Cold Song 5: A Drawing-Down of Blinds

[pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com]

Title: A Drawing Down of Blinds (Cold Song 5)
Author: eldritchhorrors
Pairing: John/Sherlock,
Length: Story : 6100, Series: about 55,000
Rating: Explicit/NC-17
Warnings: some fairly violent scenes
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's series summary: When Moriarty told Sherlock that he would cut the heart out of him, he failed to mention that someone of his acquaintance already had. (He was saving that little tidbit for later.)
Author's fic summary: An elegy; a subtle interlude. The calm before the crash. Sherlock's had a shock and putting himself back together is a two-part process. (There is also what one of my betas calls technical violin porn.)
Reccer's comments: I beta this, and I also rec this around, but make no apologies for doing so, as I’m in awe. thisprettywren describes eldritchhorrors as ‘one of the best-kept not-quite-secrets of this fandom’, with some justification. Eldritch’s work won’t fit into your teabreak, but it’s worth clearing a couple of hours and sitting down to appreciate the full depth and scope of the series. ‘I just stumbled on this series and read straight through to the end, possibly without breathing,’ is a standard comment from new readers.
You certainly won’t be disappointed if you read this series for the porn, but for my money Eldritch also writes the best Sherlock POV I’ve seen. We really are inside the mind of a neuroatypical genius here. And fic five contains Sherlock recovering from trauma through his relationship with playing the violin:

Sherlock closed his eyes and put everything into his playing. Intensity, focus, concentration, emotive power. Rich, dense, multifarious, phrase shadings and implied counterpoint. So much to focus on, so much to interpret. The move from the major key back into the minor key.

The everything of it -- importuning anguish, joy, love, sorrow, beautiful and glorious with a dark, bitter bite that never made it anything less than reassurance of the spirit. This was music that told a person why they bothered living.

Fic Rec: Incredibly Simple and Very Destructive

[aprilleigh24.livejournal.com]

Title: Incredibly Simple and Very Destructive
Author: htebazytook
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 7500
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock understands the chemistry. That doesn't mean he approves of it.
Reccer's comments: Wonderful fic where the characterization is spot on. I love how Sherlock frames/justifies/organizes/deals/denies his emotions. And John! I always adore John, but this version is perfect for my own personal interpretation of his character.

Excerpt: "So," John says, leans forward in his chair. "What's on the agenda for today, then?" The cowlick in his hair really is quite dramatic, and Sherlock wants nothing more than to smooth it down, experiences this soft sharp influx of dopamine to marinate in just for awhile, because there's no harm in appreciating the feelings that John induces in him, as long as he remembers they are essentially artificial.

John wasn't as affected by dopamine levels as Sherlock was. He seemed to function mainly on adrenaline. You'd think he would be sick of such an excess of it considering his post traumatic stress disorder and very probably lingering depression, but Sherlock deeply suspected that John liked feeling out of control, which is something that Sherlock couldn't quite wrap his brain around.

Sherlock was always in control.