sincewhendoyoucallme-john:

jbaillier:

We need to talk about Gimme Shelter

I have not even finished reading this yet, and I’m calling fic of the year. I already grieve that my memory can’t be wiped so that I could read this for the first time twice.

I have never given a toss about surfing, but I love the ocean. I grew up by the sea and scuba diving is my seven percent solution. This fic made me dream about it for the first time in a long while.

I didn’t give a toss about baseball or many of the other things excellent fics have opened my eyes to while also entertaining and educating me about. I love seeing fics where people share their passion for something on the side of telling a good love story. I like to think I’ve done that myself.

And it’s not just the love story that makes this fic epic. It’s not _just_ one single thing. It’s the intensity of the whole package, the careful construction of the world, the exquisite pining and the cathartic romance, it’s also the way that particular era is depicted but most of all the way the author has managed to bring the settings alive. The reader is _there_: standing in the crowd watching Johnny and Scotty see each other for the first time, basking in the lazy golden Oahu morning sunlight watching them wake up, standing on the moonlit shore beside Sherlock as he wonders if he’ll ever see the love of his life again, standing in the shallows when John wades in from his run at the Pipeline, having a beer on Greg and Molly’s backyard fearing for John’s decision-making.

Not everyone is going to fall for this as hard as I did but clearly I’m not the only one. This sort of fic doesn’t come around often.

I keep trying to think of something eloquent or appropriately thankful to say to this, but when faced with the fact that THE ONE AND ONLY @jbaillier is enjoying my fic all I can do is scream incoherently.