Fic rec: Voulez-Vous

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Title: Voulez-Vous
Author: AlbaNix
Pairing: Gen
Length: 5,300 words
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: It’s an ordinary day at 221B apart from the fact that Sherlock is speaking in French. What John doesn’t know is that Sherlock has an ulterior motive. What Sherlock doesn’t know is that while John may not speak French, he’s almost fluent in Sherlock.
Reccer's comments: You may have heard of the broccoli test as a fannish way of determining how in-tune two characters are. Well, here's the Sherlock version. Sherlock decides to speak French for the day. John understands him anyway.

This is hilarious, and I can imagine it happening in canon. The bit that makes it amazing is that the author has hyper-text coded the French dialogue, so you can read the French and share in John's semi-comprehension, then mouse over it and see what Sherlock's actually saying.

Excerpt:

'Erm, I don't think it's anything to do with how you're speaking,' John says to Mycroft doubtfully. 'I don't understand French. It's not because he's speaking French that I understand him, he's just… Sherlock. I can tell his moods from his walks, for god's sake.'

'Qu'est-ce qu'elle a, mon allure?' exclaims Sherlock.

For once, John hears the actual French word. 'Allure?' He feels his ears go red. 'I didn't say anything about alluring.'

Across from him, Mycroft snorts in a rather un-Mycroft-like manner. 'You really don't speak French,' he says as though John has just presented him with a particularly sugary chocolate cake. 'Allure means "walk", John.'

'Oh.' John feels like a complete idiot. Stick to the plan - listen to Sherlock! Not the words! 'Oh, right. Well, your walk is… um… You've got a few. There's your "Get your coat, John, we've got a case" walk, there's the bored walk, there's the "Look at me with my swishy coat and my deductions" walk, there's the "I've done something stupid and there's no way I'll admit it so I'll just slope off" walk…'

'Je ne fais jamais rien de stupide,' Sherlock grumbles.

'Yes you do.'

*cackles* Now go and read ( Voulez-Vous )!

Comments

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know - since I don't speak French, I'd no idea.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Hello gold-dusted rhapsodius AlbaNix! (The internet is complicated. How would you like to be credited?)

I thoroughly enjoyed your story! I wouldn't let one negative comment get you down. *hugs*

If it were me I might write to shezan and ask her if there was any particular phrase that struck her that way - language can be very tricky, with different dialects and local sayings.

I actually loved the sequel, with Sherlock's Italian phase, EVEN MORE, but since you'd taken it down off of the AO3, I hesitated to rec it in case you felt the piece wasn't finished. But Sherlock showing off how extraordinary John is to eveyone, and the clever way that John doesn't understand any of Sherlock's more romantic overtures, whether it's because it's so outside of what he expects from Sherlock or because Sheerlock is unsure of himself, was striking.

I very much look forward to reading more in the series!