2023 Snowflake Challenge #13

Challenge #13

In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

I have rec'd all of these before, but this is the third year in a row I have rec'd the first one specifically.

Batnesia by Qui is one of my favorite SuperBats fics of all time. Bruce Wayne gets amnesia that very specifically only affects his memories that involve being Batman. When he wakes up, one of the first people he sees is Clark staring down at him and immediately assumes Clark is his boyfriend. The BatFam is advised to just go with whatever Bruce thinks and let his memories come back to him on his own. This leads to some hijinks and some surprising self-reflection on Bruce's part. It also has some case fic elements as they try to figure out how Bruce got amnesia in the first place and how to fix it. I'm not going to share my favorite part because, while it is a minor plot point, it is still a bit spoilery. I am going to say, I appreciate that Clark is very aware of the consent issues of being intimate with Bruce while he doesn't know who he is and avoids doing so, much to Bruce's frustration. Also, this fic started the whole “Jason Todd identifies things by licking them” bit of fanon.

Batnesia (69205 words) by Qui
Chapters: 41/41
Fandom: Superman - All Media Types, Batman - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Lois Lane, Alfred Pennyworth
Additional Tags: Amnesia, Batfamily (DCU), Damian Wayne is Robin, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Absurd, Poor Clark, Identity Porn
Summary:

In which Bruce forgets a few key facts, and Clark has to go along with it.

Or, the Bruce-Has-Amnesia Fic we've all been wishing for.

On to the rest of the recs, all links go back to AO3:

Batman/DC Comics
Fans in Cape by fayescar, rated Teen and up, Gen fic. During Dick Grayson's time as Batman, he discovers fans in the batsuit.

Good Omens
meantime i ask you to be my valentine (i'll be your valentino) by hipsterchrist, rated Teen and Up, pairing: Aziraphale/Crowley, Aziraphale and Crowley celebrating Valentine's Day through the centuries.

Good Neighbours, Good Fences (and Other Misunderstandings) by out_there, The first time Crowley meets his downstairs neighbour, Aziraphale is breaking into his flat. He's not what Crowley imagined in a burglar -- he's fussy, old-fashioned, and surprisingly adorable. Crowley is intrigued, Aziraphale is ready to share a good wine... and possibly more. (Human neighbours AU.) , rated Explicit, pairing: Aziraphale/Crowley, Harlequin Big Bang

Merlin (BBC)
The Boy Next Door by lady_ragnell, rated Teen and Up, pairing: Merlin/Arthur, In which there is pining, Merlin bakes, Arthur borrows batteries he doesn't actually need, and did I mention the pining?, modern setting AU

Person of Interest
[Vid] Carousel by JinkyO, rated Teen and Up, pairing: Harold Finch/John Reese, fanvid set to “Carousel” by Melanie Martinez

Stargate Atlantis
Christmas in Kansas City by ras_elased, rated Explicit, pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. Fluffy, Christmas romance. During a vacation on earth, John takes Rodney on a Christmas time road trip for a romantic weekend in Kansas City, which is all a surprise to Rodney.

Supernatural
Her Name is Sandman by knitmeapony, Rated G, gen fic, Dean wakes up in the hospital after an encounter with some talking ponies...

"Survey Says!" by Sylvia_Locust, rated Teen and Up, gen fic, It's 1978, and John is trapped in a two-room rental with a broken ankle and two teenage boys. He's going out of his mind with boredom until he spots a shapeshifter posing as a TV game show host. , Or John, Bobby, Rufus, and Dean get on “Family Feud” to try to gank a shapeshifter. (Sam is there too, but too young to actually be on the show.)

2023 Snowflake Challenge #2

Challenge #2

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom.

I had a fairly lengthy something for this about the 1950s Superman TV series, Adventures of Superman, focusing on non-canon shipping potential, especially Jimmy Olsen/Clark Kent(Superman). It seems to be gone. I thought I had backed it up multiple places, but I can't find it anywhere.

But I have gotten a request to write a promo for the pairing Sam Winchester/Rowena MacLeod from Supernatural. So let's give it a try.

Who are they: Sam Winchester is the younger and taller of the Winchester brothers. He is a monster hunter, initially reluctantly, continuing the family business. He did briefly quit the life to go to college and law school. While definitely capable in a fight, he tends to favor the research and lore side of things.

Rowena MacLeod is a witch, born sometime in the 1600s, who first appeared in season 10. She is also the mother of Crowley, King of Hell, and later becomes Queen of Hell herself. She is extremely powerful, but volatile. She starts as a show antagonist, but eventually becomes part of the family, as it were.

Why they go together:
(It might be tiny bit spoilery, so under a cut for people who want to avoid that) ( Read more... )

What do I love about them?:
While the power dynamics are a bit wonky, they are far closer to balancing out than any of the canon ships for either person. Sam pretty much accepts Rowena as she is. Rowena actually respects him. They get to a point where there is a certain level of trust between them, even thought it's complicated. They actually have chemistry. In the right settings, they could be amazing.

I'm not going to lie, they are a bit fucked up. I mean, at one point in the show, she tricked him into giving her his blood to the point he almost died, and at another point, to ensure she didn't double cross him, he attached her to a chain in the floor so she couldn't leave the room until she was done translating. They are not without problems, and some of what they do to each other is horrible, but it also weirdly balances out.

Where you can find it:
Currently, there are 468 public works on AO3 under the Rowena MacLeod/Sam Winchester tag.

2023 Snowflake Challenge #11

Challenge #11

In your own space, Talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

I wasn't entirely sure how to tackle this one. If you've ever encountered a wishlist of mine in a holiday exchange, you've seen the "general likes" section is a small brick wall of text. So I'm going to try to narrow it down to one each and keep it to my feelings in January 2023, as this challenge is apt to pop up again in the upcoming snowflake, in one form or another, and my feelings have changed a little in the last 12 months.

Trope: It took me awhile to find a "proper" name for it, but at TV Tropes, it is called Mandatory Unretirement. Basically, a person who has given up their job, but gets pulled back into it. Especially, if it is crossed over with Scrap Heap Hero (the hero has been retired for a while due to failure, falling to personal demons, or just simply old age) and Putting the band back together. (And, for my personal preferences, generally overlaps with Retired Badass and Let's Get Dangerous!) I am not sure why I love this so much, but when you look my favorite books, TV shows, movies, and characters, the majority fall into this little stew of things. Examples: The Stargate Franchise, Jack O'Neill (Stargate, SG-1), John Sheppard (SGA), Uncle Iroh (AtLA), The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, so many comic books...

Cliche: I had trouble coming up with a favorite cliche, but I have a soft spot for new takes on "the chosen one," especially a reluctant chosen one (technically also a trope). It's got to be one of the most common cliches in fiction, especially in fantasy, and can be so unbearably cringey, but it can also be done really thoughtfully.

Kink: This one is so character, pairing, and fandom specific, I've decided not to answer this one.

Motif: In Lumberjanes, the characters have a reoccurring habit of using famous women's names in exclamations. Examples: "Mal, Molly, What in the Joan Jett are you DOING?" or "Sweet Sappho, NO!" I already have a soft spot for this kind of thing (see, Robin saying, "Holy *insert situationally relevant word here* Batman!"), but this feels a little different. I don't think they have repeated anyone and it's kinda educational as I have to look some of the people up.

Theme: I read and watched a frightening amount of "coming of age," "found family," and "what does it mean to be human" stories, and I'm not sure I want to analyze that too hard.

2023 Snowflake Challenge #15

Challenge #15

In your own space, opine on the future of fandom.

So back in January when this first came up, I sat down and wrote out by hand a very long, thoughtful, dare I say hopeful, response to this with, honestly, way too many in depth examples of fandom over the decades and centuries, but I never got a chance to type it up. Now, I have no idea where that notebook is, which sucks, because there are other things in it too. Personally, I was mostly trying to make myself feel better over the fate of fandom, which there was a kind of overall doom and gloom feeling about the future of it going around at the time, including in my own headspace.

I am going to do my best to sum up what I came up with from memory. Trust me, it's going to be much shorter.

Basically, fandom has been around almost as long as there has been people interacting with each other and it will always be around. There will be people dressing and creating things based on and inspired by other people, media and things. As for what form that is going to take, I have no fucking clue and I don't even want to venture a guess. In the what, 26ish years I've been in fandom (depending on how you want to count what being in fandom is), the ways we express and celebrate and participate in fandom have changed in ways I could never have imagined. And things are just changing faster now. When I first started reading and writing fanfic online, you kept your real name an impenetrable secret to avoid losing your job or getting sued. Discussing shipping with the actors at conventions was one of the most egregious fandom social faux pas (this was slightly dependent on fandom, but overall, yeah). Now, fanfic is mainstream, authors openly talk about writing/having written it/discussing how their published book started as it, and we've got actors and front runners as involved in the fandom as the fans. The websites that have come and gone. The various purges and trends. The ever changing stances on NSFW content. Small business e-commerce. Social media. Couldn't of predicted most of it. Whatever form it takes next will likely be a surprise to me.

As for individual fandoms, they never really die. There is always someone out there doing the thing. They get less active. They get resurgences. They move to new places and formats. They go out of style. But they don't die.

I just hope, fingers crossed, knocking on wood, that we can find a place and a way to me more civil to each other than not. I'm not naive enough to think there will never be assholes. I just hope for an overall respect of difference of opinion to form. I know, it's a pipe dream, but I can also see enough people hoping for the same thing, that maybe we can make it happen. Maybe.

So, I don't know what Fandom as a whole will be doing. I, however, will be in my little sandbox, trying not to be an asshole, and looking for other people to play with, and creating my silly little fics and things and hoping they find the people that want them and that they make them happy.