jadesfire: Black and white open book with old key resting against it. (Book with Key)
[personal profile] jadesfire
Fandom Snowflake Challenge banner 2018

Day 10

In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) Tell us what makes it work for you, and why it appeals to you so much. Talk about what you like to see in fanworks featuring that theme most. Feel free to include recs and examples!


Does Gen count? Gen feels like it should count, because it’s always a small minority of fic, but I suppose it’s more of a genre than a trope. Note to self: dig out that ‘Hardcore Genficcer’ icon.

My first instinct was "telepathy!" as that’s my favourite thing to write, but because I have such strong feelings about it, it’s not always my favourite thing to read. I think that would have to be AUs, especially fusions of one fandom with another. As someone with very little ability to write outside canon, I’m always fascinated by how writers take one detail and go off in a totally plausible but utterly different direction. And I love the cleverness of fusing one fandom with another, picking elements of each and crafting something new. It’s something I’m trying write at the moment, and man it’s difficult. It’s that cleverness that draws me in, the moment where there’s a detail in this AU world that is a damned clever take on the original one, and it just makes me grin from ear to ear.

One of my favourites is an old one, a Merlin/Firefly fusion, We are Stardust which I like because it does more than just take characters from one fandom and dump them in another. It takes elements of both and blends them into a seamless whole, and it’s the perfect length to give you enough and leave you wanting more.

There’s also Kianspo’s Let us Dare, which turns the world of Merlin on its head, with humour and warmth. I would have watched the hell out of this show, I really would.

SGA, like Merlin, spawned about three million AUs a week, but the one that sticks in my head is Greyias’ See No Evil. I loved how it kept Rodney and John perfectly in character, while changing their roles utterly. It’s a long, satisfying read. And I was just talking to Naye and Sholio about A Clear and Different Light, which is a stunningly complete AU with talking whales. Tell me, who doesn’t want talking whales in their fic?

More recently, I loved Lady Ragnell’s Hold me close and fear me not, which is a Daredevil/Fairy Tale* fusion. I like how it feels like it’s set in a world just a side-step from our own, and how the magical elements have their own logic.

Please do rec me your own favourite AUs!

*I’d heard of, but wasn’t familiar with the story of Tam Lin before reading the fic, and it really, really didn’t matter.

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-10 09:23 pm (UTC)
summerstorm: (Default)
From: [personal profile] summerstorm
Gen totally counts, but I'd love specifics abut what kind of gen you like! I have this thing where sometimes having a plot makes it easier for me to write a romance story... I do go for romance most of the time, but I also have a weird habit of writing woman-centric gen? That I might not actually read if I found it in the wild, but I love exploring it and I think I'm good at it. It's one of those weird 'love writing it, but eh on reading it' things. So I share your telepathy thing but with gen, I guess.

Canon-divergence AUs are awesome. I'm so, so picky about full-on AUs (like, different professions, different backstory) but I love a good fork in the road. I want canon to go in different ways so many times that 80% of my requests for exchanges qualify as AU, in the canon divergence sense. And when I wrote more, I used to find fusions so much fun! I think that's another one I prefer to write over read, because I like contemporary universe fiction and because fusions often get a little... out of hand (too close to the second canon in unbelievable ways). When someone does it well, it is so good, though.

edit: just find it funny that I've written like three novel-length stories and one is gen with vampires and two are fusions. LOL.
Edited Date: 2018-01-10 09:24 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-10 11:29 pm (UTC)
teigh_corvus: ([Misc.] Fierce Creatures)
From: [personal profile] teigh_corvus
I'm with you on the Gen fic thing. More often than not I prefer my ships incidental to the rest of the story. I'm so much more interested in worlds and character motivation. I mean, I'm not gonna say no to smut out right, but given the choice between something long and porny and something long and full of adventure, adventure's always going to win.
Edited (Ugh, mobile posting is so ridic.) Date: 2018-01-10 11:59 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-11 01:18 am (UTC)
donutsweeper: (Default)
From: [personal profile] donutsweeper
You should check out Leveragehunters over on AO3- they write pretty exclusively Steve/Bucky and nearly always AUs but the romance is secondary to the story in most cases. One series has Bucky as both the Winter Soldier *and* a genie (with skinny artist Steve): http://archiveofourown.org/series/459382

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-11 02:44 am (UTC)
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
From: [personal profile] sholio
Yay, gen. :D I've been writing more pairing fic lately, in large part as a result of doing a lot of exchanges (where gen isn't asked for as much) and also becoming more multishippish in general (though I always have kind of been that way). But gen is still my first love.

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-11 03:59 am (UTC)
sunlit_stone: painting of a bear smelling flowers (Default)
From: [personal profile] sunlit_stone
I'm afraid I don't know your fandoms, but if gen "the relationship between the two friends is very much at the heart of the story, treated like it would be if they were a romance in typical fic, but also there's plot" is your thing, I can rec you a couple of fics?

As to fusions, I think my all-time favourite is the The Republic of Heaven Community Radio series. It's an HDM/WtNV fusion, but unlike most HDM fusions, it's not just taking the daemons--it's a full-on world fusion, and it's amazing how well the author makes them fit together. The whole series together is 567K. Unfortunately it does include a romance (more than one, even) as part of the main storyline; there's a lot else going on but their relationship is undeniably central to the story. I don't know if it matters that Carlos/Cecil is canon to Welcome to Night Vale?

I also wanted to say that those recs look really good, and I look forward to checking them out!

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-11 05:18 am (UTC)
themusecalliope: Vulpes Vulpes (Default)
From: [personal profile] themusecalliope
Ooo! Yes. All the AUs! And all the Gen too.

I have some ancient links for Sherlock AUS somewhere (and H50) if you're interested.

(no subject)

Date: 2018-01-11 09:13 pm (UTC)
naye: the whale laboon looking happy with a note (happy whale)
From: [personal profile] naye
I didn't know you had a thing for telepathy! That's such a fun and creative trope... It made me so happy to see the Whaleverse recced up there!

I do love me a good AU, but I've been reading minuscule amounts of fic and don't have any good recs. I'll keep an eye on what people share with you!