New HCL snippet

[slidellra]

Title: Capture
Fandom and Pairing: Hard Core Logo, Joe/Billy
Rating: PG-13
Length: 207 words
Notes: Written for the "bleed" prompt at ds_snippets. omphale23 made this better and brainstormed titles. madsciencechick put me in a Joe/Billy mood with her cool, thinky post. Now available as podfic.

Comments

[slidellra]

*g* You just came over from madsciencechick's second post, right? I actually differ from her reading of Billy pretty strongly. In a way I think that's exactly right, he is playing Joe like he plays guitar. And, unlike how I think she would see that sentence, I read that as something close to an expression of love. Guitar and Joe are the most important things in Billy's life, and represent the two skills/achievements he most wants to master.

I see Joe as being this unchecked emotional force, in part because Billy has spent his life enabling him, both by finding that force attractive, and by making compromises and dealing with reality/consequences so Joe didn't have to. And that exhausts Billy and tears him up and ultimately doesn't help either of them, but he doesn't know how to break free of Joe or his connection to Joe.

That he discovers this new thing about them is useful to Billy. It gives him another weapon in his ongoing struggle to manipulate Joe. But I see his manipulation as largely well-intentioned, if foolhardy, ultimately counterproductive, and laced with the sometimes jocular cruelty that infuses their relationship. And that he can coolly assess his effect on Joe doesn't necessarily rule out the feeling being reciprocal.

So, apparently, I got the snippet into so few words because I was saving them up for this.

(Disclaimer: I was chatting about our varied readings of the film with omphale23 earlier, may have stolen some of her lines. Go me.)