Fandom in the time of Coronavirus

[melannen]

So, for some of us, this is looking like a good time to curl up in a blanket and read fic for a couple of weeks!

Who wants to share recs for fanfic or pairings or canons that are good for while anxious and stuck in the house?

I am enjoying rereading all the Garak/Bashir fic right now - if you don't know the pairing, it's from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, about a bright-eyed Starfleet doctor with a dark secret, and a cynical Cardassian exile with a dark past and a heart of gold, and their complicated relationship (which was queercoded on purpose in the show.) A lot of the fanfic is set post-canon, with both of them on Cardassia helping with recovery after devastation from a terrible war, and it's all very soft and hopeful but set in troubled times.

I've also had a very slow project of going through my entire AO3 history (I'm currently in the summer of 2012, the first Avengers movie just came out) and pulling out the fics that I never want to lose track of ever, and bookmarking them as permanent collection. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to get farther in that project in the next couple of weeks! Everything in that collection is works I'm happy to go back to when I need a comfort read.

And if you have any old favorite fics you've been trying to track down but can't, let's use this post to try to track them down! I have two pre-AO3 fics I've been wanting to add to that collection but can't remember enough to find:

--There was a Pirates of the Caribbean fic, probably on LJ, the summer after the first movie came out. It was set in modern day, though I think it was a reincarnation AU; there were capers at a marina, all the old gang got back together, and Jack Sparrow was an IRS agent. Does this ring any bells? There might have been two similar stories that I'm combining in memory.

--There was a very long post-canon Spike/Buffy fic where Spike had disappeared and Buffy found him living quietly in some backwater town, working as a professor at the local college and leading poetry workshops for demons in the evening. Buffy started going to the workshops for lack of a better idea, and at one point wrote a villanelle (I think?) with the refrain "I shape death with my hands".

Comments

[jjhunter]

*camps out in the comments excited for moar recs*

I've posted some longer fic and canon recs recently: Story Recs for a Long Haul + round 2

And for those who like WIP fics, I'm continuing to really enjoy all 3 of these: 3 WIP Fic Recs with Excellent Identity P0rn. (Star Wars; BnHA; Teen Wolf / Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Fans of the Untamed may want to check out Stulti's Ao3 bookmarks and rec posts - she's been on a months-long reading spree & has exquisite taste.

ETA: I would also like to make a plug for certain kinds of horror as cathartic and perversely relaxing right now? In a kind of 'wow, eldritch horror is even worse than our current RL global pandemic situation; yes, pandemic is awful, but it's also eventually solvable' kind of way. See rachelmanija's post 'On Horror'.

Sometimes we want to hear that everything will be fine. But sometimes the only way anything can ever be fine is if we admit that everything isn’t fine right now. Horror tells us that everything isn’t fine, and we should start listening to the people who’ve been saying so all along. And if we are those people, it tells us what we most need to hear: “I believe you.”

My current fannish obsession of choice for horror is The Magnus Archives; rydra_wong has a great rec post for the canon.

[jjhunter]

Let's see - some fics I turn to for comfort rereads include:

A Thoughtful, Moving Exploration of Passionate Youth by thehoyden (Naruto, Maito Gai/Umino Iruka)

It said something about Gai that Iruka was actually unsure whether that was a line.

Diplomatic Relations by Maldoror_Chant (Naruto, Gaara/Rock Lee)

Rock Lee, Diplomatic Envoy to Sunagakure. There are so many ways that could go wrong. But Lee is determined to succeed! And to befriend the feared Kazekage too, while he's at it. Good thing Lee loves a challenge...

one thing after another (and time for all the works and days of hands) by torch (Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, Seneschal Varel/Elyon Andras )

The arling of Amaranthine has been given over to the Grey Wardens, so naturally the new arl at Vigil's Keep is a warden. Also a mage, an elf, and an Orlesian -- not likely to win anyone's heart. Varel's the seneschal of the Vigil, and he works hard for this new arl, because that's what he does. But the new arl's turning out to be quite a distraction...

the mist that cloaks the river, the clouds that hide the stars by Sovin for fulldaysdrive (Nirvana in Fire)

Yan Yujin has mostly evaded the worst consequences of the Chiyan case, despite her standing betrothal to Lin Shu. So warned, she precariously balances freedom and evading attention, and stays quite far away from politics for a number of reasons. Politics don't seem quite so keen to stay away from her.

A canon-divergence rewrite, based on the final scene of episode 46.

("At that time, everyone thought you were going to be a girl"/"If I was a girl, who would I have been engaged to?")

Percy Weasley and the Warden of Azkaban by peteryoushouldwrite (Harry Potter)

Four breakouts. Three dead house elves. Two potential outcomes. One warden who's gotten a little too comfortable. Percy Weasley is about to find out just what else lurks within the walls of Azkaban.

CMO Confidential by shoreleave (Star Trek (2009))

McCoy becomes CMO and finds himself privy to confidential information in Jim's medical file. Starts just after the movie leaves off and continues until just after the Enterprise docks again.

Wrong Turn by Bob_Fish (Fullmetal Alchemist, "Contains action, peril, mockery, cheap jokes and unresolved sexual tension.")

This really was turning out to be a day of surprises, thought Roy.

Come What May by Batsutousai (Fullmetal Alchemist)

After the Promised Day, with his alchemy still intact thanks to Hohenheim's sacrifice, Ed finds himself and his chimera team getting dragged into the shadowy world of military secrets in an attempt to keep Bradley's legacy from causing a civil war.

I'm the Guy That Didn't Marry Pretty Pamela Brown by Kathar (The Avengers)

Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD is reluctantly heading home for his high school reunion, at the request of an old friend. Natasha Romanov is playing the part of his girlfriend, even though she’s not. Clint Barton’s shown up with his bike, his bass, and a surprising knowledge of bluegrass. To complicate matters, Phil's parents wish he’d just settle down, Natasha has a hidden agenda, Clint ends up aiding and abetting juvenile delinquency, and the town in general is extraordinarily concerned with alien carp.

If You Can't Beat 'Em by metisket (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!)

Hana finds that it’s difficult to take care of your best friend when your best friend has all the self-preservation instincts of a lemming.

Hana doesn’t know how this happened. No, wait, she does know how it happened. Kyoko made that pleading face, and Hana is weak to the pleading face. She knew Kyoko made poor life choices, but she didn’t realize they were contagious.

Read everything by Kryal, especially The Dragon-King's Temple (AtLA/Stargate (!)) and What the Cat Dragged In (Miraculous Ladybug/Marvel Universe).

[Wow, there are a lot of great Welcome to Night Vale crossovers I love - have 3]

Taste of Home by daroos (WtNV/The Avengers)

Phil Coulson grew up in Night Vale. Somehow SHIELD is both more terrifying and easier to survive than his childhood home.

Love is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies by shadydave (WtNV/The Dresden Files, Carlos Ramirez/Cecil Palmer)

There are a few things that Carlos may have neglected to tell Cecil.

Like his last name.

Or how he hasn’t actually dated anyone since his junior year of high school.

Or that he’s a wizard of the White Council and the regional commander of Wardens in the western United States and not, in fact, a scientist.

You know. Minor details.

He Says He Is An Experimental Theologian by ErinPtah (WtNV/His Dark Materials, bilingual puns! :D )

Ever since Carlos was little, he and his daemon have been fans of Dr. Lyra Belacqua. Both as the most groundbreaking experimental theologian of the 20th century, and as the heroine of dozens of fantasy-adventure children's stories (based very loosely on her own mysterious childhood).

But Lyra's true legacy is still bigger than Carlos ever imagined...until he took a team of scholars to study Rusakov particles in the most theologically interesting community in Hispania Nova. Now his own day-to-day life is full of things like angels, witches, hooded spectres, portals between worlds, vague yet menacing branches of the Magisterium, and a man who walks around without his daemon and can read an alethiometer as easily as a stop sign.

[Disclaimer: these latter recs are by friends]

I would emphatically second the rec for rthstewart's The Stone Gryphon series (Narnia)

Read everything by Branch, including Avalanche (Naruto, series), Changes (Guardian, series), and In Every Time and Season (Nirvana in Fire).

Read everything by Stultiloquentia, especially The Piper (Tam Lin - Pamela Dean), Dibs and the Art of the Subordinating Conjunction (Check Please!), and Illyria Writes a Poem (What country, friends, is this?) (Angel: the series, "Grief management through excessively complicated poetry").

EmptySurface's Hear the Silence (Naruto, epic WIP)

"When did you start to remember?" He asked next, relaxing further in his seat, which Kyo found calming.

Kyo wakes up in a strange place, not sure what year it is or what is going on or if anything she remembers is actually reliable. So she just does what she's always done; live her life. It soon enough becomes more about survival than anything else.

In which another lease on life is a bit more complicated than Kyo had at first anticipated.