Yes, I did.
In case you haven't seen it - there is a fanfic masterlist on the fanfic forum:
http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=2213

I read it as well. Very well written. I'm usually not a fan of AU but this one's good. 

OK so, me and my friend Kizzia are doing a cosplay based on this fic for the Sherlock Picnic in July. I'm being Army Sherlock and she's being Army John. The only problem is, I haven't actually read the fic and only have a vague idea of what it's about. I also don't think I'll be able to read it in time because I'm an incredibly slow reader and get distracted far too easily. So...can someone who has read it answer a couple of questions for me?

1. What regiment/detachment/troop etc is Sherlock a part of? (I realise he's undercover but presumably he has been attached to a particular section of the army). And is John part of that same section?
2. Is John still an 'army doctor' or is he just a straight forward soldier in this?
3. How does Sherlock have his hair? Still long and curly or has it been cut army style?
4. I'm going to get dog tags made for Sherlock. Does the story mention his blood group or service number at all, because that information is included on dog tags?

Anything else of note that you feel I should know about to make an accurate cosplay portrayal.

Thanks so much guys!

 

Hi, Boss, 
 
as I have read the whole fic (and liked it very much) I can confirm that towards the end Sherlock is wearing this here, given to him by Mycroft (SPOILERS, just to be on the safe side):

“I took the liberty of having these made,” he says, extracting his hand from his coat pocket. “Just in case.”

He extends his hand, palm cupped; in it lie two small gray metal discs on two joined loops of ball-chain, one long and one short. Sherlock exhales a slight sound of amusement, but he picks the identity tags up out of Mycroft’s hand and examines the indented text.

A+
00000000
Holmes SKS
CE

Sherlock smiles crookedly as he lifts the longer loop of chain over his head, lets it drop around his neck, and scoops the shorter loop and both tags into the open neck of his pale camouflage shirt.

And if you want to be very correct, there is this:

When he turns back, there are two plain rings of thick yellow gold hanging loosely around the top joint of his middle finger. He lets them slide off and onto John’s breastbone. John picks up one, holds it up in front of his eyes, and peers at the graceful script engraved on the inner surface.

Holmes SKS 00000000 it reads. John smiles and drops the ring onto his chest again, picking up the other one.

Watson JH 74214183. John slips it onto the ring finger of his left hand. Sherlock dips his fingers to John’s chest, picks the other ring up, and puts it on.

Hope this helps. 
 

I haven't read it properly, just skimmed through it as I'm not really into army stories and found the love scenes a bit intense. But going back and doing a few keyword searches, here's what I've come up with:

1. What regiment/detachment/troop etc is Sherlock a part of? (I realise he's undercover but presumably he has been attached to a particular section of the army). And is John part of that same section?
From the preface:

Captain John Watson of 40 Commando, the Royal Marines, is assigned to protect and assist Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what appears to be a simple war atrocity in Afghanistan.

I don't know anything about regiments etc, but later on it mentions John has a green beret.
I'm not sure Sherlock actually goes undercover as a soldier:

“This is your security pass, sir,” Ormond says, offering a laminated identification card with a metal clip attached. “You’ll need to wear it clearly displayed at all times.” Sherlock takes the card and puts it in his coat pocket. Ormond looks dubious but doesn’t protest.

“Sherlock, this is Captain George Leonard, Queen's Dragoons. George, this is Sherlock Holmes. “You don’t look like a contractor,” Leonard says to Sherlock as they shake hands “He’s not, he’s a consultant,” John says.

2. Is John still an 'army doctor' or is he just a straight forward soldier in this?

“All right,” Sherlock says reasonably. “I know that you were a doctor, training to be a trauma surgeon, but something happened to you in Belfast that made you drop that, made you enlist in a capacity that requires a couple of O-levels and an inordinate appetite for danger.”

And later:

“Your pack has an olive cross, so you’re carrying augmented medical supplies. But no Red Cross patch, so you’re not protected medical personnel; you’re a fighting soldier.”

3. How does Sherlock have his hair? Still long and curly or has it been cut army style?

They make a strikingly unmatched pair on opposite sides of the table. John’s face and his cropped hair are respectively suntanned and sun-bleached to almost the same shade of dark gold, and his eyes look startlingly blue by contrast; his clothing is worn at the edges, sandblasted and sun-softened. Sherlock’s a thing of flawless, pale skin and dark, unruly hair, and in the half-dimness of the mess hall his eyes are practically colorless; the thin cloth of his suit jacket is a little crumpled across the chest, but otherwise everything about him is as pristine and polished as if it has never been worn before.

John runs his fingers through Sherlock's hair quite a bit in the story, so as far as I can tell, there's no army buzz-cut for Sherlock in this story
Sherlock arrives in Afghanistan dressed in his usual suit and coat, but later changes into something more suitable:

Half an hour later, Sherlock is rolling his shirtsleeves up on his forearms and ruffling his fingers though his damp hair. The clothes Mycroft has provided are, of course, perfect. Not merely in function – a substantial white shirt, indestructible cargo pants, and hiking boots meant for actual hiking – but also in sensibility: everything’s finely made, streamlined and smooth. Sherlock has never outfitted himself for a war zone, but if he did, these are clearly the exact items he would have chosen for himself.

At different points of the story Sherlock and John wear body armour, and there's also mentions of a backpack that Sherlock carries:

John takes his hand from under his assault rifle and touches the radio control clipped to the front of his body armor.

Sherlock puts down his greenish-gray nubuck backpack, and takes the armor. He scowls, turning it around in his hands as if he can’t figure it out.

Before they leave, John takes a black sharpie and very neatly writes HOLMES across the upper right chest of Sherlock’s body armor.

Some more ideas for the costumes:

John straps on his body armor, and picks up his helmet and assault rifle.

No one, however, questions the acceptability of Sherlock having the SIG in its shoulder holster under his unbuttoned bush jacket, or of John and Hinde wearing their handguns in their hip holsters.

If you're going to include weapons in your costume, that is
Sherlock also dons his blue nitrile gloves at least once in the story.

4. I'm going to get dog tags made for Sherlock. Does the story mention his blood group or service number at all, because that information is included on dog tags?
I couldn't find any reference to Sherlock's dog tags (wrong keywords), but I see Susi has answered that one for you

Can I take this for my next sig, boss? 

I'm sure there is hair-cutting involved. The second part of the story has Sherlock with short hair, I'm sure. I'll try to find it...

“You hide a tree in a forest,” John says. “There’re a hundred thousand coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, and most of them are white men under the age of thirty-five – they can’t look at every face on every chopper.”Sherlock’s eyes flash ice-bright with delight, but then he shakes his head again.“No good,” he says, turning his shoulder and bending his head a little, so that Murray is shut out of the connection of intent gaze between him and John. “The quartermaster’s requisition orders – if they look for a paper trail and see that somehow a soldier needed complete outfitting after he reached Kandahar - ”“So we’ll scavenge,” John says, and turns to Murray. “Find my guy Hinde. Tell him I need his spare combat dress. Give me your field pack, and scare up a rifle out of the slush pile.”“Done,” Murray says, already leaving the room.

yep, they try to make him look like everyone else, so he's got the combat dress, and afterwards comes this scene:

John digs into his own pack, pulls out a flat metal box, and flips it open. He rattles through the instruments and extracts a fine-bladed scissors. Sherlock unbuttons his shirt again, strips it off, and drops it on the nearest bed.“In the bathroom,” he says, moving that way. “We can wash the evidence down the toilet.”He walks into the bathroom and sits down on the closed toilet, straddling it with his back to the door.“Do the back, I can manage the rest myself,” he says, leaning his folded arms on top of the toilet tank.John squares himself, feet somewhat awkwardly braced around Sherlock’s. He combs the fingers of his left hand up from the nape of Sherlock’s neck. Sherlock’s curls wind silkily around his knuckles; he flexes his fingers straight and together, trapping the hair. He opens the scissors in his right hand. After several seconds of silence and stillness, Sherlock turns his head very slightly.“John?” he prompts.“Yes, I’m – I’m doing it,” John says sharply.Sherlock twists farther around, his hair pulling free from John’s fingers. John scowls.“John … I had no idea,” Sherlock laughs.“Yeah, well – what? It’s not something you tell another bloke,” John says defensively.“It’ll grow back,” Sherlock says as he turns away again, still grinning.John flicks his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and threads his fingers into Sherlock’s hair with more determination. The scissors’ blades slick closed on the first curl. The lock retains coherence as it falls, then shatters into a cloud of separate strands against the crest of Sherlock’s spine, and ghosts on down his bare back. Another cut, and another, and John’s working deftly.

and afterwards there are some mentions that Sherlock fits in very well, and that he holds himself like a soldier when he has to, and that he is a good at shooting. When I read the story, I had the feeling Sherlock wasn't so different looking as the other soldiers, at least in the later part of the story.

About the hot scenes... well, I agree, they are all over the place, and I admit, I only read the first two of them. I found them very long and a bit repititive. The story is a good one, but it would still be as good with less sex involved - my very own opinion, and I don't mean to critizise the story, I really enjoyed it - although AU aren't my cup of tea either.

oh, another thing that came to mind... there is this scene where Sherlock has to leave the wounded John behind for a while, and I think - I haven't checked that one - I do think he leaves part of his dogtag with John there. so maybe you could pick that up to, if you're getting two-part-dogtags. but maybe that's really only a detail. and Sherlock carries a mobile which is mentioned a few times.

 

Last edited by Whisky (June 17, 2015 10:38 pm)

Whisky wrote:

....
About the hot scenes... well, I agree, they are all over the place, and I admit, I only read the first two of them. I found them very long and a bit repititive. The story is a good one, but it would still be as good with less sex involved .....
 

Pretty much my thoughts, though I'd go a step further and say the story would be even better with less sex. 'Cause that's one of the cases where sex just gets in the way of the action (of which there should be quite a lot... Maybe I'll give it another try, someday.)

Whisky wrote:

I find that the problem (if it is one) in this story is that the sex scenes and the case story don't add to each other. John and Sherlock form a strong bond very early on in the story, and the sex scenes are further affirmation of that already established bond, but they don't bring new development. I think that's why I found them too many and repititive. But I feel that's often a thing with case fics... in case fics the romance tends to get in the way, and in romance the case takes you away from romantic development. I think that's why most writers choose a focus.

I feel like this is a challenge now - to write a case fic where sex ADDS to the story. I'm gonna do it.
 

Now that we are talking Johnlock ...

I tried to do just that (combining a case fic with a developing Johnlock story line) in "Crossing Bridges". I wonder what you guys think about it.

Crossing Bridges[/url] (36170 words) by [url=http://archiveofourown.org/users/Schmiezi]Schmiezi
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Sherlock (TV), [url=http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Sherlock%20Holmes%20*a*%20Related%20Fandoms]Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms[/url]
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Additional Tags: Johnlock Fluff, Angst, Romance, Case Fic, First Kiss, First Time, Depression, Childhood Trauma, Triggers, Explicit Sexual Content
Summary:

Looking back later in life, John always felt that he should have seen it coming sooner. But the first weeks after the Heroic Return had been so filled up with moving back in and press conferences and  recovering from the recent months and explaining and forgiving and soothing hurt friends and solving that case Lestrade had brought to them probably just to come to terms with Sherlock again that John only realised something was seriously wrong with his friend when it was too late for an easy way out.