Fic rec: You'll never be alone in the bone orchard

[dogandmonkeyshow]

Title: You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
Author: SarahT
Pairing: Gen
Length: 9114
Rating: Mature
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John Watson meets Mycroft Holmes one day early. The world tilts slightly on its axis.
Reccer's comments: The premise of this fic is that Mycroft approaches John, newly returned from Afghanistan, before John meets Sherlock. Mycroft offers him a job: be an assassin for the British government. John takes the job and various adventures begin.

I have to start by saying I've always found John Watson to be one of the most boring characters in fiction, and the way the character is done in Sherlock (and virtually all fanfic I've read) has never challenged that opinion. In this fic, SarahT accomplishes a rare feat: make John interesting in his own right. The absence of a relationship between John and Sherlock gives John the room to develop as a character as he confronts the consequences the war had for him.

The author also accomplishes an in-character (and in-canon character) Mycroft: slippery, dangerous, pragmatic, terrifying, and entirely believable as the kind of man who would get to the top of the pile without any thought to the cost to anyone else, while retaining his unhealthy and over-protective relationship with Sherlock.

The professional relationship that develops between John and Mycroft is fascinating and quite unlike anything I've come across in the fandom. And the fic has quite simply the best plot twist at the very end. A fic that follows none of the conventions of Sherlock fanfic, and is all the better for it.

Comments

[leenah.livejournal.com]

the title makes me happy. quoting my favorite elvis costello song? very happy.

[dogandmonkeyshow]

Is it really? I never caught the reference. But then I pretty much stopped listening to him in the early 80s.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to find this believably in-character - but I did.

[dogandmonkeyshow]

Yes it is, isn't it.

It's glorious what a good writer can do by giving canon just a little twist and then following the logic of the characters' personalities in the situation.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was amazing.

[dogandmonkeyshow]

It is, rather; glad you enjoyed it.

[dioscureantwins.livejournal.com]

I already knew this fic and entirely approve of the rec. Thank you!

[dogandmonkeyshow]

I was a little hesitant about reccing something this old; I assumed everyone who would have been interested would have read it already. I was pleased to be proved wrong; obviously there are a few other latecomers to this fandom. :D

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

Rather shocked to read that anyone finds the character of John Watson boring, or has not stumbled across fanfic that depicts him in an interesting way. The mix of soldier and doctor, the contrast of BAMF with deceptive amiability, the conductor of light; and on BBC Sherlock, we have Sherlock in thrall to him plus we have his relationship with the enigmatic Mary Morstan. I could go on. There are many, many excellent fan fictions, both ACD-based and BBC Sherlock-based, that explore the unique and extremely interesting elements that comprise John Watson. Hats off to those authors.

[dogandmonkeyshow]

There are many, many excellent fan fictions, both ACD-based and BBC Sherlock-based, that explore the elements that comprise John Watson that I find unique and extremely interesting.

There, fixed that for you.

If we all had the same tastes in fic and interests in fanworks, this fandom would be even more of a monoculture than it already is, which would be a real loss considering the potential for complexity inherent in the many manifestations of the Sherlock Holmes storyverse.