xie_xie_xie | Fictionally speaking

So, my fandom friends who've been around a long time often grumble and moan about the current state of the fandom, and I, being new here, tilt my head adorably to the side, bite my lip, and ask, tremulously, "But the fandom seems fine to me, and there are lots of new people every day, and everywhere I go I meet people who love Brian and Justin, including lots of other lesbians."

Then I tilt my head the other way and let go of my lip, because talking like that makes me sound kind of stupid. "How do you think the fandom's changed?"

The oldtimers look at each other knowingly, and at me condescendingly, and answer, "It's the fic."

One or more of them will heave a huge sigh. "Back in the heyday of this fandom, there were at least two new fics every single day. Good ones."

"Oh my!" I answer. "That must have been wonderful ~~even though I wouldn't trade that for having had to live through the hiatus between 122 and 201 without knowing what was going to happen~~."

So when, today, not one, not two, but THREE good new fics were posted (and perhaps more, these are just the three I culled from my personal flist), I had to mention it.

Are happy days here again? You tell me.

First is Coming Home by

msaramat, an extremely lovely short piece about what happened when Brian and Justin tried a long distance relationship:

He hadn’t really been thinking about moving back to the Pitts. After more than a year, New York was officially home for him now and he couldn’t really see himself living anywhere else, except maybe Italy or possibly France. But a year was a very long time to half-live with the person you loved and he was getting pretty tired of two weeks with Brian and ten weeks without him.

Second is a much longer story by

notreallyme10 called I Quit:

The family wanted to hear that we talked every day; that we whispered love poems into the phone late at night. The reality, we didn’t talk much. My head was starting to clear from the post bomb fog, and lets be real, I was never much for talking. Yes I love him. I can say it now, but that doesn’t mean I want to talk for hours, or even you know, at all. What the fuck is there to say? We emailed some (we would send each other links to good porn or just really kinky stuff we thought would turn the other on or really freak them out), talked less (very drunk phone sex can be pretty entertaining, I wish I had tapes of some of those conversations), and fucked like crazy whenever we saw each other, which I think totaled all of maybe nine or ten times.

The third is something else entirely, and the other two authors may have me killed for mentioning it in the same post with their gorgeous post-series stories. But

teary_eyed2, who is the ~~sickest~~ funniest bitch in this fandom, wrote some crack today about the gourd family over on

qaf_crackfic, and seriously, you need to read it. I won't quote it, but if you're a member, go read now, and if you're not and want to join, and you are over 18 AND YOUR BIRTHDATE IS ON YOUR LJ INFO PAGE, go here and join.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm relatively new to QAF (6 months) and very new to fanfic (1 month), but I find I prefer to hang out with the newly converted. The fresh blush of innocent enthusiasm suits me better than the "good grief, do we HAVE to discuss that again?" tone I sometimes see in old timers. Not all of them, of course.

Due to my fandom youth, I can't really compare the current state of affairs with the QAF halcyon days, but it does make me wonder how long I (and we) can maintain this blissful state. My own opinion is that Brian and Justin are a timeless and enduring couple (and I totally agree, xie, they ARE real) who will live on in our consciousness long after the last lesbian has written the last Post 513 chapter. They are the Scarlett & Rhett / Romeo & Juliet / Heathcliff & Catherine of our generation, and in a way, it doesn’t matter if I met them 6 years ago, 6 months ago or 6 years from now.

OMG, you're another one of the lesbians in love with Brian and Justin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!

Everything you said made me smile hugely. I know you have zero posts in your journal (you should change that) but I friended you anyway, just because.

Do you like my icon?

Love your icon. Love your stories.

I absolutely don't understand my OBSESSION -- I was in a relationship (with a woman, it goes without saying) for 20 years, so I'm pretty sure I'm a REAL lesbian. I am so happy I found you. We really seem to be on the same wavelength here. It's the funniest, most gratifying, most unusual thing to ever happen to me.

Hon, there are A LOT OF US. It's a genuine phenomenon. My beta is a lesbian, my banner goddess is a lesbian, I know at least a dozen other lesbians who are into Brian and Justin (I don't share the Gale Harold thing with you, but a lot of them do)... and I meet more all the time. I often just casually mention Queer as Folk, and now and then they'll be all, "Ummm, yeah, I really liked that."

Beat of silence.

"I really liked Brian and Justin."

"Yeah. Me too."

We smile.

Talk about "we are everywhere," LOL!

A little rest.......a little work........and a few more thoughts on your icon.

I was the perfect single-blind experiment, since I started watching QAF with no outside influence whatsoever. I never visited any board that referenced the show, or read any fanfic, and so I feel safe in saying that my reaction to the show wasn't biased in any way by anyone else.

So how did I get to the point where I pour over every luscious sex scene involving Justin and Brian; where I read and reread every tasty bit, sometimes deep into the night; where I find tales of dick to be a definite turn-on? I have lived a relatively dick-free life (other than some early dalliances), and if we avoid the whole dykes with accessories thing, I am at a loss to know why I find this all so titillating.

I should add a huge disclaimer here: my MAIN interest in these stories is really more about the relationship between these two, than it is about the porn. The porn is simply the cherry on top of these literary sundaes.

So back to the icon: “Making Lesbians Horny Since 2000.” I’m not expecting you to answer the question of “why?” -- and, in fact, I can see that you might not want to reveal too much about your own process. I’ll just say, “You are SO right, sister! I am a witness!”

Gosh, no, I've blabbed about this in my LJ before... I also came to the show with absolutely no contact with the fandom. A gay male friend had been telling me for years that I would like the show, but until he gave me S1 for Christmas last winter (2005), I never got around to watching it.

I put the first DVD in on Dec 28, 2005, and nearly lost my mind. I didn't "check in" on the internet until I got to the end of S4 and discovered S5 wasn't yet out on DVD, and went insane trying to find out what happened next.

I was really very freaked out by my obsession at first. I'm 47, am not into "slash" or m/m porn or anything like that, although certainly I've watched gay movies and read gay novels and enjoyed, was even titillated by, gay male sex scenes, in that context. But it was not a "thing" of mine, and outside of the context of whatever book or film it was, I wasn't interested.

Nothing like this had EVER happened to me, I found it utterly bizarre and went through a period where I was really ashamed. I hid it from my friends, I denied it to myself, I really got my panties in a terrible wad.

And then I met my beta, and discovered that two lesbian friends were really into Brian and Justin, and realized I was not actually the worst and weirdest lesbian in the history of the planet, and got over it.

And here I am. ;)

Any of that sound familiar?

Xie

"Any of this sound familiar?"

Shockingly familiar. Right down to the almost going insane wondering what happened next. I drove all over the Seattle area tracking down the next dvd (luckily, Season 5 had just come out.)

Thanks for your candor -- I'm not to the point of telling my friends too much detail about this yet, although I have told them that I am obsessed with the show and I watch it over and over again. I even bought Season One for my best friend, a gay man, hoping to share some of the joy. He told me just yesterday that his partner is "obsessed" with the show. Just doing my small part. *dusts off hands proudly*

Although, truthfully, if I stay up until 1 am (again) reading fanfic, someone needs to shoot me.

1 AM? Oh sweetie, you're a lightweight. I've stayed up all night a few times.

Give it time. ;)

Xie

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further tales from everywhere

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