You have entered the head office of fic author J. Baillier, cheese grater of souls, sea-hag, mother of Rangers, Vanguard Ex-Spectre, crispy menace, digger of pits of dark despondency, demented demon angst mechanic, Founding Member of The Soul-Sucking Wenches est. 2019, the one with zero chill, scholar of the Rusty Spoon School of Angst, John Watson's pet trash possum, creator of violin!grunge!lock and a ruiner of many formerly innocent words. Act accordingly.
"Pure reason toppled by sheer melodrama. Your life in a nutshell." — Mycroft Holmes (and he must’ve been talking about me)
– A starter pack of my stories for new readers
– A guide to all my Sherlock stories
– A rec list of all my fave Sherlock stories
I am not currently offering beta services.
How to contact me: leave an ask, use the PMs or find my email address on my AO3 profile page. I adore AO3 comments on both older and newer stories of mine, so don’t hesitate to drop a line or two in a story’s comment box.
I love it when I'm rereading a story and find the little hints of foreshadowing you left behind! Every time, I'm like, "Oh, ho, ho! I would have caught that earlier if I had seen the bigger picture! And now I do!!! Delightful!" I love being able to read the same story twice and have two different experiences. I like it when a story has so many layers that it keeps you entertained for a long time as you discover all its secrets.
Sometimes it's by accident that I've put in this that will then later slot nicely into place but sometimes, sometimes it's be being deliberately clever LOL
I am no good at writing casefic (thankfully I've been able to co-author those kinds of fics with 7-percentsolution who's the master of it) but I did have fun constructing the background mysteries of Drift United.
I'm bored and sending asks to people I follow, but I can't come up with anything interesting to ask. So here's a simple one: What's your favourite Queen song? Everyone has at least one, right? (and yes, I'm asking everyone the same question, I'm REALLY coming up with nothing, but I still want to do it)
So. Since I keep a list of what I´ve read anyway (there´s always a list), I will rec all the fics I´ve wholly enjoyed on a monthly basis. Old and new, canon or AU, big or small authors, long or short but nearly always Johnlock (-ish).
Explosion by Calais_Reno @calaisreno
John always wrecks my calculations. He is, perhaps, incalculable.
The first ever fic that has been gifted to me ❤️🙏 A deeper insight into one of calaisreno‘s drabbles.
Drift United by J_Baillier @jbaillier
Trust is a fragile thing, especially when both your life and the fate of the Earth depend on it.
The long-awaited sequel to the epic AU Drift Compatible. Rangers Sherlock and John not only have to fight Kaiju but a much more evil villainy while also working out their relationship issues.
London Orbital by merripestin
"I'm driving first," Sally said. "Guv can take over after me. If we're all still mad enough to be at this after that, John can drive third shift. Then the freak, if we decide we can risk it."
"John doesn't drive," said Sherlock.
"Then what's John along for?" Sally protested. Which Greg reckoned had to be just Sally trying to wind Sherlock up. She knew better. All night in a car with Sherlock was bad enough. All night driving round and round the M25 looking for a killer, with Sherlock deprived of John Watson, sounded like a new circle of hell.
A classic, go read!
Beautiful Deception by Nymeria578
John Watson lives a life he despises. After returning injured from Afghanistan, he survives on his small pension fund – a broken man in a society where broken is considered to be a weakness. His circumstances change when his father dies in a car crash and he inherits a wealth worth several million pounds. Even though he had run from his father’s life John takes over his company, facing the ghosts of his past, yet he stays broken…
… until the day he met Sherlock, a prostitute, who holds up a mirror to society’s negative image, confronting John once again with a truth he had fled over and over again.
Much more than it says on the tin!
Artisan of Fortune by shinychimera/Yeomanrand
Twenty-year-old Sherlock Holmes may have many reasons for living rough on the streets of London, but if he thought it would expose him to a less predictable variety of humankind, he had been sorely disappointed — until the day he encounters charming American visitor Neal Caffrey. Unravelling why Neal's sterling mannerisms don't quite mesh with his counterfeit style might be even more exhilarating for Sherlock than combining their talents to escape a spot of international trouble. The two young men teach each other many things during their adventure — including subtle lessons that take some time to sink in.
I think there's actually an additional level of betrayal here.
When I was a teenager and learning about critiquing, one of the things I was explicitly taught was that you don't share other people's manuscripts without permission, full stop. If you're critiquing someone's story, you don't show that draft to your partner, or your friend, or anyone, no matter how good or how bad or how funny or how weird or how whatever you think it is. You have been extended a degree of trust, but that does not come with the right to extend that trust to someone else on the author's behalf.
So even before you get to don't feed other people's work into AI, there's the very basic and technology-agnostic social contract of if you are critiquing someone else's draft, the permission to read it only extends to you and the feedback you provide should only be coming from you. Feeding it into AI is adding insult to injury, but even if you took the AI out of it and substituted another human reader it would still be Super Not Okay.
hyperfixation please stay with me long enough to complete the project. hyperfixation do not fade. hyperfixation finish what you started for the love of god
“He was angry.” — Useless.
“He clenched his fists.” — Overused.
“He yelled.” — Meh.
Anger is not just being a loud, raging a*s. It's a physical sensation. It hijacks your body first. It's tight, it's sharp, and it overheats, and if left unattended to, it boils uncontrollably. One or two generic sensory cues will not capture that feeling.
Here’s how to actually show it. Reblog if you want more of these.
THE BODY LANGUAGE OF ANGER!!!!
Voice:
• Volume rises
• Or drops dangerously low
• Short, clipped words
• Emphasis on specific words
• Sarcasm
• Harsh breaths (through clenched teeth)
• Speech will: speed up when heated, slow when restrained
• Forced or humorless laughs
• Voice cracks under pressure/emotion
• Long pauses
“I said—don’t touch it.”
“Wow. No. That’s not what I meant.”
“Say that again.”
“You think this is funny?”
Tip: Em dashes are great for sudden—violent speech. For my Dell laptop homies, that's "Ctrl" + "-" + Windows Key.
Eyes:
• Hard, unblinking stare
• Narrowed eyes
• Brows drawn down and together
• Focus locks onto target; tunnel vision
• Rapid darting when agitated
• Eye contact becomes confrontational or avoided entirely
• Whites of eyes show more clearly
• Blinking decreases
• Or spikes when overwhelmed
Mouth & Jaw:
• Jaw clenched tight
• Teeth grind or press together
• Lips thin into a line
• Mouth pulls tight on one side
• Sneers, scowls, grimaces
• Lips peel back slightly when provoked
• Swallowing hard to keep words in
• Tongue presses against teeth
Hands:
• Fists clench, unclench, clench again
• Fingers dig into palms
• Knuckles whiten
• Hands shake subtly
• Gripping objects too tightly (cups, fabric, steering wheel)
• Sudden, sharp gestures
• Hands slam flat on surfaces
• Cracking knuckles, flexing fingers repeatedly
Shoulders & Posture:
• Shoulders rise and lock
• Neck stiffens
• Body leans forward aggressively
• Chest tight, guarded
• Pacing short, fast steps
• Squared stance (claiming space)
• Head tilts forward, chin down
• Spine rigid, coiled
Breathing:
• Breaths shallow and fast
• Flaring nostrils
• Sharp inhales, explosive exhales
• Breath held too long between words
• Audible breathing during silence
• Huffed breaths through the nose
INTERNAL STUFF (these are important too)
• Heat rising in face, neck, ears
• Pulse thudding in temples
• Skin prickling or buzzing
• Tunnel hearing
• Thoughts loop or sharpen obsessively
• Urge to do something—anything
• Body feels too big or too tight
• Words feel dangerous in the mouth
THE AFTERMATH OF ANGER
• Hands ache afterward
• Jaw soreness or headache
• Sudden exhaustion
• Guilt or justification (or both)
• Avoidance or over-assertiveness
• Replay of the moment
• Short temper lingers
• Environment disrupted (objects moved, doors slammed)
• Heavy silence
Not all anger is explosive. Some characters restrain it, others let it... well, explode.
Take what I've shown you, now give it a spin that's unique to your character. That's how you'll write something memorable.
This post was proudly written without generative AI. If you liked my post, a small Ko-fi tip would mean a lot. It helps me post consistently.
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Guess who’s just landed at Heathrow on my way to visit @7-percent? 😎 It’s been way too long since I was last in the UK and there was a lot of new stuff at the airport: e-gates that take EU passports, new bus arrangements and sundry. Trains are still narrower than in many other European countries though 🤣🤣🤣
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
How to recognize this kind of spam:
The comments come from guests, not logged-in users.
The comments may start with praise for you and your writing, trying to lull you into a false sense of security. Or they may claim that you are a bad writer, trying to make you too upset to realize that the comments are fake.
The comments may accuse you or another user of promoting discriminatory beliefs, deceiving fans, or similar behaviors that might cause other people to shun or harass the accused individual. They may claim that they checked social media to find that the accused user is "brazenly sharing hateful content" or "bragging about using AI".
The comments are often pleading or angry, asking you to "stop lying to your readers", "don't remove the AI prompts from your work", or suggesting that you "consider adding more diverse characters" to "repair the trust you've lost with your audience".
So far, these comments have all been from guests. Our advice is to flag them as spam to better filter them out.
To help train our automated spam-checker to block similar guest comments in the future:
If the comment is on your own work:
Go directly to the comment on your work, either by clicking on the link in your email or in your AO3 inbox.
Click on the "Spam" button to mark the guest comment as spam and remove it from your work.
Note: The "Spam" button only appears when viewing a guest comment directly on your work. This is because the AO3 comment inbox is merely a copy of the work's comments – deleting a comment from your AO3 inbox does not delete the comment from the work itself.
If you see comments like these on someone else's work:
Feel free to let the creator know the comment is from a bot, and that they should mark it as spam.
You can also report the comments as botspam via the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.
If you are reporting multiple guest comments, please submit only one report, and include all comment links in your report description. (You can get the direct link to any comment by clicking the "Thread" button on the comment, and then copying the URL of that page.)
As of December 2025, bots have also left guest comments harassing users by:
threatening to report you/your fic to the authorities or your employers
alleging security concerns like your email being compromised or spyware on your computer
claiming that they know your address and are going to visit you at your house
saying that you will die alone and unemployed over the holidays
What these bots claim is not true. These accusations do not mean your work will be deleted or that your accounts are insecure. We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples also do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
As of January 2026, bots impersonating legitimate users have increasingly left guest comments harassing other users by:
claiming that they know where you live
alleging to have seen you in person
threatening to meet you face-to-face
saying that they posted your personal information (name, address, etc) online
What these bots claim is not true. These comments are likely intended to alarm you into replying.We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
I've been seeing a lot of posts asking how old people are and still using tumblr, or saying things like "Reblog if you are over 20 and still read fanfic."
Look. I have a few things to say about this.
I am massively confused about this "age restriction" issue. Just because I started liking something as a teenager or whatever, does that mean I can't find meaning in it as an adult. Or as a middle aged woman going through perimenopause.
I don't find myself cringe. I make silly nonsense photoshops of Sherlock and his friends wearing silly hats or whatever amuses me at the time. I don't judge myself about it. I just do it because it is fun. I'm on tumblr because it is fun.
When I was a teenager, I loved the X-files. I was in an email group with some girls I knew from a Yahoo group. My best friend and I used to write stories with how we were zapped into episodes of the X-files and how we'd help solve the problem or case or write our own adventures or whatever. The quality of writing was that of fourteen year olds being silly. But it was fun at the time, and I don't judge the fact that it was.
And I'm sure that could be called Cringe. Fine. Go for it.
But why bother labelling it that way? Since the judgement is on yourself, your fun, and for some reason, your age group's appropriateness of having that fun. And this isn't even saying there's a moral purity about it (different topic don't get me started), it is just the fact that you are engaging in the fun at all?
It is so ridiculous that people think I can't do what I want at any age to either express myself, or keep myself entertained or do as a hobby or anything. People being surprised that I'm "still" making these photoshop pics at 42. Dude, I've been making stuff like this since I was 12. Not gonna stop me now, just because you think I should have grown out of it by now.
Honestly, I feel sorry for everyone in this argument.
Honestly, I’m 23, and I started reading fanfic at about 13 when I first watched Sherlock for the first time. As I got older, I started branching out more; not just in fandoms, but in fandom spaces too. I started using Instagram, and began to roleplay on there, I started to write fics instead of just reading them. It all happened over the span of a decade, but I’d always kept it very much to myself, and been very picky about who I shared any degree of my interest in fandom spaces. I thought it was weird as a teenager, I should’ve been out with friends not home reading about fictional characters, and as I got older I believed the lie that it was for teens, so I stopped for a couple of years.
That was, until, I met my current boss - also 23 - earlier this year, and I discovered that he shared a lot of the same interests I did, and knew what AO3 was, and Tumblr, and was happy to talk openly about his latest obsessions. It made me realise that it actually was okay to be a bit nerdy, and to enjoy the things that make me happy - because that’s just it: they make ME happy, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else might think about it.
I will continue to read, write, draw, discuss, and consume an unholy amount of fandom content so long as it makes me happy, no matter what age I am! And I hope everyone else does too!!
I like this comment because it highlights a few internalized thoughts:
Judgment: “Oh shit, they’re thinking something bad about me.”
Shame: “Yeah… they’re right. I am bad.”
Guilt: “There’s a normal way to be, and I should be doing that.”
But passion is passion. Not everyone in your life will share your fandom or interests (or your favourite colour, or preferred cheese), and that’s fine. Online you can find people who match your level. Offline, in the humanspace, it isn't as easy to find and that’s where the urge to hide what we love can creep in, especially with fandoms or niche interests.
But that goes for everything. Some people don’t like peas. Cool. Eat what you like and I’ll eat what I like.
So let’s take a break and tell our brains to lay off the guilt, shame, judgment, and bullshit.
filter on ao3 that only shows fic by women in their 40s who has a degree and works an office job and probably leaves authors notes that are like “sorry for the wait on the chapter guys! i had to give birth to my third kid😂”
