Note: This is the not-so-new identity of Aleine Skyfire, who lost her password to her previous troper name and now goes by this one.
It's a Sherlockian! No, it's a Ringer No, it's a Whovian! No, it's a Star Wars/Marvel Cinematic Universe/Buzz Lightyear of Star Command Fangirl! It's... Aleine Skyfire!
Though some people do call her "Aleine", she most commonly goes by "Skyfire" ("Sky", if you're a friend). She also goes by Gwendolyn Frame (on Twitter, for example), but she'll never tell if it's her real name or a pseudonym. She actually does have a life outside the Internet, although she can also argue that a big part of her Real Life is the Internet. She's a Sherlockian author with one self-published ebook, At the Mercy of the Mind: A Journey into the Depths of Sherlock Holmes
, one published collection of Christmas stories, and her first novel on the way. You can read more about her current work on the Deliver Us from Evil Series page.
She is also working on two huge projects with her best friend: Children of Time and Music Of Time. The latter is an original fantasy series based on the former, a Crossover between Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who. (The above redlink will remain so until the first book is complete.)
She loves Sherlock Holmes. In fact, she adores Sherlock Holmes. And she really mourns the fact that she never got the chance to meet Jeremy Brett. Maybe she'll have better luck with Benedict Cumberbatch. (Shh, don't spoil her delusions!) Also, she regards Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films simply to be Iron Man in steampunk!London. Yeah, she really doesn't like Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes, although she likes him a lot as Tony Stark.
She can be found at the following sites:
And for good measure, this is what ended up taking over her life... her tumblr blog.
Sky loves to spread the news of Sherlock Holmes in just about any shape or form (barring the aforementioned films) around TV Tropes. She also likes to spread the news of her fanfics, and she likes to make pages for other people's fanfics. Doing so gives her a feeling of power and a sense of a job well done.
Pages Created:
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
- Children of Time
- The Doctor's Doctor
- The Ghost Map
- Judging Amy
- One Hundred Days
- The Secret of Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock in Love
- A Study in Regret
Aleine Skyfire's Fiction:
- Children of Time: A Doctor Who/Sherlock Holmes crossover rewriting the events of Nu Who Season 3, substituting Holmes and Watson for Martha Jones as the Doctor's Companions.
- The Deliver Us from Evil Series: A Canon-compatible series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, depicting the culmination of the struggle between Sherlock Holmes & Co. and Professor Moriarty's criminal empire.
- The For Good series: A Buzz Lightyear of Star Command Alternate Universe with an OC protagonist.
- Action Girl: Natch.
- Adorkable: Expect at least one character like this.
- The Atoner: Fred Porlock, Warp Darkmatter, Zomega, Grand Admiral Thrawn's clone...
- Author Appeal: Used extensively. This is not always a bad thing.
- Being Evil Sucks: It really does. Usually induces a Heel–Face Turn and an atoner mentality.
- Berserk Button: Whether it's John Watson, Buzz Lightyear, or a Star Wars character... it's always going to be for a loved one.
- Beware the Nice Ones/Beware the Quiet Ones: Always. Always.
- Big Brother Instinct: John Watson, Buzz Lightyear, and Obi-Wan Kenobi are the worst offenders.
- Bilingual Bonus
- Canon Discontinuity: Sometimes.
- The Clan: She's the oldest child of a large family. Expect a big family to pop up in her works sooner or later, as well as a large honorary family.
- Continuity Porn: As a rule of thumb, if any multi-chaptered fic does not contain references to many different stories/books/episodes/etc., she doesn't know the Canon of that fandom as well as she'd like.
- This trope is most exemplified in her Sherlock Holmes and Star Wars fics.
- Crossover: Ooo, she's a big fan of these.
- Darker and Edgier: She vacillates between this and Lighter and Fluffier. However, no matter how much torture is involved or what character dies, she shuns gratuitous swearing, innuendo, and implicit/explicit sex scenes.
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes so extensively used that she ends up with a World of Snark. Has a tendency for Tall, Dark, and Snarky.
- Determinator: Plenty of these.
- Eye Tropes: Ho boy, massive Author Appeal. She particularly fangirls over Sherlock Holmes's Grey Eyes...
- Fangirl: Expect one of these to pop up sooner or later, whether as a canon character or as an OC.
- Fanon: Sometimes she stands with it, and sometimes she stands against. Either way, expect a Fandom Nod.
- Also, she has her own Fanon 'verse for each fandom she writes for.
- Fix Fic: Quite a few of these, in various fandoms.
- Flashback Nightmare
- Genre Savvy: There's always one such character in a multi-chapter fic - sometimes, more than one. Plus, every now and then, you find someone Dangerously Genre-Savvy.
- Heroic BSoD
- Interspecies Romance: If there are aliens, expect this to happen sooner or later.
- Irishman and a Jew: Tends to crop up in her OCs, as a result of the author actually having a similar heritage.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Inspector Patterson, Warp Darkmatter...
- Lighter and Fluffier: As mentioned above, her fics swing between this and Darker and Edgier, seldom with a happy medium.
- Like Brother and Sister: Most noticeably between Sherlock Holmes and Mary Watson, but it occurs in her other fandoms.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters: She can't seem to avoid them in her series(es).
- Love Hurts: Boooy, does it ever.
- Manly Tears: Almost always over the death of a loved one.
- Mood Whiplash: Definitely. One chapter will be Lighter and Fluffier, and the next Darker and Edgier.
- OTP: Typically at least one pairing per fandom, inducing many shipping fics. Thus far, we've got Buzz/Mira, Warp/Erin, Thrawn/Maris, Obi-Wan/Siri, Anakin/Padme, Rex/Ahsoka, Watson/Mary, Mycroft/Anthea, Holmes/(Beth)Lestrade, Lestrade/Annie, and Nine/Rose. (It should be noted that, while Holmes/Beth is rather late in the game, she now considers it her "overriding" OTP.)
- Narrative Profanity Filter: Not used so much these days (the author herself apparently got Darker and Edgier), but in her oldest fics, she used asterisks to stand in for actual swear words. It didn't really work.
- Not So Stoic: If there's a character who is canonically a stoic kind of guy, expect that stoicism to be thrown out the window sooner or later, whether it's Grand Admiral Thrawn or Sherlock Holmes, etc.
- The Power of Friendship/The Power of Love: If you were to ask for one Central Theme for all her fics, it's these two tropes, right here. This is where it's at.
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Another Motif of her work.
- Shout-Out: Actually one of the weak points of her writing - sadly, some of her fics have been bogged down by many references to many different things. Just visit the Shout Out page for For Good.
- So Proud of You: Where there's a mentor, expect this trope in some form.
- There Are No Coincidences: Never.
- Time Travel: Such a huge source of Author Appeal, it's barely even funny!
- True Meaning of Christmas: Where there's Christmas in her stories, there's always at least a nod to the First Christmas.
- What the Hell, Hero?
- Adorkable
- The Atoner
- Author Appeal
- Badass Bookworm
- Being Evil Sucks
- Berserk Button
- Beware the Nice Ones/Beware the Quiet Ones
- The Clan
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Deadpan Snarker
- Determinator
- Eye Tropes
- Flashback Nightmare
- Genre Savvy: Can't seem to get along without at least one hero and/or heroine being this, and boooy, does the woman love her Dangerously Genre-Savvy villains.
- Heroic BSoD
- Interspecies Romance: If there are non-humans, expect this to happen sooner or later.
- Irishman and a Jew
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Like Brother and Sister
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Love Hurts
- Manly Tears
- Mood Whiplash
- Narrative Profanity Filter
- Not So Stoic
- The Power of Friendship/The Power of Love
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
- Shout-Out
- Time Travel: It appears to be an obsessive-compulsive thing with her.
Personal Tropes:
- Abusive Father: Grew up with an emotionally abusive father.
- Apologizes a Lot
- BookWorm
- Born in the Wrong Century
- Brainy Brunette: It's no coincidence that many of her female characters are dark-haired with a fair amount of brains. She doesn't find herself particularly brainy, but she is a straight-A student.
- Break the Cutie: The first several years of adulthood. See "Abusive Father" above.
- Darker and Edgier: Mild, mild, mild, but still applicable, compared to the girl she was as a teenager.
- Death Seeker: Has had definite on-again, off-again suicidal thoughts over the past five years. The troper is pretty sure she is depressive.
- Fangirl: She mentioned that she's a Holmes girl, right?
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Best friends and co-writers with another Sherlockian/Whovian in New Zealand. They've never met, but they're incredibly close.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The youngest is young enough to be her daughter.
- Must Have Caffeine
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Considered herself this when she and her brother were teenagers.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: A mild version of this with another of her internet friends — Sky is the more "girly" one, while the friend is the more "tomboy" one.
