potentiality_26 | Entries tagged with fandom: sherlock

Title: Hollow
Fandom: Sherlock
Pairing/Characters: Sally Donovan/Stella Hopkins
Summary: A strange case.
Rating: PG
Length: Very Short (465 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: I've been working on a fic based ACD/Granada’s Abbey Grange, and it made me think about a more modern interpretation of that case, and how it might have been handled by Sherlock’s version of Hopkins. This is the result. I don’t actually remember what case she really brought Sherlock in the show, so sorry if this ignores anything in canon.
Excerpt:
She had been watching Stella Hopkins for a while- from where she sat at the other end of the bar, and also in general. She knew Hopkins was trying to make a name for herself and figured that Sherlock Holmes could be a good way to do that; either she would come out the other side of it or she wouldn’t. Sally hoped it would be the former, obviously- but she saw hints of the latter in the speed at which Hopkins had been drinking all night.

On AO3

So I watched the newest episode of Sherlock yesterday,

I’m not super invested in it anymore, which I thought several times watching this episode was a good thing. I’m mainly just here for the Mycroft show, and the Mycroft show was nice. Lots of cool moments (I liked the glimpse into his home life especially).

The Sherlock show was more in the… solidly okay territory? Sherlock had some good moments too. The plot was a bit hard to follow, but it was enjoyable enough and I did like the twist the episode pulled on the usual mystery-ties-into-this-other-unrelated-thing-we’ve-mentioned-five-times-so-far trope.

I know she’s been a divisive character, but I’ve always liked this Mary and she was very well written in this episode. Despite that (or maybe because of it) the ending felt really off. You can say that Mary dying is an unavoidable part of Sherlock Holmes canon, but I'm sure I remember in the tumblr Q&A one of the creators (don’t remember which one) specifically said that she just disappeared and for all we know she and Watson just had an amicable divorce. Kind of a dick move to be all “Mary doesn’t have to die!!!” and then kill her anyway, but whatever. Also I’ve been wanting her to turn out to be Sebastian Moran ever since I saw someone suggest that she might be, but that looks less and less likely the more we learn about her. The bit where Sherlock saw a message from her thought it was from Moriarty could be suggestive, though, so I’m still holding out hope. Whether she ends up a villain or not, she deserves better than this.

Greg was great, and I liked that other detective quite a bit as well.

John was… ugh. He landed anywhere on the spectrum from boring to downright repulsive depending on the moment. John’s always been sort of fine to me- I don’t adore him but I don’t dislike him either- and I’m wondering how people who love him felt watching this episode. Was he still an enjoyable character, or did this come as an unpleasant surprise? Because it seemed to me like they weren’t even trying to make him compelling. And the random cheating plotline? I'm sure it will be given more significance later on, but it was so uncomfortable to watch.

I also wonder if this episode was disappointing to people on the Johnlock front. I always ship Holmes and Watson, whatever the version, so obviously I’d like for the people who genuinely 100% believe that they’re going to get together on the show to be right, but… wow, I just don’t believe that’s going to happen, and this episode only enhanced that impression.

I'm certainly curious to see where things go for Sherlock from here, though. It's always a fun ride, if nothing else.

Title: Tea For Four
Fandom: Cabin Pressure
Pairing/Characters: Martin Crieff, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, Excelsior Black
Summary: Martin has tea with his siblings.
Rating: PG
Length: Very short (365 words)
Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me- only the silly idea!
Notes/Warnings: This little vignette shouldn't be taken too seriously, and yes- it's sort of AU. I just wanted Mycroft, Sherlock, Martin and Colonel Black to all be siblings and I was willing to ignore whatever I had to ignore in order to make that happen. I do imply that Martin was raised by other people, so it's still loosely canon at least. It's set early in the Cabin Pressure timeline. As is necessary with three shows that all have such very different tones, I had to pick one. I rounded up to Clone-typical behavior, so this is only PG (or G) rated as much as Clone is. Nobody dies, but respect for human life is not high.
Excerpt: "You might let us charter your firm to fly his… people… somewhere one day. To give your colleagues… perspective.”

Martin thought about that. Excelsior was nothing if not a giver of perspective, and Martin did want to get paid once in a while. At minimum, he wanted to get the cheese tray to himself once in a while.

On AO3

Title: Observation 101
Fandom: Sherlock
Pairing/Characters: Greg Lestrade/Molly Hooper, Mycroft Holmes/Sherlock Holmes
Summary: Greg is stood up on a blind date, whereupon things get... strange.
Rating: PG-13
Length: Short (4,559 words)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes/Warnings: Written for this prompt on

sherlockbbc_fic. Warnings for incest, and Greg and Molly being really incredibly dense. They got a nice date out of it?
Excerpt: That was Mycroft Holmes sitting a few tables away; Greg would know him anywhere. It wasn’t his presence in itself that was so surprising; this might not have been Greg’s kind of place, but it had to be Mycroft’s. The surprise lay in the fact that he had a woman with him and Greg had been reasonably sure that Mycroft was gay. Gayer than picnic basket. Gayer than Christmas. Gayer than… something really very gay.

On AO3

Title: Awake
Fandom: Sherlock
Pairing/Characters: Greg Lestrade/Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mary Morstan
Summary: Greg wakes up in the hospital.
Rating: PG
Length: Short (3,012 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: Written for my

hc_bingo square blood loss (my card is here), so warnings for mentions of blood loss. Being that I know very little about the subject, I apologize for any inaccuracies- I was just kind of doing my own thing when I wrote this. Also, this isn't Brit-picked. Finally, I decided to go for a positive Mary depiction. Please don’t shoot me for it.
Excerpt: “Here to kill me?” Greg croaked at Sherlock. It was unlikely, with John present, but Greg had had a recurring dream of Sherlock hovering over him like this- except with an enormous knife in his hand- ever since he’d first met the detective. Most of the time, he understood this nightmare to be a subconscious manifestation of his conviction that Sherlock Holmes would one day be the death of him- but on his most paranoid days he caught himself thinking it might in fact be a premonition of his murder.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. “Hardly. Not after all the trouble John went through to save you. Try not to scare him like that again.”

On AO3

Title: Heartlines
Fandom: James Bond (Craig movies)/Sherlock
Pairing/Characters: James Bond/Q, John Watson/Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Eve Moneypenny, Bill Tanner
Summary: Soulbond AU: Q and Bond are soulmates. Naturally, it isn't as simple as it sounds.
Rating: PG-13
Length: Medium (11,178 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, sadly.
Notes/Warnings: First of all, I discovered this prompt on the 007 kink meme about a year after it was posted. It's probably just as well that I'm tragically late to the party, because this a) is a crossover that was in no way requested and b) focuses on all the wrong things. That said, the prompt did inspire me, and even though I pretty much failed at writing a fill, there it is. Also, here's A note about Mycroft in this story- you can look at it now if you’re interested in my somewhat lengthy ruminations about this AU, or you can come back and read it later if, after or in the midst of reading, you find yourself angry about him and want to know what the hell I think I’m up to. Finally, I'm American and this isn't Brit-picked. Apologies.
Excerpt: Oh, to have been matched with an accountant somewhere, Q would absently think as Bond crushed an extremely expensive communications device under his heel and took a woman with this or that piece of information to bed.

“If she stabs him,” Q would observe through gritted teeth. “It’ll serve him right.”

On AO3

I’m writing Mycroft as aromantic asexual here, which is a slightly prickly topic to tackle in a soulmate AU.

I love these AUs, but it's my first time writing one, and I’m still working out my notions of how they work- but I do know that I think that in a universe where people have a soulmate who they have to be with, whose name is written on their skin, most of the prejudices- or just general lack of understanding- that people who are not strictly heterosexual face wouldn’t exist, because, as a concept, sexualities wouldn’t really exist. Two men might love each other, or two women, or a man and a woman- and their relationships might be sexual, or romantic but not sexual, or strictly platonic, depending on what the two people in question happened to be suited to. They are soulmates, after all. (I’m still not sure how to deal with poly in such a universe, and under the circumstances I’m not touching it.)

Besides that hiccup, though, it’s easy to romanticize such a universe, and since I was playing with the question of under what circumstances might Q feel comfortable- even happy- with the notion of ignoring his soulmate, I delved into what kind of weaknesses such a society would have. And since I couldn’t deny the possibility of people who didn’t have a soulmate, or had what we might call an “unrequited” soulmate, I thought that these would be the groups that society at large was only just beginning to accept and understand.

Which brings us to Mycroft, whose... let's use the word "platonic" though I'm not quite sure it's the one I want, soulmate is his brother. I originally wanted to give this story some kind of “unrequited familial love” tag, given that Sherlock’s soulmate here is John- but the fact is that, as in canon, Mycroft’s love for Sherlock isn’t unrequited, it’s just that Mycroft is single-minded in his not entirely healthy love for his brother, and Sherlock is not. Sherlock has his cases, and he has John. Mycroft has other things in his life too, but nothing else that he truly seems to love.

At any rate, in what was meant to be a short note made entirely too long, what I ultimately want to do is cover myself by saying that Mycroft’s asexuality is more an 'in addition to' his being a person without a “usual” soulmate, rather than a 'because of'. I do not think that people who are asexual- even when they are also aromantic- would of a necessity have no soulmate, or have to pine- platonically or not- after someone whose soulmate was someone else. That said, I do think it might happen sometimes, and it's what happened here.

I'm probably going to do an actual Sherlock recs list at some point, but I just read Undoing Fate by sator_square and I need to recommend it right the hell now, so I'm going to. It's Mycroft/Jim Moriarty, which is not really my thing and will continue not to be my thing, but this seriously good and actually rather sweet. Well. For a given value of the term. But it's really good, okay? If you haven't read it, you shouldn't let the pairing stop you. If you can like a fic for this couple, I'm pretty sure it will be this one.

In it, Mycroft goes back in time to stop Jim from becoming Sherlock's nemesis in the first place. Inserting a time travel plotline into this fandom seems a little tricky, but it comes across really well. Mycroft can go back, change something, and then go forward again to see the effect- and then go back a bunch more times to get it right. It's funny and exceedingly well written, but also very true to the characters. Even when they hardly meet- and Jim is far more interested in Mycroft than in Sherlock- Sherlock and Jim have a really interesting give and take, and Mycroft's efforts to find the right balance are particularly interesting. The development of his own relationship with Jim is fascinating as well.

SHERLOCK
Fic Masterlist

Medium Fics (5,000-15,000 words)

Heartlines (James Bond/Q + Mycroft Holmes, John Watson/Sherlock Holmes, Ensemble) PG-13 | 11,178 words | Alternate Universe, Crossover (with Sherlock), Near Death Experiences, Soulmate-Identifying Marks | Q and Bond are soulmates. Naturally, it isn't as simple as it sounds.

Short Fics (1,000-5,000 words)

Awake (Greg Lestrade/Mycroft Holmes + Ensemble) G | 3,012 words | Aftermath of Violence, Fluff and Angst | Made for

hc_bingo (Square: Blood Loss) | Greg wakes up in the hospital.

Closer (Mycroft Holmes/Sherlock Holmes) R | 4,215 words | Angst with a Happy Ending, Miscommunication | Sherlock and Mycroft clear the air. Sort of.

Observation 101 (Greg Lestrade/Molly Hooper + Mycroft Holmes/Sherlock Holmes) PG-13 | 4,559 words | Crossdressing, Third Party POV | Made for this prompt on

sherlockbbc_fic | Greg is stood up on a blind date, whereupon things get... strange.

Very Short Fics (< 1,000 words)

Tea For Four (Excelsior Black, Martin Crieff, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes) PG | 365 words | Alternate Universe, Crack Crossover (with Cabin Pressure and Clone), Humor, Protective Siblings | Martin has tea with his brothers.

Related

My Cabin Pressure Fics | My Clone Fics | My James Bond Fics

You know how fabulous I am? I just saw S3 of Sherlock. Just yesterday. For the first time. I only have a couple of the things to say that are spoiler-y and if you want to see it and you still haven't you're even more fabulous than I am, so-

( It's under a cut )

Favorite villain pairing:

Hmm. I've never been much of a villain pairing person. For me, at least one of the people has to be a good guy. That said, I sometimes enjoy Moran/Moriarty in the various Sherlock Holmes incarnations. A lot of people produced really interesting fanworks with a Moran they made up for Sherlock before S3 came out, and those were cool. But it bears mentioning that what made me grow to like the pair in the first place was "A Study in Emerald" (which is a Sherlock Holmes characters in Lovecraft's universe short story by Neil Gaiman, if you haven't read it; it's amazing) and they aren't exactly villains there.

( The rest of the meme )

A crossover pairing you think would work:

First of all, I love crossover pairings, but they seem to be fairly rare. A lot of the time, writers will take two fandoms with similar couples and sort of cross-pair the characters for a while, but at the end of the story, it seems the characters have to end up with people from their fandom. You get something similar with crossovers between fandoms that have the same actor/actress. I understand this get-together trope, I even like it and might use it myself one day- it's just that what I most love are crossover pairings where nobody is using anybody as a stand-in for anybody else- it's just two people from different fandoms that would suit each other really well.

I think my favorites so far are Cabin Pressure/Sherlock crossovers with Arthur Shappey/Molly Hooper. Crossovers between those two fandoms are pretty common, and Martin/Molly is popular too, for obvious reasons, but I always thought she and Arthur would have been well suited.

Though not necessarily a pairing, I also want to re-proclaim my undying love for Doctor Who crossovers with characters from other fandoms as companions. That is never not cool.

( The rest of the meme )