Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon Episode II: The Sromance Strikes Back

[lirazel]

THE BECHDEL TEST COMMENT FICATHONEPISODE II:THE SROMANCE STRIKES BACK


Hello and welcome to the Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon Episode II: The Sromance Strikes Back.



Like my banner I made in five minutes in Microsoft Paint while at work? Yeah, I know you do.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen-who-love-ladies. The comment fic-a-thon devoted to the interactions between your favorite female characters is BACK (hopefully in an Original Trilogy, not a Prequel Trilogy kind of way).

The title comes, of course from the famous test for movies that says:

1. It has to have at least two women in it,
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man

I'll be the first to admit that though I have lots of favorite fandoms that do pass this test, some of my other favorites often fail in this regard. But we are here to fix that!

THE PROCEDURE. READ IT.
PROMPT, WRITE, REVIEW, REPEAT
SPREAD THE NEWS LIKE MAD
FEEDBACK IS LOVE

1. Prompt format: [fandom] - [characters] - [prompt of any kind – lyric, single word, scenario, picture, song, whatever]
2. In the title line of your fic reply, indicate [fandom, characters, title, rating]


A NOTE. IT’S IMPORTANT.
I know that not every layout appeals to everyone or is easy for everyone to look at. I’ve changed mine for the duration of the ficathon in hopes that this will be easier to use than what I normally choose. My journal has one great superpower, however, and that superpower is: TITLE LINES. That’s right, I still have them. Title lines make ficathons vastly, vastly easier to use. So if you’re reading/scrolling through looking for prompts, feel free to stick ?format=light to the end of the url, if that makes it easier for you. But when you go to post your filled prompt/completed fic, please do it in my current layout so that you can include the information in number 2 above in the title line. This will make it much easier for people to find what they’re looking for and also much, much easier for someone to compile a master list if someone volunteers to do that at some point. Thank you!


THE RULES. READ THEM.
1. No boy characters are invited to this party. That's kind of the point. Boy authors on the other hand? More than welcome.

2. Any character who identifies as a lady is invited. For instance, Illyria from Angel the Series who is (as far as we can tell) a genderless being in a female body is a go, especially if you focus on the more female aspects of her existence in a female body; female-presenting robots (especially those played by female actresses) such as Cameron from Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles or Caprica Six from Battlestar Galactica count as ladies. Also, if they're questioning/genderqueer/etc. in canon, they can be included, such as Alistair from Huge; according to boosette: “Alistair has an XY set of chromosomes and a male actor, but they're fairly explicitly presented as being ambivalent toward that gender; later on, they experiment with alternate/female-coded presentation.”

3. RPF is acceptable.

4. Please no gender!swaps of male characters (for instance, no female!Dean Winchester or female!Spock). I love genderswap more than just about anyone, but this isn’t the ficathon for that.

5. Male characters can be mentioned in passing if necessary, but the conversation CANNOT BE ABOUT THEM, even if it’s not about romance. For example, Say Kara and Sharon of Battlestar Galactica were planning a mission; they could mention that they'll need Lee to do this and Helo to do that, because the focus of the conversation is on the strategy session. On the other hand, we don't want Kara and Sharon sitting around talking about what a great pilot Lee is; even if romance doesn't enter into it at all, that's still a discussion about a man. Obviously this line can be a bit hazy; use your best judgment.

6. ALL FANDOMS WELCOME. Same with all female characters, no matter how insignificant.

7. Femslash is fine, though this isn’t primarily a shipping kind of ficathon. Differentiate between femslash prompts and platonic prompts with a slash symbol for femslash and a comma or ampersand for platonic stuff. If you don’t care, stick both in there! Like this: [BtVS - Buffy/Faith or Buffy, Faith - prompt] Or, you know, just say that you're cool with either. Like this: [BtVS - Buffy, Faith (either) - prompt] Writers, pay attention to what the prompter requests—if they don’t want the sexy stuff, don’t give it to them; if they do, try to deliver!

8. Crossovers are awesome, but the more canon-y prompts, the better.

9. AUs are fine.

10. You can link to us anywhere. Your journal? A community? Tumblr? Go for it!

11. Be nice to each other or Buffy and Kara and Sarah Connor and Rogue and Sydney Bristow and Zoe will all team up to kick your ass. Also, I'll delete your comment and ban you. Them's the breaks.

12. NO CHARACTER BASHING. I haven’t had a problem with this before, but I want to make sure it doesn’t happen. If a character hates another character canonically, it’s okay to mention that, but dwelling is usually not a good thing. And I don’t care how much you hate Martha/Bonnie/Jo/Dawn/Sansa, a lot of other people love her and have no desire to stumble across hate (and Rose/Caroline/Ellen/Willow/Dany DO NOT share your feelings of hatred, so keep that in mind. Well, Dark Willow might, but that’s another matter). This is another deletion/bannable offense.

13. Spoilers. There will probably be some. So avoid the fics for fandoms you're not all caught up on yet. Prompters can request no spoilers beyond a certain point—for example, if you haven’t seen this week’s episode of Vampire Diaries, it’s okay to request not to have any spoilers included. Or if, like me, you’ve only seen the first two seasons of Farscape, it’s okay to ask for canon up to that point only. If the writer wants to be especially kind (which I always recommend), you can indicate in the title line that the fic contains spoilers.

14. If a prompt is already filled, you’re more than welcome to write another fic for it.

15. If you have any questions, please do ask. I’m very nice, and I want people to be able to participate if they so wish.


BANNERS. USE THEM.
Banners, as they're accumulated, can be found here. You're free to use any you wish. You can also use the less-than-impressive one I made up at the top. But hopefully we'll have some better options soon.

In addition, any other banners from any fandom anyone wants to make (featuring two or more ladies from a given canon, please) are greatly appreciated. Link to them in the comments here, please.

[Instructions on using the banners for those of you who are not so technologically-savvy: You can hotlink to these banners. Copy/paste the following and then plug in the link to the banner where it says "URLOFIMAGEHERE." Pretty simple, really]

<a href="http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/244264.html"><img src="URLOFIMAGEHERE"/></a>

OR

do a nice simple text link like the one at the top of the page by copy/pasting the text below:

<center><a href="http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/244264.html"><font face="broadway" size="5"><b><font color="7a5dc7">THE BECHDEL TEST COMMENT FICATHON</font><font color="9e7bff">EPISODE II:</font><font color="#7a5dc7">THE SROMANCE STRIKES BACK</font></font></b><a></center>


That should cover just about everything, but if I missed something, please do ask/comment below.

And...go!

[eta] Master List now up!

Comments

questions/comments/concerns/etc.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

go here

Re: questions/comments/concerns/etc.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Skins - Grace, Mini, Liv, and Franky - And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back / So shake him off

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who - Amy and River - the Pond women are superheroes

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

In the Heights - Vanessa and Nina - think of the hundreds of stories we’ll create

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Pan Am - Kate, Colette, Maggie, and Laura - layover in Vienna

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

The Hour - Lix and Bel - coffee and cigarettes are the foundation of a journalist’s diet

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Parks and Rec - Leslie and Ann - Dolly Parton is a goddess!

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

The West Wing - Ainsley and Donna - cake versus pie (Ainsley must be in the pie camp. She is a Southern girl.)

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries - Elena, Caroline - childhood friends (I don't want them to actually be children; just two girls who share a special bond, because they've been friends since forever, and then they were always there for each other as grown-ups.)

Vampire Diaries - Elena & Caroline - Muffins - PG (1/2)

[shineyma.livejournal.com]

A/N: I don't know that this is really what you were looking for--it sort of mutated into something a little ridiculous. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

The only reason Elena even gets out of bed that morning is that she doesn’t want to have to explain anything to anyone. The sudden influx of danger into her life, in addition to all of the other things that suck about it, has made all of the people she knows very sensitive about each other’s absences. If she doesn’t show up for school there will be at least three people banging on her bedroom door before first period is over.

So she drags herself out of bed, showers, gets dressed, and gets herself to school. She views it as a step-by-step process, and it helps a little: focus on the next step and nothing else. Once she’s at school, though, she has forty minutes before classes start and no real distractions. She sits down at a picnic table with an open textbook, hoping to a) get some studying in (vampires are terrible for her grades), and b) dissuade anyone from trying to make conversation.

Here’s the thing. When she was a kid, there was an annual town event called ‘Muffins with Moms’ where all the mothers with young children would take their kids to the town square and have a sort of breakfast party. One year, when Elena was seven, she’d been sick on Muffins with Moms morning. She’d been so disappointed that her mom promised they’d have their own muffin day just as soon as she was better. And they did. As soon as she was feeling up to it, the two of them spent an entire day (May 14, as it happened) baking muffins together. After that, it became tradition that on May 14, they’d eat muffins together, just the two of them. Even if it was just a quick five minute speed breakfast before school, they did it every year without fail.

It was a silly tradition, hardly as significant as Mother’s Day or a birthday, but it still meant a lot. Last year, it had fallen on a Thursday, so they’d eaten their muffins hastily over the sink while exchanging meaningless chit-chat. A little more than a week later, her parents were dead.

It’s May 14 and she has no one to share muffins with. Considering everything else going on in her life, it’s completely ridiculous to be so hung up on this. But she can’t help it. It’s just the cherry on top of the sundae of awful that her life has become, and there’s no hope of relief. There’s no light at the end of this tunnel: her parents are gone and they aren’t coming back.

It’s amazing how something like that can keep sneaking up on you and punching you in the stomach.

Her textbook plan works for all of ten minutes before there’s suddenly someone sitting across from her. She looks up from her book and is not the least bit surprised to find that Caroline has joined her. There’s no one like Caroline for ignoring keep-away signals.

Caroline rests her chin in one hand and examines Elena for a long moment.

“What?” Elena asks uncomfortably.

“I thought so,” Caroline says, totally ignoring Elena’s question. She pulls a brown paper bag out of her purse and hands it to Elena. “Here.”

Elena reaches into the bag and pulls out a muffin. It’s chocolate chip, from the bakery near the Grill, and the sight of it makes her eyes fill with tears, which is just ridiculous. It’s a muffin, for God’s sake. She should not be getting teary over a muffin. But she is, and she can barely stop herself from actually crying.

Suddenly Caroline’s arms are around her in a slightly awkward sideways hug. She was so focused on the muffin that she missed Caroline coming around the table to sit next to her.

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

Game of Thrones - Arya, Sansa - future!fic, the war is over, and the sisters meet again after all those years (I'd prefer book canon, but show canon is also fine with me. Either way, you don't need to worry about spoilers.)

ASOIAF/GOT - Sansa & Arya – Dreams Gone By - PG

[agnes-bean.livejournal.com]

Note: There aren't really any specific spoilers, but I've read all of the books and the characterization was written with that in mind, so take that as you will.

Seeing Arya, Sansa feels both younger and older all at once.

Older, because she hardly recognizes the stormy young woman that stands where her baby sister should be. Gone is the mischievous grin, the braids and the tattered dress, replaced by a warrior with a man's short hair. Once, Arya played with weapons as Sansa played with dolls; now her hand rests on the knife at her side, ready to stab at a moment's notice.

Part of Sansa had expected to see the same little girl, dirty but laughing, and suddenly it's hard not to feel the weight of years gone by.

Younger, because here she is, still playing dress up; toying with a golden bracelet, too afraid to meet her sister's eyes. Maybe she's earned the folds of silk that fall from shoulder to floor; won each pearl with a well placed lie, a strategic smile, another betrayal. She certainly knows the songs aren't true. But Arya – Arya has scars. All Sansa has is a pretty band of metal around her head.

She should say something. These are her chambers, her castle; this is her conversation to lead. But what do you say in this situation? There is less than half a room between them, but it feels like an entire kingdom.

Arya speaks first, of course. Arya never cared about saying the proper thing. "You got your wish after all."

Sansa is confused, until her sister's eyes flick to her hair. Oh, yes. To wear the queen's crown. It had been a dream, once. "I guess I did." Sansa watches for a reaction, but Arya's face stays emotionless, the kind of neutrality that only comes with careful practice. Sansa knows it all too well. "And you – you got to be a knight after all."

Arya laughs wryly. "I'm no knight." She adds an ironic smirk.

For a second, Sansa is reminded of the Hound, but she shuts down that train of thought immediately. It never leads anyplace good. "Well, you've certainly managed to escape being a lady," she amends. "I seem to recall that was the most horrible fate you could imagine."

"I guess we both got what we wanted." Arya's eyes burn with something that looks like pain, and Sansa's been around long enough to know when she's been issued a challenge.

She drops her hands and meets her sister's eyes. "Our dreams haven't turned out to be nearly as fun as we'd imagined, have they?"

And suddenly Arya crosses the space between them. She throws herself against Sansa, arms wrapping around her neck in a rough, warm hug. She's surprisingly heavy; small but all muscle. She smells like dirt and sweat and blood – and home.

Sansa buries her nose into her sister's hair and squeezes back. For a moment, she's a child again, and there's still some joy in the world.

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries - Elena, Caroline - Caroline turns Elena into a vampire.

vampire diaries - caroline, elena - doll it up in virgin white - pg13

[stainofmylove.livejournal.com]

Here! (http://girljustdied.livejournal.com/74301.html)

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries; Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena; makes you feel happy like an old-time movie

vampire diaries - bonnie, caroline, elena - cinémathèque - pg

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Caroline, predictably enough, has always loved classic Hollywood films. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe—if they’re in it, she’s happy. She’s had a crush on Cary Grant her whole life, and she’s always wanted her wedding dress to look like Princess Grace’s (vampires don’t have weddings, of course, but this was long before any of them even knew that they were real, much less that one day Caroline would be one of them). Elena’s more of a John Hughes kind of girl (later, she finds this ironic, considering how the Brat Pack world resembled nothing at all about her own high school experience), and though Bonnie tends to like her movies a little more realistic, she also introduces them to actresses Gran had introduced her to: Dorothy Dandridge, Anna May Wong, Rita Moreno (Gran always thought it was important to see successful people who looked like you, or at least looked different in the same way you did, and Bonnie thinks of them when she learns the truth about Emily and no one will actually use the word ‘slave’). But when they need cheering up (at first, it’s little things--Lila Miller won’t talk to Bonnie at school anymore, Matt hurts Elena’s feelings, Caroline bombs her math test--but as they get older, their problems grow with them: the whole thing with Caroline’s parents happens, then Bonnie’s mom leaves for good this time, then the accident with Elena’s parents happens, and they’re all abandoned by the people who loved them in various ways. And this is all before they realize what’s going bump in the night), Elena will suggest a sleepover, and it’s Caroline’s movies they watch.

For a little while, the world is beautiful dresses, cocktails, snappy dialogue, cigarette smoke, musical numbers, leading men in tuxedos, and kisses in the rain (instead of blood and fangs and spells that kill your grandmother and vampires with your face and boyfriends who turn into wolves when the moon is full). They cuddle up on the couch, a tangle of limbs and fuzzy afghans, half-finished bowls of popcorn and chips around them, a box of Kleenexes nearby if the movie’s a tearjerker (sometimes there’s almost a pleasure in crying at someone else’s pain, when it isn’t real and it’ll all be resolved by the end of the movie). Caroline paints Bonnie’s toenails and Bonnie braids Elena’s hair and Elena is really good at massages.

The credits of one film will have barely ended before one of them pops another one in (first it’s VHSes, then it’s DVDs, technology growing up as they do), a stream of perfect images that never change (no matter how much the girls who are watching them do), and as the night crawls on, they seem to bleed into each other, until between their sleepiness and the wistful music of the movies, it’s easy to let go of what’s biting into their hearts and pretend, for a little while, that life is simple (and that a happy ending is guaranteed.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries; Katherine, Isobel, and Anna; faith, hope, and charity

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries - Caroline, Liz - I thought we'd have lunch and you could remind me I promised not to work so hard.

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

TVD / BtVS - Jenna, Faith - Jenna becomes Faith's Watcher.

[snickfic]

DUDE.

They would get in SO MUCH TROUBLE together.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

Arrested Development, the two Lucilles, I've made a terrible mistake.

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

Buffyverse - Fred, Willow - geekiness

Buffyverse - Fred, Willow - Magic v. Science (PG)

[midnightisclose.livejournal.com]

“So what’s it like doin’ witchcraft?” Fred asks.

“It’s amazing,” Willow says, a smile forming on her face. “But, um, very dangerous, too.”

“Oh.” Fred won’t tell her, then, that she’d been thinking about trying a few spells on her own. She doesn’t need to, anyway: Willow’s seen that look before, and she knows it well.

“I just know it hurt me and the people around me really badly, and I don’t want that to happen to all of you out here, too.” She tries to think of something to say that might make her happy. “Anyway, science is just as awesome as magic. It’s kind-of magical itself, all the things you can do with it.”

Fred immediately starts smiling. “It really is, isn’t it? I don’t know what I’d do without it. It’s my favorite thing in the world.”

“I don’t do nearly enough science-y stuff anymore. It’s just as fun and amazing as magic can be. Plus, y’know, curing diseases and all that shouldn’t really be done with magic. Science is the way to go.”

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

Arrested Development, Lucille, Lindsey, & Maeby, the wanton folly of me mum

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

Downton Abbey, the Crowley sisters, oh, the places you'll go

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

West Wing - CJ, Kate Harper - alternate version of No Exit with these two stuck in an office together

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Firefly - Inara, Kaylee - it's not always about mechanics

Firefly; Inara, Kaylee; laws of motion (pg)

[hyacinthian.livejournal.com]

Kaylee sits on her bed, her thin fingers running over everything - the plush red bedspread, the beaded pillows, but oh the cosmetics, the tools to shape beauty and lay waste to men whenever she wants to - and here, Kaylee giggles - enraptured like a child at the sight of the rouges, the lip stains, the kohl for the eyes.

Kaylee casts her eyes down towards the pressed powder and brushes her hair across one shoulder. "How d'you do it, Inara?"

Inara smiles. "What, mei mei?"

"My whole life, I've been good at one thing," she says, sitting on the bed, "and it's been engines. I can look into something with fifty moving parts and figure out how to fix it if it ain't fixed. But you - "

Inara's been a Companion long enough to sense when to speak and when to hold her tongue, when to let the brief pauses run to pregnant, when to listen for the rush of more words, added phrases, before responding. There's a few moments of silence, and then nothing.

Inara reaches for the hairbrush.

"People are just so ... complicated," Kaylee finishes.

Inara snorts. "They really aren't."

Oh, the things learned at Sihnon, about the ways that people reveal themselves in telling ways, the ways to read movements and sounds, breathing and the rattle of bones; everything is predictable when it comes right down to it, Inara thinks. No such thing as mystery.

Kaylee rolls her eyes. "But you're a companion, 'Nara. You know people."

She starts running the brush through Kaylee's hair. Slow, straight strokes. The rough sound of the bristles combing through. Kaylee sighs.

"Mei mei," Inara says, "Sometimes it isn't always about the mechanics, about being able to see into a problem. Sometimes I think you just have to feel."

(Inara hates lying to Kaylee, but something doesn't feel right about telling her that people can be just as predictable as machines, just as cold, just as cruel. There's something still so whimsical in her, Inara thinks. Naive, maybe, but sweet.

Inara tells her that people are mysterious and sensing beings that must be handled with patience and delicacy, and all the while, the brush running through the hair and Kaylee growing sleepy.)

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Blackadder II - Queen Elizabeth, Nursie - temper, temper

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries - Katherine, Elena - somehow they find out what's the story of the girl whose face they're both wearing.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Angel the Series - Illyria, Harmony - not quite human

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Angel the Series - Faith, Lilah - finding another way