- The novel coronavirus has woven its way into nearly every facet of our online and offline lives, and that includes fan fiction.
- Works that feature quarantine, social distancing, or the virus itself have started to pop up on fan fiction sites like Archive of Our Own and Wattpad.
- Authors are using fan fiction as a means of coping with the situation, putting their favorite characters in situations that invoke classic fan fiction tropes.
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The novel coronavirus has become pervasive in every aspect of our offline and online reality, and that includes fan fiction. With people across the United States and most regions of the world cooped up in their homes and connecting with others via a digital tether, it was inevitable that some of them would take to writing fan fiction as a means of dealing with not only anxiety about the coronavirus but also coronavirus boredom.
A number of stories featuring elements of the current pandemic like social distancing, quarantine, or even panic-buying toilet paper have started to show up on fan fiction sites like Archive of Our Own and Wattpad. In one, NCIS characters share "peach quarantinis" while social distancing together.
In another, a character from anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is forced to reconnect with a friend in Florida after his flight to Japan is canceled when the borders close due to quarantine. In a fan fiction based off of Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, decides to create Covid-19 because she hasn't created a plague in a few decades.
For many fic writers, writing about the coronavirus — whether focusing on the big picture or mundane realities of everyday life while social distancing — is a means of finding a modicum of control in a situation that feels wildly out of hand.
17-year-old Krystal, who writes under the name TheLastWhiteRose on fan fiction platform Archive of Our Own, said that writing fic helps her deal with the crisis on a personal level. "[Writing] helps me deal with the situation on my own terms in a scenario I can control, because this entire coronavirus situation is just an issue of control for me," she said in a Twitter DM.
Her fan fiction, titled "Darling, I'd Stay With You Till The End of My Days," imagines two characters from recent video game release "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" buying toilet paper and menstrual pads at Trader Joe's. It's a relatable representation of the toilet paper panic buying behavior pervasive across the United States, and partially based off of Krystal's own difficulties trying to buy pads at the grocery store. "When I sat down to write, my anger kind of spilled over into the fic," she said.
While some are using fanfiction to cope with the current reality by subjecting their favorite characters to their plights, others are using fic as a means of escapism. One fanfiction titled "Coronavirus and Superhero Quarantines" imagines the Avengers trapped in Avengers Tower during a mandatory New York City lockdown. The situation is flipped into an all-out prank war given the character's boredom. "The scenario feels like a good fic set up because everyone's trapped in one place, so they are kind of forced to interact with only each other," 15-year-old Hannah, the author of the fic who publishes under the name han_man on Archive of Our Own, said over Twitter DM.
For Hannah, writing something so lighthearted was a means of escapism during a period where she has very little to do. "The coronavirus makes me nervous about the health of my grandparents and other people who I know could be seriously affected by it," she said. "I wanted to write something lighthearted to both take my mind off of the really bad parts of the virus and to make it feel more normal."
There's something innately reassuring about reading about Thor clinging to his Pop-Tarts as a lifeline like the rest of us trapped in our homes, the coronavirus is also an easy gateway to access a number of fan fiction tropes like hurt/comfort, angst, or characters being forced to share a bed or living space unexpectedly. Mutual self-isolation is the perfect set-up to force characters to work out their differences or realize their love for each other.
The coronavirus is on its path to becoming a fixture in fan fiction for the time being, especially given the fact that social distancing measures may need to remain in place for over a year. Ultimately, fic provides a way for authors to exercise control over the situation at hand — and maybe make their favorite characters smooch while they're at it.
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