#time for some acd love up in this house
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henry ± being a reassuring presence for alex
#rwrb#rwrbedit#red white and royal blue#alex x henry#firstprince#userninz#userveronika#chrissiewatts#usersteen#usernuria#usermegsb#userclara#mine*#time for some acd love up in this house#back rubs my beloved#all of the election night scenes ohhhh myy henry was protective husband there#knowing Exactly what alex needed in that moment#making the little distraction about his tie 🥺#'they ignite at different temperatures' is such a beautiful line bc it highlights how two people can be very different#but also so very right for each other at the same time#the right balance of energy that they both need
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Halloween Fics (MFLs) [October 2023 Edition]
See also:
Halloween Fics (Oct 2018)
Halloween and Ghosts (updated Oct 31/21)
Vampires (Dec. 2020)
Ghosts / Figments
Hybrids and Shapeshifters
Hey everyone!! Hope you're having a wonderful day! Today I thought that it's been a long time since I've posted an update to my Halloween fic list, but I haven't read many new fics since, so I though for today's post (because I don't have anything ready anyway) I would go through my MFL List and post up the ones that have been recommended to me throughout the years! Please note I have not read any of these, these are just based on a tag search on my offlline list :)
And because I haven't actually been asked this year for some new fics (I usually do so I am sad lol), I guess I shall make a new list without one!
As usual, please feel free to add your own fics!
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Mummy by ChrisCalledMeSweetie (T, 901 w., 1 Ch. || UAP Canon Divergence, Halloween, Meeting the Parents) – Meeting your boyfriend’s parents for the first time can be a bit scary. Especially when your boyfriend is Sherlock Holmes. Part 12 of the Spooky Johnlock Stories series
What Didn't Happen by Katzedecimal (T, 1,213 w., 1 Ch. || Costumes, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Halloween, Texting, Case Fic) – There is a very short Conan busying about the flat. He's threatening me with a sword if I don't eat something.
Until the final breath escapes by meet_me_in_samarra (M, 1,875 w., 1 Ch. || Halloween, Domestics, Established Relationship, Mild Gore, Kissing) – In a world turned hostile they hold onto their love until the final breath escapes.
John Watson and the Curse of the Were-Kitten by ChrisCalledMeSweetie (G, 2,193 w., 2 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Supernatural AU || Halloween, Spooky Fluff) – Limping away from the crime scene, John glanced up at a nearby rooftop. His mouth dropped open at what he saw: Sherlock, silhouetted against the rising full moon. Realising that he was gawping like a fool, John looked around to make sure he wasn’t being observed. When he turned back, Sherlock had vanished. All that remained on the rooftop was a small black kitten, padding between the chimney pots. Part 1 of the Spooky Johnlock Stories series, Part 5 of the H.I.A.T.U.S. Prompt Fills
These Hands of Yours by okapi (E, 2,700 w., 1 Ch. || ACD Canon || Supernatural Elements, Horror, Hands, Anal Fisting / Fingering, Halloween) – Holmes has casts made of his hands. Watson falls in love. So do the hands.
His favourite pizza (delivery guy) by thewallflower07 (G, 4,298 w., 1 Ch. || Teenager AU || Flirting John, Annoying Mycroft, Med Student John, Horny Teenagers, Halloween, High School Student Sherlock, Pizza) – Sherlock is staying at a hotel on Halloween with his family and keeps insisting they order pizza because he is infatuated with the very cute, blonde delivery boy.
Wanted: Empath by nutmeag83 (T, 4,886 w., 1 Ch. || Supernatural Elements AU || Empath John, Ghost Hunter Sherlock, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Pining John, Resolved Romantic Tension, Friends to Lovers) – Sherlock is a ghost hunter and John his empath assistant. Near Halloween, they investigate a ghostly sighting at a mansion in the English countryside. The events of their investigation bring their feelings for each other to the fore.
Food goes on the food shelf by avalanching effect (G, 5,283 w., 1 Ch. || Halloween, Pre-Slash, Crack/Humour, Cannibalism, Magical Realism, Witches, Light Gore, POV Sherlock) – John, (without conferring with Sherlock) implements a system of organization in the kitchen. There are areas designated as 'experiment' areas, and others as 'food safe' areas. Crossover, however, is bound to happen.
In a manner of speaking I'm dead by fellshish (T, 6,372 w., 1 Ch. || Halloween, Mystrade, Angst With Happy Ending, PIning, First Kiss, Drunk Idiots, Drinking Games, Humour) – Sherlock and John accidentally dress in matching outfits for Lestrade's Halloween party. Things only get worse: someone pushes them to play 'Never have I ever'.
A Beautifully Frightening Revelation by 221b_careful_what_you_wish_for (M, 6,486 w., 2 Ch. || Supernatural Elements AU|| Ghosts, Haunted House, First Kiss/Times, Frottage, Fluff, Halloween, Mutual Pining, Bed Sharing, Spooky) – John and Sherlock are investigating an isolated country manor haunted by a mischievous ghost. A series of spooky incidents brings them together in a candlelit bedroom, the night ripe for revelations and facing fears.
The Babadook by CatieBrie (T, 6,886 w., 1 Ch. || Babadook Fusion || Post-TRF, Horror, Demonic Possession, Violence, Halloween, Grief, Angst with Happy Ending) – “A children’s book,” John mutters as he flips it open. The pages are scrawled with beautiful charcoal lines and thick black ink. The cover, bright red, edges the open pages and something tugs at the back of John’s brain. It’s a familiar feeling, black and tarrish and thick in his thoughts. He shakes it off and picks the book up off his bed, turning so that he can sit on the edge and spread the book out across his knees. If it’s in a word or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook. He turns the page, ignoring the pressure building beneath his chest. There’s a closet on one page; paper doors meant to be opened by the reader flutter as John reads the text on the other page.
The Spirit Child by VelvetMace (M, 7,287 w., 1 Ch. || Psychological Horror, Disturbing Themes, Horror, Gore) – A small wooden box filled with clay and feotus bones yields more than just clues to a violent murder. A Halloween Story. Read at your own risk -- and I do not say this lightly.
Were it Well by merelypassingtime (G, 7,496 w., 6 Ch. || Shapeshifter AU || Crack, Halloween) – When moving in with the world's only consulting detective John is concerned he won't be able to keep his secret. Turns out he need not have worried.
In the Shadows of 221B by CarmillaCarmine (E, 8,299 w., 5 Ch. || Halloween, Friends to Lovers, Spooky Smut) – On a stormy, Halloween night, Sherlock appears changed, but John isn't about to complain about anything Sherlock wants to do to him. Part 10 of the The Stories of Angst and Heartbreak series
Let's Say I Let You In by kedgeree (E, 9,972 w., 1 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE|| Halloween, Costume Kink, Established Relationship, Humour, Smut, Vampire Sherlock, Bloodplay, Biting, Romance) – It's Halloween and Sherlock's vampire costume is turning John on, but Sherlock doesn't quite get the idea of a sexy vampire. At least…not at first. Part 4 of the Holidays series
The Subtenant by khorazir (T, 12,238 w., 1 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, Halloween, Magical Realism, Humour, Ghosts, Banter, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss) – When you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Hence, there can be no doubt about it: 221B is haunted. Sherlock and John set out to investigate their new subtenant and find out more than they bargained for.
Hallowe'en Homecoming by earlybloomingparentheses (T, 12,594 w., 1 Ch. || Unconventional Relationship, Halloween, Sherlock’s Childhood, Family Videos) – Sherlock and John are solving a case when Mycroft turns up and persuades Sherlock to return home for his mother's Hallowe'en celebration. John thinks that seeing where Sherlock grew up will help him understand the detective better; instead, he finds himself more confused than ever. But it's John Watson's job to look after Sherlock Holmes, come hell, high water, or Hallowe'en, so that's just what he's going to do.
Looks like something the cat digged out by HOverSeas (T, 12,876 w., 1 Ch || Magical Realism AU || Post-TGG, Canon Divergence, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, Werecat John, Temporary Character Death) – The bomb at the pool goes off, and takes both Sherlock and Moriarty with it. John doesn't agree with the outcome, so he decides to bring Sherlock back from the dead. But, of course, there is a price.
Zing and You'll Miss It by Raina_at (M, 14,980 w., 2 Ch. || Hotel Transylvania AU || Vampire Sherlock, Crack/Humour, Rom Com, University Student John, Love at First Sight, Magic, Soul Mates, Minor Mollstrade) – Every year, the monster community meets at Halloween for a big party. Sherlock is bored out of his mind as usual, when suddenly a handsome human stumbles into the monster party. Eyes meet, sparks fly, and Sherlock's entire world is turned upside down as he has to decide whether that tingly feeling is lust, love, magic, or a combination of all three.
The Masquerade of the Red Death by okapi (E, 16,800 w., 14 Ch. || Friends to Lovers, For A Case / Case Fic, Kink Exploration, Orgy, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Bum Worship, Shotgunning, Daddy Kink, Corsetry, Cock Worship, Praise Kink, Hand Jobs, Oral Sex, Drugging, Wrestling, Love Confessions, Pet Play, Rimming, Public Sex/Blow Jobs, Shibari, Exhibitionism/Voyeurism) – On the hunt for a serial killer, Sherlock & John attend a masked orgy. Inspired by "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe. Part 11 of the Spooky & Kooky (the Halloween fics)
One Good Scare by blueink3 (M, 17,386 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Holmes Family, Parentlock, Misunderstandings, Family, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, Halloween, Happy Ending) – Mummy invites Sherlock, John, and Rosie to the country for her birthday, which just so happens to coincide with the annual Harvest Festival, an event Sherlock loathes. With John seemingly making the wrong move at every turn and with ghosts hiding in each of their closets, what will it take for their (Halloween) masks to finally come off?
The Halloween Party by XistentialAngst (M, 19,044 w., 3 Ch. || Halloween, Sexy Sherlock, Vampires, Costumes/Disguises, Mutual Masturbation, BAMF John, First Time, Humour, Romance, Frottage, Friends to Lovers) – Sherlock and John attend a Halloween party on the trail of a vampire killer -- a man who's been seducing his victims and taking all their blood. Sexy costumes, bad puns, hideous danger, frantic sex in hidden places and some Halloween-flavored fluff are all on hand to "treat" you. Boo.
it's not always black and wight by elldotsee (M, 21,385 w., 7 Ch. || Supernatural Elements AU || Ghosts, Halloween, Case Fic, Victor Trevor) – By the time he turned eight, Sherlock had had more supernatural experiences than he could count or recall. He’d grown used to flickering lights, the whispers in the night, the sudden appearance of apparitions in the corridors. The dead were just as much a part of his life as the living. He went about his business, never disrupting theirs.Sometimes he talked to them, but they never talked back. Sometimes, he heard their stories second-hand, in the snippets of conversation between his parents at the dinner table, but they were never spoken about like real people. They were simply characters that formed the tapestry of the house, bumps and flickers of a life stuck in the in-between. That is, until he met Victor.
Haunted by Vulpesmellifera (E, 22,369 w., 4 Ch. || S4 Fix-It/Post-Canon, POV John, Child Endangerment, Halloween, Nightmares, Bed Sharing) – Plagued by the past, John moves himself and his daughter to a new flat for a fresh start - and it's not 221B Baker Street.While he grapples with new knowledge and old guilt, he's confronted with odd neighbors and strange noises in the night. But is it the new flat, or is John Watson losing his grip on reality?
the napoleon by darcylindbergh (E, 24,823 w., 4 Ch. || 1980′s AU || Halloween, Action & Romance, Costumes, Costume Parties/Masquerades, Mutual Pining, First Kiss / Time) – Halloween, 1989: John and Sherlock both have big plans for the night, but serial killers have the worst possible timing.
From a Well, Dark and Deep by Vulpesmellifera (M, 32,691 w., 18 Ch. || Post S4, Supernatural Elements, Horror / Milld Body Horror, Bed Sharing, Possession, Hand Holding, Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Coming Out, Alternating POV, Nightmares, Caring John, Happy Ending) – Sherlock Holmes is desperately trying to reconcile his newfound memories and feelings within his transport—a transport that won’t quit with the nightmares and the strange, fiddly anxieties that crop up at the most inopportune moments. On the advice of his psychiatrist—not that he’s thrilled to be taking the man’s advice, but needs must—he's going to mark the anniversary of Eurus’ torments. That explains why he visits the well. What he finds at the well, though, is entirely unexpected. Meanwhile, John Watson has finally come to terms with something he’s ignored his entire life. He’s ready to share that something with Sherlock, except Sherlock isn’t acting himself. It's not the time for confessions, and John determines he must get to the bottom of his best friend's affliction before he can reveal anything. Part 3 of Vulpes' Halloween Johnlock
This Is Family by SaraStarchild (T, 39,840 w., 16 Ch. || Hereditary AU || Psychological Horror, Body Horror, Demonic Possession, POV Third Person Limited, Protective Mycroft, Cults, Mycroft Whump, Sherlock Whump, Major Character Death, Graphic Violence, Retelling) – When the Holmes family's secretive mother and matriarch, Ellen Holmes, passes away, the family she leaves behind – father Martin, sons Mycroft and Sherlock, and daughter Eurus – begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. This is, pretty much, a word-for-word retelling of the 2018 Ari Aster film, Hereditary. Part 1 of Sherlock Halloween Stories
A Sharp, Dressed Man Series by sgam76 (T, 50,221+ w. across 6 works || Series WiP || Vampire AU || Halloween Fic, Protective Mycroft, Kidnapping, Injured Sherlock, Psychological Terror) – Every once in a while, Mycroft Holmes is called upon to take matters into his own hands. It doesn't always go exactly as you'd expect. And he enjoys it more than he will ever admit.
FictoberLock 2018 by FinAmour & unicornpoe (M, 60,875 w., 31 Ch. || Halloween, Protective John, Smitten Sherlock, Fluff, First Kiss, Injured Sherlock, Various Prompts) – 31 different prompts, 31 Johnlock fics: one every day for the month of October! Each chapter is a stand-alone story. Some are written by unicornpoe, some by FinAmour, and some are written by us both! They range in length from ~500 words to ~3500 words, and there’s something in here for everyone.
Johnloctober by prettysailorsoldier (E, 169,945 w., 31 Ch. || Assorted AU’s || Alternate First Meetings, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, 30 Day OTP Challenge, Prompts, Halloween / Autumn, Assorted Tags) – 31 days of autumnal Johnlock with prompts from all of you! There will be a bit of everything, but you can check the tags for more specifics.
Skeletons Series by flawedamythyst (T, 174,262 w. across 3 works || Nightmare Before Christmas Fusion || Implied Character Death) – Sherlock's refusal to talk about his past hides far more skeletons than John could ever have guessed at. Halloween-esque AU.
#johnlock fic recs#fic rec sunday#halloween fics#my fic recs#fics to read#marked for later#long post
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“taylor has to act out alex acting” exactly bestie you nailed it. i feel like it’s so obvious when taylor is alex claremont-diaz (tm) and when he’s just alex and he does different acting for both. i think a lot of people don’t understand that alex plays the former a lot! even with the people he loves! even when he’s with nora or his dad he still puts up his acd front especially in the beginning of the movie. i just really love moments where alex lets himself be vulnerable like the coming out scene with ellen or the lake house breakfast scene with oscar. compare those scenes with how alex acts with his parents in the beginning and the difference is also clear.
absolutely! and i think a lot about how like, alex never really had a normal life. he's had to start doing this since a young age since his parents are politicians. even in 2004, that picture with his mom is still about her campaign. the OLDEST he could be there is like 10. his dad is a congressman. anything he does or doesn't do reflects on them, and that's a lot of pressure and could be part of why he compartmentalized his sexuality in high school even though he and liam fooled around a lot. it was just easier to not think about what that means if your mother is gunning to be the first female president of the united states and pretend it doesn't matter.
& i'm always kinda amazed by that scene with him and oscar! the nervous and almost defensive way he asks, "so you like him?" feels like he's prepared to argue about it even though his parents are politically left and pro-lgbt, he still is worried about how they would react to him being in a relationship with a man.
it's such a great moment of him introducing the real henry to his dad, but also introducing the real version of himself too. it's subtle but sooooo good.
and with nora, i really love it cause you're totally right. in the beginning he's definitely still not fully himself with her and then in texas is when they really become friends, which he is kinda shocked by in the book! and it makes me sad because i don't really think alex has ever had close friendships before like this.
sidebar. i love how texas symbolizes freedom for them and how that's special because at the end of the day texas is mexico and represents authenticity for alex; and authenticity is what he and alex bring to each others lives. it's special that henry feels at home there as much as alex does because what henry needs is to be away from his home and find a new one because he never fit in with the royal family. what makes rwrb different to other prince/commoner stories like the prince and me or ever after etc is that it isn't about alex becoming a royal, it's about henry leaving the royal family and becoming an ordinary person as much as he can be.
tldr: taylor read that book multiple times and played alex perfectly but since the book is alex's pov i think some people don't understand that we are literally reading his thoughts, but while watching we have to see those things play out instead of sort of being part of the experiences. they're just different perspectives but it's really fun to match them up to each other!
like, i just love these moments so much, where you can see alex's walls come down in front of henry and henry knowing he's anxious when i don't think anyone else would
#reply#rwrb posting#casey really did THAT i'm glad they didn't stop writing this book in 2016#bc it's a fantasy and escapism and not real at all and that's what makes it special as a queer romcom
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The Empty House pt 1
Now, in the hour of our greatest need, a hero rises to answer the call. Our dear friend John Watson provides food for our reading appetites and bravely returns to write the tales of his dearly departed* partner, Sherlock Holmes.
*all facts correct at time of writing
You may be forgiven for assuming that my silence indicated that ‘The Final Problem’ truly was the end of my association with Sherlock Holmes, and indeed of the man himself. The passage of time and many subsequent tellings of the tale has not diminished me joy in saying that it was not so.
WHAT??!
No, seriously though, the fact that Letters from Watson is going with the conceit that Watson knew when he sent the email that Holmes wasn't dead and then just went radio silent for three weeks is fucking hilarious. It's what Holmes would have wanted. I mean, he's not dead, but even so. I love the dramatic bitch energy here.
It was in the spring of the year 1894
I feel like this is as definite and accurate a date as we're ever going to get in these stories.
Also, I have definitely read this one before, multiple times. Partially for my own enjoyment when I was younger, but also during my Sherlock fandom phase where I needed to verify some original canon so I could mutate it terribly for my own personal amusement.
I definitely remember whodunnit and how this time, but I'm not sure if that's actually going to be the mystery.
Only now, at the end of nearly ten years,
So this is a story set in 1894, written in 1903, read by us in 2023.
I should have considered it my first duty to have done so had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month.
So Holmes stayed 'dead' officially for 13 years? I mean, I guess this is also sort of ACD saying 'please stop sending me death threats. Here it is. He was never really dead. I surrender I surrender.'
As I read the evidence at the inquest, which led up to a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown
Totally read this wrong at first as though the murder was against the person or persons unknown. 'We know a murder has taken place, but we don't know who, or even if it was only one person or multiple. But it was definitely murder.' But no, it's the verdict that's against them, not the murder.
There were points about this strange business which would, I was sure, have specially appealed to him, and the efforts of the police would have been supplemented, or more probably anticipated, by the trained observation and the alert mind of the first criminal agent in Europe.
It is pretty tragic to think of Watson reading the paper and sighing to himself as he thinks of how Holmes could have helped. But then also casually throwing shade at the police officers, also in tribute to Holmes' memory.
Adair's mother had returned from Australia to undergo the operation for cataract
Health tourism has a long and varied history. In a time before aeroplanes that's a long way to go and a long time to take for surgery. Did Australia really not have any opthalmologists worth their salt at this time? I mean, I don't know how good even the surgeons in London would have been with that sort of surgery, it's a little more finesse than amputations and they had enough difficulty with them. Got to assume that if you're going to take that long travelling for the surgery, there's got to be a reasonable improvement in your chances for survival.
OK, wow, the history of cataract surgery is long and I do not advise you to look it up if you are in any way squeamish about or squicked out by eye stuff. But apparently the earliest cataract surgeries known are in the 5th century BC, although modern surgery methods didn't seem to really get good until around the 1950s. Basically yes, infection was very possible and her vision would never be the same again.
That was very educational and quite unpleasant.
Ronald Adair was fond of cards, playing continually, but never for such stakes as would hurt him. He was a member of the Baldwin, the Cavendish, and the Bagatelle card clubs. It was shown that after dinner on the day of his death he had played a rubber of whist at the latter club.
I know it says that he never played for stakes that would hurt him, but I feel like being a member of three different clubs is a sign of something. Also, the fact that he recently broke up with his fiancee really needs to be relevant later because I cannot imagine why it would be included if not. At least as a red herring.
Mr. Murray, Sir John Hardy, and Colonel Moran
I wonder which of them is important? Clearly it must be Mr Murray. Absolutely could not be Colonel Moran, who is a colonel and therefore a respectable member of society who would never be associated with any crimes.
I stg ACD had some sort of beef with a colonel at some point in time. That's the only possible explanation. OTHER RANKS ARE AVAILABLE.
She had lit a fire there, and as it smoked she had opened the window.
They need their chimneys checked. Where are the chimney sweeps? I was under the impression that Victorian London was full of chimney sweeps. Was I lied to? Shove a small child up that chimney at once!
The door was locked on the inside, and no answer could be got to their cries and knocking. Help was obtained and the door forced. The unfortunate young man was found lying near the table. His head had been horribly mutilated by an expanding revolver bullet, but no weapon of any sort was to be found in the room.
Locked room mystery! Locked room mystery! Locked room mystery!
The window is open, but this is the second floor, and it's worth noting for any American readers, that in the UK the second floor is one higher than you think. We have ground floor, first floor, then second floor. So that's a pretty high window to reach.
(Unless there was already a small child lying in wait up the chimney...)
A minute examination of the circumstances served only to make the case more complex. In the first place, no reason could be given why the young man should have fastened the door upon the inside.
Sometimes people just lock doors. I automatically lock doors behind me sometimes. My brain is just like 'ooh, lock!' I made my flatmate at university think I hated her because I used to lock myself into my room, but I just... be like that.
There was the possibility that the murderer had done this and had afterwards escaped by the window. The drop was at least twenty feet, however, and a bed of crocuses in full bloom lay beneath. Neither the flowers nor the earth showed any sign of having been disturbed, nor were there any marks upon the narrow strip of grass which separated the house from the road.
So I know how this goes, but I feel there is a very real alternative solution to this puzzle that involves a circus troupe, an archer and a tightrope walker. Not sure how they'd get the tightrope back, but that can be sorted out in editing.
Again, Park Lane is a frequented thoroughfare, and there is a cab-stand within a hundred yards of the house.
Fine, people would probably notice the tightrope walking clown...
^ This guy could do it, is all I'm saying. (Although he would definitely use more than one bullet...)
since, as I have said, young Adair was not known to have any enemy, and no attempt had been made to remove the money or valuables in the room.
No one who gambles that much and consistently wins can be entirely enemy-free, that seems unlikely.
As I did so I struck against an elderly deformed man, who had been behind me, and I knocked down several books which he was carrying. [...] With a snarl of contempt he turned upon his heel, and I saw his curved back and white side-whiskers disappear among the throng.
Oh hai, Holmes. I'm not 100% that this is Holmes but lbr, this is Holmes. The snarl of contempt and abrupt about turn is totally to conceal his identity. Also I want to read The Origins of Tree Worship is it a real book? I feel like it has the potential to be the basis for a decent fantasy book.
but the window was entirely inaccessible, since there was no water-pipe or anything which could help the most active man to climb it.
I had not been in my study five minutes when the maid entered to say that a person desired to see me.
Drum roll please
I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table.
Certainly a grey mist swirled before my eyes, and when it cleared I found my collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips. Holmes was bending over my chair, his flask in his hand.
This surprise reveal brought to you by:
Brandy!
If Brandy doesn't save you, at least you'll die drunk!
“My dear Watson,” said the well-remembered voice, “I owe you a thousand apologies. I had no idea that you would be so affected.”
No.
Shit.
Sherlock.
Yeah, totally unbelievable that your bff who has thought you were dead for two years and probably blames himself at least somewhat for falling for the obvious ruse and leaving you alone on the cliffside to face your demise, might POSSIBLY be A LITTLE BIT affected by YOU RISING FROM THE DEAD BEFORE HIS EYES.
You are such a dramatic little chaos gremlin and it's great, but a truly spectacular lack of forethought here.
"Now, my dear fellow, in the matter of these explanations we have, if I may ask for your co-operation, a hard and dangerous night's work in front of us. Perhaps it would be better if I gave you an account of the whole situation when that work is finished.”
Casually rolls back into town, greets bff. 'Like, I could tell you how come I'm not dead, but instead we could both risk our lives first... what do you think?'
"I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very simple reason that I never was in it.”
A cliffhanger - literally??
Disappointed we only got two synonyms for the falls though: "awful abyss" and "dreadful chasm" I was hoping for some other ones. "merciless maw", "terrible void", "cruel crevasse", "fell fall", "godawful gap". Hopefully some more can be shoehorned into the next bit.
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An incomplete list of bizarre yuumori details I thought were Anime Weirdness License but turned out to be Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes canon (hereafter, “ACD” or just “canon”):
- All Moriartys are named James!! (or at least we have Professor James Moriarty and his brother Colonel James Moriarty; the possible third brother is disappointingly unspecified. It’s also possible that there are only two brothers, the named Colonel and the unnamed “station-master” being the same Very Employed brother mentioned differently in different stories, but it is hard now not to picture Albert in uniform and Louis in a jaunty railway cap)
- Colonel Moran the platonic ideal of a sharpshooter
- …his near-perfectly silent and accurate airgun sniper rifle that fires revolver bullets for some reason (I don’t know anything about the history of weaponry so maybe this only strikes me as implausible because I’m uninformed)…
- …built by an eccentric genius blind German named Von Herder (really really thought he was mostly just M + engineering genius in a spy media so he must be German by definition + anime trope of blindfolded weird smart guy. We don’t meet him in canon so this is still probably the recipe for his character traits/personality but the basic ingredients were suggested right there in ACD!)
- “Good night, Mr Sherlock Holmes” and Adler’s perfect disguise
- Also Sherlock’s house burning plan is bonkers in canon and in every adaptation and I���m delighted every time. (I tricked you dear reader, I already knew these two truths because I love A Scandal in Bohemia in particular. Everyone within the sound of my internet voice should just go read it, it’s so short and so unhinged)
- Sherlock does indeed repeat The Line (“once you’ve eliminated the impossible…”) absolutely as often as he can plausibly fit it into conversation
- Mycroft is The Government. Totally forgot this was not an invention of the BBC show, it’s just late in canon and retconned to have always been true. We meet Mycroft in The Greek Interpreter as a regular boring government employee and he gets the upgrade in The Bruce-Partington Plans; the in-universe explanation is that Sherlock can trust Watson with the truth now, and…
- …Watson being generally trustworthy according to Sherlock’s judgment definitely makes it totally fine for him to have government secrets
- Milverton plot beats are shockingly similar up to the involvement of Moriarty: “oh no milverton has blackmail on a client I better go burgle his house, stay out of it watson” “I’m coming too we’re best friends and roommates even in prison!!” “Ok fine” “awesome. I’m going to go sew burglar masks” (even the fancy-night-out alibi! And in canon, Holmes himself rather than Watson is the hot boy bait / fake plumber who pretends to court the maid so that she will tell them how to get in but it still happens this way!) ((another side note holmes loves 2 burgle. Every opportunity for a break-in he is THERE, and he’s so psyched to tell cops that he would be great at crime. In the Valley of Fear he mentions to a Scotland Yard officer that he’s been to Moriarty’s office three times, the officer says “I thought you hadn’t met him” and he says “I haven’t and you probably shouldn’t ask any more questions about this [smiles innocently].” I love him))
- also the anime version’s “wow milverton is here at the door right exactly when we are just finished talking about him, what a crazy random happenstance” aligns with approximately 100% of character entrances in canon
- “Clearly the only way to solve this Treasure of Agra issue safely is by getting Small to throw it into the river” and thus LESTRADE AND THE BOYZ GO ON A SICK HIGH SPEED BOAT CHASE
Bonus: Not really that weird but a fun oddly-accurate nod that made me smile to discover:
- We meet Fred Porlock in ACD as a character who has betrayed Moriarty by writing Sherlock letters tipping him off about their criminal organization’s plans, then he’s discovered and has to stop sending tips. I think it’s sort of cute, then, that we see him writing to Sherlock when he planned to “betray” William/disrupt the Final Problem to save him, and he’s discovered and interrupted by Louis
#yuumori#moriarty the patriot#yuukoku no moriarty#jay reads holmes#ynm spoilers#sherlock Holmes canon spoilers i guess? if we’re still putting spoilers on things old enough to be public domain#yuumori meta
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Hey buddy!! For the ask game: 11) favorite myth? 24) what would you consider part of your personal aesthetic? 38) what is your love language? [And/or dealer's choice, if there's one you don't feel like answering and something else you'd rather answer!!] Have a lovely day <3
ohhhhhh hard questions lol
11) Favourite myth has to be Black Shuck. He's a giant spectral dog said to haunt the coastline where I grew up. There are only a few dates you're likely to encounter him, supposedly, and the story of how he got there changes depending on who you talk to, but it's agreed he's a death omen and whoever sees him will die imminently. He's supposedly the inspiration for Hound of the Baskervilles, but there are a lot of black dog myths in England and I'm pretty sure all of them claim ACD was inspired by them lmao
24) I don't think I manage to have a coherent aesthetic, mostly because the autism demands comfort over style. I definitely wear a lot of knitted looking jumpers, and my house is a jumble of blankets, fluffy socks, plants, notebooks and interesting rocks
38) Going off the original list, probably acts of service but I could psychoanalyse myself for that 😂 If I'm allowed to make some up, parallel play or going for walks. Basically if I deliberately spend time with someone and try to make their life easier in some little way that's me yelling that I care about them from the rooftops lmao
#hehe thank you h!!#I feel like the myth question may have been going for more greek mythology type stuff but I'm a sucker for folktales#because knowing the history of the area I live in has been a lifelong special interest#ask game
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listened to my rwrb playlist tonight so i’m just gonna… spitball some thoughts into the tumblr sphere in case anyone like. enjoys the lyric tie-ins and such. but this is mostly my venting about random songs i like and think about firstprince to, so:
all-american bitch just straight up is about alex. “just like a goddamn kennedy i swear” “i don’t get angry when i’m pissed, i’m the eternal optimist” are just like what i imagine his entire thought process is behind being someone who has to be on all the time and their best self or else the entire country goes to shit. and “all the time :) i’m grateful all the fucking time :) i’m sexy and i’m kind :) i’m pretty when i cry :)” is just straight up an acd people pleaser mantra
alex claremont-diaz the kinda bitch to be obsessed with cool for the summer for a long ass time and then realize exactly why like five years later
THE VERY FIRST NIGHT BY TSWIFT… OKAY. “i remember the night in the hotel, i was riding in the car when we both fell, i’m the one on the phone as you whisper, “do you know how much i miss you?” what more can i say honestly
on that note. PAPER RINGS!! this is such a henry’s sappy ass song it’s not even funny. “went home and tried to stalk you on the internet, now i’ve read all of the books beside your bed” is just a reminiscent thought that he has had before idk. “i hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” exactly EXACTLY
i feel like henry had a tumblr phase as a teen where he went incognito and was very passionate about the arctic monkeys and other 2010s tumblr interests therefore in my head he listens to i wanna be yours and thinks of our beloved first son
but his fav is david bowie so i know he listens to young americans and “young american, young american, i want the young american” gets stuck out of context and on repeat in his head
nonsense by sabrina carpenter 🤭🤭 i’ve talked about my thoughts on this being a song alex would have loved in rwrb-2020 before but it bears repeating. “think i only want one number in my phone, i might change your contact to don’t leave me alone / you said you like my eyes and you like to make ‘em roll / treat me like a queen, now you’ve got me feeling thrown” long lyric but alex would twirl his hair kick his feet giggle over it being exactly the way he feels and i love that for him
first verse of strawberry blond by mitski. that is all
another taylor song but PARIS. this was like a formative firstprince song for me. if you haven’t listened to it please do and then come back and scream about it with me. “privacy sign on the door, and on my page, and on the whole world / romance is not dead if you keep it just yours” and “i want to transport you to somewhere the culture’s clever / confess my truth in swooping, sloping cursive letters / let the only flashing lights be the tower at midnight” OK?????
physical by dua lipa is another just really random song i feel like i just Know alex enjoys
finally, go your own way by fleetwood mac. alex listened to that shit on repeat for the entire flight to london after henry left the lake house and i will fight for that opinion ��if i could, baby i’d give you my world / how can i, when you won’t take it from me?”
#rwrb#red white & royal blue#red white and royal blue#rwrb movie#firstprince#alex claremont diaz#henry fox mountchristen windsor#as previous me said of alex:#bc i know that bitch was listening to the lover album all of rwrb 2020#to my new followers today i give you this random ass post tomorrow who knows#there may be more on another day but y’all are safe for now
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books i read in july 2022
[these are all short + casual reviews - feel free to msg me and ask about individual ones if u want a full review or ask for my goodreads!!]
not gonna lie rereading gideon & harrow put me into a reading slump because simply nothing else could live up!! we are deep in august and i am STILL thinking about them 🤠
comfort me with apples - catherynne m. valente ★★★★☆ (horror)
this is just a short novella so it’s kind of hard to talk about without spoilers but i do think that valente is my fave author in the fairytale/storybook style and this was no exception! an interesting little mash-up of ideas that was right up my alley personally
harrow the ninth - tamsyn muir ★★★★★ (scifi)
the gideon reread was mostly fun for me but the harrow reread destroyed my soul 💀 it’s so different reading it and actually understanding it and i just literally have not stopped thinking about it. i can’t recommend enough just reading it again if you didn’t “get” it the first time!!
more than this - patrick ness ★★★★☆ (YA scifi)
patrick ness has got to be one of my fave YA authors. very classic YA emotional core, which is very nice to read sometimes when it’s pulled off well (as this was). slow at times but the scifi concepts really push you to think, and i love how he never gives us easy answers
the angel of the crows - katherine addison ★★★★☆ (historical fantasy mystery)
this is literally published sherlock wingfic. the added supernatural elements are interesting but not the focus, so it really is about reliving the ACD sherlock mysteries - extremely fun for me but i suspect this is not a book for everyone. this “watson” was interesting as both a standalone and an adaptation
the deeper the water the uglier the fish - katya apekina ★★★★☆ (contemporary)
i don’t want to be the guy in my friend group who’s always the only person excited by the fucked up contemporary litfic but like .. yeah this is that and i liked it 🤷♂️ fucked up families where you get multiple POVs and learn how their shared family history leads to their individual personal struggles are my jam
the mysterious study of doctor sex & as yet unsent - tamsyn muir ★★★★☆ (scifi)
read (dr sex) and reread (ays) of the two locked tomb short stories. i liked as yet unsent quite a lot more but I’d never complain about more sixth house
delilah green doesn’t care - ashley herring blake ★★★★☆ (romance)
the romance was fine for me but this book does have a very uptight perfectionist bitchy side character whose name is astrid and i LOVED her. i am actually excited to read the second book in a romance series because she is the protag for the next one!!
a master of djinn - p. djèlí clark ★★★☆☆ (historical fantasy)
a book that was truly The Most 3 stars. so completely fine that i kind of wish i’d DNF’d it. the actual plot/mystery was poorly constructed but the world-building was beautiful and generally made up for it
night sky with exit wounds - ocean vuong ★★★☆☆ (poetry)
ehh, i just didn’t connect much with this one personally. some good wordplay and i highlighted a few lines but it was just alright
the vegetarian - han kang ★★★☆☆ (horror)
this book was so hard for me to a) finish and b) meaningfully review. there are three segments that are pretty distinct from each other and i found the first two brutally miserable to read for different reasons, but the book definitely does cohere, so i’m sure other people would get a lot from it
the flatshare - beth o’leary ★★★☆☆ (romance)
i’m a bad romance reader and i’m sorry to all of my friends who thought this was the cutest shit ever. the female main character had no genuine personality traits and the male main character didn’t grow a single bit and i have no clue why they even like each other beyond each of them being an upgrade from their exes. but i do see the concept and understand why romance likers would have fun with this book. it’s just not me tho!
wider than the sky - katherine field Rothschild ★★☆☆☆ (contemporary)
the blurb lured me in with promises that it was about an adult polyam relationship and how that relationship changed the family but instead i just read a terrible YA contemporary with a super unlikable main character who was just dealing with “normal” high school shit the entire time and for some reason even though her dad was polyamorous i still had to deal with an awfully written love triangle
unprecedented: canada’s top ceos on leadership during covid-19 ★★★☆☆ (non-fiction)
i got this book for work and read a couple of sections before donating it. mostly it was just similar to internal messaging but it was more political than i was expecting at points. ehhh
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8, 31, 47, 59, and 117 for the book rec ask? - 🔮⛈
HI ENCHANT!!! Thank you for the asks!!!
8 - a book you finished in one sitting.
So, there's a lot of these, but I'm going to recommend my favorite of the lot: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (also Under the Whispering Door by him) I finished both in one sitting each and the former is my comfort book and the latter is the only book to ever make me actually shed tears.
They're both adorable gay romances with middle-aged men as the protagonists. The first has a healthy dose of "beaurocracy sucks" in it, and features some lovely children and a cat. The latter has a ghost dog, 3/5 of the main cast are POC, and is amazingly heartwrenching. I cried, then laughed my ass off, then cried again, and I loved it.
TW's for death, animal death, and suicide mentions in UtWD, since the whole book is about death. (but in a positive way!!)
31 - a book that mentions a name in the title
OOH! I thought this was going to be hard, but it isn't!!
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. It's a graphic novel about a villain who reluctantly takes on a young shapeshifter as his assistant. Think a (seemingly) basic superhero story, but set in medieval settings, but there's also sci-fi type tech. The good guys aren't who you think they are, an amazing dose of found family, and a dragon. Absolutely the best graphic novel I have ever read.
SIDE NOTE: You can thank my aunt, who is a librarian, for gifting me both THitCS and Nimona. Everyone say "thank you, morri's aunt".
47 - a book that mentions a place in the title
So, I was going to go with Station Eleven for this one, but I think everyone by now knows about my obssession with that book (just look at my blog on desktop), so I'm going to go old-school and say The Valley of Fear or The Musgrave Ritual or any of 58 other stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I went through a big Sherlock Holmes phase in middle school, and my cousin (incidently, the son of the aforementioned librarian aunt) bought me a two volume set of all the Sherlock Holmes stories ever ACD ever published.
Do yourself a favor and read some of or all of them!! They're brilliant, and despite the fact that ACD actually hated writing Sherlock Holmes, they're excellent mysteries, and also, there's some stuff that never makes it to modern interpretations. (I love BBC's Sherlock, but as even the writers of that show have said, Read ACD Sherlock.)
59 - a book about city life
Are you trying to make things hard for me, Enchant?? /lh. I almost never read realistic fiction, and most sci-fi/fantasy rarely stays in one place.
I'm going to kind of cheat and say Viscious (book one in the Villains series) by V.E. Schwab. Not all of the book is set in Merritt (the main city), but the final showdown is, and so is most of the set up. Though given that the book covers about 10 years of time, obviously not everything is in one place.
Morally grey characters, people convinced they're doing the right thing but they really aren't, found family, a very clever dog, a very kind thug who still is very much a thug, a girl who can raise the dead, and the best explanation for superpowers I have ever read or seen in any media ever.
HEAVY TW for violence (including gun violence), gore, weapons, blood, death, and animal death.
117 - your favourite short story collection
There's a good number of options for this, but I'm going to go with my only true short story collection on my shelves (aka, all written by different authors and collected, and most importantly, not part of a series), which is Unnatural Creatures, which was collected by Neil Gaiman. It's a bunch of short stories about fantastical creatures, from a sunbird to an inkblot-like being. (Trust me, that's the best one.)
Some of the stories are almost a hundred years old by now, and some are only a decade or two. All of them are very unique and not your typical "supernatural creature" story. (no vampires or werewolves, etc., at least not in any typical way.)
TW for death, and also animal death mention?? I think??? It's been a good few years since I've read this, but I know at least one story involves the death of humans, and I can't remember if the animal death in one of them is shown or just mentioned.
P.S.: The story whose name is just a black blob, kinda like an inkblot, that one is my favorite.
Bonus: I bought my copy of Unnatural Creatures at the bookstore on Mackinac Island, because what else would you do there? /lh
thanks for the ask, Enchant!!
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I’ve got sooooo many stories to rec from my time off this month, but I’ve got to save some for the new year! So here are a random selection of ten great reads!
😍
Prism by agirlsname
If Sherlock and John were a couple before the fall - what would it be like when Sherlock came back? ~29.5k
Domestic Matters by ohlooktheresabee
All flatmates need to work out domestic matters. But when you’re an elf and your flatmate is a human you just met, this complicates things…House-elf Sherlock. ~29.5k
🥰
Summit Fever by J_Baillier
John is a haunted cynic working for his ex-lover's trekking and mountaineering company in the Himalayas. A mystery client joins the mission to one of the most lethal and highest mountains. ~79k
From the diaries of John Watson, 221B Baker Street (unpublished) by Elofant
ACD/Victorian. After a case, Doctor Watson gets a lecture on the art of deduction by one Sherlock Holmes, that takes an unexpected turn... ~3k
day old tea by gazing
"Do you want to join me in my blanket fort?" Sherlock asks. ~4k
😘
Roman Holiday by emmagrant01
Sherlock is dispatched to Rome to investigate a murder. Unfortunately for him, the prime suspect is very intriguing. ~8.5k
Martyrs for Love by Calais_Reno
ACD. Sherlock's mother gives Sherlock an ultimatum: marry a woman or lose his inheritance, and then tries to set both him and John up with different women. ~12k
EXECUTE by DiscordantWords
Inspired by a Stephen King story. After Sherlock's death, John finds a strange sort of laptop. Upon typing into it, strange things start to occur. ~6k
😚 HONORABLE MENTIONS 😚
sunspots by simplyclockwork
After Sherlock's overdose on the plane, John finally finds the courage to confess his deepest secret. ~4k
A Captain For Christmas by Bluebellstar
The first Christmas Eve, they meet over the body of a robber and then naturally have dinner. And the second Christmas Eve, three years later. ~4.5k
#fic rec#fic recs#Bluebellstar#simplyclockwork#DiscordantWords#Calais_Reno#Calais Reno#emmagrant01#gazing#Elofant#J_Baillier#J Baillier#agirlsname#ohlooktheresabee
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Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
What is it?
- It’s a 2001 BBC miniseries about young Arthur Conan Doyle and the real historical prototype of Sherlock Holmes, Dr Joseph Bell, solving (largely fictional) crimes together!
It’s my special interest! It’s incredibly Victorian and Gothic and beautiful and otherwise the best. It stars Charles Edwards (Dr McDonald in The Terror and Michael Gregson in Downton Abbey) and Ian Richardson (Francis Urquhart in the UK House of Cards).
What is its appeal to Sherlockians?
- It includes a lot of references to the Canon but at the same time doesn’t feel like an uninspired derivative of the original stories. I think it plays with and subverts the Canon rather cleverly. While it is fictionalized, it does include some little known real historical facts (i.e. the fact that the Lambeth Poisoner studied at the University of Edinburgh at the same time as ACD, and the fact that Dr Joseph Bell actually did forensic investigations for the Crown).
For fans of the Holmes-Watson relationship, the premise of the series is basically that the Canon is a wish fulfilment narrative Doyle wrote to cope with what happened to him and to express his affection and undying admiration for Bell.
It has a lot of good historical research and compelling emotional exploration of the Victorian era and its social issues.
What are some other good things about it?
- Basically if you’re a fan of quasi-familial relationships and of mentor&mentee dynamics, you’re in luck. The central relationship is excellent in this sense. They love each other so much UGH. They need to just hug already!!
The series also has great acting, some brilliant costuming, and a fantastic Gothic horror aesthetic.
The angst and hurt/comfort potential is absolutely off the charts.
Where can I get it?
- I would normally not encourage people to pirate something I love, but this show has precious few physical copies and most of them are bad. Additionally, the creators no longer receive money from the sales. So pirate the hell out of it. It is out there on the websites you’d expect it to be on, and additionally I have also uploaded it here in order to make things easier for people:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ah2F9EdG1T8mgWHx7ovOrP8Je-z9?e=KIRDCK - episodes themselves, including the pilot
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ah2F9EdG1T8mgWzjPfNhvOp29uCF?e=B09ahX - subtitles, not including the pilot (no subtitles exist for it at present; I may create them later on)
Everything should be in order here, but hit me up in case of any problems. The video files have two audio tracks, one of them the original English.
Accessibility
- All the episodes have subtitles except for the pilot. The pilot is skippable, plot-wise. The audio mixing in the series is kind of shitty, with the background music being too loud and the dialogue too quiet. You may experience some issues watching it without subtitles if you (like me) have APD or hearing issues.
- The Photographer’s Chair episode contains flashing lights in random places, since it’s about old-timey photography.
Content warnings
- There’s a fridging (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StuffedIntoTheFridge) in the pilot episode. The series, especially the first two episodes (the pilot and The Patient’s Eyes), tries to be actively feminist and succeeds in some respects but not in others. There are some issues with its treatment of female characters.
- The White Knight Stratagem shows a Victorian insane asylum with some pretty painful details. It’s not disrespectful while doing so, but the content is potentially upsetting.
- Gore. There’s a bunch of that.
- Suicide in multiple episodes.
Misc notes
- The pilot has a different actor playing Doyle than the rest of the series. I think they’re both really good and the transition isn’t jarring, but YMMV.
- Episode 4, The Kingdom of Bones, is really quite bizarre. Someone once described it as “a Victorian B-movie”. It’s a lot of fun and the dynamic between Bell and Doyle is superb, but don’t mind the plot, it’s bonkers.
- There are also books! The books are great too! It’s a novel trilogy by David Pirie, one of the screenwriters. Check it out if you like the show.
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Howdy do! I was wondering if you happen to have any fics that crossover with other Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The idea of them meeting other versions of themselves is so fun to me. I recently read The Inexplicable Matchbox by Jay Harriet, in which BBC John and Sherlock end up in the universe of the Sherlock and Co podcast, which was a delight. And also The Curious Case of the Dr.s Watson by Shiny Sherlock, which has BBC John and ACD Watson switch places. (Both are on ao3)
The concept is facinating, and I would love to see more stories like it :)
Hi Lovely!
First the fic you recced because I don't think anyone's ever recced it to me before:
The Inexplicable Matchbox by Jaye Harriet (AlJeDd) (G, 9,535 w., 1 Ch. || Sherlock & Co. Fusion || Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Case Fic, Time Travel) – Sherlock is gifted a strange matchbox, one that glows brighter than a thousand suns. But what does it do? Where has it taken them? And why are there alternate versions of themselves living in their house?
===
As for Johnlock Meets Johnlock fics, I've got my list of Victorian Meets Modern Johnlock fics that I think you will enjoy!! :D
This one you recced me is the first Modern meets Modern Johnlock fic I think I have, so thank you!!
If anyone has some new fics I can add to my list, please let me know!!
#steph replies#johnlock fic recs#victorian meets modern johnlock fics#johnlock meets johnlock fics#bbc meets acd canon fics#help steph find fics#sherlock and co fics
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The Norwood Builder pt 1
Definitely remember the name, but do I remember the story? That is the eternal question. Well, hopefully not eternal. It should be answered soonish.
“London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.”
Woe, my arch enemy who tried to kill me and very nearly succeeded several times (but who only appeared in one story) is dead. I don't know if this is more indicative of Holmes' character or ACD's lamenting 'look, I raised the stakes so high that time that I'm never going to be able to do that again'. Probably both.
“The community is certainly the gainer, and no one the loser, save the poor out-of-work specialist, whose occupation has gone."
Watson has literally told us twice that 1895 was insanely busy for you. You did a case for the pope. You dealt with that canary guy. Your melodrama is noted, sir.
At the time of which I speak Holmes had been back for some months, and I, at his request, had sold my practice and returned to share the old quarters in Baker Street. A young doctor, named Verner, had purchased my small Kensington practice, and given with astonishingly little demur the highest price that I ventured to ask—an incident which only explained itself some years later when I found that Verner was a distant relation of Holmes's, and that it was my friend who had really found the money.
Holmes really Did That, huh? Wow. Guy has no chill in so many ways. "Come and live with me, Watson, and give up your practice! I'm sure you'll find someone to take it on. What's that? A convenient buyer of whom I know nothing. Nothing at all. Any family resemblance is purely coincidental!"
As it opened there came a tumultuous rush into the hall, rapid feet clattered up the stair, and an instant later a wild-eyed and frantic young man, pale, dishevelled, and palpitating, burst into the room.
What does 'palpitating' mean when referring to a human person?
Ah, so just sort of shaking, then. I've never seen it used like that.
He became conscious that some apology was needed for this unceremonious entry.
I mean, he just entered the dramatic bitch house dramatically, I'm not sure he needs to apologise. You and Holmes do worse once a day and twice on Sundays. Let the boy be dramatic. He's probably earned it. He fits right in, anyway.
"I am the unhappy John Hector McFarlane.”
Once again, I see this and my brain immediately asks if there's a 'happy John Hector McFarlane' out there somewhere, just living his best life, not even palpitating slightly.
“I am sure that with your symptoms my friend Dr. Watson here would prescribe a sedative."
I'm sure he would rather prescribe brandy.
...it was not difficult for me to follow his deductions, and to observe the untidiness of attire, the sheaf of legal papers, the watch-charm, and the breathing which had prompted them.
OK, so Watson's doing really well at working out Holmes' thought processes from his conclusions.
But also, Freemasons really just walking around with their secret society symbol hanging from their watch chain? How is that a secret society?
"I am the most unfortunate man at this moment in London. For Heaven's sake don't abandon me, Mr. Holmes!"
Srsly, my boy is dramatic and he has found his people.
“Arrest you!” said Holmes. “This is really most grati—most interesting.”
Good cover. A+. No one noticed a thing.
“Here it is, and with your permission I will read it to you."
Odd decision to read the article rather than telling your own version of events. But I do love a dramatic reading.
And Watson, you're a bit slow with that brandy. Where is your medical expertise, did you sell it along with your practice to Sherlock's cousin?
"He has had the reputation of being a man of eccentric habits, secretive and retiring. For some years he has practically withdrawn from the business, in which he is said to have amassed considerable wealth."
How very Bilbo Baggins of him. This smells like a motive. I wonder if he has Sackville-Oldacre relatives.
"The police theory is that a most sensational crime has been committed, that the victim was clubbed to death in his own bedroom, his papers rifled, and his dead body dragged across to the wood-stack, which was then ignited so as to hide all traces of the crime."
They're really throwing all the information available out there to the public, huh? No concept of security or secrecy in Victorian London, oh no. We have to put all the dirty details in the paper for everyone to see.
"The conduct of the criminal investigation has been left in the experienced hands of Inspector Lestrade, of Scotland Yard..."
Oh hai, Lestrade!
"I knew nothing of this affair until I was in the train, when I read what you have just heard."
Yeah, that'll fuck up your morning and no mistake.
“‘Here is my will,’ said he. ‘I want you, Mr. McFarlane, to cast it into proper legal shape. I will sit here while you do so.’"
No pressure. Just write up this legal document in front of me. Also, it's a will mystery. I love a good will mystery.
"I found that, with some reservations, he had left all his property to me."
Of course he has, I knew he would from the moment you said he knew your parents. Also, this does nothing to make you less of a suspect.
Mr Oldacre is also a member of the dramatic bitch club, it seems. You couldn't just write out your will somewhere else. You had to get the beneficiary to write it out without even telling him he was the beneficiary? No one in this story has the slightest bit of chill.
"The will was duly finished, signed, and witnessed by my clerk."
This feels like a conflict of interest. I feel like the person receiving the inheritance shouldn't be the one to write up the will. I know that Mr Oldacre still had to read and sign it and there was a witness and everything, but it still feels weird.
"‘Remember, my boy, not one word to your parents about the affair until everything is settled. We will keep it as a little surprise for them.’"
I'm guessing that this is because the McFarlane parents have crucial information, such as 'he's a terrible person. we hate him. he will try to frame you for murder' or 'we have never met this man before in our lives'.
We are now getting into the familiar vibe of 'rich person coerces young not-rich person into doing things against their better judgement by promising them money'.
"He remarked that we must not disturb the housekeeper. He showed me out through his own French window, which had been open all this time.”
“It strikes me, my good Lestrade, as being just a trifle too obvious,” said Holmes.
I know I say that all the time, but I have the benefit of knowing that I am reading mystery fiction and therefore the most obvious solution is probably not the correct one. Holmes is just being contrary by saying it here. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the obvious solution is going to be the correct one.
I agree that it would be a stupid move on Mr McFarlane's part, but even so you can't really fault Lestrade for following the evidence to this point.
“Why should the tramp burn the body?”
“For the matter of that why should McFarlane?”
“To hide some evidence.”
The obvious conclusion to draw here is that it's not Mr Oldacre's body. And he has buggered off somewhere quite merrily with the contents of his safe having suitably fucked over Mr McFarlane for as yet unknown reasons. Hope it wasn't a random passing tramp that he beat to death and burnt. Because that's a dick move. If you're going to kill someone, at least have a personal reason for it.
"I dare say that in the course of the day I shall drop in at Norwood and see how you are getting on.”
I assume after your trip to Blackheath? To see what the elder McFarlanes have to say about Mr Oldacre and if they've ever met him. Maybe had him bury someone in a wall or under a patio for them. Normal things.
I don't seem to remember this one, either. Man I really did not pay attention as a child, huh? Makes it more fun this time around, though.
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Ships and Cars - The Sign of Code
There have been lots of discussions about code in BBC Sherlock, and the possible metaphorical meaning of different things that appear frequently in the show, such as coffee/tea, water/fire, dogs/cats and many more. This show indeed seems filled with ciphers, code and secret messages. In this meta (X) I tried to decipher the encrypted name of the fishing boat that Sherlock and John hijacked in TFP, when it was called upon from Sherrinford: “Golf-Whisky-X-ray”.
The Ship coding
At first I thought this was referring to the international spelling alphabet for wireless communication (X, X) where there’s a word for each letter. “GWX” didn’t make much sense to me, though, until I stumbled upon something deeper: ‘Golf’, ‘Whisky’ and ‘X-ray’ are also part of the marine Code of Signals (X) that was established in Britain around 1850. It’s still used by water vessels to communicate important messages regarding safety of navigation and such, and the signals can be sent by, for example, flaghoist, signal lamp or flag semaphore. Conan Doyle worked on a ship at least in 1880 and 1881, so the signals could totally have been known to him already in Victorian times. And since Sherlock and John are on board a boat in TFP,
I think it’s reasonable to assume that the marine code is the relevant one here. In this signal code, the flags for “Golf”, Whisky” and “Xray” mean the following:
Golf = “I require a pilot.”
Whiskey = “I require medical assistance.”
”Xray = “Stop carrying out your intentions and watch for my signals.”
Which in other words could be read as:
I need a pilot (a maritime pilot to help me navigate)
I need a doctor
Pay attention to code
But is this use of marine signals something that only appears in BBC Sherlock? Is it Mofftiss’ own idea to use them, or could there possibly be any canon references to them? In the discussion that followed my meta (X) @frailtyofgenius pointed out to me that ACD’s canon actually does mention “Naval signals” in His Last Bow (LAST), which I think might be very significant. And the one who uses the naval signals is Holmes himself.
Continued under the cut, because this is reeeally a long ‘transport’... ;)
So I took to read LAST and realized that there are several ’naval’ references (my bolding) in this story by Conan Doyle. In the beginning, as a romantic landscape framework, we’re told about the surroundings of the German spy Von Bork’s house:
Above, the stars were shining brightly, and below, the lights of the shipping glimmered in the bay.
LAST takes place on the English east cost, near the port of Harwich. The spy Von Bork is chatting with Baron Von Herling, a German diplomat, bragging about the intelligence he’s gathered for his country, and then he shows the Baron the contents of his safe:
And all in four years, Baron. Not such a bad show for the hard-drinking, hard-riding country squire. But the gem of my collection is coming and there is the setting all ready for it.” He pointed to a space over which “Naval Signals” was printed.
But apparently the naval authorities have changed the code:
“But you have a good dossier there already.”
“Out of date and waste paper. The Admiralty in some way got the alarm and every code has been changed.”
So Holmes, posing as the Irish-American spy Altamont, is supposed to bring new ones. I think the real ‘feature of interest’ in this story, however, is the coding that Holmes/Altamont uses in his telegram to the German spy:
“Will come without fail to-night and bring new sparking plugs.
ALTAMONT.”
And the conversation between Van Bork and the Baron continues:
“Sparking plugs, eh?”
“You see he poses as a motor expert and I keep a full garage. In our code everything likely to come up is named after some spare part. If he talks of a radiator it is a battleship, of an oil pump a cruiser, and so on. Sparking plugs are naval signals.”
So here in ACD canon we’re explicitly told that the spark plugs, the ignition of the car’s engine (which generates an explosion in the engine’s combustion chamber) actually represents code - marine code. And other car references, according to Van Bork, are also marine code. I can’t help wondering if water was actually meant to represent emotions already in canon? ACD canon is packed with references to water: sea, coast, lakes, ponds, rivers and waterfalls but also ships, steamers, boats, submarines and such. Some of the criminals in canon are seamen and the navy is mentioned in some cases. And in two stories (NAVA and BRUC) the ‘naval’ issues contain secrets of national importance.
I’d love to try to analyse all the water and boat references in ACD canon and see if/how they tie into emotions, but that’s for another meta. :) But what if something similar is done in BBC Sherlock; what if Mofftiss have used not only canon’s water metaphors for emotions but also the same general secret cipher as Holmes used in LAST? But maybe Mofftiss also took the cipher one step further, interpreting anything car-related not as general metaphors for emotions, but specifically as code for sexuality.
In TFP there’s a great explosion at 221B, and next thing we know, Sherlock and John are aboard a fishing boat, which is called upon with naval signals. But there’s actually very few ships in BBC Sherlock (while canon, as mentioned, is full of them); the fishing boat in TFP is one of very few boats in the show. As for seamen, there’s also very few in the show. Except for the fishing father and son in TFP, there’a also Sherlock’s deductions about the unemployed fisherman and his mother in THoB. @sagestreet has written an excellent meta suggesting a significant symbolic meaning of ‘fishing’ in this case (X).
In this self-censored post on John’s blog, however, there’s a cruiser mentioned in the title: Tilly Briggs Cruise of Terror. But we never get to know anything about this case; the post is taken down entirely since, according to John, “the ship’s owners are launching an appeal”.
Why is this post even there, if no one is allowed to read it? Every other blog post from John has some kind of content in it - at least since he met Sherlock. But this one only has a title (and a teaser in the post before: “I'm going to tell you about a couple of the smaller cases we've been involved in. What really happened on the Tilly Briggs pleasure cruise.” (X))
So the supposed ‘pleasure cruise’ was turned into a ‘cruise of terror’ and then deleted. Maybe it’s just me, but I strongly suspect this is a clue from the show makers telling us that a certain ‘ship’ is not allowed in BBC Sherlock, for ‘legal’ reasons having to do with the ‘owners of the ship’ (ACD Estate).
Actually, there’s more info than this about the ship even in ACD canon, although it’s scarce. In The Sussex Vampire (SUSS) “Matilda Briggs” is mentioned in a letter to Holmes from the company Morrison, Morrison, and Dodd:
“As our firm specializes entirely upon the assessment of machinery the matter hardly comes within our purview, and we have therefore recommended Mr. Ferguson to call upon you and lay the matter before you. We have not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.”
After Watson has read it, Holmes explains to him (my bolding):
“Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson,” said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. “It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.”
If this is an allusion to a possible relationship between Holmes and Watson, indeed the world would not have been ‘prepared’ in Victorian times, since homophobia was prevalent and same-sex couples illegal.
Source: (X)
Directly after this, while perusing his lexicon for ‘Vampires’ (the actual topic of the letter), Holmes also mentions another ship that was associated with Victor Trevor’s father’s secret past as a mutinous convict:
“Voyage of the Gloria Scott,” he read. “That was a bad business. I have some recollection that you made a record of it, Watson, though I was unable to congratulate you upon the result.”
Indeed this voyage in GLOR was a ‘bad business’; it ended in mutiny and disaster. The ship Gloria Scott exploded and sunk in the Atlantic, and most of the crew and passengers died.
So, not many ships appear in BBC Sherlock. But instead, there’s plenty of cars in the show. What if all these car references actually somehow actually refer to a ship - a very particular ‘shipping’? ;)
The Cars
So, might these cars code for some hidden secrets? And/or is it possible to tie the car references to ’naval code’, as Holmes claims to do in LAST, assuming that naval = water = emotions but also sexuality?
Returning to canon, please note that Holmes and Watson (both in disguise) arrive in a car to the scene of this story in LAST. This is one of the very few cars that appear in canon, since they weren’t yet very commonly in use by those times. Holmes’ and Watson’s car is modestly described as “a small car” and “a little Ford” (as opposed to Baron Von Herling’s car, which is a huge limo). But at the end of the story, Holmes says about the little Ford: “Start her up, Watson, for it’s time that we were on our way.” And there they go, happily together, with the criminal tied up in the back seat, heading for Scotland Yard. Sweet, isn’t it? :) This is the very last we see of Holmes and Watson in canon. (Unfortunately, I can’t find any illustration of it).
BBC Sherlock, however, is full of cars. So, if we apply this analogy to BBC Sherlock, what car references can we find that could be translated into marine (= emotional) terms? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the cab, the taxi, which is Sherlock’s preferred means of transport.
A taxi has a driver, which is the word that the little girl on the plane in TFP uses instead of ‘pilot’. But we don’t see any taxi boats in the show, do we? In the Unaired Pilot, however, the cabbie drives Sherlock home to Baker Street (not to Roland Kerr’s), and there he tries to ‘kill’ him. One could even assume he makes a kind of sexual innuendo when Sherlock is sprawled face-down on the floor and the cabbie says “I could do anything I wanted to you right now, Mr ’olmes.”
As I explained in my other meta about marine code (X), a marine pilot is someone who leads a ship through dangerous waters. Mofftiss haven’t included any marine pilots in their show, but they do use aircraft pilots, even if they’re not labelled as such:
But if ‘driver’ should be read as ‘pilot’, then Jeff Hope - a John mirror - in the Unaired Pilot, the ‘driver’ of the show, guides Sherlock home emotionally and sexually, doesn’t he? ;)
But there’s more about the signals in LAST. This is what the counter-agent Sherlock ‘Altamont’ Holmes says when he arrives at Von Bork’s place:
“You can give me the glad hand to-night, mister,” he cried. “I’m bringing home the bacon at last.” “The signals?” “Same as I said in my cable. Every last one of them, semaphore, lamp code, Marconi – a copy, mind you, not the original. That was too dangerous.”
This seems very similar to Wikipedia’s explanation of the Marine Code of Signals, as I quoted above: apart from flag hoist, the signals can also be transmitted by, for example, flag semaphores, radio communication or signal lamps. We do have radio communication in TFP, when Sherrinford receives the message from the boat ‘golf-whisky-x-ray’. But are there any signal lamps in BBC Sherlock? Yes, in fact there are - and they’re tied to a car!
A blinking, grinning Peugeot, no less, in THoB. And it’s definitely connected to sex, because that’s what’s happening inside. ;) Even if we’re lead to believe that this isn’t actually code, John does try (unsuccessfully) to decipher the blinking lights from this car as Morse signals and gets “U M Q R A”.
Apparently this code is not referring to the Marine Code of Signals. But @bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest has written an excellent meta (X) deciphering the possible code “UMQRA” as meaning “TORCH”, using the Ceasar cipher, which Sherlock refers to on his website (X) in combination with another cipher. In my opinion this does make a lot of sense. John does indeed use a torch to try to decipher this message, and there are also lots of other possible metaphorical meanings of ‘torch’ in the show.
So I think it would still be wise to pay attention to code, wouldn’t it?
As for Holmes’ quote from LAST above, “a copy, mind you, not the original”, I’d interpret this at Holmes pointing out that these signals can be copied (’mirrored’?) and also that they can vary in type (I imagine that ‘Marconi’ stands for radio transmission (X)). All in all, these naval signals are of national importance in canon, just like the Bruce Partington Plans and the Naval Treaty. And these are all military top-secrets clearly connected to the British navy. At some point in LAST, believing he has won the spy game, the Baron says:“There may be other lights within the week, and the English coast a less tranquil place!” Seems like the East Wind is coming. ;)
But back to the marine codes and cars: in canon (LAST) the car references hide secrets of national importance, connected to Britain’s naval defense, and some of those secrets, in turn, are encrypted with naval signals. That’s double coding, right? Also: the navy defend British waters and water = emotions.
As for cars, there’s a lot more of them in the show, while canon has very few; cars weren’t in use during most of Holmes’ career. I think LAST is the first time that cars appear in ACD canon? And the spare parts that Holmes/Altamont talks about as code in LAST never actually appear in the story, only the Baron’s limo and Holmes’ little Ford, where Watson is the driver.
But in the modern show there’s plenty of cars, of course; they’re literally everywhere. Many people have long ago pointed out that cars represent transport metaphorically, which is how Sherlock views his bodily needs in the unaired Pilot. Which ties in well with the assumption above that cars also represents sexuality, which is related to emotions even if it’s not the same thing.
But let’s also try to decipher the car references with Holmes’s code in LAST in mind, shall we? Where can we find water and/or possible hints about emotions and/or sexuality?
Apart from the taxis, which run like a red thread through the episodes (ASiP, TBB, TGG, ASiB, TRF, HLV, TST), and the abundance of police cars and ambulances, I can think of the following:
Mycroft’s black governmental car which is used to kidnap John in ASiP (and other episodes).
If Mycroft represents Sherlock’s brain, this might be about Sherlock trying to examine and test John with his intellect, to get an idea of who John is and what to expect from him. But this task is driven by his car - bodily needs - and behind them there’s still emotions, if we apply Sherlock’s code in LAST.
The first hostage’s car in TGG, where she is wrapped up in semtex.
This woman is literally trapped inside her car and metaphorically trapped inside her bodily needs, which are threatening to explode (remember Holmes’ ’sparking plugs’ in LAST?) if Sherlock doesn’t solve the puzzle about Carl Powers. And in this screen cap she is literally juxtaposed to Sherlock:
So it seems like Sherlock is now trapped inside his ‘transport’, yes? Still driven by emotions rather than intellect. And he probably sees this as very dangerous.
The finding of The ’dead’ man’s car with (fake) blood in TGG.
This ill-treated transport device (John calls it ”an abandoned sports car” on his blog X) leeds to more cars - Janus cars - and it turns out that the driver - Ian Monkford - isn’t dead; he’s just on ’vacation’ in Colombia (with the real purpose of cashing in his life insurance money). Sherlock figures this puzzle out and the poor fellow wrapped in semtex can breathe out; he’s not going to explode, either physically or emotionally. And no-one is dead in this case, but the driver faked his own death to avoid exposure and get his ‘security’.
The car with a dead body in the boot in ASiB
Licence plate: PYO3 HYN. The dead man in this car was destined for Germany according to his tickets - another ‘vacation’? But he never reached there; his plane crashed but he wasn’t in it, because he was already dead - trapped in his transport a car. Now, this case seems intimately connected with Sherlock in the boot of Mrs Hudson’s Aston Martin in TLD (see below). Except that Sherlock was being transported alive in that boot, but this guy is dead.
The client’s back-firing old SAAB in ASiB
The client stops near a wetland area and a stream because of problems with his engine. The driver - a John mirror? - tries to fix his ‘engine’, but the old car just won’t start. Sherlock analyses this case in his (drugged) Mind Palace together with his libido Irene Adler.
People have pointed out long ago (sorry for not remembering who - was it LSiT?) that the back-firing SAAB engine in the hiker case in ASiB might represent John’s dysfunctional sexlife with women; Sarah in specific and probably their trip to New Zeeland after TGG. (Maybe this is also why Sherlock in TSoT, when John has just been married to Mary, deduces that one of the wedding guests - a doctor - has ‘erectile dysfunction’?)
Irene’s black car in ASiB
Licence plate: SKO8 ZYL. This black car, which has a private driver, is used to transport John to the Battersea station on New Year’s Eve in ASiB. In spite of being in midwinter, Battersea seems to be flooded with water. And this is the place where Irene exposes John’s sexual relationship with (or at least interest in) Sherlock while Sherlock is listening to the conversation from another room, but John declares that “I’m not actually gay”. This car is so similar to Mycroft’s black car (see above) that John thinks this is Mycroft who kidnaps him again. If Irene represents Sherlock’s libido, what does her black car stand for?
Sherlock’s and John’s hired Land Rover in THoB
Licence plate: OEI0 HFK. The Land Rover is a British car, known for its four-wheel drive and vast off-road capacity. Sherlock drives this car to “deepest, darkest Devon” with John in the passenger seat, so it seems like they were prepared for a ‘bumpy ride’. And this car actually has a visible spare part; an extra wheel in case of emergency:
And their journey really became ‘bumpy’ - at least on an emotional level, since they were both dosed with a fear-inducing gas, had a quarrel, and the gay couple who were running the Inn where they were staying took for granted that they were indeed a couple too.
John’s and Mary’s car in HLV and in TST
Licence plate: SP56 LJY, black Audi. Mary is the driver in HLV. (By the way, why has this car the steering wheel to the left, in a country with left-hand traffic?). Here we’re presented with the interesting idea from the billboard that “Information is the power to change 1895″. In HLV we actually do see something like a spare part for this car; John’s tyre lever. ;) (which looks more like some sort of pipe key, if you ask me, but whatever; it’s still a spare part - or at least a ‘tool’ - associated with John’s transport car):
So this would be consistent with Holmes’ cipher in LAST. And this spare part is treated with very sexual overtones in HLV, so I think the influence of Sentiment and Sex is pretty clear here.
Mrs Hudson’s red Aston Martin in TLD
License plate: APIS CXJ. Now, this is a really interesting and beautiful car I think, and it shows its capacity when it goes speeding in TLD. Mrs Hudson has more resources than some people might believe. But John is only allowed to use her sports car - the ultimate symbol of male virility - when he’s off to rescue Sherlock. ;)
The license plate reads APIS, which I’m sure is a reference to bees and bee keeping, because Apis mellifera is the scientific name of the honey bee. Holmes’ main occupation as retired in ACD canon is bee keeping, which is shown in LAST, where his secret ‘sparking plugs’ turn out to be the Practical Handbook of Bee Culture. ;)) So Holmes stood by his words in his telegram to Van Bork; he did “come without fail to-night” (he came together with Watson) and he did “bring new sparking plugs”. It’s just that the ‘spark’ wasn’t maybe of the sort that Van Bork had expected...
Anyway, in this scene in TLD, Sherlock is being kidnapped and handcuffed by Mrs Hudson and transported in the boot of that sports car; he’s literally trapped inside the rear end of his transport, which has John as its direct destination.
Sadly for all of us, however, John refuses to ‘examine this body’, and this is instead done by the John mirror Molly (inside an ambulance), who tells Sherlock that he’s dying and that “it’s not a game”.
The next time we see this red sports car, however, John is the driver, and he’s using its great capacity as it should be used: to come to Sherlock’s rescue. ;)
Come to think of it, there’s actually at least one more car spare part mentioned in the show, even if it might not be meant as this specific part:
This car has a steering wheel nevertheless, and Sherlock is sitting in the car while saying this. And yes; this show is indeed repetitive when it comes to certain topics. Like ‘transport’, emotions and bodily needs. But I do hope we’ll finally see some new turns on this topic in the next series. ;)
Thanks for your patience in following this marathon meta to its end! Tagging some people who might be interested (please alert me if you don’t want to be tagged):
@raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @lukessense @therealsaintscully @thewatsonbeekeepers @sagestreet @tjlcisthenewsexy @thepersianslipper @loveismyrevolution @shylockgnomes @frailtyofgenius
Screencaps in this meta are in some cases borrowed from this site (X).
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Hi. Just wanted to know, do you have any horror/gothic Johnlock fic recs? Either ACD or BBC canon is fine. I just want to get creeped out
Reply: I initially started this off by saying that horror is not really my thing, but given the amount of material I’m about to dump on you, I guess maybe it kind of is. 👻😱
First off here are some older lists:
Horror plus romance
Sherlock or John is a ghost
Zombies
And here are some more I’ve enjoyed which tend in that direction:
All Things Will Die, Nothing Will Die (109K, E, Johnlock) by Holly Sykes
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Time: January, 1831. Something suspicious is happening at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital: corpses are brought in and sold to the surgeons, but Sherlock Holmes suspects foul play. He’s not alone: at Guy’s Hospital, Doctor John Watson refuses to pay twelve guineas for a body that he fears has been tampered with.
Danger Nights by khorazir (23K, T, Johnlock)
According to folklore, the nights between Christmas and Twelfth Night are the most dangerous of the year. During them, the Wild Hunt rides, and ghosts and demons come out to haunt unsuspecting and misbehaving folk. An investigation of a series of strange occurrences leads John and Sherlock to Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh Marches, to face ghosts weird and ancient as well as close and personal – and perhaps to start the new year on a more hopeful note than the previous one.
Haunted by Vulpesmellifera (22K, E, Johnlock)
Plagued by the past, John moves himself and his daughter to a new flat for a fresh start - and it's not 221B Baker Street.While he grapples with new knowledge and old guilt, he's confronted with odd neighbors and strange noises in the night. But is it the new flat, or is John Watson losing his grip on reality?
He’s Coming to Us Dead by Vulgarweed (13K, E, Johnlock)
The war is ending and the troops are returning. They do not always mean well. Their loved ones are not always glad to see them. A case straight out of an old folktale has deep repercussions for Sherlock and John.
it's not always black and wight by elldotsee (21K, M, Gen)
By the time he turned eight, Sherlock had had more supernatural experiences than he could count or recall. They were simply characters that formed the tapestry of the house, bumps and flickers of a life stuck in the in-between. That is, until he met Victor.
Lightning and Sea Glass by 221b_careful_what_you_wish_for (18K, E, Johnlock)
The mad Professor Moriarty and his reluctant assistant John Watson have reanimated the dead – and the results are beautiful. At least John thinks so. When Moriarty rejects his creation, John disappears with the creature to protect it, sealing their fates together. (Loosely inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein)
Obsidian and Moonlight by PenelopeWaits (11K, T, Johnlock)
John and Sherlock make a detour on the way home from Baskerville. The question is, which is more inexplicable, the rites of human violence or the depths of human love?
Penumbra by Saki101 (46K, E, Johnlock)
In Maine, there was Collinwood and the three centuries of history that were woven into its walls. In London, there is Holmeswood Manor (or the Manor on Baker Street as the urban legends have it), tucked now into a city street when once its oak woods rolled from the heath to the river. John’s grown up with its stories of ghosts and wizards and things that hunt in the night. They are certainly not going to keep him from interviewing for a residential post at the Manor because he cannot afford London on an army pension and there could not possibly be any truth to the tales.
Puzzlebox by standbygo (9K, E, Johnlock)
A love story with horror. A horror story with a happy ending.
So Closely Allied by j_baillier (10K, T, Johnlock)
She has always been a part of his life but now, she needs to leave.
Still of the Night by michi_thekiller (30K, E, Johnlock)
1.) Curfew must be obeyed.
2.) Streets must be clear by sundown.
3.) If you find yourself out after curfew, seek shelter at the home of a friend, relative, or neighbor whom you know and trust.
4.) Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should any unknown persons be allowed into the home after curfew.
The Subtenant by khorazir (12K, T, Johnlock)
When you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Hence, there can be no doubt about it: 221B is haunted. Sherlock and John set out to investigate their new subtenant and find out more than they bargained for.
The Victim Experience by J_Baillier (16K, T, Gen)
A case takes Sherlock and John deep into the seedy underbelly of the haunted attractions industry. With audiences craving more and more intense experiences, is a real murder the next logical step?
They Mostly Come Out At Night by Tawabids (16K, T, Johnlock)
Mummy Holmes was admiral of the British space fleet, and her sons were gestated in a synthetic womb called an AGU. When something monstrous burst out of a lieutenant's chest and got loose on board a ship carrying the Holmes family, the unborn second son and was left on board. A quarter of a century later, the Orbiter 200B is a floating wreck on the edge of the colonised territory. Mycroft Holmes sends Lestrade and a Royal Navy special ops vehicle, the Baker, to the abandoned ship to learn what can be salvaged.
You might also enjoy these fanvids:
Asylum by AnimaObscure (NR, Gen)
St. Bartholomeus hospital rooftop is a tricky place to jump off. All Sherlock’s nightmares are going to come to life.
Sherlockian Horror Story by Nyah86Production (NR, Gen)
Inspired by the Opening Titles from American Horror Story Asylum
The Reichenbach Horror by johnlocklover221 (SFW, Gen)
Takes The Abominable Bride as a jumping-off point for a reinterpretation as a Gothic showdown between Holmes and Moriarty
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Fic Writer Questions! (you can find me here on AO3 if you're interested!)
tagged by dear @theburialofstrawberries mwah!
1) How many works do you have on AO3?
112 yowza!
2) What’s your total AO3 word count?
750,421 kinda tempted to go delete one word so it can be 750420 which is a far more Pleasing number
3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
12ish but some of them overlap: BBCS/Sherlock Holmes/ACD (these are all different bc my bbcs fics are not the same as my own modern fem Sherlock Holmes adaptation are not the same as my ACD Holmes fic; Good Omens; Harry Potter/The Werewolf Draco Malfoy Cinematic Universe; Captive Prince; The Hobbit; Fleabag (it was a crossover with BBCS but Fleabag is the perspective character so it still counts as a separate fandom imo); Doctor Who; The Office; Parks and Rec; Broad City (one a piece for those last 5 but I AM going to write a Parks and Rec polycule fic for @gaykagome)
4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
They're all Good Omens fics from the 2019 Summer of Good Omens! Susceptible to Summer, Fragments Shored Against My Ruin, Something So Magic, Enter Serpent, and Anything We Like
All of those have over 2k except the last one, but average engagement for me is like 400 kudos or so
5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I try! It depends on what's going on with me. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, and I figure people would rather I spend my brain power on writing new fics than on writing replies to comments. Wish I had a fave button tho so I could let people know I read and reread comments, because I do!
6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
Oh I wrote this ficlet series called A Chemical Defect about John and Sherlock's relationship in s3 of BBCS, and it's WILDLY unpopular. People don't read my fic to cry sad tears I guess! John and Sherlock are having an affair in the story, and it ends with the implication that their relationship is unsustainable and that Mary knows about it anyway. I intended to come back to it after s4 and write a more optimistic ending but LOL! Didn't have the heart.
7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
I know this answer is kinda up my own ass, but like. I think stories that feel true to life sort of feel like they end on a beginning if you know what I mean? You don't really consider a chapter of your life closed until you look back on it from the next? SO that said, I think I'd have to say that it's my big BBCS serial The Only One in the World. I spent 2 years writing it, and it ends with John retiring from medicine to solve crimes and write books full time.
Could also be my WDMCU (werewolf Draco Malfoy cinematic universe) series Moonrise, which starts with Draco isolated in his abusive mother's house, trying to cope with lycanthropy essentially alone and ends with him in love and surrounded by found family in a cozy cottage in Hogsmeade, having gotten some lycanthrope rights legislation passed after working at it for years and talking to Harry about whether they want to have kids. Oh man I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it
8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?
I have written one crossover. It's BBCS/Fleabag, because me and @loudest-subtext-in-tv were laughing about how John seems like one of the horrible guys Fleabag sleeps with basically out of self loathing, so I wrote this fic to make Nattie laugh, and you should read it bc it's so good and so underrated.
9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Not really, but people don't seem to know that authors can read bookmark tags unless you private the bookmark, and someone once put in the bookmark tag on one of my fics 'writing was meh but it was okay.' Okay so why bookmark it then??
10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?
Fuck yes! I'm not sure what 'what kind?' means? People fucking? Sloppy, silly, and awkward, with lots of laughing. I also really like writing afterglow scenes which are even sillier and gigglier and often involve one character cooking for another. Food as love language is a very distinct pattern of mine tbh
11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I'm aware of, but occasionally I'll write a post on here where I make some elaborate head canon, and I'll see people in the tags talking about how they want to write fic of it, and it makes me breathe fire out of my nose like a dragon like PLEASE DON'T. The WDMCU came out of a ficlet post I made on here like a year before I actually wrote the 60k series so like!!! Please don't do that!
12) Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes! To Russian and I believe Chinese. Not my entire oeuvre but a handful of BBCS and Good Omens fics
13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No, but I wrote a fic inspired by an RP I did with my gf right around when we met (actually now that I think about it, it's two fics), and I waaaaaaanna do a WDMCU collab with my beloved Sally @clytemenestras at some point if he has time bc he inspired me to even write werewolf draco with his original lesbian werewolf story
14) What’s your all time favorite ship?
favorites are hard for me? I always think I'm currently doing my best writing lol so I'll say drarry
15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
I don't post fics unless theyre finished, so I don't have any WIP up on AO3, but I did intend to continue with my fem Sherlock Holmes series, Your Many Tendencies. I just haven't been in a Holmes mood for a long time. Maybe I'll come back to it idk. This particular series is honestly very unpopular? People will just straight up say they don't read femslash, and it hurts a lot. This series feels really personal too, bc it's about a Black autistic nonbinary lesbian, so it does hurt my feelings that no one seems to care, yknow? I mean the people who read it are extremely kind and thoughtful in their engagement with it, but it has vastly less engagement than my m/m fic, and that's painful. It gets literally 1/10 the attention my fics usually get.
16) What are your writing strengths?
Almost all of my writing is romance, but I tend to write concurrently about recovery and found family, and I think I'm very good at doing that in a way that connects with my audience. I once had someone ask if they could use my words in their wedding vows, and I've had people tell me they started doing things with their spouse that my characters do with their partners in order to express love. I think about that all the time. My Impact. It makes me feel like I have a real duty to my audience yknow?
17) What are your writing weaknesses?
This question is hard for me like I've been writing so long and so much that I'm literally always happy with my final draft! It's always exactly to my taste, yknow? I suppose I could say that my fics tend not to be terribly plotty but so WHAT? That's beside the fuckn point for me. Plot who? I don't know Her. Also honestly like. Stories feel more True to me when they aren't ruthlessly devoted to plot bc like life isn't like that yknow?
18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
If you're not fluent in that language, get a beta who is!!!!! That said, I have written scraps of very simple dialogue in French using mostly Google Translate (sometimes I check w Sally bc he speaks French but I am usually too impatient), and I am perfectly well aware that I take my life in my hands each time!!! Also don't do that bullshit thing where it's in italics? That shit is weird and exoticizing. Just write it in quotation marks like normal dialogue.
19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
BBCS babey back in 2012. Ended a 5 year dry spell for me after I got my writing degree.
20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Hmmmm I think it's probably gonna be the fic I'm working on now that I haven't posted yet, but I know it's called Names for a House, and here's a tiny bit of it
Thanks again Shreya for asking me to do this bc I really love talking about myself. I tag @the-moon-loves-the-sea, @clytemenestras, @tomiano, @gaykagome and @totallysilvergirl
No pressure <3
#sherlock stuff#ask games#apliddell#if y'all wanna send me asks about names for a house#or anything else i mentioned here#they would be welcome
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