potentiality_26

What do YOU consider fandom's "little black dress"?  Is it a coffeeshop AU?  Sharing a bed trope? 

So I spent a little time thinking about this and going "But I like so many tropes!", but then I realized that the answer was easy.  It's Pining / Seemingly Unrequited Love.  It beautifully goes with most of the other classics- Fake Relationship, Sharing a Bed, Trapped Together, Sex Pollen, Near Death Experiences- and with pretty much any flavor of AU.  You can make it work with Soulmate AU too if you try, and even Established Relationship if you're determined enough. 

I love the trope.  I've read thousands of versions and I will read thousands more.  The period of "Oh, so-and-so couldn't possibly like me" angst gets me every time, and if anything I sometimes wish it would last longer than it does.  I do not care how contrived the misunderstandings are or how painfully obvious it is that the other party feels the same way- in fact, the more contrived and obvious the better.  I'll eat it up with a spoon regardless. 
  

June meme now stretching into August!

What is the fandom that you're in, but none of your fen are?

Identity, I guess.  I'm multifandom, and I get into all kinds of different stuff, so it's not particularly rare that I end up in a fandom none of the people in my current circle care about, but usually when I branch off into an obscure series for an actor (Aidan Gillen in this case) at least a few people who also like that actor will be there too.  That just didn't happen with Identity.  Maybe it's because it's so hard to get a hold of.  Maybe it's because my main ship in that fandom is M/F (although I ship John Bloom with Anthony Wareing too, if anyone's into that instead).  Whatever the reason, it's a shame because I'm still pretty into it.
    

  

What is a fandom that you never thought you'd get into, but did?  Bonus: How did you end up getting into it?

Depends what "get into" means in this context. 

I've always loved Sherlock Holmes stories and enjoyed reading other people's fics, but I did surprise myself by actually writing one last year, and I'm working on a few more.  

In terms of just being a fan of a series, I was resistant to Inspector Lewis for a long time.  A lot of people I knew were into it, and I was sure it was technically good, but I saw one episode, didn't care for it, and never really gave it another chance.  Years later I did and enjoyed it very much.  Lots of great fics there too.    

In both cases I really don't know what changed.  I guess it was just the right time.
  

What fandom that got a series finale was the LEAST appropriate/least satisfying.  Bonus: How would you have fixed it?

Okay, so, there are a lot of bad finales out there (and bad sequels, and bad last books) and between Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones there's also been a lot written about what makes an ending bad.  So I feel like I should have a more elevated answer than the one I'm going to give.  But I looked back over every finale I've ever hated, and the one I found myself still most angry about was Warehouse 13. 

So.  Warehouse 13.

( Read more... )

Also, shout-out to Kingsman: The Golden Circle.  Not the finale of the franchise, but the finale for me. 
  

Nabbed from thisbluespirit:

List your top fanfic on AO3 for every year, sorted by kudos.

2013
Today and Sleeping Patterns, both Artemus Gordon/James West Wild Wild West fics, are tied for #1 from this year. 

2014
Heartlines, a James Bond/Q James Bond and Sherlock crossover fic.

Not surprise there.  It's for two juggernaut fandoms (though I did write it somewhat after the original Bondlock heyday) and my second most kudo'd fic of all time.  

2015
Getting It Right, a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

Aaaaand this is my most kudo'd fic of all time.  Kingsman was never quite a juggernaut fandom, but boy was it enthusiastic.  The thing about "Heartlines" is that while it has regularly gotten kudos ever since I posted it, there was never a big rush (and I get that, it's a slightly odd take on the soulmate trope and not to all tastes), while "Getting It Right" had made my top three the day after I posted it, and was #1 by the end of the week.  

2016
Love Potion No. 9, another Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic. 

2017
Until I Saw Your Face, also a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

This is a bit of a cheat, since it's a chapter fic I started posting in August 2016 and only finished right at the beginning of January in 2017.  More fairly:

Everything Changes, again a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

I'm... confused about this fic.  Seven of my top ten fics are for Kingsman when sorted by kudos, it's basically the fandom where I got love, but by the summer of 2017 things were petering out somewhat.  The sequel was coming in the fall and a lot of people were thinking it might reinvigorate their interest (spoiler alert: for a lot of people it. did. not), but otherwise things were getting quiet.  It surprises the heck out of me that this fic overtook so many older fics (it's #7 among my fics overall).  It got a much bigger response than I expected, both because the fandom wasn't as big as it had been, and because- while I was certainly pleased with it- I never thought it was that much better than everything else I was working on at the time.  Guess it struck a chord with everyone.   

Ah, well.  2017: the last year I wrote Kingsman fic (see above sequel remarks).  Goodnight, sweet prince. 

2018
Eighth Time's the Charm, a Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean Ocean's 8 fic. 

Not much to say about this one, except that I was proud of myself for turning it out so quickly after seeing the movie.

2019
... Electing not to do 2019.  I'd rather wait and see where I am at the end of the year.
  

I talked about making some new icons so my collection would better reflect my current interests back in January, and what do you know I'm still working on it.  I really like the cap of Raffles smiling that I worked with during the Snowflake Challenge, but I wasn't quite happy with the icon I made, so I kept fiddling.  

The original vs. the new version:


It's much nicer.

The irony, of course, is that having learned some nice tricks to make things less beige (thanks firestorm717 for the levels tip, the 'set white point' tool in particular is a life saver), I ended up putting yellow and brown textures on it until it was... well... beige again.  I do like it, though I wonder if it doesn't still need...  something.   

I also made an icon for The Terror that I'm pleased with: 


(That show really came for my life y'all)

Idk.  Some things work for me right away.  Some things I poke for six months.
  

Title: A Step Too Far
Fandom: Callan
Pairing/Characters: David Callan/Toby Meres, Hunter
Summary: After Richmond, Callan does a spot of eavesdropping and learns something he never knew.
Rating: NC-17
Length: Medium (8,434 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: Minor violence.  References "The Richmond File" episodes and "You Should Have Got Here Sooner" pretty heavily. I went back and forth on whether to put some kind of "not that fluffy but fluffy for the source material" tag on this- I went back and forth on how fluffy it in fact is- so YMMV. Obviously the "post-canon" tag is used in a "Wet Job? I don't know her" capacity. Fills my 100fandoms table prompt #30 (truth) and possibly also my hc_bingo "forced to participate in illegal / hurtful activity" square.
Excerpt:
Dead mother, absent father, constant stream of nannies and tutors until he could be safely shipped off to boarding school... Callan had skimmed that part of Meres' file while he was Hunter because it all seemed a bit poor little rich boy. It didn’t feel like that now.

On AO3
 

You get to crossover two completely different fandoms.  What two shows, and why?  Bonus: Give us a preview!

Well, one of the WIPs I'm working on right now crosses Raffles over with Inspector Lewis.  I don't have an explanation, though- it just kinda happened.