shut up and let me see your jazz hands

I haven't been in a fic-reading mood for a while, so here are some reviews that were sitting around on my hard drive.

Community/Huge

Intro to Public Relations by happydork
3000 words. G. "Troy, Abed," Jeff said. "This is Becca. Larry plays LERP with her. She's a warrior princess."

I don't know why I didn't like this as much as I thought I would (or as much as other people liked it). It was cute, and Troy and Abed felt spot on, but Becca felt kind of flat, idk. And I kind of felt like there was no point to it other than the author liked these characters and wanted to see them together? Which I guess is the point of a lot of crossovers, but I'm not really a crossover person, so maybe it's just Not For Me. I was pleased that Athena (who only had a tiny bit part) was trans, though.

Harry Potter

Eleven Up by bookelfe Rec
7400 words. In 1990, prominent Muggleborn research wizard Cromwell Albertson embarked on an ambitious project. Inspired by Muggle Michael Apted’s “Seven Up!” documentary series, he chose six students from controversial headmaster Albus Dumbledore’s list of Muggle-borns to be admitted to Hogwarts in 1991 and 1992 and went to their homes to interview them – before and after their life-changing discovery of their wizarding talent. He continued these interviews over the next nine years, a period of time which spanned both the Chamber of Secrets attacks in 1992 and Voldemort’s second rise and subsequent persecution of Muggleborns in 1997. The Pensieve Projection that resulted won a Superbius award for artistic excellence in 2002 and has been required viewing in the Hogwarts Muggle Studies course since 2008.

This is a neat concept and while there are a few jarring Americanisms, I really enjoyed it.

Sucker Punch (The Matriarch Mashup) by lunabee34 Rec+
3200 words. Hermione/Ron/Draco. Sequel to Five Times Hermione Granger Punched Draco Malfoy, Five Times Draco Malfoy Took It in the Face from One H. Granger, and Fist Meets Face (The Ron Weasley Remix).

This is less of a review and more of a "hey, there's more of this awesome series, go read it!" announcement, as I find it difficult to review fics in series. This one focuses on their respective mothers and how they're taking this unlikely turn of events.

Iron Man

Thermocouple Junction by feverbeats
2500 words. Five times Tony Stark came out.

More like one time Tony came out as trans and four times he told people he'd been assigned female at birth. I don't really like the term "coming out" for disclosing trans status once you've transitioned, because that equates living as your real gender with being in the closet. But terminology aside, I enjoyed this.

Stargate: Atlantis

McKay's Quality Brooms & Sundry Oddments (est. 1842) by busaikko
3000 words. John/Rodney. What happens when reclusive broom-maker Rodney McKay meets professional Quidditch player John Sheppard.

Harry Potter fusion, if it wasn't obvious from the summary. This was cute. I thought I'd like it more than I did, from the summary (and the fact that it's busaikko), but I didn't dislike it or anything. idk, anyway, it's cute.

Castle RPF

Work for It by helens78
1700 words. Teen. Nathan's charming act works on most people, but Tamala wants to see him work for it a little.

Wouldn't have read this if I hadn't betaed, since I only vaguely know Nathan Fillion from Dr Horrible and don't know Tamala Jones at all, but this is cute and works well despite not having any real "canon" knowledge.

Glee/High School Musical

Glad I Caught You by mercredigirl Rec
500 words. G. Kurt and Ryan meet in the queue at the or luak stall. Friends are made, all is well & all manner of thing shall be well.

I stumbled over this while looking on AO3 for new fics for the transfic master list. It turns out it's also written for the Racebending Revenge challenge, and set in Singapore (I think? Googling "or luak" tells me it's a Singaporean dish). Very cute.

Huge

And Hate the Bright Stillness of the Noon by psocoptera Rec
12,500 words. Teen. As Camp Victory faces a heat wave, Amber, George, and Dr. Rand struggle to make it through the last few weeks of camp.

I really enjoyed this a lot. It feels very much like it could be a direct continuation of the series (or rather a couple plotlines of it, as it really only focuses on the characters mentioned in the summary).

LotRiPS

Easy Now by cesare Rec+
12,300 words. NC-17. Elijah/Stuart, Elijah/Dom. Sooner or later, everyone asks how old Elijah is.

Oh wow, I loved this so, so much! I don't think I've read any lotrips since last year's slasha, but this reminded me of everything I love about these guys. I love the whole situation with Stuart, and Lij's interactions with everyone. It's just perfect.

Bouts of Attraction by eff_reality
4000 words. R. Dom and Billy are on rival roller derby teams in the UK.

This was cute. I liked the roller derby theme and Dom's relentless flirting. Also very pleased with how Ali was treated.