Yes, it's another fic rec I'm afraid

[inarduisfidelis]

Title: The Whore of Babylon Was A Perfectly Nice Girl
Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 33,038
Summary: Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John's head.

Basically, the fic I wanted to write but couldn't. I have pages and pages of scribbles in my notebook that look like jumbled snippets of drafts for this, but this is so perfect, so complete, and such a great character study.

The Paradox 'verse has to be taken on its own terms but this version of how Sherlock and John could get together sticks to canon like glue. I'm not always down with the John Watson characterisation in this one but it works 90% of the time. Sherlock is spot on in every scene though -if you buy sexually experienced Sherlock, that is. It's a gorgeous read. I finished it in one sitting, which is unusual for me because I don't normally read anything with a word count above 10,000. I saw this one being recced all over the place, and yes, it's definitely worthwhile.

So go forth and read it and then leave a comment and say you enjoyed it. I did, and I'm not even a big fan of sexually experienced Sherlock.

This entry was originally posted at http://morelindo.dreamwidth.org/417206.html. You can comment here or there (OpenID comments are enabled).

Comments

[irisbleufic.livejournal.com]

For the most part, I enjoyed this one, although a) like you, I'm not necessarily a fan of hyper-experienced Sherlock, and I'm not even sure I completely bought it in this case or that I would, indeed, buy it in any case (but the characterization on him was otherwise excellent), and b) I agree with you wholeheartedly on John; not precisely 100%, but he wasn't so out of line that it bugged me unduly.

[morelindo.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure I completely bought it in this case or that I would, indeed, buy it in any case

I can safely say I didn't completely buy it. It was plausible as part of his addictive personality but it didn't quite mesh with my head canon.

With John, it was mostly the dialogue that was a bit off, his voice just wasn't 100%, but yes, still enjoyable and the whole thing was worth the time.

[irisbleufic.livejournal.com]

He certainly is addictive, but, even under the influence of substances, I can't easily see sex as something to which he'd become addicted - especially given his instinctive dislike of most other human beings.

It seems to me that the easiest place to mess John up is in dialogue (I suspect that this is where my own failings with him lie). When I have trouble with John in fic, in broad terms, it's normally that his voice seems off. Paradox is a good example of this, actually: I find John's characterization there excellent overall, but just often enough there's a line from him that falls completely off the radar. The combination of that and the fact that I find Paradox Sherlock OOC a great deal of the time is why I haven't taken to that series as strongly as most people seem to have done. Inasmuch as I know it's an extreme take and very self-contained, it doesn't hang together for me. The writing style is fantastic, though, no mistake :)

[morelindo.livejournal.com]

He certainly is addictive, but, even under the influence of substances, I can't easily see sex as something to which he'd become addicted - especially given his instinctive dislike of most other human beings.

This is where I got hung up as well, yes.


After giving myself some time to let the initial suckerpunch effect of Paradox wear off, I now actually see it as an AU. It takes Sherlock's sociopathy to the extreme, but BBCanon Sherlock isn't actually a sociopath at all.

I find John's characterization there excellent overall, but just often enough there's a line from him that falls completely off the radar.

Yes. I must say I like the parts of the series that are written from John's perspective much better than those from Sherlock's perspective.

[irisbleufic.livejournal.com]

Yes. I must say I like the parts of the series that are written from John's perspective much better than those from Sherlock's perspective.

Agreed; those are the parts I go back for!

BBCanon Sherlock isn't actually a sociopath at all.

No, he doesn't seem to be (although he does display some troubling behaviors that make you wonder where his head is at times). And that's entrenched itself so deeply in my own interpretation of the character that seeing him portrayed as an extreme sociopath in fic - any fic - is sufficient to make me twitch. I repeatedly attempt to give it a chance, though, especially if I enjoy other aspects of the fic in which it's occurring.