for stardust_made: "Ante"

[innie_darling]

Original Author: stardust_made
Original Story Title: The Long Game
Original Story Link: http://stardust-made.livejournal.com/14043.html
Original Story Pairings: Sherlock/John
Original Story Rating: NC-17
Original Story Warnings: N/A
Remix Story Title: Ante
Remix Author: sprl1199
Remix Beta: baseblack
Remix Britpicker

Comments

[stardust_made]

Oh my, I love it. Thank you, Author!

I'll be honest-out of fifty stories that I've written the ones that get the most kudos at AO3 are the most explicit ones ("The Lond Game" amongst them) but I can't say these are necessarily my favourite ones. So a part of me started anxiously when I saw your choice for the remix. (Let's call that my Sherlock part.) However, another part of me advised wisely to wait and read before forming conclusions. (Let's call it my Mycroft part.)

Mycroft is right, of course, both in my head and in your story. (Let's just say Mycroft is always right, okay?) And while we're at him, I adore the sequence with him and Sherlock! It's so in-character, dialogue-snappy, quietly sad. Sherlock and Mycroft are a favourite duo of mine, surpassed only by Sherlock and John. Which brings us to something else I am really impressed and happy with-how there is a sense of Sherlock and John togetherness in your story without any fireworks. I wrote them a 4,000-word fic with just the two of them in one long scene; you barely had them brushing with each other in a few sentences, and yet they stand out together as clearly as if they would have in 4,000 sentences.

I think it was my Sherlock part that instantly observed, deduced, and knew this was going to be good. I was terribly impatient as I inhaled the first line, my detective's eye keen and thorough. And I honestly needed only that first line to grin from ear to ear. "The air was warm and dry as it wafted through the open flap of the tent: the sickly, dry scent of the poppies over the ridge competing with the dust, sweat, and blood on the bodies of the men inside." The rhythm, the imagery, the sense of place, the choice of detail-you can't confuse good writing, you just can't. John's sequence unrolling from there was a revelation. His characterisation is just excellent and so subtle, amidst all your original characters who came to life with a line or two. I knew this was John through and through, just like I knew that this was going to be a damn good fic.

Thank you very much for writing it! My only concern is that my zoomed-in, playful one-shot will look incredibly inadequate to readers after they've read your story with its expanse and depth and lovely language. But what the hell-you've given us a fabulous story and the Sherlock fanfic world wins!:)