shut up and let me see your jazz hands

Elementary Murder Mystery Analysis (3618 words) by jibrailis Rec
Fandom: Community
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes, Britta Perry, Jeff Winger, Shirley Bennett, Pierce Hawthorne, Annie Edison
Summary: "It's come to my attention," says Pierce, "that Jeff is dead." (But Sherlock Abed is born).

Good character voices. I enjoyed this.

Clocks Are Dumb Anyway (1183 words) by gertie_flirty Rec
Fandom: Hark! A Vagrant
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nancy Drew, Ned Nickerson, Bess Marvin, George Fayne, Frank Hardy
Summary: Nancy Drew reflects on her old cases. And also fails to fix a clock, but nobody cares about that part.

This was really funny. I love how the lack of punctuation in dialogue makes it read more like the comics. I was head-scratchy about George randomly being a dude. Someone in comments assumed that it was the author deliberately adding a bizarre twist, which could be the case, but my first reaction was "wtf have you never actually read Nancy Drew?" So idk. XD Regardless, the story is hilarious and I love Beaton's Nancy so much.

Mystery Solving Teens Confirm the Obvious (1304 words) by Bow
Fandom: Hark! A Vagrant
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mystery Solving Teens, Nancy Drew, Vanessa (Hark! A Vagrant), St. Francis, Birds (Hark! A Vagrant), Foul-mouthed Duck
Summary: The Mystery Solving Teens land their highest-profile assignment yet. Will they crack the case...or fail to care entirely? The Shit Talker--the high school's most illustrious student newspaper--reports from the scene.

I loved the addition of the "aw yiss" duck and St. Francis (I never read headers, so I didn't even know they'd be in it until they appeared, so it was a fun surprise). I'm not too interested in Mystery Solving Teens at the moment and was mainly reading this for Nancy, who was funny when she appeared (especially her confession! XD) but was not as big a part of it as I'd hoped.

Tool Time with Ron Swanson (1185 words) by katsumeragi
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ron Swanson/Chris Traeger
Characters: Ron Swanson, Chris Traeger
Summary: Chris finds a way to break his coffee table and Ron takes it upon himself to teach him lessons of craftsmanship, Swanson family traditions, and to stop buying things from the Swedes.

Good Chris and Ron voices, but apparently it doesn't really feel like Parks & Rec to me without reaction shots and people talking to the camera. :-/ Still cute and funny, though.

Red Letter Day (7678 words) by shinealightonme
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ann Perkins, Leslie Knope, April Ludgate, Andy Dwyer, Ron Swanson, Ben Wyatt, Tom Haverford
Summary: Eight holidays Ann Perkins survived thanks to (or in spite of) the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department.

Cute, but uneven. It seems I'm very picky with this fandom. :-/

0.0109% of the Way to the Moon (2806 words) by myrifique
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leslie Knope & Ann Perkins
Characters: Leslie Knope, Ann Perkins
Summary: How Leslie and Ann single-handedly made "being healthy in Pawnee" awesome. Or possible, at least.

Also cute. Leslie and Ann, yay. :)

Community

Summer Practicum in Women's Studies by gloss Rec+
1700 words. R. Possibly a summer fling, possibly something more.

Oh Shirley! Oh Britta!

I really couldn't picture this pairing in my head, because Britta is just so Britta (I actually like the character a lot, but yeah), but gloss really made it work. I'm so glad I read this.

"Please. I was macking on shorties while you were still figuring out that Barbie is --" Shirley trailed off, scowled, then grinned. "That Barbie is a tool of kyriarchical indoctrination!"

Heee! That is just so perfect.

Glee

Inscrutable by bossymarmalade Rec
500 words. The really stupid thing is that they hold off for so long, because they don't want it to look like of course the two asian kids would get together.

This is awesome. ♥

Harry Potter

No More Hiding From Yourself by queen_ypolita
2800 words. G. "For Merlin's sake Sirius, I know this year's been tough for you, but no, you'll always have to let Snape's little comments get to you. Why couldn't you put some of that energy into all those girls that can't take their eyes off you or something?" It's time Sirius stopped hiding from his confusion and did some hard thinking.

Oh man, this is exactly the sort of fic I dread from lgbtfest. I actually thought the prompt ("Sirius Black, never looking back at all the girls ogling him is less to seem indifferent and more because their glances don't register") showed some promise, but it's 2800 words of tell, tell, tell, plus it's set right after The Prank and has this big long lecture from Remus to Sirius on How Wrong He Was, and dude, I totally think Sirius was in the wrong, but I also think monologue lecturing makes a really dull story and seems more like the author speaking than the character (partly this is because I really don't see them as having talked about it at all). Also the 2nd person POV really did not work here.

Sherlock Holmes

A Terribly Poor Understanding of Love by candle_beck Rec
13,000 words. R. Mary awoke to John saying Holmes's name in his sleep. The shocking thing was how terribly unshocked she was.

Wow. This was great. And the 3rd person omniscient (not something you see often in fandom) works really well here. Also it's super angsty, yay. :D

I have to say, though, that at first when I was reading it, I thought they must be aware of what was going on, that perhaps they had even had some sort of relationship before Mary. But no, it was first-time, totally taken by surprise, never thought of Holmes that way (it was less clear whether Holmes knew he was attracted to Watson or not). So yeah. I really liked it, but I also really, really wished for more self-awareness, more queerness.

Anyone have any recs for first-time stories in this fandom that are first time with each other, but not first time with a man ever?

I feel like there was something else I was going to say, too...oh! There was a line that really gave me pause, when Holmes says to Watson, "it's not white of you" or something like that. I'd never heard the phrase before, but it certainly makes sense for the time period. Still, I cringed, and it also made me think about desi!Watson again (ngl, it does not take much to make me start thinking about desi!Watson) and how that would play out. (Whyyyyyy is writing historical fiction so haaaaaaard for meeeeee???? I have so many ideas!)

Delegation by damned_colonial Rec
2800 words. NC-17. I would have been mortified, but I realised that Lestrade didn't have the faintest idea what had just happened. I suppose he thought Holmes was simply being high-handed and rude, as he so often was, and under the circumstances I was hardly going to correct the misapprehension.

Yes, it's another in the awesome asexual!dom!Holmes/Watson series! This was an excellent use of the "authority figures" square.

Oh, and if you like this series, paperflower86 illustrated one of the previous installments. I like their art a lot. (This fandom has so many great artists.)

The Simpsons

I Recognize That Girl by bossymarmalade Rec
900 words. When Maggie came around, Lisa had been excited. That was when she was six. Now she was sixteen, and Maggie -- contrary to everything Lisa had ever seen or read -- seemed to have no real interest in her older sister, much less any inclination to copy her or be close with her.

Oh, this is so great! bossymarmalade writes such awesome Simpsons fic. The voices are just perfect.

Stargate: Atlantis

The Wave from Coast to Ocean by telesilla Rec
1000 words. NC-17. John's cold and Rodney's wearing warm, soft clothes. What happens is inevitable really.

Oh, how funny. This is for the same kink_bingo square as the Community fic up above, rubbing/grinding. I didn't even notice that at first. This is from telesilla's Ventura Highway series (which, wow, I did not realise had that many fics in it), which I always enjoy. This reads well as a stand-alone, too, though.