Rec: Sherlock
Title: The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl
Author:
out_thereFandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Summary: Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John's head.
EXCERPT:
"Higher."
"Over four hundred?" John hears himself say in a really discomforting, high-pitched whine. It's not that Sherlock's horribly disfigured, or doesn't know how to dress his stick-insect figure to best advantage, but still. John had been imagining about a tenth of that. Maybe. "You've slept with over four hundred people? I'm amazed your genitals are still attached."
"There's no need for hyperbole." Sherlock frowns. He adds in that distracted, calculating routes and travel times voice of his, "My best guess would be four hundred and twenty, but I really didn't keep count. It's possible it's up to fifty higher than that."
Unrealistic as it was, John liked the idea of being Sherlock's first; he's not sure how he feels about being Sherlock's four hundred and twenty-first. Or possibly five hundredth, since Sherlock apparently didn't bother keeping count while sleeping with half of London. "Twelve, twenty, even thirty people is a pretty average number. Once you hit the hundreds, you've become the whore of Babylon."
I'll readily admit--This story had been circulating for quite a long time by the time I got around to reading it. I had seen it chatted about, recommended, posted everywhere and I was to the point of avoiding it with a vengeance. I couldn't tell you exactly why, considering that I've read fics about actual whores before and had absolutely no problem at all.
But when I saw the title The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl I immediately recoiled and decided I wouldn't read it no matter how many people said that I should.
Obviously that didn't pan out. What happened was that I blindly followed a link without reading the title and got aallll the way to the part where John calls Sherlock the Whore of Babylon before I cottoned on. By then? I was hooked.
This story exceeded all expectations. Sherlock's never been in a relationship before (and that takes John ages to figure out) but he handles it all with such aplomb that you really wouldn't know. John can't figure out whether he should mourn his lost fantasies of Sherlock the virgin or crow his good luck to the heavens about not having a virgin which is slyly funny enough to have put a smile on my face for quite a while.
The whole story is in character: John is his normal "It's all fine" and Sherlock faffs about doing whatever it is Sherlock does and Mycroft interferes when he's terrified for his brother (and Mycroft terrified for his brother is beautiful and manipulative).
All and all? This story is brilliant. That is all.
Link to AO3: The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl
Author:
out_thereFandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Summary: Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John's head.
EXCERPT:
"Higher."
"Over four hundred?" John hears himself say in a really discomforting, high-pitched whine. It's not that Sherlock's horribly disfigured, or doesn't know how to dress his stick-insect figure to best advantage, but still. John had been imagining about a tenth of that. Maybe. "You've slept with over four hundred people? I'm amazed your genitals are still attached."
"There's no need for hyperbole." Sherlock frowns. He adds in that distracted, calculating routes and travel times voice of his, "My best guess would be four hundred and twenty, but I really didn't keep count. It's possible it's up to fifty higher than that."
Unrealistic as it was, John liked the idea of being Sherlock's first; he's not sure how he feels about being Sherlock's four hundred and twenty-first. Or possibly five hundredth, since Sherlock apparently didn't bother keeping count while sleeping with half of London. "Twelve, twenty, even thirty people is a pretty average number. Once you hit the hundreds, you've become the whore of Babylon."
I'll readily admit--This story had been circulating for quite a long time by the time I got around to reading it. I had seen it chatted about, recommended, posted everywhere and I was to the point of avoiding it with a vengeance. I couldn't tell you exactly why, considering that I've read fics about actual whores before and had absolutely no problem at all.
But when I saw the title The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl I immediately recoiled and decided I wouldn't read it no matter how many people said that I should.
Obviously that didn't pan out. What happened was that I blindly followed a link without reading the title and got aallll the way to the part where John calls Sherlock the Whore of Babylon before I cottoned on. By then? I was hooked.
This story exceeded all expectations. Sherlock's never been in a relationship before (and that takes John ages to figure out) but he handles it all with such aplomb that you really wouldn't know. John can't figure out whether he should mourn his lost fantasies of Sherlock the virgin or crow his good luck to the heavens about not having a virgin which is slyly funny enough to have put a smile on my face for quite a while.
The whole story is in character: John is his normal "It's all fine" and Sherlock faffs about doing whatever it is Sherlock does and Mycroft interferes when he's terrified for his brother (and Mycroft terrified for his brother is beautiful and manipulative).
All and all? This story is brilliant. That is all.
Link to AO3: The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl