The Perils of Innocence
By:
avidbeader
AU. In an institute to help children with psychological issues, a child is abandoned by his guardians because he does extraordinary things. Rather than fear him, the doctors work to help him try to control this ability. They discover other children with these incredible powers. And then odd letters arrive one summer day. Rating will probably go up later. Eventual H/Hr.
Rated:
Fiction K - English - Drama - Harry P., Hermione G. - Chapters: 33 - Words: 98,203 - Reviews:
3,412 - Favs: 6,251 - Follows: 8,288 - Updated: Sep 24, 2017 - Published: Aug 14, 2012 - id: 8429437
Impressions before reading:
Hmm... how to describe this? Well, the
concept is good, and I've really liked the friendship the Muggle-born children develop, but... well, see some of my comments about Harry Potter and the Power of Paranoia.
Review:
Ah, that's some good shit.
The possibility of the Dursleys just dumping Harry on the UK's public health system is a very plausible point of divergence; that this is the first time Hogwarts has run into this problem is
also eerily plausible, given the low numbers of magical children. And the result is quite nice: Harry with friends and a home support network right from the start.
There are just so many things this fic does that I like: applying a scientific mindset to magic (mostly on the part of the Harry, Hermione, and Dean). Expanding the backstories of underutilized characters like Dean Thomas and Justin Finch-Fletchley for good effect. Getting Sirius Black out of Azkaban early in a very plausible way and even explaining why Dumbledore never did anything about the trial in the first place. The fact that said prior application of science to magic actually makes things
harder on Harry, Dean, and Hermione for a while.
Oh, and the best part? Justin and his dad, the latter of whom can claim descent from old English nobility, going full Ponce Mode and
schooling the Malfoys. Twice!
If there's a flaw, it's the endemic "Uncharitable interpretations of Dumbledore". On the plus side, McGonagall is much more on the ball as a result.
Fuck the Dursleys with an industrial-sized drill bit.
Verdict: Keeping just for "Full Ponce Mode" alone.
NGE: Mitigation
By:
FourthImpact
Mitigation: The act of making a condition or consequence less severe. In the wake of the battle against the sixth angel, something leaves Gendo Ikari scrambling to preserve his scenario. What exactly is Project Mitigation? Who activated it? These questions will set into motion a chain of events that even the Master of Puppets himself could not properly guard against.
Rated:
Fiction T - English - Adventure/Suspense - Shinji I., Kaji R., Asuka L. S. - Chapters: 11 - Words: 85,664 - Reviews:
121 - Favs: 142 - Follows: 196 - Updated: Dec 12, 2012 - Published: Aug 18, 2012 - id: 8441755
Impressions before reading:
An Eva Peggy Sue that's
not Shinji? Sign me up!
Review:
Mitigation is a very different sort of Peggy Sue from most of the ones I've read. For one, Asuka barely does anything with her future knowledge until very late in the story - for the simple reason that it's mental time travel that takes quite a bit of time to set in. For another,
Gendo knows about the method. He's alerted right from the start that Project Mitigation has been activated and takes steps to keep an eye on things, to try and avoid sending his scenario off the rails.
The result is a series of small, subtle changes, the most important of which is Shinji and Asuka developing into a relationship - and then the King Bastard himself throws everything
completely off the rails when he makes the understandable conclusion that it's
Shinji, not Asuka, who's done the time-travelling. This
completely throws things off from canon - and frankly, I really wish this hadn't died when it did, because I really wanted to see how badly this was going to blow up in Gendo's face. He thinks with Shinji and Kaji out of the country he can deal with them at his leisure and end the threat to the scenario; he has no earthly clue that
Asuka is the time-traveller, she's still in Tokyo-3, and she's
pissed the fuck off.
Verdict: Me wanting more is never a bad thing.
