TRANSCRIPT BY FLYING FANATIC EFA Episode 15 - Too Cool for School [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 : Thanks Announcer Guy and welcome everybody to the Earp Fiction Addiction , the podcast dedicated entirely to Wynonna Earp fanfiction, I am your host DarkWiccan and with me is my co-host - DELAYNE : Hi, it’s Delayne! DARKWICCAN : And this week we’re getting all sorts of nostalgic for the nineties. Not because the stories are set in the nineties, but because that’s when Delayne and I were in high school. [laughter] Because this week we are dedicating the episode to our favorite High School AUs. DELAYNE : I know it’s called “Too cool for school”, but I was definitely “too school for cool”. [laughter] I will put that one out there for here. DARKWICCAN : [laughter] Well, y'know, I think that’s true for more folks than not, you know what I mean? Like, yeah there were those, of course, the stereotypical jocks, and preps, and whatnot, but I think most folks I talk to they were like, “No, I wasn’t the popular one, I was a pretty studious person”, and the thing is, is I hear that so often it feels like most people thought they weren’t the popular one, and most people thought they were pretty studious. DELAYNE : Oh, well, I was popular like Daria. Everyone knew who I was. I don’t remember any of them, but all of them, when they see my mother, ask how I’m doing. [laughter] DARKWICCAN : Ah, okay. DELAYNE : So I was Queen of the Nerds, and everyone knew me, but I was still a nerd. DARKWICCAN : Were you voted any sort of – DELAYNE : No. DARKWICCAN : - hyperbole – no? I was. I was proudly voted Most Eccentric of my senior class. DARKWICCAN : I’ll buy that, yeah. DELAYNE : Yeah. That was – I mean, it was one of those things were like the drama kids all, y'know, like that was our torch that we carried every year. At least one of the drama kids, ‘cause, y'know, it was a male and a female, one of the drama kids would get Most Eccentric. So I was very, very proud to have continued to carry that banner my senior year. I was also elected secretary of my senior class, and that was weird because I wasn’t running. DELAYNE : [laughter] Ah. DARKWICCAN : So, yeah. The thing is I couldn’t even take part in the student government because I was in theater, and theater clashed with the student government period, so I literally attended three student government meetings, and then I was just like, “I have rehearsal, you guys, I can’t do both of these things” and they never replaced me. So I’m in the senior yearbook with the student body government as the senior class secretary, hanging out like, “Yep, apparently this is my title”. DELAYNE : Nice. DARKWICCAN : Yeah, yeah. I went to a performing arts high school, so I think that also sort of explains a lot of it. But, anyway, so you were in the high school band, though, weren’t you, Delayne? DELAYNE : Yes, I was a pep band director pretty much all for years, I was the drum major my senior year, and I was also the band librarian. DARKWICCAN : Kinky. DELAYNE : [laughter] I had my own room, like I spent my lunch hours in the band room, in my own room. DARKWICCAN : You had your own office, or was it just like… a room? DELAYNE : It was a small room with filing cabinets full of – DARKWICCAN : Okay. DELAYNE : - sheet music. But there of course was a table, and somehow we acquired some seats from the back of a van, we had some van seats, so it was quite popular hang out spot. DARKWICCAN : Yeah. DELAYNE : Well, the music tech had its own room next to my library and that’s, y'know, where all the amps and electronic equipment was stored, so. DARKWICCAN : Ah. DELAYNE : But they didn’t hang out in there. DARKWICCAN : No, no, they hung out in the library with the cool librarian, pep band leader gal. Ah, so anyway, so that’s a little bit about us and our high school days. Shall we dive into the stories that we are here to discuss? DELAYNE : I believe we should, yeah. DARKWICCAN : Alright, and this week I’m gonna kick things off, so stand aside. [laughter] You get to kick things off a lot, this time it’s my turn. DELAYNE : [laughter] Have at it. DARKWICCAN : So, y'know, there’s this common saying that high school is hell, and it’s essentially true. I think, y'know very few of us look back on high school and go “yeah, I want to do that again”. [laughter] There are elements I might not, wouldn’t mind doing again, but none of them have to do with anything involving grades. So the first story of our show today is my first pick, and it’s called ‘It's Not Hell, It's Purgatory’ by FloingMachines. And this is a typical high school fic. We’ve got Waverly and Nicole as high school students, I believe Wynonna is a year ahead, I believe that in this instance Nicole is a year ahead of Waverly, I think it’s a junior/senior type situation – DELAYNE : That’s what my notes say, yeah. DARKWICCAN : Yeah. And in this one Nicole has moved to town, has moved to Purgatory, am I right about that? DELAYNE : Yes. DARKWICCAN : Yeah, okay. Like, am I remembering the wrong story? DELAYNE : I’ll give you a hint: all of them start with Nicole moving to Purgatory. DARKWICCAN : Oh, good, okay, yeah, alright, good, alright. So, yeah, that’s one thing you run into, y'know, when you’re dealing with a common trope, is there are elements that you’re gonna bump up against each other as being a bit, y'know, repetitive. But as long as each writer is tackling them in their own way, it’s always very fresh. So the thing that I really liked about this is, first of all, it’s got some problems, and that’s not what I like about it. [laughter] But let me, I will explain why I’m able to get past this issues, and get to why this story kind of grabbed my attention and held onto it. So it’s got, there are quite a few grammatical and usage errors, which normally for me would be like “No!” y'know? “I can’t”. But it’s clearly written by a teenager, I’m pretty sure a teenager is writing this, and it’s very clear in the language, and the formula of the writing. But that’s what I like about it. This is an authentic take on what it’s like to be a teenager, and how everything is very high stakes, even the smallest things seem to be high stakes, and misunderstandings happen constantly, and things that really shouldn’t be a big deal are blown out of proportion, and, y'know, everything is really intense. The feelings are strong, and that’s what I really like about it is it is a real, genuine, as I said, authentic representation of high school relationships. Whether it’s a friend relationship, or a romantic relationship, it really captures that level of intensity that truly only exists in your teens. DELAYNE : Okay, so, that, I’m glad to hear you say that, because as I was reading it, as well, that was my impression, is that the person writing this, was very near high school themselves. DARKWICCAN : Yeah, yeah. If not in high school, had just graduated, maybe only a year or two out, yeah. And the writing is good enough that I’m able to forgive the occasional grammar and usage error that pops up. Or maybe a little more than occasional, but, [laughter] again, and what’s nice is as you read, especially once you get up into the double-digit chapters, as you get closer to, y'know, the high teens and nearing the chapters twenty and above, that they’re improving, their writing is improving. It’s getting clearer, they may be working with a beta reader, they may not, but it feels like they’ve got some guidance going on in the background that has really cleaned up their writing, and improved it. Y'know, errors still exist here and there, but the way that they’re describing things, and communicating the information, and conveying feeling has gotten a lot more, what’s the word I’m looking for, it’s gotten a lot more… clear and… DELAYNE : Concise? No. DARKWICCAN : Eh, no, not really concise. I mean, yes, but no. DELAYNE : [laughter] I’m terrible with words, which is funny because I’ve taken Latin and English Word Origins, but, yeah. [laughter] DARKWICCAN : But whatever the word I’m looking for, y'know, it’s just you really see that they’re improving as a writer, and because they were doing a good job of keeping my attention from the beginning anyway, the fact that the writing just improves over time is just a bonus.