Title: Support Systems
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Reads mainly Gen, but has background Derek/Stiles
Categories: Sheriff Stilinski, parenting, family, pack, magic!Stiles
Length: Medium (8,242 words)
Warnings: Minor character death. original character - death is not described

Author on LJ: merryish No longer updated
Author Websites: Molly

Author's Summary: It's the first time they've spoken since the end of the Alpha pack and the Darach. Derek leans across the picnic table while Stiles is talking to Cora on his other side, and what he whispers to John on this momentous occasion is, "It's ground turkey. Stiles made me promise. I'm sorry."

Review:
Some early lines in this story do a great job of summing up what John is coming to terms with...
( read a few lines )

If you like Sheriff Stilinski or can imagine the terror of having a child who spends his teen years an inch from possible death with no sign of backing off, this is for you.

I love John's point of view, the way he and Melissa support one another, the way he finds an ally in fellow concerned parent Chris, and the line he walks with Stiles, who will always be his kid, but who's heading into adulthood in a world that turns out to be more dangerous than he expected.

The scene at Derek's house with John being introduced to the pack is particularly well done. I love the moment after Stiles' magic practice when John is on an adrenaline rush of concern, while Scott already understands what's going on and is sharing in Stiles' excitement. You get to see how strange it must be for John to feel on the outside of decisions and events that are defining Stiles' future. And at the same time, he's being brought into the pack's circle, given more understanding and a chance to have a relationship with Stiles not based on lies.

It's a compelling characterization of John -- never too simple or over the top -- and through his eyes, a new way to look at the pack, especially Stiles and Derek.

Support Systems

Title: Deeds of Maidenly Unkindness
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/St Trinians
Categories: Gen, crossover, humour, mystery, British public schools.
Length: Long (35,000 words)
Warnings: Sharp practice, underhand dealing and all the other things a good school teachs you.

Author on LJ: ffutures
Author Website: Marcus's profile on Twisting the Hellmouth

Summary:
Buffy and Willow take teaching jobs in Britain. Will the school survive the experience?

Review:
As the summary says, Buffy and Willow are working on getting teaching qualifications. That means getting some practical experience, i.e. spending a term actually teaching in a school. They are thrilled to get placements together at a girls' boarding school, well paid and with lodgings thrown in too. In fact the only downside is that Giles nearly has a heart attack when they tell him the name of the school: St Trinians.

If you are familiar with Ronald Searle's anarchic stories of a boarding school for girls, your brain is probably already hurting at the thought of the coming culture clash. If you aren't, go and familiarise yourself immediately; read the books for preference, or failing that watch the wonderful old films starring Alistair Sim as the headmistress. The more recent remakes come less well recommended, and on the whole I'd recommend reading Marcus's story instead.

You see, Marcus has one of the most twisted imaginations I know. He has been a freelance RPG writer for decades, so as a fan writer he is a skilled wordsmith. He also has an amazing ability to spot connections that are, in retrospect, obvious if rather demented, and make them work as stories. In Deeds of Maidenly Unkindness he uses the fact that the Buffyverse is full of the products of stuffy British public schools to make Buffy and Willow's foray into a rather more disreputable British public school seem perfectly natural. A lot of the things that the Scoobies did at school come back to haunt them (in one case literally); stopping the girls smuggling rocket launchers in, for example, or brewing up interesting substances in the chemistry lab. Somehow the result is both a supernatural action story and a cartoon-violent comedy.

It's brilliantly silly. Read it.

Deeds of Maidenly Unkindness