We've had crossovers in fkficfest, but it wandered through my mind today that I can't seem to recall, off the top of my head, any fusions (as distinct from crossovers)* or the most typical sorts of "total"/"mundane" AUs (like, coffee shop AU, high-school AU, band AU).

In this year's game, I'll be sure to list those specifically as allowed, along with crossovers, at the "minimum 51% Forever Knight, however you choose to measure it" threshold.

(This thought is brought to you by the notion of Janette, not Guinan, running Ten-Forward on the Enterprise-D.)

* Addendum: Apologies! I'm probably mis-defining "crossover" versus "fusion," and I may well have blown it entirely on how to reference AUs! Of course the fest has enjoyed future!fic and space and pirates and many things. I should be more careful with vocabulary I don't know well! And with times my memory is clearly failing.

It amuses me to imagine that Lisette Beaufort (character profile), the French anatomist illustrator in the second season of Mercy Street (official PBS site), is an ancestor of Highlander's Tessa Noel. :-)

LisaMcD has reversed the FKFic-L War (round-robin team fiction game) rule prohibiting all crossovers. She rolled it back to the standard FKFic-L rule limiting crossovers (no crossing with "print-published media" of any vintage, Disney-owned anything, etc.) and encouraged listmembers to simply keep the focus on FK.

Good for her. I'm impressed.

I actually posted September's recommendation-of-the-month to my site days ago, so it's not quite as late as it looks from here. :-)

What's Good?  Sweet-by-bittersweet, Mary Co.'s "Last Things" runs happily-ever-after all the way into heaven.  It's unapologetically sentimental, and exemplifies a distinct and popular subgenre of N&N romance that, intriguingly, is almost never applied to any other FK characters.

      Any illusions that they might keep the change in their relationship a secret were quickly shattered. It took Don Schanke exactly seventy-two hours to figure it out, and he confided to Nick that if Myra hadn't been off at a Skin Pretty convention, and therefore unavailable for consultation, he would probably have tumbled to it sooner. So they gave up the pretense and she moved -- lock, stock and Sidney -- into the loft.

What's New?  In August, fkfic-l saw three new stories by two authors: ( List )

What's good?  I'm pleased to get to feature "The Night Was Dark, and She Was the Owner" by Elisabeth as February's recommendation-of-the-month.  This ficlet crosses over with Highlander, but requires no HL knowledge to enjoy its full FK potential.

       "Buy the lady a drink?"
       The question, asked in the patois of her childhood by a vaguely familiar voice, triggered Janette's protective instincts. Even as she swung around, she clamped down on her body's impulse to flash fangs.
       Elbows resting on the wrought iron fence that separated the café tables from the pavement, he smiled at her. That nose, those eyes, that horrendous hair. He could be only one man. Methos, her memory supplied, along with a string of other, temporary, names.

-----
What's new?  In January, fkfic-l saw three stories finish posting, including the one that began in December.  (As a reminder, the line-limit doubled during January.  Post-count for story-length will be a whole new metric going forward.)

• "A Question of Loyalty" by dj_clawson (6 posts)
  
• "Rogue Vampire" by abby82 (1 post)
  
• "Lost Scene from 'Father Figure'" by Walt D. (1 post)
  

Four stories have completed their runs in February so far, including one that began in January and is the largest to post in almost four years.

Recently, in FK on my LJ Friends List:

• abby82 shared a new T+V vid to the song "Almost Lover" on December 17; this is one of precious few Tracy vids I've ever seen.  She also posted a new N&N story titled "Flight of the Imagination" (Rated R) on November 16.  (It has not yet appeared anywhere else.)  And on November 11, she posted about her works in progress, several of them FK, including a crossover with The Border.
  
  
• dj_clawson mused on vampirism and abstinence in FK and Twilight on November 23.
  
  
• amilyn added a link to her fanfiction to her LJ sidebar sometime before November 30 -- at least, I think she added it.  I think it was not there when I'd looked previously, but I'm not always alert to these things.  In any case, she's got five FK pieces and one FK/BloodTies crossover there, none of which, I believe, are in the usual FK archives.
  
  
• ithildyn, challenged to list all her holiday fanfiction, noted her "A Ghost of Winter's Past," with FK's Lacroix and HL's Methos, on December 8.  And on December 4, she recalled meeting ninjababe on IRC in the FK channel, back when.
  
  
• endaewen talked about updating her fanfiction site on December 13, with the Forsaken Fandoms award she won for her "Faire Things" (Best Fluff), and a new FK crossover ficlet with Highlander: The Raven, titled "The Raven In The Raven."
  
  
• pj1228 posted her episode-like second-season novella "Disclosures" on December 17.  I had the privilege of beta-reading this one, and she has said she is thinking of a possible sequel.
  
  
• There have been many wonderful memorial posts about tv_elf, some of them mentioning her FK fandom.  Thank you to everyone who has shared memories of her!  If you posted only to your own LJ, please consider cross-posting or linking your memorial post on the Horsechicks' memory post; that specific URL has been shared with her family and non-fannish people who love her and miss her.  (They're hard posts to make, I know. I keep crying when I try. I got to be at her memorial, though; the Horsechicks, bless them, characteristically dubbed it "Abby-Con," and that's amusing her no end, I'm sure.)

Recently, in FK on my Friends List:

FK on Individual Journals

• On September 1, abby82 posted eight new FK icons (images, some artistic enhancement, no captions).  She also mentioned the fk_icons community, of which I hadn't known.
  
  
• On August 26, both wiliqueen and abby82 posted about the Gemini Awards nominations, which include Catherine Disher's work on The Border and Ben Bass in Would Be Kings.  (I've heard a lot about The Border, but Would Be Kings is news to me.)  Beyond those biggies, wiliqueen spotted Nahanni Johnstone (Wendy in "Dying for Fame") among the nominees, and abby82 shared photos and links while opining on GWD's and NB's TV work in the eligible period.

Multi-Fandom (Including FK) Communities

• On September 6, voting opened on the forsaken_fandom community for their awards (Rules, FK List, FK Ballot).  Some FK authors didn't approve their nominations; I hope they all got to hear about it and choose.  (It has crossed my mind to not vote, because I do not wish to read, nor endorse by a vote, the "non-con" category.  The rules allow underage voters to leave the "adult" categories blank; perhaps I will ask permission to do the same.  Anyway, it's on my mind.)
  
  
• On August 30, butterflykiki linked to the whattheficathon community, which is a crossover fiction exchange that could include FK in its next round, if it holds one, but there seem to have been no FK crossovers so far.
  
  
• On August 27, the oldschoolfic moderators introduced an optional modified challenge for those who didn't click with any of the original prompts.  Stories are due at the end of the month.  (abby82 and I are participating, so we're assured of some FK!)
  
  
• On August 26, the galpalficathon community went up.  This is a prompt-based, commitment-free ficathon focused on female friendship (that is, any positive platonic relationship between female characters: relatives count).  Many people are very excited about it, and prompting is open through Monday, September 8, so check it out!  Leave a prompt for Natalie and Janette, Janette and Urs, Urs and Tracy, Tracy and Cohen, ( the list goes on )
  .  I have not submitted any prompts yet, but I will (there are as yet no FK prompts there).

Recently, in FK on my Friends List:

• On August 11, graphiteslog sketched out a Forever Knight/Sapphire & Steel crossover that sounds quite sensible and intriguing.  (And if any of you have ever heard of Sapphire & Steel before, she would probably be gratified to learn of your existence.)
  
  
• On August 8, ithildyn pondered an FK/HL story she wrote in March, called "Shattered," which, to her surprise, ended up featuring Nick.  She mentioned an eventual sequel.
  
  
• On August 5, someone posted something noteworthy, under a lock.
  
  
• On August 2, abby82 recapped aspects of a recent "Curiouser & Curiouser" discussion on forkni-l.
  
  
• On July 20, abby82 recommended two FK f/f stories: Havoc's untitled Fleur/Kate piece, and also "What Makes a Mortal Interesting," a Janette/Natalie story I'd never seen before.

Icons.  My FK activity this week was creating a small flock of NatPack icons for wiliqueen.  I hope at least one strikes her fancy; any that do not catch her eye, I will recycle for general "up for grabs" consumption for any other icon-deprived NatPackers.  (I'll mark them so, when the time comes.)  I hope I'm building my icon-making skills as I go; it's a new craft, and I have a lot to learn!  In and around the new icons for wiliqueen, I also created just a few more for myself, including this (Gratuitous Icon Post!) one with Natalie, Nick and the Caddie from "The Fix."

Fanfiction.  Writing "Starwort" (that long Fleur story) for the ficathon was a bit of a "high," and I'm experiencing a low in its wake.  A friend who did not have time to beta before the ficathon is taking a look at the story now, and will let me know what I can fix in her areas of expertise before taking the story home to fkfic-l.  Trying to figure out where to begin a completely different new story, and not succumb to the morass of not writing for fun (only work), I'm playing with hearts_blood's request for a NCIS/FK crossover for her birthday; we'll see.

Analysis.  The last forkni-l digest I read came on March 22.  That's not far behind, by my standards these days, but there was this one post that week to which I would really like to respond -- at length, citing a whole alphabet soup of episodes, in the good old way -- but I can't well do so until I catch up on all the digests since, to see if someone has beaten me to the punch.  Ah, well.  Key thought?  The thing the poster assumed is true, well, it appears only in Lacroix's dialogue, and only after first season.  This leaves the very strong interpretive possibility that, as Nick and Janette's dialogue in the first season explicitly contradicts Lacroix on this point, Lacroix is either mistaken or lying, and either way, most probably trying to manipulate Nick!  Ah, well. :-)

What's good?  For March, the FK recommendation-of-the-month project features Dorothy's novel "Evidence" (1998), set shortly after "Trophy Girl."  The Reese subplot (in and around a serial-killer cop plot, Renaissance flashbacks and some Natalie psychology) makes me think again that as Dorothy is most often publicly praised for her N&N romance content, her spot-on rendering of Reese is perhaps an underappreciated gift to the fandom.

What's new?  In February 2008, fkfic-l happily saw these two new stories posted.

• "What Would Happen" (an FK/Smallville crossover, adult) (1 Part) by abby82
  
• "Steamer Trunk Space" (a Janette vignette) (1 Part) by me

At least, I presume it was happily.  I was happy at the advent of new fiction, even though one of the stories was my own.  I would be happier if there were more, always.  Fandom does not live by discussion alone.