Yuletide Fandom: I'm on Fire

[thefourthvine]

Sometimes you see something and think, "I want more of this. So much more." And so you make it a Yuletide fandom. And sometimes you see a thing and think, "There is more to this story, and I want to know what it is," and so you make it a Yuletide fandom. This is both of those things. Go ahead, watch. It's better unspoiled, and it's three minutes long.

It's the video for Camille Harp's cover of "I'm on Fire."

Okay, so you've seen it now, right? So, like, there's an obvious narrative here, but what I love is that it doesn't quite work; it doesn't explain everything that we're seeing. THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. (And unanswered questions are what a Yuletide fandom needs to thrive! Or at least to get to a thousand words of story.) What does she say to the dude over the phone? It can't be what we're hearing. What exactly does the dude think when he gets there? He's not pissed off and rageful, more rueful, like, well, crap, she got me. Might as well drink some of this alcohol she left for me and study the photo she partly burned and ponder this story that all three of us know so much better than the viewer. And what is this woman? She's wearing a tank top on a cold night and yet is obviously not cold, and also she seems sort of - strange. My own theory is some kind of supernatural deal, here (succubus for ladies?), but there are so many possibilities.

And then there's also the possibility for hot femslash. Which, you know, I am bang alongside. Basically, this is a no-lose Yuletide fandom.

(And even if you aren't interested in Yuletide, still click through so you do not miss the awesome genderswitched cover of "I'm on Fire." You can't tell me that isn't relevant to your interests.)

Comments

[parhelion]

And what's the story with that wall of weaponry and tools? And why does everything about the setting scream Southwest until she gets on the subway?

Oh, fandom. You leave me with so many questions I'd never otherwise have thought of asking.

[thefourthvine]

I know! There are so many hooks to hang a story on. I - am pretty sure I didn't used to look for those?

[killing_rose]

Um, threesome? Triad that's dissolving messily? This music video, it makes no sense.

[zvi]

I like messily dissolving triad.

[minxy]

That's where I went too, but they're sleeping under thin blankets, she's in a tank top, he put on long sleeves and a jacket which is so odd. And then the subway vs. southwest images that's been mentioned.

...are they going for artistic metaphor about her being rock and roll and him being country and the second woman being hot?

[thefourthvine]

Man, I hope not messily dissolving triad, just because - like, I am the world's most squeamish person when it comes to relationship unhappiness. But, actually, hmmm. Messily dissolving triad does seem to explain a lot. Although I still think the best explanation for her is that she's supernatural. Maybe the message here is don't get involved in a triad with a succubus, that shit never ends well?

[trouble]

That is my favourite cover of all time.

[thefourthvine]

Oh, man, it is so great. Best Beloved hates the original song and was STUNNED by how good the cover is.

[rusty76]

I have no idea, but it was awesome.

[thefourthvine]

PRETTY MUCH MY REACTION.

[katherine]

Of course the detail I get excited about is the black and colours stripey blanket. I have a blanket like that. So the two who start off in bed went on a vacation once and together picked out a blanket...

[thefourthvine]

There are many things to focus on! A story about the blanket would totally be fascinating.

...Now I wish I had a blanket like that. Although we don't have much call for blankets here.

[malka]

She burned the picture to take his place in the universe. The transition started with a phone call. Now he'll drink, and he'll think, and when he's ready, the bartender will leave a picture on the bar of someone whose life he's always wanted to step into, and he'll drink, and he'll eventually reach for the box of matches (which is always there, even though the bar went non-smoking years ago) and he'll slowly burn the picture. And then he'll ask the bartender for the red phone, dial the age he was when he accepted that he never was that person, and go off to take up his new life.

The bar's been around forever, although nobody knows quite where it is. It's always the same bartender, always the same red phone. Always one lonely patron, thinking about a soon-to-be-made phone call. Always the same phone call.

[malka]

Alternately, the sleeping woman is dreaming of choices she's made, and now wishes she could make differently. It's not okay to say that openly, to say, "I made a mistake. I made a mistake and now I'm taking actions to correct that mistake that will upheave my life and hurt someone I still care for." In her dreams, though, she can see it happening through no fault of her own. He leaves, she returns, and sleeping woman can have the life she would have had, if she had made the right choice a decade ago, without fault or strife or needing to act. Just-- everything right, and everything as it should be.

"Whenever God closes a door, he opens a window."

[malka]

Either way, I think the temperature is symbolic. The person who is losing everything and becoming lonely is cold; the people who are gaining are perfectly warm and comfortable.

[thefourthvine]

I - seriously love your brain. These are such great concepts, and I love the way you make the temperature symbolic, and, just. Wow. The life-swapping one appeals to me SPECTACULARLY, for reasons I can't articulate yet. Just. The eternal bar! The single rotary phone! The one chance to change! Yesssssssss.

You are AWESOME.

[malka]

Eee! I've been following your journal because I really like your writing and the way you think about things, so I'm very flattered that you like my imagination tangents.

*beam*

[cadenzamuse]

THIS IS AMAZING. WAAAAAAAANT.

[malka]

Thank you!

If you want to take it and run with it, feel free. My follow-through is horrible, so I'm unlikely to do anything productive with it. Free to a good home. :)

[cadenzamuse]

Sadly, I am probably not going to take it anywhere either. Oh well. thefourthvine's journal is as happy a place as any for neglected plotbunnies! :D

[vickita]

::shit-eatin' grin::

[innocentsmith]

Oh wow. That is amazing. And I am now 100% with you in wanting fic. Especially of a femmeslashy variety.

[fred_mouse]

By the end of reading these comments, I'm convinced that the two people in the phone call are the same person, and the one in the bar is the one from the future calling the one in the past with the details of how to get here from there. So the is a transformation from the unloved body that is kept covered, to the one that doesn't need that anymore.

Which makes the space kept by the partner, which appears to be unchanged, quite an interesting one.

enabling go I

[jjhunter]

Fandom Brainstorming for Yuletide 2012!

You're welcome. :o)