Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Blast From the Past

Many years ago, when Xena was still running, a new(ish) trend began. The Uber fanfic. This was a different twist on an old theme - that of the AU (alternative universe). It was a new twist because it had canon roots. The very first Xena Uber was an episode of the show. The Xena Scrolls, which was itself a new twist on an old idea - the clip show. It let to a bit of fanfic using Mel & Janice, the protagonists from that episode.

At first the uber was tied very tightly to the show. The characters retained the names, Xena (or a near variation depending on time/location) and Gabrielle. Or they paralleled the back-story. Or the characters had dreams or memories of their past lives as bard and warrior. But as time went on a great number of these stories drew further away. The names changed, the back-story faded into the ether, only the descriptions remained - a tall, blue-eyed brunette and a shorter, green-eyed blonde. Especially as the stories became books. Published, paper, books. They were still, loosely, ubers but they would soon become true "original" fiction, bearing no real resemblance to the show at all. they merely retained the loyalty of the Xenites.

Back then (while the show was still on) there was a series that spanned the gap between worlds - not quite true original fiction, but not quite true uber. It was set in the world of TV (and played very nicely with the suspension of disbelief from time to time). Just like a TV show it came out as regular episodes. It had a huge following, eagerly awaiting the updates posted to the Yahoo group before being archived on that greatest of Xena sites - AUSXIP.

That series was Exposure. And its fans loved it so much that even when it stopped being updated they still followed it. And not just on the AUSXIP site. Week-by-week the yahoo group continued posting the episodes, returning to the first one and starting all over again, and again.

The group still runs. Unfortunately as with so many Yahoo groups where the original owner has moved on, the porn spammers have hit. But - the fans love the story so much they aren't willing to abandon it. As this message from the group shows.

    The EXPOSURE group is still around, but due to a spam takeover and the inability of anyone still left of the original owners/moderators being able to boot them(can you believe that not just ANYONE can boot a spammer?), the group has made a move to a new group. If you would like to join go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Exposure2_0/ . You will need to be approved by the owner or the moderator of the new group so be sure to make a comment as to why you would like to join. The spammers are already beating at the door and we don't want anyone who wants to join us (who won't spam us) to be rejected. We just started the episodes over, so come on by and visit with some old friends and maybe make some new ones!


    Tena - mod of the new group.


There you go - it's a bloody good read. Why not check it out??

See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you.

Ze

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