fanfiction rec: Equilibrium

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Title: Equilibrium
Author: Augustbird
Pairing: John Watson/Sherlock Holmes
Length: 12351
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Verse: BBC Sherlock
Author's summary: At Baskerville, John is infected by a virus that turns him into a genius. But when the infection progresses into neurodegeneration, it's a race against time to save himself. Flowers for Algernon fusion.
Reccer's comments: This was more emotionally gut-wrenching, to me, than Alone on the Water. The arc that happens within John's mind; the joy that he gets when he realizes he is a genius and the way Sherlock treats him feels so realistic. Then we are tossed into the development of Sherlock and John's relationship alongside the degeneration of John's mind and it's absolutely incredible. You can feel John's pain as his mind slips away from him. The author also takes the time to research/include medical journal articles which makes for a nice piece of world building.

Excerpt: But John’s been devouring research articles in his free time, because understanding them keeps his mind occupied and he gets anxious when he’s not thinking. Figuring out the puzzle of the human body is infinitely more interesting than what he’s going to have for dinner or what Sarah’s going to think about his new tendency to remain motionless and stare out the window for long periods of time after lunch.

This must be what it’s like to be Sherlock, John realizes.

Fic Rec: A String of Empty Houses

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Title: A String of Empty Houses
Author: manic_intent
Pairing: Sebastian Moran/Jim Moriarty
Length: 10 088 words
Rating: Mature
Verse: Sherlock BBC / ACD book 'verse
Author's summary: Sebastian is busy getting his lip split open when he first meets Jim Moriarty.

Reccer's comments: I first fell into this pairing after reading this rec, and the reccers comments pretty much sums up for me why this pairing works. The Sebastian Moran in "A String of Empty Houses" is now basically my head-canon for the BBC series, and I'm just waiting (hoping/dreaming/praying) for this Sebastian to show up in season 3. An exquisitely written fic with many insightful details (a bunch of it canon, coming from the books) has Sebastian and Jim fleshed out so well, that you basically end up rooting for the bad guys. Sebastian is a beautiful beast, and Jim is beautifully cracked; you will have no difficulty imagining these vignettes of their life running alongside the television episodes up until the Reichenbach Fall. It is also accompanied by a lovely piece of art by dramatis-echo.

Excerpt:

The post-it notes are the worst.

The so-called foremost consulting criminal in the world walks like a cat, and to a mind used to juggling entire illicit empires locks are at best a minor irritation. Often, Sebastian wakes to his SoHo loft littered with tiny, gaudy rectangles. Sometimes they're filled with unrelated quotes drawn from an esoteric range of literature, or arranged in cartoonish smileys. Usually, for some reason that his uncomplicated hunter's mind cannot immediately fathom, they're blank.