Every Sin I Don't Admit & Every Crime I'd Dearly Like To Commit & Get Away With Makes Me Realize

[redbrunja]

No one is writing the Darcy/Steve fic(s) that I want to be reading.

No one is really writing that pairing and the last couple of fics I tried all had Generic Romance Heroine Darcy a.k.a Darcy's most prevalent characteristic is that she's Nice.

Gag me. Darcy is:

• snarky


• smart


• a fan of music and her iPod


• a fan of Facebook


• a hacker (debatable, but just go with it, okay?)


• appreciative of hot, cut, blond dudes


• deeply self-interested

The reason that Darcy and Steve, when written properly, have a subtle opposites-attract vibe is that Steve is deeply selfless and optimistic and Darcy is not. I would actually argue that as a political scientist, she is probably deeply cynical.

A couple people on tumblr were lamenting Darcy's tendency to be used as a self-insert, where as I lament her characterization as a nice country girl (seriously, about six different fics have had Nice Country Girl Darcy, I don't even know) and write her as someone with more snark.

Comments

[bellonablack.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is a huge terrifying OoC conclusion. :/

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Writers thinking that Darcy is a good country girl?

[bellonablack.livejournal.com]

In the good old nutshell. (not your summation which was A+)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification!

[cybermathwitch.livejournal.com]

Hmm... it's not finished yet (I'm desperately hoping to get them to someplace porn-y... and trying to decide if I can handwave why she followed him out into the woods in the first place) but how does this strike you for in-character (I hope) Darcy/Steve?

*******

"We have to get you out of those wet clothes," Steve muttered as he set down the soaked, shivering Darcy next to his tent.

She was shaking from a combination of cold and adrenaline, but hearing him say that made her stop and blink at him over her glasses.

"Oh. My. God. You did not just say that. That is like... the tropiest trope to ever trope down trope lane."

Steve pinned her with a look, and she recognized that face. It was his "I'm in charge" face, and contrary general assumption, it was actually the first time she'd ever experienced it being directed at her. "I don't know what you just said, and right now, I do not care. You just fell into a freezing river in the middle of the woods in February."

"Says the man who spent seventy years in the ice."

"Unless I missed a memo about you being given the super soldier serum, that's kind of irrelevant."

In the back of her mind, the part that wasn't still shaking hard enough to rattle her teeth, Darcy was kind of in awe of the whole conversation. Most of what she'd managed to get out of Steve in the past had been some combination of confusion and kind of adorable awkwardness, like he couldn't understand what she was saying and really had no idea what to say back.

At the moment, he'd switched completely into what she liked to think of as "sexy commanding super hero" mode, which apparently made him forget the fact that she was, you know, a girl. (And it was painfully obvious he'd never learned how to talk to girls. Refreshing, but obvious.)

"Nope, no serum. I'd rather be a god like Thor, anyway."

Steve raised up from where he'd been digging into his pack and handed her the sweats he'd pulled out, then arched a very no-nonsense eyebrow in her general direction. "Strip. And put those on."

Darcy felt her knees go a little weak, and at least one part of her was suddenly plenty warm. "Sir! Yes, sir!" She giggled then, and tried for a mock-salute, but her hand was still too shaky. And the giggling? Didn't seem to want to stop.

Maybe it was colder than she thought.

[blithers.livejournal.com]

I love that you included deeply self interested here as a trait for Darcy, because that's definitely true, and I've never thought about it quite that way before.

I think one of my favorite underrated little parts of boombangbing's Direction fic is how, when Selvig shows up at Darcy's apartment drunk, Darcy is NOT happy to have him there and wants him to leave straight away so she can make out more with Steve, while Steve is the one who is all like, "Is this guy okay?"

So, basically, YES.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I think one of my favorite underrated little parts of boombangbing's Direction fic is how, when Selvig shows up at Darcy's apartment drunk, Darcy is NOT happy to have him there and wants him to leave straight away so she can make out more with Steve, while Steve is the one who is all like, "Is this guy okay?"

Exactly! I loved that moment as well. Like, I think Darcy has great potential to be heroic, but she's not going to react to people as a 'nice' person. She's going to react as a snarky millennial and that can lead to brilliant fics! Not every character has to be nice!

[streussal.livejournal.com]

...I guess I could see Darcy originally coming from a small town, but in the way where she wanted to get the fuck out as soon as she could. And being from a small town, or even a rural area, does not necessitate being naive. Or polite.

Oh, it's interesting that you put "deeply self-interested". Because it seems pretty accurate when I think back on her role in Thor. But in the way a lot university students are, if that makes sense?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

...I guess I could see Darcy originally coming from a small town, but in the way where she wanted to get the fuck out as soon as she could. And being from a small town, or even a rural area, does not necessitate being naive. Or polite.

Agreed. I would actually love to read a Darcy lived in a small town and swore never to go back to her hometown fic. It's the 'good old girl' small town Darcy that drives me crazy.

Oh, it's interesting that you put "deeply self-interested". Because it seems pretty accurate when I think back on her role in Thor. But in the way a lot university students are, if that makes sense?

Exactly! A lot of 22 year olds are mostly concerned with themselves. I am STILL mostly concerned with myself, and make choices to keep my life was me-focused as ethically as possible! But given that one of Darcy's main scenes was the stolen iPod "i just downloaded like, 30 songs" it boggles the mind that people miss out on that pretty major facet of Darcy's personality.

[lady-with-cats.livejournal.com]

you know, i think that's why i never really got into darcy/steve before you started rec'ing them. fandom's tendecy to self insert is usually fine, but it just made darcy's characterization rather blandly nice & overwhelmingly friendly with every avenger (personally i think she'd clash with the entire shield set up more than a little).

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

but it just made darcy's characterization rather blandly nice & overwhelmingly friendly with every avenger (personally i think she'd clash with the entire shield set up more than a little).

I have ranted before about the tendency to write fics where Darcy dies/is hurt and EVERYONE cares and I'm like, no. First, everyone would not care. Second, even if everyone DID, they wouldn't all react the same.

But yeah, blandly nice Darcy drives me crazy (and frankly, I think she'd bore Steve, eventually. He has a tendency to surround himself with people who have a lot of vibrancy and fire; Bucky, Peggy, Dr. Erskine, etc, etc. Steve likes interesting people, imho.).