Fic: Underland (Sherlock Holmes / Neverwhere), PG (1/17)

[crimson_adder]

Title: Underland (1/?)
Author: crimson_adder
Fandoms: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) / Neverwhere (Gaiman!verse)
Rating: PG
Pairing / Characters: Holmes/Watson (eventually); Watson, Marquis de Carabas
Word Count: ~2000
Summary: John Watson loses a bet, grants a favour, and finds himself in a world unlike anything he has ever seen before. Except for how it's all the

Comments

A Really Big Favour

[spacefall]

Oddly enough, I was a fan of Neverwhere long before I really became a Holmes fan. The moment I saw the prompt, I knew that this is one crossover that ought to exist by all rights. HW and de Carabas...oh yes.

I did find the story uncomfortable in places, with Watson's Victorian White Bloke ways of looking at the Marquis as a black man, but ... I'm sort of glad that you allowed it to be problematic instead of skating over that part of W's character. It can make me squirm in the canon too, after all... and underlines the fact that his apparently comfortable ignorance is about to be whipped out from under him by London Below.

“I know things.” He smiled, and took a new card. His smile was not of triumph though, only of satisfaction, as though his greater knowledge than mine was more pleasing to him than the chance of winning all my money.

Oh god, de Carabas ... Watson. I love the way you play with the if-only-he-knew-ness of this. Watson seeing everything, and passing over it as inconsequential. I also loved the parallel with Holmes, and the feeling that Holmes could have been very like the Marquis had he made his life in London Below. I never knew that the Marquis de Carabas was missing from the Holmesian canon until now ;D I really want to see his brain vs Holmes's brain...and I have no idea who'd win. I'm not sure anyone really 'wins' over the Marquis in the long run ;)

This crossover needs to exist. I hope we can see the rest.

PS: Must ... have ... Paterson ... Joseph ... Fix ... now ... ngh. Where's that DVD...?

Re: A Really Big Favour

[applea]

Actually, Watson is very liberal for his time and actually is astonishingly un-racist. The "Adventure of the Yellow Face" springs to mind, where he fully accepted and approved of the little black girl and was happy that the man accepted her as his child, even though he was white and not the father. And the Adventure of the Five Pips clearly shows the hostility ACD, and by extension Watson, had towards the KKK. :)

Re: A Really Big Favour

[spacefall]

*nods* For his time, definitely, but even as an open-minded Victorian gent he betrays an few rough edges. In YELL, for instance, there's something in his "strikingly handsome and intelligent-looking, but.." that sits a little askew to me as a reader, and while it's easy to blame ACD for the squirm-inducing music-hall stereotypes in 3GAB* I have to play the game and accept that Watson wrote some of it at least. Watson is open-minded and a good man, but not perfect. It would be nice to think that he completely transcended his time, but I think it's more honest to say that he was a good and open chap for his age, and generally averse to crappy stereotyping (like his stop-Cockney-bashing in STOC.) Was he immune to all colonialist thinking or the exoticisation of certain groups? I think probably not.

* though, being Bristolian, I can't help hearing Dixie as being from Somerset.

Re: A Really Big Favour

[crimson_adder]

I was definitely a fan of Neverwhere before I ever got into the Holmes fandom. The marquis is one of my absolute favourite literary characters, and he neeeeeds to be in more things. Or so.

Yeah, I found that kind of difficult to write too. I was trying to find a way of keeping it in line, while not making it anachronistic. I think you're right in that he is an open minded man, but since we're all subject to societal expectations and stereotypes he would also be influenced at least marginally by social forms.

I'm so glad you're enjoying this! :D I've got a whole bunch more written already, but I'll be posting in sections like this to keep from getting ahead of my self. Holmes unfortunately will take a while to show up, but there will be much more of Watson and the marquis in the next few bits. :D

PS: Isn't he just gorgeous? I haven't watched the TV series yet, but I'm mostly basing my descriptions off of him.

/ridiculously long comment