Roundup: Rare Pair Fic Exchange

[firecat]

This exchange is for pairings that have fewer than 1,000 fics on AO3. Around 85 works were posted.

I didn't sign up, but I picked up two pinch hits: for the movie Dark City and for Umbrella Academy.

I'm overextended exchange-wise. (I'm sure this surprises no one.) I had to ask for an extension, and this exchange had no slack time between the due date and the reveals date. So my stuff showed up after reveals. I felt embarrassed about it. One of the fics isn't as good as I'd like it to be. But I had fun writing them anyway. I especially enjoyed the excuse to re-watch Dark City, it's a very cool film.



The Ocean in His Eyes (2163 words) by firecat
Fandom: Dark City (1998)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: John Murdoch/Daniel Schreber
Characters: John Murdoch, Daniel Schreber
Additional Tags: POV First Person, Human Experimentation, Mind Control, Aliens, Cruelty, Pining, Telekinesis, Non-Linear Narrative
Summary: All Daniel Schreber ever wanted to do was to save the day. But here in Dark City, there is no day.

Only Love Can Bring the Rain (4912 words) by firecat
Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves
Characters: Diego Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves
Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, POV Klaus Hargreeves, Dancing, Semi-Public Sex, First Time, Pining, Large Cock, Sexual Fantasy, Teen Angst, altered states of consciousness, Peeling Out of Leather Pants, Bottom Diego Hargreeves, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Thunderstorms
Summary: Nothing says stress relief like sex in a public alleyway. At least if your last name is Hargreeves.

Comments

[nancylebov]

I'm just marveling at the mere size of AO3 that you need a special category for pairings with less than a thousand fics.

[kore]

hc_bingo is doing an amnesty round right now for fandoms with less than 500 fics! AO3 is just getting bigger.

[nancylebov]

https://www.tor.com/2021/05/03/stop-feeling-guilty-about-the-books-you-havent-read-yet

Column for people who are feeling swamped just by the professionally published sf-- and I'm betting there's a lot more fanfic.

[kore]

Yeah, which makes it a total bummer that trying to publicize a fic on AO3 now feels a lot like trying to publicize one of those "98 percent of the books that publishers released in 2020 sold fewer than 5,000 copies" (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html). If I have to read guides about "How To Hustle So Your Fic Gets Seen By More Than Three People" suddenly it's a lot more like actual work, not creative release, except there's not even minimal pay, lol.

(Altho really a huge part of that is caused by AO3's search functions still being super broken, and tags are also broken. In that hc_bingo amnesty round I mentioned upthread, I asked a bunch of people how to quickly find fandoms with >500 fics on AO3, and nobody knew how.)

[nancylebov]

LOL indeed, in the sense that I actually laughed out loud.

[firecat]

I recently found a bookmarklet that lets you sort fandoms by number of fics. "Reorder fandoms" on this page:

https://carenewaterman.github.io/bookmarklets/

[kore]

*BLESS*

[kore]

Wow, that's even on one of their help pages! https://archiveofourown.org/faq/unofficial-browser-tools?language_id=en I dunno how the FUCK I missed that, arrgh.


....and it turns out, I had even bookmarked that particular help page. //HEADDESK

[firecat]

LOL, i probably found it via the help page, but I forgot and went searching for it another way just now.

[kore]

Mind like a stainless steel wossname /o\

[firecat]

Grandparents no doubt muttering "In OUR day we didn't have a giant world-spanning search engine, we had to remember things the hard way, by rote memorization, uphill both ways in the snow."

[firecat]

Fandoms with fewer than 500 fics are a lot less common than individual ships with fewer than 1000 fics, turns out.

[kore]

Do you know any way to sort for those? I've been trying the edit search page with no luck!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I'm sorry you've felt overextended, but I'm not surprised given how many exchanges you've participated in. Rare pairs are interesting!

[firecat]

Disciple of William Blake: “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” :-)