Fic Rec: Winter in London
Jun. 24th, 2012 07:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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221b_recsTitle: Winter in London
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
w_a_i_d
Pairing: Holmes/Watson
Length: 45,300 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-explicit rape scene and the emotional aftermath of rape. Mention of suicidal ideation.
Verse: ACD book canon
Author's summary: In response to this prompt, some liberties taken with the specifics. Watson tries to live with the memory of a terrible bargain in secrecy.
Reccer's comments: Holmes and Watson endeavor to save two young girls from being sold into prostitution. They are discovered, and when Holmes' life is threatened, Watson finds he will do whatever it takes to save his friend.
This is a classic hurt/comfort trope, but the author has done something extraordinary with it. The law that was passed in Victorian England to protect girls from being forced into prostitution is the same law used to punish any and all sexual contact between men, and the author makes full use of the unpleasant irony. Holmes initially has no idea what's troubling Watson; his struggle to deduce the root of his friend's low spirits, and his frustration with his inability to FIX anything, was beautifully in-character. Read this because sometimes bad things happen to good people, and this is the story of how two men found a way to live in the aftermath. There is also a particularly striking conversation between Holmes and Mycroft that is my new head canon for the two brothers and their relationship.
Here is an excerpt of the scene, from Holmes' POV, where this story first captivated me:
What I honestly want is not to order my thoughts but to be rid of them. What I want is the pang of the needle and and the flow of any blessedly transparent substance into my blood, anything that would sluice the horror of this out of me. And far worse, it is such an easy, instinctive skip of the mind to me, to imagine offering my friend the same relief. Here, I could say. Try this. Be out of pain –- for a while. And he might accept it from me now.
I am, as far as I can see, the only source of help he has. And on learning he needs it my first instinct is to endanger him further. That, it seems, is what being loved by me looks like. As if I had not already caused him harm enough.
Read ( Winter in London ).
Author:
w_a_i_dPairing: Holmes/Watson
Length: 45,300 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-explicit rape scene and the emotional aftermath of rape. Mention of suicidal ideation.
Verse: ACD book canon
Author's summary: In response to this prompt, some liberties taken with the specifics. Watson tries to live with the memory of a terrible bargain in secrecy.
Reccer's comments: Holmes and Watson endeavor to save two young girls from being sold into prostitution. They are discovered, and when Holmes' life is threatened, Watson finds he will do whatever it takes to save his friend.
This is a classic hurt/comfort trope, but the author has done something extraordinary with it. The law that was passed in Victorian England to protect girls from being forced into prostitution is the same law used to punish any and all sexual contact between men, and the author makes full use of the unpleasant irony. Holmes initially has no idea what's troubling Watson; his struggle to deduce the root of his friend's low spirits, and his frustration with his inability to FIX anything, was beautifully in-character. Read this because sometimes bad things happen to good people, and this is the story of how two men found a way to live in the aftermath. There is also a particularly striking conversation between Holmes and Mycroft that is my new head canon for the two brothers and their relationship.
Here is an excerpt of the scene, from Holmes' POV, where this story first captivated me:
What I honestly want is not to order my thoughts but to be rid of them. What I want is the pang of the needle and and the flow of any blessedly transparent substance into my blood, anything that would sluice the horror of this out of me. And far worse, it is such an easy, instinctive skip of the mind to me, to imagine offering my friend the same relief. Here, I could say. Try this. Be out of pain –- for a while. And he might accept it from me now.
I am, as far as I can see, the only source of help he has. And on learning he needs it my first instinct is to endanger him further. That, it seems, is what being loved by me looks like. As if I had not already caused him harm enough.
Read ( Winter in London ).
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Date: 2012-06-25 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 02:36 am (UTC)Winter in London (http://w-a-i-d.livejournal.com/748.html)
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Date: 2012-06-25 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-28 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-06-25 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-28 11:41 am (UTC)Thanks for the rec!
Date: 2012-06-26 04:36 am (UTC)Re: Thanks for the rec!
Date: 2012-06-28 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 10:17 pm (UTC)Thanks for the rec!