(Untitled)

[llassah]

Title: Resonance
Fandom: Hard Core Logo
Characters: Billie, Billy Tallent
Length: 1200 words
Rating: PG-13
Notes: This is a sequel to Echoes (postfilm, and Joe's still messing about with Billy's things) Billy's just marking time with little candles on birthday cakes.



He found out her birthday, at least. Lights her a little candle on the day, watches it

Comments

[nos4a2no9]

Wow, I missed the first installment, and reading both together was almost a humbling experience. I love the way you've written about Billie as an amalgamation of Joe and Billy; she has far more in common with both of them than she does with her mother and stepfather, and that came through beautifully. It didn't manifest as teenage rebellion in the first part, but like a form of exorcism.

And in this second part you've shifted that intense level of insight from Billie to Billy. I really, really liked this characterization. He's holding it together, sinking into alcoholism and depression but somehow still able to play, to keep on going. I think his blank kind of grief works extremely well for a Billy who's lost Joe, and his daughter, and is now just left with his guitar. He's got a world-weary sorrow about him like you hear in old blues music, and I loved the connections you made to sound and silence and rhythm:

Silence is more effective than shouting. Silence is just…nothing, a slippery glass wall without weaknesses, without

[aukestrel]

Sorry to piggyback but you pulled out exactly my favourite part of this characterisation - this is indeed how it could have gone down, I mean, overall, but this... is so Billy.

Silence is more effective than shouting. Silence is just…nothing, a slippery glass wall without weaknesses, without handholds. Silence lets the other person imagine what you’re thinking, imagine something far worse than the reality. Silence is how he’s survived for this long on so little.

[llassah]

Thank you! Oh, I'm so glad it sounded...plausible? I mean, that it wasn't just me being a complete sap and wanting Billy to be as happy as possible *g*. (and you're one of my characterisation benchmarks, as it were, so yay!)

[aukestrel]

Plausible? Well, hell yes. I thought it was a great insight into how he is in the film - when they ask him questions from behind the camera he's not always quick to answer. And, by God, if anyone thinks Joe is "driving" their relationship they're just not paying attention, starting with the, uh, "Where's Billy" game. I mean. Jeez! So you just really encapsulated that... amazingly and with the talent I've come to expect from you. *g*

[spuffyduds]

Wow. This was stunning:
nothing happens, and he wonders if that doesn’t mean things are how he wanted.

Because, ouch.

And I was all wacked out in the beginning of the story because I thought Billie was maybe a ghost.

And by the end--it's this marvelous mood of bleak hopefulness that is--sort of an emotional bullet-proof kink for me, if that makes any sense? Because it's all so horrible and there's so much shit gone down already, but--if he can hold it together--what with making HER call her mom and making dreadful cookies and all--Billy is actually, maybe,going to be GOOD at this.

[llassah]

Thank you *g*. And nooo! Man, I can totally see why you'd think that, because he doesn't have anyone around him, so he might as well...(that would be an interesting thing to write, Billy not realising he was dead, because no one had told him he was)

I love bleak hopefullness, too, I'm so glad I got this. I don't write straightforward happy, it always has to...have a twist to it. And this is a reunion, but I didn't include the violins and tears, which I had thought of doing, but I prefer the thought that Billy maybe isn't going to mess this up, which is more happy than the walks in the park cliche.

[troyswann]

I really like the rhythms of this. It reminds me of a story Sig tells of sitting on the side of Mt. Finlayson until the deer would wander in and out of the clearing. He could see them when he waited, but not when he searched.

The description of silence as smooth glass without handholds is beautiful.

[llassah]

Thank you. And yes! Exactly! I wanted Billy to...sort of know what she needed, be so scared of spooking her all he could do was wait. I'm so glad you like this *g*

[meresy]

Wow, I loved both of these. Joe's haunting of Billie and her metamorphosis into them and her anger about being kept in the dark and Billy's blank glass wall . . . He's just so tired. I can feel it in the way he's written here, with nothing left but music until this angry girl shows up. He responds to her in such different ways--ten-year-old or adult--but he's kind of good at it and it's just . . . *incoherent*

Awesome.

[llassah]

Thank you. And yes, she's been brought up more by BillyandJoe than by her parents, in a weird way. I always see Billy as being too tired to do anything but react, but it's what Billie needs in this. I'm so glad you liked this

[sansets]

Oh man. I didn't have a chance to read the first part when you posted it the other day, and reading these back to back just tugs at my heartstrings in SUCH an amazing way. I wish I had something insightful to offer you in return for these, but right now, all I can say is Thank You. Because wow. They are all just so fucked up and wonderfully human and I love you SO much for capturing this.

[llassah]

Awww, thank you! *g*. I'm so glad you liked them. I was trying to make Billy happy, without being unrealistic, and...well, I got him as close to happy as I could