mrshouse wrote:

I would like to know btw if it's only tradition in Germany that Santa Claus fills the stockings on the 6th of December.

I thought it was shoes/boots in Germany and stockings in the UK/US?
 

Bump in the night
 
Wow, what a story! Incredibly engaging and masterfully written. It´s so gripping, it simply sucks you in at the very beginning and holds you to the very last sentence. I absolutely loved the characterisation of Harry, John´s sister, which was realistic and amusing at the same time. If slightly mythical Harry was ever destined to appear in BBC Sherlock, I´d wish she resembled this Harry. Clara and John were fantastic too and it was nice to see how the story didn´t introduced all about them and Harry at once, but more elements about their past and about their persons were added gradually, thus creating an atmosphere of depth and seriousness about them. Really great.
 
I was very impressed how nothing really scary appeared in the narration and yet from the moment the characters entered 221B Baker Street, an aura of something mysterious and other-wordly started to permeat the text. Arthur Conan Doyle, an awoved spiritualist, would have clapped if he read this, I believe. Then this dark tale suddenly changed into classical Sherlock story with amazing lightness and in a very natural manner and I immediately got the same sense of the beginning of great friendship as I got from the original. That all was then crowned with a wonderful ending that at the same moment opened the possibility for new exciting stories of our strange pair of detectives. And that touch with the Morse code was just lovely. I raise my glass to you, unknown author.

Nothing's going to change?

"He could see that John was bleeding. This damned fucking arsehole shot John in his leg."
Dear unknown author, that's the spirit! This line made me laugh - and at the same time I just thought 'Oh Sherlock, yes, and you wouldn't let anyone do this to John Watson, right?'.
I love how you went from domestic bliss to a case fic and then back again - and what a romantic ending you gave us! You leave lots of things between Sherlock and John unsaid and for your readers to fantasize about - that's great. And it was fantastic to see Sherlock worry about John so much. And then of course in the bank you have Sherlock standing real close to John and touch his leg... just a little detail but soooo powerful.
Great work!
 

NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE?
Loved the characterisation of Sherlock in this one, and the use of drama to bring out the hidden feelings. Great read!

And Santa's little helpers have done it again. Cracked me up! Thanks guys!


NOTHING'S GOING TO CHANGE

Wow, that was gooooood. Nerve-wracking! I think I gulped  when one of the robbers told John he knew he'd texted Sherlock for help... and the moment John looked up at the robber that had just come back from the toilet and he realised... brilliant!

Loved the combination of casefic/action and H/C with subtle Johnlock. And I love the fact that the kiss happens off-screen!

John and Sherlock were totally IC, I thought - John with his famous nerves of steel, trying to work out a solution even under threat of death, and Sherlock going totally monosyllabic and single-minded while planning the rescue. Loved how he kicked the policemen out of their own van!  And then John giving him that idea about the window. I love a John who's more than just an admiring bystander!


It was unusual, by the way, to have Sherlock sitting around for quite a while, unable to do anything to help John, but I totally buy that it was exactly what made him realise his feelings for him so clearly. Every time in the show, so far, when John's been in danger and Sherlock was rushing to his rescue, Sherlock never had a quiet minute to actually think about what he was feeling at the time. Nice to see that in this story!


There are so many little bits of humour in this, too, that I love -

"Feel free to do the dishes" - because it REALLY isn't John all the time who does them, is it?

"Since the ATM hadn't addressed him by name and Mycroft's car was nowhere to be seen, he decided it was for real...."

"Even Mycroft had shown up, probably only to update his files on the attendees with personal information."

Sherlock at uni attending parties only in order to study the effect of alcohol on people...

Lovely little gems, all of those!

Well done, unknown author! Well done indeed!


P. S. By the way - what was the prompt!?
 

SusiGo wrote:

The prompt is shown at the beginning of the post.

Ah. I didn't get that the summary WAS the prompt. Silly me!
 

Nothing´s going to change?
 
There´s nothing better on a cold nasty day than a good Sherlock case-fic with the nice touches of canonical „Three Garridebs“ and Johnlock in it. I very much loved how the characters were defined by the dialogues and by their actions in this one and not by the lengty desciptions, yet you could always picture them in your head as if they were parading in front of our eyes. The story had a ingenious structure – the part concerning action was written in a way that really gave you an idea of a frantic, short-on-time, adrenaline filled drama, while the conteplative part at the end wonderfully conveyed Sherlock´s relief and post-case assesment of the situation. It was also quite nice to read, it flowed effortlessly from one scene to another and I liked the plot involving bank robbery and John being caught in the middle of it. Oh, the feels – you could literally sense Sherlock´s anguish between the lines. My only minor quip is that Lestrade allowed Sherlock inside the bank too easily (his superiors would have his head if Sherlock´s interference caused some trouble inside the bank, so it was a bit weird). On the other hand, it´s obvious no force on Earth would hold Sherlock back when John was n danger, so it didn´t bother me a lot.
 
And the end with John´s clever „proposal“ was just magnificent. The description of the fleeting kiss and the inconspicious way in which Johnlock was taking place in the story felt very warm-hearted and real and quite charmed me. It definitely made me feel good today.
 

AGREE, LOLOLOLOL

Last edited by Harriet (December 8, 2014 6:08 pm)

Thanks, dear. I keep changing the first part and this one is rather new 

GUARDIAN

Oh. my. God.
That was mindbogglingly good. I find it completely unbelievable that this should be the first fic you ever wrote, or finished, dear unknown author. Really? If yes, I hope this will be only the first of many, many, many more!!!

That WAS Mycroft speaking, in every line. I've never yet seen him so well done in fic. There are too many great lines to quote them all here, but literally everything he says, from his opinion on the celebration of births (and he doesn't even know or care about the name and gender of the Watson's child!) to Christmas traditions to saving the world, and what it sometimes takes to do it, was completely and utterly and chillingly IC, I thought. Same goes for the Holmes brothers relationship.

Loved the little dig at the Mystrade shippers, too. Because, really...

The story is very ingeniously plotted, too, I thought, completely logical as well as very original and totally unpredictable in its outcome.

You're probably interested in whether the "I killed my brother" line works on your readers - it worked perfectly on me. I read that whole story holding my breath because I totally fell into the trap of thinking of quite another victim, too. When we got to Big Ben (which is a fantastic scene, with the clock striking thirteen and Mycroft and Sherlock in the tower and Sherlock yelling up at him and then their silhouettes being visible from the outside... goosebumps all over!) where was I? Right, when we got to Big Ben, I totally expected someone to take another spectacular fall... I'm so glad I was wrong! And I was so glad that the story even ended on a conciliatory note. Nice to see Mycroft realise that some painful secrets are easier to bear when shared!

So, to conclude, if this really was your first foray into fanfic, you've GOT to write more.


I'm astounded that we're getting so much good casefic here, by the way - I've always thought it was the most difficult of all genres to write. It's fantastic how many of our participants have a real talent for this!

Last edited by La Jolie (December 9, 2014 12:19 pm)