Humongous Author Notes take two! These are so huge that they took me six weeks to complete. Well... obviously not REALLY... but check those dates and arrive at your own conclusion!
Anyway, first the references and inspirations:
- "I gotta go to the can!" - Haunted Honeymoon
- "I'll make a note of that in my log" - Star Trek: First Contact
- "Her?" - Arrested Development (you'll only get it if you know AD, otherwise it's just a word. And if you do know AD, you'll also know why I used it twice.)
- "He
sort of bought all we had..." - Beth's repetition of "Sort of" is inspired loosely by a scene in "NewsRadio" where Dave Nelson keeps saying "Well,
apparently..."
- "These are the addresses and phone numbers of six different..." - A nod to Amanda Rohrssen's "The Other McCawber Girl", a scene which has not yet been publically released, but you will know it when you read it.
And in noteville:
The retail schedule I go over at the start here is based around some of my own in the past. Very few places I have worked ever had only one employee on shift at a time, but there have been a couple - usually in the morning - in very small, low-volume places.
Most of Henny's dialogue sounds best if you imagine it being spoken by Fran Drescher in her most irritating "Nanny"-esque voice. Oh I love Henny. ^_^
I had the WORST time coming up with stuff from Launchpad's perspective. Just for the record, there. I felt like every scene I wrote from him POV either over-explained things or left them too undetailed. It goes back to my previous characterizations notes on why I find him a little hard to write, I guess... I don't want to have him overthinking things, because I think he kind of does the opposite of that, but it's hard to really explain a situation without! Oh well. I don't know why I began this but the kitchen sequence basically gives the first chronological example of me writing LP stuck on - and pretty awful at - crosswords. It's the earliest time it happens in one of my fics but definitely not the first time I've written it... Though I must concede that I think a lot of the earlier times were in versions I later rewrote.
And still on the topic of writing for Launchpad, my attempts at writing him flirting are pretty pathetic. Then again I think he's not the greatest flirter in the world anyway. ;) It has to be just gentle enough so that Beth can convince herself that he's NOT flirting with her, but cute enough so that everyone else can tell that he is... or trying to, anyway.
I don't know how well Beth's feelings are portrayed here. I think I spell it out later, but Beth herself doesn't think of things entirely straightforwardly, so for anyone who wondered here's the straight dope: Beth really likes LP, but she is afraid of him, because he's "too cool" to be friends with her and she's afraid if she acts like she thinks they're real friends he'll get turned off by that and leave. On the other hand she wants to play it cool, too, so she tries to be casual. The "look for moles for me" is a product of that, which - once she thinks about it later - is WAY more intimate than she is actually comfortable being. Beth's whole relationship with Launchpad at this point is almost entirely conflicting on every point, in that she likes him but doesn't want to, is scared of him and also feels nicely put at ease by him, looks forward to seeing him and is terrified of his visits, and especially, feels both better and worse about herself after each time he comes in. She also can't make up her mind whether he really likes her or if he's just being friendly, which only makes her worse.
And while I'm spelling things out: Beth falls for Drake because he touches the back of her neck and tells her it's perfect. This is an unasked-for compliment and an unexpected intimacy that she misinterprets as kindness. With Launchpad she has her shields up; because Drake takes her by surprise, and because he looks more "attainable" than LP, she has no shields. The first rush of giddiness is addictive enough to overcome her better sense, and she lets herself fall for him.
Despite my maintaining that Launchpad is not openly interested in Beth at this stage, I couldn't resist writing things like him noticing that she smells nice. Because I am wacky like that! Don't boys always notice that kinda thing? :P
Once again - I am not sure that the interaction between LP and Beth feels right for a 'first story'. Even though they know each other already, I keep forgetting it's an introduction to Beth and I'm incredibly aware that this probably doesn't read like an intro story. It's because I've written in such a nastily circular way, and am in fact writing that way even more right now since I'm working on a "current" story about flashbacks. It really screws you up to write a story with scenes that take place in the "past" with a perspective on current events, and at the same time work on a "past" story that takes place at approximately the same time but has NO perspective on "current" stuff.
All the stuff about LP and women? Does not convey what I want it to. I mean, informationally it works - it's what I want it to say - but I can't manage it to sound like it really is coming from LP. Oh well. *sigh*
Jerky!Drake. This is actually the explanation for why Jerky!Drake remains a main character in many of the earlier fics, rather than just a standard use. I'm trying to set up why DW would not like Beth from the start, and continue to go by that opinion of her rather than just ignore her like everyone else does, or something. Because I'm sorry, but I am not going to be rewriting this series so that DW takes a liking to her... That was just never going to happen. XD
The description of Henny when she enters is directly from the very first picture anyone drew of Henny - which was by Lar deSouza and can still be found on many websites. I have my own interpretation of Beth and how she looks, but Henny's character design is exactly what Lar did from the start.
"You're talking about Megavolt" and the "lightbulb" over LP's head: no pun intended! Just a fortunate - and silly - accident. *G*
For the record, I don't think that "Zip it!" is a reference to anything... I just thought it sounded funny in my head and would be amusing to have several characters say it in one scene. I don't think I'll come back to it, at least not in this fic, since that would be overkill.
It's dawned on me just now some of what's missing in my writing Drake. I'm missing the drama and showmanship he puts into some of his little actions; I tend to replace it with snark, of which DW has plenty, but he's not so one-note as I write him. But I find snark easier to write, especially when he's in the mood I've placed him in during this scene, so the snark wins this round. XD Maybe I can make myself write in more drama in future fics, now that I've had this insight! Thank you, Blogspot.com, for showing me the way!
