reveal Day! If you’re comfortable with it, please post your gift on tumblr (or post a link). Then, send your prompter their gift AND send it to us as well so that we can include it in the mass post
December 25th: We’ll publish the mass post of all the gifts!
This event is being organized by the ZR Secret Santa Committee (me, notforconsumption, puptart, and goblinsharkz). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to any of us through tumblr. You can also email us at our shiny new team email account: [email protected].
It’s time for the Zombies Run Secret Santa exchange!
Since the first exchange I organized in 2017, it’s now the sixth year of the ZR Secret Santa! It’s been a minute since I’ve been actively posting on tumblr, but I’m very excited to keep this going another year. ❤️
From now until December 1st we’ll be collecting entries from this form and assigning each person a Secret Santa. On December 2nd, you’ll be sent info about your recipient and their gift preferences. Your gift can be anything — fic, art, playlists, edits, etc.
The gifts will be due on December 24th, and the next day, we’ll make a post with who got who and what. Just remember, don’t tell anybody (especially your gift recipient) who you’re giving a gift to until December 24th.
SIGN UP HERE: https://forms.gle/jB3oJTDDWw9LHuJBA
Dates to keep in mind:
December 1st: Forms are due!
December 2nd: You’ll receive your prompts
December 24th: Secret Santa Reveal Day! If you’re comfortable with it, please post your gift on tumblr (or post a link). Then, send your prompter their gift AND send it to us as well so that we can include it in the mass post
December 25th: We’ll publish the mass post of all the gifts!
This event is being organized by the ZR Secret Santa Committee (me, notforconsumption, puptart, and goblinsharkz). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to any of us through tumblr. You can also email us at our shiny new team email account: [email protected].
It’s time for the Zombies Run Secret Santa exchange!
Since the first exchange I organized in 2017, it’s now the sixth year of the ZR Secret Santa! It’s been a minute since I’ve been actively posting on tumblr, but I’m very excited to keep this going another year. ❤️
From now until December 1st we’ll be collecting entries from this form and assigning each person a Secret Santa. On December 2nd, you’ll be sent info about your recipient and their gift preferences. Your gift can be anything — fic, art, playlists, edits, etc.
The gifts will be due on December 24th, and the next day, we’ll make a post with who got who and what. Just remember, don’t tell anybody (especially your gift recipient) who you’re giving a gift to until December 24th.
SIGN UP HERE: https://forms.gle/jB3oJTDDWw9LHuJBA
Dates to keep in mind:
December 1st: Forms are due!
December 2nd: You’ll receive your prompts
December 24th: Secret Santa Reveal Day! If you’re comfortable with it, please post your gift on tumblr (or post a link). Then, send your prompter their gift AND send it to us as well so that we can include it in the mass post
December 25th: We’ll publish the mass post of all the gifts!
This event is being organized by the ZR Secret Santa Committee (me, notforconsumption, puptart, and goblinsharkz). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to any of us through tumblr. You can also email us at our shiny new team email account: [email protected].
A Janine painting I’ve been picking away at this week! I just had an itch to draw her, and I think she deserves a chance to do something nice and relaxing like working on a car engine.
[Alt ID: An illustration of Janine de Luca from Zombies, Run! She’s looking at the engine of a car, standing with one hand resting on the open hood and the other on her hip. She’s in a white tank top and green cargo pants, both with some grease stains. She is being lit from behind by golden sun, and she looks happy and calm]
did an extra gift for @lucky-fallen-angel for the ZR gift exchange! last but definitely not least. for the holidays, you get to enjoy some angsty Sam Yao reminiscing on all the runners he’s lost.
(osric chau as sam yao and jade eshete as runner five)
fic under the cut! set in season 1 or early season 2, so no real spoilers. mild TW for bad fathers and death
When he was six years old, Sam got his arm stuck under the fridge.
Too scared to admit he was trapped, he sat there for what must have been an hour. A weak feeling crept up his arm until he couldn’t even twitch his fingers. By the time his dad walked into the kitchen, Sam’s throat was thick with unshed tears.
His dad laughed, but there was no humor in his voice when he said: “What have you done?”
Sam screwed up his little face and admitted that he had knocked his Bumblebee transformer toy under the fridge. His dad laughed and laughed and laughed in that cruel way only a father could, and all Sam remembers is the way his face burned hot with shame, pressed against kitchen tile, and the awful realization that he would never get the toy back.
He’s always been losing things. Slowly. One by one.
---
They don’t take photos often in Abel Township. There are a few disposable cameras, but Janine always snaps at him for using them ‘frivolously’ and he can’t remember the last time he got his old cell phone to hold a charge. The ones he did take, though, he keeps carefully tucked away in the comms shack, under a floorboard. Each time he steps on it, there’s a bit of give under his foot. The floor drops out from under him — a split second where he feels like he’s been kicked in the gut — and then he remembers.
He has pictures of all of them. Every Runner Five he’s lost. But when he closes his eyes, he can’t picture them the same way he used to. It doesn’t matter how long he stares, tracing the lines of their faces and looking for the shine that used to linger in their eyes.
So many things happened in rapid succession. His father turned in front of him, his mother gone, his sister missing if she’s even alive, and Five, Five, Five. It was only after he found them, long after, when the blood was drying on their skin, the sound of a crying baby in his ear, that he realized he had accidentally called them Alice.
It was too late to explain that if he squints hard enough, the world goes blurry and he can almost trick himself into thinking that they’re somebody else — one runner becoming another in the stretch between seconds.
---
It takes a long time before he convinces himself to pry up that floorboard again. When he does, he sits with all the photos spread in front of him.
Sitting on the couch in Janine’s sitting room, arms around each other, laughing at a stupid joke Simon made. Karaoke night in what used to pass as the rec hall back then, but it wasn’t much more than a spare room with a rug and a few chairs. All the runners sitting outside a bonfire at night, staring up at the sky with that fluttering hope he remembered so well from early in the apocalypse.
He has to tear himself away, shove his knuckles into his eyes. They’re all starting to blur into the same person in his head, the same ghost with a different face.
Sam sits in that shameful silence for a moment longer. Heat rushes to his cheeks and for a moment he’s six years old all over again, sitting with his hand jammed under the fridge reaching for something that he’ll never get back. In his moment of frenzy, without thinking, he rips a piece of paper out of his notebook and starts to write. He thinks about Five — the current Runner Five, his Five — and spills out everything he can think of. The weight of carrying these lives with him everywhere he goes, how much he thinks about those he lost and how much he wishes he didn’t. Something awful and hot presses at the back of his throat, close to tears, as he writes about how scared he was to lose them too.
When he finishes writing, the paper is wet. His hearing goes white, dissolving into a static-like whine, and for a moment he feels like the ghosts of every runner he’s ever let down are breathing against his ear.
For a long time, he looks at the letter in his hands. Then he stands up, crumples it in both hands, and throws it in the waste bin. When he tucks the photos under the floorboard, he doesn’t look back.
