221b_recs | Entries tagged with content: bdsm

re-white.livejournal.com

Title: The Doctor in the Boot
Author: mugenmine
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 10633
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Dubious Consent, Some Violence, Bondage, Discipline
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: “Breathe, John,” Sherlock said.
John exhaled and closed his eyes and tried to resign himself for the tenth time to the fact that he had to endure it now, that this was out of his authority, and that this would only be over when Sherlock determined it so. He inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth slowly, until he gained control of his breath and his heart, and managed to settle again.
Reccer's comments: Reading this fic was one of those 2AM accidents that sometimes happens when you're crawling the ao3 looking for something, anything, surprising and good to read. This fic is both. This is one of the few D/s stories I've read that doesn't sacrifice character for titillation. Sherlock doesn't descend into an awful caricature of toppy sadism, and he isn't a surprise sex god. He's over-analytical, impetuous and makes mistakes - in short, Mugenmine's Sherlock!voice is wonderfully in character. Her take on John and what he needs and how he lets himself have it is really captivating. From the start she pulls you right inside his head and *keeps* you there - as unsure, and searching as he is. The end result is the best sort of emotional hang over.

The Doctor in the Boot is the second part of what is technically a series, but the author has commented that it can be read as a stand alone, and I agree.

If you give this a shot, please do be aware of the warnings.

pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com

Title: Cross-wired
Author: PrettyArbitrary
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 7,168 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: extreme violence
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: John reads Sherlock's diary. It turns out that this is not his first mistake.

Reccer's comments: This is twisty and gorgeous and richly disturbing, a dark fantasy played out in the intellectual light of credible psychology.
When John finds a diary detailing the graphic tortures Sherlock would like to inflict on him, he’s freaked out… mostly. Except for the part of him that’s insanely turned on. He can’t get it out of his mind, and reads more, and matters go on from there.
Most people with a BDSM kink occasionally experience a moment of self-doubt along the lines of ‘Oh fuck, maybe the bit of me that wants this is kind of broken… but WANT anyway!’ and while John’s longings in this fic are particularly extreme, they are used to explore that feeling, and how you live with it, to the full.
Probably my very biggest kink is for having John and Sherlock both be utterly weird beyond any conventional boundaries, and yet somehow form a loving relationship that works for them. Skulls and flowery hearts should decorate this fic.

( Excerpt )

pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com

Title: Like You Hate Me and its sequel Dig It Up, Tear It Down
Author:

quamquam20
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 2,411 and 5,856
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none needed by comm rules
Verse: BBC Sherlock

Author's summary: John cannot stop thinking about Sherlock making him helpless, controlling him, doing what he wants with him. Sherlock, quite aware, wants to see how long it will take before John throws himself at him.

Reccer's comments: I once swore to ONLY EVER TALK ABOUT THIS ‘VERSE IN CAPITAL LETTERS, BECAUSE IT IS JUST THAT HOT, but I’m going to break that vow for the sake of a readable rec. The premise of the fics is pretty simple: John is longing to sub to Sherlock, and he spends the first fic fantasizing about it and the second fic getting to do it. In a way this is PWP, except it really isn’t, because of the relationship development that occurs during and through the extremely hot kinky sex.
Sometimes I find dom!Sherlock a little hard to take – it’s too much an inflation of his already exaggerated canon personality – but in this ‘verse he is perfectly pitched. The stories are from John’s POV but I don’t doubt for a moment that Sherlock would act as described. Sherlock’s pleasure comes through clearly in quamquam’s description of his behaviour.
And the lot of it is hot, hot, hot.

( Excerpt )

pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com

Title: That Tired Old Metaphor, Alchemy
Author: anactoria
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 10,163
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none needed by comm rules
Verse: BBC Sherlock

Author's summary: I want this, all of it. I want to dissect you and know all of you; I want to caress the dark and ugly parts just like the red muscle of your heart; I’ll hold them in my hands and wonder at them, because they are so much rarer than mundane goodness. So much more interesting, and that’s why you can’t let anyone else have them, only me.

Reccer's comments: This is recently posted, and very lovely. It immediately became one of my favourite BDSM fics in the fandom. It’s based around quite a familiar trope – the idea that sub!Sherlock likes pain/submission because it makes his mind go quiet – but where lighter fics use that as an endpoint, it’s really just the starting point for anactoria’s deep-sea dive into the subject. The whole story is Sherlock POV (the narration beautifully taut and in-character), and takes us through an intense real-time bloodplay scene which is punctuated with flashbacks that cumulatively show how John and Sherlock’s relationship developed through caution and misunderstanding into something so mutually vital. Throughout, Sherlock is both obviously compelled by need and also his unstinting, caustic self.

( Excerpt )

pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com

Title: These Days You Don’t Know How to March
Author: cranberryloops
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 10,341
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none needed by comm rules
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: It's not easy to be Sherlock's. Saved. Owned. Loved. These aren't words John ever thought to associate with himself.

Reccer's comments: This is the kind of love story where one or both parties are desperate and damaged but find stability in each other. In this case, John is the more obviously damaged one, floundering after his return from Afghanistan, in search of a place to emotionally and physically belong. Cranberryloops’ dom Sherlock is compelling too, sharp and abstract and palpably devoted to John.
John is sent back to Afghanistan for part of the story, so he gets to keep that side of himself, and reconcile it with his increasing attachment to Sherlock. The story as a whole charts John’s progress as he (re)learns to be all his apparently contradictory selves, and it explores how, in a tenable BDSM relationship as in any other, responsibility goes both ways.
One of my favourite things about Sherlock fandom is the volume of thinky BDSM fic and IMO this is one of the best. It’s not extensively and graphically sexual, but the entire thing is suffused with sexuality and need. Many of the sex scenes are just beautiful, suggestive, one-line vignettes, and everything that happens is fully plugged in to the characters’ complex, entirely real psychologies. Nothing is simple, John Watson, even if you think you are.

( Excerpt )

unovis.livejournal.com

Title: The Dying of the Bees
Author:

wordstrings
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Verse: BBC Sherlock
Author's summary: None, but she gives this warning: this fic paints a picture of a relationship many reasonable people would find crosses the line into disturbingly possessive and/or flirting with actual abuse. Also, if a dangerous situation involving threatened rape by an OC bothers you (non-explicit), or if reasonably healthy (I think) BDSM bothers you, skip this fic. I'd never fault you for it in the slightest.

Reccer's comments:
I can think of nothing more wretched than this Sherlock and this John undergoing the events of The Fall.

With great entertaining, involving, and emotional difficulty, they here navigate the rapids around The Woman. In alternating sections, the detective and the doctor deal with Sherlock's fascination with Irene Adler. Wordstrings provides several satisfying fixes for the screened story as well, serving Sherlock, Mycroft, John, and Irene better than the original. John's resolution of his feelings is something I didn't realize I wanted until I read it--not to my usual tastes but something I believe here as well earned.

Let into the story are also three disturbing dreams, linked to scars. I do love this John. I do like this story. It's as complex and well executed as earlier parts of the Paradox series, and to me, worth waiting for.

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.

getyourguns.livejournal.com

Title: The Ceremony of Innocence (part 4 of The Cold Song series)
Author:

eldritchhorrors
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: ~10,300 this part (~50,000+ total)
Rating: hard R for graphic descriptions of violence (NC-17 other parts)
Verse: BBC
Warnings: See author's warnings for each chapter.
Author's summary: Sherlock is tested to the shattering point, but some things must be broken before they can be fixed, and some things can never remain hidden...especially from ourselves.

And then Sherlock made this noise.

It was a terrible thing. As terrible as the assemblage in front of them. John had last heard that kind of agonized whimper from a five year old boy just outside Kandahar. He’d lost his entire family in a roadside bombing, the only survivor. They’d found him wrapped around his mother, half her head gone, lap a soup of viscera and blood. He’d made that sound, a keening low in the back of his throat, when John had separated him from the corpse.

He’d never have expected it from Sherlock.

Reccer's comments: Tags of this entry are for all parts of the series, not just this one.
The first three parts were rec'd previously here but the writer just posted an additional chapter that is so powerful, it definitely calls for a re-visit to the series. With this series alone,

eldritchhorrors has become a favourite writer. The way in which they incorporate music and language and story into their fic is a tremendous achievement and makes for a very emotionally hard-hitting, dynamic series.

a_lliteration

Previous chapters:
01. I Hear Those Voices That Will Not Be Drowned
02. Within This Frail Crucible of Light
03. A Light Shines In The Darkness

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Indecorous
Author: Baisingstoke
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson/Mary Morstan
Length: 55,000
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic violence, loads of kink
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: In which John learns to balance a kinky girlfriend, an asexual boyfriend, a ten-inch cock, his sister, the neighbours, his friends, and his blog. Some are more balanced than others.
Reccer's comments: Baisingstoke's classic work (you can call it a classic when it's got 25k hits on AO3, right?) features a Mary Morstan for the modern age. She's a sassy, funny, confident woman who works in a sex toy shop. You can definitely understand why John would be attracted to her, and the whole series weaves a great tale as these three begin to really fit into each others' lives. There's splendid banter, and effectively hilarious lists and other tidbits as interludes between scenes. As an extra-special bonus, there's lots of fun sex in all its realistic, imperfect, sometimes funny-and-confusing glory.

greywash.livejournal.com

Title: "my heart pumps yet the poison"
Author:

coloredink /

wreathsandbells
Pairing: John, Sherlock, Irene Adler (see more in reccer's comments below)
Length: 4,433
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None for this comm, though I recommend that you read the author's tags on AO3.
Spoilers: for "A Scandal in Belgravia".
'Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: "Hit me." Sherlock cocked his head at John and gave him a thin, devilish smile. "We’ve been through this once already. Don't tell me you don't want to."

Reccer's comments: I love it when an author takes something small but canonical and explodes it, as

coloredink has done here, into something devastating and wholly believable as part of the character's off-screen lives. In this case,

coloredink takes several tiny bits of canonical violence that tremble right on the edge of disturbing and weaves them together into something that's simultaneously funny and hot and pretty damn messed up, within bounds that are both entirely plausible and very unexpected. This story doesn't fit nicely into a "slash" or "gen" or "het" box, which makes it about a thousand times more interesting.

Link: Here on AO3.

pennypaperbrain.livejournal.com

Title: The Cold Song Series
Author:

eldritchhorrors
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: Three connected fics, 35,000 words in total so far
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None that fit with this comm’s guidelines
Verse: BBC
Author's 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.)

Reccer's comments: I have to declare an interest in this series, having joined the beta team with the recent third instalment, but I did that because I loved it! This is an intense, emotionally nuanced portrayal of a developing romantic relationship between Sherlock and John, which happens to have BDSM and drug use (and classical music) among its main themes. Whether or not you have an interest in any of the above, this series is outstanding – it’s for anyone into S/J who likes to think and has a taste for elegant writing.

Story 1: I Hear Those Voices That Will Not Be Drowned
Story 2: Within this Frail Crucible of Light
Story 3: A Light Shines in the Darkness

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Marrakech: an Incestuous Romance
Author:

ettuinarcadia
Pairing:Mycroft/Sherlock
Length: 4000
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: incest, BDSM, references to drug abuse
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Four times Mycroft and Sherlock almost did it; and one time they did.
Reccer's comments: I’m a sucker for stories that delve into the long and complex relationship of the Holmes brothers.

ettuinarcadia presents five formative moments in the Mycroft/Sherlock relationship that build a lovely tension and highlight the aching impossibility of the situation for both of them. Subtext can be fascinating, and this story does a great job of showing the characters working out (or failing to work out) their problems without their ever having a lengthy discussion about their issues. There's something here for everyone: a little corporal punishment, a little D/s, a little spying, and more than a little romance. Also, there are delicious levels of hotness contained herein.

In the study in the west wing, far from the earshot of Mummy, Mycroft summoned Sherlock. Sherlock was too thin, of course, and had the look, both wild and dreamy, of having lived on little but his drugs these past few weeks. He had a riding crop in his hand. His hair was too long again.

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Numina
Author:

thisprettywren
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 10,000
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: BDSM, knifeplay, breathplay, self-destructive behaviour, general darkness
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John's never really been one to shy away from responsibility, but some are easier than others.
Reccer's comments: This fascinating, suspenseful, and tender tale examines what too much being at home does to Sherlock, then turns 221b Baker Street into a small battlefield as Sherlock races to solve an important puzzle.

So, John had left tools. Clues. Something. Where, though? He turned, looking for obvious signs (disturbances, things shifted from where they’d been that morning) but he couldn’t see anything, but he’d been distracted, wrapped up inside his head—the whole problem, stupid— couldn’t remember how things had been before now that it finally mattered.

cmarill.livejournal.com

Title: The Pleasure Dome Hotel
Authors:

raiining &

velvet_mace
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: ~16 k
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: bdsm related violence
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sex had little interest to Sherlock until a case of murder and espionage leads Sherlock to find a very interesting sub.
Reccer's comments: If you're a fan of D/s dynamics this is definitely a must read. A very clever and well-written AU that twists John's and Sherlock's relationship, yet changes little of the characters themselves. The (really, really hot) sex is undoubtedly the main feature of the story, but there's a really great case fic mixed up in it, so this is far from a simple PWP.

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Transport
Author:

thisprettywren
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: ~10,000
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: bondage, sensory deprivation
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Everything else is just transport.
That’s what he’d told John, and he meant it. But it wasn’t comfortable, this transport of his. It might get him where he needed to go, but sometimes he just needed to get off. Written for this prompt over on

sherlockbbc_fic
Reccer's comments: Even if you have no idea what sensory deprivation kink is, you can’t help but imagine that for someone like Sherlock, for whom the world is very noisy, having your senses blocked off could be a highly gratifying experience. The tale is a slow-burning (but definitely burning) take on John recognizing what Sherlock needs, and the two of them spiraling toward each other through the tortuous pathways of their desires.

( Have a taste )

Read it on LJ
Read it on A03

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Numina
Author:

thisprettywren
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 10,000
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: BDSM, knifeplay, breathplay, self-destructive behaviour, general darkness
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John's never really been one to shy away from responsibility, but some are easier than others.
Reccer's comments: This immensely satisfying tale explores the actions of a very brave John Watson as he figures out a way to give Sherlock exactly what he needs. The power dynamics in their relationship are perhaps more subtle than the typical BDSM, and it’s fascinating to watch the thought process as they both discover things they hadn’t known about the other. Although the mood here is very dark, there’s a deep level of love and trust; I was on the edge of my seat for the whole second part.

Numina are the spirits, divine powers, or guiding principles presiding over a thing or place.

What John was coming to understand was something that had eluded even the great Sherlock Holmes: that Sherlock—arrogant Sherlock, who always thought himself in charge—belonged to John.

(or read on AO3)

unovis.livejournal.com

Hi!
Just a few words on our tags and tagging your recs.

Tags are useful search tools for grouping the recs by categories: by pairing, genre, content, and sources for the stories or other fanworks.

We ask that reccers attach tags that are relevant to the works they rec. You don't have to add everything that applies-- for example, not a character tag for everyone who might appear in the story, or every theme or content. But if Molly has a significant cameo, say, that you think people searching for her might appreciate, then by all means list her in a tag. Likewise if you think this is the addiction story people should read, then use the content: addiction tag.

The required aspects to tag are pairing (if it applies), relationship genre (i.e., gen, slash, or het*), and verse (the source: ACD books, Sherlock BBC, Granada, etc.).

The easiest place to see all of the tags available is in this list of tags.

Tagging is enabled only for the author of the post and the mods. Only the mods can add new tags. We have a beginning list up now, anticipating likely categories and characters. We'll add more as recs are made, if characters and pairings, for example, aren't covered already. You can request a new tag to be added by commenting here or by contacting one of the mods. Keep in mind, again, that we'll be adding character tags as additional characters appear in recs.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been abbreviated as SH and JW in pairings and some other places (e.g., content: sick jw). Since this recs comm is open to all versions of Sherlock Holmes, it seemed the simplest way to identify the characters. Lestrade, Gregson, and Dimmock are listed as "inspector" following ACD book canon, and Moriarty is listed only once by his (their) surname alone. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is abbreviated throughout as ACD.

*We won't add a category for "slash-if-you-squint" or similar invitations for the reader to see subtext in a story. If the author hasn't labeled her work as slash, then it's genre: gen or genre: friendship.

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221B Recs

A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

Entries tagged with content: bdsm

Fic Rec: The Doctor in the Boot

Fic rec: Cross-wired

Fic rec: Like You Hate Me and Dig It Up, Tear It Down

Fic rec: That Tired Old Metaphor, Alchemy

Fic Rec: These Days You Don't Know How to March

The Dying of the Bees, by wordstrings

Cold Song 5: A Drawing-Down of Blinds

Series rec: The Cold Song

Fic Rec: Indecorous

Fic rec: my heart pumps yet the poison, by coloredink

Series rec: Cold Song

Fic Rec: Marrakech

Fic rec: Numina

Rec: The Pleasure Dome Hotel

Fic rec: Transport

Fic rec: Numina

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November 2018

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