Bittybang!

[pensnest]

An early post, because I *still* have to get that pesky programme to the printers!

My story was originally scheduled to go live on December 3rd, but I've swapped with fadedsouls, which is why my artist's work will not appear until tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be sure to put up the link, as I'm very excited about what she's going to do!

A big thank-you to withdiamonds for a beta that included lots of pertinent information about Pittsburgh, PA.

Anyway. The story! It is based on 'The Full Monty', the film and, particularly, the Broadway musical. Any of you who knows the musical will recognise all sorts of things, and (sadly) most of the best lines are direct quotes, or very nearly so. The Boys fit so perfectly into the casting, I couldn't help myself! Hope you enjoy it.

And so, the story: Show You the Shape of My What?

The 'feedback via LiveJournal' link comes back to this post, so do let me know what you think of it.

Comments

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

I finally got my hands on a copy of the film when you mentioned this at A's back in September, and really, it's just a brilliant, brilliant recasting of the film. I very much enjoyed AJ, Brian, Nick, Howie, Kevin...fine, EVERYONE in your story. Having Lance in there as the first stripper was HILARIOUS. I have no idea about what the musical did to the plot, but I loved the part where AJ went off to look for Nick.

I - okay I just realised that all I have is incoherent squee that is best left untranslated, because, yes. LOVE.

[pensnest]

I'm so glad! It's nice to have Backstreet-veteran approval, if you see what I mean - my longest one-piece popslash story ever, and it's a BSB story! But I've had this casting in my mind for so long (yep, including Lance as the cheesy stripper!). They just *fit* so well.

Also, I love your icon!

[justhitstatic.livejournal.com]

OMG. I am so excited to read your bittybang, you have NO IDEA. I just flailed about it in my nick366 post for today! I'll be back with more coherent thoughts after I've read it!

[pensnest]

*beams* I hope you're just as flaily after you've read it!

[ngc-lover.livejournal.com]

hi.im on my way to go read your fic,but im looking for some good aj/nick fics.could you link me to some?thanks

[pensnest]

Hi - and I hope you enjoy my story. Hmm. I'm not the best person to ask about Backstreet pairings, as I'm much more used to reading and writing about Nsync, so let me suggest that you try asking for recs at poprecs_request. You should get some useful results. Or, possibly, also at popsoundboard.

[rikes]

Ahahahahahaha! OMG Pen, I love you. That was hilarious. I know nothing about the film or the musical, but you made everybody and everything fit in just perfectly. (Lance with glitter on his ass was just the icing on the cake.) Loved it.

[pensnest]

Thank you! If you ever get the chance to see the musical, or indeed the original film (from the 1980s), they're both great fun, and I just couldn't resist putting Backstreet into the scenario. Glad you enjoyed it.

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm so excited to see this posted!

[pensnest]

Me too. And bubbleforest has done the most amazing trailer for it! Thanks again for your considerable help. :-)

[chalcopyrite.livejournal.com]

Oh, man! I started giggling as soon as I saw the title, and I don't think I really stopped for most of the story. It was just so perfect! I loved AJ's confidence-building techniques! Bravo!

[pensnest]

Excellent! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it. Have you seen the trailer bubbleforest made?

[lievv.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is definitely the best thing I read in a long time. Brilliant idea, wonderful casting and just so much fun to read. Thanks so much for sharing!

[pensnest]

Thank you! I'm glad to have had this challenge to push me into actually writing it down. If you haven't seen the fabulous trailer bubbleforest made, do take a look!

[lievv.livejournal.com]

Hee, that's just all kinds of wonderful, isn't it? Wouldn't have wanted to miss that one, thanks!

[epicflailer.livejournal.com]

OH. OH MY GOD. OMG, WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS FEEDBACK? just - that was possibly the most perfect, unbelievably hysterical, AWESOME story ever. just - oh, wow. wow, i loved it so much. right from the start, with the setting and the boys and the whole style and feel of it, everything was so spot-on, and i suck because i've never seen the movie but now i feel like i REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. i love that you started with brian and nick, and i loved how their relationship was so solid and grounded and real and how, even though you never said anything, you could tell how well they knew each other and how much of a connection they had.

i loved how you introduced the guys. i literally SNORTED out loud when i realized it was howie trying to throw himself off the bridge, omg, and then kevin having to play choreographer and AJ. AJ, omg, was unbelievably hot and cocky and AMAZING. god, i am in awe of what you did with all of them; the storytelling and the characterization and the DIALOGUE. it was just all so, so GOOD, i can't even tell you. i don't even think i'm fbing this properly because i'm not sure i'm stringing coherent sentences together as much as i'm just FLAILING AT EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD.

i really, really liked how, even though i was laughing at loud at just about every turn, there was this undercurrent of desperation and desolation beneath EVERYTHING. with brian and baylee (and omg, the scene with leighanne just broke my fucking heart, they try SO HARD), and kevin losing his job, and howie and CAROLINE, (oh, man, i was tearing up so much i could barely read through it) and nick and his FAMILY, oh my god, i just - i want to hug him and take him away from EVERYTHING, all the awful things jane was saying, and THEN. THEN, OMG, AJ TOTALLY DID.

i LOVED that i didn't know what to expect for the pairings. it just made everything THAT much more fantastic when AJ STARTED FLIRTING WITH NICK AND BEING ALL AWESOME AND, JUST. *FLAILS* i feel like all my weak spots with that pairing were all exploited, and in the best possible way. their dynamic was amazing, and i love how you weaved that throughout the entire story without making it all about the romance. and then, at the end, when aj comes to get him, oh, my heart. that was just so, SO WONDERFUL AND PERFECT AND \o/!!!!!!!! is what i am trying to say! (AND I EVEN GOT A SIDE OF SURPRISE JUNI, WHAT. how is one story as PERFECT as this? ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥)

i also really, really, REALLY loved lance's cameo, omg. he was cast so, SO brilliantly, and the line about his glittery ass made me laugh FOREVER, IDEK. and i had so much fun with how you developed the actual stripping - LINKING IT TO BASKETBALL! SO, SO GENIUS, KEVIN, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH YOU? - and incorporating the chairs and the hat dance and all aj's LEATHER! nnnnnnngh, what i would pay to get in that damn show. i loved watching the boys start out as strangers, who slowly fit together the way we're used to, and you handled it all so well, all their relationships and the dynamic, all of it, i'm in so much awe.

the rehearsal was a dream come true, and the actual show? just, LOVE, so much love! am i sad that they will never do another strip show again, though? yes. but still, i'm going to try to wrap my mind around the fact that something can be made of THIS much BRILLIANCE, and then i'm going to come back and read it and fall in love all over again. thank you so much for such an incredible story! <3333

[pensnest]

*huge smile* Thanks so much! This is my first over 20,000 words story, and only about the third or fourth Backstreet story, so it's a great relief to know that it worked.

A lot of the story is based on the stage musical version of The Full Monty - and if you ever get the chance, *see it*!! I have the CD from the show, and in my head, it's always Brian and Nick tormenting poor Howie as they sing to him a cheerful little song about how they'll help him kill himself. I have to admit, that whole scene is very much cribbed from the musical - as is the idea of using their basketball skills to get the choreography down (in the original film, they use soccer, but the musical is set in the US).

I'm so glad the desperation also came through, because they really are motivated by it. And hey, well spotted on the JuNi (hee). It was great fun incorporating things like the chairs and the hats (there's a hat dance in the film, albeit rather a different one!) - I've had this casting in my head for ages, because they *fit* so beautifully, and kept making canon discoveries that just worked. In the film, the group call themselves Hot Metal - and there is, there actually is a Hot Metal Bridge in Pittsburgh. Well!

I see you've watched bubbleforest's utterly fabulous trailer, which still fills me with glee.

*beams*

[musicboxgirl.livejournal.com]

Pen! OMG! I could not stop reading this story! It was brilliant! Just completely brilliant. I’ve never seen the film but it doesn’t even matter because I love this so much. I felt so much for all of them. And Nick and his insecurity (because hello! Plenty of women would die to get a piece of that). I really enjoyed how you incorporated little bits of each of their back stories too.

Now if only they actually had a show like this. . .

[pensnest]

They'd be such *perfect* casting for the stage musical version (well, except that Nick is downright slender just now)... see it, if you ever get the chance!

Thanks so much for the feedback :-) It was a lot of fun fitting together BSB canon and Full Monty canon and bits of Pittsburgh.

Hee - icon!

[turps33.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, Pen. This is amazing.

I love the recast you did, I could recognise every character so easily. The friendship between Brian and Nick was so solid and I loved that Nick would do anything for Brian, even if he knew it could get him into trouble.

His family. What a horrible bunch, no wonder his self confidence was so low. That was a fantastic theme all the way through btw, and AJ showing how gorgeous he is? It made me smile so hard.

Howie broke my heart, first at the bridge scene, which also made me laugh, but with how much care he took of his sister. How much he loved her was so apparent in every scene, and when he came back and said to dance it for her? *sniffles*

This is awesome and something I'll be sure to re-read. If only to pretend I can rub suntan lotion into Kevin too ;)

[pensnest]

Excellent - thank you! I love them all so much more as a result of writing this story. They really do fit into the cast so perfectly... (If you hear of a local amateur theatre company doing "The Full Monty", do go and see it!)

*beams*

[phaballa.livejournal.com]

YAY!! Okay, it took me a week reading it at work, but I finally finished. Part of me is happy I saved it so I had something new to read post-SeSa/pre-Remix, but I'm a little frustrated with myself that I let my prejudice against the movie get in the way of reading this sooner. It was so funny and happy and WARM. I really love your Brian. I don't want to get myself in trouble here, so I will just say that I have never read a Brian like yours and I really enjoyed that characterization and his enthusiasm. Although I would've liked to have seen Leighanne get a little comeuppance :P She didn't ANNOY me, but I wanted her to see how awesome Brian is at the same time, you know?

And poor Nicky and his weight issues. I love how you handled that, and how you kind of weaved that canon into the framework of the fic in a way that really made sense for real Nick AND for stripper AU Nick.

[pensnest]

I'm so glad you enjoyed this - both of us, reading stuff that we weren't anticipating enjoying, who knew?

I sorta feel for Leighanne, because she and Brian represent the opposite elements of parenting, and the Brian I've painted here probably took all the Fun Stuff for himself and left her to do the discipline and organisation. At any rate, I didn't want her to be completely unsympathetic, because I hate fics that vilify the woman so the man can be extra-awesome.

If you ever get the chance to see the stage musical version of The Full Monty, do go. The story is probably based more on that than on the film, because the BSBoys fit *so* perfectly.

I like my AUs to have canon references, which in this case worked out spectacularly well for me... If you haven't seen my artwork for this story, ie bubbleforest's completely awesome trailer, please go and watch it at once!

[fadedsouls.livejournal.com]

I finally got around to start reading the bittybang stories, and this one was freaking awesome! I love the movie, but I loved this story more!!!!

You nailed everyone! And someone got nailed, which is always a plus ;) And also, LANCE!!!!

A-freaking-mazing!!!!!!!

[pensnest]

Thank you! I enjoyed writing it, quite a lot, because the Boys fit the casting so perfectly. Did you see the trailer Mette made? It is *awesome*.