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crack_van2011-10-10 11:31 am
The Progress of Sherlock Holmes, by ivyblossom (Explicit, eventually)
Fandom: SHERLOCK BBC
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: about 62,000 words
Author on LJ: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ivyblossom
Author Website: stories on AO3
Why this must be read:
If you're new to the fandom, if you somehow managed to miss this gem, or if you're wandering through the fanfic woods looking for some classic, well-written, long, intelligent, deeply felt UST, this is the story for you.
It's mighty fine.
In 25 chapters, a yearning but uncertain Sherlock grows closer to his heart's desire. He battles through setbacks, doubts, missed chances, searing jealousy; he overcomes obstacles; he rescues John. I love Sherlock's voice in this; rendering his thought processes is always a challenge, and it's convincingly met here -- a taste:
John never notices the bedspread sprung free at the corners when he comes home. The slightly disturbed lines of it. He’s never, as far as I am able to deduce (substantially far), managed to see that his bed has sprung apart a bit at the seams. That it’s been sat upon. Never made any appearance of recognising the telltale indentation my head leaves on the pillow. (So obvious. You can smell a person on cotton pillow cases. I know. I’ve done it. Repeatedly.)
Maybe he does notice. Underestimating him? Maybe he knows and approves, appreciates my small battles against the remains of his military habits. Though my original, far more likely, deduction is surely correct; he is an idiot. Simply doesn’t observe the signs that someone else, obviously his flatmate (who else would it be?), curls up in a foetal position on his outrageously neat bed in the afternoons (as a proxy for curling up next to object of his pathetic, adolescent, ridiculous, unrequited lust). For the best. Interpersonal relationships: really not my area. (Obviously.)
At night John undoes a single corner of his perfectly folded and tucked creation and crawls into bed, leaving most of the bedclothes undisturbed. So as he falls asleep he looks as though he’s wrapped in some sort of bed-shaped pastry, the form of his body beneath the surface perfectly obvious to the casual observer. His feet, his calves. The spot on his lower back where it curves. His shoulders, rising up to obscure his face from me. His bed clings to him, holds him, soothes him. (I could do that.)
(Could I? Really? Would I have the patience? Wouldn’t it get boring? Maybe. Probably. Maybe not. Impossible to tell. Annoying.)
There are many canonical references to the original stories; there is Sherlock playing his violin (affectionately exasperated that John thinks everything is Tchaikovsky); there's plot; there's Mary Morstan; there's meddling Mycroft; there's just enough erotica, satisfying but not overwhelming. It's a rewarding, satisfying read.
The Progress of Sherlock Holmes
no subject
no subject
This Sherlock did progress as the story went on. I'm always impressed with long fiction that manages to maintain its quality throughout and even build to a substantial finish.
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I am all of the above -- new to the fandom, this fic, and looking for long, well-written UST. This fic was amazing. Off to leave my praise on the author's lj.
In the meantime, being that I'm new to the fandom, I've missed all these "classics" of the BBC Sherlock fandom as you call it. Can you direct me to a recs list (your own or someone else's) or just shoot me some links to the "classics," especially if it's long, well-written, and there's UST (that eventually resolves itself -- or doesn't).
no subject
I suggest you go to the earliest entries on the tag for Sherlock recs here -- http://crack-van.livejournal.com/tag/sherlock%20bbc
because the reccers began by posting some well known early stories. The same is true for our recs community,
Some early and large recs lists are by iamshadow (http://iamshadow.dreamwidth.org/327991.html) (very early) and a more recent version here in 2011 at sevenswells (http://sevenswells.livejournal.com/56536.html) and one here by lovingthevolume (http://lovingthevolume.livejournal.com/16394.html).
I want to make more recs on my own journal, but for now I'm doing them on the recs comm.