Fic: The Trial by Leslie Knope - Part 3/?

[stiffleaves]

Title: The Trial by Leslie Knope, Part 3/?
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Pairings: Leslie/Ben, Ann/Other, Ann/Chris
Spoilers: The Treaty. A couple of winks to both The Comeback Kid and Campaign Ad but squint and you'll miss 'em.
Rating: R, verging on PG-13 for this part
Word count: ~10,000 (this part, but broken up into 3 sections spanning 3 days

Comments

[rose_griffes]

And April added, "Yes, Ann, I hope you brought all your cookbooks 'cause you're our kitchen slave now."
Ahahaha, oh April. And that this made Ann feel relaxed brought out the giggles.

Your writing is fantastic; I love how in-depth your exploration is of Leslie's train of thoughts. Nicely done!

[stiffleaves]

Aw, thank you so much! That's great to hear. :)

[saucydiva]

This is so wonderful, I just adore where you are taking this. Leslie gets caught up in things pretty easily, so I could see her changing her mind if a lady she respected and admired told her too. And much like I wanted to excuse Leslie and Ben their secret dating- and really, what they did was pretty awful, if you look at it on paper- I can see Leslie wanting to excuse her own slip-up but not allow someone else the same latitude. I'm glad we're getting into Ann's head, and I look forward to seeing her wacky new roommate situation. Can't wait for the next part!

[stiffleaves]

Yay! Thanks!!
Yeah, definitely, Leslie's thoughts on how she and Ben were somehow better than Ann and Chris because they managed not to jump each other AFTER they'd broken up are some special feat of compartmentalization on her part.

[stillscape]

I'm enjoying this so much! Leslie is fantastic here, trying to work through all of these ethical dilemmas. And dressing up in a Hillary Clinton outfit is just perfect. You've really nailed her. And I am so looking forward to the continuation of the Ann/Andy/April roommate situation.

[stiffleaves]

Thanks so much!
I just couldn't stand to break up the trio of Andy, April and Ben without replacing it with another crazy roommate constellation. I still hope they NEVER break that up on the show.

[spunkyar]

Another great update!! I love all the great aspects of all their characters you were able to throw in there too. I'm so glad that Leslie is figuring out what to say because her plan to blame it all on Chris just wasn't right. Ben's excitedness about moving in with Leslie was so adorable too. I just love them!! Can't wait to see where this goes. :)

[stiffleaves]

Thank you! :)

[emlocke12]

I really like the pace of this story. It's different from the pace of a sitcom, of course, but the scenes are structured in a way that reads naturally as an expanded format P&R, with more room to get to the hearts of the same characters. For instance, Leslie comes up with a harebrained, pretty much terrible idea like Ann moving in with April and Andy, CUT TO: it turns out to work pretty well for everyone, in a kookily fortuitous but completely sincere way

[stiffleaves]

Wow, this is such a detailed and insightful comment. I really appreciate it.

Yes, I started out wanting this story to be made up of all quick and snappy scenes and mostly dialogue, but then, with this chapter, it seemed to demand more introspection from the characters. So I'm really glad to hear that even though the scenes got longer and it has more internal monologues now, some of that pacing still comes across.

she just has a high threshold for nonsense

That's a perfect description of Ann, I think. It's funny, because she's such a straight guy really, but at the same time - unlike Ben - she's actually from Pawnee and it's such a crazy place and she used to date Andy and became Leslie's best friend very, very quickly. So I think she does have a high threshold for nonsense or maybe, living in Pawnee, she just doesn't know any better