subject to interpretation

 I thought I'd post some new recs - some scifi and superhero standouts, and some that are flying the nerd/geek flag high.

First off, my favorites so far from spn_j2_bigbang (and I'm using the author summaries because mine are usually so bad) * : /

jRobot by sandymg  - When Jared meets an incredibly handsome green-eyed stranger in a bar he thinks it’s his lucky night. But Jensen has a secret. He’s not exactly human. And oddly that’s not even the biggest problem as very real bullets start ricocheting past them. Jared makes a split-second decision that will forever change his world. Can Jared keep his new friend alive long enough to unravel the mystery of who made this incredible machine? Who wants it back? And is it really a good idea to let his best friend Chad bond with it?
Because everything Jared thought he understood about life, love and humanity is about to spiral out of control.

*loves*  At the end of this fic I was smiling and sniffling with tears in my eyes - the feeling was reminiscent of some of my favorite books ever - A Wrinkle In Time or the Dark Is Rising saga - where the story makes me sad in such a happy way.  I don't know how she does it, but she has a real gift.  Even with an cute, offbeat premise like this the story still takes itself seriously while simultaneously not.  Also, BEST CHAD EVER! 

My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire  by __tiana__  -  In a world where superheroes exist, Jensen and Jared possess opposite abilities: Jensen controls ice, and Jared fire. Their first meeting results in Jensen's accidental near-death, so imagine his dismay a few years later when Jared joins his team. Team Alpha includes heroes with powers ranging from electrokinesis to teleportation. Jensen will have to face his painful past, his opposite-powered teammate, and his unexpected feelings for Jared, codename Phoenix, in that order. When a crew of villains sends the team into a tailspin, will this be a turning point for Jared and Jensen, or the end of all they've begun to build?



    



Again, fantastic fic by an eternally amazing author, with echoes of the kind of angst that made me love This Hell We've Made. As a side rec, if you don't mind a little dark!J2, check  out For Your Heart To Catch bytoxica939 .  Not for the faint of heart *O_o* but excellently done.

As Though Nothing Could Fall by kellifer_fic  -  Jared Padalecki is born with power into a world of superheroes, but when you’re a minor player in a world of champions it’s easy to lose your way. Assigned a sidekick, Jensen, that seems to find him exasperating and part of a team that couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag, Jared starts thinking that maybe all he’s destined for is obscurity.

This is a really clever twist on the whole superhero/sidekick thing - I could totally wish for a verse.

and an older rec I missed before : These Remain Our Glory Days by  ignited : Summary: After a law bans all superhero activities, Jared (alias Mr. Incredible) and Jensen (alias ElastiBoy) try to raise a family under the guise of normal civilians. Twenty years later, Jared's longing for the glory days threatens this safe and humdrum way of life, much to Jensen's worry. Will Mr. Incredible and ElastiBoy be able to join forces against a common enemy? And can they find a babysitter? This is a cute J2 retelling of the Incredibles.


For the comic lovers and con-goers I must start off with the fantastic

Dork Reign by the encyclopedic saone77  which is a delicious J2 where Jensen is an asocial comic store owner who crushes on the incredibly tall hot guy who drops by for comics for his niece.  This fic basically is a Nerd-gasm (all of saone77 's stuff is really good - I'm particularly fond of her Losers/Avengers  mash-ups Look, Up in the Sky andFlashpoint I and II   *mmm Chris Evans*  and of course the snarktastic Killer Romance 'verse).

Thinking of You With Pencil In Hand  by the awesomesauce bewaretheides15  where Jensen is the painfully shy art student/comicbook geek who comes into the bookstore every week. Jared is the clerk with a massive crush on him.  Now available on Ao3 with its NC-17 sequel (along with much other porny goodness!)

Counting the Steps to the Door of Your Heart by annella : Jensen's life isn't perfect, but he's happy enough. He has friends (well, one friend and one roommate), a prospective career (if he can pass this stupid, stupid test which requires him to be able to talk to people), a sex life of sorts (with guys who are total jerkfaces and think Jensen is a dork, which is actually true), and a life-size Dalek costume with a voice modulator which lets him EXTERMINATE things (like the toaster). Then, out of nowhere, he also has Jared (gorgeous, wonderful, socially retarded, and already taken), and his life turns upside down in the blink of an eye. For the first time, Jensen has found what he wants, but how is he going to get it?

Your Brains Are No Match For My Tractorbeam by poor_choices  is a J2AU based on The Big Bang Theory. Jensen is a socially awkward but happy theoretical physicist, Jared is an aspiring actor, and everyone sucks at relationships pretty damn hard.  With a merry cast of CW/SPN regulars, a palpable love for all things geeky, and MANY sequels and timestamps, this is the 'verse that keeps on giving.  I've said it before and it bears incessant repetition - go NOW, do not dawdle, do not pass Go - to longsufferingly which is  her master fic post.  You will not regret it!


I'd also like to make mention of Sauntering Vaguely Downwards by peppervl  which is a lovely J2 romance that takes place mostly at Dragon Con.  However it has sadly been removed from LJ for the author's own reasons and she requests that any PDFs not be shared.  If you do have this fic, take a moment to re-read it in honor of the Con.  
*
a silent moment of epic sadness for those who no longer get Jared dressed up as Vimes and Jensen in Crowley drag - le sigh*

One thing - a cute plot point in the fic was the (mild) rivalry between the Js over the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett collaboration Good Omens.  I'd just like to point out  just how much inspiration the Supernatural writers seem to have taken from the works of Messrs Gaiman and Pratchett : urbane demons and angels who have minds and schemes of their own, the apocalypse, the Horsemen, etc., etc.   I must also say that if you haven't read Gaiman's Murder Mysteries and you love the whole Castiel/Crowley 'disillusioned angels who rebel against an absent, seemingly uncaring god' dynamic from the Show, then you are sorely missing out. SO GOOD.


IMHO, I have to include a shout out to the best con-going novel ever : Deep Secret by the sadly late, irrefutably great Diana Wynne Jones.  This is a book I bet all the British fangirls can relate to.  The Americans who enjoy Harry Potter should totally fall in love with all Jones' work - the Chrestomanci novels, Howl's Moving Castle, even my other favorite of hers, The Dark Lord of Derkholm (seriously, who doesn't love gryphons?)

OK, not everyone, but lots of people - and others are pitching in to make PDFs for those who don't have time to do it themselves!  And I think I might need to get myself a Mediafire account or something because I LOVE THIS!

I LOVE THAT THIS IS HAPPENING!

Now, if only the artists could all be persuaded to make default ebook covers, everything would be perfect.

I still would like to find some way to get a tutorial from my fav PDFers like too_rational  and the saucyminxfix  on how they get their PDFs to keep the same font in Calibre.  Mine always convert to Times-Roman - I hate Times-Roman.
To keep the conversion from churning out a bunch of missing characters (a l, sma l, tota ly, or fne, frm, and ftfu ly) I always have to set OpenOffice to Verdana, which doesn't give me a lot of leeway with the look of the file.  Maybe because I don't care about chapter headings or a table of contents? Eh.


But in other news, poor_choices  has once again created wonderful fic!  This time it's a sideways, affectionate J2 take on Asimov's I, Robot called Look What They Made.   Heart warming, bantering scifi is to love!

   I am so psyched for the 2010 BigBang posts next week, and I have no one in RL to squee to about it!  No one I know would have the slightest idea what I was talking about and they would just give me that slightly confused, slightly amused look that people give you when you wax ecstatic about your certain little pet obsession and bounce in your chair and raise your voice and ... It's like I breed boll weevils or collect vanity license plates or something.  ficscape  is posting!  So are lazy_daze , _mournthewicked , and rhythmsextion , and jassy3399  and about a zillion others.  It's lurkers paradise people!