Prompting Part XXVI
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IMPORTANT! Spoilers for aired episodes are now being allowed on this area of the meme, without warning. If you do not want to encounter spoilers, please prompt at our Spoiler-Free Prompt Post.
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IMPORTANT! Spoilers for aired episodes are now being allowed on this area of the meme, without warning. If you do not want to encounter spoilers, please prompt at our Spoiler-Free Prompt Post.
( Read more... )
“Yes. The behaviorists suggested we adopt a canine puppy to help with Sherlock’s lupine socialization process, such as learning proper social play and bite inhibition. It would also help establish a socialization history for his eventual lycanthrope sentience classification.” John flips past the puppy pictures, interspersed with pictures of Sherlock as a human infant, and then as a toddler. Bright, inquisitive, and intensely knowing blue eyes locks into the viewer on each page of the album, all fat cheeks and the beginnings of that heart-shaped mouth.
John realizes suddenly that he is enjoying himself, that Mycroft is acting the long-suffering but proud elder brother, delivering embarrassing childhood stories and pictures to satisfy John’s burgeoning curiosity about Sherlock’s wolfself. John is enjoying himself so much, in fact, that the absurdity of this meeting has almost escaped him. He looks out the window and thinks the driver is taking them on a roundabout tour of Westminster.
“As much as I am finding this meeting oddly pleasant for a change, why am I here, exactly?”
Mycroft fixes John with an indecipherable look. “Sherlock is as wolf as he is human. The split personality that other lycanthropes report is not part of his experience. When Sherlock was a child, we tried teaching him to separate his wolf instincts from proper human manners, but my brother has always been, if nothing else, incurably rebellious. When he was five, the behavioral specialists and the family tried to introduce him to a carefully selected pack, but to say that he did not accept the situation is a gross understatement.
“During university, he experimented with running with a pack. It led to some unfortunate liaisons with rather unsavory characters, and the consequences are lifelong. For a few years, we despaired that he would never overcome his downward spiral into self-destruction, and it was...agony to watch. You already know about his history of substance abuse. We were advised to stop enabling him, withdraw all offers of resources, and that he would come around when he made the decision to. In retrospect, it was a necessary but crippling way of dealing with his needs. From a psychosocial perspective, it is now my belief that he self-medicates as a means to cope with the lack of pack structure and the general shortage of tolerance for his poorly restrained lupine tendencies.”
“But, I thought, boredom...” John interjects.
“Oh, there was also his desire for constant cerebral stimulation, but he also needed structure amid the chaos to feel at ease. Despite his seeming laissez-faire attitude towards all things structured, he needs pack structure, he needs some form of discipline, even if he acts out against it.
“We were always his pack. He didn’t need a wolf pack as a child, and he threw proper tantrums over that. He resented me and Mummy for forcing him away from his human pack, and then he experimented again with a proper wolf pack in University. It didn’t work, because his “wolf” is different from theirs.
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“Me?”
“Yes. I may have initially disagreed about your inclusion to his ‘pack,’ as you are obviously unfamiliar with lycanthropes and uneasy even around dogs. But he is insistent; he has chosen you to be part of it.”
John barely has a moment to process Mycroft’s statement, when the door opens and he is being ushered back onto the street in front of his flat. He heard Mycroft say a perfunctory “Good day, Dr. Watson,” before the door shuts and the black sedan peels away from the curb.
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Okay, if anyone is still reading, let me know if you like this and want me to continue! There are a few different directions this can go, and I'd love to hear what you think!
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I'd really like to read some more if you'll continue. :)
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Thank you for reading and commenting! I am trying to see what direction I want this story to go, now that I know there is some interest in it!
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Thank you so much for commenting. I am trying to world-build some more and try to flesh out what it is like to live as a lycanthrope in this 'verse.
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Thank you so much for reading and commenting! I feel reinvigorated to know that there are at least a few people interested in this story!
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