Sliding back into your fandom dms

[tweague]

So, it's been a few years since I last fanned on the internet, and I've been missing it. I've been writing fic this last couple of weeks for the first time in I don't know how long. I'm very rusty, but it feels nice. And I'd love to start getting back into fan communities. First shock to the system: there is a *lot* more Biggles fandom around than there used to be! And weirdly Biggles/von Stalhein isn't a rare-pair any more??? When did that happen???? I feel truly blessed to be here in the year of our fandom 2024 where such things are possible. By way of a placeholder, my old AO3 account is here, and who knows, maybe at some point there will be something new to add to it.

Comments

[philomytha]

You're calliope85! Hi!

I am mostly responsible for Biggles/von Stalhein not being a rare ship any more, because I was suddenly seized by total obsession with it a couple of years ago and literally the only thing I could find for the ship on the entire internet were a couple of your old LJ posts. Your Biggles/EvS timeline is a fantastic resource. Anyway, I obsessed about it here until other people I knew in fandom started shipping it too, possibly in self-defence, and then it sort of kept growing...

[tweague]

I am! Or have been, at any rate :D I think I was using calliope85 since about...1998? And there was some verrrrry bad fic attached to it still floating about the Internet. So I thought I'd have a bit of a spring-clean in an attempt to avoid my teenage self.

I cannot thank you enough for the massive pile of Biggles/von Stalhein fic I have now jumped joyfully into. They are truly the ship of my heart in this fandom, and from what I've read so far you write them beautifully. I hope I'll be able to creep-reply through your old fic posts soon.

I'm also so delighted that the obsessive von Stalhein continuity post is doing the job I hoped it would, and helping fic writers to write All The Von Stalhein without having to plough through 'In Australia' more often than is strictly necessary. I might cross-post it here, just so I can have it handy without having to wade through the depths of LJ.

[philomytha]

Oh, please do crosspost your EvS posts - I saved them to my hard drive after I found them because LJ is such a pain these days. Not having to reread In Australia too often is a distinct bonus!

The ridiculous thing is, I first read Biggles books as a kid, and if I'd known what fanfic or shipping was back then I'd have shipped Biggles/Algy (who are still a very sweet loyalty kink ship). It wasn't until my own child started reading the few old Biggles books that I had on my shelf that I went and bought a lot more for him, and eventually came across Looks Back, and I started reading and the slash was right there on the page, I was stunned... but when I went looking for the fandom expecting to find this was a popular ship, there was almost nothing, so I was very pleased to find your old posts and discover I wasn't the only person who'd noticed this.

And everyone who stays in fandom long enough eventually has a cache of earnest teenage fanfic lurking somewhere, mine's on FFN :-D

[tweague]

Biggles/Algy is so relentlessly canon-compliant that I never seem to feel the urge to write any :S Biggles/von Stalhein is also extremely canon, but it takes them so long to get their act together, it feels much more like there's something for the fic writer to do...