Fic for what_alchemy: The Bricks o' the "Might 'Ave Been.”

[holmesticemods]

'Follow me on by the paths o' pain,
'Seeking what you 'ave seen,
'Until at last you can build the "Is,"
'Wi' the bricks o' the "Might 'ave been."
from: “Well?” a poem by the Revd. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, MC, known during the Great War as “Woodbine Willie”

Recipient: what_alchemy
Author: tweedisgood
Rating: PG 13
’Verse: ACD canon
Pairing: background Holmes/Watson

Comments

[billiethepoet]

This was absolutely lovely. Looks like I'm off to read A Case of Discovery.

[tweedisgood]

I hope you enjoyed it :-) And I'm glad you liked this one.

[colebaltblue]

This was so lovely and hauntingly beautiful that I read it ever so slowly to savor it to the very end. I love the boys in their retirement, so sweet and gentle. And the nods here and there to what we know of them, their kindness, Holmes's conflicting desires for anonymity and fame, Watson's patient understanding with people. And the descriptions, oh they drop you right into the world so well. You can almost smell, hear, taste, and feel it around you. So gorgeous. Amazing, amazing job.

[tweedisgood]

Thank you! I love ACD 'verse with all its richness, nuance and subtle conflicts, and do aim to bring it to life as far as I can from the past.

Thank you again for *your* gift, by the way.

[mundungus42]

This is hauntingly beautiful, beautifully characterized, and simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. The thematic integration (spectres of war and fame, the mercy and mercilessness of people, the attractiveness of karma over chaos, the pain of loss and the comfort of companionship existing at the same time), is so incredibly sophisticated it takes my breath away. A glorious piece of writing that makes me want to smile and cry at the same time! Bravissima!!!

[tweedisgood]

Thematic integration, coo. Seriously, thank you, I did want to make it about more than just the meeting of Watson and Mason.

[chapbook]

Excellent story. I love the threads you've shown us connecting the past and present.

I'm glad too that, despite the period-correct racial slur (which needs to be there, to leave it out would whitewash the past), the humanity of Khan comes out. That may seem like a small thing, but all too often in 21st-century writing the depictions of "Orientals" (the varied peoples of North Africa and Asia) seem to have changed so little from Doyle's time.

[tweedisgood]

Thanks. I did check with the giftee via mods just in case and I am also glad she was OK with leaving it in. Characters and times are who they are and to me the skill of writing is not to have all the argument on the surface. Same with trying to portray Khan - which I did hope was a holistic one albeit brief. Mason moving to Brighton was in the source story and looking to find a hospital in which Watson and Mason might meet put me on to the Kitchener Indian hospital (one of three set up for Indian wounded in the town complete with segregated wards for religion and caste and separate kitchens ditto) and some fascinating research into the role of Empire troops of many nationalities on the Western Front.

Indian soldiers won 9 Victoria Crosses in the conflict.

[flawedamythyst]

Oh, this is fantastic! I love what you've done with Mason, and how you've continued on from my story and yet brought in some lovely new themes and ideas. Loved it.

[tweedisgood]

Ah, I thought you had perhaps already commented anon. But I'm so pleased you approve of what I've done, and that it has also caused more people to take a look at the original too :-)

[flawedamythyst]

I've been stupid busy recently or I'd have read it much sooner. It was lovely to read tonight, actually, just what I needed after a very long day at work.