Snowflake Challenge: Day 2

[anarfea]

 Rec 3 Fanworks You Did Not Create

Well, I went trawling through my bookmarks looking for something good.

My first rec is out_there 's fic The Habits of a Lifetime. I really got into Mystrade in 2018 and this fic is probably my favorite Mystrade fic. I guess the whole reason I got into Mystrade post S4 is that I really wanted to see someone comfort Mycroft after he got put through the wringer in TFP. And this fic delivers on that. We see Greg gradually earning Mycroft's trust as Mycroft recovers from the trauma of Sherrinford. I re-read this fic before writing this review and my one small critique is that it's a 50K fic formatted in one chapter, so it sort of demands to be read in one sitting which is hard for a fic of this length. So carve out a big chunk of time to plow through it.

My second rec is nothing to declare by saraht . This is another post S4 Mycroft-centric fic. Mycroft goes to NY after Sherrinford to lick his wounds, angry that Sherlock is seeing Eurus. He works for the CIA by day and drinks alone at night, and it isn't pretty. It's a melancholy fic overall, but with a hopeful ending. Really nice, understated Holmes Brothers story.

Final rec is After the Season of Storms by Mice. I guess the theme to these is Mycroft POV post Sherrinford fics. I just want him to be happy! This one was a little bit of a self-indulgence. Everything I ever wanted for Mycroft, Greg is, in this fic. I really needed it after TFP.

Comments

[solrosan]

Ooh! These look good! Thanks for the recs!

[anarfea]

I hope you enjoy them!

[recently_folded]

"Marks for later"

Thanks for these. I'm not a huge Mystrade fan, but s4 really left a bad taste in my mouth in terms of going all ugly on Mycroft and I'd like to see him redeemed a bit.

[anarfea]

I wasn't a Mystrade fan until recently. I think it was mostly that Mycroft has been a long time fav, and I just felt so bad for him after S4. Anyway, I think if you want something that redeems Mycroft, Habits of a Lifetime is the best of the three.

[out_there]

Thank you for the rec.

(And interesting note on the chapters thing. I tend to read most stories as "entire story" rather than "chapter by chapter" but if I need to stop reading, I'll stop at a section break / scene break and finish reading it later. It never occurred to me that people would stick to reading by chapters. Just goes to show how different people can be.)

[anarfea]

I re-read the fic before reccing it. And I still love it! Everything I wanted in a post S4 Mystrade.

Re my preference for chapters, I usually read fics on mobile. So while I can stop reading at a section break if I need to take a break, there's no way to mark which section break I was on if I need to navigate away from the page to do something else. Then when I pick the fic back up I have to scroll through the whole fic again to find my spot. Also, I tend to re-read favorite scenes of fics. And it's much easier to be like "Oh I really love chapter 3," than to have to scroll to a favorite scene. Anyway, it's mainly just a personal preference, but I much prefer a fic to be chaptered if it's over say, 10K. And if there are chapters, I prefer them to be under that length. That seems to be what I can scroll through on mobile without losing my place.

[out_there]

I'm used to opening another tab on my mobile, and then the phone remembers where I was... ;)

[anarfea]

I shall have to try this.