Chapter Text
Read the Fics!
What Remains by Theseblankpages
be right back. by xavierdolls
Together, We'll Survive by stingingscorpion
stingingscorpion's Desert Island Fic: your heirs know not your tombs by breezered
Transcript by MrsBlueBacon
EFA Episode 201- Zombieland
[ph] – Indicates preceding word has been spelled phonetically
[sic] – Indicates preceding word has been transcribed verbatim
MUSIC : Write My Story by Olly Anna
ANNOUNCER GUY : You've tuned in to the Earp Fiction Addiction, a fan podcast all about Wynonna Earp fanfiction. Join our intrepid host DarkWiccan and Delayne as they dive deep into the sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, and always varied world of fanfiction for the Wynonna Earp fandom.
MUSIC : A Proper Story by Darren Korb
DARKWICCAN : Hi everybody and welcome back to season two of the Earp Fiction Addiction. The podcast dedicated entirely to Wynonna Earp fanfiction. I am your host, DarkWiccan, and with me, as always, and returning for more is my delightful co host...
DELAYNE : Hi, it’s Delayne.
DARKWICCAN : And we are so excited to be back for season two.
DELAYNE : Beyond excited. Oh my gosh. Uh, hi DARKWICCAN. It feels like it’s been forever. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : It does. I almost forgot what your voice sounded like. I had to go back and relisten to some of the season one episodes to refresh my memory.
DELAYNE : Of all my giggling.
DARKWICCAN : Of all your giggling, yes. [laughter] But, uh, I think we’ve got a really exciting season ahead of us.
DELAYNE : Uh, wow. ‘Cause you have it, you have it well planned. We are...I think we definitely have our stuff together. We know what we’re doing now for sure, and I feel a lot more organized and prepared.
DARKWICCAN : Yes, we definitely...we know who we are, we know what we want, and we know for the most part how to do it.
DELAYNE : [laughter] For the most part. Doesn’t mean I always do the things i know how to do, but I do know what is needed to be done.
DARKWICCAN : Ok, fair. So a lot of stuff has happened since our season finale. I went to EHCon Canada and hosted a fanfiction writers panel which was pretty cool.
DELAYNE : That was awesome to watch. Wish I had been there in person.
DARKWICCAN : I do, too, friend. I do, too. Well, there are cons ahead of us that we will be participating in. Including, Earp CouchCon.
DELAYNE : Ehhh.
DARKWICCAN : Which is the convention taking place in November. I wanna say it’s the weekend of the seventeenth of November. It's really nifty ‘cause anyone can attend and it’s free because it happens online.
DELAYNE : The online EarperCon.
DARKWICCAN : Yes.
DELAYNE : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : Yes, it’s for all the comicants. Everybody is a comican for this one, which I think is pretty awesome.
DELAYNE : Right?!
DARKWICCAN : So we’re very excited to be doing that. We’re gonna have a videoed episode of the show for that. So, that’s gonna be pretty wild. People will be able to see our lovely faces and hopefully we don’t break too many computer screens.
DELAYNE : You’ll see all of the giggling I do, right. This is gonna be…[laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, right. I mean, ya know, we’ll…
DELAYNE : I’ll try to be more prepared.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Uh, and what else has happened? Oh, we hit one thousand Twitter followers, today.
DELAYNE : Today.
DARKWICCAN : To-day. I mean, how auspicious is that, that we hit one thousand followers on our Twitter feed the day we start recording season two. Uh, first episode of season two. I mean that’s pretty frickin’ cool.
DELAYNE : Right? Amazing.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] I’m trying to think. Is there any other stuff that we’ve done recently? Between our season finale and now? Have we just been working and prepping. Like what have you been up to these past couple months?
DELAYNE : Oh, yeah, work. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Boring, boring work.
DELAYNE : Adulting isn’t fun anymore.
DARKWICCAN : I know, it’s not right? That’s why we have this podcast though, so maybe we should get down to business, what do you say.
DELAYNE : I agree wholeheartedly because this podcast makes life better.
DARKWICCAN : Absolutely. I completely and totally agree. It’s one of the things...fans of Wynonna Earp talk about this all the time. About how this show has changed our lives. Well, this is not hyperbole. It has truly changed our lives.
DELAYNE : Truth. Definitely.
DARKWICCAN : Ok, well, today. Or I should not say today because everyone knows that we record weeks in advance, but the date that this airs is October twenty-ninth. So, we all know what’s happening in a couple days.
DELAYNE : Halloween!
DARKWICCAN : Halloween! [eerie sound] or something. That sounded more like a ghost getting tickled, I think.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] That didn’t sound very spooky. What’s it that IT star says, “spoopy”? I think that sounded more spoopy.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : But anyway, Halloween is happening in a couple days so we thought we would do a sort of kind of Halloween themed season opener. So, this episode, all of the fics that we are discussing today have to do with the undead topic we all love: zombies.
DELAYNE : “The undead topic we all love.” [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Well, I don’t know. I suppose the undead topic we all love could also be Doc, but…
DELAYNE : Ooooh.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Too soon? Was that too soon?
DELAYNE : I think it was just right. We’ll see.
DARKWICCAN : Just right.
DELAYNE : We’ll know when this airs.
DARKWICCAN : Yes, we’ll find out. You’ll let us know all one thousand Twitter followers how you felt about that joke. Ok, so. Let’s dive in.
DELAYNE : Uh, yeah. Yeah, we should.
DARKWICCAN : So, we have three fics to talk about today and of course, as I mentioned, the common theme is zombies, or zombie-ism and so the first fic that we’re gonna talk about today is a work called “What Remains” by Theseblankpages. This is an unfinished fic, it was heavily inspired by elements of The Walking Dead , and I’m gonna be honest. Of the three fics we have, it has the most kind of simplistic writing, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Theseblankpages does a very good job giving us clear, vivid imagery of the scenes that they’re setting, and they tell a story well. Would they benefit from having a beta come through and do a little grammarly clean-up? Sure. But really, what captured me about this...
DELAYNE : Who wouldn’t? I mean, honestly. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Well, true. I mean we get on the beta train all the time.
DELAYNE : Yeah. [choo choo train sound]
DARKWICCAN : Carry over from season one. That’s just gonna be the case in season two, as well.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Sorry, didn’t mean to derail you there.
DARKWICCAN : No problem. The train will continue on from the station, but this is a good story, and it’s really fun to see, especially Waverly and Wynonna and they do a really good job writing sisterly banter between the two of them and really showing the strength of their bond with each other. Now, of course, this is a Wynonna Earp fanfiction, so that means that WayHaught is gonna be involved, and that’s no different here. We first meet Nicole in the very first chapter and we learn a little bit about her and that she’s been a little bit of a loner on her own for awhile in this post-apocalyptic world. When she is stumbled across by Waverly and Wynonna when they are out on a run, and where this story is similar to The Walking Dead, if you’re familiar with the comic book series or the television series, I wanna say season five of The Walking Dead where they end up in the little kind of village.
DELAYNE : Umm...
DARKWICCAN : That had been walled in?
DELAYNE : So here is the point where I say “I don’t consume a lot of other zombie related things”, so I have no idea.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Ok, well, anyone who watches The Walking Dead knows what I’m talking about. I think it’s season five. I kinda stopped watching once they killed Flynn, so I don’t really know what happened after that point, but in the final season leading up to that moment on the show. They’re in this sort of haven that has a name and I can’t remember the name of it. It’s essentially a gated community that they really reinforced the gates and raised the walls up and kind of became a self-sufficient community. So that’s essentially the idea here, that Theseblankpages is working with, where Purgatory is that community with the giant walls and a semi-functional, but more functioning than not-functioning community inside, that whether she likes it or not is being led by Wynonna.
DELAYNE : [laughter] That definitely was an interesting choice in leadership, but...
DARKWICCAN : Is it? Is it though? It’s one of those things where Wynonna’s always kind of been a reluctant leader.
DELAYNE : Right, I...so, I’m not saying it’s a bad choice, it’s an interesting choice. There’s multiple ways this could have gone. I definitely like that Wynonna is the reluctant leader because it’s funny, but it’s an interesting choice in that there really were so many choices that could have been made in this sort of instance ‘cause I might not consume a lot of zombie things, I know Resident Evil and that’s pretty much it, but the post-apocalyptic little safe haven community is a common theme.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, it’s a trope. I just think it’s always interesting to see how creators are going to use that trope.
DELAYNE : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : And in this instance, and as I mentioned before, this story is unfinished, we’re only six chapters in at this point. So, we don’t really know what is going to happen next from where we currently are, but, I mean, the thing that Theseblankpages does make very clear is that this community is a strong and functional community, even with idiots involved like Champ Hardy. And yes, Champ Hardy is there.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : And he is the Champiest Champ that ever did Champ.
DELAYNE : [laughter] That was well said.
DARKWICCAN : Thank you. And I don’t know that we need to spare him any more breath, unless there’s something you want to say.
DELAYNE : Yeah, no. Fuckin’ Champ, man.
DARKWICCAN : Here’s one thing I will say for Champ. He is a lot of fun for writers to utilize.
DELAYNE : Yes.
DARKWICCAN : He’s such a tool, and he is a tool, so...
DELAYNE : He’s the tooliest [ph] tool. Like he’s the champiest Champ.
DARKWICCAN : So, it’s fun. You can’t see it, but I’m doing air quotes. It’s “fun” to watch authors take him and put him into situations where it just showcases his absolutely Champy-ness. It’s just kind of satisfying when he gets himself into a really bad situation. You’re like “muahahaha yes Champ, suffer. Suffer at your own idiocy.”
DELAYNE : I’m trying to remember. Are these zombies quick or slow?
DARKWICCAN : I think they were mostly staggerers. I don’t recall there being runners or anything like that, like in other zombie media. I think this is pretty much based more on The Walking Dead , or I should say inspired by The Walking Dead and so you do have your staggerers, you have your zombies that are a little less decayed that are gonna move a little quicker than zombies that are more decayed, but you don’t have any full out sprinting zombies. You don’t have any marathon running zombies. Or I should say...
DELAYNE : Right, in [Run] Zombies, Run . I think that’s the only zombie thing and I didn’t get very far on that.
DARKWICCAN : Oh, that’s makes me wanna get back into it. I need to get back into that. So, anyway, like I said it’s a great work, it is a simple, quick read. It’s a little less than twenty thousand words at this point, six chapters in. Give it a gander, it’s a lot of fun. I’m enjoying it. Delayne, what do you think?
DELAYNE : Yeah, and it looks like. I’m looking at the chapters, and there was a significant break, but it looks like they picked it back up recently, so hopefully that momentum will be maintained.
DARKWICCAN : I hope so, fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. So that’s “What Remains” by Theseblankpages. Delayne, what’s our next story?
DELAYNE : Up next, is “be right back” by xavierdolls.
DARKWICCAN : Oh, yeah. This is an interesting one.
DELAYNE : This is very interesting, and, boy I really like the concept of the zombies in this one. If you hadn’t pointed it out to me that it is also inspired by another tv show, In the Flesh , which what did you say?
DARKWICCAN : It’s a British show, yeah.
DELAYNE : So, the dead are...the zombies in this aren’t quick, but they’re also not super infectious.
DARKWICCAN : Right, and we’re sort of past the main apocalypse at this point.
DELAYNE : Right, it wasn’t super quick, everything goes to hell in a handbasket and everyone’s got themselves holed up in their little haven villages. No, they’re still kind of running town as normal and Nicole is a cop there in Purgatory, right?
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, yeah. The story does take place in Purgatory and essentially, the premise of the piece, if you’re not familiar with the BBC3 show In the Flesh , the premise is that this is actually after the zombie apocalypse has more or less concluded and society as been able to maintain its structure in general and individuals who were infected by the virus, they kind of have two outcomes.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : And one is better than the other. But the essential premise is that there is a medical treatment for zombie-ism I guess, where individuals infected have to take daily injections and pills to essentially keep their brain functioning as a normal, alive human brain. Which, of course, would suppress the need to eat people.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : But the thing is they have to stay on this very, very strict regimen of injections and pills. And if they miss an injection or they miss a dose, the fact is that they might relapse. If you can call it a relapse.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Right?
DARKWICCAN : Or return to their zombie state and become a serious threat. So it’s kind of like living in a house with a tripwire bomb, ya know.
DELAYNE : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] And so it’s very, very dangerous and disconcerting and nerve wracking for everyone involved.
DELAYNE : Yeah, and the way this opens up to that intense scene of there’s something after Nicole, she’s there by herself, they’re making noise on her radio, and you don’t want noise ‘cause that attracts them, but yeah that first chapter, that grabbed me like “yeah, we are in a zombie apocalypse” and then we get to chapter two like, “wait a minute”.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, so I have to say, this version of the story that is posted. I want to say it’s the third version that xavierdolls has posted. Initially, I think they got as far as seven chapters, and then they took it down, I might be overestimating the chapter count, but I know that I was definitely invested and reading. Every time a new chapter posted, I was there. I wanted to read what happened next, and then they took it down and I was very sad. And then it came back, and I got excited, and they posted like one chapter, and then it went down again. And they’ve just reposted it again, for the third. Again, I might be wrong, but I really feel like this is their third comeback here. But they’ve been taking a film writing course so they were influenced by this writing course to go in and make the opening a lot more cinematic and visual and I gotta say, they really succeeded.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Right?
DARKWICCAN : It definitely gets your heart going. And I was so confused, I was SO confused because the chapter that is there now as chapter one was not chapter one before, it wasn’t even a chapter. It was more flashbacks that happened within other chapters later on in their original posting. So...
DELAYNE : So you got to see the evolution of this story. That makes me...I feel like s slacker when I don’t get to stuff right away. And this is the wonderful things that I miss, especially if they make big, big changes.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, yeah. Now, one thing I will say, is because they’ve taken it down and put it back up and taken it down and put it back up, and rewritten a lot of stuff, there are some, again, beta’s are great, there are some grammatical, punctuation and spelling issues that pop up that are a result of an author who is very excited to get this new idea onto the page. And just excited to get it out there and there’s some little errors here and there. I only bring this up because I know myself as a reader, if I’m reading along and suddenly I run into an error that’s clearly an accident. It’s almost like you’re walking along a road and then randomly you trip over a crack in the road and it takes you a second to recover and sometimes you look back at the crack and you scold it.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : And then you focus forward again. I just want people to know in advance that as they’re going in, because the writing is solid. Oh my gosh. As Delayne said, it just captures ya, you get sucked right in.
DELAYNE : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : And something that we’ve been speaking around, is who the zombie is in this scenario.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : But I don’t know if we should give it away.
DELAYNE : I...well, actually, it’s here in the summary.
DARKWICCAN : Ok, so it is in the summary. Alright, ok. So, yes, you may read the summary.
DELAYNE : The dead come back and Wynonna is one of them.
DARKWICCAN : And I kinda wish that they hadn’t put that in the summary because I think. No, no, because let me tell you something...
DELAYNE : Right, because the cliffhanger on chapter one is so great, right?
DARKWICCAN : Exactly. Exactly. So hey, if you’re listening, xavier, take that part out and umm, everyone listening forget about it because...
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] because when I first read it for the first time, that wasn’t in the description. And as you know, I don’t read notes anyway so that wasn’t in the description so I had no idea and again, the original first chapter isn’t the current first chapter and so it really was like a...when the reveal was done in the original first chapter it was very much a “Oh my god! WHAT?” So that was a nice fun discovery. But I do really like, and tell me if you agree, I do really like how Waverly and Nicole are a married couple and how we get this idea that years have passed since the last time they had seen Wynonna.
DELAYNE : Right. It took me a moment to sort of situate it where it would sort of lie in canon. And when Nicole first takes care of that zombie. And, see, I had read the summary, so I had a suspicion of who the zombie might be. I was a little bit confused as to why Nicole didn’t recognize her, but we get to that at least.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, we get to that.
DELAYNE : So, your point of maybe taking that out of the summary would have helped. Because I would have been “Ooh, who is it…” ya know. Confused me a little less, but then through the second chapter and the back story starts to come out that they have, they are married, they have been together.
DARKWICCAN : They’ve done renovations on the homestead.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Right?! Major renovations. It looks like a model home, or something in a magazine.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, and at the time. Ya know, gosh it’s so difficult because I don’t wanna reveal too much, especially because they’ve just started reposting the story, they’re at three out of ten chapters. I have a feeling that they’re basically finished and they’re just going back and doing tweaks now. But, ya know, I don’t wanna...the story is so young and it’s one of those things where I know more because I was lucky enough to read the earlier version, so I’m having to like mentally edit myself while I’m speaking because I’m like “oh wait, I can’t…”
DELAYNE : “That hasn’t been mentioned yet, oh crap.” And I’m sitting here completely, happily oblivious.
DARKWICCAN : Yes. Well, why don’t we keep you and our listeners oblivious and move onto our next story. But, before we do that, again, “be right back” by xavierdolls. This is definitely one that you’re gonna want to check out and keep an eye on and I’m hoping that by the time this episode is airing, we’ve got a couple more chapters posted for people to enjoy.
DELAYNE : Right.
DARKWICCAN : Ok. So, we’re up to our third and final fic for today. The only completed fic of our selections.
DELAYNE : Yes.
DARKWICCAN : That we are aware of at the time we are recording. And this one is called “Together, We’ll Survive” by stingingscorpion, and you guys, it’s so good. Now, I am not a fan of the whole cordyceps zombie thing. This is something that has become popular recently, with newer zombie storytelling. Where you have the whole idea carried over from nature of the cordyceps spores in nature that attack insects and burrough into their brains and basically make them zombies and make them go and infect their hives and what have you. And I think World War Z the movie was based on this concept, which I feel so bad for Max Brooks, because he was absolutely furious about the way his story had been manipulated and change from the book, which is far superior, but that’s another story for another day. The point is, I don’t like cordyceps zombies. I don’t. I don’t like the idea of a sprinting zombie. I don’t like the idea of...I mean, I don’t mind the idea of mushroom zombies, like zombies with mushrooms growing on them, that’s fine. But I don’t like the idea of this whole infectious spore deelybob [ph] it being the thing that spreads the virus or whatever, but that’s just me. Now, I say all that to say this.
DELAYNE : See, yeah. You say virus though, but that’s different.
DARKWICCAN : I know, but you know what I’m saying, like it’s either a fungal infection or a viral infection.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Yes.
DARKWICCAN : So in this case it’s a fungal infection. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Ok, fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Cool. Cool. Cool. Whatever. I say all that to say this...that is the type of zombies in this story, and this story is so good, I don’t care.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Said in my best valley girl sound, “I don’t care.”
DELAYNE : [laughter] Ok, so I don’t know...this is the first that I’ve really encountered this kind of zombie, ‘cause like I said, I don’t really consume zombie related things, but I do know in the notes, which I know you don’t read. It’s based on a video game. It’s inspired by The Last of Us .
DARKWICCAN : Ok.
DELAYNE : So, if you’re thinking about it in terms of a video game, if all you’re fighting is the same [zombie noise] kind of zombie over and over again, not fun. So, this setup allows for different types of zombies, therefore different things to fight, which makes the fighting action scenes in the video game more fun. So, there’s that side of it. Thought I’d put that out there.
DARKWICCAN : Ok, no, that’s fair. That’s absolutely fair. I would argue to that point that there...even if you’re only dealing with slow zombies, there are many different types of encounters with zombies in different scenarios, even if they are all slow, staggering zombies, that could up the ante considerably. Where they don’t necessarily need to have different abilities. That being said...
DELAYNE : Right, if you’re really good at writing and doing that sort of thing.
DARKWICCAN : Right. That being said, I know The Last of Us is really popular, I know they basically made, or a character canonically queer now, so that’s awesome, that’s fantastic, yay, go them, that’s great. But like I said, I don’t care what kind of zombies are in this story because this story is not about the zombies. As any good zombie story is, it’s not about the zombies.
DELAYNE : Correct.
DARKWICCAN : This story is about the people surviving. And one kind of carry over from other zombie/apocalypse media is that not only are the dead dangerous, the living are just as if not more so as dangerous because they have their full faculties and are able to make immoral choices for the sake of surviving.
DELAYNE : Right.
DARKWICCAN : So, that’s what we have here, and I love, LOVE, the story structure and it may be that the story structure is based off the story structure of the video game, I don’t care.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : I love the story structure. Because to me, it reminds me of comic book structure.
DELAYNE : Ok, I can see that.
DARKWICCAN : You know what I’m saying?
DELAYNE : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah. Yeah, ok. Where you have a series of stories that are part of a larger arc, but they’re broken up into three or four books. Right, so, you know the first one is a four parter searching for Wynonna Earp, and then we’ve got a two parter, and then we’ve got another four parter, and then we have a two parter, and then a one shot.
DELAYNE : [laughter] And then a three parter just for an uneven number.
DARKWICCAN : Exactly. I am just. I love it. I love the way this is set up. It also makes reading this story, which is, again, complete at twenty-seven chapters and over a hundred seventy thousand words. It makes the story move more quickly.
DELAYNE : Right?!
DARKWICCAN : ‘Cause you’re not bogged down. There’s this one arc, large arc, that goes over the entire story, but it doesn’t bog down the storytelling. Because in each of these sort of, I’m just gonna call them books. In each of these books, you have another arc that takes the focus of that book before it moves on to the next book. And, so, again, masterful story structure here. Excellent storytelling. stingingscorpion writes action sequences so well.
DELAYNE : And that’s not easy to do. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : No, we’ve talked about this before. Someone who can write a good action sequences is extremely talented, because action is hard. You have to remember where everyone is, what everyone is doing, ya know you have to think about physics, you have to think about stamina, you have to think about all sorts of things. Ya know, is this person strong enough to be able to throw a punch that would break a nose, is this, no, I’m serious.
DELAYNE : [laughter] No, you’re right. ‘Cause speaking of stamina, how often do people come running up out of nowhere and they’re having a normal conversation the next moment. And in this, like when Nicole’s like “give me a moment, I’m trying to breathe here”, ya know.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah exactly. There’s one sequence where Nicole is rescuing Waverly and she’s having to carry her for some distance. And I’m not gonna give the circumstances, but she’s having to carry her for some distance and she’s running with her in her arms, and she’s running for quite awhile and you get to feel her fatigue. You feel how exhausted she is. She’s also dealing with her own injury, ya know. There’s a point where the adrenaline runs out, but you have to keep going because you don’t know what is on your tail.
DELAYNE : You don’t have a choice.
DARKWICCAN : Exactly because if it’s not a situation of getting away from something, it’s a situation of getting to something else a lot of times. That could be safety, your team, or a weapon, or fill in the blank.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : But, yeah, I mean, man, that sequence stuck with me. ‘Cause Nicole was just exhausted and then she had to go and continue to care for Waverly even though she was injured and exhausted and her body was like “uh huh”. She still had to care for Waverly who was in far worse condition. Wanna find out what happens folks? Read the story.
DELAYNE : So, ya know how last season we did that thing where we interview authors?
DARKWICCAN : Oh yeah, that thing. That thing. That old chestnut.
DELAYNE : Can we do that again?
DARKWICCAN : Really? You wanna do that?
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : We don’t have to, but if you feel strongly about it, we can absolutely do that.
DELAYNE : I feel very strongly about it.
DARKWICCAN : You do? Ok, well, ya know what I’ll follow your gut instinct on this one Delayne and I’ll say yes. Let us. Let us continue the tradition of interviewing authors of our favorite stories.
DELAYNE : Fantastic.
DARKWICCAN : Great. Who are we talking to?
DELAYNE : We...so, we’ll be talking to stingingscorpion about “Together, We’ll Survive”.
DARKWICCAN : Awesome. Hey, Delayne, that sounds great, but there’s another tradition that we need to carry on.
DELAYNE : And what tradition is that DW?
[CONTENT CENSORED - SEE FULL TRANSCRIPT AT EFAPODCAST.COM]
MUSIC : The Undead Lounge by Sideshow Sound Theatre
DARKWICCAN : Hey everybody, and welcome back to this extra spooky episode of the Earp Fiction Addiction , the podcast dedicated entirely to Wynonna Earp fanfiction. I am your host DarkWiccan, and with me, as always, is the delightful and scary…
DELAYNE : Ha, it’s Delayne.
DARKWICCAN : You should have gone “muahahaha it’s Delayne”, but that’s ok.
DELAYNE : [laughter] I am NOT very scary.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
DELAYNE : I really am not.
DARKWICCAN : You’re not. You’re really not. You’re like an adorable little spook. But as we mentioned prior to the break, we today are talking about zombie fics, and, or, fics of the undead. And um, we are going to be chatting today with the author of the last story that we talked about before we went into our sponsorship spot. And that story is “Together, We’ll Survive” by stingingscorpion, who today we’re gonna call RJ. RJ, welcome to the show.
RJ : Thanks for having me.
DARKWICCAN : Well, thanks for coming on. We mentioned in the first half of the show this is sort of our Halloween special because it’s two things at once. It’s the first show of the season and it’s two or three days before Halloween, so we thought this was a good time to kinda get a little spooktacular.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Let’s talk about some zombies.
RJ : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah.
RJ : Sounds like a good time.
DARKWICCAN : So, do you have plans for this Halloween.
RJ : I do not, actually. Actually, yes I do, I’m going to Disney. That’s right.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Oh, hey, right on. Nice.
DELAYNE : That’s kind of a big plan.
DARKWICCAN : That is a very big plan.
RJ : I can’t believe I forgot about that.
DARKWICCAN : How can you forget about Disney at Halloween?
RJ : No idea.
DARKWICCAN : Oh man, so are you gonna check out the Haunted Mansion redecoration for Nightmare Before Christmas ?
RJ : Yes.
DARKWICCAN : Are you a Nightmare Before Christmas fan?
RJ : No, but my sister’s boyfriend is like obsessed, so I’m gonna get an earful. I don’t think he knows that I haven’t seen it yet, so he’s gonna be devastated.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Oh, you haven’t seen it yet?
RJ : No. That’s my bad.
DARKWICCAN : Wow! I think you’re the only person...
RJ : Me too.
DARKWICCAN : I think children in utero have seen that movie. Ok, but still, that sounds like a fantastic Halloween. And speaking of spooky things, this story you’ve written is quite spooky, and I’m just kind of curious, um, how did you get into, well, Wynonna Earp itself is basically a supernatural thriller, so is that what attracted you to writing, was it Wynonna Earp , and if so, how did you get into that? How did you get into this whole writing thing? Not necessarily writing the story, but what got you into writing in the first place.
RJ : Whoo. Umm. I started watching Wynonna Earp because I’d heard about it across Tumblr and I was like “Oh, that sounds very interesting” so I finally caught up in time to watch 2x09 onwards. So, I thought the show was very different, I was fairly invested and there’s this gaming event that happens usually in October or November and it’s called Paris Games Week, and the last time I was there, last year, and they came out with a new trailer and it just kind of came to me, “What if I was to do some kind of crossover?” ‘cause I needed to write, I’d been out of writing for a little bit, so just thought I’d see how that would work out.
DELAYNE : So, have you written fanfic before? Or...
RJ : Mostly original content.
DELAYNE : Ok.
RJ : It was nice to leave that for a little bit, though.
DARKWICCAN : Have you submitted this original content online, or for publishing, or is it just something that you were doing for fun, or…”
RJ : I hope it gets published one day.
DARKWICCAN : That’d be cool. That’d be very cool. [laughter] Can I ask, was it like, what sort of genre were you writing for when you were writing original stuff?
RJ : It’s all sci-fi, I’m just a nerd.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Nice. Hey, we’re all nerds here man. Embrace it.
DELAYNE : So, you mentioned seeing The Last of Us at, you said it was a gaming convention right? When they released the second trailer?
RJ : Yeah, like a convention, yep, or a conference.
DELAYNE : Conference sounds much more official than a convention. [laughter]
RJ : I could not think of the word. I was like “It’s that letter I don’t remember.”
DELAYNE : “It starts with con”.
RJ : [laughter]
DELAYNE : ‘Cause I was wondering if you were playing the game and got the inspiration or if you were watching the show and got the inspiration. It sounds like your story is a little different than that, so, I guess, do you want to elaborate more on that first inspiration of combining the two.
RJ : I mostly just wanted to see Wynonna Earp against zombies.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] That’s fair.
RJ : Like what kind of sarcastic things would she say?
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, your Wynonna is absolutely, very...your Wynonna is Wynonna. You’ve definitely captured her voice really, really fantastically. She’s got a lot of really terrific one-liners, and her snark is on point.
RJ : [laughter]
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Would you say that zombie flicks [ph], are you drawn to the zombie genre at all? Or was it just so happen that this game kind of caught you the right way and you went “huh, I really wanna mash this up and see how it would look”?
RJ : Yeah. I don’t really have a problem with zombie flicks [ph], but after awhile it’s like “ok, I get it”, but The Last of Us that was just, “this game is kinda special. Let’s see how this goes.”
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, ya know, it felt at times like the characters were fighting through increasingly difficult levels and sort of bosses so was the structure of the story purposefully similar to that of The Last of Us as far as a videogame that you’re playing?
RJ : Not on purpose. I actually hadn’t thought about that.
DARKWICCAN : Something we were talking about before the break was that, for me anyway, this really read almost like a comic book series. Where you have a whole run of books that are broken up into individual story arcs.
RJ : Uh-huh.
DARKWICCAN : But you have one large arc that goes, that runs, like threads from the beginning to end. In this case, the thread was getting to Sanctuary. But they have all these little adventures along the way. To me, it read a lot like a comic book series where you have the four books where they’re trying to tackle this plot and then that plot’s resolved and it moves on to the next and there’s a one shot thrown in the middle sometimes and then there’s a two-fer [ph], so was that intentional or did it just kind of shake out that way?
RJ : It was intentional. It is really similar to the game though. Like they just kind of run into a bunch of different people on their way to where they’re going.
DELAYNE : So was it kind of like side quests, ya know, or you have to complete the side quests with these people you’ve just encountered to get the thing you need to continue. I haven’t played the game, so I’m not sure.
RJ : Yeah. I’d say so, yeah. They don’t really give you a choice. They’re like “you have to kill these guys to get out” and you’re like “oh I don’t have any ammo”.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
RJ : “I just used it on the last room. Great!”
DELAYNE : Alright, note to self: if I play the game, ammo is hard to find. [laughter]
RJ : Do not use any ammo.
DELAYNE : So, your chapter titles are fun. And the ones that are split into multi-parts. I was picturing you were writing and it got super long, and you’re like “ok, I’m just gonna break this into parts” or did you sort of plan it to be multiple parts?
RJ : Sort of? I was editing something else at the time, so I was like “I don’t want this to have long chapters ‘cause I’m gonna have to edit this too” and then I just kinda, like the further along the story went, I was like “no, I need the longer chapters”. At first it started like “no, I want short chapters” and then it was like “screw it. Let’s go for it”. And I’m pretty sure Nicole’s town chapter was like eighteen thousand words.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : mmhmm yeah
RJ : I was like “oh God”.
DARKWICCAN : I think that was the longest chapter of all of them.
RJ : Yeah.
DARKWICCAN : So, one thing that is paramount and central to any good zombie story are, of course, action sequences trying to fend off zombies or, often, other humans who are actually a lot more dangerous than the undead. Your action sequences are really, really well written. Very vivid. Quick paced. You know where everyone is. You know what’s happening. There's a good build up of tension and there are moments where we wonder “will our heroes make it?” So, a good action sequence is really, really hard to write and you have got tons of terrific sequences, just one after the other in this story. How difficult was it constructing all of these many different action sequences and making them all unique to each other?
RJ : Oh, well, thank you. Umm, [sigh] the gun fights were ridiculously hard ‘cause gunfights can get so, like boring so fast, ‘cause you’re like “ok, you guys have guns. Cool. What else?” So, I really turned to the game for different like “Jeremy has a bomb, Wynonna has a molotov. Let’s add that in and spice it up a little bit. Let’s add in some fist fights.” So, I think like choreographing and like just writing out what I wanted to happen was fine, and then you actually get to writing it, and you’re like “ok, let’s see if we can figure this out.” Sometimes it turned out great the first time, sometimes I had to rewrite it like four times. Like, I think, there’s that Pearly sister section, and at the end of it there’s this giant shootout and I had like different plans for that. I don’t even think that scene was supposed to happen and it just did.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : I was looking at it and I was like “shit. This is awesome. Let’s keep that. Hopefully I can do this again.”
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : So, really, it’s all just luck.
DELAYNE : All luck? There’s gotta be some skill in there, I’m just sayin’.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah.
RJ : I don’t know.
DELAYNE :
DARKWICCAN : I mean there must be ‘cause you’ve gotta keep track of where everybody is, what everybody’s doing, you have to think about physics, you have to think about cause and effect, you have to think about all sorts of stuff that you’re juggling together to make a believable and impactful and intense action sequence and I think, personally, I’ve got a couple favorite sequences. My main favorite is the one pretty early on where Waverly accidentally trips a trap and gets zipped up into the air by her ankles. And then everyone’s trying to defend her while getting her down while under fire.
RJ : Aww.
DARKWICCAN : I mean, it’s just...I think there are zombies there as well, there’s a lot going on. And despite this sort of chaos, I was still able to follow, very clearly, what was happening the whole time, and the tension and the build up was still very, very palpable. And then my other favorite one is the fight with the Tatenhills [ph].
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : Oh, I love that one.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, that was a great sequence.
RJ : LOVE that one.
DARKWICCAN : That was such a great…’cause it literally spanned across the entire property.
RJ : They just wouldn’t die.
DARKWICCAN : They started on one side of the property and ended on the other side of the property down by the little river, crick [ph] thing. You had the added element of the snow and the risk of hypothermia and all this other stuff going in. That was just...gosh, you’re really terrific at writing action sequences.
RJ : [laughter] Thank you.
DARKWICCAN : I just wanna give you a little badge.
DELAYNE : Are we gonna actually start giving out ribbons now? Is that… [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] I don’t know… [laughter]
RJ : [laughter]
DELAYNE : [unintelligible]
DARKWICCAN : We’ll just do the verbal kudos. KUDOS! Good job.
RJ : I remember that fighting sequence. I thought it would be...like that second one where Nicole like finally kills them and then she’s like “oh my god”. I just remember she like...I’m pretty sure I had her like throw a snowball at Hetty.
DARKWICCAN : You did. You did and it was so brilliant. It was like...
RJ : And then Hetty tried it and she couldn’t make it so Nicole was just like “ok then”.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah. Yes.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : ‘Cause it was just...it was hilarious but also still terrifying. It was...
DELAYNE : That definitely makes scary situations easier to deal with, is when there’s humor thrown in there. ‘Cause I don’t like scary things very well.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, absolutely.
DELAYNE : Yeah, lots of lots of action, but also lots and lots of everyone. Like everyone shows up in this fic. So, which...
RJ : Yep.
DELAYNE : Which of the side characters or groups, or scene, was the most difficult for you to incorporate into this fic?
RJ : Honestly, it wasn’t that difficult. I’m [laughter], I like to write with like multiple characters ‘cause I do believe stories should be character driven, so you deserve to see “how is so-in-so going to react to this, who’s our logical person?”
DELAYNE : So, if incorporating them wasn’t difficult, then which one was your favorite one to incorporate?
RJ : Nicole. [laughter] Nicole. Nicole and Wynonna, always.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, you definitely had a lot of fun with Nicole.
RJ : I did.
DARKWICCAN : You put that poor girl through the ringer, emotionally and mentally. You really did. I mean, first of all, you’ve got...
RJ : Oh, it’s fun.
DARKWICCAN : ...the ghost of Shae haunting her psyche. So, and then you’ve got a hell of a sad backstory, so, and rough difficult family members to deal with, so what inspired you? I’m most curious about Shae because that was such a psychological element. What inspired you to have Shae haunting Nicole?
RJ : I just wanted it to show like the subtle change like how Nicole starts off like “oh, boo me. I lost everything in my life”, like everybody else hasn’t, and just by the end it’s like “ok, I can say goodbye to you, I’ve found my people, I can accept that this has happened to me” and, I also think that Shae represents her self doubt. Especially when Waverly like first tried to ask her out and she was like “no, no”. And then ended up changing her mind and she’s like “well, these circumstances are exactly why we should be together ‘cause we could die at any minute, so why not?”
DARKWICCAN : Yeah [laughter] I mean, hey gotta strike while the iron is hot. Badum bum [ph] Hey-o. I crack myself up.
RJ : [laughter]
DELAYNE : It’s important to laugh at yourself.
DARKWICCAN : Ahem ahem [ph]. Yes. Where did the idea for Victoria Haught come from? She is a piece a [sic] work.
RJ : She is. Honestly, I have no idea.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : You don’t know?
RJ : No idea. Just like woo [ph]. I knew that I wanted her brother to be like a force of good, so I thought maybe let’s make her sister the opposite and see where that goes. ‘Cause Nicole’s just so like patient, so I was like “why don’t we just push that”.
DELAYNE : There’s always an evil one in a group of siblings.
RJ : Always.
DARKWICCAN : You’re the evil one, right Delayne?
DELAYNE : Yes, I am the youngest. I am the evil one in my family. Ask my brothers.
DARKWICCAN : Now, in the case of the Haught children, Nicole was the baby, right?
RJ : Yeah, ironically.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah [laughter] Who was your favorite original character to play with?
RJ : Ooh, I think Victoria. It’s nice to play, to write like an asshole character.
DARKWICCAN : Did you funnel your darkest thoughts into her?
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : [laughter] Maybe.
DARKWICCAN : Can I ask, do you have siblings?
RJ : Yes. Just one.
DARKWICCAN : Ok, just one. Are you the good one or the bad one? [laughter]
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : [laughter] I am the bad one.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Aww, you fess [sic] up to it, huh?
RJ : I fess up. I own it.
DARKWICCAN : Did you...this is something that Delayne understands and I don’t ‘cause I am an only child, so I can only kind of imagine what it’s like to have siblings, but did you like bring any of the interplay of, and not necessarily like actual things that happened to you and your sibling, but any time that you wrote Victoria and Nicole interacting, was there an element of something that you were drawing from your own experience with your...I keep saying sibling ‘cause I don’t know if you have a brother or a sister.
RJ : A sister. [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : A sister, yea.
RJ : I didn’t though. My sister’s too nice to be an asshole. It’s annoying.
DELAYNE : [laughter] Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being the nice sister.
RJ : She teaches kids how to read. How do you make fun of that? I hate it.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : So you didn’t get into any sort of spats with her when you guys were kids growing up?
RJ : We did, but I started all of them.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Wow, you ARE Victoria. So, we know that Victoria is your favorite original character to write. Of the television show characters that you brought in that acted in more of an antagonistic way, which of them was your favorite to bring out to play?
RJ : Ooh. I want, well, everyone says Bobo, but I want to say the Jack of Knives, just because he’s so scary.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Yes.
RJ : He’s like terrifying, and I’m a sadist, so of course I had fun with that chapter.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Did you scare yourself writing that sequence?
RJ : Oh my god. Funny story, so it was like...sometimes I write at very questionable hours of the night. Just, yeah. And I was listening to this, oh god. It was a horror game, but I was listening to the soundtrack as I had him like chasing Wynonna, and it was really affecting me, and then my frickin’ dog pops out of nowhere and scares the living hell out of me at like two in the morning, so I had to like walk away for a little bit.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter]
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : I was like, “alright thanks dog.”
DELAYNE : I can’t even, like just the idea. Oh my god. There’s a reason I write fluff, ok.
RJ : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : So, right now you’re working on another piece, Assassin’s Creed: Purgatory, which is another story that is being based off a video game. Would you say that video games are hugely inspiring for you as a writer?
RJ : Yes. Yes, I get some of my best ideas from video games.
DARKWICCAN : So, any other potentials on the sketch board that you might be considering for the Wynonna Earp universe down the line?
RJ : I had, there’s this really old game called Sly Cooper and basically they’re just thieves, so I was like “ok, Wynonna Earp as a thief, come on”. That one I’m definitely doing.
DARKWICCAN : That would be a lot of fun.
DELAYNE : [laughter] I did think of my idea and it goes back to having Shae haunt Nicole, and you said that was her self doubt and now that we’ve seen season three where Wynonna has Mama talking to her, as her doubt, like were you, was that a fun parallel to watch?
RJ : Yes. I saw that, I was like “oh my god, I did that.”
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] You’re like “the Wynonna writers are in my brain”.
RJ : It’s a conspiracy.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : Or, great minds think alike.
RJ : I like that better.
DARKWICCAN : Yeah, great minds think alike, absolutely. Well, RJ, it has been so much fun chatting with you today. I love talking about zombies. I’m actually a huge fan of zombies in film genre and book genre, and I will talk about video games, I’m also a huge fan of gaming as well. So combining everything together and talking also about my other favorite topic, Wynonna Earp , has been delightful.
RJ : [laughter] Well, same here.
DARKWICCAN : Awesome. And so, but now that you know we’re at the end, that you know what’s coming next right?
RJ : Oh yes. I am ready.
DELAYNE : Insert maniacal laughter. Here comes the muahahaha [ph].
DARKWICCAN : Well done Delayne. Ok, follow up that fantastic maniacal laugh with our final question.
DELAYNE : Alright, you are stranded on a spooky deserted island and have only one fanfic to read, what is it?
RJ : [sigh] What the hell was the name? “your heirs know not your tombs” by breezered. It was a Wynonna Earp / Uncharted AU and it was frickin’ awesome. And it’s unfinished. It was so great. Yeah, it ended at like a really like “oh shit” and now we’re never gonna know.
DARKWICCAN : So, you’d be stranded on this desert island with an unfinished fic?
RJ : Frustration. It’s my motivation to get back.
DELAYNE : [laughter] You are hardcore, man.
DARKWICCAN : Oh man, that is hilarious. That would be great motivation to get back. You’re like “I have to know what happens next”.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : I have to finish this.
DELAYNE : And appropriate. Isn’t Uncharted like, I don’t know. I clearly don’t play enough games.
RJ : He does get into a lot of trouble.
DARKWICCAN : [laughter] So, that’s “your heirs know not your tombs” by breezered, or if we wanna be all Shakespearean about it, breezer-ed [sic].
DELAYNE : [laughter]
DARKWICCAN : We’ll provide a link to that unfinished fic in our show notes for this episode. In the meantime, thank you again, RJ, also known as stingingscorpion, for coming on the show and chatting with us today about your fic, “Together, We’ll Survive”, the amazing The Last of Us / Wynonna Earp mashup AU. Highly recommend everybody jump on that and read before Halloween. Only a couple days away, so thank you again RJ. I hope you have a fantastic time at DisneyLand listening to your sister’s boyfriend talk about a movie that you’ve never seen.
DELAYNE : [laughter]
RJ : Thank you for having me.
DARKWICCAN : And everybody else, Happy Halloween. muahahaha
MUSIC : Don't Deal with the Devil by Kristoffer Madigan
DARKWICCAN : And that's all for this episode of the Earp Fiction Addiction. Thanks for joining us. Tremendous thanks to stingingscorpion for joining us to talk about their fic 'Together, We'll Survive'. Thanks as always to our announcer Byron Tidwell for our intro.
Background music for the episode was: A Proper Story by Darren Korb, The Music Box Souvenir Shop and The Undead Lounge by Sideshow Sound Theatre, and the outro music is Don't Deal with the Devil by Kristoffer Madigan.
If you have questions or comments for the podcast you can find us on Twitter at E-F-A underscore Podcast and on Facebook at E-F-A Podcast. And you can find all of our episodes, old and new, at our website E-F-A Podcast dot com. And if you're listening on iTunes, please take a moment to rate and review our show.
Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you'll join us again next time for another episode of the Earp Fiction Addiction. Until then, READ MORE FIC!