221B Recs

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).

Title: [Sherlock Hound | 名探偵ホームズ] - Shut Up and Drive
Music Title & Artist: "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna
Vidder: sanguinity
Pairing or Character: Sherlock Hound/Watson
Verse: Sherlock Hound
Vidder's summary: Hound wants Watson to drive his car (if you know what I mean).
Link: Sherlock Hound Shut Up and Drive vid on tumblr

And here's an alternate link for download or streaming at AO3: Shut Up and Drive AO3 link

Reccer's Comments: The summer 2018 round of Holmestice recently concluded, and this delightful vid was a great highlight! Cheerfully and affectionately tongue-in-cheek, full of visual double entendres and energetic vehicular flirtations, this vid will charm your socks off. Funny, fast paced, seamlessly edited, adventurous and domestic, and genuinely warm-hearted on top of it all, this vid celebrates a colorful and charming version of Holmes and Watson's immortal partnership.

I was previously unfamiliar with the "Sherlock Hound" adaptation, but wikipedia informs me that it was a Japanese-Italian animated series that ran for one 26 episode season from 1984 to 1985. Several episodes were directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, and the steampunk sensibilities of this verse appear to great advantage in the vid!

Title: Maintenance and Repair
Author: patternofdefiance
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson; brief John Watson/OFC
Length: 106,000 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence/gore; amputation; body dysphoria; ableism
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say: Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain.

Reccer's comments: This wonderful fic was five years in the making, and I'm so excited to be able to share it here on this comm now that it is finally finished! Patternofdefiance is a terrific writer, and this story is full of rich characterization, internal struggle, complex emotional and interpersonal dynamics, utterly convincing world-building, and well-realized original characters. This is a science-fiction, dystopic AU, but it's set in the very near future and the social, political, and psychological elements are convincing because they're only a few degrees removed from those of the world today. In this slightly more technologically advanced future, it's become possible to repair previously incurable injuries by grafting sensitive but short-term technology into the bodies and brains of the wounded. These disabled persons, who appear close to cyborgs, then have to deal with the ableism of a society that regards them uneasily and a medical profession that considers them violently unstable. Most of the care they receive is limited to 'maintenance and repair,' with the goal of preparing them for death once their augmentations fail - usually within two years - and ensuring they take no one else with them in their slow descent.

John enters the story as one of these disabled veterans, struggling in the aftermath of invasive procedures that were undertaken without his consent and which have transformed his body and his life in ways he finds hard to accept. It is in this state that he meets Sherlock and becomes his flatmate, friend, and colleague. Gradually they are both drawn into a series of mysteries surrounding other 'augmented' people, and they begin to realize that the information about John's condition peddled by the medical and political establishments may not be trustworthy.

This story has it all: insightful social commentary, an intelligent cast of characters -- John's ex, Mona, is one of the best OFCs I've encountered in the fandom -- and a slow-burn romance between Sherlock and John that, though fraught with miscommunication, manages to be both passionate and analytical, and above all superlatively in character.

Title: Nothing You Can See That Isn't Shown
Author: Rhuia
Pairing: Sherlock/John, has background Mycroft/Lestrade
Length: 10,500 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: one of the cases they work on involves the suicide of an OC and discussion of suicidal ideation
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock has something to prove to John in the romance department.

Reccer's comments: Happy almost-Valentine's Day! This fic is the first one that came to my mind when thinking about this holiday. I love it when Sherlock fails in every way at 'traditional' romance but nevertheless succeeds in being the person that John actually needs. John spends much of the fic in a state of affectionate irritation, but the generally light tone of the story is occasionally pierced through with real flashes of pain, of caring, and of passion. I particularly enjoy the sly note that the author lends to Sherlock's ostensibly 'for science!' approach to courting John. The trope-y romantic mishaps are really entertaining, but beneath all that the story has genuine insight and heart. My favorite scene is the one where they discuss what John's funeral would have been like, and how many romances can you say that about?