Sherlock Recs 4b
See Part A of this round here.
HUMOR/DRAMA/CROSSOVER
Het
"Luton, or the Curious Case of the NotSherlock" by r-scribbles is more a Cabin Pressure than a Sherlock fic, and you probably won't enjoy it if you don't like CP. If you do like CP, you should give this a try.
Martin Crieff and Molly Hooper. I was very nervous about the pairing, but it works amazingly well. Poor Martin does get to meet his döppelganger. Humor abounds, but there is drama and actual plot. The author doesn't seem to have rated it. I'd rate it mostly PG-13/Teen, with a caveat that Part 8 is apparently all sex, so I didn't actually read that part. That might be R/Mature, or maybe even Explicit. The good news for those of us who don't like to read about sex is that the story works just as well if you don't read that bit! (If that's just me, you are under absolutely no obligation to let me know.)
Excerpt:
Sherlock (and despite a stupid wig and make up making him look redder of face and hair, it was Sherlock - absolutely had to be) stood up and positioned himself between her and the flight instruments, as if in an automatic, defensive gesture. Oh, Sherlock was good at subterfuge. Very good.
‘You,’ she seethed.
‘Erm…’ Sherlock blurted, ‘you’re not supposed to be in here…’
She wasn’t supposed to be there?!? She was just trying to get back from bloody Spain! What the Hell was he doing swanning around dressed as a pilot? His put-on expression of flustered innocence was the absolute last straw for her. The weeks on weeks on weeks of worry and distress and deception and disappointment that she’d bitten down all came up to the surface in one massive bubble of fury.
META
Slash
The Meta Fic that Ate the Kink Meme, "The Theory of Narrative Causality":
Start here.
This one is really hard to explain. The prompt is simple enough: "Sherlock is a well-known fanartist whose online antics always land him on fandom_wank. John's a beloved BNF fanfiction author. They meet at a convention; geeky love ensues." What happened from there is very complicated. The original fiction was in five parts plus an epilogue, with links all at the link above. I enjoyed most of the fic. As you know, I'm not into sex scenes, and I ended up skipping one bit of the story (I think it was just one). (Of course, that means those of you who like explicit slash might like at least one part of the story.)
The story undoes the old trope about how the fictional universe can't exist within the fictional universe; Sherlock Holmes adaptations never (canonically) refer to the existence of other versions. This metaverse has the major characters as fans of the Arthur Conan Doyle books, the Granada series (with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke), and, in some cases, the 2009 movie (with Robert Downey, Jr., and Jude Law).
It bent my brain. I got addicted enough that when the project went even further, I followed. Real LJs were created for all the fictional personae. Different people are running them. Links are all at the link above. I'm not sure what I think of the LJ part of the project; heck, I wasn't even entirely sure what I thought of the story! I have to mention it, though, because I do read it, and I'm very curious to see where it will go next. I thought maybe some of you might be too.
DRAMA
Pre-Slash or Slash
"Surfacing", by machshefa, at Holmestice. Spoilers for "The Great Game." Sherlock tries to sort out his past and his present. The last thing he remembers is John stepping into his sight.
Gen
"Equal and Opposite" is a little long to be a ficlet, but it's one extended scene (3500 words). methylviolet10b at Holmestice gives us Sherlock's perspective on John's medical skills in an unexpected emergency, and for once Sherlock acts as the assistant. The author warns for graphic injuries, though I didn't find them particularly disturbing (possibly as a result of my own history of injuries and a few I've witnessed).
Excerpt:
Sherlock found himself halfway to John before he realized he was walking, irresistibly drawn to this quietly authoritative and utterly confident stranger in the familiar woolly jumper. He’d almost become accustomed to John surprising him at random intervals - he never could seem to define John’s limits - but this was well beyond the usual. In the time they’d lived together, he’d seen Cranky John and Happy John and Stressed John and Ex-Soldier John and Giddy-With-Adrenaline-And-Too-Little-Sleep John and a hundred other versions of the man. But they were all still his John, easily recognizable as the man he knew.
He’d never met this John Watson before.
"For Me It Isn't Over", under 5000 words. flecalicious at Holmestice adds some book canon to the BBC canon: the story begins shortly after the death of John's wife Mary. Arthur Conan Doyle, however, didn't show so much interest in John's mourning. Sherlock rises to the occasion with a mixture of respect for John's grief and reminders that he's not really alone, telling him at one point, "You’re never without one or the other of us and now’s not the time to start.” Both John and Sherlock remain very much in character. This story made me sad and hopeful at the same time.
Excerpt:
John replied, “I can drive, you know.”
“Can you? Oh,” Sherlock said. The surprise was polite, a vague investment of feeling in what John could and couldn’t do; it was years-familiar. Everyone else was speaking to him in quiet tones, in downturned words, and sometimes he wanted to take Sherlock’s detachment from the situation and wrap himself up in it, pretend nothing had ever changed. Sherlock had already seen John through the first days with this attitude, first with silence (listening) and now with familiarity (normalcy, being the one thing that stayed the same).
"Call and Answer" by veronamay: After TGG, Sherlock is still recovering, John is ranty, tea is made, and John realizes some things (even if Sherlock doesn't).
Excerpt:
His phone chimed again.
Tea NOW, it demanded.
Bugger off, John told it, and turned off the ringer.
Assuming he didn't kill Sherlock with his bare hands and use his newfound knowledge to hide the body, of course.
There were thirty seconds of blissful silence, and then:
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
In "Tick, Tock" (The Proofreader's Cut), Molly discovers she's pregnant, with Moriarty's child, after "The Great Game." Sherlock, John, Lestrade, and Sarah are all there, well-drawn, but this story belongs to Molly. sursum-ursa does a wonderful job of characterizing a woman who could on the one hand have a crush on Sherlock while he's manipulating her and on the other be smart and brave and thoughtful. 15,000 words. I recommend setting aside time to read it all at one sitting; I couldn't stop!
Excerpt:
'He gets involved only when it's worth his while. When it's 'fun'.' The bitterness in her voice was clear, but she made no effort to hide it. 'This was a messy attempt to get at me. A rush job. The next one will be better, and he'll come at me sideways. I'm not,' she swallowed, hard, and doggedly carried through to her conclusion, 'I'm not...safe. Not anywhere. If he wants me, he'll go through anyone. Anyone new. Anyone he can leverage. Any angle. I'm not safe. Not with anyone strange. I'm safe on my own.'
Six seconds: the length of the silence before Lestrade tried to respond.
Twelve seconds: the length of the silence before Lestrade actually responded.
Two: the number of syllables he managed before Sherlock cut him off.
'OK-'
'You're safe with us.' Well, that was unexpected. Sherlock looked...what? A mix of surprised at his own words, and not a little impressed. At his own words? Or at her?
'Lestrade,' he continued, 'she's right. I can tell you how he's likely to try this; I know how he thinks. But I don't know what he thinks. Dead or alive is tricky. He could just want Molly and the...' he floundered for a moment, gesturing helplessly, 'pinhead dead, or he might not be bothered, or he might actually want them alive and it was a ruse.'
Two seconds: the time period in which Molly considered punching Sherlock.
Three seconds: the time that elapsed before she realised that he was referring to the foetus.
"As the Sea Knows the Shore" by joonscribble give us an excellent multichapter case fic. When John runs across Mike Stamford unexpectedly, he learns from the latter that a mutual friend has killed himself. Yet John knows Spencer Baird wouldn't do that. Sherlock isn't interested, so John must begin the investigation by himself. Characterization and dialogue are spot-in, and the story presents an excellent mixture of mystery, angst and introspection, and humor.
Excerpt:
“A friend of mine’s died,” he explained, tiredly. Suddenly it felt ridiculously late, despite it only being 10 o’clock.
“Ah.” There was a momentary silence. “And that’s upset you.”
“Yes, Sherlock,” John answered, patiently. “Most people do get upset when friends die.”
“Even if they’re friends you haven’t spoken to in nearly a decade?” Sherlock inquired, lightly, returning to his microscope.
. . . .
“The police are saying Spencer killed himself. Only they’ve got it wrong. It doesn’t make any sense.”
. . . .
Sherlock made a disparaging sound before shifting his focus away to attend to one of the lidded pots.
“What?” John demanded.
“There’s no case. You’re contradicting the evidence-based conclusions of the police with the subjective opinion of a person you haven’t spoken to in years,” Sherlock dismissed.
“No, hang on-“
“A friend of yours has died and you’re entering into the first stage of grief known as denial,” Sherlock continued on through the interruption. “Simple.”
Anger heaved inside John at the tone. “Simple? You didn’t even understand two minutes ago that people got upset at friends dying!”
“Irrelevant,” Sherlock replied sounding now a bit bored as he lifted the lid off one of the pots. Inside was a severed hand floating in what looked like brackish water. “If you’re going past the Thames tomorrow, I’ll need you to get me a sample. There’s a thermos over there,” he nodded toward the kitchen sink, their earlier conversation all but forgotten.
HUMOR/DRAMA/CROSSOVER
Het
"Luton, or the Curious Case of the NotSherlock" by r-scribbles is more a Cabin Pressure than a Sherlock fic, and you probably won't enjoy it if you don't like CP. If you do like CP, you should give this a try.
Martin Crieff and Molly Hooper. I was very nervous about the pairing, but it works amazingly well. Poor Martin does get to meet his döppelganger. Humor abounds, but there is drama and actual plot. The author doesn't seem to have rated it. I'd rate it mostly PG-13/Teen, with a caveat that Part 8 is apparently all sex, so I didn't actually read that part. That might be R/Mature, or maybe even Explicit. The good news for those of us who don't like to read about sex is that the story works just as well if you don't read that bit! (If that's just me, you are under absolutely no obligation to let me know.)
Excerpt:
Sherlock (and despite a stupid wig and make up making him look redder of face and hair, it was Sherlock - absolutely had to be) stood up and positioned himself between her and the flight instruments, as if in an automatic, defensive gesture. Oh, Sherlock was good at subterfuge. Very good.
‘You,’ she seethed.
‘Erm…’ Sherlock blurted, ‘you’re not supposed to be in here…’
She wasn’t supposed to be there?!? She was just trying to get back from bloody Spain! What the Hell was he doing swanning around dressed as a pilot? His put-on expression of flustered innocence was the absolute last straw for her. The weeks on weeks on weeks of worry and distress and deception and disappointment that she’d bitten down all came up to the surface in one massive bubble of fury.
META
Slash
The Meta Fic that Ate the Kink Meme, "The Theory of Narrative Causality":
Start here.
This one is really hard to explain. The prompt is simple enough: "Sherlock is a well-known fanartist whose online antics always land him on fandom_wank. John's a beloved BNF fanfiction author. They meet at a convention; geeky love ensues." What happened from there is very complicated. The original fiction was in five parts plus an epilogue, with links all at the link above. I enjoyed most of the fic. As you know, I'm not into sex scenes, and I ended up skipping one bit of the story (I think it was just one). (Of course, that means those of you who like explicit slash might like at least one part of the story.)
The story undoes the old trope about how the fictional universe can't exist within the fictional universe; Sherlock Holmes adaptations never (canonically) refer to the existence of other versions. This metaverse has the major characters as fans of the Arthur Conan Doyle books, the Granada series (with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke), and, in some cases, the 2009 movie (with Robert Downey, Jr., and Jude Law).
It bent my brain. I got addicted enough that when the project went even further, I followed. Real LJs were created for all the fictional personae. Different people are running them. Links are all at the link above. I'm not sure what I think of the LJ part of the project; heck, I wasn't even entirely sure what I thought of the story! I have to mention it, though, because I do read it, and I'm very curious to see where it will go next. I thought maybe some of you might be too.
DRAMA
Pre-Slash or Slash
"Surfacing", by machshefa, at Holmestice. Spoilers for "The Great Game." Sherlock tries to sort out his past and his present. The last thing he remembers is John stepping into his sight.
Gen
"Equal and Opposite" is a little long to be a ficlet, but it's one extended scene (3500 words). methylviolet10b at Holmestice gives us Sherlock's perspective on John's medical skills in an unexpected emergency, and for once Sherlock acts as the assistant. The author warns for graphic injuries, though I didn't find them particularly disturbing (possibly as a result of my own history of injuries and a few I've witnessed).
Excerpt:
Sherlock found himself halfway to John before he realized he was walking, irresistibly drawn to this quietly authoritative and utterly confident stranger in the familiar woolly jumper. He’d almost become accustomed to John surprising him at random intervals - he never could seem to define John’s limits - but this was well beyond the usual. In the time they’d lived together, he’d seen Cranky John and Happy John and Stressed John and Ex-Soldier John and Giddy-With-Adrenaline-And-Too-Little-Sleep John and a hundred other versions of the man. But they were all still his John, easily recognizable as the man he knew.
He’d never met this John Watson before.
"For Me It Isn't Over", under 5000 words. flecalicious at Holmestice adds some book canon to the BBC canon: the story begins shortly after the death of John's wife Mary. Arthur Conan Doyle, however, didn't show so much interest in John's mourning. Sherlock rises to the occasion with a mixture of respect for John's grief and reminders that he's not really alone, telling him at one point, "You’re never without one or the other of us and now’s not the time to start.” Both John and Sherlock remain very much in character. This story made me sad and hopeful at the same time.
Excerpt:
John replied, “I can drive, you know.”
“Can you? Oh,” Sherlock said. The surprise was polite, a vague investment of feeling in what John could and couldn’t do; it was years-familiar. Everyone else was speaking to him in quiet tones, in downturned words, and sometimes he wanted to take Sherlock’s detachment from the situation and wrap himself up in it, pretend nothing had ever changed. Sherlock had already seen John through the first days with this attitude, first with silence (listening) and now with familiarity (normalcy, being the one thing that stayed the same).
"Call and Answer" by veronamay: After TGG, Sherlock is still recovering, John is ranty, tea is made, and John realizes some things (even if Sherlock doesn't).
Excerpt:
His phone chimed again.
Tea NOW, it demanded.
Bugger off, John told it, and turned off the ringer.
Assuming he didn't kill Sherlock with his bare hands and use his newfound knowledge to hide the body, of course.
There were thirty seconds of blissful silence, and then:
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
TEA.
In "Tick, Tock" (The Proofreader's Cut), Molly discovers she's pregnant, with Moriarty's child, after "The Great Game." Sherlock, John, Lestrade, and Sarah are all there, well-drawn, but this story belongs to Molly. sursum-ursa does a wonderful job of characterizing a woman who could on the one hand have a crush on Sherlock while he's manipulating her and on the other be smart and brave and thoughtful. 15,000 words. I recommend setting aside time to read it all at one sitting; I couldn't stop!
Excerpt:
'He gets involved only when it's worth his while. When it's 'fun'.' The bitterness in her voice was clear, but she made no effort to hide it. 'This was a messy attempt to get at me. A rush job. The next one will be better, and he'll come at me sideways. I'm not,' she swallowed, hard, and doggedly carried through to her conclusion, 'I'm not...safe. Not anywhere. If he wants me, he'll go through anyone. Anyone new. Anyone he can leverage. Any angle. I'm not safe. Not with anyone strange. I'm safe on my own.'
Six seconds: the length of the silence before Lestrade tried to respond.
Twelve seconds: the length of the silence before Lestrade actually responded.
Two: the number of syllables he managed before Sherlock cut him off.
'OK-'
'You're safe with us.' Well, that was unexpected. Sherlock looked...what? A mix of surprised at his own words, and not a little impressed. At his own words? Or at her?
'Lestrade,' he continued, 'she's right. I can tell you how he's likely to try this; I know how he thinks. But I don't know what he thinks. Dead or alive is tricky. He could just want Molly and the...' he floundered for a moment, gesturing helplessly, 'pinhead dead, or he might not be bothered, or he might actually want them alive and it was a ruse.'
Two seconds: the time period in which Molly considered punching Sherlock.
Three seconds: the time that elapsed before she realised that he was referring to the foetus.
"As the Sea Knows the Shore" by joonscribble give us an excellent multichapter case fic. When John runs across Mike Stamford unexpectedly, he learns from the latter that a mutual friend has killed himself. Yet John knows Spencer Baird wouldn't do that. Sherlock isn't interested, so John must begin the investigation by himself. Characterization and dialogue are spot-in, and the story presents an excellent mixture of mystery, angst and introspection, and humor.
Excerpt:
“A friend of mine’s died,” he explained, tiredly. Suddenly it felt ridiculously late, despite it only being 10 o’clock.
“Ah.” There was a momentary silence. “And that’s upset you.”
“Yes, Sherlock,” John answered, patiently. “Most people do get upset when friends die.”
“Even if they’re friends you haven’t spoken to in nearly a decade?” Sherlock inquired, lightly, returning to his microscope.
. . . .
“The police are saying Spencer killed himself. Only they’ve got it wrong. It doesn’t make any sense.”
. . . .
Sherlock made a disparaging sound before shifting his focus away to attend to one of the lidded pots.
“What?” John demanded.
“There’s no case. You’re contradicting the evidence-based conclusions of the police with the subjective opinion of a person you haven’t spoken to in years,” Sherlock dismissed.
“No, hang on-“
“A friend of yours has died and you’re entering into the first stage of grief known as denial,” Sherlock continued on through the interruption. “Simple.”
Anger heaved inside John at the tone. “Simple? You didn’t even understand two minutes ago that people got upset at friends dying!”
“Irrelevant,” Sherlock replied sounding now a bit bored as he lifted the lid off one of the pots. Inside was a severed hand floating in what looked like brackish water. “If you’re going past the Thames tomorrow, I’ll need you to get me a sample. There’s a thermos over there,” he nodded toward the kitchen sink, their earlier conversation all but forgotten.