(no subject)
So I put myself into the ficafinishathon thingie, and this is the entry that the most people voted on.
title: With the Kent Family Traveling Show
Fandom: Smallville
Description: AU Great-depression Smallville. Lex loses everything before he finds the place where he belongs.
Type: Slash
Rating: R
And I wonder what's wrong with me that I can't write just a little 1,000 word short story when I jump into a new fandom. Why do I feel compelled to write a large-scale AU wherin I try to identify and retain the iconography of the original canon and put it into as incongruous a setting as possible?
At any rate, I said I'd do it. I want to do it. So I start researching. The great depression. Slang of the 20's and 30's. Slang of carnivals, sideshows and circuses, with as much emphasis on the era as possible. Common views of homosexuality in the 20's and 30's. I watch HBO's "Carnivale" again.
Come up with some interesting conflicts/points of tension for my fic.
1) Assuming non-virgin!Lex, the chances of Lionel never finding out he's doing stuff with men are pretty small, so oh hell yeah I'm using the consequences of that.
2)A carnival is, according to every available source, not a wholesome, Smallville-esque place to grow up. it seems like the sort of place that appeals to the "vices" of lust and greed and is run with a mix of dishonesty and titalation. So I've got how that affected Clark growing up, and the person he's become. Who would "Ma and Pa Kent" be in that sort of environment? Playing with archetypes and voices. How In-character can I keep them and still have them fit this environment?
3)I want an elephant in this fic. I don't know why. I just do. And she's old (older than Clark), and almost blind and sometimes a little grumpy. And I havent even researched elephants yet. *adds elephants to the list*
4) A carnival is a very insular place. There is a very defined line between "us" and "them." Playing with how Lex would react to this. I can see him, in this era, being as much or more of an outsider than he is in the smallville show. He won't have an easy time getting "inside," but once he does, it won't be just one person who accepts him. Could he walk away from that for any price?
5)Still playing with which Smallville regulars/mutant-of-the-weeks to use. So far I have a part for Ryan, Cyrus and Lana. I'm not coming up with a story or reason for any of the others.
gotta get a couple chapters done and then start fishing around for a beta.
God I don't make things easy on myself.