Fic Rec: The Steadfast Tin Watson

[swissmarg]

Title: The Steadfast Tin Watson
Author: what_alchemy
Pairing: Sherlock/John, past John/OFC
Length: 3,964 words
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: When the fairies left, they took their stories with them. But they left the characters behind.

Reccer's comments: Sherlock is a fairy tale. Literally. No, really literally. In this AU, the entire world is populated with incarnations of characters of myth, legend, and fairy tale. The Velveteen Rabbit, Loki, Baba Yaga, the figures in the tales of the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen... all jerked abruptly out of their stories by some Deus Ex Machina and fumbling along in their new roles as therapists and doctors, policemen and detectives.

Ella is silent for a torturous moment during which John barely contains a scream. She has always refused to tell him where she is from, even who wrote her. She always says, “this isn’t about me, John,” and makes him tell her about how tin feels, transmogrified into bone. Or rather, how he feels about the whole odious process.

“Some of us are luckier,” she says finally. “Some of us were porcelain dolls growing dusty on shelves until the right little girl came along, and some of us were threadbare velveteen, so well-loved our biggest problem was how our stuffing always came out. But you’re a soldier. In this life and the last. That’s hard, John. And I’m trying to make it easier, not harder. Please meet me halfway.”

John shifts his gaze out the window. He wonders how everything can be so cheery and green now that the fairies have left the world.

I found this a particularly apt AU, given the fairy tale motifs already present in the series. And the figures which the author has chosen for John and Sherlock are so perfect, both for their back story and for how they see and define themselves. The best part of the story for me, though, was how they were able to re-define themselves without losing their essential selves, in effect taking over and writing their own stories with the framework they have been left.

This is really a fantastic piece of writing, and even though it's short, it reminds me of a piece of advice everyone's probably heard in a creative writing class: a story should be as long as it needs to be. A perfect gem of a fic.

Comments

[chapbook.livejournal.com]

Seconding this piece with great enthusiasm. I love how even the briefly appearing characters live and breathe!

There have been several wonderful fairy tale inspired AUs of high quality on the past couple months. As a folklore and fairy tale fan, it's a true embarrassment of riches!

[swissmarg]

Yes, I noticed you'd made a lovely list on the Sunday recs post on sherlockbbc. :)

[mycapeisplaid.livejournal.com]

Read this piece this morning - wow, so lovely! Thanks for recommending it!

[swissmarg]

You're welcome. :)

[sussexdowns.livejournal.com]

Ugh, this just makes me pine even harder for a new season of Once Upon a Time! Alright, I'm going in!

[swissmarg]

You know, I didn't even think of the OUAT connection, but there's definitely something to it.

[ningen-demonai.livejournal.com]

You had me at "fairy tale" ♥ *Goes to read*

[ningen-demonai.livejournal.com]

Holy frick, that was gorgeous. what_alchemy never ceases to amaze me with her writing.