Yuletide reveal
Jan. 2nd, 2019 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eccentric_hatI thought twice about signing up for Yuletide this year. I was working on another fic, I knew I'd have a very busy fall, and I couldn't remember why I started doing this exchange in the first place except that I was excited about having free time after finishing grad school. But it worked out well! This was the first year I came into Yuletide full of new-fandom feels and got to use them for my assignment, and the first year I wrote and received fic in the same fandom. It was a bit of a SURROUND SOUND sensation, and I enjoyed being so immersed, especially because I'm sure this fandom won't be Yuletide-eligible forever. I wrote this:
This is mostly a team-bonding story, but I threw in some feelings of nameless dread to keep things interesting (and seasonal! there's a reason it was December when I wrote about the idea of being terrified by angels). I also did a couple of new-to-me things technically. The emotional arc of this story mostly takes place in someone other than the point-of-view character, and whom the POV character doesn't understand particularly well (going along with that, I made a point of going against my early fic-writing tendencies and making the Pine Guard bad at reading each other's facial expressions). In a sidelong way this story reflects the same emotional logic as feeling scared about global warming so you go doorknocking--the fresh air and physical tiredness of the endeavor are almost as important as whether anybody answers. So what's going on with Aubrey is very familiar to me, but Duck, who is the POV character in this fic, is confused about it, since it makes little actual sense and he is skilled at ignoring weird shit. I'm sympathetic to that--a couple of his lines in this story are directly taken from conversations I've had and felt unequal to. Plus I enjoy his position as a local who suddenly acquires a new-in-town friend and isn't sure how to be friends with them.
I developed a couple headcanons that didn't make it into the fic, the main one being that when Duck says "I have a cat to feed" in an early episode of the show, he's being literal--he doesn't own a cat, he just feeds one. It comes around most days but not every day; he suspects it of having another home but it's still pretty skinny so he feeds it anyway. He doesn't want to just leave food out because that might attract skunks, so when he's home and sees the cat he takes out some food and stands there while the cat eats. He's petted it a couple times but only very carefully. It's been coming around for a couple months and he's a couple weeks away from the point where he's gonna name it. This seems to him like a meaningful responsibility he needs to keep up with, even though it doesn't look that way to anyone else. Also the reason he has Tuesdays off is that he works weekends, covering for the rangers with spouses and children who like to have Saturdays off. His colleagues act grateful for this but he likes having free time on weekdays.
Oh, and the reason Aubrey just appears at his door without warning is that she's a little socially wrong-footed without cell phones. She would have texted if she could, but calling seems no less intrusive than going over, so she just skips to that, reasoning that she really would be willing to leave and not hold a grudge if Duck told her it was a bad time. I think this is true. Aubrey's pretty self-aware. Part of what I like about her as a character is that she's in the grip of huge emotions and inexplicable forces a lot of the time but she's very conscious of that fact and wants to talk about it.
Spicy Bell Pepper with Thyme (3400 words) by Eccentric_Hat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Duck Newton, Aubrey Little, Edmund "Ned" Chicane, Barclay (The Adventure Zone)
Summary: The members of the Pine Guard try to take a day off. It's a mixed success.
This is mostly a team-bonding story, but I threw in some feelings of nameless dread to keep things interesting (and seasonal! there's a reason it was December when I wrote about the idea of being terrified by angels). I also did a couple of new-to-me things technically. The emotional arc of this story mostly takes place in someone other than the point-of-view character, and whom the POV character doesn't understand particularly well (going along with that, I made a point of going against my early fic-writing tendencies and making the Pine Guard bad at reading each other's facial expressions). In a sidelong way this story reflects the same emotional logic as feeling scared about global warming so you go doorknocking--the fresh air and physical tiredness of the endeavor are almost as important as whether anybody answers. So what's going on with Aubrey is very familiar to me, but Duck, who is the POV character in this fic, is confused about it, since it makes little actual sense and he is skilled at ignoring weird shit. I'm sympathetic to that--a couple of his lines in this story are directly taken from conversations I've had and felt unequal to. Plus I enjoy his position as a local who suddenly acquires a new-in-town friend and isn't sure how to be friends with them.
I developed a couple headcanons that didn't make it into the fic, the main one being that when Duck says "I have a cat to feed" in an early episode of the show, he's being literal--he doesn't own a cat, he just feeds one. It comes around most days but not every day; he suspects it of having another home but it's still pretty skinny so he feeds it anyway. He doesn't want to just leave food out because that might attract skunks, so when he's home and sees the cat he takes out some food and stands there while the cat eats. He's petted it a couple times but only very carefully. It's been coming around for a couple months and he's a couple weeks away from the point where he's gonna name it. This seems to him like a meaningful responsibility he needs to keep up with, even though it doesn't look that way to anyone else. Also the reason he has Tuesdays off is that he works weekends, covering for the rangers with spouses and children who like to have Saturdays off. His colleagues act grateful for this but he likes having free time on weekdays.
Oh, and the reason Aubrey just appears at his door without warning is that she's a little socially wrong-footed without cell phones. She would have texted if she could, but calling seems no less intrusive than going over, so she just skips to that, reasoning that she really would be willing to leave and not hold a grudge if Duck told her it was a bad time. I think this is true. Aubrey's pretty self-aware. Part of what I like about her as a character is that she's in the grip of huge emotions and inexplicable forces a lot of the time but she's very conscious of that fact and wants to talk about it.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 01:55 am (UTC)I really enjoyed reading about the thought that went into this fic!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 09:43 pm (UTC)