Remix Fic #2: Coming Into Focus (The Director's Cut Remix) [House/Wilson, R]
Title: Coming Into Focus (The Director's Cut Remix)
Pairing: House/OFC, House/Wilson
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,000
Spoilers: Takes place between "No Reason" (2x24) and "Meaning" (3x01), with spoilers for "No Reason."
Summary: House is looking for meaning, but maybe it's been right there beside him the whole time.
Original story: Looking Right Past by topaz_eyes
Notes: Section titles taken from Bruce Cockburn's "Bone in my Ear." Topaz, I owe you so much for inadvertently turning me on to his music.
Betas: Big, big thanks to nightdog_barks for sticking with me all week and answering question after question, daasgrrl for enthusiasm and beta on two drafts, perspi for providing the last-minute tie-breaking vote on the ending, and synn for encouragement as always.
( Meaning through relationships, faux-Wilson told him. )
My pinch-hit. (Probably none of you are surprised; I think this story has "me" written all over it.) From conception to completion in five evenings and lunch breaks. Never again! Heh. No, the process was fun in its craziness, and there wasn't much time for second-guessing or agonizing, which was an interesting experience. I was thrilled to have been assigned topaz_eyes, who convinced me to join the Remix in the first place. And I'm happy with this fic, although who knows how it would have turned out-or even if I'd have chosen that story over another of Topaz's fics-if I'd had more than a week to work on it.
I decided to remix "Looking Right Past" because I loved it when topaz_eyes posted it and wished there'd been more. Expanding the eight drabbles into a 3,000-word story-hence "Director's Cut"-was the ideal remix format for me. I didn't feel the need to go in there and mess around with everything or even to change the POV. Sometimes I did wonder what I was doing, borrowing so heavily from a great fic that had already said what I was saying much more economically, but eventually the story came together, and it had enough new material and detail and good lines and yummy-squishy House/Wilson moments that it felt satisfying.
And anyway, if there'd been lingering doubt that the story was decent and not too derivative (which, okay, there was), topaz_eyes's fabulous, squeeful, analytical post took care of it. :D
I chose the lyrics from "Bone in my Ear" because originally I'd wanted to flip around what topaz_eyes had done-title it "Focus On" from "Spring Song," which she'd used for drabble titles, and pull the section titles from the song she'd used as her story title. The title idea didn't quite work out, but the lyrics fit beautifully.
I knew right away that I wanted to show House's fantasy of a relationship with Wilson in "In my heart there's an image / Like looking through glass," and that the section for "I don't like it when / I can't tell which is true" would involve an uneasy or frustrated House mulling over whether Wilson was with him out of love or his supposed needing-neediness complex. I also knew I wanted to move the first drabble to the end (I like ends at the end, and it allowed the foreshadowing) and combine the three "run-on" drabbles in the middle into a single section (now possible without the limitations of a drabble), and then the rest of the lyrics fell right into place: "keeps singing your name" for House being unable to get Wilson out of his head when he wakes up from his ketamine coma all ready to make a change in his life, pleasure/pain for the hooker trying to bring him pleasure through sex but House's body resists even though his leg has been healed, and so forth.
The line, "Could be looking at me / Could be looking right past" was important, because that's where the original story's title came from. To me, the title "Looking Right Past," along with several lines in that story, pointed to House's fear that Wilson wasn't seeing him. So that's not only the origin of the moment during the sex scene where House makes sure Wilson's there with him, it's also how I derived the title. Wilson isn't looking past him, he's right there, coming into focus, just as House's entire life is focusing as he wakes from the ketamine coma and also from the pain-filled haze that was the six years after the infarction.
(Despite topaz_eyes's splendidly meta analysis of the "Coming Into Focus" part of the title and the decision to use lyrics from "Bone In My Ear," I didn't mean to imply that the remix was somehow a more evolved version of the original. In fact, much of the time I kept wondering why I was doing this remix when she had said it all already, and in so few words. Then I remembered why I'd picked it in the first place.)
Also, Topaz, I have to confess, I didn't know you have a fondness for belly-stroking. Either I picked that up from having just saturated myself with your entire oeuvre, or we simply share a love of soft Wilson-stomach. :)
There's more to say, but I'm a bit written-out-and there is commenting to be done! *makes flying-superhero "Awayyyyy" gesture*
Pairing: House/OFC, House/Wilson
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,000
Spoilers: Takes place between "No Reason" (2x24) and "Meaning" (3x01), with spoilers for "No Reason."
Summary: House is looking for meaning, but maybe it's been right there beside him the whole time.
Original story: Looking Right Past by topaz_eyes
Notes: Section titles taken from Bruce Cockburn's "Bone in my Ear." Topaz, I owe you so much for inadvertently turning me on to his music.
Betas: Big, big thanks to nightdog_barks for sticking with me all week and answering question after question, daasgrrl for enthusiasm and beta on two drafts, perspi for providing the last-minute tie-breaking vote on the ending, and synn for encouragement as always.
( Meaning through relationships, faux-Wilson told him. )
My pinch-hit. (Probably none of you are surprised; I think this story has "me" written all over it.) From conception to completion in five evenings and lunch breaks. Never again! Heh. No, the process was fun in its craziness, and there wasn't much time for second-guessing or agonizing, which was an interesting experience. I was thrilled to have been assigned topaz_eyes, who convinced me to join the Remix in the first place. And I'm happy with this fic, although who knows how it would have turned out-or even if I'd have chosen that story over another of Topaz's fics-if I'd had more than a week to work on it.
I decided to remix "Looking Right Past" because I loved it when topaz_eyes posted it and wished there'd been more. Expanding the eight drabbles into a 3,000-word story-hence "Director's Cut"-was the ideal remix format for me. I didn't feel the need to go in there and mess around with everything or even to change the POV. Sometimes I did wonder what I was doing, borrowing so heavily from a great fic that had already said what I was saying much more economically, but eventually the story came together, and it had enough new material and detail and good lines and yummy-squishy House/Wilson moments that it felt satisfying.
And anyway, if there'd been lingering doubt that the story was decent and not too derivative (which, okay, there was), topaz_eyes's fabulous, squeeful, analytical post took care of it. :D
I chose the lyrics from "Bone in my Ear" because originally I'd wanted to flip around what topaz_eyes had done-title it "Focus On" from "Spring Song," which she'd used for drabble titles, and pull the section titles from the song she'd used as her story title. The title idea didn't quite work out, but the lyrics fit beautifully.
I knew right away that I wanted to show House's fantasy of a relationship with Wilson in "In my heart there's an image / Like looking through glass," and that the section for "I don't like it when / I can't tell which is true" would involve an uneasy or frustrated House mulling over whether Wilson was with him out of love or his supposed needing-neediness complex. I also knew I wanted to move the first drabble to the end (I like ends at the end, and it allowed the foreshadowing) and combine the three "run-on" drabbles in the middle into a single section (now possible without the limitations of a drabble), and then the rest of the lyrics fell right into place: "keeps singing your name" for House being unable to get Wilson out of his head when he wakes up from his ketamine coma all ready to make a change in his life, pleasure/pain for the hooker trying to bring him pleasure through sex but House's body resists even though his leg has been healed, and so forth.
The line, "Could be looking at me / Could be looking right past" was important, because that's where the original story's title came from. To me, the title "Looking Right Past," along with several lines in that story, pointed to House's fear that Wilson wasn't seeing him. So that's not only the origin of the moment during the sex scene where House makes sure Wilson's there with him, it's also how I derived the title. Wilson isn't looking past him, he's right there, coming into focus, just as House's entire life is focusing as he wakes from the ketamine coma and also from the pain-filled haze that was the six years after the infarction.
(Despite topaz_eyes's splendidly meta analysis of the "Coming Into Focus" part of the title and the decision to use lyrics from "Bone In My Ear," I didn't mean to imply that the remix was somehow a more evolved version of the original. In fact, much of the time I kept wondering why I was doing this remix when she had said it all already, and in so few words. Then I remembered why I'd picked it in the first place.)
Also, Topaz, I have to confess, I didn't know you have a fondness for belly-stroking. Either I picked that up from having just saturated myself with your entire oeuvre, or we simply share a love of soft Wilson-stomach. :)
There's more to say, but I'm a bit written-out-and there is commenting to be done! *makes flying-superhero "Awayyyyy" gesture*