Not a combination I would have thought of, courtesy of ffutures, but one that's interesting to compare and contrast. Disclaimer here: I stopped watching Heroes mid season 3, and the first half of season 3 was such a decline that I've blotted most of it out of my mind. So my Noah Bennet canon derives from what I recall about the first two seasons.

( Also spoilers for all of Torchwood under the cut )

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Considering I have currently 156 stories listed at the AO3 archive, which don't include the occasional drabble, you'll forgive me if I can't narrow it down to one. However, after a lot of ponderings and narrowing it down etc., here's the short list I came up with:

The Burying Kind: this is a crossover between Angel and Six Feet Under. Well, technically I should say "between Angel, Buffy and Six Feet Under" since some BTVS characters show up as well and the BTVS backstory is important, but it does take place after BTVS has ended, during AtS' fifth season and the fourth one of SFU. It was born out of a remark kangeiko made, that given both shows are set in Los Angeles, it would only make sense if Angel hired Fisher & Sons (who were Fisher & Diaz at that point) to ( do something spoilery for the fifth season ). This sounded like a fantastic idea to me, and the result was one quite ambitious ensemble story in which I could tackle grief, friendship, sibling relationships, post traumatic stress syndrome and the like, and take full advantage of the quirks of either show, such as SFU's use of "ghosts" (which is why David Fisher doesn't blink when he sees an AtS one, not realising this is the genuine article) and gleefully draw conclusions. (Come on, you just know Olivier would be a client of Wolfram & Hart's artist division, with all the lawsuits he's bound to get!) The greatest challenge for any crossover is to write it in a way that makes it enjoyable to read for people familiar with both canons but also for people who only know one of the canons in question, i.e. you have to give some background information but find ways of doing so that don't feel annoying to people who already know. Also, the character interaction should make sense and be about more than "wouldn't it be cute if X met Y?". And of all the many crossovers I wrote, this one to me feels where I achieved all these goals best.

Runaways: one of the two Heroes stories I'm proudest of and love best, with an actual plot (borrowed from Brian K. Vaughan) and again, what I consider an achieved goal of ensemble use and interaction in a way that works emotionally, providing both humour and angst. Plus I'm still smug about having come up with John Williams tunes as a method of communication. :)

Five in One: sometimes I write stories that are also meant as meta (sometimes on a character or several, sometimes on fandom; sometimes on a source, here it was all of the above). This BtVS one is a case in point, written not sine, but cum irae et studio; it dealt with several issues I had, was a great way to exorcise them (for the time being) and still works imo as a story. Or five. About five of Spike's victims, from their point of view.

City Girls: this, on the other hand, is a labour of love, for both Buffy Summers and the city of Rome. (Some Dawn love also contributed.) Inspired by the AtS episode Damage casually mentioning Buffy and Dawn were living in Rome. Having spent three months near the place myself in the mid-90s, something clicked in me. I still consider this my definite Buffy character portrait.

Quark's Day: inspired originally by altariel's reply to a "describe a story I never wrote" challenge, this is my DS9 ensemble story par excellence, set directly after the Second Occupation arc of season 6 has ended, and of all the many DS9 stories I wrote the one that best declares my love for the entire show, not just one aspect or character. (I also think it's my best Quark character portrait, but then, I would. :)

In Vino Veritas: it's rare that one gets to pioneer a slash pairing. This is by no means one of my best stories (though it has some good dialogue), and definitely not my best Babylon 5 story, but it was the very first Londo/G'Kar slash story, and allow me to bask in my pioneer pride and love it for this.

Death and the Maiden: one of the rare stories where you feel you have taken your writing to another level. Not just limited to fanfiction. I had never written anything as dark before, not in a way that still, many years later, makes me feel I did justice to the subject(s) instead of not quite coming through. It's a Highlander story dealing with Cassandra's backstory (and thus also with Methos, rape, brainwashing and the reinvention/discovery of self). Aside from authorial satisfaction, this was the story that made honorh write feedback the second time and thus brought me my second oldest internet friend, so I have an additional reason to treasure it.

aadler suggested two additional questions for this meme a while ago, to wit:

31 – Which fanfic authors and/or stories have had the most influence on your writing?

Back in ye olde Highlander days, when I was just cutting my teeth writing in another language (i.e. English), Mary Galasso a) was one of the few gen writers (HL was somewhat like Merlin today in that it was overwhelmingly a slash fandom, with some het thrown in, and not much gen), b) told me about this new show she was watching called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and c) kind enough to beta my early efforts, so definitely her. (Conversely, MacGeorge wrote fabulous and very hot D/M stories, but they influenced me as a reader in my early stage of slash discovery, not as a writer (seeing as I never wrote D/M).) katallison wrote this absolutely fantastic HL story called Last Set Closing in which Duncan visits an aged Joe partly ravaged by dementia which stll is one of the best things I've read in any fandom and showed me you can tackle such subjects in fanfiction in a non-superficial, non-patronizing way. Without facile solutions, and without feeling like a gratitious angst pile, either. (As I imagine many people do, I had an elderly relation suffering from dementia at the time, so it really hit home.)

32 – Are there any stories you want to write that you’re afraid to tackle? If so, what and why?

One comes immediately to mind. Basically the first idea I had after finishing my West Wing marathon was that I wanted to read, or, since a satisfying version didn't exist, write a story about Toby, incensed that the President dared to pardon him and with a whole lot of other issues besides, drives out to New Hamsphire and gets conveniently snowed in chez Bartlet so that he and Jed can have it out. I still want to read or write that story, and it still scares the hell out of me, because you probably need to be a first rate playwright to do it justice, not least because these are two of the most verbally adroit and intelligent characters in a show full of great talkers, but also because there are so many things they wouldn't say without going ooc. In the end, I backed away, but I did use some muddled ideas about that relationship (which was the most fascinating one on the show to me) for my brief character study Words and the Men.




( The rest of the questions )

Five characters who would like to explore or travel in space (who haven't done so already.)

1.) Clyde from The Sarah Jane Adventures. Well, technically speaking he already was in space, but being locked in a satelite or bodyswaped for a minute or two to another planet doesn't count as exploring. You know he'd love it. (So would Rani and Luke, of course.)

2.) Hiro Nakamura from Heroes. Since I stopped watching in early s3, I can't know for sure he hasn't done for, but I think it's a reasonable assumption. And he would adore it.

3.) Andrew Wells from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mind you, he'd talk the crew's ears off with comparisons to just about every sci fi show and film ever, when he wouldn't be analyzing their dynamics and talking about UST. So he might not end the journey alive. But he'd sign on in a heartbeast.

4.) Coraline from the novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Exploring hidden space is her speciality, and after the Other Mother, she'd have no problem with whatever the universe might be throwing at her.

5.) Ellie from Up! With Carl at her side, of course. You just know she was an early sci fi fan and never missed a serial.

As with the fathers, I'm going with mothers who actually raised their children. Mothers who died giving birth or very early on, sacrificing their lives, might be very praiseworthy indeed but unfair as it is, they never got to prove themselves much in the ways of day to day interaction and, to quote Alicia Florrick, in parent-teacher conferences.

1.) Alicia Florrick from The Good Wife. In addition to all the other stress in her life, she has two teenagers on her hands. Which she handles admirably, coping with manipulative girlfriends and religious streaks alilke. Also, she doesn't ridicule her children's enthusiasms, which makes her very cool indeed.

2.) Sandra Bennett from Heroes. I stopped watching around ep 10 or so of season 3, but when I left her, Sandra was fabulous. Overcoming obstacles such as regular mindwipes and being partronized by husband and daughter alike, she's loving, fiercely protective, and, once she's finally let in to the secrets, brave. (Also, she's a great proof for adoptive mothers being terrific.)

3.) Sarah Connor (Terminator/ T: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). In other circumstances, training her son as a soldier from toddlerdom onwards would count against her, but in her circumstances it's life saving. Also, talk about someone who gives their life for their child; Sarah does this not by dying heroically but by transforming herself into a warrior and trying to change history so there won't be a need for any messiah. She also fights the good fight because that's what she believes in, I don't want to put down her insight and heroism. But being a mother set her on this journey, and it is a quintessential part of her.

4.) Joyce Summers (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer). Joyce isn't perfect and for the first two seasons suffering from Denialitis Sunnydalonia. But even in this state, she's ready to defend her daughter with an axe (ask Spike). She copes with being divorced, living in a town with a high deathrate, one daughter who is the Slayer and during the last year of her life another who has a crazy hellgod after her and is an entity for whose sake Joyce's and everyone else's mind got altered. (She also copes with having dated a robot and her daughter's vampire boyfriends who may or may not go psycho at any moment.) (And with finding herself replaced as the supreme parental authority figure by a sexy British librarian.) In conclusion: Joyce rocks!

5.) Moya from Farscape. Moya is a Leviathan who spent years being imprisoned, traumatized and basically raped before gaining her freedom, and still manages to mother all her passengers (who are the most difficult lot this side of the Liberator crew) and her doomed offspring Talyn. All the other mothers mentioned here go through a lot, but I think Moya wins for sheer trauma anyway - and she still comes out kind, caring, and despite not being able to do anything to defend herself but run away a Leviathan to be reckoned with. And those she mothers love her forever. In conclusion: Moya wins!

In other news, I just heard I won an award:



It's a bittersweet feeling, because, oh, show, but on the other hand I well remember the love I felt for the characters and the entire universe then, and this one is one of the three Heroes stories I'm proudest of. So I'm very glad it's still read, and that people voted for it.

Heroes having been cancelled has evoked grief from some of my flist and celebration from others. I said my personal goodbye to the show two seasons ago, and I never doubted I made the right decision, but I can't forgot how much I enjoyed watching it once upon a time, how I used to love the characters (well, Sylar excepted...), that it inspired me to write over thirty stories and allowed me to meet and befriend some great people online. Every now and then people do the "fandoms as boyfriends/girlfriends" meme; I suppose Heroes for me turned into the one whom I would have stayed the hell away from for the rest of my life if he hadn't died, but now that someone has actually pulled the plug to the articifial nourishment keeping him alive in his coma, I can't help but remember that we did have some good, really fabulous times, and be grateful for those.

(But if someone resurrected said boyfriend and he'd want to meet again, I'd still say "thanks, but no thanks" and run a mile.)

Speaking of old fandoms, here's a Buffy rec: The Ones Not Kissed is a very good story about Oz and Cordelia post-Lover's Walk, in their respectively laconic and acerbic way commiserating. Fits beautifully within canon, and the voices are dead-on.

A footnote to the point of view and "B, getting together with A, realizes he never loved A" = anti-kink posts: browsing through Mary Renault's The Persian Boy the other day, it occured to me that here's an example of how to do both things, subjective pov conveying that the story does not always agree with the narrator, and relationships not being devalued in favour of another but both treated with respect. The "main" relationship of The Persian Boy, so to speak, is Bagoas/Alexander, and Bagoas is the narrator, but he's also keenly aware that he's not the main relationship in Alexander's life, that, as Bagoas puts it near the end of the novel, Achilles may care for Briseis but there is but one Patroklos for him, in Alexander's case Hephaistion. Who comes across as an admirable character, which is by no means exclusive with Bagoas (not a saint, and also 16 when he falls for Alexander) being jealous early on. In terms of pov character displaying attitudes not identical with the author's, an excellent example is the scene where Hephaistion and Bagoas talk about Alexander killing Kleitos, and Bagoas, being Persian and having a very different standard when it comes to kings executing offending subjects, doesn't really get why the Macedons see it as such a terrible crime, but Hephaistion, of course, does, and voices it. That's what I was talking about...

Icon courtesy of embarassing spoiled fannish frustration, as in: new Doctor Who, that's great (and a good special it is, too), new Dexter, nice (review will follow), but why oh why does fate continue to deny me S.W.O.R.D. #1?

*feels like the only person on the planet interested in the main characters who still hasn't been able to get hold of it, which means no ability to squee, discuss, share, ANYTHING*

In other news, I've an account at Archive of Our Own, here. Transferring my fanfiction from FFN isn't that difficult - the interface works really well, and the aesthetics are far more pleasing, plus I can already see the character tags are going to be extremely handy. I started with my Doctor Who, Torchwood, Marvel and Jossverse stuff, will go on with B5. Currently I'm shying away from my Heroes stories; it's so depressing to think of the fannish joy I felt when writing them, and of what became of the show. But I'm still proud of some of them, so I probably will transfer them as well in the end.

Going through my old Buffy and Angel stories, on the other hand, just produces a nostalgic glow. Probably because I was mostly happy with how both shows ended, and the occasional frustrations didn't outweigh the fondness. A month back there was another "which was darker, BtVS or AtS?" discussion which I rergarded with some distant interest, concluding that what people really replied to were in most cases "which do you like better?". As to the former question, I don't think you can answer them for the shows in their entirety, because it did vary from season to season (or even within season, when one thinks of AtS' abrupt tone shift in s2 post Epiphany). As to the later, I loved both shows - still do, for that matter, though I haven't been able to rewatch episodes for quite some time - but looking at my fannish output, I clearly found Angel more inspiring for fanfiction, and Buffy for meta. Which doesn't necessarily mean a preference - by now, it's a tried and true cliché that flawed canon generally inspires more fanfic than canon you're absolutely and completely happy with - but there it is.

Another conclusion from transfering old fanfic to a new archive: death warnings are a fannish etiquette I deeply resent and consider really annoying and stupid, but follow nonetheless.

My top five books and movie fandoms where I wish there was more fic.

1.) Sandman. There is some, but not much, especially if you discount the inevitable "a lonely teenager becomes friends with one or several of the Endless" type of stories. The fact that everything that doesn't fall into this category tends to be awesome only makes me long for more, plus the canon manages to be both richly detailed and leaving up all kind of room for other stories.

2.) Blade Runner. The movie, not the Philip K. Dick novella it's based on. There is a dreadful "sequel" published as a media tie-in, btw, and a sequel to that one but sequel No.1 managed to miss the point for me so entirely that I left the second book alone. And was ever more frustrated there is nearly no fanfiction. It could be about any of the characters, or about the world they live in; again, great canon, still much to explore.

3.) The Prestige. Again, the film, not the book. Again, there is some, but not much, and I find all the characters fascinating and would love to read more about them. (Also, I don't really buy the main slash pairing in what little fanfic exists, because this is one case where two men's obsession to destroy each other really doesn't translate into UST for me, so.)

4.) Armadale. Actually, I'd be happy about more fanfiction based on Wilkie Collins' novels, full stop, and in this case on the novels themselves, not any of the adaptions. (Especially for the Woman in White.) But I have a particular soft spot for Armadale because it has one of my all time favourite female villains/ambiguous characters (she's somewhere in between categories, truly), Lydia Gwilt.

5.) The Sunne in Splendour. I love most of Sharon Penman's novels. This one, her first, actually isn't my all-time favourite though I'm still pretty fond of it. But it's the one I most urgently wish to read fanfiction based on. I remember telling linaerys, not entirely tongue-in-cheekly, that I'm surprised Heroes fandom didn't discover it ages ago because see, there is this highly successful, charismatic and morally ambiguos older brother (Edward IV) who has an intense emotional bond with his idealistic younger brother who is eleven years younger (Richard III); said brother hero-worships him, comes to realize the flaws of the older brother in a drastic way, but their bond survives this. Also, Edward's oldest daughter has a big crush on her uncle... But all kidding aside, this novel about the Yorkist kings is chock full of interesting characters and the kind of emotional drama that fanfic thrives on. And it's all thanks to history. :)

( Top Five Spoilery Arvin Sloane Moments )

( Top Five Slightly Spoilerly Londo Mollari Quotes )

by7the7sea kindly pointed out to me that yesterday, I won awards for two old Heroes stories of mine:





Which made me feel nostalgic, a bit sad (because I broke up with the show, and can't see myself returning) and somewhat wistful, in a "but the good times were really good" kind of manner. Runaways in particular was such a blast to write, at looking back at it reminds me how much I loved not just my favourites but the entire ensemble.

Incidentally, my awards in Heroes fandom remain excentric: once I won an award for "Dreaming" at heroes_slash, i.e. for a story in which there is no slash, and now I've won one for "Runaways" at heroes_het_fic, for a story in which there is no het! (Err, nor other kinds of sexual action.) (Though obviously there is some in "Folly", which is about the Nathan/Meredith backstory based on what we knew in s1.)

Which shall be spoiler-cut, as not everyone on my list is familiar with the fandoms in question, but just might become in the future. Of course, this list is highly subjective and among other things illustrates why it's great to remain unspoiled, because there might be some more moments here if I hadn't been spoiled for them. Also, I chose to define "surprising" in the positive sense, not "oh, show, how low have you fallen, and that makes no sense whatsoever".

( 1.) Babylon 5 )


( 2.) Heroes )


( 3.) Alias )

( 4.) Angel the Series )

( 5.) Doctor Who )