I vid, I write, but mostly I fangirl. Formally almost exclusively over Marvel's Agents of Shield, but then Daredevil happened. And now Arrow. Also Black Sails and Mr Robot. But Skyeward is still the flagship of my fleet.
Unsure where this came from, if not the palsied hands of the good Lord himself.
Simple premise: Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” slipped from 45 to 33 rpm. Nothing more; no studio trickery, no trip hop drum breaks. The guitar lopes back in and around itself. The bass becomes elastic, hot rubber. The violin stabs become sustained cello lines. The backing choir’s split harmony rattles around, slinking ghostly into the corner. And most importantly, Parton’s once-frantic vocal is transformed from bubblegum country scrawl into something approximating field holler reverence.
@vesperass-anuna and I decided it was high time to have a love fest for our favorite @evieoh. Because, who doesn’t need a love fest every so often?
There is one simple goal: Make Evie smile (and if we’re lucky, she’ll do the face scrunchy thing - and I don’t care if no one else gets that, she does and it’s awesome)
Here’s how you can do that. Reblog this post and add things that you think she might like. Post independent posts and tag her in them. Fill up her inbox with delightful messages. Message her posts and messages.
What kinds of things make Evie smile?
Tell her about how awesome she is
Tell her about your favorite of her stories or an especially awesome moment from one
Talk about the photo collages she’s done for tons of fic for many authors
Puppies, kittens, cute baby animals
Her favorite shows (she has a ton listed on her blog header)
Her ships (Skyeward, Logan x Veronica, Bellarke, Sydney x Vaughan, etc)
Give her music recommendations
Videos you think she’ll like (music or other)
A story that she’d like, either a personal anecdote or a ficlet or drabble.
Tell her why you followed her/became friends with her in the first place.
Ask her about her travels.
Basically, anything you can think of to make her feel loved. Tag her in as much of it as you can, so she makes sure to see it, and use the hashtag “#evie appreciation fest”.
Here, I’ll go first:
I think very first direct interaction I had with Evie was in an AO3 comment thread. I can’t remember which fic it was, but I had been seeing her comments for awhile and been super impressed with them. I ended up replying to one, basically saying “Everything she just said!” I think that’s why I started following her here. Then I saw she started posting photo collages for a ton of Skyeward fics that I loved immensely (both the collage and the story). After a few of them, I put in an ask telling her how much I loved them, and she answered it. (I still have that answer in my inbox and it’s never going to be deleted.) One day, she put up a post asking for someone to look over a story she’d written, and I responded right away. I wanted to get into editing but didn’t know how to approach anyone and she needed an editor. She emailed me the story, I edited it, and we started messaging all the time. At first it was about the story, but very quickly it expanded to other aspects of the fandom, then slowly more and more about our day to day lives. We kept marveling (and keep doing so) over how similar we are and how well we understand the other. She’s now one of my best friends, even though she lives on the other side of the world. I am incredibly grateful for her friendship, because it happened at a time where I felt rather isolated from my RL people and needed someone. She has been amazing and supportive and always there to either talk me through what’s going on or distract me from it.
I regularly flail over Evie’s amazing fic and gorgeous art on my blog, so I am so on board with throwing a little appreciation out there.
Evie, you constantly wow me and reduce me to flailing with all the awesome you contribute to my dashboard so a massive thank you for that. I’ve put together a little playlist for you, some of which I’m sure I’ve spammed you with before. ;)
Roman & Rogers are the No. 1 Detective Agency. From exposing cheating spouses to locating kidnapped billionaires, there is no case that Steve and Natasha can’t handle. So when Natasha proposes surveilance training to their receptionist, Darcy jumps at the chance.
Steve feels he should be outraged on his friend’s behalf. He was outraged when he first found out. Having someone spy on a paranoid and traumatised former intelligence asset seems like the worst idea imaginable. But this is the most sociable Bucky’s been for months and he’s actually connecting with the world again and there’s these moments where Steve can see the man Bucky used to be…
If only Natasha wasn’t so damn smug about the whole thing. They’re meant to be detectives, not matchmakers. Too bad Natasha believes in multitasking.
Like for real. I have subjected 2 people to my angry rants about how betrayed I feel right now. (apologies again to those people in question.) But dammit, HOW COULD THEY????
Going in, I pretty much had zero expectations of a “good” film. Seriously. I said to my film buddy that as long as Liam Hemsworth whipped off his shirt at some point, I’d be happy. (SPOILER ALERT: He doesn’t. *pouty face*)
But then at somewhere around 30 minutes in, they introduce easily the best character in the whole film. And suddenly I was like, wait. what???? No! Why aren’t we watching this story?
WHY WERE WE NOT WATCHING THE STORY OF DIKEMBE UMBUTU?
Spoilers for the “plot” of ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ below the cut
So Dikembe, like his father before him, is viewed by the UN as a Warlord. This is because when all those ships touched down in the first film, THE ONE IN AFRICA ENGAGED IN A GROUND ASSAULT.
That’s right. While the rest of the world partied at the end of I4, THERE WAS THE BEGINNINGS OF A TEN YEAR GROUND WAR AGAINST THE ALIENS IN AFRICA.
And Africa won. By themselves. Be being better. By learning the alien language. By learning how to hunt and kill the hunters.
For 10 years.
This film should have been Dikembe’s story because holy shit, do I want to see that story.
Think about it.
His father (Who following his amazing performance in ‘Beasts of no Nation, is played by Idris Elba) is a brutal Warlord who terrorises both civilians and his two sons. However, when the aliens invade, his army is the only defense humanity has.
The man whose name struck fear into the hearts of many is now their protector, giving birth to a complex ambiguous character who is both hero and villian, while somehow, somehow his sons have retained their humanity. (Ideally through an amazingly strong mother figure).
They teach themselves how to read and understand the alien language through stealth raids on the alien ship. They learn how to silently stalk a superior force armed only with machetes. (Hit them from behind. You kill them from behind.)
And then, Dikembe’s brother sacrifices his life so his brother may live and assume the mantel that their fallen father left behind.
Add in the fact that the UN and outside agencies see Dikembe as nothing more than exactly the same as his father, and the fact that this conflict barely features in the news outside of Africa, and you could have had: the most heart rending character arc ever; a pointed commentary on News Values in the Western World; AND THE MOST TENSE AND EPIC ACTION FILM TO BE FILMED.
SERIOUSLY. WHY WAS THIS NOT THE STORY WE WERE SHOWN?
Oh wait. I answered my question two paragraphs above....
I was determined only to wear him for a while and then dispose of him when his purpose was complete…Am I ready to let him go? Truth is, every day I’ve worn that name I’ve hated him a little more. I’ve been ready to return him to the sea for a long time.
Phillip Coulson is as close to a father figure as Skye has ever had, so when he asks her to go infiltrate the notorious John Garrett’s organization and get close to his second in command, Grant Ward, to help him bring them down, she is only too happy to comply.
But nothing is what it seems, and as she gets drawn further into the shades of grey that exist in this new world, and the closer she grows to the enigmatic Grant Ward, the harder it becomes for her to know which side she is really on and how she can save herself from the danger that is closing in.
I’ve never been more ashamed to be british. Today, instead of choosing unity and progression, we’ve chosen to cut ourselves off from the world in an attempt to appease the xenophobic nature of the older generation
For those of you who aren’t from the uk, the national referendum held yesterday has shown that the british people have voted (at 51.9% to 48.9%) to leave the european union. This was in large brought about by the old and poorly educated who blame immigrants for our problems, despite the net benefit they bring to our country, and the fact that many of these people will not have to live with the consequences of their decision for long
Less than a few hours have passed since the result was announced and already:
our prime minister has resigned (though he was unpopular the people poised to replace him are far worse)
the pound has fallen to levels not seen since 1985
Nigel Farage (leader of the most prominent far right party in the uk and at the head of the leave campaign) has already started backing out of promises to voters by being unable to guarantee the money we’ll save from the EU will go to the NHS instead
the UK itself looks poised to break apart in the next few years with Scotland (and to a lesser extent northern ireland) having voted to remain in the EU which will likely prompt another scottish referendum in which they’re more likely to leave
the far right parties of other countries such as france and the netherlands are demanding their own referendums and europe is crumbling
Nigel Farage has claimed this our ‘independence day’ and called for a bank holiday, which is hugely insulting to all the countries who actually had to fight for independence from imperialist britain
Tim Farron (head of the liberal democrats) phrased it nicely "Young people voted to remain by a considerable margin, but were outvoted. They were voting for their future, yet it has been taken from them.“
In short, our country has given in to hate, bigotry, and fear and has voted away the future of the younger generation. If there’s anything to learn from this it’s that the far right is on the rise. Don’t make the mistake of being complacent. Don’t let Trump win, don’t let any other EU countries vote themselves out of the running, and most importantly don’t forget to vote
Roman & Rogers are the No. 1 Detective Agency. From exposing cheating spouses to locating kidnapped billionaires, there is no case that Steve and Natasha can’t handle. So when Natasha proposes surveilance training to their receptionist, Darcy jumps at the chance.
Steve feels he should be outraged on his friend’s behalf. He was outraged when he first found out. Having someone spy on a paranoid and traumatised former intelligence asset seems like the worst idea imaginable. But this is the most sociable Bucky’s been for months and he’s actually connecting with the world again and there’s these moments where Steve can see the man Bucky used to be...
If only Natasha wasn’t so damn smug about the whole thing. They’re meant to be detectives, not matchmakers. Too bad Natasha believes in multitasking.
@amidtheflowers was after some Wintershock fic recs that aren’t too dark, ideally with HEAs, so I’m going to add some I’ve read recently and enjoyed, and people add to it, plsthx? One shots and completed only.
Blame It On The Rain by methusalahoneysuckle - lovely smutty one shot
Here I Am, Here I Stand by inkbert - A story in two parts. Part one rips your heart out, part two puts it back together, Darcy is never less than awesome.
Making A Point by @becisvolatile - Short and smutty, but with bonus feels
Three Weeks, Ten States, and One Million Reasons to Fall for You by @leftylain - The first in a series, this was the story which first sold me on Wintershock.
There’s Blood in My Mouth ‘Cause I’ve Been Biting My Tongue All Week by Wand_of_Thunder - short and sweet
and I wonder (if everything could ever feel this real forever) by sarcastic_fina - long one shot with a built in happy ending.
There’s also the fluffy and hilarious Pizza Dog and Pizza verse series by @pollydoodles, which is ongoing.
This is an awesome list. (Thank you for including me, @latessitrice. YOU ARE THE BEST!) I want to add two, if I may, because they are my most favoritey favorite.
In the Blue Dark by @hardboiledmeggs (polexia_aphrodite on ao3) - This was the first Wintershock fic I read, and remains my hands down favorite. The UST is phenomenal, the smut as well, and the way she writes Bucky and Darcy falling for each other is everything a Wintershock story should be.
and
The Importance of Pop Culture Awareness series by @bionically-ironic - I can’t love this enough. It’s funny, well-written, full of hilarious characterizations, and has the perfect amount of crack. The whole damn series is a delight, and I love it.
Writing and reading fanfic is a masterclass in characterisation.
Consider: in order to successfully write two different “versions” of the same character - let alone ten, or fifty, or a hundred - you have to make an informed judgement about their core personality traits, distinguishing between the results of nature and nurture, and decide how best to replicate those conditions in a new narrative context. The character you produce has to be recognisably congruent with the canonical version, yet distinct enough to fit within a different - perhaps wildly so - story. And you physically can’t accomplish this if the character in question is poorly understood, or viewed as a stereotype, or one-dimensional. Yes, you can still produce the fic, but chances are, if your interest in or knowledge of the character(s) is that shallow, you’re not going to bother in the first place.
Because ficwriters care about nuance, and they especially care about continuity - not just literal continuity, in the sense of corroborating established facts, but the far more important (and yet more frequently neglected) emotional continuity. Too often in film and TV canons in particular, emotional continuity is mistakenly viewed as a synonym for static characterisation, and therefore held anathema: if the character(s) don’t change, then where’s the story? But emotional continuity isn’t anti-change; it’s pro-context. It means showing how the character gets from Point A to Point B as an actual journey, not just dumping them in a new location and yelling Because Reasons! while moving on to the next development. Emotional continuity requires a close reading, not just of the letter of the canon, but its spirit - the beats between the dialogue; the implications never overtly stated, but which must logically occur off-screen. As such, emotional continuity is often the first casualty of canonical forward momentum: when each new TV season demands the creation of a new challenge for the protagonists, regardless of where and how we left them last, then dealing with the consequences of what’s already happened is automatically put on the backburner.
Fanfic does not do this.
Fanfic embraces the gaps in the narrative, the gracenotes in characterisation that the original story glosses, forgets or simply doesn’t find time for. That’s not all it does, of course, but in the context of learning how to write characters, it’s vital, because it teaches ficwriters - and fic readers - the difference between rich and cardboard characters. A rich character is one whose original incarnation is detailed enough that, in order to put them in fanfic, the writer has to consider which elements of their personality are integral to their existence, which clash irreparably with the new setting, and which can be modified to fit, to say nothing of how this adapted version works with other similarly adapted characters. A cardboard character, by contrast, boasts so few original or distinct attributes that the ficwriter has to invent them almost out of whole cloth. Note, please, that attributes are not necessarily synonymous with details in this context: we might know a character’s favourite song and their number of siblings, but if this information gives us no actual insight into them as a person, then it’s only window-dressing. By the same token, we might know very few concrete facts about a character, but still have an incredibly well-developed sense of their personhood on the basis of their actions.
The fact that ficwriters en masse - or even the same ficwriter in different AUs - can produce multiple contradictory yet still fundamentally believable incarnations of the same person is a testament to their understanding of characterisation, emotional continuity and narrative.
