Arduinna

(If you want to link to this page while keeping the cut tags intact, use this: http://arduinna.dreamwidth.org/2019/01/22/imanlist.html)

A while back (in, uh... 2006), I got the urge to compile a master list of fannish things related to Invisible Man as a sort of snapshot of where the fandom stood at that moment. Or at least, where the bits of it that I could see stood. I never intended to keep it up-to-date or ever do an overhaul on it, mostly because holy crap it was a lot of work, and the fandom was already fading.

But trascendenza is hosting a watchathon starting in February, and suddenly I was digging it out. Because who knows! Maybe people will want to go looking for things, and not know where to find them!

So I overhauled it after all. I did not go looking for new things to add; this is still largely a snapshot of 2006. But I took out any individual links to fic or vids that can now be found on AO3 or ff.net; deleted author sites where all of the author's fic could be found on AO3 or ff.net; updated dead links to Wayback where I could; and deleted a couple of sections that don't seem especially relevant anymore (mailing lists that are now dead or full of spam; defunct del.icio.us tag searches - if anyone needs pointers on how to search pinboard for I-Man stuff, just ask).

If a link had vanished and I couldn't find it on an archive or on Wayback, I left it in, but struck through, to keep a record of what used to exist.

( On to the I-Man stuff! )

Okay, wow, it's been a long time since I had the urge to dive into a fannish project like this, and just spend hours poking at something. Yay, I-Man!

A day late, but no less sincere! This was for December 6.

For torch: three characters in three different fandoms from your past that you have known and loved, max three paragraphs each (and minimum three sentences, I hope *g*). Pics would be lovely, of course. :)

(Sorry, no pics! I forgot, woe)

So many fandoms, so many characters! I was trying to figure out how to choose, and decided to sort of go by decade. I also discovered doing this that I tend to think in pairs, not individual characters, which I hadn't quite realized before. But I could separate out a few, at least:

Dan Fielding, Night Court (1980s)

Dan Fielding was a mammal. Wait, no, that's the eulogy. Okay, so, the thing is, Dan Fielding is skeevy. He just is. He's a brown-nosing suckup to anyone he thinks has power or authority; he's rampantly sexist and chauvinistic, and mostly only likes women when they're naked; he's a greedy, money-grubbing, manipulative prick; he's coldly indifferent at best to anyone he sees as beneath him (which is a lot of people).

And yet at the same time, I kind of really adore him. Almost all of that (except the "will sleep with anyone, anywhere, any time" part -- he's one of the most highly sexed characters I've ever seen) comes from fear and a desperate attempt to protect himself. He was raised dirt poor by dirt farmers (as he put it [paraphrased], "No, really. They farmed dirt.") who loved him dearly but never understood him; he was smart, ambitious, driven, and desperate to get away from them, down to completely denying his upbringing (until they actually showed up one day and he had to admit to it). He spent his youth and young adulthood scrabbling furiously to fit in with the moneyed class he so wanted to be a part of, and which scorned him. His parents were decent people that he wanted no part of, so he learned to be indecent at the same time he learned how to be proper. It's a weirdly compelling combination.

And over the series, as he learns to trust Harry and the rest of the courtroom staff (but mostly Harry), bits of his decency start shining through. He hates to let anyone know about it, but it's there. He's the only person who has the guts to tell Harry off when Harry goes self-indulgently off the rails. He's there for Roz when she has a really scary diabetic episode. He finds ways of connecting with all kinds of people he thinks he can't stand for one reason or another; he just can't maintain his masks 24/7, no matter how much he wants to believe those masks are the truth. And he loves Harry, so very much, even if it's hard for him to say. ♥

Ray Vecchio, Due South (1990s)

Oh, Ray. <3 I fell for him in the original CBS pilot movie for Due South, and that just never changed. He's another one who's soft on the inside and hard on the outside, but not in a clammish way; he's more like a porcupine, all sharp spiky spines sticking out all over to protect his soft underbelly.

He's sharp, sarcastic, cranky, easily annoyed, brash, endlessly generous, boundlessly loyal, utterly devoted to the people he loves. He's got a smile that just melts me. Watching him take care of his family, take care of Fraser, make sacrifices over and over to help (crawling out of a hospital bed to fly to Canada to help Fraser take down his father's killer; killing his beloved Riv to help Fraser, after giving up his longed-for Florida vacation also to help Fraser; handing his new-Riv money out to total strangers to support Fraser's filibuster in hopes of saving a building; mortgaging his house to pay Fraser's bail...) -- he's just amazing, and he hides it all behind that brash sarcasm, because he doesn't want anyone to know that he's a sweetie at heart.

I don't even know how else to explain him. I could have watched any number of seasons with him, snarking his way through all his deep affection for people, and never gotten tired of it. (And he loves Fraser, so very much, even if it's hard for him to say. *g*)

Bobby Hobbes, Invisible Man (2000s)

I almost didn't include Bobby Hobbes here, not because I don't love him like crazy, but because I named one of my cats after him. It starts to make it weird to type his name and not mean the furry one. *g* But I will just stick with Bobby here. Because Bobby is awesome. <3 <3

You don't think, when you're watching the pilot, that he's the guy you're going to fall for. He's kinda short, he's balding, he's kinda pudgy, he's not very articulate, he's awkward and uncertain and insecure about a lot of things. And yet at the same time, professionally? He's confident, assured, and absurdly competent, and that starts taking over. When he's in a place where what he wants is for people to like and respect him, he goes all wobbly and unsure; when he's in a place where he needs to be able to determine an assailant's location by the sound of the shot whizzing past, he's the best there is and he knows it. He's so self-assured that you think it's idiotic overconfidence -- until no, it isn't, he's really that good.

He comes pre-loaded with more issues than anyone should have to deal with; he's been kicked out of job after job as a result of those issues until he's scraping the bottom of the government-agency barrel by working for the Agency. He's known and mocked among other agencies because of his mental health issues; he's on medication and has been for a long time, and it doesn't seem to have always worked for him. But he tries! He sticks to therapy, he takes his meds, he knows the signs to watch out for. And even his deepest issues are about wanting to take care of people, to do good: he gets terribly, obsessively, outrageously, protectively paranoid for the people he loves. To the point that he stalks them to make sure nothing bad will happen to them. Which is not good, and he knows it's not good, and he tries hard to channel all of that into appropriate venues. But it means he's incredibly loyal and devoted, and when he loves someone he really, really loves them. And when push came to shove, when he'd been given a chance at what he considered true greatness, he gave it all up to save Fawkes's life. Because he loves Fawkes, so very much, even if it's hard for him to say. *g*

---

Full request list here, still open!

Thank you so much! The thought of a story in any of these fandoms is already making me happy.

Usually this is where I say "whatever you want to do with them is great", and then put my specifics likes and dislikes under a cut for easy ignoring. I'm still doing that, with one caveat:

This past year has been pretty rough on me in terms of personal losses, and I'd really like something that falls on the warm / happy / fluffy / vanilla end of the spectrum, if possible. If that isn't something you can do, I understand; just please no deathfic or loss of a loved one, including pets; and no terminal illnesses of any kind as an h/c trope. Thank you. <3

I love all four of these fandoms unreservedly, so if you have a yen to explore the universe, or bring in additional characters I didn't list, it's all good.

If you want more information about my requests, read on - but please don't worry if your ideas go in a different direction. Optional details are optional! As long as it's for one of these fandoms, and uses the characters, you totally win at Yuletide. \o/


( my fic tastes )

Why I love these fandoms

(Alphabetical, not ranked by preference! I love them all. :)

( Burn Notice )

( Invisible Man )

( Night Court )

( Peacemakers )

Truly, I adore all these fandoms, and will be happy with absolutely anything you write, as long as you enjoy writing it.

And thank you, again!!

Thank you so much! The thought of a story in any of these fandoms is already making me happy. Whatever you want to do with them, I'm already grateful, and the happier you are with what you write, the happier I'll be reading it. If you have an idea that you're itching to write, go for it!

I love all four of these fandoms unreservedly, so if you have a yen to explore the universe, or bring in additional characters I didn't list, it's all good.

If you want more information about my requests, though, read on - but please don't worry if your ideas go in a different direction. Optional details are optional! As long as it's for one of these fandoms, and uses the characters, you totally win at Yuletide. \o/

( my fic tastes )

Why I love these fandoms

(Alphabetical, not ranked by preference! I love them all. :)

( Crusoe )

( The Equalizer )

( Invisible Man )

( Night Court )

Truly, I adore all these fandoms, and will be happy with absolutely anything you write, as long as you enjoy writing it.

And thank you, again!!

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you so much! I've been refreshing the fandoms list and bouncing at the sight of gold numbers next to all of my requests, and I'm so happy you're writing one of them!

My prompts were a little vague, partly because I love surprises -- so it almost never occurs to me to think "what kind of story do I want to get?" -- and partly because I didn't want to make you feel obligated to meet any requirements. Seriously, whatever you want to write is great, and the happier you are with what you write, the happier I'll be reading it. If you have an idea that you're itching to write, go for it!

If you want or need more info, though:

( my fic tastes )

( why I love these fandoms )

And thank you, again!!

I've scoured the web and come up with what I hope is a fairly complete list of I-Man stories, writers, vids, archives, mailing lists, LJ communities, transcripts, and episode guides.

Invisible Man master list

The stories are split out by gen / het / slash and by pairing, but that's it -- no ratings, no warnings, no recs. I'm not listing stories on archives, only things I find on individual pages.*

If I'm missing anything, I would love to hear about it, either here or by email.

Please do pass the URL around to anywhere it might be useful. Thanks!


*The exceptions are teeny-tiny archives, or multi-fandom archives with tiny I-Man sections that seem unlikely to ever be expanded, or "archives" that are really one or two people's collected work. But once something gets up to 10-15+ stories by more than a couple of people, I list it strictly in the archive section.