I love good guys

As this year's halfamoon comes to a close, lightbird did me the honor of remembering and recommending one of my old -- 2001! -- Forever Knight stories for the theme "One-hit Wonders." Read her kind rec.

"Kindred Spirits" (T, gen, ~13K words) is from Nick's perspective, but features Urs and Jacqueline (Ellen-Monika-Jacqueline of "Hearts of Darkness," the theme's "One-hit Wonder"), with cameos by Natalie and Lacroix, and "off-screen" actions by others.

This is one of my personal favorites of my own FK fanfic (it's even tagged "author's favorite" from back when that was a thing). I love these characters and the questions I think they raise. I hadn't re-read it in so long that I had literally forgotten just how it ends, and I made myself cry, if that's not too silly to admit. I now feel that (a) I should be daring like that more often in the present, so yay! '01 me and the beta-readers who helped me, and (b) wow, did I ever use oodles of unnecessary words and overlong sentences, so hey! '25 me take warning and never backslide. ;-) I was also surprised that the story was this long; in my memory, it was much shorter... because, in proportion to the norm then, it was indeed shorter.

Thank you, lightbird! You absolutely made my day.


(halfamoon has many assorted recs across fandom. If you haven't, consider taking a look?)

Reminder: I've converted my FK monthly recap ("Recently:FK" tag) into general fannish engagement ("Recently:Enthusiasms" tag). This may often include FK; it won't always.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share:

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • halfamoon is an annual challenge over the first 2 weeks of February, celebrating female characters in fandom.
  • comment_bingo is a bingo challenge for commenting on other people's works. The current round runs through May.
  • alexcat hosts "Fandom 50," a challenge to make 50 fandom posts by the end of the year.
  • small_fandoms hosts miscellaneous events welcoming all small fandoms. Its February event is a "drabbleathon."
  • whatif_au hosts AU fanwork challenges. Its February-March challenge is "immortal AU."
  • trope_of_the_month is a themed fanwork community. Its February theme is "marriage & engagement."
  • allbingo is a very general bingo community: card generation, fan and original works, promos of other bingo events, etc. Its February theme is "Valentines." It's also hosting a complementary Valentines "thematic meet-and-greet."
  • pinchhits is a forum for advertising pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. Pick up an assignment and help out a fest!
• Enjoy & share
  • recthething is a general fanwork recs comm with open reccing.
  • fanart_recs is a general fanart recs comm with both signed-up and open recs.
  • fancake is a themed fanfic recs comm. Its February theme is "trans & non-binary characters."
  • het_reccers is a m/f fanfic recs comm with open reccing.
  • gensplosion is a gen fanfic recs comm with open reccing.

My current favorite PokéTubers

• MandJTVPlays
  Michael uniquely, delightfully fuses Pokémon fanfiction with abridged playthroughs. He's created his own "cinematic universe" of vivid original characters (all played by him), including most recently Orange (supposedly the previous champion who lost to Blue in the original Kanto games; an affectionate parody of a stereotypical "Genwunner"); most often the Team Sky Leader (originally a third evil team beside the canonical Teams Aqua and Magma, but now, after many stories, a redeemed defender of the sky); and most famously Grunty Boy (a clueless but ambitious Team Rocket grunt originally created to host in-video commercials).
• BirdKeeperToby
  Toby (currently on sabbatical) is a worldbuilding specialist. He shares fantastic theories and analyses of how the Pokémon world works (or would, you know, if it were real). He's best known for his "evolutionary tree of Pokémon life" but has also looked at the geography, history, culture, and especially legends of the Pokémon world. And he creates assorted fanstories, most recently a full fangame mock-playthrough, with commissioned fanart, of a region based on ancient Greece.
• SwagTips
  Ryan is hands-down the best Pokémon GO PvP IVs expert sharing in English. He also sometimes does quick breakdowns and opinions of new pokémon and new moves, but his bread-and-butter is IV math for hard-core PvPers only. (Everyone else, just use the CalcyIV app and don't worry about it. I do, myself, since I stopped organizing and playing tournaments (RIP Silph Road). But when there's a rare pokémon rising in the meta and I must invest my candy cautiously, SwagTips is my guru! The Rank 1 is not always the optimal choice at higher levels of play.)

I'm playing halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the sixth theme, "Sickness and Health," I'm torn between two favorites. So: bonus! One rec for health, another for sickness.

First, a rich take on Forever Knight's Grace Balthazar. This Grace is both the pathology professional we know and also a Gullah Herb Doctor with a supernatural role -- akin to Doctor Chung, Marian Blackwing, and Denise Fort. In letters from Grace to her mom, the story recaps much of canon from this fascinating perspective while quietly building a new subplot. It then diverges firmly with a burst of... wingfic! (Yes, wingfic.)

"Full of Grace" by LastScorpion
~7K words
T

Second, an unforgettable Highlander divergence in which Tessa lived through "The Darkness." The bullet entered just a little to the side, and everything was different. Tessa, Duncan, and Richie got decades more of life and love together. Now, Tessa, ill, sees her own death coming unstoppably this time and she worries, fears what it will do to Duncan. I have teared up every time I've read and re-read this story over the years.

"All That Glitters" by killabeez
~3K words
M

I'm playing halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

Will you excuse a self-recommendation for the fourth theme, "Arts and Letters?" Back in 2012's FKFicFest, I wrote a story run through with music, poems, and songs composed and performed. In the present, Urs and her new band secure a gig at the Raven. In flashbacks, Fleur involves herself with the new poetry of the troubadours.

"Chante à Nouveau" by Brightknightie
~10K words
Teen

I'm playing halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For the second theme, "Politics," I recommend this Battlestar Galactica (1978) story in which we get to re-experience early canon from the civilian side with the main female characters. While that might at first seem far from the political struggles of the Council and Commander, this story shows the grassroots as the front lines in whether and how society will rebuild.

"Ragtag" by malinaldarose
10K words
G