fic: Musical Gift
Aug. 3rd, 2014 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanter1944This is an orange!verse story, sponsored by W. Blondeau, an RL friend of mine. It introduces a major character who's in several other fics, but it can stand on its own if it needs to.
Eric has called himself a Dutch radio refugee quite a few times to his own, where his own means fellow objectors to what's going on in the States. He's even said it once or twice on air. There's been a laugh behind his voice then, because there usually is, but he's been telling the truth through the chuckles, and he'll be one of the first to admit it out loud.
He's not a refugee in the original sense of the word. Holland would, and does, and will welcome him home whenever he goes back there, no official strings attached. His family might roll their eyes at him occasionally, but there's affection behind their reactions, and everybody involved knows it. Oh god, Uncle Eric is up to something again, they'll say, but they're as likely to lend a hand as hide a smirk, and that's worth any amount of eye-rolling to him. Not that he'll say so quite as openly, but his feelings on the matter are on his sleeve even through a speaker. He knows that, too.
The hosts on certain frequencies get reputations among their listeners. Neither side has met the other, but ideas spring up and propagate, and maybe three people in three states get the same thought at the same moment and run with it. It's like legend having a grain of truth at the bottom, only the evidence is in the hearing, and that lends itself to a little more reality in foundation. Eric's reputation gets around, in person and not. He's the warm voice down the line, the humorist of the airwaves, the bearer of both serious - sometimes deadly so - information and terrible puns tailor-made to make people clap their hands to their mouths and groan. He's a lively live wire dropping fragments of other languages into his time on air, the lifeline with laugh lines, the silvering rebel with a cause, the friend in the corner.
He's too much for some people at first; even he admits he's a little overwhelming sometimes, depending on how you look at things. Just the same, his heart has seldom been anywhere but the right place, he knows his way around a radio, and if you aren't willing to bend a couple genuinely unjust rules once in a while, then where are you? Nearly everyone in the orbit of a certain house in Windsor will swear to the same, and not just about him.
"Somebody's got to speak up," he'll say. "Het is te belangrijk om te negeren. I'm having fun while I do it. You can't ask for better than that."
Notes, thanks Ysabet:
*Eric Van Willegen is a real radio personality in our universe. If the original ever reads this, sir, I mean absolutely no disrespect to you. Just the opposite, in fact, and I hope that's obvious.
*Eric has called himself a Dutch radio refugee on air more than once, and a humorous name he uses for himself when broadcasting really is Uncle Eric. The title comes from a phrase he's used when playing a song request: "I'm throwing you a musical gift."
*Translation of the Dutch phrase: It is too important to ignore.
Eric has called himself a Dutch radio refugee quite a few times to his own, where his own means fellow objectors to what's going on in the States. He's even said it once or twice on air. There's been a laugh behind his voice then, because there usually is, but he's been telling the truth through the chuckles, and he'll be one of the first to admit it out loud.
He's not a refugee in the original sense of the word. Holland would, and does, and will welcome him home whenever he goes back there, no official strings attached. His family might roll their eyes at him occasionally, but there's affection behind their reactions, and everybody involved knows it. Oh god, Uncle Eric is up to something again, they'll say, but they're as likely to lend a hand as hide a smirk, and that's worth any amount of eye-rolling to him. Not that he'll say so quite as openly, but his feelings on the matter are on his sleeve even through a speaker. He knows that, too.
The hosts on certain frequencies get reputations among their listeners. Neither side has met the other, but ideas spring up and propagate, and maybe three people in three states get the same thought at the same moment and run with it. It's like legend having a grain of truth at the bottom, only the evidence is in the hearing, and that lends itself to a little more reality in foundation. Eric's reputation gets around, in person and not. He's the warm voice down the line, the humorist of the airwaves, the bearer of both serious - sometimes deadly so - information and terrible puns tailor-made to make people clap their hands to their mouths and groan. He's a lively live wire dropping fragments of other languages into his time on air, the lifeline with laugh lines, the silvering rebel with a cause, the friend in the corner.
He's too much for some people at first; even he admits he's a little overwhelming sometimes, depending on how you look at things. Just the same, his heart has seldom been anywhere but the right place, he knows his way around a radio, and if you aren't willing to bend a couple genuinely unjust rules once in a while, then where are you? Nearly everyone in the orbit of a certain house in Windsor will swear to the same, and not just about him.
"Somebody's got to speak up," he'll say. "Het is te belangrijk om te negeren. I'm having fun while I do it. You can't ask for better than that."
Notes, thanks Ysabet:
*Eric Van Willegen is a real radio personality in our universe. If the original ever reads this, sir, I mean absolutely no disrespect to you. Just the opposite, in fact, and I hope that's obvious.
*Eric has called himself a Dutch radio refugee on air more than once, and a humorous name he uses for himself when broadcasting really is Uncle Eric. The title comes from a phrase he's used when playing a song request: "I'm throwing you a musical gift."
*Translation of the Dutch phrase: It is too important to ignore.
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-10 02:53 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-10 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-10 03:56 am (UTC)• no concerning official strings attached
> ?? I'm not sure how "concerning" fits in here
• in person and not; He's the warm voice
→ not; he's
(or)
→ not. He's
• really is Uncle Eric. the title comes
> (the opposite:)
→ Eric. The
(or)
→ Eric; the
Eric Willegen by Google search:
This among many others.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-10 04:08 am (UTC)Oh lord, if he ever reads this I'll die of terminal embarrassment, even though this *is* a positive portrayal.
This deserves
Date: 2014-08-11 01:20 am (UTC)Someone has to speak up. I like that. Simple, direct, while leaving the question of responsibility open for the listener to think over.
Re: This deserves
Date: 2014-08-11 09:00 am (UTC)There'll be more than one story following on, if not true sequel. So you have the info, "In The Clear" features Eric and his thought processes prominently, and once the intervening stories are posted, it'll go up.
Re: This deserves
Date: 2014-08-11 01:31 pm (UTC)I love looking at a dysfunctional world through the actions of people FIGHTING within it.