Sherlock Recs 4a
Once again, I waited so long that I probably have two posts' worth of recs. I am no doubt forgetting some things, and I've surely missed others. Please feel free to let me know of anything I might like that I haven't mentioned, and I might pick them up in a later post.
I include small excerpts for longer items; it would not do to include excerpts for any of the poems below or the really short stories. Just trust me and read them.
POETRY
Yes, you read that right.
Someone prompted a William Carlos Williams fill, with parodies of "This Is Just to Say" here (original poem here). Some of them are very well done! (Yes, there may be something wrong with me that I think so, but they made me happy anyway.)
FOCUS ON A SECONDARY CHARACTER
Gen
"It's Not Fine"
Molly tries dating again, and Sherlock gives some unwanted assistance. Humor with a little edge. I like the portrayal of both Molly and Sherlock. Molly's not stupid or incompetent, and she really does deserve better than Sherlock.
Excerpt:
It is perhaps unfair to compare the two of them: Sherlock, like a vision from an old vampire movie, with his glass-sharp cheekbones and his sweeping coat; James, his face now drained of all the colour he had worked up climbing the three flights to the lab, (the lift was broken. The lift was always broken. The other available lift was down fifty metres of twisting corridors. Molly had just got used to it) his eyes wide and staring.
Sherlock notices her coming, and greets her pleasantly enough before sketching a wave and stalking off, coat billowing.
James smiles at her nervously, and she is about to speak when his phone rings. Making an apologetic face, he picks it up. Within five seconds his expression has gone from nervous to terrified, and he hangs up without even saying goodbye.
For my brief review of another story, which I put under drama but which also fits here because it focuses on Molly, see "Tick Tock", the fifth story under "Drama" (fourth under "Drama: Gen").
"Recluse" by sadbhyl recounts Mike Stamford's first encounter with Sherlock Holmes, from Mike's perspective. This might well become my head canon.
Excerpt: The man glanced up, pale, serpentine eyes raking over him quickly. “Ah, Dr. Stamford, good afternoon. Sorry to take you away from your lunch. I do hope your intern is all right. Although, frankly, if she can’t hold up better under stress, medicine might not be the best career for her. Could I trouble you for a professional opinion?”
MAKE ONE CHANGE
Gen
A challenge from watsons-woes: "We all have those particular scenes in mind that we wish had gone differently . . . or that we would have written differently (like having Watson clock Holmes a good one in EMPT after he recovered from the shock). . . . Now's your chance. Forget about canon, and fix something in a canon . . . that you would like to have seen transpire differently."
Goodness knows lots of things could be fixed in "The Blind Banker," but these writers each took on just one! To say more, or even to provide excerpts, would give too much away, but I found both of these well worth reading:
"Working Definition" by methylviolet10b
and
"Spock's Brain" by gardnerhill (Don't let the title put you off; I could be mistaken, but I believe it's simply a reference to the worst episode of Star Trek, The Original Series, and reflects the author's opinion of TBB.)
This story does not seem to have come from the challenge above, but again, it makes one change in canon and then follows through:
"A Study in Sherlock" by bendingsignpost imagines a change that will be evident from the excerpt. Things go rather differently than they do with Sherlock-as well they should!
"Tell you what," the cabbie says. "Let's go for a ride. I'll tell you what I told them, and then, if you ask me, I'll hand myself in." He walks around to the driver's side and climbs in. Shuts the door. If John walks away, the man drives away, and that's their murderer gone, maybe for good.
Standing firm and unaided, John touches his sister's mobile in his pocket. He looks up at the windows of 221b Baker Street and thinks, Oh, what the hell.
He climbs into the cab.
HUMOR
Gen
"He’s The Greatest, He’s Fantastic" by r-scribbles. John has noticed that Sherlock has an odd little habit. A summary can't do justice. READ THIS.
"LOLSherlock" by Anonymous is a little out of character; it would be pretty mean of John to make pointing out his flatmate's failures at mundane matters a regular feature of his blog. Yet I laughed out loud at one thing in particular (can anyone guess which?) and enjoyed the story.
Excerpt:
4th June
Help me settle a bet
For £10: any reasonably intelligent person in their right mind KNOWS WHO WON THE WORLD CUP, Y/N?
In "Medea's Garden" by sadbhyl, John starts a garden, for his own enjoyment and Mrs. Hudson's. Sherlock can't bear to be left out of other people's fun and pushes in just a little.
Excerpt:
“Really, John,” Sherlock spoke low enough not to be overheard but loud enough not to startle him, “manual labor?”
“Not all of us are specialized creatures of intellect, Sherlock.” John didn’t look back, still watching Mrs. Hudson take in the space. “It felt good to do some hard work for a change.”
“I do hard work.”
“No, you are hard work. There’s a difference.”
"Fortunately, Just Then There Was an Explosion" by LastScorpion gives us Sherlock lecturing John on comma usage. Anyone who cares about punctuation knows this cannot end well. Too short for excerpts.
Crack
"Sidekick" by gayalondiel begins, "The day John found himself sat in the kitchen sympathising with a well-dressed hamster was the day he realised his life could no longer be construed in any way, shape or form as 'normal'." Sherlock and John meet Danger Mouse and Penfold. (This little gem reminds me that Small Child really needs to catch some Danger Mouse.)
Excerpt:
The hamster scurried up to the mouse.
“Oh crumbs, I think you’ve frightened him, chief,” he said in high but distinct tones.
John felt his jaw hanging open as the rodents observed him. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again. They were still there, staring. There was only one thing he could think of. He turned to Sherlock.
“I’m, ah, I think I’m coming down with something,” he said. “I’m just going to head off to bed and...”
Slash
It's a little reductive to put "Not Exactly Location, Location, Location" by doodle-writes into the Humor category, but I had to pick something. The story gives us scenes from many years hence, when an older Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, now long married, seek a house for their retirement-and the realtor who has to deal with Sherlock's antics. The characters sound and feel so right that I don't mind that they're married at all (though in my head Sherlock is asexual and John is hetero).
"Do you know she was going to suggest a stair lift? A stair lift, John. Us?"
John couldn't help but laugh at Sherlock's indignation coupled with the mental image of Sherlock impatiently being taken up the stairs on a motorised plastic chair in twenty years’ time.
See also 4b.
I include small excerpts for longer items; it would not do to include excerpts for any of the poems below or the really short stories. Just trust me and read them.
POETRY
Yes, you read that right.
Someone prompted a William Carlos Williams fill, with parodies of "This Is Just to Say" here (original poem here). Some of them are very well done! (Yes, there may be something wrong with me that I think so, but they made me happy anyway.)
FOCUS ON A SECONDARY CHARACTER
Gen
"It's Not Fine"
Molly tries dating again, and Sherlock gives some unwanted assistance. Humor with a little edge. I like the portrayal of both Molly and Sherlock. Molly's not stupid or incompetent, and she really does deserve better than Sherlock.
Excerpt:
It is perhaps unfair to compare the two of them: Sherlock, like a vision from an old vampire movie, with his glass-sharp cheekbones and his sweeping coat; James, his face now drained of all the colour he had worked up climbing the three flights to the lab, (the lift was broken. The lift was always broken. The other available lift was down fifty metres of twisting corridors. Molly had just got used to it) his eyes wide and staring.
Sherlock notices her coming, and greets her pleasantly enough before sketching a wave and stalking off, coat billowing.
James smiles at her nervously, and she is about to speak when his phone rings. Making an apologetic face, he picks it up. Within five seconds his expression has gone from nervous to terrified, and he hangs up without even saying goodbye.
For my brief review of another story, which I put under drama but which also fits here because it focuses on Molly, see "Tick Tock", the fifth story under "Drama" (fourth under "Drama: Gen").
"Recluse" by sadbhyl recounts Mike Stamford's first encounter with Sherlock Holmes, from Mike's perspective. This might well become my head canon.
Excerpt: The man glanced up, pale, serpentine eyes raking over him quickly. “Ah, Dr. Stamford, good afternoon. Sorry to take you away from your lunch. I do hope your intern is all right. Although, frankly, if she can’t hold up better under stress, medicine might not be the best career for her. Could I trouble you for a professional opinion?”
MAKE ONE CHANGE
Gen
A challenge from watsons-woes: "We all have those particular scenes in mind that we wish had gone differently . . . or that we would have written differently (like having Watson clock Holmes a good one in EMPT after he recovered from the shock). . . . Now's your chance. Forget about canon, and fix something in a canon . . . that you would like to have seen transpire differently."
Goodness knows lots of things could be fixed in "The Blind Banker," but these writers each took on just one! To say more, or even to provide excerpts, would give too much away, but I found both of these well worth reading:
"Working Definition" by methylviolet10b
and
"Spock's Brain" by gardnerhill (Don't let the title put you off; I could be mistaken, but I believe it's simply a reference to the worst episode of Star Trek, The Original Series, and reflects the author's opinion of TBB.)
This story does not seem to have come from the challenge above, but again, it makes one change in canon and then follows through:
"A Study in Sherlock" by bendingsignpost imagines a change that will be evident from the excerpt. Things go rather differently than they do with Sherlock-as well they should!
"Tell you what," the cabbie says. "Let's go for a ride. I'll tell you what I told them, and then, if you ask me, I'll hand myself in." He walks around to the driver's side and climbs in. Shuts the door. If John walks away, the man drives away, and that's their murderer gone, maybe for good.
Standing firm and unaided, John touches his sister's mobile in his pocket. He looks up at the windows of 221b Baker Street and thinks, Oh, what the hell.
He climbs into the cab.
HUMOR
Gen
"He’s The Greatest, He’s Fantastic" by r-scribbles. John has noticed that Sherlock has an odd little habit. A summary can't do justice. READ THIS.
"LOLSherlock" by Anonymous is a little out of character; it would be pretty mean of John to make pointing out his flatmate's failures at mundane matters a regular feature of his blog. Yet I laughed out loud at one thing in particular (can anyone guess which?) and enjoyed the story.
Excerpt:
4th June
Help me settle a bet
For £10: any reasonably intelligent person in their right mind KNOWS WHO WON THE WORLD CUP, Y/N?
In "Medea's Garden" by sadbhyl, John starts a garden, for his own enjoyment and Mrs. Hudson's. Sherlock can't bear to be left out of other people's fun and pushes in just a little.
Excerpt:
“Really, John,” Sherlock spoke low enough not to be overheard but loud enough not to startle him, “manual labor?”
“Not all of us are specialized creatures of intellect, Sherlock.” John didn’t look back, still watching Mrs. Hudson take in the space. “It felt good to do some hard work for a change.”
“I do hard work.”
“No, you are hard work. There’s a difference.”
"Fortunately, Just Then There Was an Explosion" by LastScorpion gives us Sherlock lecturing John on comma usage. Anyone who cares about punctuation knows this cannot end well. Too short for excerpts.
Crack
"Sidekick" by gayalondiel begins, "The day John found himself sat in the kitchen sympathising with a well-dressed hamster was the day he realised his life could no longer be construed in any way, shape or form as 'normal'." Sherlock and John meet Danger Mouse and Penfold. (This little gem reminds me that Small Child really needs to catch some Danger Mouse.)
Excerpt:
The hamster scurried up to the mouse.
“Oh crumbs, I think you’ve frightened him, chief,” he said in high but distinct tones.
John felt his jaw hanging open as the rodents observed him. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again. They were still there, staring. There was only one thing he could think of. He turned to Sherlock.
“I’m, ah, I think I’m coming down with something,” he said. “I’m just going to head off to bed and...”
Slash
It's a little reductive to put "Not Exactly Location, Location, Location" by doodle-writes into the Humor category, but I had to pick something. The story gives us scenes from many years hence, when an older Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, now long married, seek a house for their retirement-and the realtor who has to deal with Sherlock's antics. The characters sound and feel so right that I don't mind that they're married at all (though in my head Sherlock is asexual and John is hetero).
"Do you know she was going to suggest a stair lift? A stair lift, John. Us?"
John couldn't help but laugh at Sherlock's indignation coupled with the mental image of Sherlock impatiently being taken up the stairs on a motorised plastic chair in twenty years’ time.
See also 4b.