A Force Of Nature

SHERLOCK & FREDDIE MERCURY DANCE BALLET AT HOGWARTS-SAM & DEAN TEACH DARK ARTS

[yuzusorbet]

Yuzu Days (Jan2016): Washing the dishes is my feeling of gratitude

In Canada, besides going to and fro between home and rink, I hardly go out. Every day, I go for practice with my mother and when it is over, we go to the supermarket to buy groceries and then we return home…. our days are like that. Toronto is a city with many Asians, so it is easy to get the ingredients and seasoning for Japanese food, and mother is able to make Japanese food well. Of course, she cannot do it exactly the same as in Japan, but she works with the ingredients that she can get and reproduces the taste of the Hanyu home.  In an environment that I am not used to, I am grateful that I can have food with the taste of home and I feel relief.

In Sendai, clearing up after meals was shared by all 4 of us.  In Canada, it’s just mother and me living together.  From cooking to doing the laundry and cleaning, most of the housework is done by mother.  So, at the very least, I thought I should wash the dishes;  everyday I am responsible for clearing up after meals.  From long ago, I held a bottle of ‘Joy’ and helped with washing the dishes while watching and learning from my sister who loves cleanliness.  Even now, I think the person who is very good at washing dishes is me.

There are words like “itadakimasu” and “gochisousama”, right? (t/n. Japanese words said before and after a meal)  I feel that washing the dishes is like that, an action that represents the feeling of thankfulness to the person who made the meal.  Even though I am thinking, “Thank you again for today,” it’s hard to say the words face-to-face.  So washing the dishes is a form of gratitude to my mother.  I want to continue doing that.     

Translated by me;  original article: myrepi.com (P&G)

[turduckenlady]

Yuzuru is my new addiction, I CANNOT stop watching him… And it’s fascinating to learn about a different culture that’s always been alien to me.🙏

[khorazir]

The finished ink and watercolour art inspired by the brilliant Nothing Gold Can Stay by @raina-at

[ohlooktheresabee]

New artwork for 'To Be Human'

The wonderful artist @procoffeinating made these two beautiful pieces of art for my fic, 'To Be Human'.

They are just gorgeous, I can't thank you enough!

If you would like to read the fic that goes with these, the link is here:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[discordantwords]

Golden Ticket

Years after an odd, gruesome, and highly publicised breakdown ruined his career, a disgraced candymaker has abruptly reopened his factory. His motives are shrouded in mystery, something that only serves to inflame the curious public. To celebrate his triumphant return, he launches a contest: five golden tickets hidden at random in chocolate bars distributed throughout London. The lucky recipients of those tickets are promised an experience they will never forget.

And so, on one cold morning in January, five winners gather to claim their prize. John Watson is among them.

_____

Chapter 1 is now posted!

Here it is at last, the not-so-cracky crackfic that has been haunting me for the majority of the last decade. It should end up being around 10 chapters judging by my outline, but that may change.

[swissmissficrecs]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Word count: 91,822 Chapters: 20/20 Fandom: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mrs. Hudson (Sherlock Holmes), Molly Hooper, Greg Lestrade, Rosamund Mary “Rosie” Watson, Mary Morstan, Harry Watson, Ella Thompson, Victor Trevor (Child/Platonic), Mycroft Holmes, Sally Donovan Additional Tags: complex PTSD, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Abuse, Therapy, Psychological Trauma, Grief/Mourning, Internalized Homophobia, Nightmares, Alcohol Withdrawal, S4 Compliant up to TLD, TFP Does Not Exist, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear of Being a Bad Parent, inability to cope, Depression, Anxiety, Everyone is Broken But Trying Their Best, Sharing a Bed, Forehead Kisses, Platonic Cuddling, Takes Place About 2 Years Post-TLD, John is a Mess, Emotional Healing, Co-Therapy, Love Confessions, Intimacy, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Eventual Sexual Negotiation, Suicidal Ideation Mention, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Masturbation, Sexual Self-Exploration, Conflicted Feelings about Sex, Sexually inexperienced Sherlock, Implied/Referenced Sexual Abuse, Minor Character Death, Sexting, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Rimming, First Time Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Blow Jobs Summary:

“I love you.”

Sherlock sees the words hit John with almost physical force. He reels back a little, jaw twitching and eyes filling.

“I love you,” he repeats, a little softer, a little more gentle, as earnest as he possibly can. Because they’ve been teetering on the brink of this thing for years, and it had become painfully obvious over the last few months that they were at a tipping point. This had to happen. Now it has. Now they can see where they end up.

The tears in John’s eyes spill over, and he wipes at them angrily. “Do you even know what that means?”

======

Rec: Contrary to what you might think, that’s not the climactic confession which the whole fic leads up to; it’s the first scene. And it just gets more fraught and intense from there. In fact, the entire fic is a glorious, roiling bath of emotional upheaval, a high-tension push and pull of approach and retreat as both men desperately fight to protect both themselves and each other, which might just be an impossible undertaking.

Set after TLD but ignoring TFP, the fic focuses on exploring the roots and causes of John’s violent tendencies and to a somewhat lesser extent Sherlock’s own less than healthy attitudes regarding himself. What I thought was a refreshing approach was that here, John and Sherlock have little problem owning up to how they feel and expressing emotional intimacy; it’s the physical side of things that turns out to be problematic, but again not because of Sherlock’s (probable) demisexuality. There’s lots of juicy talk therapy with Ella as well as self-prescribed acclimatization sessions where they try to figure out how to negotiate, navigate, and become comfortable with ways to express love for each other in mutually pleasurable ways. And yes, while sex is part of it, it’s also just about touch and comfort and embracing vulnerability, and the whole thing is awash in gorgeous, feel-good emotional hurt/comfort.

There’s also a neatly done case (based on ACD’s PRIO) in the midst of things, which drags up more from Sherlock’s past, and some co-parenting that is used to good character-developing effect as well as to further cement their bond and life together. The whole thing is just an excellent read and one of the best I’ve seen at finding some form of healing and closure from the TLD morgue scene.

Note that some potentially sensitive issues are discussed, including domestic abuse and child sexual abuse (the latter not involving any of the main characters).

[swissmissficrecs]

zebraschaf commented:

This recommendation sounds wonderful. I tried the link, it says on AOOO „this work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon“. Could you kindly advise how to access the fic? Many thanks 🙏

The author deleted/hid their fics under this pseud in 2020, and the rest of them as of yesterday (31 Dec 2024).

[jbaillier]

Nooooooo many of theirs were my absolute favourites!

Has anyone got copies of Better Late Than Never, Just To Hold You Close and Kintsukuroi they could pass along to me? Please? Pretty please?

[jbaillier]

Update: I have now been assisted with the acquisition of these wonderful fics so thank you to all who offered — this is a wonderful fandom once again!

[jinglebellfic]

Sooooo I might have just drawn a pretend cover for my own fanfiction as a relaxing exercise after work (I’m an illustrator IRL). This is possibly the height of geekery. Sherlock is absurdly pretty in this AU. Anyways, I hope everyone continues to imagine undine Sherlock however they like, this is just my take on my own merlock design. ~boogies~

[jinglebellfic]

I felt like sketching undine Sherlock from my fic for llarian-kam, as a thank you for tipping me and for generally being a fantastic reader… <3 Sorry I don’t have time to do something fancier. Speaking of art, here’s John from Riptide Lover, and a cover painting I did. (And other folks’ art can be found here.)

This sketch is now ornamenting Chapter 8, when the boys are on the isle of bone: 

John stared at the undine. He looked back at the coffin. Then back to Sherlock, who had pillowed his chin on his palms and was regarding him in silence. He cut quite a picture there on the white sand of the tiny islet, his tail a black inkspill and the plumed fins sprouting from it as bright as new linen.

[thenorwoodbuilder]

HEADCANON (Part 3): What’s your opinion about Sherlock’s ‘danger nights’? Some more musing.

(See this post for Part 1 and this one for Part 2)

I’ll post here some more musing about Sherlock’s issues with drugs which have been stimulated by the interesting comments of threebeerproblem (thanks!) and which may be of some interest also for other people who want to reflect on this topic.

Firstly, a “technical” clarification: Sherlock could have autonomously synthesized amphetamines, but not heroin or cocaine. Heroin and cocaine are both derivatives of vegetal alkaloids (respectively opium and coca), whose purchase and possession is licit only for pharmaceutical industries: Sherlock couldn’t have legally acquired the basic substances, and therefore could never have synthesized these drugs. Instead, he, being a good chemist, could easily have manufactured any synthetic drug, which is made of chemical bases that can be legally purchased by anyone: so he could easily have synthesized amphetamines (or LSD, or ecstasy, etc.: but I can’t see him involved with purely “recreational” drugs).

Second clarification: Mycroft’s (and John’s) fear that Sherlock could turn to drugs in order to cope with the emotional turmoil caused by Irene’s death was probably inspired by a similar occurrence (Holmes’ reaction to Gabrielle Valadon’s death) in Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, which the Mofftiss have repeatedly said they consider “canonical”. Besides, even in ACD’s Canon, Holmes happens to turn to drug in order to cope with an upsetting situation, i.e. Watson announcing him his intention to leave him in order to marry Mary Morstan (see the end of The Sign of Four). So, that our modern Sherlock might be tempted to turn to drugs not only out of boredom, but also out of an emotional distress, doesn’t appear to me out of character at all. Besides, consider that turning to drugs is quite an anomalous way to cope with boredom, too: clever people who get easily bored, but who don’t have any particular psychological problem, generally cope with boredom by throwing themselves into a thousand different occupations, hobbies, etc. Only a person who fears to be alone with himself for some reason – typically some kind of psychological trauma or problem – a person who don’t want to REFLECT (even if he or she could be eager to THINK), feels the need to turn to drugs when bored.

[thenorwoodbuilder]

On Ms. Mary Morstan

Hallo dear! As I’ve promised some days ago, here I am, addressing the very interesting topic of Ms. Mary Morstan.

This time we’ll play mainly with the Canon (and particulalry with SIGN), so let’s start with Doyle’s (Watson’s!) introduction of this character:

Keep reading

[thenorwoodbuilder]

APOCRYPHAL OF THE WEEK

The book I’m going to review is not, strictly speaking, an apocryphal, because it’s conceived as a fictitious biography of Sherlock Holmes, and not as a novel or set of short stories. It is William S. Baring-Gould, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. A Life of the World’s First Consulting Detective, 1962.

Anyway, it has been so influential upon almost all following apocryphal writers (as well as cinema or TV writers), that it would be a serious neglect not to discuss it in this section.

The book is very complete and multifarious: it deals with Sherlock Holmes’ family, childhood, university education, teatrical training and stage performances (yes, you read correctly), and most relevant cases. The author advances his own hypotheses on many debated questions, such as the exact number of Watson’s marriages, Holmes’ voyages and adventures during the three “lost years” of voluntary exile while hiding himself from Moriarty’s minions, and his years of retirement in the Sussex Downs.

It’s certainly a most interesting reading, and no true holmesian could really lack it in his or her library. Nonetheless, it’s a quite cold book, full of details which never give any true color to the characters, who remain a little dessicated, lifeless - it’s more pedantic than enlightening, more committed than loving, if you understand what I mean…   

So, the overall evaluation, according to me, is of a pretty decent, READABLE book, which every true holmesian should have a look at, but not necessarily love.

On a side note, Baring-Gould was also the curator of a wonderful complete, illustrated and annotated edition of the Canon, which, as far as I know, is still reprinted on a regular basis, and which I strongly recommend to all appassionate Sherlock Holmes readers: William S. Baring-Gould, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, first published in 1967.

[thenorwoodbuilder]

Ok, so I had my try at it…

[thenorwoodbuilder]

So, after having tried my hand at a timeline of the BBC Sherlock series, I’ve recently put myself at a much more complicate and ambitious task - that is, a chronology of the original ACD’s Canon.

Of course, any attempt at such an enterprise is an hazard, as we know how sloppy Doyle could be with dates and other chronological details…

And this is, naturally, only my PERSONAL timeline: I intentionally avoided to go back to my Baring-Gould or other chronologies, compiled by other people, so as not being influenced.

Some brief clarifications, before I leave this post open to asks and replies:

I found myself forced to anticipate what I thought to be Sherlock Holmes’ birthdate: I noticed that, in GLOR, it’s said that the Gloria Scott sunk in 1855, and thus Victor Trevor could hardly be born before the end of 1957; but Holmes and Trevor were fellow students at college, so Holmes must be born in 1857, too. This, however, would also be congruent with what Watson tells us in VEIL about the duration of Holmes’ career and of their active cooperation.

I inserted a specific note about the controversial question of the date and duration of Watson’s first marriage. Here we have TWO thorny issues to handle: 1) From SIGN it would seem that Watson and Mary Morstan got engaged and then married in 1888, but from many hints in other stories (mainly NOBL, SCAN and FIVE) it appears more likely that all the events portrayed in SIGN - thus including Watson’s engagement and, possibly, his marriage - actually happened one year before, in 1887; if this were true, many of the cases I placed in 1889 could instead have occurred in 1888. 2) Through all the years 1889 and 1890 Watson appears alternatively to live with his wife and be in practice, and to live in Baker Street with Holmes; this is the main reason why some scholars have hypotesized that Watson’s marriage with Mary Morstan only lasted some few months, and Watson then married ANOTHER woman before 1891; I, however, cannot agree with this theory, as the periods of lodge-sharing and those of matrimonial life appear completely intermingled between 1889 and 1890: my take on it is that Mary’s health deteriorated quite soon after her marriage and she was frequently absent, to a sanatorium, or an asylum, or on trips in more salubrious places than London; another possibility (which I’ve already stated), which is linked to the fact that Holmes and Watson, in VALL, appear aware of the existance and crimes of Moriarty much before 1891, is that Watson actually kept Mary away most of the time during the years in which Holmes and him investigated Moriarty’s organization, in order to keep her safe from possible threats.

And now I’ll leave this open for comments and further speculation on your part.

Cheers!

[?]

[turduckenlady]

What a TREASURE TROVE of background sleuthing!

[thenorwoodbuilder]

So, how many siblings had canonical Sherlock Holmes?

The question is one of the most debated amongst holmesians (well, I’ve still to find a single question which has not been much debated among holesians, sooner or later… we are a debating lot). It arises from some canonical passages which have arisen the suspect that Sherlock and Mycroft could even have had other siblings, either still alive or dead at the time in which the original stories are settled.

Keep reading

[thenorwoodbuilder]

On Sherlock Holmes' health

Hallo dear!

First of all, many MANY apologies for the delay in answering! As soon as I came back from holidays, I found myself in a sort of perfect storm of work (which still lasts…), and your very interesting question was not of the kind I could briefly answer over a cup of tea at breakfast, so… But here I am, eventually, and happy for this occasion to ramble a little about the topic of canonical Sherlock Holmes’ health.

(But please do remember that I’m NOT a doctor - only a fanatic devoted scholar of the Canon…)

Keep reading

[sherlockbbcgifs]

[turduckenlady]

Unshaven, slightly unkempt “Lying Detective” Sherlock looked ruggedly hot.

[jbaillier]

This collection of random ramblings deals with chapters five and six.

Robert McFarlane, as quoted in chapter 6, is a British author whose works often deal with mountains and wilderness.

Walter Bonatti, quoted in chapter 5, was an Italian mountain climber. He was the first to summit Gasherbrum IV, and the first to solo summit Matterhorn’s North face in the winter. Later on, he became a successful reporter and explorer. The Piolet D’Or award for lifetime achievements carries Bonatti’s name. 

We’ve got some new tags! And the rating’s gone up, too. The reason for this is a birthday present I got from 7PercentSolution—six oneshot fics, five of which take place in my various AUs. Summit Fever was one of them, and as it turns out, that short fic is the perfect epilogue to this story. So, the tagging needed to reflect that. Deduce from that what you may *grin*.

John’s working relationship with his Sherpas is respectful and amicable, but tensions have risen in recent years between Sherpas and Westerners.

A few readers have said that Mince reminds them of a certain infinitely optimistic character in Cabin Pressure. They’re not wrong, though Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Scott Fischer in the film “Everest” probably had the biggest influence on our Kiwi. Fischer in the film is an excellent climber, a very zen dude, a jovial and friendly figure who makes others feel at ease. Mince circumvents office tension by being himself, and being everyone’s friend but clearly, John values his skills and thinks he does his duties reliably. Here’s Jake Gyllenhaal talking about depicting Scott Fischer.

A very good question was posed in the comments section: how do climbers get down from the summit? Do they use the same route, and won’t that take even more energy? Looking at the statistics of deaths on Everest you can see that going down is actually a very dangerous undertaking; climbers are tired, and during descent it’s easy to trip and fall. So yes, they must negotiate the same route down, and it’s risky business, especially in the dark. That’s why summit bids for Everest start at night and end during the day; ascending in the dark is safer than descending.

An interesting and heartbreaking dilemma is this: should a mountaineer abandon their climbing pursuits when they start a family? When British climber Alison Hargreaves died on K2, this debate sparked to life. For a single man, this problem doesn’t exist, and when both members of a couple climb, it’s less of a problem, but when the other doesn’t share such a dangerous hobby, things can get tense. A book by Texan pathologist Beck Weathers who narrowly escaped death on Everest illustrates this strain climbing can put on relationships.

Besides fixed ropes, aluminium ladders can be used to create an easier-to-ascend-and-descend route over a difficult stretch. These are common in Everest’s Khumbu Icefall, and at Second Step high up on Everest.

The caloric expenditure of high-altitude climbers mentioned in this chapter is fact. 7Percent was laughing at me when it turned out that in our heads, while she was thinking of it in terms of an average person’s twenty-day expenditure, what I was thinking was ‘that’s like forty brownies!’. I couldn’t eat forty brownies. No way. And, trying to get that much energy even from something as energy-heavy as protein gels, chocolate bars or, hell, a big chunk of butter, you probably won’t have the appetite to scarf it all down up there. So, you lose weight. And, if you had little extra to spare to start with, then your body is going to be seriously cannibalising itself while you’re supposed to spend over ten hours of dragging yourself uphill while your lungs are getting the same amount of oxygen as a terminal lung cancer patient. Welcome to the Death Zone; let’s hope you ate every damned potato they put in front of you down at Base Camp…

Potatoes and eggs are what the summit team in the reality show Everest—Beyond The Limit were enjoying in one episode, so why not go for a dish that has been proven to have been eaten in the Himalayas by a commercial expedition? Here’s an Everest climber’s menu.

In chapter six, we begin to understand Sherlock’s mind set for climbing. Not all climb because they like the challenge and the outdoors; some do it to launch a career in motivational speaking (I doubt Sherlock would manage anything else than demotivational speaking), because they want to prove someone right or someone wrong, to raise awareness of an issue, or because they’ve survived something else difficult already. I bet the motives are as many as there are climbers, and since I’m not one of them I’m not going to make generalisations. Each time I fling myself off a boat with twenty kilograms of crap strapped onto my back and sink down to the ocean bottom at thirty metres, I wonder if it isn’t all a bit insane. If I die now, will it have been worth it? The day that the answer stops being yes, I will quit diving.

If Sherlock a dangerous climber? Perhaps, to himself. But, does he also pose a risk to others? He insists that nobody should rescue him, that he takes responsibility for himself, but it’s a tall order to demand that others just sit and watch while he dies if there’s a problem. He accuses John of imposing his moral code on others, but is Sherlock not doing the same?

Are you all watching Everest—Beyond The Limit yet? You should be. The Discovery channel reality series is absolutely riveting!

[sherleck]

Shezza? I was undercover. Seriously, Shezza, though?

[turduckenlady]

I love how everything about Shezza is the complete OPPOSITE of Sherlock, including his posture.