Plotting. Planning. Scheming. Freaking myself out. Other fun things.

[dognmonkeyshow]

Now that the squeeing/excitement/frothing backlash of S4 is over, I've been focusing on planning out my next fic. Instead of working on the Sherlock x Justified crossover I've been planning since November 2014, a former fic idea has risen from the dead, re-animated by TFP.

Comments

[donutgirl]

Sounds interesting!

my complete inability to write believable sex scenes, of course.

do you think sex scenes will be necessary? it sounds potentially like the kind of story where you could reasonably "fade to black". idk, I do write ship fic (when I write fic at all, which is very rarely), but I've never written a sex scene for fic. I know other writers do a magnificent job creating sex scenes that are vital to the larger story, but for the stories I'm telling, I realized that the nitty gritty mechanics weren't important and I could just skip it.

Uncle Rudy. Not the comedy cross-dresser, but the family fixer.

Couldn't he be both? Not the comedy part, I mean, but... idk, I find the cross-dressing a really interesting part of Rudy's character. I've always found him fascinating, and I had despaired of ever learning more about him. One thing I appreciate from TFP is getting more Rudy. But I'm still intrigued by the original context. "The siren call of old habits. How very like Uncle Rudy - though, in many ways, cross-dressing would have been a wiser path for you." I'm interested in the suggestion that cross-dressing was something Rudy tried and failed to give up. Temptation, compulsions, and internal conflicts always make for interesting characters.

Combine that with the hint we get that Rudy may have been working for MI6 or something similar... given the era, the whole thing takes on shades of J. Edgar Hoover. I'd guess that cross-dressing was the kind of "peccadillo" these agencies actively sought in their employees, because it's always useful to be able to blackmail someone in a pinch. They could be certain he'd never reveal any corruption he ran across, because they had the power to ruin him personally and professionally.

I wonder if this is something Mycroft would have been aware of, and what he thought about it if so. I wonder if young Mycroft thought he was above all that, because thanks to his complete lack of a personal life, no one could ever have anything "on" him. But what his superiors immediately saw was exactly what Magnussen did: that his junkie detective brother is his pressure point. What compromising positions has Mycroft put himself in to protect Sherlock? We've seen a few in canon, though not the consequences of them.

ANYWAY. it's your story, write it the way you envision. just throwing some plot/character bunnies out there in case any of them sparks something for you.

[dognmonkeyshow]

The issue with the sex scenes is that they're important to the story because they have an impact on how Mycroft thinks of himself. There are a number of events in the story that cause him to question his assumptions about himself, so they need to stay in. That said, they're not going to be particularly graphic and there'll be only one or two in what is probably going to be a pretty substantially-sized story. But writing canon male character/original female character is kind of like asking to be raked over the coals, set on fire, then pissed on repeatedly, hence my trepidation above and beyond my consternation at putting myself in a situation where I feel the need to write sex scenes.

As to Rudy...yes, he is an interesting little tidbit for Moffat to give us. Yes, Rudy will still be a (very closeted) cross-dresser, and yes this will be a bone of contention between him and Mycroft.

Without getting too much into the weeds about the plot, Mycroft is faced with a dilemma: how to present himself as more conventional than he is. While I can't speak for American practice, the British security services have always demanded anyone with any association with the SIS to have (on the surface, at least) a scrupulously conventional life and background. Anything in your life that might cause any kind of public consternation (even legal things, like adultery) was a black mark against you because the nation's many enemies could use that as leverage to blackmail you, compromise you, and turn you. People were vetted very, very carefully, and Mycroft knows that questions will be asked about him that he needs to manufacture believable, appropriate answers to.

As to Rudy and espionage (yay! *ahem* sorry), he is very much a man of the Cold War (which I'm old enough to remember well, for my sins), which has a tremendous affect on his viewpoint. The story takes place in 1992-1993, only three years after the Berlin Wall fell and in the middle of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the Yugoslavia crisis/civil war. This was a tremendously challenging time for foreign policy and intelligence services in Western countries. They kind of didn't know what to do; they were in a state of flux and no one knew exactly what the future was, what they were supposed to be working towards. But as Rudy says to Mycroft in one scene, "Nothing changes more slowly than people's attitudes," and this reality is one of the drivers of the plot.

So much for not getting into the weeds. ;)

As to Sherlock, he's only 15 here, and just starting to show signs of his future as the man we see at the beginning of S1. There will be family drama, and exploration of the fall-out from Eurus' actions at Musgrave and the sedimentary layers of lies suffocating the family because of it. Fun times!

[donutgirl]

it certainly sounds like you have a good grip on the story already! hooray for fruitfal S4 plotbunnies, whatever other flaws it might have.

[dognmonkeyshow]

As usual, once my brain engages with a story, all sorts of craziness ensues. I'd have liked to get through this without five different convoluted plotlines, but I don't think that's going to happen.

And yes, one thing I can say for TFP was it revved up the old plotbunny breeder.