violsva | Entries tagged with sherlock holmes

I have been thinking lately about alternate universes versus retellings (like fairy tale retellings). An alternate universe, in the fandom sense, is usually the same characters in a different plot, or a different setting. The characters are the constant (fanon notwithstanding), and everything else may have parallels, but it doesn't need to be the same or even similar.

But in a retelling, the plot is sometimes more of a constant than the characters. The events are the important part, and the characters are filled out in different ways to fit those events. A retelling is not a fandom style alternate universe, it's Terry Pratchett's narrativium. You need to have characters in the right situations to produce the story, but a different retelling can have almost entirely different characters. The plot is what's important, not who it's happening to.

Mice and Murder is a story inspired by Sherlock Holmes (specifically the RDJ movies), but I don't think it's a Sherlock Holmes adaptation (unlike, say, Basil of Baker Street), because Sylvester Cross is not Sherlock Holmes (and Lars isn't Watson, and Daisy D'Umpstaire isn't Irene Adler, etc.). Although he is apparently similar enough to have produced this.

Title: Always Nice to See You
Rating: G
Universe: Dimension 20: Mice and Murder
Characters: Sylvester Cross, Lars Vandenchomp
Warnings/Enticements: Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Dungeons & Dragons Game Mechanics, Serious Injuries, Hurt/Comfort, Second meeting
Summary: A broken hip and a forged alliance.
Word Count: 920

On AO3

First of all, the Retired Beekeepers of Sussex are no longer holding events, and while their journals are still archived online I thought I should put this on AO3:

Title: Discretion
Rating: G
Universe: ACD Holmes
Characters: Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes
Warnings/Enticements: Character Study, Victorian Attitudes
Summary: Mrs Hudson overhears something, and is thrown into an ethical dilemma.
Word Count: 722

On AO3

And here is a (very brief) second chapter to a fic from September:

Title: Far to Go
Rating: T
Universe: Marvel
Characters: Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes
Warnings/Enticements: De-Aging, Implied Child Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, Natasha Romanov Backstory, Angst, Paranoia, Hurt/Comfort, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, But She Certainly Wouldn't Accept One, Sign Language, Blizzards, Handcuffs, Unreliable Narrator
Summary: "You know the kind of thing: scientists make something, realize they have no use for it and no one sane would want it around, and then instead of destroying it like anyone sensible would they stick it in a high security containment facility and forget about it until someone steals it, and we have to go and steal it back. They say it’s only dangerous if you drink it, we say great, we’ll have it back by Tuesday, and then Natasha touches the bottle and loses twenty years."
--
It's a test. Of course it's a test. She must have been drugged. This must be a false mission set up by the Red Room. These men must be Red Room too. She just has to figure out how to pass the test.

Right?
Word Count: 5417

On AO3

And finally, from a shameless self promotion angle, if you are waiting impatiently for Yuletide to open, have a fic recommendation:

Title: Strike the Harp and Join the Chorus
Rating: T
Universe: The Hidden Almanac
Characters: Reverend Mord, Pastor Drom, George the Crow
Warnings/Enticements: Episode Style, History, Canon-Typical Weirdness, Mentions of Human Sacrifice, Mentions of RPF (Real Poultry Fiction), Characters Participating in Yuletide, Holidays, Humour
Summary: It was on this day that the gifts in a holiday fanfiction exchange were revealed. It is the Feast Day of Yuletide, and in the garden, there are stories.

Be Safe, and Remember: You Are Not Alone.
Word Count: 3400

On AO3

Top Fics by Kudos by Year Meme

Last year AO3 announced that they were going to be importing FictionAlley's archives, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet, so I don't have to decide if I want to publicly claim my juvenilia or not.

2012: The Adventure of the Resourceful Widow, ACD: My first fic on AO3. I remember exactly where I was when I came up with the idea for this.

2013: Possible, ACD: For the ACD kinkmeme.

2014: Let Me, ACD: Overwhelmingly my most popular fic of all time.

Also this year I put a couple Omegaverse fics on AO3 which were written and posted on the BBC Sherlock kinkmeme in the two prior years and are technically much higher in kudos count than the ones linked above.

I think 2013-14 is when AO3 norms kind of settled on their current state, and of course the site's userbase has been steadily increasing over time.

2015: Witness and Testimony, ACD: My second most popular fic of all time.

2016: In Confidence, BBC Sherlock: I did not write much longfic in 2016.

2017: One Turf Shall Serve, ACD: For ACD Holmesfest.

2018: I've only just met an old, old friend, MCU: As a demonstration of my writing/conceptualization speed, this fic was a direct response to the 2016 American election.

2019 (so far): Tinsel Show, MCU-ish

Title: Retirement
Rating: G
Universe: ACD
Character(s): Mrs. Hudson
Summary: A well-deserved rest.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 221b
Author's Note: For

watsons_woes JWP #18, and my 221st fic on AO3. There are Rules.

On AO3

There's a thing in a lot of Captain Marvel fic and art where Monica calls Carol "Mom." And fans state, absolutely, that Monica has two moms.

But Monica doesn't call her Mom in the movie. She calls her Auntie Carol. And it's so clear, when she's running toward her the first time she sees her, that "Auntie Carol" is a deeply important person to her who was hugely involved in her life.

And I don't think that this particular choice is just an attempt to paint over any possible queerness, because the movie is happy to say that Maria and Monica are Carol's family, in those exact words, that she was right there with them and they know all about her former life, they have all her possessions, this is never downplayed. The importance of Carol to them and them to Carol is made clear repeatedly. And she has that place as Auntie Carol.

And it makes me uncomfortable that fandom looks at this and immediately decides that as Carol is an adult who was in a parental role for Monica this means Monica has to call her Mom. Or that if Carol is in a romantic relationship with Maria then she must be Mom to Monica.

Or another example (because it's not the specific gender/family implications of motherhood that I want to talk about), Holmes/Watson fic calls them "husbands" all the damn time. They are husbands, spouses, this is a marriage--except.

Of course they don't call each other husbands in canon. But they call each other partners. All the time. "Dr. Watson is my friend and partner." (CHAS) They have a word for their relationship, a straightforward clear word that they can use in public and have understood, a word they use when describing the other's importance to them, and that word is partner. And partner has been used for romantic relationships for centuries. They don't need to call each other husbands for them to be in a committed long term romantic relationship.

What makes me uncomfortable is fandom looking at these relationships, that the characters have their own words for, and ignoring those words to call them something more familiar. It's saying, there is only one possible word for this relationship and it is my word, it's saying, the definition of "aunt" cannot possibly be stretched to include what I see here. It's sorting people into different boxes rather than realizing that your boxes are the wrong shapes.

Title: À la souris
Rating: G
Universe: Great Mouse Detective
Summary: Quick camouflage.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 100
A.N.: For Watson's Woes JWP #17. Based on this millinery trend.

On AO3

Title: Whiteout
Rating: G
Universe: ACD
Summary: A cold trek.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 100
A.N.: For Watson's Woes JWP #16.

On AO3

Current Mood: Honestly I could use some cold

Title: Ridesharing
Rating: G
Universe: Great Mouse Detective
Summary: A whispered argument.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 192
A.N.: For Watson's Woes JWP #6.

On AO3

Title: Sold for Endless Rue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: John Watson/OMC
Summary: But youth, balancing itself upon hope, is for ever in extremes; its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled; and disappointment, like a summer shower, is violent in proportion to its brevity.
-- Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Warnings/Enticements: Slash, Teenagers, Break Ups
Word Count: 1354
Author’s Notes: Written for WAdvent 2017. A sequel to A Moment's Meeting and Take Hold of Me.

On AO3

For

mistyzeo:

Title: One Turf Shall Serve
Rating: R
Universe: Sherlock Holmes
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Five times Holmes and Watson slept together (and one time they actually had sex).
Warnings/Enticements: Bed sharing, pining, explicit sexual content
Word Count: 6710

On AO3

And lots of other wonderful works at

acdholmesfest and in the AO3 Collection.

Right.

So for

acdholmesfest I got this amazing fic:

Title: Upon a Ring
Rating: PG-13
Characters: John Watson/Mary Morstan; past Mary Morstan/Kate Whitney
Warnings: Period-typical and internalized homophobia
Word Count: 5,500
Summary: "I did know a lover before you, but…" My heart hammered in my chest. John nodded once, his expression carefully schooled. "She wasn't a man."

It is great, it is everything I love.

For

femslashex I got firstly The Cunning Woman and the Knight-Captain: An increasingly-exasperated healer tries to figure out why a particular knight gets injured so often. which is cute and poetic and has people being competent and flirting.

And then also The Taitaja: A young forest witch wracked with self-doubt is sent to an icy land where she is inadvertently soul-bonded to a fearless warrior. which has snow and witches and a deeply anxious heroine and is going to have soulbonds and age difference, omg.

And I wrote:

Title: Blackbird Claw, Raven Wing
Rating: G
Universe: Original Work
Character(s): Princess/Lady Knight
Summary: Princess Catarina is dismissed to rural seclusion, and makes it her own.
Warnings/Enticements: Femslash (obviously), arranged marriage, fantasy politics
Word Count: 3604

Which a lot of people seem to really like. And I haven't posted original fiction before, so I am excited about that.

Details of my Holmesfest fic after reveals.

Prompt #1: Bearing Up

Prompt #2: Gone From the City

Prompt #3: A Name in a Crowd

Prompt #4: One or the Other

Prompt #5: Point

Prompt #7: Alarum: Late

The above are one series, Spiderweb, connected to Go On Take Everything

Prompt #6: Amuse: Late

Prompt #9: Motley

Prompt #10: Agreement

Prompt #11: Three Hundred Years Earlier: Warning: period-typical spelling

Prompt #12: A Moment's Meeting

Prompt #14: Territories

Prompt #15: Unwelcome Social Summons

Prompt #16: Side Saddles for Ladies

Prompt #17: Logical Conclusion

[pause as I moved into a new apartment]

Prompt #24: If You Could Read Them All

Prompt #25: Traced Home: Xu-lai and Jane

Prompt #27: Inspire

Prompt #29: And In Short, chapter 1

Prompt #30: And In Short, chapter 2

Prompt #31: Transverse

Title: Bearing Up
Author: Violsva
Rating: G
Universe: ACD
Character(s): Mrs. Hudson, John Watson
Relationships: None
Summary: Mrs. Hudson exercises her judgement.
Content Warnings: Blood
Word Count: 252
A.N.: For Watson's Woes July Writing Prompt #1.

On AO3

Yep, I'm doing it again, and you can too!

So I just found out that one of my fics (The Lodger) was mentioned in an academic paper.

It's cited as an example (the paper is about fair use and the role of fanfic in the market) with no further details, but OMG!!

Current Mood: happy

Title: All the Joys
Rating: T
Universe: ACD Sherlock Holmes
Character(s): Focused on OCs; Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Summary: The fundamentals of a case: a young lady, a threatened inheritance, a villainous relative.
Warnings/Enticements: Femslash, Case Fic
Word Count: 9946

On AO3

Title: The Langham
Rating: E
Universe: ACD Sherlock Holmes/BBC Sherlock crossover
Character(s): Mary Morstan, Mary Morstan
Summary: On the worst night of Mary’s life, someone appears in her hotel room.
And identity is funny being yourself is funny as you are never yourself to yourself except as you remember yourself and then of course you do not believe yourself. --Gertrude Stein
Warnings/Enticements: Femslash, Angst, Crack taken seriously, Victorian attitudes, Selfcest
Word Count: 7393

On AO3

Femslash June: for when you like Femslash February but you don't write fast enough.

Sunday Sixes is a thing I've done on Tumblr, and you know, I can put them here too. (Six sentences from a WIP.)

And yet, Mary thought as he left, she did not think she could bear to wait a full week like this.

The time passed, slowly and uncomfortingly. Mary slept little, and did little; she went out into the streets of London a few times, and found only a wild confusion of people and streets and nothing familiar or calming. If she had walked through the same streets with her father, she might have asked him what she was seeing, and exclaimed over what was new to her; she would have cared to go into the museums and galleries and historic buildings. As it was she only stared at their outsides, and could not imagine she would find any comfort within. She looked at the crowds and thought of how one might simply lose oneself, or be lost, in them, blurring into the mass of humanity somehow, until one was never seen again.

Current Mood: angsty

Finished

A MCU fic with a decent but not very deep plot, low on rationale for character motivations. Pretty good period AU, though.

Unsettled by AxeMeAboutAxinomancy: As podfic, comfort listening during physical health issues this weekend.

(My cutoff for fics to count as "books" for record keeping purposes is somewhere under 25,000 words.)

Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey: Comfort reading. I think this is the low point for her copyediting and it's improved since here. (Having one section of my brain complaining about typos and punctuation and consistency errors actually makes it better for comfort reading in some ways, because there's more there to occupy me.) I don't like any of the villain pov here; come to think of it, she cut that out of some of the later books in this series entirely, which is probably a good idea.

Victorian Families in Fact and Fiction by Penny Kane: On the Victorian demographic transition as expressed in the literary evidence. Excellent, clearly differentiates between factual and literary sources and what can be determined from them. And as I said a couple weeks ago, the Victorian era was fucking terrible, people. (Primarily: child labour, (lack of) education, and patriarchy.) (The thing is, we know about the patriarchy (in fandom), and there was a lot of other Really Terrible stuff happening too that gets ignored.)

Lots of things that get left out of standard pop-historical imaginings. Some of them less terrible: for example, Victorians had very late marriages (mid to late twenties, later in the middle classes and for men) and numerous remarriages after deaths of spouses. ("Two out of every five men across Europe in the nineteenth century who survived to age 50 had married and produced families more than once.")

...Huh. Come to think of it, that makes Watson's hypothetical multiple marriages a bit less implausible.

The Comfortable Courtesan by Clorinda Cathcart: Man, I'm so glad this exists. And it's officially ended, and comforting and lovely and impressive and just go read it. It hasn't been on my weekly posts before because it's just been kind of background to my life: of course I'm reading Madame C-'s updates. And it's finished, and I am sad, but it's there to be reread whenever.

In Progress

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie: I glanced at the introduction to this (never read the introduction) and apparently Christie's thrillers are deprecated; I like them, and while this is clearly early and implausible it's fun.

I also have a book about Miss Marple as a character that I am going to start on.

Title: Like Racing an Engine
Rating: E
Universe: Sherlock Holmes
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Summary: Holmes gets bored on a long train ride.
Warnings/Enticements: Train Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Smoking, Orgasm Denial, Dirty Talk, Fellatio, Mild D/s
Word Count: 3751

A.N.: For

breathedout for the 2017 Fandom Trumps Hate auction, in exchange for a donation to the ACLU. Beta-read by the amazing oulfis.

On AO3

Written in 24 hours for the

come_at_once challenge on LJ:

Title: I Have No Time for Trifles
Rating: E
Universe: ACD Canon
Character(s): John Watson, Sherlock Holmes
Prompt/Summary: This wasn't on the list.
Warnings/Enticements: Slash, Watson's sense of humour
Word Count: 1481

On AO3

Written in a lot more than 24 hours and posted a month ago:

Title: Inward Trembling
Rating: E
Universe: ACD Canon
Character(s): John Watson, Mary Morstan, Sherlock Holmes
Summary: Holmes gets to watch.
Warnings/Enticements: Het, Voyeurism, Polyamory
Word Count: 1728
A.N.: Sequel to In Your Patience Possess

On AO3

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We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far

Entries tagged with sherlock holmes

Of course what it took for me to get into actual play was a murder mystery

So a variety of fics

Bored

(no subject)

This is probably just me being picky

Basil and Dawson's Further Adventures in Unorthodox Means of Transport

JWP

July Writing Prompts

WAdvent

ACD Holmesfest Reveals Out

Various Presents

JWP fics (to be updated)

Watson's Woes

EEEEEEEEE

More Femslash

(no subject)

Sunday Six

Wednesday Reading (in the last two weeks)

Train Fucking for Great Justice

Come At Once