Not noted in post body: also I cleaned a lot! Go me, for real!

[shihadchick]

From the sample set of {sometimes my brain is not my friend}, "hey, if you wanted to make a horrible1 portmanteau pairing name for Brendon/Shane would it be "Brane"? AHAHAHAAAOH GOD." *facepalm*

In other news, Team LotsaMud (hopefully) now consists of an extra person2, which makes my life much more awesome, although I still feel very bad about

Comments

[nova33]

I do not have the coordination for drums, seriously. My brother has tried to teach me a couple times, and I just can't get it. To be honest, when I tried to learn guitar, it failed because there were suddenly six strings in comparison to my usual four, and I had no idea what was going on.

Two hit men, one of whom accidentally killed a little boy in the last hit, are sent to Bruges by their boss. It's funny and violent and a little bit all over the place, but man, Bruges looks like a lovely city.

(Thanks! I think I've read Supersaturation (and all sequels) about five times now. It's somewhat ridiculous. I'm a sucker for Brendon/Spencer - you should know this - and she just writes them so well. (That being said, her characterization of Brendon sometimes bothers me a little. Most of the high-profile authors in bandom have something that bothers me about their writing, and I always feel bad about it.) And yes, I'm not a big fan of the hurty angst either, but I hadn't read it since I first got into bandom and didn't know who anyone was and spent most of my time flipping back to check primers, so...time for a re-read! I am also a marshmallow - slave fic sort of killed me a little bit.

Please, continue being nosy. I'm obviously in a rambley mood. *looks up* Anyway, it's called Hero, and it's about this guy whose father was a super hero and then he gets powers and he has some deep secret (which I'm thinking might be homoesexuality) and it's just...really interesting thus far. There's not a lot of fiction written about super heroes, really, and so it's a unique idea.)

[shihadchick]

Oh, I super don't, either, I just like to make noise. :D And I just can't seem to make my fingers do the holding-the-strings thing with guitars of any amount of string - I have short stubby fingers! *waits for Court to come tell me it shouldn't matter t hat much*

And, ahh. Interesting, hrm.

(Oh, nice, yes. I must admit, actually, that Brendon/Spencer is my least-favourite (for a value which means I still devour it desperately and love it, I just apparently love everything else a touch more) only-two-person-intra-Panic pairing, but I do like her stuff in general anyway, so it still makes me very happy. And, yeah, I know what you mean generally speaking there - there's a fair bit of characterisation/other stuff sometimes that doesn't entirely ping for me across a bunch of authors, but I don't think feeling/saying that is a bad thing at all - it's just demonstrating both that we all see stuff slightly differently and that people can still write well and effectively even if they don't meet the same types of stuff we would expect/ideally go for. IDK. I don't think a degree of criticism implies wrong/bad/mean at all, y'know? Although, yeah, sometimes it's weird to feel that about something that other people are flipping their lids over. (Ask me about "that one SGA fic oh my god I fucking hate it three hours of my life I am NEVER getting back etc" some time in a less public setting, for instance. ;) ) And ahh, yes. And oh man, the slave fic, yeah, I had to go binge-reread comfort fic after that because, well. You know why. BOYS. ://///////

Excellent! *encourages rambling* And, ooh, that sounds nifty, and- is it weird for me to say "I hope it is"? IDK. But interesting is excellent, I hope it continues to be good.

[nova33]

I have short stubby fingers too! I've just been playing violin for so long that it seems impossible (inconceivable!) to give it up. Bass is proving somewhat more difficult, and I don't know if I'll ever actually be confident to join a band, but I'm going to try to stick with it.

Wait - it's your least favourite? How is that even possible? Give me a list in order! I guess the thing is that there are plenty of authors who I can recognize as being good for a number of reasons, and who I enjoy reading and admire in a lot of ways, but if they'd written a novel and I'd read it? I'd be saying exactly what it was that bothered me, and why. Whereas here there's less of that, especially since, as you said, if everyone else loves it and raves on about it, it's hard to say anything even remotely critical. (Heck, it's hard for me to actually write what I think in comments as opposed to just saying "Great fic! ♥" like most people do.) Slave fic was...epically epic. My favourite part was the Alexes, by far, because they made me grin.

Wait, what are you hoping in relation to? I'm sorry, I'm so out of it at the moment. Have you read any good books lately. (I just finished I Am Legend, and I liked it a lot more than the movie. But there is no one to discuss it with!)

[shihadchick]

"You've inherited a condition known as "stubby-itis"." Heh. And I am seriously in awe of anyone who can play violin, it seems so complex and fiddly. I have a list a mile long of music to upload for people, but remind me later to give you Colm's album (irish violinist in the Frames) as well as the Tom Lehrer and other stuff. How long have you been learning bass? *wishes luck, yo*

I don't know, I think I soul-bonded toglommed onto Jon/Spencer so hard right off the bat (historically, as well, I tend to lean to drummer/bassist and bassist/guitarist ships; it amused the hell out of me when I realised this tendency.) that it meant other stuff sort of fell behind. And excluding poly-ships (because, let's face it, my true OTP *is* an OT4), I think it's Jon/Spencer, Jon/Brendon, Ryan/Spencer, [all other permutations about equally], Spencer/Brendon. But yes, that makes good sense, exactly. I guess there is largely a sense as well of us all being close enough to each other that there is no, well, fourth wall, so to speak, between reader and writer. And ALEXES. Yessssssss.

I was hoping that the big secret was him being gay, because... I am shallow and that's usually interesting and not-heteronormative books/stories are still so rare, and so on. And lately I have been somewhat lame and rereading a bunch of early Elizabeth Moon Serrano legacy books (solid v good sf space opera stuff), but what I would reccommend is that - if you can find it! - you try to track down Shards of Honor (or Cordelia's Honor, which is that + the sequel Barrayar) by Lois McMaster Bujold, because it is excellent and I need to pimp Lois alllllllllways. Also, I forget, have you read Naomi Novik, or no? And if not, would you like to? I have a spare of book one I'd be happy to mail you.

[nova33]

The reason I even picked up violin was because I thought it was so cool how fast their fingers moved. I am not sure if I'm fast enough that I give off that same air, but there you go. I will remind you later to give me music, don't even worry. I've been playing bass for...okay, maybe a year? But there was a good period of time in there wherein my teacher - who was actually a classical guitar teacher - had me pick up guitar to supplement, and then it turned into just guitar lessons. So I've pretty much just started all over again with bass.

See, Jon/Spencer works for me in terms of really lovely domestic fic, or just generally adorable fic. I started out reading the basic Brendon/Ryan, which then led to Jon/Spencer, and I have no idea where my brain suddenly switched over to Spencer/Brendon being the best. (But hey, if we're talking historically - I tend to like pairings where you have one person who's portrayed as sort of energetic and enthusiastic, and the other person more cool and collected.) And yes, OT4 is pretty high up there. Not really ever OT3s, because I always feel bad when someone is left out.

I think you're right about the fourth wall thing. That's basically it - I mean, a fair amount of authors are people we know, or have "spoken" to in some way or another at various points, so it's hard to keep that balance. (They can't all be named Alex!)

That totally is the big secret, and it's awesome! It's introduced in this way where he knows it but he's not out, and basically he's just an awesome character. And do you know how much teen fiction I've read with gay characters as the central ones? I actively seek them out, which sometimes garners odd looks, but I really love them when they're written well and not as stereotypes. Okay, so...Elizabeth Moon Serrano and Lois McMaster Bujold. I have not read any Naomi Novik, no, but she must be pretty good if you're willing to mail stuff.

[shihadchick]

PS THAT PUN WAS WHOLLY UNINTENTIONAL GOD.

[nova33]

Wait, I totally missed the pun! It must be early, or something.