Animation Rec: The Winged Man's Burden

[chapbook.livejournal.com]

Title: The Winged Man's Burden
Artist: GingerCatSneeze
Pairing: Gen
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Winglock

Reccer's comments: GingerCatSneeze has branched out into animation, with results that are either charming or powerful in tone. This black-and-white animation falls into the latter category:

Sherlock, shoulders hunched, takes off his beloved coat, revealing two misshapen growths that are criss-crossed with straps. Sherlock pops them off, causing a pair of shaggy, charcoal-colored wings to appear. He then arches his wings, showing their true size and presence, as his head raises and his shoulders straighten.

I suspect from the title and the quiet (perhaps even somber?) mood of the animation that the wings can be seen as a metaphor for Sherlock's genius or his entire sense of self. I lean towards the latter interpretation because Sherlock freely lets fly his deductive genius, rarely restraining that aspect of his personality. What does he try to contain and control? His emotions. Over and over we see him fighting that side of himself, perhaps most famously beside the fireplace at the inn in THoB. In S3 he appears to lose his emotional control, at least in part, with mixed results that suggest why he might have tried to stopper his feelings in the first place. I (and perhaps other fans) dearly hope that Sherlock does not fetter those wings forever, but learns instead to use them to help his great intellectual talent work more effectively (emotional insights can be crucial in any case dealing with people) and to engage in richer relationships with those whom he loves.

Fic Rec: Synonymous Angels

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Title: Synonymous Angels
Author: Aderyn
Pairing: Gen or Sherlock/John (author lists as both)
Length: 2,119
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: He’s on the side of the angels…and they’re on his.

Reccer's comments: Aderyn long has been one of my favorite authors in the fandom. Her spare style leans heavily towards prose poetry; striking imagery and blurring the lines between dreams and reality, the natural and supernatural, frequently charge her work with tension even when the surface appears placid. For example, in this work, no overtly dramatic event takes place, no actual reunion between Sherlock and John, or revelation that Sherlock lives. Still, the passing of time brings tension, as Sherlock's return draws closer.

Aderyn excels at the depiction of mourning, John's main activity in this work, usually pairing it with healing, or at least hope. Winter (grief) followed by the promise of resurrection of growing things in spring is evoked near the end by the OFC Eleri in a graveyard conversation with John that he later echoes in a question for the stone angel, suggesting that Sherlock will return as tangibly as the plants now lying beneath the ground:

( Read more... )

Communication is the other primary activity in this one-shot: directly between Mycroft and Sherlock (but we only hear Mycroft's words), John with the gravestones (including the angel), John with Sherlock (but only in John's dream), Molly and Eleri with John. Plenty of nonverbal communication occurs too, primarily through the gifting of flowers and the calls of the birds. Nor does the mourning angel statue in the cemetery speak to John directly, but John does speak to her and one has a sense of a healing presence, embodied by two human women: Molly and Eleri, one of the Homeless Network (or is she one of Mycroft's? that happily is left ambiguous, for the reader to decide). These women, the synonymous angels, are John's quiet guardians, helping him with the work of grieving without abandoning their own work.

Fic rec - The Sleeping Beauty series

[archea2.livejournal.com]

Title: The Sleeping Beauty series
Author: fengirl88
Pairing: Ella/Anthea
Length: 6.500 words
Rating: mature on AO3, possibly PG-13?
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: In which John's therapist meets Mycroft's assistant.
Reccer's comments: This series has been mentioned before, in relation to another Ella/Anthea fic, but I've always thought that it deserved a rec of its own.

A series of meetings, short and long, between Ella and Anthea. Fengirl88's prose is in turn thoughtful, humorous, wistful, hopeful as the two women's acquaintance develop into an adult romance during which they learn to know each other and negotiate the potential pitfalls in their moments together (ah, that BlackBerry!). I began to read this series because I've always been attracted to Fengirl's delicate prose and and deep insights, and I've continued to read it when the romance engaged my attention and the girls warmed my reader's heart.

(Also, there's a night at the opera.)

( Excerpt under the cut )