Fic Rec: The trouble it took to find you

[frozen_delight]

Title: The trouble it took to find you (also on AO3)
Author: solrosan
Pairing: None
Length: 1,100 words
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: It was nine weeks since Sherlock last contacted his brother and it is time to start tracking him down.

Reccer's comments: This is a gorgeous missing scene set before the events of The Empty Hearse which explains in a very sweet and sassy way how Mycroft ended up saving Sherlock in Serbia. It also answers the question as to why the main plot of the episode has been written and acted out so anticlimactically in a most satisfying manner. The explanation involves Mycroft and Anthea plotting together like two criminal masterminds - and since I love nothing so much as the thought of Mycroft and Anthea scheming and ruling the country together, I absolutely adore this fic.

solrosan always writes the best Anthea and that's true for this story, too. Anthea is shown to be a competent, independent, witty woman who can think for herself and who's very fond of both Holmes brothers, which makes it seem very natural that she's constantly helping them - and that she's now also playing such a vital part in Sherlock's rescue. The way Mycroft is characterised, clearly worried about his brother, but voicing that worry in his typical understated, distanced manner and trying to retain his composure as though nothing had happened, is also a true joy to read.

In short: This is a sweet, diverting and surprisingly insightful read, full of beautiful little additions to the new canon.

Fic rec: Abhorring the Dull Routine of Existence, or, a Week Spent on Artificial Stimulants

[dioscureantwins.livejournal.com]

Title: Abhorring the Dull Routine of Existence, or, a Week Spent on Artificial Stimulants, also here at AO3
Author: ardenteurophile
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length:approx. 7,600 words
Rating:Gen
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock tries out more legal varieties of stimulant. Cracky spin-off fic set before the events of You Can Imagine the Christmas Dinners. Technically (given the events of the latter), this is pre-slash Sherlock/John, but it can easily be read as gen.

Reccer's comments: One unlucky Monday when Sherlock is bored out of his mind John advises him to drink some Red Bull, like a normal person would. The next day John is already thoroughly regretting his advice for Sherlock is never one to undertake anything by half.
Soon half the Yard is busy keeping Sherlock in check and in the end the British Government itself has to step down for some decisive damage control. Sherlock’s comment once he’s come back to his senses is – predictably – that he’s bored again.
The author’s characterisations are wonderful. The text’s that are sent all over London during John’s frantic search for his flatmate made me snort with laughter. Indeed, both the situations and the sentences brim with that true wit the British excel in and that was the hallmark of S1 and S2.

Pure crack from the first sentence to the last, done in the cleverest way imaginable.