Piña Coladas

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Fanfiction
Title: Piña Coladas
Author(s): Lottie
Date(s): June 19, 2022
Length: 40k+ (on-going)
Genre: slash fanfiction, Social Media AU
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
External Links: Piña Coladas on Twitter
piña coladas on AO3

Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Piña Coladas is an Our Flag Means Death Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet Social Media AU created by faeeebaeee aka. Lottie. It started posting on June 19, 2022 on Twitter and started being re-posted on AO3 on June 24.

As of Sept 2022, it was still a WIP at close to 40k words and 97 chapters.

It is notable for being extremely popular and sparking its own fandom. In Tumblr, users developed the specific hashtag: pina coladas smau. It also stretched the definition of SMAUs by being set in the 1980s and using analog means of communication such as faxes and pagers.

Summary

The 80s are in full swing, and the golden decade of Nintendo Gameboys’ and Sony Walkmans’ has never looked better. In the neon jungle, Stede Bonnet, a young salaryman, meets enigmatic mechanic apprentice Edward Teach, and the pair strike up an unlikely friendship via fax machine, page beepers and gifts in the mail.

AO3 summary

Notable Features

The fic has its own smushname for the main pairing: Fancyfuck.

Piña coladas stands out for its combination of mediums (text and images) and styles (epistolary and indirect narration). The story is told through text and images that recreate fax messages, post-its, drawings and pagers used by the characters.

Reactions and Reviews

Lottie this smau is one of the most original pieces of writing (and visual art!) I have ever seen. Your brain is lying to you :) I mean the romance by book annotation? Genuinely creating a compelling falling in love story over fax? It’s so good!

@stabbyturtle_, July 18, 2022[1]

OFMD writers [...] said "FUCK YOU" to the rules [of SMAUs] and communicated dialogue through group chats, controlled narrative through protected tweets and portrayed action through a max of 5 paragraphs at a time. The sheer courage of doing it all REAL TIME ON TWITTER?? ITS INSANE And as if THAT ISNT ENOUGH, Lottie @faeeebaeee single handedly took it ONE STEP FURTHER by writing letters, showing snapshots of scenery, fucking PAGERS?? I have been reading fanfic for a DECADE and i have NEVER seen anything like it outside published BOOKS.

@MystiqueWaves, August 5, 2022[2]

Look, this whole thread really sums up where my brain is at with the collective #ofmd fandom and the subsequent #piñacoladas fandom. Love how a whole sub-fandom has been spawned by fanfic of the original show. It's magical 💓🤗♥️

@pennmcam, Aug 11, 2022[3]

i went from wondering what 'fancyfuck' meant to @faeeebaeee ruling my entire life i am Not Normal this smau is SO GOOD

@rangiwhakaaro, Sept 26, 2022[4]

Creators & Media Attention

The popularity of the story has caused it to break the fourth wall and come to the attention of the show's creators as well as non-fannish media, to mixed reactions from fans.

Show writer Alex Sherman liked several tweets featuring fanart of the story and interacted with the artist, and on Nov 17, 2022, showrunner David Jenkins answered a fan question about whether he liked piña coladas with:

Waiting to read when the series is done

David Jenkins tweet, Nov 17 2022[5]

On Nov 30, 2022, Pastemagazine.com published an article about the story: Our Flag Means Death, Social Media And The Evolution Of Online Fan Storytelling by Patches Chance, which included an interview with the writer and a recap of the show creators' reactions to the story.

Positive Reactions

This is incredible. I'm so thankful to be online at a time when this type of storytelling is born. #OFMD #PinaColadasSMAU

@XianJaneway tweet[6]

I have never been so proud of people I never met IRL before. 🥹❤️ @faeeebaeee so poised and humble! loved seeing @stedecore and @GENTLEPlRATE get a shoutout and hearing from consummate fans @emcolbs and @ChristineTartag My heart is just full of sparkly glitter.

@marmalady99 tweet[7]

It's been such a pleasure witnessing the rise & development of the SMAU as a distinct storytelling medium. It really feels like we've been watching fanfic history in the making. Congrats on the feature, Lottie!

@GentlemanPieRat tweet[8]

Negative Reactions

I actually flinched. Oh to have the confidence of people who didn't live through 90s fandom

@melpemone_fict tweet[9]

I'm sorry I know this is coming from a genuine and good place but creating an article like this and name dropping the creatives involved with making the show and inferring they're reading/have read fanfic to ANY capacity is insanely irresponsible and just asking for legal trouble

@sovngarde tweet[10]

i really wish this had got into the legal aspect of show writers interacting with fic bc every time alex s. does it i picture the show being sued out of existence.

it's gonna be pina coladas that loses us s3 isn't it. or even s2. pina fucking coladas.

thinking fondly about my first ever legal writing assignment, which was re: transformative works (the prof told us on day 1 that she had "written 3 unpublished novels" lol), and you know what if first semester 1Ls understand not to share with the creator so should allll of fandom

@_bleakly tweets[11]

Related Works

Fanart

Podfic

Derivative works

References

  1. ^ @stabbyturtle_ tweet, July 18, 2022
  2. ^ @MystiqueWaves twitter thread, August 5, 2022
  3. ^ @pennmcam tweet, Aug 11, 2022
  4. ^ @rangiwhakaaro tweet, Sept 26, 2022
  5. ^ David Jenkins tweet, Nov 17 2022
  6. ^ tweet, @XianJaneway, Nov 30, 2022
  7. ^ tweet, @marmalady99, Nov 30 2022
  8. ^ tweet, GentlemanPieRat, Nov 30, 2022
  9. ^ tweet, melpemone_fic, Dec 1, 2022
  10. ^ tweet, @sovngarde, Nov 30, 2022
  11. ^ tweet [Dead link], @_bleakly, Nov 30 2022