Sid's Closet

Three and a half years in the making (and eleven days overdue), I present to you my journeystory big bang submission. So much love to my enthusiastic and supportive betas, ivorygates and princessofgeeks. This is such a better story because of their knowledge and hard work. All mistakes are entirely my own. (PM me if you spot one!)

ARTWORK: Please let danceswithgary know how much you enjoy her fabulous artwork!!!

Summary: Grad student Daniel Jackson sticks out his thumb and gets picked up by WWI veteran Jack O'Neill in his 1915 Model T. Between Chicago and Denver, their lives change forever.

~32k words, rated R. ETA: AO3 story link

( The year is 1922... )

I didn't reach my inkingitout goal of 75k words, but I DID WRITE 22K MORE WORDS THAN LAST YEAR.

I actually thought I'd wound up doing worse than last year, because I was sure I was further away from my goal (6.5k words short.) Indeed, I am further from my goal, but I'd forgotten that I'd reset last year's goal down to 50k!

So I'm calling it a win. :-)

I'm not setting any word goal for 2013. I'll finish up my big bang (more on that in a second), finish up my last story for kink_bingo, work on a sekrit project, and hopefully collaborate with princessofgeeks (and whomever else cares to jump in) a bit at some point on the still-needs-a-title NC-17 Jack/Daniel cliffhanger at arboreal_gate.

I have RL stuff that must get done, omg. (After that I have a few old story ideas lurking around, and of course inspiration might strike at some point...)

As to the 1922 AU big bang, which is already at 2.5x the minimum word requirement, I've accepted (with some help from ivorygates) that there is a great deal more still to be said and done with this story. I was prepared for this going in. I signed up for the big bang with the intention of getting started on the story I wanted to tell, getting the basics down, posting a good story, and leaving the option open to continue working on it. There was no other way to get past the terror of embarking on such a major project. (See my 114 drabbles.)

So what I post will be a complete story, with a beginning and an ending. Those who are WIP-phobic can safely read it. The emotions and the character arc will be there. But at some point I plan for there to be a bigger story, with more accurate period details, more color, more adventures, more OCs, etc. I hope you all will enjoy it both times!

Why did it have to take me this long to discover that the type of Model T Jack is driving has no driver's door?

The only answer is to put the top down so he can climb in and out.

Which I guess is okay. I'll have to change things in a couple of few handful of spots, but it's easier than making Daniel get out of the auto to let Jack out every damn time. Or making Jack into a contortionist. And not the fun kind.

*pouts* It's not like anybody except me would've known.

*sighs* I need a drink.

18k and climbing...

*flails*

Tiny snippet:

In the end, Jack caught three fish ("Breakfast!" he crowed), while Daniel leaned against a tree stump and read quietly, bareheaded and barefooted, glancing up from time to time and struck anew each time by the contentment he could read in every line of Jack's body. It wasn't until more than an hour had passed that Daniel realized a passing stranger would more than likely be able to read the same sort of contentment radiating from him. How many perfect moments had they had together already? How many more would he be allowed?

He'd been going through life blind. He wanted these days and nights to never end.

Apologies to the folks I owe prompt!fic to.  It's partly RL and partly avoidance of RL and mostly the amount of time I am spending doing research for the Jack/Daniel Historical AU that I'm not writing.  *coff*

Nainsook, broadcloth, spectator shoes, chambray, boaters, union suits, shaving sticks, grosgrain.

Oy.

:-)