so i like coffee far more than i really suspected

Randomly during lunch reading the coffee shop/high school AU thread on ffa and who writes them and why, I was trying to work out if I have ever even read a coffee shop AU because honestly, I couldn't think of one except the Inception one I was recced while in a three AM chat convo fugue state and I still don't know the title because the rec was The Coffee Shop With Delicious Pastry one or something. I mean, now I do since I'm looking at it, but I'll forget in about five minutes because it's, you know, The Coffee Shop With Delicious Pastry one.

Sidenote: okay, I mentioned doing this years ago, but I actually still log on delicious everything I read by fandom and pairing, month, year, month/year, author. No, not kidding. The new delicious is way too annoying now for me to achieve the most accurate reflection of my anal nature to have more tags than actual stories, but I figured on the theory that any fandom that I read more than 100 fic in, probability suggests I should have at least a few that involve coffee shops. I lost plausible deniability on my reading habits being highly driven less by quality or believability and far more by specific id buttons the day I read the surprise!magical cannibalism fivesome semi-RPS serial killer AU fic because unrepentant evil being cuddly with each other in the afterglow of violent crime that also seems to include a digression into a la carte-ing the remains satisfies the part of me that likes how strong relationships are based on shared interests. Apparently, adding in spontaneous shared snacking on human flesh is no longer a dealbreaker, and no, I'm just not even thinking about that too hard if i can help it.

I got off topic there.

Survey says; I apparently read a lot of these, but for reasons, I've never thought of them specifically as coffee shop AU fics because this more a thematic thing for me. Most of them, unsurprising, are what I re-read during periods one might call stressful and need to be soothed, but not all of them are exactly coffee shop AUs. All of them involve coffee, sometimes to the degree it could qualify as its own character, because I associate a triple espresso with comfort and meaning in life. A couple of these are not only fandoms that I have no knowledge of the canon of, but if I remember correctly, I was unaware existed, but somehow involve people in coffee shops, though not necessarily a coffee shop AU. I really don't even remember how I found some of these, to be honest. While I'm not sure on this being universal in my readings, I sense there's a high probability that there is at least one scene in most of them where a character's coffee order requires ten or more separate terms to describe it, because I just really seem to like complicate coffee products.

It vaguely bothers me that I very early on picked up my taste for dystopia, apocalypses, wholesale urban destruction, anything involving a lot of high powered weaponry including anything involving a sharpened blade, rain, and domestic efforts at remodeling a shared space (it's curtain AU, but like, with power tools and a working design theme by one of the characters), but that Inception fic was literally (from dates so far) the first of a whole series of I Feel Things About Characters And Coffee and I didn't even notice I've been engaged in a really intense relationship with coffee through the medium of a surprising variety of characters, some whose canon may preclude being corporeal, much less the existence of coffee.

Pastries seem to show up a lot, too, but that could be because I was hungry at the time and unconsciously gravitated toward vicarious eating.

I don't know how I feel about this development in my fannish habits.

Comments

[out_there]

I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York). Still my favourite Inception story and my favourite coffee-shop AU, but it's not the only one I've read (I've read at least one other in Inception fandom, two in SGA, and I'm sure they're scattered around other fandoms).

(I had to check my AO3 bookmarks for that, but the fact that I knew which story says something awesome about how much I love it. Some days, I miss being in a fandom where dystopias and world-domination frequently happened; some days, I'm so glad that the big emotional turns are more likely to be based in real-world concerns like the right job and finding your own future.)

[seperis]

Yep, The Coffee Shop With Delicious Pastry one. I mean, in some ways, it's also pastry porn with all the lingering lovingly over the stress-cooked cakes and my God, I'm going to have to stop on the way home from work tomorrow and hit the nearest bakery like the fist of a starving god.

[out_there]

...hit the nearest bakery like the fist of a starving god.

BWAH! I have sudden visions of a very hungry Thor and a wreck bakery left behind.

[exceptinsects]

Links please! I adore coffee, and coffee shops, and coffee shop AUs!

[seperis]

I'm actually going to try and tag and organize my log on the next day off I have that isn't completely insanely busy. I'll probably start with finding and tagging those.

[ruric]

the surprise!magical cannibalism fivesome semi-RPS serial killer AU fic

You can't possibly cite this and not give us a link! Come on! That's just not fair *G*

[seperis]

Sent DW message.

[bookshop]

surprise!magical cannibalism fivesome semi-RPS serial killer AU fic because unrepentant evil being cuddly with each other in the afterglow of violent crime

HOLY SHIT what the hell i want this in my life, please.

i have much love for this post. <3

[seperis]

It's my go-to comfort fic right now, and it's just too utterly surreal to even worry about what that means. I have to admit, both the utilization of a RL Canadian serial killer and the reason they went with him of all the RL living serial killers in the world just killed me in the metatexual sense.

And even in fandom, not many authors have this level of utterly unself-conscious box what box am I outside of when they write. I wish I could think like that.

[bookshop]

i think the closest i've come is writing a 35k Light/L happy ending, because god I love gay serial killer, slash, haha. i got some flack for being self-indulgent, but i don't regret it at all, it was awesome, haha.

may i please have a link to the fic? i tried to look on your delicious, but it's servers are ALWAYS fucking down for me nowadays, sigh. and anyway, the only canadian serial killer i know is Karla Homolka, so I'd probably be a bit out of luck, haha.

[ellixis]

Light/L happy ending? Er - may I?

[bookshop]

Haha, knock yourself out! :D http://ningenfucker.livejournal.com

[christycorr]

It's funny, because I didn't really realise coffeeshop AUs were really A Thing until fairly recently, too! Rather surprising, since I've become kind of anal about tagging AUs by type on Pinboard lately—but I just lumped them in with restaurant AUs of all kinds. I started setting aside coffeeshop AUs, tagging them as such, after seeing someone on fandom_secrets whining about precisely that same Inception AU.

...Now that I think about it, it may be more practical to simply tag them all as food!AUs. Which would also take care of, like, SGA fics where Rodney is a cookie or a lemon or whatever. Hmm.

Anyway, yes—I think I rather have a soft spot for them, too. But, unlike pretty much every other fic kink of mine, I have no idea why. Huh.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I think for me it was totally a trees and forest thing, because I was just in it for the coffee porn, basically. Now that I'm paying attention, wow, that's a genuine AU category all on its own.

Anyway, yes—I think I rather have a soft spot for them, too. But, unlike pretty much every other fic kink of mine, I have no idea why. Huh.

I'm still really hazy on why I like writing about rain so much as entirely separate from the take the wet clothes off pre-porn aspect. I have people not just porning in the rain, but doing completely mundane activities that really, no reason I couldn't put them indoors, but nope, I make them do it soaking wet in mud. I've actually created entire plotlines just to get this one scene I really wanted to write of a character standing in the rain. It's baffling, but viscerally satisfying in some way.

[two-of-tree.livejournal.com]

Even though I can't have caffeine any more, I can trace my coffee-as-comfort-fic origin back to a combination of cafe-based study group meet-ups, pre/post-dissection drinks, choir rehearsal meal-replacements and reading that same Inception AU at a ridiculous time when I should have been reading about, I don't know, blastula development? I think.

What I'm trying to say is that coffee became intrinsically linked with everything I love and obsess over in life even before I read I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile; hence the sudden coffee = soothing connection, despite the fact that by then it was the (delicious) enemy rather than a (delicious) pick-me-up? (I don't think it was obvious though until all the not!fic I was sending my equally caffeine-dependent friend happened to have characters smelling/drinking/experiencing coffee in some way, regardless of fandom or genre or canon drink preferences...)

Anyway, I empathise! Have Grande Soy Triple Dirty Chai (http://archiveofourown.org/works/265877?view_adult=true) and The Stars and Scones Bakery and Coffee Shop (http://archiveofourown.org/works/313271/chapters/501824) in case you haven't read them.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

You. Are. Marvelous. I don't think I've read those yet either. *bounces*

[singletailwhip.livejournal.com]

Uh... surely you've read Esteefee's "Fair Trade" series, where John owns a coffee shop in San Francisco and Rodney is a customer? http://archiveofourown.org/series/305

If you haven't, you are in for a real treat, and it's definitely one of those "comfort fics" for me. Maybe it will be for you too. You can practically smell the roasting beans, she's created such a rich, well fleshed-out world.

She was kind enough to meet me at the very shop she used for her inspiration. :-) What a lovely way to meet a new fen it was!

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha oh my god, I didn't realize Remodeling Shared Space was, like, a thing for you, but I feel like I should be liveblogging my misadventures in Domestic Sprite-hood (I'd say Goddess except for how AHAHAHAHA ok sure). Also, coffee shops are soothing.

I remember bandom had some coffee shop AUs, but not too many other examples to rec, sorry.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

I tried to write a SGA coffeeshop AU. And then I decided it sucked.

And then I started writing a Merlin coffeeshop AU. Never finished.

Maybe I will, now? For you?