Stacy in Bloom | 4: The Paperback Writer

Title: Stacy in Bloom
Fandom: Kids Incorporated
Universe: Canon (Season 5 – 1988)
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Summary: With her sister and best friend halfway across the world, who else is there for Stacy to turn to…but Ryan? When the consequences of their actions become clear, the two must decide if pursuing each other is worth breaking up the band.
Mega-meta resource thread: http://luxken27.livejournal.com/137711.html
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5873801/4/
Let the romance (and the meta) begin! :D
The chapter contains scenes from episode 5x11, "The Open Book." You can follow along by watching the first two parts that I posted here. This is where the fic officially diverges from the canon, although I'm basically remixing the events of the season, as they fit my storyline.
References:
[+] Billy the Gweeb: an unseen character who is the bane of Stacy's existence; he is first mentioned (with disdain) in the season two episode, "New Kid in Town."
[+] Ethan Green / Stacy's class status: this is a reference to the season five episode "The Frog Prince," where Stacy realizes that nerdy Ethan Green is worth knowing, even if he dresses - and acts - like an antisocial freak. This episode contains some of my favorite songs, including a Ryan cover that will pop up later on because its so awesome :P
[+] Ryan's English assignment: the story I attributed to Ryan for his ninth grade English assignment is his dream sequence from the second season episode "Ryan Ryan, PI." Early on in the series, Ryan was very bookish, and very fond of detective stories. As you can imagine, the "love scene" isn't meant to be explicit, but I'll let you and your dirty mind take it wherever you'd like :P
[+] "In my midnight confession...": Stacy starts humming a song as the inspiration overtakes her mind. It just so happens to be one of my favorite moldy oldies, not merely because it has the most awesome bassline in the history of forever. I kinda wished they'd covered it on Kids Inc, but alas. Ryan really could play guitar, but his fakery on the bass left waaaay much to be desired. Here's the song if you want an earworm.
[+] Meta meta meta!!!! I couldn't name this chapter what I did without cheekily referencing my own writing process. I am a slave to the muse and its fleeting inspirations, so I often find myself doing what Stacy does, in running back to finish her thought before it floats off into the ether forever. This is also the only chapter that shares its title with the song that's actually performed *in* the action.
As a bonus (and just to bring the meta full circle), my icon is a crop of the clip of Stacy singing "Paperback Writer" in the episode <3
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Anyway, much thanks for the little tidbits. I was wondering if I'd missed something with those couple of random names. :P Context clues give me a lot, and it definitely helps that this show doesn't seem to be on the complexity level of, oh, "The X-Files". (My stream of thought in the last seasons - What aliens? Wait, the good ones? The bad ones? Wait, there are good ones that aren't *these* good ones? Argh!) Even so, new names can throw me off! Yay for meta.
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That may or may not have been incentive for you to go looking for it yourself, LOL :P But I'll make it easy for you - sparkly headbands were, like, *so* four years ago o.O And, no, the boys were not exempt from this unfortunate fashion misstep, either.
it definitely helps that this show doesn't seem to be on the complexity level of, oh, "The X-Files"
LOL no, definitely not - there isn't much in the way of raw canon, considering how much of the episodes were devoted to musical numbers (even if they were tangentially related). That's why I feel much more comfortable remixing the season and its events, because really...they can go in any order.
Its been a lot of fun packing things into this story. That's the way it is with any "new" fandom - the whole canon is at your disposal, and you're just trying out more ways to reference it, you know? I've been keeping up the pace of writing approximately two chapters ahead of what I'm posting, but that doesn't mean the storyline is totally set in stone. I had a little breakthrough/revelation just recently that will allow me to fold in another episode's worth of events and actually have them make more sense than they did in the original run of the show. Woohoo! =)
And, let me just say again - I'm really pleased to hear you're enjoying the story, even if you don't know all that much about the show. Its nice to know you have invested such faith in my ability to tell a story!
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LoL. Wow. Oversized jacket with shoulder pads ahoy! :P
I had a little breakthrough/revelation just recently that will allow me to fold in another episode's worth of events and actually have them make more sense than they did in the original run of the show.
Nice! It always helps when things make sense. I also feel like that's part of the point of fanfic - making sense of things that just went a little screwy in the canon. It's almost a given that it'll happen when you have different writers, lol. So kudos to you!
Its nice to know you have invested such faith in my ability to tell a story!
Of course! :D
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I have such a love/hate relationship with the first couple of seasons. On the one hand - Ryan's a badass! Song selection is awesome! Martika before she was Martika! Lulz sequined fashion! On the other...*cringe* I hate Ryan's early performances, before his voice broke. He danced like a total dork (he's got to be one of the few musicians in this world with absolutely no sense of rhythm o.O). Some of the fashion was truly unfortunate, like the clip I linked you to. At least one or two of these really early episodes look like whoever wrote them was seriously on crack, they are -that- disturbing o.O
I also feel like that's part of the point of fanfic - making sense of things that just went a little screwy in the canon.
This is a true "serial" type of show, with little to no continuity. (See - the ruckus over Stacy's age, for one.) The episodes really stand alone well, and are hardly ever referred back to.
It gets worse after Season 5, when characters just start appearing and disappearing with no explanation. They also messed with the music, skewing some of the singers' voices so much that they were barely recognizable. Its seriously like a whole other world from Season 6 on, which is why it just doesn't exist in my head-canon, LOL. (That, and the fact that by the time season six rolls around, only one original cast member remains, and by season seven, even she's gone - it literally becomes a whole different show.)
I'm definitely picking and choosing Season 5 events in this little rewrite, sometimes going by their canon order, sometimes not. This particular episode I have in mind to re-use was one I thought I was just going to have to leave out, but instead, it's actually going to fill a plot hole rather neatly, which is why I'm so excited about it. Canon is the solution to my problem, LOL! How often does that happen?
Of course! :D
You're one of two brave enough to venture over here with me, so it really does mean a lot :) Even if I'm mostly writing this story for my own amusement, its nice to know others have found it worth sharing :)