The Middle Distance

So the beloved pan-fandom Sherlock Holmes exchange holmestice is on hiatus for Winter 2021 to give the mods a very well-deserved break.

BUT!

Reminder that they are hosting two smaller, lower-pressure events: free open posting in December, and going on RIGHT NOW....

Is a prompt fest! That's right! You can leave your prompts for fic, art, vids, podfic, you name it, in ANY version of Sherlock Holmes, in any universe.

Yes, all the big popular ones are welcome - as are every book, comic, show, movie, game, parody, short story, anime, radio drama, web series, anything. If it's Holmes at all it's welcome.

Dreamwidth posts tend to drop off in activity after a while and this one's been up a week, so it's gone a bit quiet and I wanted to top it up a little.

Here's the prompt fest post and how it works:

Winter 2021 Prompt Fest

Go forth and leave prompts, and pick up some if you like.

(Yes, I'm working on one. No, not telling which.)

So you've probably noticed that this year, I've posted a Bone-Fiddle-verse drabble or drabble series on and for every full moon.

This, the next to the last, is a special occasion: a Blue Moon on Halloween/Samhain. So I decided to write, not a drabble but a full little flash fic around 1000 words.

I went for both smutty AND spooky, with an homage to one of my favorite classic weird tales writers, Manly Wade Wellman.

Hunter's Moon

Some hunters hunt by staying very still.

Or, "The Case of the Penetrated Pumpkins"

Johnlock, Rated M, No Archive Warnings Apply


Harvest Moon

No Archive Warnings Apply


Additional Tags: Leather Kink, Boot Worship, Cunnilingus, Nipple Play, Tribadism, Frottage, Scissoring, Canon-Typical Drug Use, Chaotic Neutral Women Loving Women, Canon Divergence AU

Summary: Set during Mary’s run in The Six Thatchers. In one of her “safe houses” on the route, she is intercepted by an old flame who might truly have her best interests at heart. Whether Mary likes it or not.

Leaves Tremblin' On the Tree at AO3

That 30-50 feral hogs meme on Twitter proved inspirational!

Pig-Eat-Pig World
221B drabble (221 words, last word starts with B)
Sherlock/John, also featuring Lestrade
Rated Teen

Why has the local white supremacist cell disappeared into thin air? WHO CARES AS LONG AS THEY'RE GONE? But Sherlock always finds the answer.

OK so, everybody reading this knows my RL has been full of upheaval this past year and I am frankly sick of talking about it for the moment.

Fandom is my happy place and a huge source of restoration and rejuvenation for me. I'd be much less capable of weathering storms without it.

This year, I went to 221B Con for the first time - yeah, yeah, late to the party but believe me, there were reasons. Some had to do with terrible things that happened to friends of mine there, some had to do with conflicting work schedule (which isn't an issue when the Con happens the first weekend of April. If it's the second, no can do. Thankfully, it's the first weekend next year too, so Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll do it again.)

I had a wonderful time - got to spend time with friends I only ever see at con, got to put some beautiful faces to some beloved internet names, felt wholly welcomed and like I was among my people. I was on four panels - AUs, Occult Detectives, Polyshipping, and the late-night fanfiction panel.

I will say that I am grateful to Sherlock S4 for this: It seems like most of the most toxic elements in the fandom flounced the fuck out, leaving what remains a much friendlier and happier place.

The toxicity at this con largely came from a different source: good old-fashioned homophobia, sexual harassment, and male entitlement. A traditional old-school cishet male Sherlockian took advantage of the desire of queer/feminist new-school Sherlockians to connect and be heard and understood, to be an absolute gross creeper. He claimed to want to understand what we do and we why do it, and he lied about truly wanting to learn. He smiled in the face of queer fans while writing vile homophobic and insulting things on Twitter (like he thought people wouldn't see it? what?)n He only wanted a voyeuristic window into our sexual inner lives, and to receive attention and emotional labor while violating boundaries left and right.

(I shouldn't even have to say #NotAllOldMaleSherlockians, but just in case, here's a masterpiece of shade by Brad of Sherlock Peoria: https://sherlockpeoria.blogspot.com/2019/04/baron-gruner-and-his-lust-diary.html)

This has got me thinking a lot about who we share our erotic imaginations with, and how, and what the boundaries and rules of that sharing are, and how harmful it is when those subcultural mores are violated.

A victim-blamer would look at this situation and say, "Well what did you expect, with your x-rated fanfiction and fanart and your sexy cosplays and your flirtations with each other?" A non-victim-blamer would say, we get to decide who this is FOR. We get to share our imaginations without lust being projected onto the creator of the works. (For me, the idea of reading an erotic story and feeling like I have any sexual entitlement/connection to the writer because of that makes about as much sense as thinking watching porn means I'm gonna want to fuck the cameraman.) And we flirt and hook up with each other, when that happens, in a sense of equality and common cause.

A sense of being desired in a way I did not wish to be, I won't lie, has been a contributing factor (though not the only one) in a block I'm struggling with. And the block has gone on so long I've started to doubt my worth to my fandom community. What good is a fic writer who isn't writing? At 221B Con, I got a lot of reassurance on that. There was a LOT of appreciation for the contributions I've already made, and a lot of kindness about the nature of the struggle. For that, I can't even express my gratitude.

Apparently there's a male lactation joke in the Ferrell/Reilly Holmes and Watson movie. This came out of a conversation with tei on Twitter, and, welllll....

Cis male lactation is a thing that can happen. Nutritional imbalances, hormones, nipple stimulation, all these things can cause it under the right circumstances.

Imagine if Sherlock, overrun with guilt for his role in inadvertently, indirectly, causing Mary's death (and is not rejected as harshly by John, so doesn't resume hard drug use) feels very guilty for having played a role in robbing Rosie of a natural healthy food source.

Imagine what he might do to try to rectify that (without asking John's input first, of course).

The femfirmative-johnlock blog on Tumblr has got me thinking about how I write women in my Sherlock fics.

This is Part One. Part Two, which focuses on my Johnlock fics only, should follow in the next few days.

(WARNING: This little essay contains spoilers for all my fics, obviously)

Now, I really like all the women characters in Sherlock the show - despite serious missteps by the writers for most of them, I find them pretty rich and rewarding to explore. Yet I’ve written so many Johnlock stories where they barely appear at all. I do feel this is balanced out by the fact that I write a lot of poly/OT3/threesome fic where women are very present and strong, and I’ve also written femslash (I sail the tiny but fierce gunboat Marene), and I’m also one of the mods of the Get Mrs Hudson Laid blog and AO3 collection.

Part 1 is about women in my fics that are not Johnlock (in the sense of the Johnlock pairing being a dyad only). Here’s a list of those under the Read More (cause it’s loooong). All are rated Mature or Explicit unless marked otherwise). Questions and commentary very welcome.

( Read more... )

If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU!! I hope you find something on the list you might enjoy. Questions and comments very welcome, but no women-character hate please.

Part 2 will focus on the role of women in my Johnlock fics.

originally posted to AO3 on 7/28/2017. Latest update 2/14/2018

Title: Signs Following
Chapters: 8/?
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Rating: as of chapter 8, PG-13/Teen. Will be NC-17/Explicit
Tags/Warnings:
Appalachia, Historical - 1970s, Snakes, Religion, religious homophobia, Canon-Typical Violence, Appalachian Folklore, Folk Medicine, Faith Healing, snakebite, Story: The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Allusions to Family Abuse, Established Relationship, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Snake-Handling

Summary: 1976. Bone Fiddle-verse; Appalachian AU. A couple years into their relationship, John and Sherlock are cozily setting up for spring with Mrs. Hudson's expert guidance when a distraught young woman appeals to them for help and sends them on one of their strangest cases yet - in order to solve one murder and prevent another, they must tangle with a sinister preacher and enter the much-sensationalized, little-understood world of Pentecostal Holiness believers who strictly observe Mark 16: 17-18.

(And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.)

Story is loosely modeled on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band."

Signs Following, full story

latest update: Chapter 8 - The Hour is Come, the Feast Is Nigh

Written for significanceofmoths for the 2017 Fandom Trumps Hate auction!

A 221B drabble per day (whether it’s a Sherlockian fandom or not), drawn from the kinktober kink list!

Day 1: 1. Spanking | Sleepy Sex | Aphrodisiacs

A Boon to Diplomacy (The Hobbit, Bilbo/Thorin/Thranduil/Bard)

Day 2: 2. Dirty talk | Watersports | Forniphilia (Human Furniture)

A Firm Footing (Sherlock, Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes)

Day 3: 3. Public | Biting | Sthenolagnia (Strength/Muscles)

Chelicerae (The Silmarillion, Thuringwethil/Ungoliant)

Day 4: 4. Bukakke | Knife Play | Begging

Entitlement (Sherlock, Sherlock/John)

Day 5: Day 5: 5. Humiliation | Cuckolding | Body Swap

Double Dare (Sherlock, Sherlock/Mary/John)

Late afternoon light through the cheap blinds of the no-tell hotel made the illicit coupling even more exciting. Mary could hardly get Sherlock’s trousers open and shoved down his hips fast enough as they rolled over each other in the creaking bed, and she’d made his job easier by forgoing knickers. She was wet, he was hard, and the rest of the clothes could come off later once they’d achieved conjoining, shaking and melting, fitting together urgently. He shivered in her arms and let her push him onto his back, riding him wildly, shaking off her blouse and bra.

Both tried hard not to glance too often at the closet door with its perfect voyeur’s slats.

“He’s being so still,” Mary said. “Can’t hear a thing except panting.”

“I only worry that the door won’t withstand his erection,” Sherlock muttered as he grasped Mary’s hips to plunge deeper.

“Oh, how wicked I feel, shagging my husband’s boyf- I mean best friend,” she cried theatrically.

“Oh, how nasty I am, shagging my lov- whoops, I mean, my best friend’s wife,” he growled.

“Which one of us is supposed to be doing the cuckolding again?” she whispered.

“Clever John,” Sherlock said as he pulled her down, her tits to his face. “He’s getting a double dose of his fantasy. The answer is both.”