As it turns out, this Esteemed Reporter whose deep investigative journalism has, over the past three years, sought to expose the homosexual liaisons between the founding fathers who are so near and dear to this college, is not the only fan on campus of such illicit affairs. Over the course of my in-depth and somber research—which, let me assure you, consisted of many hours scouring evidence and getting on Debbie’s good side so she lets me in the Secret Campus Archives—I made a fascinating discovery.
The chronically online among us may have heard of a wonderful little website called ArchiveofOurOwn.org (Ao3). Now, as pertaining to my research, I find it helpful on occassion to monitor the online goings-on of the founding father fandom. (Try saying that five times fast.) Now, you may be thinking to yourself: do you mean the “Hamilton” fandom? Of Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson and HIV catfishing infamy?
Well, not exactly. There is also the musical “1776,” of which John Adams and our very own John Dickinson are characters. There is also just straight up American Revolution RPF (real person fiction). All of those things fall into this category, and I consider it my duty to stay up to date with the internet meme representations of my favorite objects of study so that I may remain “hip with the youth,” as it were.
So imagine my surprise when I logged in the other day and discovered a fanfiction entitled “why can’t you see? (you belong with me).” It is an 300k-word, coffeeshop AU behemoth, featuring a slow-burn, angsty enemies-to-lovers love triangle with a healthy dose of pining. As it turned out, the main ship was Dickinrush, otherwise known as John Dickinson x Benjamin Rush. (The other member of the love triangle was Thomas Jefferson, whose historical liasons with both men I have detailed in my previous reporting.) Give it up for old man yaoi, everybody!
What really piqued my interest, however, was the profile of the writer. Ao3 user “FormerFederalJudge77” has written a number of works, though “why can’t you see? (you belong with me)” is apparently their first foray into historical RPF. Their past works include a number of fics about Reylo (Rey X Kylo Ren from “Star Wars”) and Olive and Adam from “The Love Hypothesis,” a spicy romance of particular BookTok novelty. So, at first it was not clear to me why the writer would suddenly make such a big genre shift, until I took a closer look at the username.
Your Esteemed Reporter is not the only one on campus who appreciates the historical dalliances between the founding fathers of this college—let’s all band together to support the budding fanfiction career of John E. Jones!
