VulpesAnnie

Long time Johnlock shipper, baby fic writer

[winterdaphne2]

Last Chances

I have a new fic!

Last Chances, by winterdaphne2. Rated M.

Tags: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mary Morstan, Molly Hooper, Greg Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, Angst, Mutual Pining, Dubious Consent, Non-Linear Narrative, Canon Divergence – The Sign of Three

Summary:

John’s stag night goes exactly to plan. Well, for John it does. For Sherlock, it doesn’t go to plan at all.

After that, nothing goes to plan—not for anyone.

~

As always, please read the tags, and you're more than welcome to dm me on here if you have any questions about the content before reading.

Acknowledgments! I am so very grateful to @naefelldaurk (amaruuk on ao3) for the incredibly detailed and generous beta read, and to @givemesherbet-blog-blog for also offering great feedback as a beta reader and for Brit-picking. Talking with you both about this fic has been absolutely wonderful. Thanks as well to @ohwatson for her enthusiasm for this story and to @loudest-subtext-in-tv for helpful and encouraging conversations along the way.

This fic is fully complete, coming in at ~28k words and four chapters in total. I'll be posting the remaining chapters over the next few days as I have time.

Thank you to anyone who reads this! Hope to see you in the comments on ao3 :)

[clinical-space-podcast]

Reblog if your art project has not, does not, and never will make use of generative ai at any point in your creative process.

[lionofchaeronea]

I would rather make terrible art that is genuinely, uniquely mine than slick art based on grand-scale plagiarism.

[vulpesannie]

The beginning wasn’t simple to mark. There had been no revelation, no sudden recognition, no flash of enlightenment. There was no date or time he could pinpoint as its inception. Moments, touches, gradual moves towards one another; Sherlock found these in their multitude. But none struck him as the sole point at which his relationship with John had begun.

——————

An little Johnlock oneshot for @sherlockchallenge’s April 2025 prompt ‘tape’. Sherlock traces through the early moments of his relationship with John wondering where exactly it started. Is it possible to find the moment they tipped into something more than friends?

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

[cupidford]

Meet Me For Coffee by VulpesAnnie

Johnlock Love Letters #2373

Post S2. Sherlock and John can't just spend the evening together. It always ends in one of their beds. But it's not making Sherlock happy. He has to break the cycle: no more drinking alcohol with John, no more seeing John after dark, no more time alone in either of their flats. Post-Reichenbach AU.

[vulpesannie]

Thanks so much for sharing my fic! I really appreciate it. I only started writing last year so this is the first time this has happened for me. Genuinely exciting to come across something I wrote in an image like that! Made my day (and probably my year) ❤️

[garkgatiss]

[sherlockchallenge]

Hello and welcome to April's challenge - thank you once again for your patience! The prompt for this month is tape.

Have fun! Before you start please read the rules & FAQ - you can find them at the top of the page or here.

Reblog for signal boost and don’t forget to invite your favourite artists and writers to take part :) If you enjoy the challenges, please consider leaving a small tip via ‘buy me coffee’ - thank you <3

❤️ I have made an Amazon Wishlist if you want to buy me a gift ❤️

(Remember you can still enter the previous challenges as there are no deadlines. Also, if you have an idea for a future prompt, the askbox is always open and waiting - see FAQ for details)

IMPORTANT: Don’t wanna miss a challenge? Simply send me message and I will notify you every month via messenger when a new challenge comes up! :)

[fanofathos]

Sherlock and John hugs 🫂

[bakerstreetbaddies]

Oh, so a guy can't platonically grill his friend about whether or not he has a boyfriend while suggestively licking his lips as bisexual lighting floods their faces?

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

I'm so glad I live in a world where there's Archive of Our Own

[amante-de-gays-psicopatas]

rest in peace Sir arthur Conan Doyle, you would have hated ao3.

[regtheseeker]

sherlock is about to make the vow for his best friend as his best man at the wedding. turns out he brought the love letter that he wrote to john, instead of vow papers. and he starts to read with the same emotion:

“ Dear John,

It is, of course, a statistical impossibility that this letter would ever see the light of day. I wrote it for no audience but myself, as an exercise in folly, as if arranging words into coherence would silence them in my mind. And yet, here it is in my hand, at the very moment I should be delivering vows for your wedding. A mistake—one I should have foreseen, but apparently, even I am not immune to the failings of sentimentality. Or perhaps I wished for this error. The human mind is so much more dishonest than we like to believe.

Regardless, I have the floor, and if I am to humiliate myself, I shall at least do it with precision.

There are many things about love that remain, to me, uncharted territory. It is an abstraction that defies logic, a chemical defect of the losing side, a distraction for lesser minds—or so I thought. I have studied its symptoms, noted its patterns in others, dismissed it as a mere evolutionary trick. And yet, despite all reason, it has happened to me. Not as a sudden, violent epiphany, nor as a slow, creeping realization. It was always there. You were always there.

You, with your maddening contradictions—brave and reckless, kind and stubborn, ordinary and yet utterly singular. You, who saw me and, against all instinct, stayed. Who tolerated my arrogance, my coldness, my insufferable nature, and called it good. I have no frame of reference for that.

I have tried to quantify what you are to me. I have failed. You are not data to be analyzed, nor a puzzle to be solved. You are simply… John. And if I were capable of the kind of belief that others possess, the kind that moves mountains and calms seas, I would say that you were made for me. But that is not how the world works. No cosmic force aligned our paths, no divine hand orchestrated our meeting. You chose me. That is so much more meaningful than fate.

And now, you are choosing someone else.

It is not my place to object, nor would it change the outcome if I did. I have observed the way you look at her. I have noted the ease with which you move toward her, the way you trust her to be your home. You deserve happiness, and I—fool that I am—would rather eviscerate myself than stand in its way.

But allow me this moment, this final indulgence, to say what I should have said long ago:

I love you.

Not in the way poets write or films romanticize, not in the way I have read about but never fully understood. I love you in the only way I know how—completely, irrevocably, in every glance, in every word unsaid, in every moment I have chosen you without even realizing there was a choice to be made.

It changes nothing.

You will marry. You will live your life, and I will remain precisely where I have always been—just within reach, but never close enough. I will watch. I will endure. And if ever you should need me, I will be there, as I have always been, as I will always be.

Sherlock Holmes. ”

[cpnblowfish]

sh falls asleep 

It’s been a while since I made an animation, I wanted to work on one of the most beautiful shot in Sherlock: the bed scene in A Scandal in Belgravia. Traditional animation made with 28 different drawings on the same paper, it means that all the sketches in movement that you see, except the very last one, don’t exist anymore. I make a sketch, scan it, erase it and make the next one. If you look closely, you can see the lines of the previous one dissapearing slowly, they’re like ghost sketches! I’ve chosen that cruel technique to create a ‘dream vision’ and because it’s easier than to do them separately.

All that’s left of this ephemeral art is the final drawing, that you can see here.

A4 paper, mechanical pencil, 2B - 4B pencil leads, kneaded eraser.

[catlock-holmes]

Oh my god this is the most amazing animation ive ever seen and youre telling me it was drawn traditionally

Oh my god wow

And even more amazing it was on just one paper wow

[bbcthree]

OKAY BUT WHY THE SMILE WHEN HE THROWS THE THING AT JOHN LIKE HE DOES THE HIGH-FUNCTIONING-SOCIOPATH-WITH-YOUR-NUMBER-SMILE AT JOHN AND WHYYYYYYY

In trying to answer this question, we spent way too long (on a Saturday no less) looking at gifs of Sherlock, and you know what we found? THAT THIS SHOW IS FILLED WITH PAIN.

OK, so here is the high functioning sociopath smile:

It’s terrifying. 

Here’s the ‘you’ll do’ smile:

Which doesn’t seem quite as fake, does it? It fades the very next instant, but whereas the first one is meant to be fake, this one is intended to look real… But doesn’t quite reach Sherlock’s eyes. He looks a bit like a shark? A dashing and exciting shark.

Here’s a bunch of other fake Sherlock smiles:

THEN THE WORST FAKE SMILE OF ALL 

WHY WOULD YOU MAKE US RELIVE THIS PAIN

But there have been some real smiles:

Yeah don’t let anyone see your weird half smile, Sherlock. CONCEAL DON’T FEEL

DON’T LET THEM KNOW

WELL NOW THEY KNOW

LET IT GO

So his real smiles are tiny wee things (that still don’t really reach his eyes), and his fake one is borderline horrific. BUT THEN LOOK AT THIS, THE SADDESt REAL SMILE OF ALL

WHAT WAS OUR POINT? we forget. Basically Sherlock is always sad and even his real smiles make us want to cry, which is hard when you don’t have eyes because you’re a TV channel which isn’t meant to have feelings.

SO THANKS, tumblr user homosexual-green-carnations, for making us relive this saga of pain. THANKS A LOT.

[vargdottern]

hiya. here's some things that canonically happened in bbc sherlock.

• john and sherlock being mistaken for a couple so many times i lost count

• "fire exposes our priorities" proceeds to show sherlock running into the bonfire to save john

• "i know you two. and if i'm gone i know what you could become" quote from john's dead wife. even she knew for fuck's sake.

• sherlock calling out for john instead of screaming for help

• john immediately shaving his moustache after sherlock comes back ("i don't shave for sherlock holmes" yes you do stop lying to yourself)

• the way they look at eachother. need i say more

• sherlock correcting everyone on everything ever but never when people assume that he and john are together

[thedevilsfamiliar]

This is for the ao3 users who enjoy color or prefer non-white backgrounds

There is a TikTok user who made a tutorial of how to make your ao3 colorful, I’ll link her profile down below cuz she has MANY diff skin tutorials

Here is her tutorial, here is her link to her page.

These are two that caught my attention, but that’s cuz I need darker colors, she has a lot of pretty and colorful themes for y’all to check out!

Enjoy!

And thank you @cloudysao3 (her TikTok and Instagram handle)

[vestadragon]

For anyone finding this in 2025, the creator of the skins changed their handle and the original link to Tiktok doesn't work, so here are the new links:

Handle: @ cloudybakugou on Bluesky | Tiktok | Instagram (Lemon8 as well but I don't have an account so I can't link)

Both Insta and Bluesky have all their skins easily accessible, tho I recommend their post thread on Bluesky for quick and easy viewing

For anyone looking into not just color changes but different fonts, changes to the buttons and placement of titles/headers, check out @ao3skin and their collection of various easy to apply skins

These two I found first and I really like them, will check out them out soon!

A clean minimalistic site skin called Tide (light/dark, desktop/mobile versions available)

Dyslexia friendly site skin (light/dark, desktop/mobile versions available)

Follow the peeps who do all this for us to have a better experience on ao3, and thank them for their hard work!

[thegildedbee]

{S1/S2} & {S3/S4} Fics: [Questions] .......................................................................

[well, instead of a few thoughts about the "whys" for the Parentlock fic recs that were the point of starting this post, and then a list of and comments about the recs, this turned into a longer meta -- which, we don't really do meta any more, do we, except in passing? fwiw, then, a throwback post, I guess?]

........................................................................................................... I've been thinking some about differences in Sherlockian fic treatments, when comparing the S1/S2 period to the S3/S4 period - in general, this means 2014 as a dividing line, although that's not a hard-and-fast cut-off point: for example, there were fics that were conceptualized or well-along-the-wip-road prior to S3 that carried on from within the earlier canon-space even if they were completed a year or so later; and there were fic authors who were publishing circa 2015 who had shrugged off S3 when it was being aired, and couldn't have cared less about post-S3 [often disputatious] meta discussions/ speculations.* So, by my figuring, 2014-2015 is a transitional phase, with my guess being that it would be late in 2015 when fics written by authors engaging with S3 canon began merging into a critical mass, creating a second, S1/2/3-transformed foundational reference point for many fics going forward -- and, the later in time one ventures, the reference point for most fics.

It's not that I've been wondering/pondering about the differences because I think pre- or post-S3 fics are better or worse -- to say the least :-) I feel positively about fic from both time periods! It's partly curiosity about the writing of fic in the two different creative contexts: in the "before time" or the "after time" of BBCS' post-Reichenbach canon decisions. And it's also partly curiosity about the differences in length that now exist for the two periods: about 4 years for pre-S3 fic -- which will always remain so, along with the amount of fic it contains [minus deletions and disappearances of specific fic] -- and going on 11 years now (and always stretching further, with increasing content) for post-S3 fic.

I think that one impulse prompting my curiosity is the fact that, realistically, at this point in time [the start of 2025] new canon is unlikely to appear. When BBCS was still in motion as an evolving source for its own canon (in actuality and in potentia), fics were brought to life within a contingent canonical landscape (whether authors were adapting to it or subverting it or anticipating it or transforming it or appropriating it or moving at tangents to it). Of course, the canonical landscape was rendered static when BBCS pulled over to the side of the motorway and killed the engine.

What I'm not saying is that fic is in stasis -- it can't ever be, for lots of reasons! One reason is that, as time passes, the world changes, and we change, and what we see when we look at traditional canon changes . . . and so the fandom dynamic of fic evolution continues :-) A second reason is that new people come along to write fic and to comment on fic, and to meta about fic, and their contributions augment and reshape the cumulative corpus . . . and so the fandom dynamic of fic evolution continues :-) A third reason is that, through our encounters with other imaginative realms, old and new (novels and films and series and other enthusiasms) and then with each other, there's a continuous glamouring that shimmers the atmosphere . . . and so (say it again :-) the fandom dynamic of fic evolution continues :-) Even so, I've been a bit wistful these days about experiencing Sherlockian canon-in-the-making . . . which is maybe what's prompted me (?) to return to the ur-source, which, because it's been so long since I've visited there, can conjure up that kind of magic :-) And so I've been doing some weekly mini-wanderings through ACD canon, and reading between the lines in a kind of what's-old-is-new-again-familiar-unfamiliarity that's been rewarding :-) But more on point for this post (ha! if you've read this far you've been wondering, is there a point? . . . ) is a sense I have that re-visiting S1/S2 fic is another way of accessing a bit of a present-day sense of canon-in-the-making, because it is far enough in the past now, and because of the post-S3's-interpolated-foundation-for-fic has itself extended outward so far, that pre-S3 fic can be visited in a what's-old-is-new-again kind of way (S1/S2 has familiar beats to it, but when visiting I somehow feel whisperings of a mrs. hudson-like smile of "but we see things somewhat differently here, dear" :-)

Okay, enough with all the preliminaries! All that being said: So, what's an example? Here's one I've come back to many times: One major shift is in fics where Sherlock is a parent, or is interacting with a child of John's, because pre-S3 means pre-Mary [at least the "Mary the (former?) assassin" of BBC Sherlock] and pre-"Rosie." [It is the case that some pre-S3 authors have a "Mary," but it's a version that's drawn from ACD canon, and, as such, is usually a much more understated presence; re kids from ACD canon, that's a null consideration.]

There are an overwhelming number of post-S3 fics where Sherlock-with-a-child means Sherlock&John-and-Mary's-Rosie under various scenarios. And while there are lots of different Rosie personalities, Rosie plots, and Sherlockian encounters with Rosie, a majority (or very nearly all?) post-S3 Parentlock fics share in this background rationale (more or less, to be sure) even as they play out from there in a gazillion different inventive ways. Pre-S3 Parentlock fics don't have that raison d'etre, of course, and the child characters and plottings that feature in the S1/S2 period have a generally wilder set of imaginings, and their S1/S2 fic Sherlocks have a balance of characteristics that have some subtle differences that I've always found intriguing, and keep coming back to (this can hold for Johns as well, although the emphasis is more pronounced with Sherlocks). Being pulled back into pre-S3 fic and re-visiting it through categories like Parentlock has been another way that I've re-experienced a kind of anticipatory canon-in-the-making . . . ambience? aesthetic? aura? which I've found to be intriguing. I'm not sure that looking backwards has much appeal for others -- maybe (?) In any case, I guess I thought I'd try and puzzle it out for myself by writing it down and not just having it float about in wisps in my mind palace :-)

Well, hey now, as this is an epic amount of wandering about, I think it's time to come to a rather inelegant galumphing of an endpoint! Writing up the fic recs will have to maybe happen somewhere down the road...

(For anyone who has wandered along this far as well: if you have any thoughts you'd like to share about S1/S2 and S3/S4 fic partitioning, or [the futility of?] attempts to re-surface a canon-in-the-making-vibe -- feel free to add them in! If so, borrowing these would allow this post a much more inspiriting way to finish :-)

........................................................................................

*(. . . and of course there were a significant number of authors who left the fandom after S3 -- but that's a fic trend reflection for another day :-)

.......................................................................................

@calaisreno  @totallysilvergirl  @friday411  @peanitbear  @original-welovethebeekeeper

@helloliriels  @a-victorian-girl  @keirgreeneyes  @starrla89  @naefelldaurk

@topsyturvy-turtely  @lisbeth-kk  @raina-at  @jobooksncoffee  @meetinginsamarra

@solarmama-plantsareneat  @bluebellofbakerstreet  @dragonnan  @safedistancefrombeingsmart  @jolieblack

@msladysmith  @ninasnakie  @riversong912  @dapetty .............................................................................................

[one-awesome-beetle]

IF THEY'RE NOT IN LOVE THEN WHY ARE THEY SO IN LOVE