Hello and welcome to the Grimm Crack Van for the first time on this comm. I tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I know some ambushed me and made an appearance despite my efforts (the sneaky little buggers). So be on guard for those. Otherwise, buckle up and prepare yourself for some basic info in the overview and some fantastic ficcage to follow!




( More Grimm-y Goodness! )

Good morning, my name is pronker and I'm rarin' to drive the van. To start with, when is the last time you discovered a new fanfic archive? It's sort of new to the internet, over on fanfictionDOTnet, and it is loaded with stories revolving around the characters and situations of Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV program, including those characters specific to the show, such as Cad Bane. And on that archive is a community, From The Top Shelf, devoted to selecting fine stories on the archive. So, here we go, revving away with

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairings: Hondo Ohnaka/Aurra Sing
Length: 983 words
Author on LJ: x_x_igorina_x_x
Author Website: Profile
Why this must be read:

This is delightfully written, with a punchy plot and an eye to characterization, the niche of 'scoundrel' being difficult to write, I should imagine. You would not want to make them too mean, and lose sympathy, or too nice, and lose interest. This story uses the most un-scoundrelly Star Wars character, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the semi-official role of marrying man. Read it, and start off the month right.

Mr and Mrs

It's hard to believe that after 17 years in this fandom (is that possible?), this is the first time I've had the privilege of driving the crack van. If you think Starsky wasn't nervous when he loaned me the Torino, think again! This thing is as big as the Queen Mary, and I'm used to an old Toyota Tercel. Okay, everyone climb in -- the striped tomato must hold 30 people. Forget the seatbelts, it's the 70's, there are no seatbelt laws, and the boys never used 'em. And besides, anything that hits this monster will never survive the impact. Okay, are we ready? Who's got the keys? Oh, yeah, I do!!! Here we go. I'll try not to shut my eyes when I hit the gas. It's time to rec some fics from the greatest love story ever shown on television.

Fandom: STARSKY & HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Length: 16,800
Author on LJ: your_woman_now
Author Website: your_woman_now
Why this must be read:

For our first thrill-packed ride, I want to bring your attention to a brand new writer. Your Woman Now has given us the kind of story I love: the slow, sneaky romance. The kind of thing that happens when you aren't looking, just getting through every day, living your complicated, adventure-packed cop's life, until you finally realize...oh, so this is love!

The author's summary tells us this story is, "A long journey from here to there, with a bit of Starsky H/C, a bit of Hutch angst and a lot of love for Starsky’s awesome mane of hair…" That's the really fun hook. (The title is from a song in the musical, "Hair.") It's a unique twist that pulls us into the story, gets us involved with something familiar and known, and takes us places we haven't been before.

The boys' penchant for practical jokes and one-upmanship reads true, like when Hutch takes advantage of a sleeping Starsky and starts sliding pencils in Starsky's hair to see how many it will hold. In another scene, Hutch's penchant for resting his arm on the back of the car seat backfires when his sleeve button accidentally gets caught in Starsky's hair as they spot a perp they need to pursue. The timing and description of the awkward entanglement made me howl.

( Read more... )

My Hair Like Jesus Wore It

Howdy, crack_van! I'm cho_malfoy, and I'm driving the bandom van for August. The fanfic I read includes a wide diversity of bands and pairings, so I'm hoping to reflect some of that in my recs. Buckle up!

Fandom: BANDOM (Panic! at the Disco)
Pairing: Brendon/Dallon
Length: Around 75,000 words.
Author on LJ: vintage_noise
Author Website: This is the only posted story on the author's journal.

Why this must be read: Bandom's great for historical AUs, and this is one of my favorites. The Roaring '20s is a really fun time period to read, and the author balances just enough slang and worldbuilding to make it believable without hitting you over the head with the idea that the story's setting isn't modern. Plus, it's Brendon/Dallon! Not a pairing you run into as the lead of a long fic every day!

( Summary and excerpt. )

It's All in the Phrasing

Hello, the crackvan!

Whilst all eyes have been focussed elsewhere, I have been hotwiring the crackvan again and am heading off into the twisty turns of 1970s-1980s London, veering wildly to throw off any pursuit by mercenaries, ostensibly friendly fellow agencies, or criminals bent on vengeance. The consequent swerves make a definite itinerary rather difficult to predict, but I am hoping that flailing abruptly round obscure clubs, dodgy alleyways and a seminary, taking in sights from suburban marriage to surreptitious cruising, will keep the thing running throughout the month.

My carefully-arranged themes were thrown off by unexpected events last time (honestly, the traffic reports can be so misleading) so this time all I'm going to commit to is that I shall try to make sure we are in the vicinity of the longer stories in time for the weekends, so look out for them on Thursdays and Fridays.

We begin by idling outside the headquarters of CI5 and eavesdropping...

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: Just under 2000 words
Author on LJ: msmoat
Author Website: PFL on AO3
Why this must be read:...

...because there are so many stories going on here. We have Charlie's account of Bodie and Doyle's initial meeting. We have the old army comradeship of Cowley and Charlie. And there is Charlie's own story peeping out from underneath, too.

We meet Charlie in the episode Look After Annie, as someone who could, if he chose, have a lot to tell the lads about Cowley's history. Here we learn more about how they knew each other, and Charlie demonstrates how much he notices about what goes on at CI5.
( It begins with a bird... )
PFL shifts the dialogue from Charlie reporting the speech of Bodie and Doyle, to Charlie commenting directly to Cowley, without any confusion. It's possible to see both scenes, the scrambling about in the rest room, and the quiet, almost wistful, conversation over the tea-tray recalling it. Similarly, the balance between the farce of the bird-scaring and the subsequent reflection is just right.

Stop the Pigeon, by PFL

Hello there, kids, I'm Jaye and I'll be behind the wheel of the Skins van this month, so it'll probably be in everyone's best interest to look both ways before crossing the street. Fandom overview soon to come, but I thought I'd start off with a few quick recs before that. I'm going to try my best to keep it balanced between the three generations (with a few cross-gen) and skate across as many genres as I can. There will be het, slash, femslash (a surprisingly large amount of femslash, actually, considering that it's usually a rather pronounced minority) and gen. Hopefully you can find something in there that you'll like. Cheers!

Fandom: SKINS
Pairing: Cassie/Effy (gen 1)
Length: 500 words
Author on LJ: kyrafic
Author Website: (fic masterlist here)
Why this must be read: The wonderful sense that this rare!pair makes is already tantalizing in theory, but in practice, this short fic makes it absolutely delicious. The Cassie voice of this author is like something straight out of the show, the word choice, the beautiful stream-of-conciousness sort of narration that flows naturally from beginning to end. It fits brilliantly with Cassie and Effy's brief interaction in 2.07, without really focusing on the two of them, so much as it does Cassie's insane headspace at this point in the show. It's short, but just as long as it needs to be, and well worth the read.

( Excerpt )

Say Switchblade