Sunshine Challenge: Red

[impala_chick]

Red reminds me of Pendragon red! And the Canadian Snowbirds. My assignment for camelot remix this year was to write fic for amph's art, and I was so excited because look at this art! I did a deep dive into the Snowbirds, females in the Canadian military, and Canadian slang; I have so much respect for the Snowbirds now.


(Original Post)

Looking to the Sky (the Oh Canada remix) (8896 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Military, Alternate Universe - Canada, Pilots, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, News Media, POV Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), First Meetings, Getting to Know Each Other, Awesome Morgana (Merlin), Mention of Uther Pendragon, Getting Together, Pining, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Women in the Military, Angst with a Happy Ending
Summary:

It's Arthur's last year as a Snowbirds pilot, and he wants to ensure the squadron has the best year they've ever had. He's confident that his half-sister Morgana will be their new rising star, but he's completely unprepared to meet his match in the form of pilot Merlin Emrys.

Comments

[unavee]

That's a great picture. I liked the story, too! It was interesting to learn about the Snowbirds. I liked the call signs. And I thought it was a neat take on the magic reveal.

[impala_chick]

Thank you so much :) Magic reveals are so fun to write.

[enemytosleep]

I think remixes became popular during my internet hiatus and I've never quite figured out how they work! The art is very cute and I'd love to hear more about the event if you care to share.

[impala_chick]

Remixes are fun! So basically, authors and artists sign up and list which works they'd be willing to let other artists or authors "remix." Then, you look at your assigned person's works and pick one to work with. You write another work based on the original. Remix writing usually means taking the tropes and applying them to new characters, exploring a different point of view than the one the original author wrote, or making an AU of the fic i.e. with a different beginning or ending; or a different time period. It's pretty open ended, just as long as the new work is different but related. For remixing art, it's a little easier because you can just write fic that is inspired by the art. Sometimes I felt a bit of pressure, because if the original is very well loved it's hard to figure out how to "top it" or do something better. But once I let go of that and just let myself be creative, it became way more fun to participate.

[enemytosleep]

Ah okay, that sounds like it could be really fun. I'm definitely more keen to include them in events of interest now that I know what they actually are. xD I know Google exists but sometimes it doesn't quite have the answers.

[impala_chick]

Especially when it comes to fandom events, google isn't always the best! I know some other remixes run a bit differently and have people sign up with just one work, or maybe there's a "starting work" that everyone remixes off of, but I've enjoyed each fandom variation every time I've participated.

❤️

[oldtoadwoman]

I haven't seen Merlin, but the art is lovely. I say that I don't usually care for AUs, but that's mainly the coffee-shop AUs or the college AUs, which too often feel a bit lazy.(There's no trope that can't be brilliant in the hands of the right author though and I've read a lot of great stuff that sounded like it would be ridiculous when it was recommended to me so that's not a blanket rejection of all college/coffee-shop stories.) But when it's a complex AU, it can be fantastic. I think the first such AU I read years ago was a Due South fic where all the characters were re-cast as hockey players. I think my first reaction was "But why would…?" and the person recommending it was "Just read it!"

A story about pilots has me curious enough that I'm considering reading it even though I don't know the source show.

Re: ❤️

[impala_chick]

I totally agree with this. Mundane AUs like coffee shop AUs can be a little dry and lack any semblance of plot. But I do love AUs that get detailed about something the author obviously knows a lot about, because then I feel like I'm learning something new and I also can tell the author put a lot of thought into how the characters would fit into that world. Speaking of Hockey AUs, there are some great ones out there. I never watched hockey in RL until fandom introduced me to the sport, lol.

I hope I did enough research to do this AU justice. At least it was fun to do a deep dive and try to bring in elements of other Merlin AUs that I like.