ATTF: All The Good Fings!

[alistra]

Hello fellow Lovers.

Today's ATTF theme is: Any Day Can Be a Good Friday!

What's that all about?

Considering the state of the world right now, I probably wasn't the only one to recently have a Bad Day of some kind, so how about everybody posting about uplifting stuff and silver linings?

Fics that give you the warm and fuzzies, good art, crazy fanvids, geeky crafts, fun fandom anecdotes, the friends we made along the way, that sort of thing.

For example: This is my "friendship/I like you" icon. Right after receiving the first replies on this here comm, I knew I had to have one to convey that notion, cause you've all been so incredibly kind and lovely to a newcomer like myself.
How's that for uplifting? :-D

Things to remember:
1) Always label NSFW (Not Safe For Work) stuff in the title and post under a cut.
2) Fic and artwork needs to have a rating and warnings (or you can say that you’ve chosen not to use warnings).
3) For people with annoying internet connections, say in the title if a comment is graphic/images/gif-heavy and post picspams under a cut.
4) Have a good time! (Because if that’s not happening then this post has clearly failed.)

Comments

[alistra]

I'll start with a video:

After seeing the Avenger crack vids for the first time on the recathon ATTF, I accidentally came across The Daily Asgardian's "I'm super, thanks for asking!" which not only cracks me up, but kinda fits with the whole theme of 'world's a disaster, but oh well'!

Warning for language, Aliens in New York and Loki being Loki.

(It's just 1:27min long, then there's a minute of unrelated other nonsense.)

[alphaflyer]

Uplifting? Yes, this very comm! I joined in October 2012, a day after that year's Secret Santa entries closed (sigh). I ended up entering a "gift" for the comm, because everyone was just so lovely and welcoming - and forgiving of my putzishness with the whole internet, LJ and fandom thing.

The comm quickly became a safe space for me, where you can hang out with friends and squee far away from the maddening crowd and the dross of real life, and I've always been grateful I found it. It's smaller now, but still lovelY!

Back in those days, we changed image headers every month and I ended up commissioning my kidlet to do one. I just came across it in my photos while looking for something else, so here it is. A jaunt down memory lane!!

[starsanonwrites]

What would we do without 1) crack vids and 2) Loki smiling?

[starsanonwrites]

I'm new here and I agree--everyone is so sweet. I love the header!!

[sgteam14283]

Currently vibing "modern music remixed as 80s bops" and the comments are great because they're all in the vein of "their concert in Brazil brought the house down/they were so talented in the 80s, what happened to them?/I remember listening to this in 1986 on my boombox as I walked down the street/danced to this at prom"

which really makes me smile because I feel we're twenty years away from that actually happening to the music now

[starsanonwrites]

Cute, silly things I like to think about:

I don't know if this is a headcanon exactly, but I love to think about how at a wedding (could be Clint & Nat's, could be any combination of Avengers), Clint and Natasha would be dancing to any and all ridiculous line dances together like absolute pros. I don't know why this is so entertaining to me, but I love to think about the Avengers interacting at a wedding reception.

On an unrelated note, I love to think about Bucky Barnes wearing an apron and baking things.

[paperairplanesopenwindows]

I used vacation day for next week because Black Widow was coming out and I wanted to be sure I could see it as soon as possible. Now that that's, uh, not happening I only have to work four days next week, which is nice.

[alistra]

1) The world would be a sadder place 2) it would be so much darker, too.

[alistra]

That's a lovely idea!

All the times I've encountered Bucky baking in an apron, it was followed by another character proceeding to do things to/with him that seem very inappropriate for an area designated to prepare food. ;-P

[alistra]

Maybe we should all be joining in a Natasha Appreciation Day on the day it was supposed to come out?

Hope you'll enjoy your free day!

[alistra]

This is going to be a little extra comment about franztastisch. Because this post is about the good that make us happy, right?

It's rare to meet somebody who just acts like a friend basically from the moment you first speak. franztastisch was not just extremely welcoming when I joined the comm, she never tired to help with my questions, be it of a technical nature (Tumblr, grrr! *shakes fist*), comm rules or writing. She even gave my new attempts at writing my own stories a thorough and speedy beta - and didn't give up after encountering my atrocious use of commas.

If she held it against me that I promised her a book report on one of her fics and then went ahead and wrote an analysis of somebody else's work first, she never let me know.

So yeah, you've made me happier in these past few weeks than you'll ever know, so I believe that deserves this extra mention. =)

[alistra]

Most of us probably have That Story or Stories that define fandom for them. For me, these special stories come in three parts:

That first fic you read where you went: "This. This is what I needed after finishing the film/book/...! This was missing, this is why I went looking for fic in the first place."

The second one transfers the source material to a new setting, giving it depth and backstory, expanding on the characters' possibilities and giving them more substance.

Finally the third gives you what you didn't know you needed. In my case giving a character, that I was sure I knew by heart by then, the solid roots of a unique and well-woven backstory.

Because I am bad with remembering fic names and it had been years of reading in between finding these, I was in for the most bizarre of moments last night when I realized that two of these three stories had been written by the same author.

Followed by the fact that it's the very person I've already spent quite a lot of time talking to in the past few weeks, seeing as I'd fallen in love with her writing enough (five years later, mind, without making the connection) to write about 10 pages of analysis on another story of hers.


Sparing you the subsequent squee-flailing that followed, here's

(tl, dr;) Three Fics That Made Fandom For me:

Going to Ground by alphaflyer - This was what I needed after the end of The Avengers. Clint and Natasha putting themselves back together after the battle of New York.

Highway of Diamonds by alphaflyer
This is where I fell all over myself last night when I made the connection. Because I'd read the title, but I never connected it to That Story I'd read 5 years ago(!), which stuck with me and still comes back to mind every now and then. It's not necessarily a fic that falls in the "happiness" category, but man, is it a good one. Maybe I'll do 10 pages on that one, some day. ;-P

Still Officially Lost by pollyrepeat
This is the one I didn't know I needed. Written on this prompt, according to the author:
"[...]The reason Coulson is so calm and even tempered today is because he went through every sort of emotional nightmare turning Clint into a decent adult ten years ago."
I only found this one earlier this year, but it was written the year The Avengers came out which is insane, considering how young this fandom was back then. I thought I knew all about Clint Barton I needed to know. Now I know better. Headcanon fully accepted and I never want to be taught better. :D

[alphaflyer]

I think that's a grand idea! Next ATTF...

[alphaflyer]

Franzi is amazing! She made me welcome in the comm way back when, too.

[alphaflyer]

*squee* And yes, that was so funny, seeing your reaction when you figured out that I'd written "Highway..." \0/

I don't EXACTLY remember which specific fics drew me into this fandom. The first few things I read were Clint/Coulson things, because one of my Voyager readers recommended them. They were good fics (and yes pollyrepeat's featured), but the ship did nothing for me. Then there were a couple of Clint/Darcy's.

I honestly don't remember the first Clint/Natasha fic I read but there were some good ones, including some who have sadly disappeared from the interwebs (by early founding members of this comm, Bob5fic and Workerbee71). The ones that still make me ridiculously happy - comfort reading! - are FreaO's "Woman in the Crosshairs" and larlaughs' "Such Lost Creatures." (Sorry I don't have it within me to create links right now.)

[alistra]

That is such a fun idea!

Although I must say, I had Boombox by the Lonely Island stuck in my head the moment I read your comment. ;-D

(Warning for The Lonely Island's brand of humour.)

[alistra]

If you (or anyone else here!) can think of any of those good early Clint/Natasha fics, I'd be very interested to read them again!

[(Anonymous)]

You’ll find those two in my AO3 bookmarks!