221b_recs | Entries tagged with content: drugs

Title: The Men Who Talked Between the Words
Author: Odamaki
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, brief John Watson/Mary Morstan, Harry Watson/OFC, James Sholto/OMC, Billy Wiggins/OFC
Length: @460,000 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: past abuse (including implied/referenced child abuse), implied/referenced suicide (not of any character from the TV show), implied/referenced drug use
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John expected to be a father some day; he expected to have the house, and the wife and the nice suburban job. Sherlock never expected to have children, in part because he never expected to make it past 30. As it turns out, you don't get a choice. Crammed into Baker Street with a baby, John struggles with single-parenthood and his own fears, while Sherlock treads the fine line between doing too little and saying too much.

Reccer's comments: It's hard to think of what I can say about this fic that hasn't already been said. Four years in the making, of a length comparable to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this story took extraordinary commitment to create and the end result is simply astonishing. I've been reading Holmesian fiction for quite a long time, and I've never run across another story that felt quite like this one. There's something so authentic and keenly observed about the details. There's a realism here that reaches out and never lets me go. The characters - both the main and the secondary ones - have such distinct voices, and their lives and relationships are deeply grounded and believable.

This is a realistic parentlock fic, and it's the deliciously slowest of slow-burn romances, and that heart of the story is beautiful. But that's really not all there is to it. Odamaki doesn't allow Sherlock, John, and the baby to live in a bubble. The story is full to bursting with the many other people who know them, who affect and are affected by them. Both Sherlock and John have important inward work to do before either is ready to think about romance. It's a story about growth, about healing, about hard-fought and hard-won maturity. About friendships and familiar places that won't stay neatly unchanged, and about painful habits and histories that won't fade away without long and deliberate effort.

When I think of this fic, the love story and the family Sherlock and John make together stands at the center. But I also think of Sherlock and Molly's quiet happiness working on her research together at Barts; James Sholto walking John through his fledgling orchard; Billy playing chess in hospital; Harry lounging with her girlfriend on the couch; Greg's tiepin; the moms in John's playgroup; the voice at the other end of a helpline.

This is a compelling fic about love and family, but it's also about all those other nooks and crannies of life that too often get left out of love stories. There's a village of vivid people wrapped up in this story, and I love them all.

(Also, I should add: 1) the story is complete. It ends at chapter 27. There are still new chapters going up, but they are 'bonus material' like deleted scenes and FAQ responses from the author. 2) The story goes AU after series 3, and incorporates no elements of series 4. The baby is a girl, but she is not the canonical 'Rosie' of the TV show).

vulgarweed

Title: Well that’s certainly not cocaine
Artist: coeykuhn on Tumblr
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (or possibly Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, shippiness ambiguous)
Rating: M (drug use, hallucinations, slight horror)
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Oh my.
Well that’s certainly not cocaine, then wtf did you take sherlock.

Reccer's comments: This has haunted me since the first time I saw it years ago - Sherlock, pushed past his limits, reverting to old bad habits while horrible hallucinations of bugs and demons - and half-demonic Moriarty - hover around him, surrounded by tokens of self-doubt and failure. Can he even see or feel John, who is kneeling in front of him caring for him with a look of heartbreaking grief and concern? Note the symbolic chess pieces!

wtf did you take, sherlock

discordantwords

Title: In Between
Author: illwick
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 40k words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Drug use, internalized homophobia
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: They've always been there. They always will.

Reccer's comments: This was originally posted as a series – seven individual short stories that, together, form a devastating and emotionally resonant larger picture of two people wholly and completely in love with one another and yet unable (or unwilling) to ever acknowledge that fact out loud.

It begins with Lestrade, at Baker Street to check up on Sherlock following John and Mary's wedding, inadvertently discovering something he was never meant to know—that John and Sherlock had been involved in a sexual relationship prior to Sherlock's death.

This story manages to remain canon-compliant even while providing John and Sherlock with this history. We are given glimpses of their relationship over time through both John and Sherlock's eyes, as they each struggle with the memories of what they had, the pain of what they have lost, their denial and desperate attempts at self-preservation and deflection as they each try to push aside the past and move forward with an uncertain future.

There is a happy ending, eventually, that does not shrug off the weight of all that has happened between them.

But now, here in front of him, in lilac-hued technicolor, is proof that this was not a happy ending. John Watson now lives with his wife in suburbs, and Sherlock Holmes is alone in his empty flat on Baker Street analyzing soil samples and shooting up. And Greg is trying not to think about how Sherlock must have felt three weeks ago, standing beside his former lover and giving a speech at his wedding.

The stories jump back and forth in time but should be read in order, beginning with The Day Before.

pipmer1

Title: Sacre Coeur
Author: Mamaorion
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 127158 words (including appendices; actual story is around 95,000 words)
Rating: Mature
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Memories return. Old secrets are unearthed. Seven years of hidden love ignite. Who is behind the mind control, and how far back does it reach into Sherlock's past?

This multi-chapter patchwork fixit fic diverts from the path at season three and turns season 4 into a collage. This was the Johnlock I wanted. May it be healing for you, too.

Reccer's comments: This is marvelous storytelling, with twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It re-imagines Season 3 in a whole new light, and therefore Season 4 -- well. I don't want to give away too much. But the tale involves memory loss, secret organizations, and a backstory that includes Sherrinford as the third Holmes sibling (and what a delightful, if flawed, character he is.) Mary is a marvelous villain here, done in a way that I wish the show would have done. There are flashbacks to Sherlock's teenage years, where *everything* begins, and connects neatly with all the events in canon up to, and partially inclusive of, Series 3.

And of course, at the heart of it all is the love between Sherlock and John.

vulgarweed

Title: The Reality of Waking
Author:: Chancy_Lurking
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson/Mary Watson
Length: 12,459
Rating: Mature
Warnings: drug use (non-consensual), hallucinations, dissociation
Verse:Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: "Sherlock means to stand, but he feels like he’s outside himself, like he exists just slightly above his own body. He looks down and the floor is mud, then cobble stone, then it’s the roof he jumped from, then it’s the carpet in the Watson’s apartment."

(Sherlock gets trapped in a drug-induced fantasy that is scarily close to his real life.)

Reccer's comments: I’m having a hard time describing this lovely and haunting re-imagining of S4, because it’s so exquisitely constructed with its twisty reveals and lyrical prose style, that too much plot summary feels like a blunt instrument.

But in short: Sherlock is abducted and drugged, kept in a dream world for a month - and then John and Mary help him sort out what is real and what is not, and what real-world action he has to take. Sherlock is still stoned, dissociating, and vulnerable; Eurus is still manipulative and terrifying - and yet so many other things are so beautifully altered, finally fitting into place as a story about family, both biological and chosen. For all of her monstrously selfish motives, Eurus is ultimately a figure of pity here in her loneliness, and Sherlock breaks through all that in a more believable, ringing-true way than he did on the show, IMO. The author isn’t too worried about spoilers in tagging it Happy Ending, for which I’m glad. It’s a polyamorous Johnlockary happy ending, with Sherlock feeling content and fulfilled at last in the embrace of his found family, and that does my heart so very good.

swissmarg

Title: He Was a Friend of Mine
Author: SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Alma Watson
Length: 38,387 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Suicidal ideation, infidelity
Verse: BBC Sherlock/Brokeback Mountain crossover
Author's summary: Sherlock presses his nose into my hair and inhales. “Told myself the whole way here we wasn’t gonna get into this again,” he says low. His breath moves soft against my scalp, and his words rumble deep into my bones. It sounds like the open sky throwing wind against the boulders up on Baker, rattling the thin walls of the tent with the rushing force of the mountain. I hum. I don’t believe him for a second – steppin’ out of his gleaming white Ford back in Signal with his best shirt on and his curls all combed lookin’ up at me like he just took a breath after five years of holding it. I know because I did the same.

Reccer's comments: Stunned silence. What. This author. What. This author writes better than Annie Proulx. I just. ??

Okay. Trying to put together words coherently here. This is a fusion with Brokeback Mountain, and the author says at the beginning that they “borrowed heavily” from Proulx’s short story and the screenplay. So when I started reading the first paragraph I thought, yeah, okay, they’ve copied all this description stuff from Proulx to set the mood. I mean because look at this:

There’s a place up round near Bighorn where the little streams all crisscross each other like a handful of grass tossed down onto hot summer pavement. You can walk alongside the water in places where boots and hooves and moccasins and bare feet and whatever other goddamn footwear there is have been trampling for hundreds of years, and nobody pays you no congratulations for finding those paths.

Poetry, right? This author has obviously won numerous writing awards, right? But. Then there’s a link to Proulx’s story at the end and I checked and this is all this fic author. 100%. I went so far as to google those phrases because good goddamn. This fic is the only hit in the entire internet. The only hit for the handful of grass on hot summer pavement and no congratulations for finding the paths. And it just goes on like that for 38K words. Yes, there are a few lines of dialogue that are cribbed but that’s really about it as far as I can tell. So. Maybe they have won writing awards. Worth reading just for that. But then there is the story.

The plot largely follows that of the movie but there are a lot of deviations, some minor and some major, as Sherlock and John’s characters and back stories meld with those of Ennis and Jack. It was a tricky line to walk, I think, to bring Sherlock and John as we know them to the rural American west of the 1970s and 80s, including the speech patterns. But they are definitely there, with John’s anger and struggle between wanting outward normalcy while craving adventure, and Sherlock’s paramount loneliness and underappreciated brilliance seeking an appropriate outlet but getting sidetracked in violence and illicit substances.

For those who are afraid of how the movie ended, check out the “eventual happy ending” tag. ;) Eventual being the key word here because believe me, you will go through that box of tissues on the way. We are taken on a lifelong journey that hurts with every step as the two men drift between moments of happiness with each other. The characters may be fictional, but their emotions are made real through the telling, and that to me is the mark of a truly great story.

pipmer1.livejournal.com

Title: Albion and the Woodsman
Author: Glenmore
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 54,437 words
Rating: Not Rated (I would rate it Mature)
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Post Series 3. Sherlock and John are devastated after Mary Morstan makes her final moves. Sherlock relapses at the crack house, John walks around the world ...and a lot happens in between. Parentlock, in the good way.

Reccer's comments: If you are the type of reader who, like me, generally avoids first-person storytelling, then do yourself a favor and make an exception for this one. It's one of those rare fics that successfully paints Sherlock Holmes as a devoted single parent. The story is in turns funny, heartbreaking, and heartwarming.

It is told from Sherlock's POV, and begins post-series 3. It starts out after Sherlock has been shot for a second time by Mary Watson, an event that leads to her arrest and to John needing to disappear for awhile in order to get his head together. He leaves for a year-long walkabout around the world, leaving Sherlock devastated and returning to drugs. Of course he cleans himself up, only to be confronted several months later by a pregnant stranger claiming that Sherlock is the father.

We get to watch Sherlock fall immediately in love with his son Albion, and then take to single fatherhood like a duck takes to water. As Sherlock grows into his new role, he continues to pine for John and wait for his eventual return. The way Sherlock refers to John in his absence by different epithets such as 'eleven jumpers Watson' and 'Three pairs of brogues Watson' kept me delighted and laughing throughout.

We are introduced to several OC’s, not the least of which is Albion himself. His nanny gives soldier!John a run for his money (once he returns), and even the mother who abandoned him manages to turn her life around and gain at least a smidgen of our respect.

There are struggles and lessons to be learned, not the least of which that 'happily ever after' does not mean what all the fairy-tales claim. Reality is much more complicated, but all the more rewarding because of it.

( sneak preview )

verdant_fire

Title: All the Best and Brightest Creatures
Author: wordstrings
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 188426 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock sent Jim Moriarty to prison for killing Carl Powers at age ten. This is the story of the consequences.

Reccer's comments: Quite simply, one of the most beautiful stories I've ever had the privilege of reading, in any medium. The prose is gorgeous, the emotions are heart-stopping, and the love is transcendent. Sherlock's character arc is stupendously well-written, as are his alternate history with a terrifying Moriarty and his growing relationship with John, and the OCs and secondary characters are vibrant and fully fleshed-out. It's a living, breathing world of its own, and a pretty astonishing feat of storytelling. It's hard to properly praise this story without sounding hyperbolic, but if you've never read it, or have been waiting for it to be completed, now's your chance. It deserves every bit of its fandom fame.

swissmarg

Title: Point of Maximal Impulse
Author: Smirkdoctor
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Length: 15,517 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Today was the first standardized patient interaction, and John was nervous, and very nearly late. He knew it was silly, but the act of finally introducing himself as “Doctor Watson”, of laying hands on another living, breathing human aside from his learning partner for physical exam maneuvers...in a medical capacity...well, it felt huge. He took one last deep breath and rapped three times on the door of exam room 221-B, listening for acknowledgement from the patient within. “Oh, do come in,” drawled the richest baritone voice John had ever heard.

Reccer's comments: Anatomy lessons have never been put to better use. Most medical realism/kink fics I have seen are angsty and/or dark, but this is a fun romantic comedy of ophthalmoscopes, dissections, physical exams, dirty mnemonics, and more Latin terms for body parts than you can shake a stick at. A med school AU that doubles as a Six Thatchers pastiche chock full of canon references, flirting, and insane wish fulfillment.

As a side note, if you are easily grossed out, I would recommend downloading the fic to read rather than viewing it on-site, as a few of the embedded end-of-chapter images are anatomically graphic (a dissected human heart, the inside of an eyeball, and cutaway diagrams of veins and nerves).

swissmarg

Title: The Breaking Wheel
Author: J_Baillier
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Length: 93,259 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: His immune system is decimating his nervous system - a civil war raging inside of him. Is there a reaction he's supposed to be having to this news, now? Something normal: cry, scream, pound the wall? Shake his fist at the uncaring universe? John can't stop this. An uncomfortable bed at some hospital ward isn't going to stop this. They keep telling him that this will most likely pass, but no one is answering the most important question: how will he be able to endure the uncertainty and the long wait?

Reccer's comments: This is big time Sherlock whump, a brilliant sickfic that locks us inside Sherlock's head with him and his demons as his body slowly deteriorates, leaving him unable to move or speak. The medical realism in this is writ large, full of insider descriptions of medical procedures such as MRI scans, lumbar puncture, mechanical ventilation, and insertion of central lines. Basically, Sherlock is very, very sick. The meat of the story is twofold: John and Sherlock's relationship, and how Sherlock deals with being essentially reduced to nothing but a brain for weeks on end. In other words, it's full of juicy hurt/comfort, realizations, words left unspoken, flashbacks to Sherlock's childhood and various incisive incidents in his past. Oh, and Mycroft, this has a fantastic Mycroft.

I don't want to give away the ending, except to point out that there is no Major Character Death tag, and there is a sequel which will begin posting on December 1. Don't worry though, this ends in a good place. Also, about the rating: it's rated Mature although there is no smut and I actually think it could have gone with a Teen rating but there is some suicidal ideation and references to sex.

rachelindeed.livejournal.com

Title: Wait
Author: roseselavy
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 78,000 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: drug addiction, discussion of emotionally abusive past relationship
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Liberal arts AU. Sherlock Holmes is a reclusive literary writer in need of a flatmate after burning through his latest book advance, John Watson is midway through a PhD in art history.

Reccer's comments: This story is very dear to my heart. I am so happy to be able to recommend it here at last -- it was abandoned for several years and I honestly thought it would never be finished. But the author saw that it had a few readers who wanted to see an ending, and very kindly came back and wrote a beautiful conclusion for it.

The story starts out with a number of fairly familiar elements: intense mutual pining, hurt/comfort, and an evil ex (in this case from John's past, not Sherlock's). But for me, the internal narrative voices the author creates for John and Sherlock are so convincing that familiar story elements took on new life and reality. These are not quite the versions of Sherlock and John that we know from the series, but they are not as far removed as the story summary might imply. Sherlock still acts as a consulting detective on the side, and John still documents his work and shares his cases. But without the same history of war and depression and adrenaline addiction as BBC!canon, this John finds different ways to be a BAMF and draws clearer lines about what he will and won't stand for on the job. The communication between these characters throughout this story is difficult, but they work very hard at it and I find it compelling to see them work through their feelings and needs honestly.

The real heart of this story, especially once John and Sherlock declare themselves to each other after the first few chapters, is relationship negotiation. Sherlock is a recovering addict, not all that far into sobriety yet. His sexual history is, for him, inextricably and miserably entwined with using, and that area of his life so repulses him that he is not sure if he will ever be able to be with John in a way that satisfies them both. This fic takes the issue of sexual incompatibility seriously, it delves into the guilt that can dog people who love each other yet worry that they are respectively asking too much or offering too little. It does not rush to resolve these problems, but rather paints a 'one step forward, two steps back' pattern that honors the complexity of the characters and the situation.

The story also deals with the effect that Sherlock's professional life has on his sobriety, and in particular considers the issue of anonymity and the way that doxxing can do terrible damage to a person whose mental health relies on having the freedom to vanish into their writing. The story allows John and Sherlock to be flawed, to handle their relationship as well as their individual personal problems imperfectly, but their love for one another is unquestionably profound. I like that they acknowledge their mistakes, and get angry, and I like that they keep trying. In the end, they haven't worked through everything that needs to be addressed, but in the midst of their problems they are able to realize that they can actually be sure of each other's commitment and trust that the rest will come with time. So, to me, this is ultimately a very happy story. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

write-out.livejournal.com

Title: The Pillar upon Which England Rests
Author: DiscordantWords
Pairing: Sherlock/John, Gen
Length: 27038
Rating: Mature
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: They have all saved him, at one time or another, in different ways, these people Sherlock Holmes has come to call friends. But she was the first.

Reccer's comments: How to begin? She can still see him, so painfully young, pale in the Florida sun, with a beet red stripe of sunburn across the bridge of his nose. Frank had favored Hawaiian print shirts, had just about insisted on them for anyone who worked for him in any capacity, and hadn't Sherlock just looked thunderous in those garish prints? She wishes, not for the first time, that she had a photograph. But that's the thing about living. You don't always know which moments are the significant ones until they're long gone.

snarryfool's recent rec of a Mrs. Hudson-centric reminded me of this heart-wrenching story. The Fall has just happened, and in a bid to comfort a distraught John Watson (and herself), Mrs. Hudson tells the story of how she met Sherlock Holmes. The story moves flawlessly between the past and the present as Mrs. Hudson spins the tale of a young and terribly lonely Sherlock and how they ended up saving each other. Hello, new headcanon! This is an intense, emotional read, bittersweet and melancholy, with one of the best characterizations of Mrs. Hudson I've read.

This is tagged Sherlock/John, but there is no overt romance here, just Mrs. Hudson's observations of the two and their mutual pining. I left it tagged as such, to follow the author.

dioscureantwins.livejournal.com

Title: The Case of the Green Gown
Author:

splix
Pairing: Sherlock/John, John/Mary
Length: about 209,000 words
Rating: explicit
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, torture
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: ...Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone.
---Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

Reccer's comments: Wow,

splix has done it again! Enriched the Sherlock fandom with a marvellously clever story, literally hefty in almost every sense of the word.

Make sure you’ll have nothing important on for the next few days when you start reading this for you’ll be hooked and oblivious to the demands of reality. You’ll find yourself laughing and cheering, and grappling with the most horrendous angst, swearing and recovering from punches that go straight for the solar plexus and sobbing. Oh, there’s so much delicious bittersweet sobbing in this fic.

Then there’s the great characterisation throughout. All the well-known players completely IC there’s a whole array of fascinating OC’s. As usual everything is written in that exquisite language that’s this author’s special trademark.

Apart from an incredibly tightly plotted casefic that contains more than enough intrigue to fill at least two seasons of Sherlock this is a wonderfully crafted psychological study of the human condition and all those feelings that shape us into what we are: love, friendship, grief, greed, jealousy. Greatness and despicable flaws, both are shown in every character. And throughout it all both Holmes brothers suffer so nobly. After all, no one is better aware than they are that caring isn’t an advantage.

After the havoc Moftiss wreaked with S3 this fic helped me to recover my love for Sherlock the series, even long before Moftiss made it all better again with TAB. Everyone who has got huge problems with Mary should read this fic just to admire the nuanced approach to her personage. In this fic I often loathed her, despised her and really, really didn’t like her but throughout

splix managed to make me sympathise with her plight. After all, Sherlock returning from the dead wasn’t exactly what she had bargained for.

But what’s the fic about? That I’m not going to tell for I don’t want to spoil your fun. Just start reading like I did and be mesmerised and enchanted like I was. You won’t be disappointed.

Highly, highly recommended!

venusinthenight

Title: The Gift
Author:

fenm
Pairing: allusion to Sherlock/Alfredo
Length: 1830 words
Rating: PG
Warnings: references to drugs
Verse: Elementary
Author's summary: Joan and Sherlock celebrate Christmas.

Reccer's comments: Yes, I am reccing a Christmas-themed fic in June. ;)

It is so delightful, and Sherlock is at Peak Sherlock with regards to doing stuff behind Joan's back, only this time it isn't malevolent. But there is an ulterior motive all the same.

An excerpt behind the cut...

( Excerpt! )

dioscureantwins.livejournal.com

Title: Game Theory
Author: 7PercentSolution
Pairing: none
Length: approx. 246,800 words
Rating: Teenage
Warnings: attempted rape/non-con
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Set between The Great Game and The Scandal in Belgravia, both Sherlock and John have to deal with the collateral emotional damage that comes after Moriarty's pool-side revelation that their relationship was a weakness that could, and would, be exploited. Mycroft Holmes meddles, as usual, and it all goes to hell rather quickly.

Reccer's comments: You’ll need to accept the author’s clever arguments for her explanation for Sherlock’s often appalling behaviour but if you’re willing to accept that this series will have you in for hours of glorious reading.

The author’s take on the characters is flawless, her exploit of and explanations for the constant sibling warfare very convincing and the often gripping angst is relieved by bouts of welcome humour and wonderfully warm friendshippy feels. The dialogue is spot on.

Told from John’s POV the author manages to convey that constant sense of wonder and admiration that pervaded ASiP, TBB and TGG so gloriously. Meet Sherlock Holmes, marvel extraordinaire and weep for him. Even though he’ll scorn you for it.

Revealing anything of the plot would be a huge spoiler that would take away all your fun. You’ll just have to read this wonderful fic yourself to find out how clever it is. Really, the author could give Moftiss a run for their money.

theanglophile.livejournal.com

Title: Dr. Watson's Inner Monologue
Artist & Author: HarrietKaarre & Elina-elsu
Pairing: Holmes/Watson
Length: 24 pages
Rating: R (language, drug use, nudity)
Warnings: none
Verse: Canon
Author's summary:
Me and my sister's Sherlock Holmes fanart series: Dr. Watson's inner monologue.
Plot written by my dear sis. Art by me.

Reccer's comments:
Here is a comic series which forms a coherent narrative if read in order, though each strip can also be enjoyed individually. One thing to be aware of about this series is that it is absolutely hilarious, so you might want to read it in a location where loud laughter would not be a problem! Dr. Watson's Inner Monologue is based on the premise that both Watson and Holmes are longing for each other, but neither is aware of the other's feelings. Angst and hilarity ensues! Highlights include Holmes's drugged fever-dream of Watson in a bathing suit, among other delights. Lots of sexually-frustrated Watson!rage and sighing, gooey-eyed Holmes.

The drawings have an almost art nouveau feel to them, with their swirling, stylised flourishes and harmonious limited palettes, and the writing is just as effective as in any professional comic strip.

Here are a few choice strips from the collection:
Page 3 Page 5 Page 10 Page 19 Page 20

And you can read the whole series here!

verdant_fire

Title: History, Repeating Itself
Author: gyzym
Pairing: Sherlock/John, Mycroft/Irene
Length: 45489 words
Rating: Mature
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: John Watson is a med student, a war veteran, and, by and large, a fairly sensible person. He had every chance to run.

Reccer's comments: Perhaps fittingly for Leap Day, this fic is a bit of an odd one, but I've never forgotten it. Though it's tagged as RDJ-verse, I think it's really more of an original fic based on ACD's characters than it is any established verse, but it's fantastic writing no matter how you categorize it. This is a sort of Unilock, with John and Sherlock meeting as post-grads and moving in together while Sherlock does a lot of chemistry and gets in over his head, both professionally and romantically. Mycroft and Irene are also great in this, even though, again, they're not really the ACD characters but an original version of them. John's long-suffering affection and pining over his manic, stoner, genius Sherlock is really well-written, and Sherlock is both endearing and exasperating (and also instigates one of the best Johnlock clubbing scenes I've read). It's an engaging and unique take on them and their relationship.

verdant_fire

Title: Oxidation
Author: abbykate
Pairings: Sherlock/John, Sherlock & John, Sherlock/Victor, Moran/Moriarty, Greg/Molly
Length: 27969 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Graphic Depictions of Violence
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: as oil paintings dry, the process is not evaporation as there is no water in the paint to disappear; instead, the oils in the paint are oxidised causing them to harden over years in a process that never really stops.

Reccer's comments: This fic is heartbreaking, and stupendous. The premise is that Sherlock is a famous artist who's commissioned by Harry to paint a portrait of John, who in this AU didn't survive Afghanistan. But then Sherlock starts to see and hear John, who comes alive for him like a modern Galatea and sets a seemingly inevitable series of events in motion. This story has the best tortured artist Sherlock I've read, and the sense of color and emotion and desperation, and the tragedy of Sherlock seeing John but not being able to keep him, make this something haunting and unforgettable. I hurt not only for Sherlock, but for everyone who cared about him too, including Victor, and this story has one of the best versions of him I've read. (The supporting characters in this are excellent.) I liked, too, that the magical realism elements weren't over-explained, and that the author didn't pull punches emotionally. On that note, mind the warnings and bring a hanky; you'll need it, as this is pretty devastating, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. It's not an easy story, but it's a very good one, and well worth reading for the fantastic writing and the wrenching believability of this Sherlock. It's incredibly visceral, indelible work.

ficklepig.livejournal.com

Title: Flesh and Blood
Author: Indybaggins
Pairing: Mycroft/Sherlock
Length: 12909 words
Rating: Explicit
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Mycroft becomes a vampire, and Sherlock finds it intriguing, until it becomes all too real. Hunger, addiction, desperation... and giving in.

Reccer's comments: If I'm going to cop to reading an iddy distilled-essence-of-fanfiction incestuous vampire AU, I could cop to a lot worse than this little gem. Indybaggins gets right down to the deliciously physical nitty gritty of Mycroft being turned (for Queen and Country!) and explores the tension between addiction and denial, need and refusal, and the inextricable link between monstrous hunger and animal eroticism.

I'll just be over here dabbing my face with a cool washcloth.

swissmarg

Title: I Found
Music Title & Artist: I Found by Amber Run
Vidder: Eurippa See on Youtube / lifetenwaystillthursday on tumblr
Pairing or Character: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Verse: Sherlock BBC (TAB)
Link: Vidder's announcement on tumblr
Vidder's Summary: A short little fanvid to help with the emotions of having seen the Sherlock Special and also having to wait another year for another episode.

Reccer's Comments: I’ll be honest, I didn’t see The Abominable Bride as the gayest episode ever. I mean, yes, Moriarty and the gun, the moment in the greenhouse, but overall I didn’t feel like the whole point of the episode was John and Sherlock’s relationship. This video just might change my mind. It’s beautifully angsty and heartbreaking, depicting a yearning, lonely Holmes escaping what he believes to be unrequited love (or maybe just a love that’s impossible to consummate) through drugs. I especially like that this remains entirely within the Victorian era, and the final shot gave me shivers.

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A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

November 2018

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rachelindeed - Fic Rec: The Men Who Talked Between the Words
vulgarweed - Art Rec: Oh my well that’s certainly not cocaine... by coeykuhn
discordantwords - Fic Rec: In Between
pipmer1 - Fic Rec: Sacre Coeur
vulgarweed - Fic Rec: The Reality of Waking, by Chancy_Lurking
swissmarg - Fic Rec: He Was a Friend of Mine
pipmer1.livejournal.com - Fic Rec: Albion and the Woodsman
verdant_fire - fic rec: All the Best and Brightest Creatures
swissmarg - Fic Rec: Point of Maximal Impulse
swissmarg - Fic Rec: The Breaking Wheel
rachelindeed.livejournal.com - Fic Rec: Wait
write-out.livejournal.com - Fic Rec:
dioscureantwins.livejournal.com - Fic Rec: The Case of the Green Gown
venusinthenight - Fic Rec: The Gift
dioscureantwins.livejournal.com - Fic Rec: Game Theory
theanglophile.livejournal.com - Art Rec: Dr. Watson's Inner Monologue by HarrietKaarre & Elina-elsu
verdant_fire - fic rec: History, Repeating Itself
verdant_fire - fic rec: Oxidation
ficklepig.livejournal.com - Fic Rec: Flesh and Blood by Indybaggins
swissmarg - Vid Rec: I Found

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221B Recs

A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

Entries tagged with content: drugs

Fic Rec: The Men Who Talked Between the Words

Art Rec: Oh my well that’s certainly not cocaine... by coeykuhn

Fic Rec: In Between

Fic Rec: Sacre Coeur

Fic Rec: The Reality of Waking, by Chancy_Lurking

Fic Rec: He Was a Friend of Mine

Fic Rec: Albion and the Woodsman

fic rec: All the Best and Brightest Creatures

Fic Rec: Point of Maximal Impulse

Fic Rec: The Breaking Wheel

Fic Rec: Wait

Fic Rec:

Fic Rec: The Case of the Green Gown

Fic Rec: The Gift

Fic Rec: Game Theory

Art Rec: Dr. Watson's Inner Monologue by HarrietKaarre & Elina-elsu

fic rec: History, Repeating Itself

fic rec: Oxidation

Fic Rec: Flesh and Blood by Indybaggins

Vid Rec: I Found

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November 2018

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