Note: I needed a break from the Booker/Nile milkbar AU fill I’m working on, and this happened. No promises if I’ll write more, but every time I think about finally posting the song lyrics to ao3, I think “oh, wouldn’t it be nice to write the music video?” 🤦
References: --Sinister Spit is an homage to the queer open mic tour Sister Spit and the lesbian literature mag Sinister Wisdom --Nile’s poem has a whale in it as a hat tip to Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ episode on How to Survive the End of the World podcast (IIRC). --Form of course is inspired by Daisy Jones and the Six (one of the few non-genre fiction books I’ve read within memory) --and thanks to the good ppl who gif’d Luca’s thighs in Il mondo fino in fondo
Interview with Nile Freeman
Nile: *laughing * You’re asking me how Fistful of Trouble came about? I didn’t even write the thing!
Interviewer: Yeah, but it’s your fault!
Nile: *still laughing * If you say so. So, I’d met Nicky on the queer poetry circuit. I’d gotten into the Sinister Spit tour, and for their 25th anniversary they were going to do some shows abroad. So of course, I said yes, updated my passport and booked my flight.
{An audio clip of Nile’s performance: my family keeps telling me what a big deal it is for me to ‘cross the Atlantic. I tell them it’s just another northward migration, but when I’m watching the miles and miles of salt water from thirty-one hundred feet up, I wonder if the whales could talk, what kinda wisdom they’d have.}
Interviewer: It was your piece called ‘Northward Migration’ that caught Nicolò’s attention right?
Nile: That’s what he says, but I think I just knew how to hit it off with him. He was a little shy, right? But he stayed after the show, so I didn’t go balls to the walls when I approached.
Interviewer: You let him have his silences.
Nile: Yeah. So we hit it off, and exchanged numbers. I didn’t know he was such a big deal here!
Interviewer: And you didn’t know he wasn’t out at the time?
Nile: Hey, that wasn’t any of my business, and it certainly isn’t your place to judge.
Interviewer: I’m sorry. So, the two of you stayed in touch?
Nile: Yeah, I’d say you’re friends when you send each other dumb cat memes at 3am.
Interviewer: A friendship for the ages, truly.
Nile: So I knew Nicky was a fan of Joe’s. He forwarded me Joe’s piece, ‘Temple of You.’
Yusuf: Oh? It was that piece that caught his attention!
Nicolò: It was a very moving piece!
Yusuf: “we keep saying our body is a temple / to only put the finest things upon it / in it, and I’ve worked so hard to make myself worthy / of even laying my lips upon the strong column of your thighs”
Nile: You two are disgustingly adorable. You’ve recited that to him how many times, and he still gets that dopey look on his face.
Nile smiles
Nile: So, I tell Nicky that I know Joe! I even offered to tell him the next time Joe was in Europe, since he still visits family there on occasion. But Nicky didn’t want to impose.
Interview: Until he finished his contract with Wandering Rogue Records and his manager Meta Kozak.
Nile: Right, so we’re talking about the career change and he says, “Nile, would you mind introducing me to Joe? I want to make an artful statement about who I am, and I think he’s perfect.” I did not expect it to be so…
Interview: Searing? Hot?
Nile: Yeah, all that and more. I knew they’d get along, but damn.
FILL-ish: Joe/Nicky - rapper & singer collab, 2
References:
--Sinister Spit is an homage to the queer open mic tour Sister Spit and the lesbian literature mag Sinister Wisdom
--Nile’s poem has a whale in it as a hat tip to Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ episode on How to Survive the End of the World podcast (IIRC).
--Form of course is inspired by Daisy Jones and the Six (one of the few non-genre fiction books I’ve read within memory)
--and thanks to the good ppl who gif’d Luca’s thighs in Il mondo fino in fondo
Interview with Nile Freeman
Nile: *laughing * You’re asking me how Fistful of Trouble came about? I didn’t even write the thing!
Interviewer: Yeah, but it’s your fault!
Nile: *still laughing * If you say so. So, I’d met Nicky on the queer poetry circuit. I’d gotten into the Sinister Spit tour, and for their 25th anniversary they were going to do some shows abroad. So of course, I said yes, updated my passport and booked my flight.
{An audio clip of Nile’s performance:
my family keeps telling me
what a big deal it is for me to ‘cross the Atlantic.
I tell them it’s just another northward migration,
but when I’m watching the miles and miles
of salt water from thirty-one hundred feet up,
I wonder if the whales could talk,
what kinda wisdom they’d have.}
Interviewer: It was your piece called ‘Northward Migration’ that caught Nicolò’s attention right?
Nile: That’s what he says, but I think I just knew how to hit it off with him. He was a little shy, right? But he stayed after the show, so I didn’t go balls to the walls when I approached.
Interviewer: You let him have his silences.
Nile: Yeah. So we hit it off, and exchanged numbers. I didn’t know he was such a big deal here!
Interviewer: And you didn’t know he wasn’t out at the time?
Nile: Hey, that wasn’t any of my business, and it certainly isn’t your place to judge.
Interviewer: I’m sorry. So, the two of you stayed in touch?
Nile: Yeah, I’d say you’re friends when you send each other dumb cat memes at 3am.
Interviewer: A friendship for the ages, truly.
Nile: So I knew Nicky was a fan of Joe’s. He forwarded me Joe’s piece, ‘Temple of You.’
Yusuf: Oh? It was that piece that caught his attention!
Nicolò: It was a very moving piece!
Yusuf: “we keep saying our body is a temple / to only put the finest things upon it / in it, and I’ve worked so hard to make myself worthy / of even laying my lips upon the strong column of your thighs”
Nile: You two are disgustingly adorable. You’ve recited that to him how many times, and he still gets that dopey look on his face.
Nile smiles
Nile: So, I tell Nicky that I know Joe! I even offered to tell him the next time Joe was in Europe, since he still visits family there on occasion. But Nicky didn’t want to impose.
Interview: Until he finished his contract with Wandering Rogue Records and his manager Meta Kozak.
Nile: Right, so we’re talking about the career change and he says, “Nile, would you mind introducing me to Joe? I want to make an artful statement about who I am, and I think he’s perfect.” I did not expect it to be so…
Interview: Searing? Hot?
Nile: Yeah, all that and more. I knew they’d get along, but damn.