Rebels and Amagons (G)

[vilakins]

Title: Rebels and Amagons
Author: Vilakins
Rating : Gen
Fandom/claim: Blake's 7 in the style of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (a classic 1930s British children's novel) though none of the B7 characters are children
Pairings: None
Summary: After the shootout on Gauda Prime, Vila, Avon, Dayna, and Tarrant end up on the shores of a lake...

Comments

[entropy_house]

Dayna obviously loved camping. :^)

[vilakins]

She's an outdoors girl.

[executrix]

I've heard of but never read your source text, so I can't say if it's canon-compliant there, but I found this a very plausible way for PGP to work out for everybody. And Dayna is usually first against the wall, so I enjoyed seeing her have a real contribution to make.

And I'm glad to see Tarrant just the way I envision him--making a complete nuisance of himself. (I don't think I'll ever be able to think of him without seeing your illustrations, especially the Molesworth one.)

Very sweet, funny story, and yay for Amagonian female bonding!

[vilakins]

Thank you!

Hello space, hello planets, hello persute ships, he sa, dansing around like a tall drink of pansie water.

Nancy the ruthless pirate (whose piratical expressions I spacified, is one of my favourite characters in the books. Ransome wrote some wonderfully intelligent and tough female characters which makes him really stand out in the field.

[van]

This is really clever and . . . and cute, in a weird way, if that makes sense. Funny in starts and fits. I love the Avon and Vila octopus thing, and Tarrant being right and Vila trusting him and everything. It's really fun, and has a happy ending and everything! Soolin and Jenna together is just so fantastic. :D Great job!

[vilakins]

Thank you! I'm glad it works--to an extent--for people who don't know the source. :-)

I'm hoping a fan of the book will read it because a major plot point was Captain Flint's trunk (singular) and so far no one's got that little (well, large, considering the size of bounty-hunter Blake) in-joke. :-P

[van]

*chokes* Ahahha, yes. I can see how that would be very funny if you know the source. I am sad I don't! I'm sure the fan of the book will love it though. XD

[invisibleshrew]

OMG BLAKE IS CAPTAIN FLINT!1!!!!111

Please advise shipping address for delivery of your new internets.

...so I read this on two levels, which was rather head-spinning. One was as a verrrrrry rusty Blakes7 fan, being charmed by lines like this :Vila sighed and looked at his feet; yet again he had just chosen the option that frightened him the least. The other was a rather more up to date Ransome reader (*cough* within the last decade counts as up to date, yes? *cough*) splitting my sides at the way you have mapped one story onto the other.

So very funny - and only very slightly wrong, as these things go ; I'm sure that my childhood will forgive me eventually.

[vilakins]

Yay, someone who knows the book! [bounce]

I reread most of the series last year (I still have to find them all) and was amazed at how Vila-like Roger is! And jib-booms and bob-stays, but I love Nancy!

[azdak]

I've read the books, but a long time ago (appropriately enough, I did most of my Ransome reading on wet holidays in the Lake District), so I regret to say that I didn't pick up on the trunks/trunk joke, but I still thought Vila realising Captain Flint must be fundamentally decent because his trunks had little rocket ships on them was hysterical

[vilakins]

It was because they were so ridiculous but he wore them anyway. :-) In the book, Captain Flint's trunk full of the autobiography he was writing was stolen by local thieves but Titty hears them, like Tarrant does, and makes Roger go and find it with her.

especially Jenna's piratical expletives

Jib-booms and bob-stays! Shiver my timbers! I do love Nancy and Jenna fits her well.

Thank you so much. I had enormous fun writing this.

[reapermum]

A latecomer to the party, but BRILLIANT.

Tarrant was so Titty, he wouldn't quite work as Dot. If you did one of the later books Avon would be Dick, but he worked well as John "I am the eldest.".

And nobody had to be Susan, I always felt Susan was the wet blanket of the family.

And I did spot the trunks.

[vilakins]

:-D Thank you!

Yes, Avon would be a wonderful Dick! Dayna did take the Susan spot, but I left her very Dayna (and partially John as she was the one who could sail) because I find Susan so boring and too stereotypically female. However that's just Susan; Ransome writes role-playing Titty, the ruthless Nancy, author Dot, and even understanding Mrs Walker so very well as not at all the usual sort of 1930s fictional females.

[reapermum]

Dayna would make a good Daisy, but that's further on in canon. And would mean you couldn't have Dick as well.

[vilakins]

I just decided to stick with the first book--which cut Dick out--though Greg wants 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Gauda Prime'. :-P I refuse. No rescuing kittens from asteroids during a meteor storm. ;-)