Subreality Cafe
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Subreality Café |
| Creator: | Kielle |
| Date(s): | c. 1997-2008 |
| Medium: | shared universe, fanfiction, metafiction |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| External Links: | (Image's fic archive)
http://www.subreality.com/sc.htm (via WBM),  Subreality Central, Image 1 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Subreality Café was a shared universe where characters--original and canon--took time off and interacted with one another, and their authors. A Subreality Café message board was hosted by CFAN, where many comic fic writers were "regulars." The universe was originally created by Kielle, but spread widely, with 198 authors archived at Subreality Central.
Q: "Subreality Hopscotch." What started that? Just from that one story, there's an entire new world.
Kielle: Well, it dates back to high school again, actually, it dates back to Kitarra. <laugh> It's all her fault. We [created] a universe together, lots of characters. She tended to abuse her characters, and as a joke, I wrote a little story about all her characters getting together and complain[ing] about her.
Q: Sort of like a revenge fic.
Kielle: Yeah, and that idea stuck with me. Later, I was working on CFAN and I was doing the "stories by character" page. I just finished Wolverine, and I just got this crazy idea, what if Wolverine knew he was [in] a story? What would he think about being in all these stories? I wrote it as a joke, what if Wolverine remembered [being in] all these stories, and didn't like it? I did that, and it sort of went from there. Someone else came up with the idea of having him stopping off in a bar; they didn't name it though. I checked it. I was already thinking about an idea like that and I thought, "I'd better write fast before he [Bones] did it." So I named it [the Subreality Café] and I wrote a story… the round robins started on a regular round robin board on FicWorld. A lot of people started writing Subreality Café Round Robins; there were so many of them that the regulars got pissed and [kicked them out]. [1]
The story that kicked it all off - "Subreality Hopscotch" - was posted by Kielle on ACFF on December 5, 1996. It was shortly followed by a sequel by Bones (mentioned above), called "Subreality Strip Poker" on January 7, 1997. The concept was simple - between the real world and the imagined world there exists a borderland where anything can happen. And in this borderland, there is the Subreality Cafe, a meeting place where the Real and the Imagined can meet up and have a couple of drinks.[2]
From this initial set up, the concept caught on among comics ficwriters and spawned a expanding number of stories with their own identifier, [SC], on ACFF and OTL. A specific mailing list was also created by Farli for the posting of stories. And as the stories increased, so did the "geography" of Subreality, until it was a world of its own.
The first Subreality archive was set up by Image in July 11, 1997, and was taken over by KIelle and later, Farli on Kielle's server as Subreality Central. The concept outlived ACFF, OTL and the Subreality Cafe Livejournal [3], and while its centralised presence has gone, new stories have appeared on both FanFiction.Net[4] and AO3[5].
Subpages for Subreality Cafe:
Notable Works
- The Times That Try Men's Hearts by Darqstar
- It's Not The Fall That Kills You...(It's The Beer And Bunny-Slippers) by Abyss
- Men of Skill by Andraste
- Alternate Universes by Yasmin M.
- Alcheringa by Kielle
- Walkabout by Dex
- Subreality Awards 2000 - the one (and only) fanfiction awards given for SC stories. Organised by Paradoqz, metafic written by Paradoqz, Epona Harper, Kielle, queenB, Rossi and Yasmin M. Advertised by Farli.
Recommended Reading
[Note: These selections were made by Kielle when she was the archivist at Subreality Central]
Please Explain Subreality To Me!
- The Stuff Of Dreams + The Realm Of Possibilities by Rossi
- Walking In The Rain by D^Knight
- Enlightenment And Lemonade by Cynjen
- From A Writer's Journal by The Hush
Huh? No, What Really Happened?
- Subreality Chronicles by anonymous
- Ancient History by Bayeux (general fanfic background)
What Were The First SC Stories?
- Subreality Hopscotch by Kielle
- Subreality Strip Poker by Bones
- Somebody Fire My Agent by Kielle
- Raindrops Keep Falling In My Beer by Falstaff
- To Hell With The Fake ID by Tapestry
Why Do We Do This?
- How Do I Explain This? by D^Knight
- Two Worlds by Fancycatz
- Beyond Subreality Challenge - Essays, tangents, & tales about the people behind the stories.
The Fine Art Of Tormenting Newbies
The Horrors Of Writer's Block
- It's Going To Be One Of Those Nights, Isn't It? by Seraph
- Static-Pulse Vs. Wright R. Blach by Static-Pulse
Behind The SCRR Scenes
- Writing The Round Robin by Fancycatz et al.
On The Care And Feeding Of One's Muse
- The Muse's Menace by Dande
- So, Where To From Here? (Frank's Story) by Rossi
- The Unwanted Muse by Chandri MacLeod
What's All This About Mary Sue...?
Archives
Main Archive
Other Archives
- Lori's X-Men Archive
- FicWorld
- Shifting Sands
- Fonts of Wisdom
- Alternate Timelines (X-Force Archive)
- McDragon's Lair
- The Itty Bitty Archives
Other Sites of Note
- Subreality Times - archived copies of the "newspaper" written by Paradoqz
References
- ^ Spotlight on. . . Kielle! (with special guest Laersyn) (Accessed Sept. 11, 2009)
- ^ The Subreality FAQ
- ^ Subreality @Livejournal
- ^ "Subreality" search on FF.Net
- ^ "Subreality" search on AO3
| Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks | |
| See also | Subreality Central, Kielle, subreality.com |