Queering The Tide

[lannamichaels]

We're in ur yuletide, queering ur canons.

There are many ways of queering texts and characters. This challenge is for any and all of them! The widest possible definition of queering is used here. If you think your prompt counts, then do so we. Check the first comment for an example of queering a text; everyone is welcome to add on more examples there, too.

Note: in fics that overlap with TransTide, both simonlorden and I encourage you to tag both.

To participate, leave a comment on this post linking to your letter, so anyone interested in queering your canon for yuletide can find you. Tag any fics for this mini-challenge with Queering The Tide.

You can copy/paste this form below for your comment.

<strong>AO3 name:</strong> <user name="YOUR_NAME_HERE" site="archiveofourown.org"> <strong>Letter link:</strong> <a href="YOUR URL HERE">My letter</a> <strong>Fandom 1:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong> <strong>Fandom 2:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong> <strong>Fandom 3:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong> <strong>Fandom 4:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong> <strong>Fandom 5:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong> <strong>Fandom 6:</strong> <strong>Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:</strong>

Comments

[penguinzero]

AO3 name: penguinzero
Letter link: My letter
Fandom 1:Hitherby Dragons: The canon of Hitherby has always been sympathetic to outsiders, strangers, and people who see the world differently and have suffered for it. It rarely delves into romance (though Sid and Max are either a couple or something beyond that), but emotional connection of any sort is critical. I'd love to see Ink Catherly confronting her own gender or her own romantic leanings during her journey, even if I suspect she'd shy away from making romantic connections because they'd pull her away from her journey to find Hell/kill whoever's on the throne of the world.

Fandom 2:Undead Unluck: Canonically, sex and gender are a rule added to the world at a certain point -- and we've seen the androgynous people who came before. Juiz is a character who's been female in all her present-day appearances, but we've seen her pre-gender flashback form. And she's one of the few people who'd be aware of the change and remember it -- not only that, but have to do it over and over again as she loops. How has that affected her gender identity and presentation? Does she embrace her gender-neutral form, or is her female gender always inside and itching to get out? Is the addition of the UMA that gives people gender a frustration or a relief each time? A lot of potential analogies to trans situations there, in either direction.

Fandom 3: Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers: The setting is quite accepting of LGBTQ+ people, in general. But there are cultures and species that have their own issues, sometimes similar to human ones, sometimes analogous, sometimes completely different. And that makes for fascinating exploration. Speaker interacted with people of several different species on a personal level at the Five-Hop, and regularly interacts with more as part of her job. Has seeing Tupo's uncertainty about what gender xyr is going to choose, or Pei struggling with her lack of desire to reproduce, gotten her more interested in that? Do Akarak have gay or transgender people, and how much does it mean in a society where there's no strong gender-based roles, recreational sex isn't a biological thing for them, there's no romantic bonds, and everyone on a ship is equally family? How does queerness look to someone like Speaker, who's basically on the outside of it all in so many ways?

Fandom 4: Unpacking: Obviously the protagonist and her girlfriend/wife are queer, and we see the development of her identity over the course of the game. But there's a lot more to explore there. Is the protagonist bi, or did her bad relationship with the boyfriend make her realize she was lesbian? Is she still in the process of understanding herself? How did meeting her partner and falling in love affect her journey of discovery? Did she start to suspect in college, or already know, or was she in denial but made some slips in the RPGs she played with her roommates? There's a lot of potential given the ways in which we do and don't know her.