Beginning Word Count: 34,454
Yesterday, I managed to overcome a huge deficit of numbers to get very close to the Day 18 goal. I'm still a little short, but not too bad. By the end of today, I need to be at 36,539. This puts today's goal word count at 2,085, which is only 161 words above my normal target. Not too bad of a catch up day. Still, that's a lot of writing to do.
And I've still got this fic hanging out there, incomplete. I do intend to put it up on FanFiction.net when I finish it (just have to remember what my user name is over there now. Ah well. I think I'm Keltic Kitten, so there is a start.)
Fandom: Speed Racer
Characters: Speed Racer / Trixie
Title: The Race to the High Road
Rating: PG
Part: Five of Five (yes, this is the conclusion -- it leaves an opening for a follow up)
Disclaimer: Speed Racer is owned by Digital Manga Publishing, Tatsunoko Production, and Trans Lux and was created by Tatsuo Yoshida. The character was adapted for English by Peter Fernandez. I make no claim to ownership and am making no profit from this work.
Speed Racer sat with Trixie on the couch. Inspector Detector sat in a chair in front of them. "Trixie, as I told you the other day, I do have another option for you, and for Speed."
"Because Speed not racing is not an option!" Trixie insisted.
"Trix, it might be for a while," Speed said softly. "They're not just threatening you, they are threatening anyone I care about. Even if we did break up, that would not keep my family safe. And there is no guarantee it would keep you safe."
"But Speed!" Trixie said. "You just can't give up on racing."
"I know," he said, holding her. It was not her decision to make for him, and the Inspector had been right. Trixie leaving him would only make others in his family vulnerable. He took a deep breath. "Inspector, if we give in to this threat here and now, it will be on the table forever. Whoever will want me out of a race need only threaten my family, and I'm out."
The Inspector nodded. "We've dealt with this before, whenever promising young racers come up outside of the big racing teams. Independants are discouraged. It's vile and completely unsportsmanlike, but this is just business for them. When you win, someone else loses. And some of them do not take kindly to this. You've also proven to be unwilling to race for other teams. Money is not something they can use against you, because you're principled. This poses a problem for some other interests." He shrugged. "Some have found it easier to disappear, and emerge annonymously."
"Racer X."
The Inspector nodded again. "He cannot be bought. He cannot be blackmailed. They do not know who he is. But he also lives a lonely life, as he can not contact those whom he cares most about. Racer X is a very strong man."
Speed looked at Trixie, then thought about his own family. Would he be able to walk away from them and disappear, and emerge on the scenes as another unknown driver? He couldn't. If he had to choose between racing and his family, he would choose his family. Speed wondered how Racer X had made the other choice, and if it had truly been a choice.
"Okay, so me leaving isn't going to help, because Speed has a lot of other people who would be targeted. And Speed quitting shouldn't be an option," Trixie said. "What can we do?"
The Inspector smiled. "That's where you do come in, Trixie." He looked at her seriously. "How would you like to be trained as a field agent?"
"Excuse me?" Speed said. "Isn't that going to put her in more danger?"
Inspector Detector shrugged. "It is possible. Trixie would be assigned to Go Racing as your special agent, so she would effectively not be advertised as one of our agents. However, she'd also be receiving training on defensive and offensive fighting, observation, and have resources she does not presently have. Because of that training, Trixie would be in a position to protect not just herself, but anyone who was threatened -- including you, Speed. And her investigative training might lead us to be able to find out who is behind these threats, and take them out." He smiled. "Further, you'll be showing them that you're not going to respond to these kinds of threats either. No one need know Trixie is one of our agents. Should we need her for other purposes where she is more obviously an agent, she can be disguised."
Trixie was nodding. "I like it! And because of my position here, I'm already trusted and cleared by most racing areas. I have flight permits which your agents would have to petition for, but I have by virtue of sometimes serving as Speed's spotter in races that require it. So you have eyes in the sky without it being obvious!"
"It's too dangerous," Speed was insisting.
Trixie looked at him and smiled softly. "Speed, associating with you is dangerous. It's a risk I take, a risk I want to take. But this gives me a defense. What if I had had the skills to fight off those men today? Don't you think that would have been a good thing?"
"Yes, but -- "
"And the Inspector is not suggesting I storm buildings, seeking out hidden assailants, or try to solve murders. He's basically saying I'll be trained to properly guard myself and Spritle and Chim-Chim, and even your mom. I think Pops can handle himself," she added with a giggle.
Speed frowned. He didn't like it, but he could not very well tell her she could not do it, not when Trixie was refusing to allow him to give up his dream to protect her. This was giving her tools and resources to protect herself.
Inspector Detector looked at Speed. "However, it will take a couple of months to train Trixie. And I would like for you to stay out of the racing circuit during that time. You can put out that Pops wants to do a complete overhaul of the Mach 5 and finally decided this was the time."
"Pops does want to do a complete overhaul of the Mach 5," Trixie and Speed said in unison, causing Inspector Detector to laugh.
"Trixie, this will not be easy. I want your training to be accomplished as quickly as possible. We do not want these villians to believe they have deterred Speed in any way. You will have to dedicate yourself completely to it."
Trixie nodded. "Do I need to go somewhere for this?"
"Yes. You and Speed will both come to Zurich. You'll be training there, and it will look like the two of you decided to go on a romantic holiday while the Mach 5 got upgraded. You will learn how to arrange planned sightins, so that the press can see the two of you enjoying the sights. But most of your time will be training."
"And what will I be doing?" Speed asked.
Inspector Detector grinned. "I think you could do with a little training too. And maybe a reunion can be arranged," he said cryptically, causing Speed and Trixie to look at each other questioningly.
"I'll see you in Zurich in a week," Inspector Detector said, standing up. "So relax. You won't be getting must rest once training starts."
Trixie nodded, then looked to Speed. "Who's going to tell Pops?"
Speed frowned. And yet another conversation he was not looking forward to.
The Speed Racer story is completed, finally. I did not tie everything up in a neat bow. Still don't know who is trying to sabotage Speed's career, and have not decided whether Trixie's training needs to be detailed or just assumed. However, the story of this race is concluded and does tie things up for now.
I do occasionally enjoy dabbling in the realms of fan fiction. I find it to be a really good venue for writing exercises, simply because the world is already created. The characters are already established. So the point of these is simply story crafting. You don't have to write what the characters look like. Fans of the series know. They know that Trixie has short brown hair and usually wears pink, and inexplicably has a ret letter M on her shirt. Speed wears a blue shirt with white collar and white sleeve cuffs, and white trousers. He has a red neck handkerchief and his shirt has a yellow letter G. While these seem inexplicable to American audiences, they do actually make sense. Speed Racer was an imported anime series (arguably most of America's introduction to Anime) from Japan. In the original, the show's name was Mach Go Go Go - Go was the name of the character we call Speed. And Mishi was the name of the character we know as Trixie. The letters make sense, when you know the show's history. Incidentally, having read the translation of the lyrics of the original theme song, I must state emphatically, the American version is SO much better.
But yes, writing fanfiction is kind of like painting by looking at a master work. It is a bit of your own, but you are also completely inspired by the original, so it is not completely your own. You have ready made sets of characters, complete with character traits and catch phrases. You have the advantage of borrower a stage where the set has already been built. At Dragon*Con, one of the panels I went to was about writing, and Jodi Lynn Nye said that with fiction based on television shows, everyone knows what it looks like when you say "Captain Picard strode onto the bridge of the Enterprise." In an original story, however, I'd have to describe that ship. You'd need to know who was at what positions, and what the uniforms looked like, what the layout was, any ambient sounds that filled the air. But one sentence can do it.
And when I'm writing Speed Racer fic, I say "Speed hopped into the cockpit of the Mach 5" and if you are familiar with the show, you know what it is, what it looks like, and all about the buttons on the steering wheel. I don't have to describe the car's capabilities. You know what that car can do.
That can also be a hinderance. I can't decide the Mach 5 can fly. I have to fight with Canon. I am playing in an established world, and the rules of that world must be respected.
I've written fanfiction in several fandoms. My first ever was a Time Trax story. I've re-read it recently and only cringed a little. The second was a crossover -- that is a fanfiction that crosses two different fandoms. Some are really logical and others are rather out there -- but that is where the writer's creativity shows. Can the writer sell that cross over? My second fanfiction was a Time Trax / Quantum Leap story (I rewrote what was once writ wrong and brought Sam home.) After that, I wrote countless stories in a fandom for the Magnificent Seven. Many of those stories are ones I'm very proud of. I can tell, however, where the series was when each was written....when we had six episodes, when we had the full series, when we the fandom had built our own set of fannon (elements that the fandom has accepted as true, regardless of whether it ever appeared in the cannon... original series). There are three stories I am particularly proud of: two because they were edited and ended up being published in a fanzine, and one because it is an outlandish crossover that I think is funny. Magnificent Seven crossed with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. (Not an Alternate Universe Magnificent Seven. Old west original Magnificent Seven.) I had a lot of fun with that one, just because that is not something ordinary.
I do like to read fanfiction and still occasionally write it; however, while I do enjoy these pieces, I prefer to remain on the periphery of fandoms rather than getting actively involved with them. Too many bad experiences with them. It's amazing how proprietary we become and how political these little groups get. Anger the wrong fan, and you might find yourself in the middle of a flame war or on the outs with the entire fandom. And that is without really even knowing what you've stepped in. It can turn nasty in a heartbeat. I suppose any group can.
That being said, I have seen fan groups do amazing things. When there is a need, the geek collective does come together to meet that need. They rise and do something really wonderfully geeky and yet powerful.
Today's Word Count: 2,163
Total Word Count: 36,617 (made it!)
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