Fic: Bel Canto - 13/16 (BBC Sherlock)

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Title: Bel Canto
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 9.9k out of 126k
Betas: vyctori, seijichan, lifeonmars
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summary: After years of waiting for wealthy patrons to faint, Dr John Watson discovers a far more interesting patient in the opera house basement. (AU through a Phantom of the Opera lens.)
Warnings: Violence, internalized homophobia, eventual character

Comments

[labellecreation]

Oh the curtain will rise... I am so excited and looking forward to the opera to play out. I love the slow building back up of John and 'Holmes' relationship too and John's pragmatic daydream. :-)

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Thank you!

[blinding_sight]

I don't usually read WIPs because I'm terribly impatient, but I was so looking forward to reading this that I couldn't wait. I finally gave in after Op. 10 was posted because I thought, "Oh, only 5 more chapters. That won't be too agonizing."

I was wrong. This is a masterpiece and waiting for it to be finished is killing me. (I suppose I can sympathize with John in that respect.) I find myself desperately wishing for Fridays for more than just the weekend. I can't wait to see what the remaining chapters hold.

Thank you for writing this and thank you for sharing it. I am in awe.

[bendingsignpost]

Nope, ALL the agonizing. It's just the way I roll.

Thanks for reading! Next update coming within the hour.

[rifleman_s]

"“All or nothing.” Holmes’ words are quiet, nearly as if he means for John not to hear them. “I’m sick to death of being divided.”"

It truly looks like being "all", though now . . . what a spectacular ending to the chapter; I was on the edge of my seat, and then when Holmes begins to perform - it was enthralling.

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Thank you!

[lilipsiquehd]

Fantastic! Perfect! Sorry, my english isn't good enough to tell how much I loved this.

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Aww, thank you!

[rachelindeed]

Lovely chapter, as always.

Well, now that James Zucco has appeared, I owe my retrospective apologies to poor Mr. Jamison. Sorry, innocent stagehand! My suspicions were groundless, and I wish you all the best.

Should he marvel at her rendition of his score, then his appreciation is for himself as well as her. Any act of admiration is one of ego by default, and Holmes has ego to spare. Of course his admiration should be so blatant.

Hee! I loved that, because although John's jealousy is clearly running the conversation, it's not actually wrong :)

Regarding John's "what if" scenario about a half-year break and a revelation over dinner, I have to say it surprised me. I was surprised that he thought something like that would have fixed things, because it seemed to me to be worsening all the aspects of Holmes' behavior that were already bad. It involved a longer and more calculated deception, which would have ended up holding John in emotional limbo for another six months, with Holmes building up John's Vernet-"phantom"-love only to

[bendingsignpost]

Regarding John's "what if" scenario about a half-year break and a revelation over dinner, I have to say it surprised me. I was surprised that he thought something like that would have fixed things, because it seemed to me to be worsening all the aspects of Holmes' behavior that were already bad.

Holmes is regarded with distrust. Vernet, on the other hand, gets daydreams and has been getting daydreams for months. John holds Holmes to high standards but would forgive Vernet anything. For a very long time now, John's been wondering how they would meet outside the opera house. In this, John's image of Holmes retreats behind his idea of Vernet, hence John addressing him by that name.

Looks like that didn't come across as clearly as I'd hoped. That's good to know, thanks!

[rachelindeed]

Hello! Just wanted to say thanks very much for sharing the way you were writing their character dynamics, it makes a lot of sense. I think I had not appreciated that, once John realized "Vernet" was not a total fabrication, he unconsciously adopted a bifurcated view in which both Holmes and Vernet were real but still not really the same man. I thought, instead, that he had been learning that Holmes *was* Vernet, watching him compose and getting all the details about his high/low voices and things like that. To a certain extent, I'm sure that was true. But I think I see now that you were creating a transitional mental stage here for John in which his lover and the man who took his lover away were overlaid but not quite merged, and Vernet could still eclipse, rather than inhabit, Holmes. I thought John was seeing Vernet in Holmes and missed the extent to which he was still seeing him instead of Holmes