A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: How Did It Come to This?

I hope I fooled some of you with the red herring in How Did It Come To This? - and I hope none of you dropped the story before you found out it was a red herring. If I ever wrote another vampire tale (and after collaborating so successfully with Jukebox* on The White Album, why should I?), it certainly wouldn't have a vamp as traditional as Jimmy would have been...if he'd been a vamp.

Admittedly, my first idea for a hockey-player-vs.-figure-skater story did involve a Nosferatu, but there's a reason the story didn't work out that way. I couldn't make it work out that way; it would have been too boring. I didn't get enthusiastic about the tale until I realized Jimmy didn't have to be a real vampire; he just had to seem like one. Then it occurred to me that the lyrics to "Time Is Running Out" would fit incredibly well with an EMC story, and I got really enthusiastic.

I don't know how many m/m fans are also Muse fans (though the "belldom" phenomenon would suggest some overlap ;)), so I won't go into much detail about the Muse-related Easter eggs in the story. If you're not a fan, you won't even notice them; and if you are a fan, you'll get a few extra laughs from the story. Here's a hint: Aside from TIRO and "Hysteria," I've referenced at least seven other Muse songs; and I've also given each of the band members his own hidden shout-out.

Not all the Easter eggs are Muse-related, though. Larry Szymanski isn't a fan of Stephen King, but I am, so there's a reason for the capitalized "It" in the fortune cookie scene. You'll get "It" if you've read It. ;)

Speaking of which, my first idea for Jimmy's fortune was a fortune I received myself: "Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius never." Eventually I worked this out to be a bad translation of something like, "Good sense always travels on well-worn paths, but genius never does." In other words, genius goes its own way.

That's Jimmy, I think. He succeeds even though he never takes the well-worn paths and never does the expected. In fact, he's so instinctive in his actions that he doesn't always realize what he's doing, himself. I wasn't sure about that at first, but in the end I realized he was just playing by ear and having fun. Of course, he never doubted he'd get Larry in the end. After all, he's not just a genius; he's a fae.

Good thing he's an iconoclast fae, though. Imagine what could have happened to Larry if Penelope had gotten hold of him!

*My collaboration with Jukebox was so successful that I think some of his influence carried over into this story. You can see it mostly in the humor and in Jimmy's banter.