October is here...

[tanpopo03.livejournal.com]

...and with it our new reccers.
Please welcome bluebrocade, oreganotea, ruth0007 and swissmarg! Our mod unovis_lj will also be reccing this time around.

As always a big thank you to our volunteers last month: pennypaperbrain, opaljade, pipmer1, allonymity and tweedisgood! :)

Want to be a reccer, too? Head over to our sign-up post and sign up for November.

Enjoy the recs!

Fic Rec: Cooperative Principle

[swissmarg]

Title: Cooperative Principle
Author: bendingsignpost
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 56,000 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: As the newest instructor at St. Bart's, John has been explicitly warned to never do Sherlock Holmes any favours. Too bad the sex is so good.

Reccer's comments: This starts off with a lot of tags (on AO3) which I'm going to reproduce here because there's an art to tagging and this author has it: the giant angsty porn fic of angst and porn, John Watson as a teacher, Sherlock Holmes as himself, porn as porn, psychosomatic limp as a bloody nuisance, warnings for dubcon territory, also for PTSD and panic attacks, gratuitous coat porn, also voice porn, mostly just porn. See all the porn tags? There's that. And yet, it's not about the smut. There's sex, yes, but it doesn't start or end there. The real story is how John and Sherlock negotiate John's PTSD and 'trust issues' and Sherlock's need to keep his mind occupied (and his reputation for being a possible sociopath who only gets close to others in order to use them).

Excerpt:

Rule One: Whatever Sherlock Holmes asks for, do not give it to him.

That’s really the only rule. A small favour leads to a big favour leads to giving the man a severed head. It happens anyway, all over the place. Well, not all over the place, and John has begun to think the severed head incident is more rumour than fact.

What is true is that there’s a pattern. There’s very little overlap in the people he targets. Molly in the morgue, Susan in the lab, Mike in the classrooms. Everyone else is used for something small, then dropped. Some mind it more than others and some don’t mind it at all.

The question is, how much does John mind? Given that, the promised angst is delivered in full. Because after bathing you in wave after wave of luscious emotional and physical climaxes, this story will make you hurt. Bad. It will kick you in the stomach and leave you curled up in the dark, unable to do anything more than click that mouse one more time to take you to the final chapter.

This is an AU which is actually only slightly different in set-up from the BBC series. The main difference is that John and Sherlock do not live together, and do not start working together immediately. Other than that, though, it's very easy to forget that this isn't set in the same universe. The author has very skillfully tweaked the premise to allow for an exploration of the two men's relationship without the constant adrenaline rushes provided by daily life-and-death scenarios, while still maintaining a high level of tension throughout.

One other thing I really liked about this fic is that it makes Sherlock the emotionally mature one, rising to every challenge without losing his inherent Sherlock-ness or very deep vulnerability.

P.S. There is a one-shot prequel to this, Magnificent, that will leave you a quivering mass of feels with no escape. And you will want more. You should read the prequel after reading the main fic. Because spoilers.

Fic Rec: Contamination

[oreganotea.livejournal.com]

Title: Contamination
Author: jacquez
Pairing: Gen or Sherlock/John pre-slash
Length: 16,291
Rating: Mature
Warnings: mention of extreme violence and rape/non-con (case-related)
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: In which an artistic murder draws Irene Adler and her brother Nathan into the lives of Lestrade and Holmes, and Dr John Watson balances his morals against the happiness that is a warm gun.

Reccer's comments: If I was asked to pick one representative example of all the things I tend to love most in Sherlock fanfiction, this would probably be it. The case: creepy. The dialogue: brilliant. John and Sherlock's relationship: moving and disturbing in more or less equal measure. Lovely balance of action, drama and humour, and some great outside POV parts. (Note: This fic was written before Season 2 came out, so Irene here is not BBC Irene.)

Excerpt:

John studied his hands, listening to the quiet voice of his conscience. He knew who he was, and what he believed about himself; Sherlock knew him very well, but Sherlock did not know everything. "My blood pressure would go up," he said, eyes on Sherlock's pale face. "Killing you. Killing anyone who wasn't an immediate danger." Sherlock was silent, oceans of stillness deep. "That's who I am, Sherlock. I'm not a machine; you can't point me at a thing and say 'kill' and expect me to do it. There needs to be a reason." He paused, willing steel into his voice. "A good reason."

"I shall endeavour to make sure I always provide one," Sherlock said, his eyes shrouded behind their lids, lashes just brushing his cheekbones, the lazy smile still in place.