Fandom AU

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	characters in fandom!AU, meta!AU
Related tropes/genres	metafic
Related articles on Fanlore.

Fandom AUs are fanworks in which one or more of the main characters are part of fandom. Sometimes all fictional characters are fannish about a non-existent fictional fandom, other times a character discovers fandom as it exists in this world; the possibilities are endless. The corner of fandom discussed is usually the corner the creator of the fanwork is most familiar with.

In some fanworks fandom is a way to get two characters, often a slash pairing, together; this leads to the situation that such fictional fandoms often have a disproportional number of male fans compared to many real fandoms. In others, the premise is more crack or humor-oriented.

Some fanworks have elaborate formatting to mimic anon memes, the Livejournal comment format, Tumblr posts, and/or specific communities or sites.

This kind of AU often also offers meta commentary on fandom itself. Stories about characters who are canonically fannish, like Becky from Supernatural, Alec Hardison from Leverage, and Nepeta from Homestuck, have many similar characteristics.

Examples

• The Totally Imaginary Cheeseboard by Jean Airey & Laurie Haldeman - Blake's 7. A teleport malfunction strands Avon at a fan convention. Several sequels (1988)
• Vice Versa and Vice Versa II: Horrible Mutant Daughter of Vice Versa by Dianne la Mercenaire - Forever Knight - The characters of Forever Knight are fans of the TV series Real Life, whose characters are fans who took part in the Forever Knight Wars - told through posts to [email protected] (parodying actual posts to the FK mailing list, FORKNI-L) (1995, 1996)
• The Pandora Complex by Nimori - Harry Potter - Snape/Harry, Snape discovers the internet, hijinks ensue. (2002)
• Not Based on a True Story by Isilya - Popslash. Nick and Howie started reccing AJ everywhere for fun one day, as a kind of April Fool's joke even though it was September at the time. AJ's stories were terrible, epic and instantly popular. Howie called him in the middle of the night in fits of laughter, saying AJ had emailed him to say thank you so much for the recs. Nick laughed, but felt shitty when AJ won three fanfic awards. (2004)
• Mina de Malfois by anonymous/Mina de Malfois - serial story told by the BNF of the fictional show Sanguinity parodying fandom (2006-2010)
• Another Kind of Fandom Wank by arionrhod and scribbulus_ink - Harry Potter, Snape/Lupin. After faking his death and leaving the Wizarding world behind, Severus unwittingly reunites with someone from his past in the most unlikely of places: online in a Blood Bathory fan community. ~40,000 words (2007)
• Convention by Serenetwinkle - xxxHolic, Doumeki x Watanuki. Watanuki is forced to go to an anime convention - dressed as Sailor Moon. (2007)
• Real Person Fiction by phaballa - Supernatural RPF, J2, Jensen and Jared are popslashers. (2008)
• Fandom Is Srs Bznz by elizah jane - Supernatural RPF, Jensen/Misha, Jensen and Misha are BNFs in fandom. glorious wank ensues. (2009)
• I Refuse To Dignify This With A Title by reni_days - Bandom, Brendon is a rock star. Spencer is an accountant who writes fanfic about him. (2009)
• Fangirl!Frannie by innocentsmith - due South, post-Call of the Wild, Frannie discovers fandom. (2009)
• A Collection of E-Mails from the SGC Archives (The Wanky Wormhole Remix) by beatrice otter (remix of The one where Jack and Vala ended up on Fandom Wank by amaresu, 2009) - SG-1 fic in which the characters are fannish about the canonical parody show "Wormhole X-Treme." (2010)
• Live Free or Twihard by poor_choices - Supernatural RPF J2 college AU in which Jensen Ackles's family are hardcore Team Edward (Bella/Edward) shippers while Jared Padalecki's are hardcore Team Jacob (Bella/Jacob) shippers. Complete with Fandom Wank, anonmeme, and Fandom Secrets references, fandom RPGs and extensive use of sockpuppets, relatives not understanding the difference between internet vs. real life and/or slash vs. homosexuality, and faked pseuicide. (2010)
• Becky is Not Writing This Story by Grey Bard - Supernatural. Archangel/trickster Gabriel joins Becky in Supernatural fandom. (2010)
• As Seen on Urban Dictionary by poor_choices - Sherlock Holmes. Modern-day Sherlock Holmes AU where they are Supernatural fanboys and Holmes spends a lot of time trolling and being dumb. (2010)
• Badger Badger Badger Badger Meta Meta by anonymous - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, everyone is on the Blue Badger Kink Meme. (2010)
• Completely Fictional by caseysms - The Social Network, in which Mark discovers the joy and uses of fan fiction. (2010)
• Poor Mark by caseysms - The Social Network, everyone is on tsn_kinkmeme because it's the cool place to be. (Ok maybe everyone is on LJ and tsn_kinkmeme even if they won't admit it while and Chris and Dustin are avid inception_kink fans.) (2011)
• John and Rodney, reading & Teyla, contemplating by heynonnynonny - SGA series in which the team bonds over McShep Match and Teyla writes meta and kink meme fills. (2011)
• Pairing: Pendragon/Merlin by anonymous, in which Arthur and Merlin are respectively a BNF fanwriter and shy betareader in the Starz' Camelot fandom, who meet first online (LiveJournal features heavily) and then in real life at a con. (2011)
• The Meat Feast by intobedlam - Merlin AU in which Arthur is a famous actor and and Merlin the fanartist who has a crush on him. (2011)
• Forumverse by nanakibh - Tiger and Bunny, all of the characters get sucked into pseudonymously participating on the HeroTV fan forums, hijinx ensue. (2011)
• The Theory of Narrative Causality (link) by falling_voices - Sherlock (BBC) story in which Sherlock Holmes, a fanartist known for causing wank, and John Watson, BNF writer, are paired up for a Big Bang and fall in love. The story inspired a lot of RP on different online platforms as well as art and other fic. (2011)
• Barrayar Expects That Every Fan Will Do Their Duty: Excerpts From A Fandom by lannamichaels - Vorkosigan Saga (2011)
• Re: Loki/Darcy, Kinkmeme made them do it by lunik_the_bard - Avengers WIP in which Darcy and Loki write RPF and anonymous commenters perpetuate the meta illusion that the two characters are participating in norsekink itself as the fill is posted (2011-)
• behind the masks and monitors by tellytubby101 - Avengers WIP in which the characters are members of the fictional S.H.I.E.L.D. fandom (2011-)
• Ar Pea Eff by anonymous - Phoenix Wright WIP, Pearl learns about RPF and decides to write a Phoenix/Maya fic. (2011-)
• OTP by Save vs. Magic - a WIP Wizards of Waverly Place Justin/Alex fic in which Justin and Alex discover shipping for the Charmed and Dangerous book series (within the series) characters Julia/Alan (who are basically book versions of each other) where people ship them together despite it being incest and shipping their actors together (2011-)
• 5U175 by Closer - Suits, Mike's a fic writer who discovers his lawyer boss Harvey is (also secretly) a Star Trek BNF. (2012)
• A Different Kind of Love Song by giandujakiss - A VividCon celebration of fannish behavior in media fandom sources, showing that fandom canonically exists in many canons. (2012)
• Ori Ships Everyone by various - hobbit_kink prompt resulting in 3 mini-fills with Ori as a canonverse shipper writing with quill and ink. (2013)
• The Hobbit: Amazing World of Fan Art by wolfanita - The Hobbit fanart wherein several Hobbit characters discover fanart exists. (2013)
• Ties That Bind, a Fire Emblem Awakening college AU fic based on Fangirl (book), in which the female Robin is a well-known Ike/Soren writer. Her work acts as a catalyst to her eventually falling in love with Chrom, her roommate's friend and ex-boyfriend. (2016)
• Doing It The Right Way (NSFW), an Ace Attorney kink meme fill where Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes have sex while reading the kink meme itself. The Steel Samurai Kink Meme is also a common convention, with characters like Maya and Edgeworth writing fanfic about their favorite show. (2015)
• the consequences will be most dire by SaraJaye - a Fire Emblem: Three Houses college AU where Bernadetta is being bullied in a toxic fandom and Hubert provides his own brand of comfort and rescue. (2022)