Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

Challenge #13

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

Okay! So, in no particular order:

• turn a little faster; the world will follow after by katiemariie—hands down my favourite DS9 fic of all time. It has it all! Not one, but two cultural revolutions! Deconstructions of fanon post-canon tropes! Alexander Rozhenko as a midwife! Honestly, I am extremely picking about Garak/Bashir fic, as I find that often it is written in a way that is not to my tastes compared with how it's portrayed on the show, and katiemariee is one of the few authors whose take on the ship I gel with. But Garak/Bashir is by no means the only ship nor is it the main ship! The story is roughly half and half two parallel narratives that feature Lenara Kahn reunited with (now Ezri) Dax on DS9 and the two of them fighting against the Trill reassociation taboo, which is amazing and is probably the reason I am more likely to read Lenara/Ezri than Lenara/Jadzia, and Julian reuniting with Garak on Cardassia as an aid worker-cum-spy (as Kira remarks in the fourth chapter: "Frontier medicine by day, spy by night. Sounds like your dream job."). There is nothing about this fic I would change and I re-read it at least twice a year.
• Profit & Growth by trinityofone—A John Kreese/Terry Silver fic in the Karate Kid/Cobra Kai fandom. This is the (intentionally) problematic kinky mpreg fic of my dreams! I usually am not a cis mpreg fan, but truly nobody is doing it like trinityofone! A guy babytrapping his boyfriend who won't commit by using mad science to knock himself up?? Sign me up! This fic was, to my knowledge, the first fic that used the Dynatox R&D tag which tragically is not yet a filterable tag on AO3, which is used on stories where Terry Silver's company Dynatox's R&D department is the jumping off point for various mad science premises. So far it has just been Kreese/Silver stories, but who knows! Maybe one day the Silverussos will join us in the lab!
• Wedding is Destiny; and Hanging Likewise by sqbr—this is a post-canon Pride and Prejudice fic about Anne de Bourgh and Mary Bennet falling in love. It's... you guys, it's the best P&P fic I have ever read, and I am including the pro-novel Longbourne by Jo Baker in this. Mary is such an insufferable prig and I love her and Anne is such an unbearable snob and I adore her! The premise of the fic is that Mary chooses to go to Rosings Park to be Anne's live-in companion, largely out of a sense of anxiety about her role within her own family of birth after the marriage of three of her sisters. When I first read this fic I went on a liveblogging spree on my Tumblr, which you can read here in chronological order, but I'm also going to c&p one such post here, which includes a passage from the fic itself:

  “You have impure thoughts about me?” asked Mary. “You would like to–do–sinful things? With me?” Her eyes were very bright and Anne could still taste the memory of her kiss. Anne had to look away, sure the answer to Mary’s question was written all over her face.
  
  “I am sorry,” said Anne. “Knowing your disinterest I would never consider…”
  
  “I would be willing,” said Mary. “I had not considered the possibility before, but it solves everything. As your friend, I would be willing to help you resist temptation by lying with you. I have spent some time considering the method, and it does not sound disagreeable.”
  
  “No,” said Anne, horrified. This was like some strange, shameful dream. “No that is…Mary, that is perverse. How is that any better than me simply taking a lover in the first place?”
  
  “Because…” Mary frowned in concentration, seriously considering the question. “Because nobody should touch you that way but me,” she said, in a wondering tone, as if it was some great truth that had just been revealed to her. “They will not love you as I do. It would be impure and sordid. With me it would be a pure, transcendental expression of friendship and love.” She sighed happily and lay back on the pillow, closing her eyes. “We would be like Diana and her acolytes, bathing naked together after a hunt,” said Mary. “How agreeable it would be…”
  
  “Oh my God,” said Anne.
  
  Outstanding heterosexual Mary Bennet smashed on punch after a ball proposing to Anne de Bourgh that they be the closest of chums and kiss and hug and make love with each other the better to help Anne avoid having inappropriate and sinful relationships with women who are not Mary. What’s better than gals being pals?

  This fic is also extremely disgaybled and I would recommend it especially to people who are queer or disabled or both. Obviously Anne and Mary are in lesbians with each other, but additionally Anne's canonical chronic illness is wonderfully represented and Mary Bennet's canonical preoccupation with morality and propriety is given wonderful dimension and life that pings extremely autistic and/or OCD to me (an, admittedly, autistic and OCD person, lol).
  
  It is everything I could ever want from a rarepair fic, a Pride and Prejudice fic, a femslash fic, a post-canon fic, a fic that touches on disability and canon typical cultural attitudes towards women, queer people and people in different social classes. It, as I have so often said, has it all.

In the words of Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara: that's the list! I would have loved to have recced some of my favourite vids or podfics, but when I went to my bookmarks to see which ones I revisited most often, these were the three. And I feel they are very deserving of that honour!

I promoted a few exchanges on my Star Trek rarepairs Discord server (hmu for an invite if you want, but it is mostly inactive currently), so I thought maybe I'd give it a go over here too!

quodo is running a mini-exchange for the DS9 ship Quark/Odo and sign ups are open until January 10 11:59 PST. Minimum requirements are:
- At least 100 words of fanfiction.
- A sketch for fanart.
- A podfic for any existing work.
- A fanvid of any length.
- 3 icons or 1 larger graphic.
- Other fanwork media are also allowed. Use your judgment to come up with a similar level of effort

The collection is here

purimgifts currently has sign ups open, but they will close soon on January 9 at 11AM IST/9AM UTC. The mods have said that nominations will close several hours before then, so if there's anything that isn't in the tagset that you'd like to request, I'd get on that very speedily. Requirements are (per their rules):

What you offer: at least 3 fandoms, and at least 1 of fanfic or podfic.

What you request: at least 3 fandoms, at least 1 of fanfic or podfic, maximum rating and DNWs.

How you’ll be matched: at least 1 fandom & at least 1 of fanfic or podfic. Signups that have no match for either offer or request will be deleted and not entered into matching.

What you’ll create: 3 works (or 1 work in 3 parts, or some combination thereof), each work (or part) 300-1000 words or 3-10 minutes of audio. You will also need to supply 3 pieces of graphics (can be clipart off pixabay or similar).

All fanwoks in your gift must be about a character (not necessarily the same in each) who is either a woman, a Jewish person, or someone persecuted by an evil vizier, or some combination of the above. Further details on those requirements in the FAQ.

N.B. I am not a mod at either of these exchanges and I am a first time participant in both. I have tried to ensure the information I've given is accurate, but double check it for yourself.

Dear Purimgifts creator,

I'm SweetPollyOliver! Thank you so much for offering one/some of my requested fandoms! I'm really excited to see what you cook up.

This is my first time participating in Purimgifts, so I am not very familiar with the culture specific to the exchange and how important or unimportant letter writing is considered to be, so please take this simply as an "if this is useful" kind of thing. I'm very easy to please, provided you steer clear of DNWs and the archive tags I have asked to be excluded in my sign-up (i.e. Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con and Underage), and I'd be much happier to think that you made something that you had a great time making than that you got stressed worrying about what I might like or dislike.

I'm writing a letter largely because in other exchanges I have participated in people tended to prefer having some level of guidance from their recip, but nothing I say here should be considered written in stone. Feel free to create a fanwork featuring any characters or ship, I am equally happy with something shippy or gen and I don't have a preference in terms of ratings. If I've strayed too far in the direction of not giving enough ideas, I'm really sorry. Prompts don't come very easily to me and I enjoy being surprised.

( General likes, DNWs and fandom specific likes beneath the cut )

I made a Jake/Nog vid!

Son of a Preacher Man from Art Holland on Vimeo.

Password: nohjay