favorite fandom things
I still can’t believe our little weewoo show is ending. This is a bittersweet one, but it totally tracks with the vibes this fandom has nurtured here, full of feels and squee and passing those things on. Thanks to @thisbuildinghasfeelings for starting this one, and @welcometololaland @rmd-writes @reyesstrand @strandnreyes @nisbanisba @carlossreaders @bonheur-cafe @tellmegoodbye and @heartstringsduet for tagging me.
These are a few of my favorite things about being part of the Tarlos/Lone Star fandom.
All the Words I’ve been a Lone Star viewer since the very beginning — as a 9-1-1 viewer, a spinoff with Liv Tyler and firefighting Chris Traeger proved too great a pull to resist. And for years, It was one of those happy place shows — things like The Good Place, Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek — that I thought I’d just enjoy watching every week, without any real need or desire to write it. After all, the cast was diverse (but not for diversity’s sake), the stories were compelling, and my ship had been canon since day one. Then the Season of Carlos got underway, and the bunnies began to breed. It had been awhile since I really wrote anything — my previous show did my ship and fave characters so dirty that I couldn’t get far enough removed from my hurt and anger to actually get words out. But I saw the preview for 4x04, it planted an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone, and before the night was over I’d written the first two thousands words of to build a home (not the first scene, by any means, but the muse does what she wants). There have been so, so many more words since, both published and not yet revealed, and somewhere in there my brain started to spawn bunnies for another fandom I picked up in 2020 and never thought I would write. I love Lone Star for a lot of reasons, but here at the end, the very biggest is the fact that it gave writing back to me.
All the Fic When I say my old show fucked with my head, I mean it — it even stopped me reading fic for a long time. Which is a shame. That fandom, though small, had such a high concentration of ridiculously talented people, some of whom I’m lucky enough to still call close friends today. It spoiled me, and I think it even kept me from venturing into reading in other fandoms for fear of not finding fic at that level. Imagine my surprise when I started reading Tarlos, and found myself immersed in another sea of gifted writers. I am continually blown away by the creativity and care in this fandom. Especially on the heels of my last one, which was a genre show with actual magic and batshit storytelling and seemingly limitless possibilities — the fact that I’m no less entertained by or invested in or consistently in awe of the things Tarlos writers are able to do with these characters, overwhelmingly within the bounds and confines of a real-world procedural, is kind of amazing. (Shoutout to CIG’s beautiful Fire Island, which was the very first thing I ever read.)
All the Enthusiasm I’m going to keep this one short, lest I get overly emotional. But I wasn’t sure, when I first started posting, how my particular point of view would be received — starting out of the gate with something deep in Carlos’ head, exploring parts of his childhood and culture that I desperately wanted to see on the show. The reception that to build a home got still shocks me, to be honest, and I’m grateful for every comment and kudo and kind word. Now everyone go read What Is Sown, What Is Grown, which is a goddamn masterpiece.
All the Tag Games! Not gonna lie, there have been weeks with so many tag games that I wondered how any of y’all actually manage to write. But it’s so much fun to read everyone’s snippets every week, to look at your inspiration images and listen to your Music Monday choices and just take a beat to collectively celebrate this shared obsession with our blorbos. I’ve been writing fic for twenty years (yes, I’m a fandom old, or what the internet has deemed a “geriatric Millennial”), and I’ve seen my share of drama and wank and mean girl vendettas and fandoms soured by BNF culture. And it’s so refreshing to have seen so little of that here. I remember my early days of Tarlos posting, and the way Lola and Rae and a few other people took me under their tag wings and never looked back. And that’s still happening, with so many new authors who emerge — the list of people being tagged and tagging in return just keeps growing. Yes, there’s discourse, and there’s disagreement, and things can get a bit heated. But overall, this is such a great space to inhabit, and you guys have made it that way. If you don’t believe me, look no further than this accidental Tumblr storm about vaguenotion’s You Keep Coming Back with a Bird in Your Teeth, which remains one of my favorite examples of the way this fandom happily opens its arms and offers new folks punch and pie.
A very honorable mention goes to Lone Star being the thing that gave @ambiguouspenny and I a shared fandom again (and so letting them grace the world with more of their art).
I am late as hell, it’s almost tomorrow. So, open tag! (But also @liminalmemories21 @never-blooms @carlos-in-glasses @paperstorm @herefortarlos @lemonlyman-dotcom @walkinginland @reasonandfaithinharmony I’m looking at you.)