#this also comes up with like. dcu fics for example

[astyrra]

incredibly niche feature i wish ao3 had: if a fic is tagged with two fandoms, and one of those fandoms is a parent to the other fandom, the fic should not come up when i search for crossovers

[silverwhittlingknife]

Do you think Tim and Dick are platonic soulmates?

Ooooh, interesting question.

Short answer: No! But also, sure! But also... maybe? I probably wouldn't use those words - I'd call them "found family" or "brothers in all but blood" or just "very close friends."

Long answer: I love some soulmate tropes and hate others! So I usually avoid the word, because it's ambiguous. Come and listen to ALL MY THOUGHTS on soulmates.

Below the cut:

"soulmate" as narrative mechanic (one of my favorite tropes; tragically doesn't exist in the DCU) (ETA: ...but happily it does exist in this fic idea, where you can have multiple platonic soulmarks, and Dick and Tim both get their first one at the circus, the night Dick's parents die)

"soulmate" as Your Perfect Match (listen to me gripe about one of my fiction pet peeves)

the types of fictional friendships that I like and why

OKAY! Let's go.

When I hear the term "soulmate" in fiction, there are three things that come to mind.

1. "soulmate" as narrative mechanic: destiny has forced you together whether you like it or not

Okay, so this one I LOVE. I like it in fanfic, and I like it in fiction in general. For example, in BBC Merlin, the two feuding protagonists are Destined to save the day together; Miraculous Ladybug has a similar setup.

In this kind of story, Fate Itself (read: the author) is a force pushing the characters together. This allows you to put two characters together that normally might not like each other or spend time together. And it often makes my favorite narrative promise: "These characters don't get along yet...but they will someday."

AFAIK, though, this mechanic doesn't exist in the DCU. (Sadly!) It definitely doesn't apply to Dick and Tim.

2. "soulmate" as Your Perfect Match (TM): the InstaSoulmate who you immediately connect with and always understand perfectly!

This is one of my pet peeves in fiction, and it's a little hard to articulate why, but let me try. Here's some of the traits of this character:

person who you understand perfectly on every level

no conflicts or missteps or misunderstandings - ever!

at every possible moment you have always said the right thing to each other

you've never hurt each other's feelings - not even once!

you may have conflicts with other people but this person just shows up and is effortlessly perfect in every way

you don't need to learn things about each other 'cause you essentially read each other's minds

you've never had to sacrifice anything for your relationship or go beyond your comfort zone 'cause conveniently you always want and need exactly the same things!

basically you can think of this paragon as your Goldilocks just-right character. they can only show up at the end of the story because if they showed up earlier everything would already be fixed

I have my own wish-fulfillment tropes that I like, so I get why some people like this one. . . but this particular wish-fulfillment trope does not speak to me at all. I do not like it in romance. I do not like it in gen. I do not like perfect parents, brothers, friends, or anything else.

For me, there's a subtle but hugely important difference between "we are good friends who care about each other and support each other" and "we are SoulmatesTM." And it has to do with whether the characters have to try or not.

3. The types of relationships that I like

I like sweet moments. I love sweet moments, actually! I love soft characters being soft. But I want those moments to be earned. Which means that there has to be risk. I have to know that the characters could get it wrong.

And for Dick and Tim's friendship in particular, a lot of what I like about it is that I feel like it is earned. They have a ton of conflicts, they have a ton of misunderstandings, they're not fated to understand each other.

But they're both people who value acts of kindness. So with people they love, they put in a lot of effort. They try to be thoughtful, they try to be supportive, they try to fix their mistakes, they watch their words.

And they put in that effort with each other.

So for example, @bitimdrake has written two one-shots about Dick and Tim which I deeply deeply love. And in both fics the characters are being incredibly sweet and kind to each other, and it's really touching and ;;;_;;;. <3 But one of the low-key things that makes both stories so powerful to me is that the kindness is never magical. They're not mind-readers - they're just people who care about each other and are trying hard.

So in one story Tim gives Dick a really sweet gift - but he doesn't know ahead of time how it'll be received, and in the course of the story he's most uncertain about the part of the gift that's ultimately the most meaningful to Dick. And in the other story Tim's in trouble and avoiding asking for the comfort he desperately needs, and Dick has to track Tim down and figure out what's going on with him (and of course look after him <3).

And for me that kind of relationship - where you care about the other person, and worry about the other person, but you don't automatically know what to do and have to figure it out - is so much more compelling than InstaSoulmates.

Because the effort of love is the thing that matters to me.

[peppersonironi]

Code Orange (Batfam/Young Justice Crossover)

{Read on Ao3)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences (For language - Jason)

Category: Gen

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)

Relationships: Garfield Logan & M'gann M'orzz, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, The Team (Young Justice) & Jason Todd

Characters: Jason Todd, M'gann M'orzz, Garfield Logan, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Kon-El | Conner Kent, Members of the Team (Young Justice), Stephanie Brown

Additional Tags: Humor, Crossover, Jason Todd Swears, Jason Todd Being a Little Shit, Good Older Sibling Dick Grayson, Meet the Batfamily (DCU), Post-Season/Series 02, Bruce Wayne Has Too Many Kids, Banter, Mild Language

Summary: Garfield was cut off by M'gann grabbing his wrist and flying out of the room as fast as she could. “Code Orange. Code Orange,” M'gann sent out to everyone on the Watchtower. “There is an intruder on the Watchtower! An ‘A’ level Villain. Armed. Repeat, there is an armed villain on the Watchtower.”

AKA: Red Hood decides he wants to see the Team, breaks in, and causes havoc. The bats are strangely friendly with someone who was supposed to be their villain.

A/N: Yo, I've had this sitting in my docs since … March? Well, i decided to put it out, seeing as I'm FINALLY seeing Season Three! Although this fic doesn't include it. Think of this as post-season two, and just ignoring season three. Full batfam are just never introduced to the Team.

WORK-

It was a slow weekend on the Watchtower, with no missions, catastrophes, or alien invasions. So most of the Team and League were either at home, or chilling in the space station.

The latter was exactly what Garfield and M'gann were doing. They had been on the Watchtower for the entirety of the morning, playing various types of board games. Every so often someone would pop in on them, but for the most part they were enjoying some sibling bonding time.

“You know what we need?” Garfield asked in the middle of Candy Land.

“No, I thought we were doing just fine the way we were,” M'gann replied, confused.

Garfield scoffed. “Food, obviously! I'm starving! Let's head to the cafeteria and see if Bart left any ice cream.”

*****

They didn't find any ice cream. Though, what was there was alarming.

M'gann and Garfield had strode into the cafeteria finding it almost empty. The single occupant was a man in cargo pants, a leather jacket, and a red helmet. He also wore a gray armored shirt, which had some sort of red symbol. The symbol was obscured, however, by the ginormous gun he was cleaning.

M'gann recognized him immediately as the Red Hood, a top-tier crime lord from Gotham.

“Why Hello, Miss Martian. Beast Boy.” Red Hood didn’t even look up.

“Hey sis, did someone new join the team or -”

Garfield was cut off by M'gann grabbing his wrist and flying out of the room as fast as she could. “Code Orange. Code Orange,” M'gann sent out to everyone on the Watchtower. “There is an intruder on the Watchtower! An ‘A’ level Villain. Armed. Repeat, there is an armed villain on the Watchtower.”

“That was a villain?!” Garfield asked in a surprised voice as he raced along with M’gann.

“Yes, Garfield. Red Hood. I have no idea how he got here though. We need to gather everyone. Make sure they're ready for a fight. Especially Nightwing and Robin, he's a Gotham villain, so they should know what to do.”

Garfield nodded, changed into a hawk, and flew off.

Soon almost everyone was gathered outside the cafeteria's doors. Garfield had yet to bring Nightwing, but Robin was present, and at the front of the group. The only adult leaguer present was Captain Marvel, who had been on monitor duty at the time. The major leaguers - including the big three - were on some sort of low threat level assignment.

“M'gann, report,” Aqualad spoke when he made his way to the front of the group where M'gann stood, blocking Conner from jumping the gun and attacking without a plan.

“Garfield and I were on our way to get some food, when we walked in on The Red Hood cleaning a large gun threateningly. I pulled Gar out as fast as possible and alerted everyone.”

Robin groaned loudly. “Hood? Of all the days to infiltrate the Watchtower, he chose today?”

Aqualad frowned. “You do not seem that alarmed. Is he not as dangerous as we have been told?”

Robin snorted. “Oh, he’s dangerous alright. Tried to kill me multiple times, almost succeeded too. But right now I’m just annoyed.”

Superboy grunted. “That doesn’t matter right now! There is a villain in our lunch room! We need to do something!”

Robin shrugged. “Do what you want. B is gonna kill me either way.”

No one understood what Robin meant, so they decided to follow Kon’s advice. Aqualad took charge.

“We enter on three. Blue Beetle, Rocket, Kid Flash, and Wondergirl go right. Superboy, Lagoon Boy, Miss Martian, and Captain Marvel go left. Zatanna and Robin, follow me. Try to encircle him. Get him talking, and see if we can figure out what he wants. M’gann, link us up.”

Robin grumbled, but nodded along with everyone else. M’gann activated the mind link. Once everyone had given the affirmative, Aqualad began the count.

“One. Two. Three. Go!”

Everyone burst through the doors and assumed their positions. The Red Hood was still sitting where M’gann had said. He was still cleaning his gun, though he paused when the Team entered.

“Took you long enough. I was getting bored.”

Robin glared at Red Hood. “What are you doing here, Hood?”

The intruder seemed to smile under his helmet. “Why’re you so grumpy today, babybird? I was getting bored in Gotham. Figured I’d stop by and say hello to the Team.” Hood turned to look at the rest of the Team and waved. “Hey Team. Captain Marvel. How’re you doing?”

No one replied. Red Hood sighed and shook his head. “No one cares about me.”

“Dude, there is a full attack force ready to beat the crap out of you,” Blue Beetle said. “I’m pretty sure there are people who care that you’re here.”

Red Hood chuckled. “You couldn’t beat me if you tried. Tell ‘em, Replacement.”

Robin smirked. “Not after what I saw last week. You were taken down by two low level thugs.”

Red Hood groaned. “Dude, I was drunk.”

No one had the chance to question this as it was at that exact moment that Beast Boy burst into the room followed closely by Nightwing. He had his escrima sticks out, and looked ferocious.

“Hey ‘wing! Nice of you to join us.” Red Hood sounded positively gleeful.

Nightwing, instead of attacking, groaned and put his weapons away. “This is what you called me for? It's just Hood.”

Aqualad frowned. “Is not the Red Hood a security level A enemy? Shouldn’t you be worried?”

Red Hood shook his head. “Level A? I’m flattered! Maybe you and B do care!”

Nightwing sighed, walked over to Hood, and collapsed on the sofa beside him. The Team was shocked to say the least.

“ ‘Course we care, Hood.” Nightwing said, causing many gasps.

“Nightwing,” Aqualad said, “What are you talking about? Is not this man one of your Rogues? Robin said that he tried to kill him multiple times!”

Nightwing just shrugged. “So? He’s tried to kill me too.”

Red Hood tilted his head as he looked at Robin. “You still go by Robin, here? Boy, Demon-spawn is going to kill you!”

Robin crossed his arms and glared. “It was easier. Do you know how long it takes to change your Zeta Settings?”

Red Hood nodded sagely. “So you were too lazy.”

Robin spluttered, but didn’t deny the accusations.

“Are we forgetting,” Conner said, “That there is a villain in the Watchtower? How did he get in?!”

“Hey Red,” Nightwing asked, grinning, “How’d you get up here, anyway?”

Red Hood seemed to smirk under his helmet. “Blackmail is a glorious thing.”

There was an uproar in the mind link. Accusations flew. Who had Red Hood blackmailed? What did he know about them that could possibly warrant an unauthorized visit to the Watchtower? What was almost as scary was how nonchalant Nightwing seemed. Robin also didn’t seem that worried. In fact he looked … sheepish?

Nightwing laughed. “Whatever he has on you, Robin, must be good!”

“Robin!” M’gann exclaimed. He was the last person anyone expected to be Blackmailed. The bats were so secretive, no one really knew anything about them. This situation with Red Hood being a prime example.

“Hermano,” Blue Beetle said, clearly distressed, “How could you do this?”

Robin just shrugged. “He knew something bad, guys. It couldn’t get out.”

Nightwing looked positively gleeful, the exact opposite of what everyone else was feeling. “Come on, Hood. What did he do?”

Red Hood was shaking with laughter. “He brewed his coffee with a mix of Red Bull and Monster, then topped it off with four Five Hour Energy’s, and three double shots of espresso. When he was on strict orders to sleep.”

“Timothy Jackson Drake!” Nightwing exclaimed, sitting up. He seemed more exasperated than angry. “We’ve talked about this! You are going to get yourself killed if you keep going on like this!”

Robin did not look the least bit apologetic. “Hood! You said you wouldn’t tell!”

Red Hood shrugged. ���I said I wouldn’t tell Agent A or Bats. You didn’t say anything about Nightwing or the Team.”

Robin collapsed on the nearest chair. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

Nightwing nodded. “You are so grounded after this. I’m telling Agent A, and we’re changing all your coffee to decaf!”

Robin groaned. The rest of the Team was confused. For one thing, that wasn’t necessarily that bad of a thing to hide? Sure it was disgusting, but it's not like Robin killed anyone. For another, who did that to their coffee?! But the most worrisome was how did Red Hood know about that? He must have been close to the bird. And how did he know Agent A? Not even the OG Team members had met the mysterious Agent A, who coordinated and cared for the Bats.

“That still doesn’t answer why there is a villain in our cafeteria!” Rocket exclaimed. There were several agreeing nods.

Red Hood sighed. “I told you, I’m here to say hi!” He turned to Robin, “I haven’t seen you in ages.” Though he spoke toward Robin, the Team couldn’t help but feel like he was talking to everyone in the room.

Just then, Kid Flash flew into the room. The lightning trailing from his wake crackled quietly as he stopped next to Aqualad.

“I heard that we had an infiltration and - woah! It's the Red Hood! Why didn’t you tell me it was him! Awesome!” There was a flash, and Kid Flash was standing over Red Hood with a notebook and pen in hand. “Can I have your autograph?”

Nightwing looked like he was trying not to laugh, Robin looked slightly peeved, and everyone else was just confused.

Red Hood’s face wasn’t visible, but his body language clearly showed how pleased he was. “Now this is how you should be treating me!” Hood spoke and he signed the page that Kid Flash helpfully pointed out. “How does ‘Red Hood, to the only decent speedster I’ve ever met’ sound?”

Kid Flash was grinning. “Perfect! Thanks so much! All the info surrounding you was pretty vague in the timelines, so I wasn’t sure if you were even back yet! Or working with the bats again. But boy am I glad you are! You’ve always been my favorite! Do you know how cool you are, dude?!”

Red Hood tilted his head. “Of course I do, kid. Glad someone else sees it though.” He seemed to glare at Nightwing as he said the last part, who only shook his head.

Kid Flash got his notebook back and positively bounced over to Blue Beetle. “Dude did you see this? He actually signed it!”

Blue Beetle frowned. “Why did you want his autograph in the first place?”

Red Hood spluttered, clearly annoyed. “Why wouldn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Kid Flash said, “Why wouldn’t I want the autograph of clearly the best Outlaw?” He paused to think. “Are you with the Outlaws yet?”

Red Hood shrugged. “I haven’t seen either of them in a few months, but we are meeting next week for an … outing.”

Nightwing snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “mercenaries and drugs. What could go wrong.”

Red Hood glared at Nightwing. “Like nothing you ever do goes wrong.”

Nightwing snorted. “Yeah, but I never leave a trail of bodies.”

“Okay, one, the bodies were on purpose,” Hood said, “And two, I stopped! No more killing people for widdle ol’ me.”

“Mostly.” Robin said.

“Mostly,” Red Hood agreed.

“Why is their bickering so familiar?” M’gann asked.

“It’s like they’re siblings,” Captain Marvel replied.

“Oh Gosh,” Kid Flash said, “You guys really don’t -”

Suddenly Nightwing, Robin and Red Hood stiffened in unison. The air seemed to drop several degrees. Then Batman strode into the room flanked by Superman and Wonder Woman.

“Thank the gods,” Wondergirl said. “This guy just showed up, he said he blackmailed Robin into letting him up, and Nightwing isn’t doing anything about it! Please tell us you -”

“Uncle Clark! Aunt Diana!” Red Hood seemed strangely happy to see the most powerful people in the League. He even knew their civilian names! There were several gasps.

Wonder Woman strode forward, and Red Hood sprang up to meet her. “ Red Hood! So good to see you. How has your life been my little warrior?” They hugged briefly, and Beast Boy almost fainted.

“Pretty good, Aunt Diana. You know, a little dark, a little gloomy. And, as always, hey, full of dead people. What are you gonna do?”

Robin snorted. “Did you just quote Hercules at Wonder Woman? An Amazon?”

Wonder smiled - quite motherly, Kaldur thought in the mind link - at Red Hood. “It's been too long my dear. Next time you have a day off, come find me in Paris. We should spend more time together.”

“I’ll be sure to!”

Wonder Woman stepped to the side to allow Superman forward. “Really, how have you been kiddo?”

“I’m not a kid anymore, supes. Haven’t been since I was fifteen and you know it.” Superman seemed to flinch, which in and of itself was a shock. Red Hood shrugged. “But I’ve been good. Had to deal with these idiots a lot,” he gestured to Nightwing and Robin, both of whom looked indignant, “but … I’ve been good.”

Superman smiled. “Great. You should come to the farm sometime, Ma misses you.”

“He can - he’s gone to the farm?!” Superboy couldn’t hold back his shock. He had only just been allowed to go, and meet Ma Kent.

Red Hood nodded as Superman stepped aside to join Wonder Woman. “Of course, I’ve been coming for years.”

Superboy was slack jawed at this revelation, and, despite much cajoling from his teammates, was unable to close his mouth.

“Hood.” Batman said. He spoke tiredly, in a way no one in the Team had ever heard him use before. “Do you have to traumatize everyone you meet?”

“Oh, you wanna talk about trauma?” Red Hood’s voice was filled with a maliciously gleeful tone. “ ‘Cause you should hear about this one time, I was hanging out with the Joker - just chilling, y’know - and then -”

Red Hood was cut off by a grimacing Nightwing punching him in the shoulder. “Not now, okay?”

“Come on, I’m sure the gang would love to hear all the gruesome details …”

“Hood,” Batman repeated slightly more urgently. “What are you doing on the Watchtower?”

Red Hood sighed. “For the last time, I wanted to say hi to the Team. I haven’t seen these guys in ages.”

“We have never met before,” Aqualad said, confused.

Red Hood shook his head. “They don’t remember me.” He seems thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe there weren’t enough explosions.”

“Hood,” Batman continued. “You know you aren’t allowed up here without permission. Which you just had to ask for. I would have set up a time to let you see everyone.”

This time when the Team was surprised, Nightwing and Robin joined in; Their faces twin depictions of shock.

Red Hood didn’t seem to care, though. “Since when have I ever asked you for anything, old man. Besides, this way is more fun. Drama, and all that sh*t.” He sat back on the sofa. “You should have seen their faces! Best fun I’ve had since Nightwing and I got drunk in Blüdhaven a few weeks back!”

Batman whirled to Nightwing, who was looking quite sheepish. “You did what?”

Nightwing shrugged. “It had been a long night, and I was getting over a bad break up. Hood was being an outstanding citizen by aiding me in my hour of need!”

“F*** yeah, Big-Wing!”

Batman shook his head. “Hood, you aren’t of legal drinking age, there is no way you were being an outstanding citizen.”

The Team could barely keep up. Nightwing and Red Hood were close enough to get drunk together? Hood was under twenty one? Batman seemed close enough to Hood to know he was under twenty one. Well, that last one could be easily explained: he was Batman after all.

Red Hood grumbled his assent before perking up. “Hey bats, is that why you still have me down as a villain on the official League files?”

Batman seemed at a loss for words. He just employed his signature BatGlare™  on the intruder. Red Hood didn’t seem affected at all, which could easily be taken as the most surprising thing about the whole encounter. Even Superman flinched at the BatGlare™.

“Do you understand the mixed signals you’re sending me?” Hood Continued. “I mean, I’m allowed to Sunday dinner, but I’m also classified as one of the most dangerous criminals on earth?”

“Sunday dinner?” Several people asked in unison.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered that you think so high of me, but I changed to f***ing rubber bullets for you! Doesn’t that give me some credit? Or were you just too lazy to change it. Like Replacement over here, who still goes by Robin.”

“Yes, of course you deserve to be taken off the list. You’ve made so much progress. I’ll change your file as soon as I can.” He frowned. “And for the love of god, please call Tim by his name, or hero moniker.”

“Yeah, call me by my name, Hood!” Robin seemed to be rolling his eyes under his domino mask. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Red Hood looked appeased. “Good.” He collapsed back on the couch and continued to clean his gun.

Batman sighed. “Do you want something else?”

“Well, now that you’re asking …” Red Hood seemed exceptionally sly. “It is getting a bit boring in here.” he paused as if to think. “Hey! We should throw a party! "

Batman glowered. "No. The last time I let you have a party, the Bat cave was covered in glitter for three days straight!"

“You’ve held parties in the Batcave?” Aqualad asked.

Red Good sighed and shook his head. "Good times, good times. But you forget that that glitter was purple. I wasn’t completely to blame!”

Batman sighed once more, while Robin sat up straight.

“Is that why Spoiler didn’t come to the house for a week?”

Nightwing nodded. “Yup. She was too scared to see Agent A. Though she wouldn’t mind yelling at B.”

“And flip him off while doing so.” Red Hood sighed contentedly. “I taught her well.”

“You didn’t teach her anything!” Nightwing contradicted. “She’s been flipping people off since before you returned to Gotham! She gave the single-fingered salute B when they first met - with a smile on her face!”

The Team wondered who could be so brave, none of them were.

Red Hood seemed overjoyed. “Really? Why haven’t I heard about this before! How did Batsy react?”

“Like a deer in headlights,” Robin replied, smirking.

Red Hood began to clap. “She makes the Robin legacy proud, doesn’t she?”

“Does that mean this girl was a Robin?” Rocket asked.

“Batman reacted like a deer in headlights?” Captain Marvel added.

Nightwing nodded sardonically. “Yes, because pissing off Batman is exactly what I had in mind when I started Robin.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, Golden Boy,” Red Hood snorted, “You’ve swung off of and broken enough chandeliers for it to be coincidance.”

Nightwing grimaced. “So there have been some casualties.”

Batman shook his head. “Casualties?”

Robin nodded quite seriously. “Of course, B. How else would you know to get gymnastic equipment?”

“He could have asked. Instead I had to spend thousands of dollars every time Nightwing decided he wanted to try some new trapeze routine.” Batman shook his head. “Why do all of you decide it's your job to vandalize my home?”

Robin raised his hands. “Hey, I didn’t destroy anything important!”

“No, you just randomly got rid of my computers when you decided we needed an upgrade.”

“Well we did!”

“Hah! I’ve never done any permanent damage to your house!” Red Hood seemed very self satisfied.

Batman, Nightwing, and Robin paused for a moment, thinking.

“That,” Robin said, “Is truly depressing.”

“Hn,” Batman replied.

“Good job Hood,” Nightwing said, “You have managed not to disappoint B in one field.”

Red Hood seemed to roll his eyes. “Don’t worry, I make up for it in all the other ways!”

“Can someone PLEASE explain to me what’s going on?” Garfield asked, bouncing in place.

All the bats turned to look at him in unison, causing the kid to shrink back and hide behind M’gann. A moment later, though, Red Hood sighed audibly. He reached up and felt for some hidden latches in his hamlet. There was a click and he pulled it off. Underneath was a red domino mask. He reached up and pulled that off next.

There were several gasps from the OG Team. The man before them was older, his jaw-line matured, scars littering his face. He had a white streak in his hair and blue eyes rimmed with a pulsing poisonous green. But they still recognized him.

“What?” Zattanna whispered, her eyes wide.

“You’re …” Conner began,shocked, “You’re alive?”

“How?”  Rocket asked. “You were dead.”

In unison, the five people who knew the stranger turned to Nightwing.

“You said you wouldn’t fake any more deaths!” M’gann announced, anger flowing through her.

“How could you, Dick?” Kaldur asked, frowning insteansly. “No more secrets, you promised.”

Nightwing sighed. “I had no part in this, let me tell you. It was the Al Ghuls. We didn’t find out till a year ago.”

“That’s still a year you took to tell us!” Conner glared.

Nightwing shrugged. “It was extenuating circumstances, alright? Not completely my choice.”

Seeing that questioning Dick would be fruitless, Zatanna turned back to the Red Hood. “how are you alive?”

He grinned. “The Lazarus Pit does wonders for the skin, let me tell you.”

This brought a stir throughout the room. Everyone had heard of the legendary substance that granted Ra’s Al Ghul immortality.

“Someone still needs to tell me who this is,” Cassie said, her hands on her hips.

Batman sighed. “Everyone, this is Jason Peter Todd, my son, and the second Robin.”

Everyone who didn’t already know blinked several times.

“The hologram in the park?” Jaime asked. “The one who was killed by the Joker?”

“The very one!” Jason grinned. “Nice to know some people know me.”

“I thought there were only two Robins?” La'gaan stated more than asked with a frown.

In unison, Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, and even Superman started to laugh.

“Oh kid,” Jason said, grabbing his sides, “you’re adorable!”

“Only two Robins,” Superman said, grinning, “Batman wishes.”

Nightwing was choking with laughter, but once he’d calmed down, he looked at La’gaan again, and proceeded to break down again.

“Two Robins?!” Robin looked in awe, “Wow, now that’s a thought.”

“I’m sorry?” La'gaan asked. He didn’t look sorry.

“There have been five Robins,” Red Hood explained after a moment, “Six if you count that new kid. But that whole thing was kinda weird.”

“Six?!” several people announced, and looked at Batman, who nodded.

“How come we’ve never met them?” M’gann asked, “Nightwing, how could you not have told us?”

“You haven’t met them ‘cause most of the bats stick to Gotham,” Robin answered, “there hasn’t a need to drag everyone up here. Let alone the Robins.”

“Wait,” Zattanna said, “There are more bats?”

NIghtwing laughed again. “Oh boy, you guys really know nothing? Do any of you pay attention to Gotham?” There were several sheepish smirks, and Nightwing sighed. “Artemis is the only one who actually gets this, isn’t she?”

Jason frowned. “I wish she was here today, I wanted to say high.” he then looked at the still confused faces of the hero community. He stood up dramatically, as if about to start a grand speech.“Okay, rundown. You know Batman, obviously. Dicky-bird over there was the first Robin. I was the second. Then you have Timbo who was the third-”

“Was?” several people asked.

“I still go by Robin up here ‘cause it's easier-”

“He’s too lazy to change his codes, we already established this,” Jason interrupted, glaring, “After him you have Robin four, that was for the time that Tim’s dad banned him from the roll. Then he died, and she died, so Tim was back to being Robin.” he ignored the several open mouthed faces and persevered, “then you have the little gremlin who’s currently Robin. He’s the ‘bloodson’ which he takes very seriously, so don’t tell him that just because daddybats over there and Talia Al Ghul hooked up means that he’s the F***ing savior.” Everyone turned to stare at Batman.

“Talia Al Ghul?” Jaime asked, “Isn’t she an assassin?”

“Yup!” Nightwing announced, drawing attention onto him. “And the kid’s a cutie!”

Tim scoffed. “That’s not half the bats though,” he pointed out. “You have Batwoman, Batwing … hey, Azrael counts, right?”

“I mean,” Dick said, “He was Batman at one point, and lives in Gotham so yeah. He’d probably not want to be called that though.”

Jason laughed. “He and Leslie think we’re all crazy. I mean, they’re right, but still.”

Tim laughed. “Yup! Then you have the batgirls, number one, you guys know her. She’s Oracle now, a behind the scenes tech support goddess. Then Batgirl number two, she goes by Black Bat now, takes care of Hong Kong when she’s not visiting home and being the favorite child.”

Batman frowned. “I don’t have favor-”

“You do.” All three former Robins said in unison.

“So yeah,” Dick continued, “She’s awesome. Easily kicks our butts - including B! But after her you have Spoiler, the third Batgirl, and fourth Robin. After her there’s Catwoman -” there were several gasps. “Oh yeah, she and Bats are totally a thing - have been for years. You wouldn’t be surprised if you saw their flirting! There was this one time when I was Robin, I was supposed to case a building while B went after Cat, right? Well when i got there, they were already half-”

“That’s enough.” Batman growled, and Nightwing grinned.

“Moving on!” Jason announced, “since we all have horrible memories of batcat freaky roof time, you have Huntress, and Blue Bird. Then The Signal - he was kinda a half Robin, in a gang war sort of way. But that’s not important. He’s the only meta protege of batsy’s, and if that doesn’t scream second favorite child, I don’t know what does!”

“You allow metas in Gotham now?!” Garfield asked.

“No.” all the bats announced in unison.

“Signal is the exception, and if you met him, you’d understand. Easily the sanest out of all of us.” Jason explained with a wink.

“Relatively the sanest!” Tim announced. “He literally jumped out of a police car, of a bridge, into the Gotham river, while saying ‘I am Robin. Plus, he handled the demon spawn on a rampage. He’s just as crazy as the rest of us.”

“None of this explains why we haven’t met these people!” Connor said.

Batman sighed heavily. “Fine. I’ll set up a meeting, check out who’s in town and such. Not today though, there’s a drug bust going down and no one’s available. Besides, they don’t even know what’s going on up here.”

Jason let out an awkward cough, and sat gingerly down on the couch. He seemed … guilty?

“Jason.” Batman growled in warning.

“I’m sorry, B!” Jason said, despite looking more along the lines of gleeful. “Blondie asked what I was doing today, and you know how hard it is to lie to her!”

Batman groaned - honest to gosh groaned! - and pinched the bridge of his nose. “She’s on her way right now, isn’t she?”

Jason shrugged. “She said something about grabbing snacks.”

Tim groaned. “We’re all dead.”

“What’s going on?” M’gann asked, “Why would this be bad?”

Dick sighed. “Spoiler is just … special.”

As if on cue, the door to the room crashed open dramatically, smoke seeping in. A purple clad figure stood dramatically in its wake, her cape swirling and arms raised over her head. She held two boxes of Munchkins in each fist.

“What’s up B*tches?” She asked. “I brought donuts!”

[skittlebits]

Do you believe in OTPs?

Ummmm.... like, do I believe in having more than one 'One True Pairing' or do I believe in them at all?

I have OTPs in more fandoms than I can even remember off hand. My ships would fill an entire harbour. But yes, I do have more than one pairing for certain characters. Other characters, nope. It's just not possible in my head to ship them with anyone but the person I ship them with.

Examples of multiple OTPs I have in a single fandom:

In the Pitch Perfect movies, I primarily ship Beca with Aubrey because the tension is greatest between those two. However, Beca and Chloe have incredible chemistry so it's easy to see how they'd be together.

In the MCU, I primarily ship Natasha with Maria because they're both incredibly badass and gorgeous and Maria is by the book and Nat is more laid back and would get under Maria's skin in a heartbeat. However, after watching that scene in Endgame where Carol sadly tells Nat that she probably won't be coming back to Earth for quite a while, my shipping heart immediately came up with a dozen comfort fic plots between the two of them. In my head, there is absolutely no way Nat and Carol didn't have 'I just need to feel something' cuddle sessions or sex during the blip. I can also see Nat with Steve but they're so amazing as friends it would be a shame to mess with that.

Examples of just one OTP I have in a fandom:

In the DCU, in my head, Kara Danvers is only meant to be with Lena Luthor. There is just no two ways about it. Their chemistry jumps off the screen, buys you dinner and takes you to bed all night long. It's insane.

Also in the DCU, Harley Quinn can only be with Poison Ivy. That's another hurt/comfort fanfic bonanza of a ship. Girls regaining control and agency of their minds and bodies and experiencing healthy relationships is the absolute best.

And of course on The 100, I could only see Clarke with Lexa. No contest.

I don’t know if that answered your question??

[solomonara]

I, O, and R please for the fic writer's ask, lovely solo!!

Stevie!! Thank you for asking, and I hope you got my ask because turnabout is fair play and all 😁

(From the fanfic ask game, which you can find here if you would like to ask me something or reblog for yourself!)

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don't really feel guilty about it but when I want to indulge lately I'll just open up one of envysparkler's Jason and Tim enemies-to-brothers fics. They have like, a million of variations on the theme so when the mood strikes me I just go through their works page like

As for writing, I love writing dream sequences maybe a little more than is strictly necessary. Whenever I'm stuck I'm just like "Well what if this character had a nightmare." It's always a good time for one, they're fun to design, you get that good good angst, and then comfort (maybe) when they wake up. It's like a quick fix when normally it takes me like 30k to build up enough hurt to get to the comfort XD

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

At first I was like "Well with the plot, obviously," because it's fanfiction so we already HAVE the characters, right? But then I realized that sometimes what I want to do is fuck with the characters in a specific way and the plot develops from that. So. Uh. Both.

Example of a plot-first story: Old Familiar Haunts (DCU, rated T)

Example of a character-first story: My Future in Your Hands (Detective Conan/Magic Kaito/Gundam Wing, rated M)

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Ah, well, the truth of it is... Joss Whedon. I know, I know, he's got Issues, I'm mad at him too. But I grew up on Buffy and Firefly and the way his characters speak - you know the style, quick witty banter, a certain cadence - ingrained itself into my brain and definitely comes out in my dialogue. He's also got a habit of making you laugh and then hurt, or hurt and then laugh, in a one-two punch and I think I stole that, too.

(send me a letter!)

[bigskydreaming]

Adding my 2 cents, I always thought one of the causes of the shift in the characterization of batfam fic circa 2010 was an internalizing by the fandom of the way DC made it painfully clear after Hal's and Barry's return that for legacy Characters by that point there could be only one worthy of the spotlight, and the others weren't deserving enough. So Dick, who has the ‘unfair’ advantage of being the original and the iconic Robin, has to be brought down several pegs to allow their favs to shine.

You could also be on to something, yeah. There is an unavoidable competitiveness around the idea of legacy characters that really WASN’T a thing until DC started returning all the older heroes to their original mantles like Hal and Barry, and I get that this could make fans of later characters ‘threatened’  - hell, as I’ve often said, that’s how I am in regards to Kyle and Hal, although ‘threatened’ isn’t quite the right phrasing as I don’t really care if Hal and Kyle both share the Lantern role, for example, its not like John Stewart wasn’t returned to being a GL long before Hal returned and it didn’t like...delegitimize Kyle to the same extent GL: Rebirth effectively did. The issue is pretty much solely one of page-time, focus and the effect on another’s stories. If Hal’s return hadn’t played such a large role in punting Kyle offscreen most of the time, and made a lot of his stories irrelevant by virtue of trying really really hard not to ever reference Hal’s time as Parallax now outside of major events, like....there’d be no issue. 

So I have sympathy when people are ‘protective’ of their preferred Robins because they don’t like the idea of shifted focus on others or others being regressed back into their former role because of how that affects a specific Robin’s stories or placement/role within the DCU, but outside of that its like....*does the gnashing of teeth* mayhaps the real culprit all along and the one we could all benefit from focusing our criticism on is DC’s fixation on rolling back the clock and regressing characters and repeating stories ad nauseam because they’re both afraid to progress characters and let actual change happen AND stand by it, as well as like....lacking in ideas on what to do with key characters outside of nostalgia and original roles, or else just wholly uninterested in even coming up with new ideas instead of banking on known quantitities. 

*Shrugs*

But also yeah there is definitely a tendency (not limited to DC fandom but just fandoms in general) to try and improve a character’s standing or street cred or whatever by tearing every similar or ‘threatening’ character down instead of y’know, building that first character up instead, but blech. What can you do, y’know.

[raybyanothername]

I was tagged by @do-what-the-knight-tells-you on my main account!

Rules: Name your top 10 characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people.

This is, possibly, the hardest thing I've ever done in fandom... and I'm including finishing an entire ship week on time (wait...I haven't actually successfully done that...sh!).

Alright! Here we go! In no particular order...

Rodney McKay // Stargate Atlantis

Sassy genius who is both pessimestic AND has self-esteem issues hidden by loads of arrogance? Literally, me, but better at it.

Also, that gif of him totally sums up how I handled making this list.

Jason Todd // DCU

He's my favorite Robin, who is (in any incarnation) my favorite superhero. Plus, he's got sass, sarcasm, a temper, and a tragic backstory that beats other tragic backstories up with a crow bar. He is The Best antihero to ever grace a comic book.

Coco Adel // RWBY

I'm not convinced there's a single character in RWBY that isn't awesome (good, bad, they're all interesting!), but Coco is just... *sighs dreamily* Goals. I mean, the heels, the clothes, the gatling gun?! *fans self* I want to BE her!

Quark // Star Trek

If ya haven't caught on yet, I love a sarcastic character (Chief O'Brien was a close second btw). The whole concept of a reluctant hero with questionable morals appeals to me and every d&d character I have ever played though and Quark is just plain amusing in every scene. Chaotic Neutrals get shit done!

Also, I would like to note that picking JUST ONE character from Star Trek physically pained me! I want points for not picking one per series

Ron Weasley // Harry Potter

I'm legally bound by the fact that I'm a millennial to include Harry Potter on this list. Ron happens to be my favorite of the Golden Trio (though not always my favorite Weasley...). I absolutely love his sass, his loyalty, his intellect - I was always more a Hermione, being a book worm and all. Ron is emotionally intelligent in a way I always wanted to be and I think he's a great example of a person not letting their weakest moments define them.

The movies can go burn in dragon dung, because Ron was epic and they did him wrong. Rupert Grint, however, is adorable and also deserved better.

Pippin (Peregrin Took) // Lord of the Rings

I can't even begin to explain why I love Pippin the most of the whole fellowship, but it basically comes down to he was the one I could most easily relate to. He was the youngest, the most naive, but his heart and his intuition always saw him through. He was also hilarious.

And if you're shocked I didn't pick Merry, who was the most amazingly sarcastic and grumpy hobbit ever, you may join the club. Even I'm a little surprised.

Wolfram von Bielefelt // Kyou Kara Maou

Sarcastic. Grumpy. Tempermental. Secrectly a big softie. Wears a comfy pink nightgown. Wolfram is literally the perfect man.

This was my favorite anime as a teen btw and if you haven't watched it you should.

Yuri Plisetsky // Yuri on Ice

Angry blonds are apparently my type? *shrug* Yuri also has those tragic backstory vibes that make him a super interesting character to try to analyze. I need to write some YoI fanfic ASAP.

Melanie Segal // Bunheads

Sarcasm. Wit. Accidental anger issues? Yes, please! Honestly, of all the storylines I hated to see unexplored when this show was cancelled, Melanie's was the one I was most bitter about. There was just so much to explore!

I have like five WIPs in my fanfic folder surrounding her, honestly, no exaggeration.

Lady Morgana // Merlin

Early seasons' kind-hearted, rebellious Morgana? Good. Mid-seasons' plotting and smirking Morgana? Also good. End of series half-crazed psycho witch Morgana? Good!

There is no bad Morgana character! All of them are golden, all of them fun to write. And good lord do I need to update my Morgana fic...

-.-.-

I tag @peredhel @drunkdragondoes @rideboldlyride @sailorbuilt @laserfocus @hittheroadjus @5sosmukefan @darksarcasminthejaeger @samanthacblack18 @logicheartsoul to try this out if any of you want to give this a shot! It definitely took a lot of thinking and I surprised myself more than a few times!

[dcubang]

2020 DCU Bang Guidelines and FAQs

Welcome to the DCU Bang!!

The DCU Bang is an opportunity for authors and fanworkers to create stories and fanworks, for any DCU characters or pairings!

General Information

What is the DCU Bang?

The DCU Big Bang/Mini-Bang is a writing challenge that prompts authors and fanworkers to work together to create a story and fanwork that go together. In this case, our fandom is the DC Universe, and our goal is 10,000/5,000 words!

We have two word goal options: 10,000 for the Big Bang and 5,000 words for the Mini Bang! Both Big Bang and Mini Bang stories are qualified to receive a fanwork through the claiming process.

Stories and fanworks must be posted, in their entirety, during the due date period. (Check the Schedule for when this is!) There will be no exceptions made to post on a schedule before the reveal date. If, for example, your story is 100k with 19 chapters, all 19 chapters and 100k words must be posted during the due date period and ready to be revealed by your chosen revealing date.

So, what's allowed for DCU Bang?

The easy answer to that is: pretty much anything DC Comics! We're open to slash, het, and gen, no matter your pairing preference. If you want to write Clark/Lex or Jason/Tim, that's awesome, and if you've got a great idea for an epic Batman/Catwoman or M'gann/Conner, that's perfectly acceptable as well. You can base your story off of any DCU medium or canon - so whether you’re a diehard Young Justice cartoon fan, into Smallville, or someone who loves the comics, you can participate! If you have a question about your pairing or specific idea, send an email to dcubang@gmail.com, and we'll discuss it with you on a case-by-case basis.

What about crossovers, fusions, and AUs?

The only requirement for DCU Bang is that the primary focus of your story be on at least one character from the DC Universe. If you want to write Batman in Ancient Rome or Superman as a new member of the Hawaii Five-0 task force, you are more than welcome to. However, if you want to write a crossover that focuses on Harry Potter being a new member of the Justice League, this is not the place for it. The focus must be on a DC character. Crossovers with other comics fandoms are allowed, but the focus has to be on the DC character.

Can I write original characters?

If they are a minor character, yes! Even more important characters, such as Batman protecting an original female character, are acceptable, so long as it is from Batman’s POV and the story isn’t explicitly about this original female character. A work that features, for example, an original character journalist doing an in-depth piece on Superman is also allowed, as the work would focus on Superman, not the journalist.

A work wherein your original character joins the Justice League, or exists within Gotham, or is the child of a DCU character would not be acceptable for this Bang. We want to keep the focus on DCU characters as much as possible!

If you’re not sure if your idea for including original characters is within these rules, please contact us at dcubang@gmail.com, so we can discuss it on a case-by-case basis!

Mod Contact Info:

If you have any questions or concerns, here is the Page-A-Mod Post. You can also contact the mods at dcubang@gmail.com or by messaging LuciferxDamien on the DCU Bang Discord Server .

--Be kind to each other! We all like different things and rudeness for liking/disliking a pairing, characters, any canon, genre, or kink, etc. will not be tolerated! We want everyone to feel welcome here!!!

--Please provide an email address that you frequently check. The mods need a good email address in the case that contact is needed, such as during story/fanworker claims, or for clarification purposes. All important announcements are sent out via email, as well. In the event that you change your email during the duration of the DCU Bang, it is your responsibility to update your email address with the mods! Your email address will ONLY ever be used for official DCU Bang business.

--Please keep in contact with the mods and your author/fanworker partner, if you're working with one! Dropping contact causes a lot of frustration for everyone. If something comes up and you need to drop out at any stage, that's okay! Just let the mods know! Needing to dropout before the final default date is not a bannable offense, and even if the default date has passed, please let the mods know, so we can work something out. You can contact the mods at any time via email at dcubang@gmail.com.

--Authors and fanworkers MUST respond to all mod inquiries and all mandatory check-ins. Participants that disappear without contacting the mods are subject to being banned for one round from the Bang. Missing two mandatory check-ins in a row will cause a participant to be considered dropped from the Bang, which could result in a ban, if no contact with a mod is made.

--Dropping out after the grace period, which is a 2 week timeframe (July 18th-August 1st) after story claiming has concluded, can result in being banned from the next round of DCU Bang, especially without discussing things with the mods prior to this. Please do not just disappear on us! We really are willing to work with you, but we can’t help if we don’t know there is a problem!

--The 2020 due date for all works is October 25th through October 31st, when the DCU Bang 2020 Ao3 collection will open. Works posted during this timeframe will be hidden and revealed on the date that is selected on October 1st. If you do not post by the 31st of October, the mods will send out a reminder. If you cannot post by the 31st, but still wish to finish the Bang, the amnesty posting period is from November 22nd to November 30th. Any participant that has not posted by November 30th will be considered as dropped out or incomplete.

Traditional, Tandem, and Solo Path Information

These are the paths used at the time of sign-ups. They are not binding until after story claiming takes place, in July. IE, if you sign-up as a Traditional Author and find a fanworker to pair up with as a Tandem Team, just let the mods know and we will switch that for you! Or, if you sign-up as Solo Author and want to switch to Traditional, no problem, just let us know! Any path can be switched at any point before story claiming, so please reach out to us via dcubang@gmail.com if you want to switch paths!

Traditional Path:

The traditional sign-up is the one that most Bang-type challenges follow. You sign up as an author, write your story and submit your rough draft/summary according to the schedule. Your story will go up for blind fanworker claims. After that, the mods will match up the authors and fanworkers via email. (It’s very important to sign up with an email that you check frequently!!!) Authors will send their story to their fanworkers(s) and discuss and collaborate on what they would like to do!

--Traditional track authors and fanworkers that drop out after the last default date has passed could be subject to a ban from the Bang for the next round. Three bans in a row could result in a permanent ban from DCU Bang. The last date to drop out for the DCU Bang 2020 round is August 1st. Any drop outs after this point will be subject to banning.*** We don't want to leave authors or fanworkers hanging after working so hard!

***An author or fanworker can unban themselves by completing their story or fanwork before signing up for the next round! Please contact me after completing the fanwork or fic, so that I can update the records and unban you.

--Rough drafts are due July 1st-8th***. Your work must be about 60% finished before turning in a rough draft. The minimum word counts that will be accepted are 6,000 words for the 10k Big Bang and 3,000 words for the 5k Mini Bang.

***Only authors wishing to submit their story for claiming need to submit a rough draft. Solo and tandem authors do not submit rough drafts.

Tandem Path:

A tandem sign-up is when an author and fanworker choose to sign-up together. This way, the fanworker will be able to work with the author throughout the entire process and have more time to complete their fanwork(s). If an author or fanworker want to work with each other, after one or both have already signed up, no problem! Just send me a message and I will get that updated!

This is a great option for fanworkers and authors that want to have more time working together. The Discord server will have channels set up so that fanworkers and authors wanting to work longer together can find a partner!

--Tandem author/fanworker teams can drop out together*** at any time, so long as they contact the mods to let them know. Disappearing without contacting the mods is subject to a one round ban!

***If an author or fanworker wishes to continue in the Bang after the grace period has passed, their fanworker or author partner could be subject to a ban, unless the remaining participant wishes to switch over to the solo track.

Solo Path:

A solo author/fanworker is someone who wants the structure of a Bang challenge without having to work with someone else to create an accompanying fanwork. By working alone, you don't have to worry about whether you complete your project or not because you won't have a partner depending on you. You can also decide to do your own fanwork or find your own partner to work with. Basically, I won't be matching you with a fanworker or an author, but you can still have a fic with fanwork if you arrange it yourself.

It will also be possible for solo-author/solo-fanworkers to change their mind, should they feel capable of completing their works in time for posting! Please do not choose to switch from solo if you are not confident you can complete your story/fanwork. If, after switching from solo and you are not able to complete your story/fanwork and you have been paired with an fanworker/author, you will be banned from participating next year. We don’t want to leave anyone hanging!

--Solo authors/fanworkers can drop out at any time, so long as they contact the mod to let them know. Disappearing without contacting the mod is subject to a one round ban!

Undecided:

If, at the time of sign-ups, you're unsure of which path to select, no worries! No paths are binding until after the story claiming process takes place. Mods will be reaching out to participants before story claims to confirm with participants that chose undecided at the time of sign-ups which path they would like to continue with.

Author Info/Story Requirements and Guidelines

--Authors can work with a co-author or a group, just make sure to sign-up all authors on the sign-up sheet and have everyone join the comm if they wish. The limit of two stories per author still stands even if all the stories are co-written.

--Authors can sign up to do two stories. Both times for the Big Bang, or both times for the Mini Bang, or one Mini Bang and one Big Bang! To sign up twice, fill out the sign up form(s) twice!

What requirements are there for stories?

--All stories must focus on or revolve around a DCU character or pairing of your choosing!

--All stories must be complete by the due date period. Please check the schedule for when this will be.

--The minimum word count for the Traditional Bang is 10k. There is no maximum word limit, but please be aware of time constraints and obligations, if you’ve chosen to be paired up with a fanworker. IE don’t try to write a 100k story and choose to be paired with a fanworker if you’re not certain can finish it on time!

--The minimum word count for the Mini-Bang is 5k. There is no maximum word limit, but please be aware of time constraints and obligations, if you’ve chosen to be paired up with a fanworker. IE don’t try to write a 100k story and choose to be paired with a fanworker if you’re not certain can finish it on time!

--Rough drafts are due July 1st-8th***. Your work must be about 60% finished before turning in a rough draft. The minimum word counts that will be accepted are 6,000 words for the 10k Big Bang and 3,000 words for the 5k Mini Bang.

***Only authors wishing to submit their story for claiming need to submit a rough draft. Solo and tandem authors do not submit rough drafts.

--All stories must be posted to Ao3! Once the collection reveals, stories can be posted anywhere else the author chooses.

--Stories must not be posted before the due date! Posting guidelines will go live in October, before the due date period.

--Starting for 2019, beta readers are no longer mandatory! However, you must edit your work for at least spelling and grammar and submitted stories found to have excessive spelling and grammar issues will be asked to edit, or be removed from the collection. Consequences for this will be handled on a case-by-case basis and can include being banned from participation in the next round. Beta readers are still strongly recommended to use.

We suggest finding a beta sooner rather than later, and here is the 2018's DCU Bang Beta Reader Resources Post. If you want to have more than one person beta read your story, that's fine, too!

Works in Progress:

--All submissions for the DCU Bang must be new works***. Any unposted fic that conforms to the rest of the rules qualifies for this Bang, even if it's an old, unposted idea that's been collecting dust for 10 years!

***The only exception for submitting previously posted works that you wish to continue is if BOTH of the following criteria are met:

A) less than 2,000 words have been posted for stories submitted for the 10k Traditional Bang. Less than 1,000 words have been posted for stories submitted for the 5k Mini-Bang. This means that at least 80% of the material is new for the Bang. The 2k/1k rule holds even if the finished work ends up 100k.

B) no further updates are made until the posting date and the entire work must be posted in its completed form on the chosen posting date.

Can I submit a story I have already started?

That depends! Stories and fanworks have to be new for the DCU Bang. If you've written something that's 10k/5k already and posted it, awesome! However, this is a chance to create something new (or finish an unposted WIP), so if your story has been posted elsewhere in its entirety, it doesn't qualify for this challenge.

If you have never posted the story anywhere, it qualifies for this Bang, even if you started writing it 10 years ago!

What if I've already posted part of a fic? Can I finish it for this challenge?

The purpose of this Bang is to unveil a brand-new, completed piece on your posting date, however we are okay with you finishing your piece as long as you have not posted more than 2,000 words for the 10k Traditional Big Bang or 1,000 words for the 5k Mini-Bang and do not post any more until your posting date. Since this Bang has a minimum word count of 10,000/5,000 words we are asking that no more than 2,000/1,000 words be posted prior to signing up, so that at least 80% of the fic is new.

Please note that the 2,000/1,000 word limit still holds no matter how long your finished fic is - even if you complete a 100k epic, you can only submit it for this Bang if you've published less than 2,000/1,000 words of it before signing up for this challenge!

What about a sequel or a prequel to an already posted fic?

Prequels/sequels to stories you've written and posted are acceptable! If you write a prequel/sequel, be sure to link back to the original story, so people can read that as well. =D

Fanworker and Fanwork Requirements

--Fanworkers that sign-up are not required to claim a story. Claims are a few months off from author sign-ups, and we understand that life can happen and you may not be able to claim a story as planned, this is totally fine! Just let us know that you’re dropping out and you’re good to go!

--The minimum amount of accompanying fanworks per eligible story is 1 piece. If you are a fanworker and choose to claim 3 stories, that means you will need to create 1 fanwork for each story, 3 total. Please do not take on more stories than you can handle!

--Fanworkers can claim as many stories as they are reasonably certain they can handle. Please do not take on 5 stories to create a fanwork for unless you are reasonably certain you can finish all 5 fanworks!

--All fanworks must be complete by the due date period. Please check the schedule for when this will be.

--Fanworks must not be posted before the due date! Posting guidelines will go live in October, before the due date period.

What counts as a fanwork?

Lots of things! Traditional art, digital art, manips, banners, icons, wallpaper, gifs sets, picspam, vids, and fanmixes (with cover art) are all fine. If you want to check that what you have in mind is appropriate, leave a note in the Page-A-Mod post. We'll discuss it on a case-by-case basis.

Here are the suggested guidelines:

Traditional/Digital art: Cleaned lineart, on unlined paper, that is at least 500x500 pixels is the minimum. Additional sketchier/rougher pieces are welcomed so long as one piece of art is at the cleaned lineart stage!

Manips: Clean renders and non-blurry images that do not contain watermarks should be used for photo manipulation. Examples of the quality expected for this Bang can be found right here on Fanlore.

Banners or Icons or Wallpaper: 5 icons, of at least 100x100 pixels. 3 banners. 1 wallpaper. More is of course always welcomed!

Picspam or Gifsets: At least 6 images, but more images, or multiple sets are welcome!

Vids: At least one minute long, or a full song!

Fanmixes: At least 10 songs and include cover art (this can be a manip!).

DCU Bang FAQs

Do I need a DreamWidth/LiveJournal/Tumblr/Twitter/Ao3 account?

The only account that is required at this point is Archive of Our Own. The reason for this is that all stories will be posted to the DCU Bang Ao3 Collection, rather than being posted to the DreamWidth/LiveJournal communities, as in years past. After being posted to Ao3 and being approved for the collection, you’re free to post your story/fanwork anywhere you wish!

What are check-ins?

Check-ins are a way to see how you’re doing on your work! Some of them are mandatory and some of them are not, so it’s important to keep track of which ones are mandatory! They’re also a great way to keep yourself on track and a time to talk about your work and let others know how you’re doing. If an author does not respond to 2 mandatory check-ins, they will be considered dropped from the current Bang!

What is the grace period?

The grace period is one last chance to allow authors or fanworkers to drop out of the Bang without consequences, after claims have been made. It is a very short period, from July 18th to August 1st so it is very important to communicate to the mods if you are needing to drop out during this time, for any reason! It is also possible to drop down to the solo track during the grace period as well, but this must be discussed with the mods.

Can I drop out?

Yes! Sometimes life gets in the way or a story just doesn’t happen, and we understand that! However, there is a cutoff point, and if you do not let the mods know before this date, you can be banned from the next round. Even if it is after this cutoff date that you need to drop out please let us know so that we can discuss options. We can’t help if we don’t know there is a problem! Dropping all contact with mods after the cutoff date is grounds for an automatic ban, as we can’t help at that point. Please get in contact with us, so that we can arrange for a fanwork if needed!

Solo participants are free to drop out at any point, without consequence. Tandem fanworker/author groups can also drop out at any point together without consequences.

What can I do if I have problems with my author/fanworker?

Contact the mods! Let us handle things as we understand that sometimes people just don’t get along. Abuse or rude behaviour toward any participant in the DCU Bang will not be tolerated, especially for story/fanwork content. (It’s important for fanwork to read all the warnings in a story summary, and for authors to list all warnings in their story summary!) Please just get in contact with us mods to resolve issues between participants, rather than disappearing.

If an author or fanworker needs to drop out from the DCU Bang, after story claims have happened, there is a limited grace period to do so, please keep track of the schedule. If a fanworker needs to drop out, the author’s story(s) will go out for pinch hits, so that they still receive a fanwork.

When do I post my story?

For 2020, October 25th-31st is the “due date”***. Rather than choosing a single day that all works are due, we will be giving everyone 5 days to get their works into the Ao3 collection before reveals happen. This allows more flexibility for authors and fanworkers to check over their works on Ao3 before going live and being revealed. This also allows the mods to check over works to make sure they are complete. Do not submit works that are incomplete. If your work is not complete, it could be revealed before you are ready for it to be revealed and no one wants that! Authors are welcome to submit their works and do minor editing and polishing while they wait for their reveal date to come. Please contact the mods if you will not be able to post your story between October 25th-31st, so that we can help you decide if you can post during the amnesty period or not!

***Why the change from a long posting period? Frankly, it got to be a lot to handle and keep track of and after doing research and looking at many other Bang setups, this is fairly close to how they are run as well. It’s also more fair to participants to have a solid due date, rather than some participants getting nearly 2 extra months to work on their projects.

What is the reveal date?

The reveal date will be whatever you choose on October 1st, this is not to be confused with the due date, which is October 25th-31st. The official reveal period will run between November 1st and November 14th. If you will not have your work completed and polished in this time, please do not post to the Ao3 collection, contact the mods instead to discuss things and set up for amnesty posting instead! We’re here to help and work with you, but we cannot help if you do not contact us!

Can I post my chapters before my chosen reveal date?

Your complete work must be posted in its entirety on your chosen reveal date.

E.g.: You have chosen November 10th for your reveal date, and your story is 100k with 19 chapters. All 19 chapters and 100k words must be ready to be revealed on November 10th. There will be no exceptions made to post on a schedule. All participants must post their completed works on their chosen reveal date, or during the amnesty period.

What is the amnesty period?

The amnesty period is a chance for participants that couldn't quite finish on time to have one last chance to post for the current Bang! If for any reason you cannot post on your chosen reveal date, please get in contact with the mods ASAP!

Where can I post my story?

Anywhere you wish, so long as it is also in the DCU Bang Ao3 Collection. Posting it there is how we will count your work as completed***.

***Fanworkers will not be required to post to Ao3, though it is highly encouraged. (Ao3 isn’t great for hosting some types of fanworks, like picspam or gif sets, we understand that!) If you are not posting your fanwork to Ao3, you must make sure the link to where your fanwork is posted is provided to the author and linked within the author notes or story.

Can I sign up to write more than one story?

Sure! You can sign-up to write up to two different stories for this challenge. If you do want to write two stories make sure to sign-up separately for both. If you have to drop one or both make sure to contact the mods before rough drafts are due so that you don't leave an fanworkers hanging!!! If you have to drop either story after the final dropping date, you could be banned for the next round!

Can I sign up as an author AND a fanworker?

If you want to, more power to you! That's awesome! If you wish to create a fanwork for your story only, you can sign up as a solo-author, and it will be entirely up to you to create a fanwork for your story! By signing up as a fanworker, you are offering to create a fanwork for someone else’s story during the claiming period, so if your intent is to create for your own story only, sign up as a solo-author!

And again! Please do not take on more than you can handle!!! If, for at any reason, you do not believe you can continue, as a fanworker or an author, contact me ASAP!

I'm interested, but I'm not sure what to write.

There is a channel in the DCU Bang Discord server, just for prompts! Anyone can leave a prompt, and anyone can take a prompt. If six authors choose to write from the same prompt, that's totally fine. If someone wants to mash three prompts together, that's also fine. If someone wants to use half of a prompt, that's fine. Sensing a trend yet? =D

This also means, should you choose to leave a prompt, it is for anyone to use, in whichever way they want. If there is an idea that you want done in a very specific manner, it may not be the best for you to leave it for this Bang, as all authors are free to use prompts however they see fit.

I’ve been banned or think I have been banned, what can I do?

Contact the mods! The quickest way is via email, dcubang@gmail.com, or by messaging LuciferxDamien on the DCU Bang Discord server. If you have been banned for not completing your story/fanwork, we might be able to work something out, but be prepared to have something completed in return! To unban yourself, complete the story/fanwork you had promised in the previous round and let the mod know via email or Discord.

If you were banned for a reason other than not completing your story/fanwork, please still contact us and we can discuss things further. We’re very willing to work with people!

Thank you for reading the DCU Bang Guidelines and FAQs! Make sure to familiarize yourself with the DCU Bang 2020 Schedule. If you have any further questions, concerns, or need clarification on any rules, please do not hesitate to contact the mods, either through the Page-A-Mod Post, emailing dcubang@gmail.com, sending a PM on DreamWidth/LiveJournal to , or sending a DM on Discord to LuciferxDamien. Questions left on the DCU Bang Tumblr or DCU Bang Twitter may not be answered in a timely manner, as the mods are not logged into those accounts at all times so please use a different method of contact, especially if your matter is urgent!

[data-monkey]

AO3 stats project: fun stuff

RANDOM FUN QUESTIONS I can ask of the AO3 data, coming right up!

The Data | Basic Questions | Fandoms | Tags | Correlations | Kudos | Fun Stuff

Thanks to @eloiserummaging for beta reading these posts; any remaining errors are my own.  A Python notebook showing the code I used to make these plots can be found here.

All right. You should probably read the earlier posts in this series if you want to really understand what's happening. This is basically my "fun stuff" post: all the questions that aren't grand, sweeping statements about what's on the Archive, but rather my own personal quirky interests. :)

First up: Drabbles! My most pointless hill to die on is that a drabble is exactly 100 words. Do creators on the Archive agree?

KIND OF! There's definitely a spike of things at 100 words. It’s actually big enough that you can see it on the general word count histogram from the basic demographics post. There's also a sense of "drabble is a short fic" (what I would call a "ficlet") of approximately 520 words, give or take...a lot. Okay, fine. (I'm still right.)

I looooove AUs. What are the most popular AUs, and how have they changed over time?

As with the previous plots I’ve shown like this, the height of the curves are relative within each tag but not correct between tags. Soulmate AUs are way less popular than modern setting AUs, but their curve looks taller because a higher fraction of works with that tag were posted in a short span of time.

Things to note: The biggest AUs (modern setting, canon divergence, college/university, and high school) all approximately trace the growth of fics on AO3 over time. I thought A/B/O would be the most recently popular AU type, but actually it looks like soulmates is even more skewed to recent times than A/B/O, which I didn’t expect! Human AUs have gotten less popular lately (I think this was really popular in Teen Wolf, so as the rate of Teen Wolf works has slowed, the number of human AUs has also slowed). I’m not sure what fandom liked canon AUs, or even what that is, but it was really popular in 2012-2013 nevertheless.

I was also curious about crossovers. Like I mentioned briefly in the fandoms post, there are things that are in two different fandom categories that we probably wouldn’t think of as an actual crossover: an Avengers fic can be in both Avengers and Marvel, but most readers would recognize that as the same universe. I made a list fandoms that appear together on works, weeded out the ones that look like same-universe crossovers, and came up with this list:

DCU and Marvel should have been predictable, I think. A little more surprising is that SuperWhoLock actually did have an effect on the number of crossovers, by a lot--you can see all pairs of those three fandoms on this list. (If a work had three fandoms A, B, and C, that counted once as a crossover for A and B, once for A and C, and once for B and C.) Harry Potter is a common crossover too, which I expected, as I’ve read a Harry Potter AU in every fandom I’ve been in that wasn’t Harry Potter.

But this graph has my single favorite piece of information in this entire analysis: there are a ton of Guardians of Childhood & Hiccup Series crossovers. If you’re not familiar, those are two canon sources made into Dreamworks animated movies: Rise of the Guardians and How To Train Your Dragon. I had no idea there was a large fanfic fandom for those, let alone that there would be thousands of works that cross them over!! Isn’t that awesome?

I used to be in Harry Potter fandom, so here's some fun with different Harry Potter ships. The top ten ships are:

Okay. I could have predicted...some of those. Note that this doesn’t mean those are the top main pairings: I expect that James/Lily is a common side pairing for Sirius/Remus, and that Hermione/Ron appears a lot in Draco/Harry fics. Draco/Harry is much more popular than my old stomping grounds of Harry/Snape, which I think was also true at the time, although the works represented on the Archive probably don’t include most of what I was reading in 2003.

Actually, we can check my point about secondary pairings. Here’s a correlation matrix for those top ten ships (remember, green means they’re correlated--appear as tags on the same work more often than you’d expect based on chance--and pink means they’re anti-correlated, or appear together less often than you’d expect):

Yeah, absolutely, some of these are likely secondary pairings for popular ships. Actually, there’s one obvious set of pairings I missed--the canon pairings, Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron, which are EXTREMELY correlated. You do also see some Hermione/Ron with Draco/Harry (it’s actually a big correlation despite the light color, because the scale has to account for the five HUNDRED percent relative likelihood of Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron). And, yep, James/Lily and Sirius/Remus are together. But apparently there’s also some Harry/Ginny with Hermione/Draco (not sure I would have picked that--or, actually, that Hermione/Draco would be this high on the list) and, more obviously, Harry/Ginny with Scorpius/Albus Severus.

There's a genre of fics that I see sometimes when browsing: the "Reader/somebody" genre, where you're explicitly supposed to insert yourself into the fic. (Some of these have Y/N scattered throughout the fic, for "your name", for example.) Who are the top characters that get paired with "Reader"?

Those aren't the same as the top character tags. So this kind of thing is serving a sub-audience of AO3 readers, different in certain ways from the typical reader, I guess. I don’t think I would have been able to predict this list in any way at all, either. I really like that fandom can encompass so many things that are different from what I read!

Finally: older fandoms on AO3. I asked my fandom friends to come up with what they thought of as "classic" fanfiction fandoms. Then I excluded anything with new (major) canon later than Nov. 15, 2009, when the Archive opened for beta, and anything with less than 1,000 works. Here's how those fandoms are faring on AO3.

I LOVE THAT THEY ARE STILL AROUND. I love fandom. That's all. Thanks for reading.

[crookedspoonfic]

fic writer meme: 1 thru 6, 9 thru 10, 13 thru 15, 19, 21, and 25!

40 Questions - Meme for Fic Writers

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Something goofy and slice-of-life-y, perhaps with Harley Quinn as the POV character, though the last time I wrote Selina Kyle it also went smooth as butter. 

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Fake Relationship, I think? I did write Fake Marriage once and a prelude to a possible Fake Relationship thing, but I don’t think I’ve written an actual Fake Relationship thing yet. Though I’m working on it.

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

There are several I wouldn’t be too keen on, but if I can find an angle and characters that work with it, I’m willing to try anything.

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Aha, ahahah. Hah. I do not know. Let’s count ‘em. There’s several from TRC and the DCU, all at varying stages of gestation.

(The Harlot, hiatus)

the Dance rewrite

the next chapter of Fingers to the head

a post-sex pollen fic

the roadtrip au

another instalment of the rehab au

initially, there was a ghost au too, but i only have like two ideas for scenes and no idea where to take it

several artist au (porn) things

post-Arkham Knight grieving

a BTAS fic

two demon aus

a tattoo aftercare fic

some marriage thing

the childhood friends au

another lame bj idea, because apparently I haven’t been writing enough bjs lately.

some dub-con

the above-mentioned fake relationship and a little side idea

some gunplay

actual non-con, because let’s go problematic™

a morning after idea of the ftm!K thing

another ftm!K idea

something bordering on and something with both feet planted in necrophilia, because the problematic™ train really got rolling

basically 3-5 more fics for the remix I finished on Sunday, but I’m probably not gonna write them

I wasn’t kidding when I said I was plagued by ideas.

5. Share one of your strengths.

Metaphors / similes.

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

Plot / longfic.

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Any fic I’ve written when I was blocked. Recently, the remix was a major pain. Currently, the childhood friends is hard to write. And not so recently, the first part of Disillusionment of an Escape Artist was so draining, I couldn’t think about it for at least half a year without feeling exhausted again.

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

You’re asking a person with over 300 fics under their belt. A lot of the shorter Harley/Ivy fics, like the most recent one. Or the Harley/Kate one written from Selina’s POV.

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Write what you know. It gives your story a certain realness when you can draw on your own experiences.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Write what you know. If you only limit yourself to your own experiences or that which you can research, you wouldn’t be able to write great works of fantasy or science-fiction, for example.

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

None, really. None of my work is up to par. If I had to choose, I’d wanna say Fingers to the head, but that one isn’t finished yet. I might even wanna say the roadtrip au, but that one isn’t even started yet. But in both cases there’s plenty that can go wrong.

19. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

Nope. Unless you count the characters themselves.

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Answered a similar one here. Depends on the length of the work, how easy it was to write it, who/what it’s for, when the deadline is, and if there’s a word count limit involved. I revise a lot while I’m working on a thing. But I’ve also been known to rush an ending, throw the unedited thing on the internet, and go back to revising the thing a day or two later. Which is not advisable, because occasionally I come to regret the whole thing and would want to delete either it or myself, though preferably both.

If I don’t rush I’ll revise as long as there are no more edits for me to make during a read-through.

25. What do you look for in a beta?

Depends on what I’m looking for at the time! At the most basic level, that they’re tactful. I’ll never ask anyone to mince their words around me, but I’ll still hope they’ll phrase their opinions politely enough.

My ideal beta would have knowledge of the canon and the characters, a good grasp of the target language and its spelling and grammar, good problem solving skills for when I fuck up and need help fixing it, an ear for sentence flow, that sort of thing.

[redbelles]

rule 63 exchange letter

hi! i’m so sorry this letter is late— life has been really crazy the last couple weeks. i really appreciate your patience, and i’m super excited to get whatever it is you come up with :)

okay, here we go! 

general likes: i love character studies, quiet angst, found family narratives, intense power dynamics and the realities thereof, and bittersweet endings. fluff is generally fine as long as there is some pain in there to temper it

asoiaf:

for any of the characters/pairings listed, i’d love to see how changing their gender would change canon— for example, would f!robb still call the banners and march south? would f!jon still join the night’s watch (pretending to be a boy, maybe?) or would she stay at winterfell? join the silent sisters? anything in that vein for any of the characters would be great! 

the losers:

i love these idiots, and i’d be happy with anything here! team fic, mission shenanigans, found family narratives, AUs where roque and clay are both significantly less stupid and the team gets to stay together, stories about jensen and cougar being ridiculous and smooching a lot, i’m here for all of it.

bonus points for any/all of: roque terrifying people in basic, jensen having zero patience for fake geek girl stereotypes, cougar plaiting sharp things into her hair as part of her “no one touches the hat” policy, clay still having extremely questionable taste in women. really, anything about how being a woman changes—or doesn’t change—them.

red dead redemption:

i love arthur morgan and i want him to be happy, but he suffers so beautifully. pretty much all i want here is that suffering in the context of an always-a-lady!arthur. same goes for john. power dynamics with dutch and how that relationship shakes out would be ideal. also: please be kind to any horses that may appear!

dcu comics: 

power! dynamics! for any and all of these ships! feel free to go heavy on the angst here, given the nature/backstory of the characters (jason in particular); i like my gotham bloody and sad.

pacific rim:

i’m particularly interested in always-a-lady!chuck, but given that the only way pacific rim could be more my exact thing is if there were more ladies, i’ll be happy with anything :)

bonus points for: EMOTIONS ABOUT JAEGERS!!!!!! also people reacting to the fact that mako literally wears the (color of the) blood of her enemies in her hair

[dcubang]

DCU Bang 2019 FAQs

Please make sure to read all the FAQs and check out the DCU Bang Rules before signing up or sending in a question!

What is the DCU Bang? A Big Bang/Mini-Bang is a writing challenge that prompts authors and artists to work together to create a story and work of art that go together. In this case, our fandom is the DC Universe, and our goal is 10,000/5,000 words!

Do I need a DreamWidth/LiveJournal/Tumblr/Twitter/Ao3 account? The only account that is required at this point is Archive of Our Own. The reason for this is that all stories will be posted to the DCU Bang Ao3 Collection, rather than being posted to the DreamWidth/LiveJournal communities, as in years past. After being posted to Ao3 and being approved for the collection, you’re free to post your story/art anywhere you wish!

What are check-ins? Check-ins are a way to see how you’re doing on your work! Some of them are mandatory and some of them are not, so it’s important to keep track of which ones are mandatory! They’re also a great way to keep yourself on track and a time to talk about your work and let others know how you’re doing. If an author does not respond to 2 mandatory check-ins, they will be considered dropped from the current Bang!

Do I need a beta reader? Starting for 2019, beta readers are no longer mandatory! However, you must edit your work for at least spelling and grammar and submitted stories found to have excessive spelling and grammar issues will be asked to edit, or be removed from the collection. Consequences for this will be handled on a case-by-case basis and can include being banned from participation in the next round. Beta readers are still strongly recommended to use. We suggest finding a beta sooner rather than later, and here is the 2018's DCU Bang Beta Reader Resources Post. If you want to have more than one person beta read your story, that's fine, too!

Can I drop out? Yes! Sometimes life gets in the way or a story just doesn’t happen, and we understand that! However, there is a cutoff point, and if you do not let the mods know before this date, you can be banned from the next round. Even if it is after this cutoff date that you need to drop out please let us know so that we can discuss options. We can’t help if we don’t know there is a problem! Dropping all contact with mods after the cutoff date is grounds for an automatic ban, as we can’t help at that point. Please get in contact with us, so that we can arrange for art if needed! Solo participants are free to drop out at any point, without consequence. Tandem artist/author groups can also drop out at any point together without consequences.

What can I do if I have problems with my author/artist? Contact the mods! Let us handle things as we understand that sometimes people just don’t get along. Abuse or rude behaviour toward any participant in the Bang will not be tolerated, especially for story/art content. (It’s important for artists to read all the warnings in a story summary, and for authors to list all warnings in their story summary!) Please just get in contact with us mods to resolve issues between participants, rather than disappearing. If an author or artist needs to drop out from the Bang, after artist claims have happened, there is a limited grace period to do so, please keep track of the schedule. If an artist needs to drop out, the author’s story(s) will go out for pinch hits, so that they still receive art.

What is the grace period? The grace period is one last chance to allow authors or artists to drop out of the Bang without consequences, after claims have been made. It is a very short period, from July 5th to July 20th so it is very important to communicate to the mods if you are needing to drop out during this time, for any reason! It is also possible to drop down to the solo track during the grace period as well, but this must be discussed with the mods as well.

When do I post my story? For 2019, October 1st-5th is the “due date”***. Rather than choosing a single day that all works are due, we will be giving everyone 5 days to get their works into the Ao3 collection before reveals happen. This allows more flexibility for authors and artists to check over their works on Ao3 before going live and being revealed. This also allows the mods to check over works to make sure they are complete. Do not submit works that are incomplete. If your work is not complete, it could be revealed before you are ready for it to be revealed and no one wants that! Authors are welcome to submit their works and do minor editing and polishing while they wait for their reveal date to come. Please contact the mods if you will not be able to post your story between October 1st-5th, so that we can help you decide if you can post during the amnesty period or not! ***Why the change from a long posting period? Frankly, it got to be a lot to handle and keep track of and after doing research and looking at many other Bang setups, this is fairly close to how they are run as well. It’s also more fair to participants to have a solid due date, rather than some participants getting nearly 2 extra months to work on their projects.

What is the reveal date? The reveal date will be whatever you choose on September 14th, this is not to be confused with the due date, which is October 1st-5th. The official reveal period will run between October 5th and October 20th. If you will not have your work completed and polished in this time, please do not post to the Ao3 collection, contact the mods instead to discuss things and set up for amnesty posting instead! We’re here to help and work with you, but we cannot help if you do not contact us!

What is the amnesty period? The amnesty period is a chance for participants that couldn't quite finish on time to have one last chance to post for the current Bang! If for any reason you cannot post on your chosen reveal date, please get in contact with the mods ASAP!

Where can I post my story? Anywhere you wish, so long as it is also in the DCU Bang Ao3 Collection. Posting it there is how we will count your work as completed***. ***Artists will not be required to post to Ao3, though it is highly encouraged. (Ao3 isn’t great for hosting some types of art, like picspam or gif sets, we understand that!) If you are not posting your art to Ao3, you must make sure the link to where you art is posted is provided to the author and linked within the author notes or story.

So, what's allowed here? The easy answer to that is: pretty much anything DC Comics! We're open to slash, het, and gen, no matter your pairing preference. If you want to write Clark/Lex or Jason/Tim, that's awesome, and if you've got a great idea for an epic Batman/Catwoman or M'gann/Conner, that's perfectly acceptable as well. You can base your story off of any medium or canon - so whether you’re a diehard Young Justice cartoon fan, into Smallville, or someone who loves the comics, you can participate! The only thing explicitly not allowed is pedophilia for the sake of pedophilia - if it's a plot point, it's okay, but we're not going to post stories that have sexual situations involving children (for our purposes, anyone under the age of 15). If you have a question about your pairing or specific idea, leave a note in the Page-A-Mod post, send an email to dcubang@gmail.com, or send a PM, and I'll discuss it with you on a case-by-case basis.

What about crossovers, fusions, and AUs? The only requirement for this Bang is that the primary focus of your story be on at least one character from the DC Universe. If you want to write Batman in Ancient Rome or Superman as a new member of the Hawaii Five-0 task force, you are more than welcome to. However, if you want to write a crossover that focuses on Harry Potter being a new member of the Justice League, this is not the place for it. The focus must be on a DC character. Crossovers with other comics fandoms are allowed, but the focus has to be on the DC character.

Can I write original characters? If they are a minor character, yes! Even more important characters, such as Batman protecting an original female character, are acceptable, so long as it is from Batman’s POV and the story isn’t explicitly about this original female character. A work that features, for example, an original character journalist doing an in-depth piece on Superman is also allowed, as the work would focus on Superman, not the journalist. A work wherein your original character joins the Justice League, or exists within Gotham, or is the child of a DCU character would not be acceptable for this Bang. We want to keep the focus on DCU characters as much as possible! If you’re not sure if your idea for including original characters is within these rules, please contact us at dcubang@gmail.com, so we can discuss it on a case-by-case basis!

Can I submit a story I have already started? That depends! Stories and art have to be new for the DCU Bang. If you've written something that's 10k/5k already and posted it, awesome! However, this is a chance to create something new (or finish an unposted WIP), so if your story has been posted elsewhere in its entirety, it doesn't qualify for this challenge. If you have never posted the story anywhere, it qualifies for this Bang, even if you started writing it 10 years ago!

What if I've already posted part of a fic? Can I finish it for this challenge? The purpose of this Bang is to unveil a brand-new, completed piece on your posting date, however we are okay with you finishing your piece as long as you have not posted more than 2,000 words for the 10k Traditional Big Bang or 1,000 words for the 5k Mini-Bang and do not post any more until your posting date. Since this Bang has a minimum word count of 10,000/5,000 words we are asking that no more than 2,000/1,000 words be posted prior to signing up, so that at least 80% of the fic is new. Please note that the 2,000/1,000 word limit still holds no matter how long your finished fic is - even if you complete a 100k epic, you can only submit it for this Bang if you've published less than 2,000/1,000 words of it before signing up for this challenge!

What about a sequel or a prequel to an already posted fic? Prequels/sequels to stories you've written and posted are acceptable! If you write a prequel/sequel, be sure to link back to the original story, so people can read that as well. =D

Can I sign up with a co-author? You can work with a co-author or a group, if you're more comfortable. But remember, the word count will still be 10k no matter how many authors work on it. Just make sure to sign-up all authors on the sign-up sheet and have everyone join the comm. The limit of two stories per author still stands even if all the stories are co-written.

Can I sign up to write more than one story? Sure! You can sign-up to write up to two different stories for this challenge. If you do want to write two stories make sure to sign-up separately for both. If you have to drop one or both make sure to contact the mods before rough drafts are due so that you don't leave an artist hanging!!! If you have to drop either story after the final dropping date, you could be banned for the next round!

Can I sign up as an author AND an artist? If you want to, more power to you! That's awesome! If you wish to create art for your story only, you can sign up as a solo-author, and it will be entirely up to you to create art for your story! By signing up as an artist, you are offering to create art for someone else’s story during the claiming period, so if your intent is to create for your own story only, sign up as a solo-author! And again! Please do not take on more than you can handle!!! If, for at any reason, you do not believe you can continue, as an artist or an author, contact me ASAP!

What is the Traditional Author/Artist track? The traditional sign-up is the one that most Bang-type challenges follow. You sign up as an author, write your story and submit your rough draft/summary according the schedule. Your story will go up for blind artist claims. After that, the mods will match up the authors and artists via email. (It’s very important to sign up with an email that you check frequently!!!) Authors will send their story to their artist(s) and discuss and collaborate on what they would like to do!

What is the Solo Author/Artist Track? A solo author/artist is someone who wants the structure of a fanwork challenge without having to work with someone else to create an accompanying fanwork. By working alone, you don't have to worry about whether you complete your project or not because you won't have a partner depending on you. You can also decide to do your own art or find your own partner to work with. Basically, I won't be matching you with an artist or an author, but you can still have a fic with art if you arrange it yourself. You can also work on other kinds of projects like podfic if you desire. It will also be possible for solo-author/solo-artists to change their mind, should they feel capable of completing their works in time for posting! Please do not choose to switch from solo if you are not confident you can complete your story/art. If, after switching from solo and you are not able to complete your story/art and you have been paired with an artist/author, you will be banned from participating next year. We don’t want to leave anyone hanging!

What is the Tandem Author/Artist track? A tandem sign-up is when an author and artist choose to sign-up together. This way, the artist will be able to work with the author throughout the entire process and have more time to complete their art. If an author or artist want to work with each other, after one or both have already signed up, no problem! Just send me a message and I will get that updated! This is a great option for artists, and authors that want to have more time working together. The Discord server will have channels set up so that artists and authors wanting to work longer together can find a partner!

What counts as art? Lots of things! Traditional art, digital art, manips, banners, icons, wallpaper, gifs sets, picspam, vids, and fanmixes (with cover art) are all fine. If you want to check that what you have in mind is appropriate, leave a note in the Page-A-Mod post. We'll discuss it on a case-by-case basis.

What are the minimum requirements for art? Each story an artist claims is required to have at least one art of quality for each story they claim. If an artist decides to claim 3 stories, they will be required to create one piece of art for each story, so at minimum, 3 pieces of art. You’re creating something for a work that is at least 5k/10k in length, so we want the art to match that effort! Here are the suggested guidelines:

Traditional/Digital art: Cleaned lineart, on unlined paper, that is at least 500x500 pixels is the minimum. Additional sketchier/rougher pieces are welcomed so long as one piece of art is at the cleaned lineart stage! Manips: Clean renders and non-blurry images that do not contain watermarks should be used for photo manipulation. Examples of the quality expected for this Bang can be found right here on Fanlore. Banners or Icons or Wallpaper: 5 icons, of at least 100x100 pixels. 3 banners. 1 wallpaper. More is of course always welcomed! Picspam or Gifsets: At least 6 images, but more images, or multiple sets are welcome! Vids: At least two minutes long, or a full song! Fanmixes: At least 10 songs and include cover art (this can be a manip!).

I'm interested, but I'm not sure what to write. There is a channel in the DCU Bang Discord server, just for prompts! Anyone can leave a prompt, and anyone can take a prompt. If six authors choose to write from the same prompt, that's totally fine. If someone wants to mash three prompts together, that's also fine. If someone wants to use half of a prompt, that's fine. Sensing a trend yet? =D This also means, should you choose to leave a prompt, it is for anyone to use, in whichever way they want. If there is an idea that you want done in a very specific manner, it may not be the best for you to leave it for this Bang, as all authors are free to use prompts however they see fit.

I’ve been banned or think I have been banned, what can I do? Contact the mods! The quickest way is via email, dcubang@gmail.com, or by messaging LuciferxDamien on the DCU Bang Discord server. If you have been banned for not completing your story/art, we might be able to work something out, but be prepared to have something completed in return! To unban yourself, complete the story/art you had promised in the previous round and let the mod know via email or Discord. If you were banned for a reason other than not completing your story/art, please still contact us and we can discuss things further. We’re very willing to work with people!

Thank you for reading the DCU Bang FAQs! Make sure to check out the DCU Bang Rules and familiarize yourself with the DCU Bang 2019 Schedule. If you have any further questions, concerns, or need clarification on any rules, please do not hesitate to contact us, either through the Page-A-Mod Post, emailing dcubang@gmail.com, sending a PM on DreamWidth/LiveJournal to , or sending a DM on Discord to LuciferxDamien. Questions left on the DCU Bang Tumblr or DCU Bang Twitter may not be answered in a timely manner, as the mods are not logged into those accounts at all times so please use a different method of contact, especially if your matter is urgent!