this is not the post i meant to make
But it was easier than the other one, which is going to require, like, actual thought and also Amazon links in order to make any sense.
Notes on "Count The Miles"
- Stuff that is embarrassingly pulled from my own life: the drive from Boulder to Missouri on I-70. That was the drive I made from college to look at Mizzou for grad school, and then again when I moved. The section about Boulder (I went to college there), and looking down at the city from the Flatirons in the rain. The section about the Eisenhower museum. Possibly I was exorcising some nostalgia of my own here.
- rsadelle pointed out that I'd made the blowjob all power dynamic-y, at which point I realized the whole fic is that way. Bill has an idea. Of course he’s going to go. And Bill making him drink the tequila. And Bill making him smoke. And the museum. And the amusement park. NONE OF THIS WAS ON PURPOSE. But I looked at this, and the short Mike/Bill porny thing I wrote back in the summer, and my Big Bang with them in it, and I realized I always write their dynamic that way, with Bill dominant (not sexually, just...between them, he's dominant) and Mike bitching and fighting and pushing back the whole time but always giving way in the end. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. If I was writing actual KINK between them, I would have Mike domming, because that's just...what I would do, but Bill would be the driving force behind things and possibly topping from the bottom the whole time.
- The bit about the show where Bill talked about "one of our old albums" and "we've been here lots of times, we love come here" is directly from the Dallas show I went to. It was really weird, in comparison to the Envy, who talked lots about how brand-new they were and how they'd never BEEN to Texas before and how exciting it was and how they just barely had a CD at all! And Bill was all Mr. Cool Old Man. I think that's where the idea for this fic started, actually, was that moment. TAI is in a weird place, as a band, in-flux and in-between, neither a rising star nor an established presence. What's that like? I have no idea, but I made shit up about it. \o/?
- Bit that I wrote very, very early on, and that still makes me laugh like a jackass every time:
Bill rents them a cherry-red Kia Rio hatchback. Mike doesn’t even know where to begin with that.
"I thought about looking cool." Bill is wearing jeans that could charitably be described as floods, and a baseball cap advertising a pit barbecue they ate at with the guys from The Envy. Mike is reasonably sure that he stole it, and also that looking cool was never an option. "But I decided on fuel economy."
This really sums up in a nutshell my conception of Bill Beckett.
- Bill glances at him, eyebrows flying up toward his hair, then smiles. "Duly noted, my young Jedi. Get us some tunes and a more upbeat attitude, if you please?"
Mike exhales tension that he hadn’t realized was there until it snapped, and reaches for his iPod. "Lady Gaga all the way to the state line, fucker."
And that sums up my Bill/Mike relationship.
- I kind of wish someone who wasn't as chickenshit about directly addressing the girlfriends/daughter issue would remix this. I was deliberately oblique; this bit
"Seriously, if you say that one more time, I will put that cigarette out in your eye." Mike knows Bill's threat-voice, and that isn't it, so he just shrugs and blows smoke at him again. "The band is everything."
Mike looks at the end of his cigarette for a moment, not quite able to look at Bill's face when he replies. "No, it isn't." It used to be, maybe. But it isn't now, and they both know it--they all know it--and probably that's okay. That's the way it is. That's life.
was me making it so that it could be read as either AU without Emma, Christine, and Genevieve, or canon-compliant with them, and Mike and Bill are just avoiding mentioning them. This is because I am, as stated, chickenshit. However, that line doesn't really make sense unless Bill's undergone the changes he has IRL the last few years, personality-wise, reordering his priorities and calming down and loosening up, and if being a dad isn't the reason for that...um, I did not provide one here. :D
- I just realized I have a MASSIVE INTERNAL CONTRADICTION here and if you can ID it, I'll write you a ficlet of choice. :|
- The bit about Mike almost joining Fall Out Boy totally wasn't necessary, I just have FOB issues I need to air at every opportunity, plus I give myself mental bonus points for throwing Pete Wentz references into fic where he doesn't belong.
- I drive a Kia Rio hatchback. Feel lucky that I cut my own inside jokes between ME AND MY CAR. I am a giant loser. /o\ But seriously, there is no way Bill Beckett would fit in the backseat of that car, hence no sex-in-the-car, here. I can barely fit anything into the back of that car.
- I hate writing blowjobs. No, really. I hate it.
- "But look." Bill waits until Mike does look, then gestures at the skyline up ahead. "We came back to where we began. That's got to mean something, doesn't it?"
This is one of the very, very few last lines I knew ahead of time. Usually I fumble and flail to the end. This time, my outline said "[Chicago. back to where they began]" from almost the beginning. I don't know if the fic as a whole works or not, but I got to that goddamn last line, and so I'm satisfied.
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here, as you like!
Notes on "Count The Miles"
- Stuff that is embarrassingly pulled from my own life: the drive from Boulder to Missouri on I-70. That was the drive I made from college to look at Mizzou for grad school, and then again when I moved. The section about Boulder (I went to college there), and looking down at the city from the Flatirons in the rain. The section about the Eisenhower museum. Possibly I was exorcising some nostalgia of my own here.
- rsadelle pointed out that I'd made the blowjob all power dynamic-y, at which point I realized the whole fic is that way. Bill has an idea. Of course he’s going to go. And Bill making him drink the tequila. And Bill making him smoke. And the museum. And the amusement park. NONE OF THIS WAS ON PURPOSE. But I looked at this, and the short Mike/Bill porny thing I wrote back in the summer, and my Big Bang with them in it, and I realized I always write their dynamic that way, with Bill dominant (not sexually, just...between them, he's dominant) and Mike bitching and fighting and pushing back the whole time but always giving way in the end. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. If I was writing actual KINK between them, I would have Mike domming, because that's just...what I would do, but Bill would be the driving force behind things and possibly topping from the bottom the whole time.
- The bit about the show where Bill talked about "one of our old albums" and "we've been here lots of times, we love come here" is directly from the Dallas show I went to. It was really weird, in comparison to the Envy, who talked lots about how brand-new they were and how they'd never BEEN to Texas before and how exciting it was and how they just barely had a CD at all! And Bill was all Mr. Cool Old Man. I think that's where the idea for this fic started, actually, was that moment. TAI is in a weird place, as a band, in-flux and in-between, neither a rising star nor an established presence. What's that like? I have no idea, but I made shit up about it. \o/?
- Bit that I wrote very, very early on, and that still makes me laugh like a jackass every time:
Bill rents them a cherry-red Kia Rio hatchback. Mike doesn’t even know where to begin with that.
"I thought about looking cool." Bill is wearing jeans that could charitably be described as floods, and a baseball cap advertising a pit barbecue they ate at with the guys from The Envy. Mike is reasonably sure that he stole it, and also that looking cool was never an option. "But I decided on fuel economy."
This really sums up in a nutshell my conception of Bill Beckett.
- Bill glances at him, eyebrows flying up toward his hair, then smiles. "Duly noted, my young Jedi. Get us some tunes and a more upbeat attitude, if you please?"
Mike exhales tension that he hadn’t realized was there until it snapped, and reaches for his iPod. "Lady Gaga all the way to the state line, fucker."
And that sums up my Bill/Mike relationship.
- I kind of wish someone who wasn't as chickenshit about directly addressing the girlfriends/daughter issue would remix this. I was deliberately oblique; this bit
"Seriously, if you say that one more time, I will put that cigarette out in your eye." Mike knows Bill's threat-voice, and that isn't it, so he just shrugs and blows smoke at him again. "The band is everything."
Mike looks at the end of his cigarette for a moment, not quite able to look at Bill's face when he replies. "No, it isn't." It used to be, maybe. But it isn't now, and they both know it--they all know it--and probably that's okay. That's the way it is. That's life.
was me making it so that it could be read as either AU without Emma, Christine, and Genevieve, or canon-compliant with them, and Mike and Bill are just avoiding mentioning them. This is because I am, as stated, chickenshit. However, that line doesn't really make sense unless Bill's undergone the changes he has IRL the last few years, personality-wise, reordering his priorities and calming down and loosening up, and if being a dad isn't the reason for that...um, I did not provide one here. :D
- I just realized I have a MASSIVE INTERNAL CONTRADICTION here and if you can ID it, I'll write you a ficlet of choice. :|
- The bit about Mike almost joining Fall Out Boy totally wasn't necessary, I just have FOB issues I need to air at every opportunity, plus I give myself mental bonus points for throwing Pete Wentz references into fic where he doesn't belong.
- I drive a Kia Rio hatchback. Feel lucky that I cut my own inside jokes between ME AND MY CAR. I am a giant loser. /o\ But seriously, there is no way Bill Beckett would fit in the backseat of that car, hence no sex-in-the-car, here. I can barely fit anything into the back of that car.
- I hate writing blowjobs. No, really. I hate it.
- "But look." Bill waits until Mike does look, then gestures at the skyline up ahead. "We came back to where we began. That's got to mean something, doesn't it?"
This is one of the very, very few last lines I knew ahead of time. Usually I fumble and flail to the end. This time, my outline said "[Chicago. back to where they began]" from almost the beginning. I don't know if the fic as a whole works or not, but I got to that goddamn last line, and so I'm satisfied.
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here, as you like!