Through a Glass, Darkly

[mainecoon76]

Another holmestice fic - this one was written as a gift for lavvyan, who really deserves a novel for being a holmestice mod. :)

BTW, that community site is once again highly recommended. And if anyone likes cracky adventure fic featuring Victorian zombies, you'll probably enjoy the gift I received myself, which is "Impossible" by schwarze_elster (rated R).

So, here we go:


Characters/Pairings: H/W, Moriarty, mention of W/Mary; everything else is in the eye of the beholder. Book Canon with a dash of Granada, some ideas borrowed from BBC.

Word count: Around 6700.

Disclaimer: Not mine, as usual.

Rating: PG. And slash.

Betaed by mrs_sweetpeach, who once again spent a lot of time correcting my mistakes and discussing tricky dialogue (which was fun and led to significant improvement). Thanks!

Summary: “I feel that I am looking into a dusty mirror, and looking back at me is a twisted image of myself. It is the image of a man I could have become… Perhaps it is even the image of the man I am destined to be.” Watson wrote down the events leading up to Reichenbach, but sometimes even those who are closest to us are not privy to our deepest secrets. This is Holmes’ POV.


"Over here..."

Comments

[garonne.livejournal.com]

I loved all the weighty ideas in this story: what Watson says when they're hiking, Holmes and Watson as "criminals", the "seduction" by Moriarty, the knife-edge Holmes feels he walks on... You don't often get to read such thought-provoking fanfic.

And the idea of who Porlock really is, and who was beyond all those other cases - brilliant! I've never liked the way ACD suddenly produces Moriarty as this master-criminal who, rather bizarrely, has never been mentioned before... ;-)

Anyway, in short, this story was great, particularly your lovely prose.

(p.s. I wanted to comment when I first read this, but I thought it would be a bit suspicious if someone suddenly read and commented on all your stories just after holmestice assignments... ;) )

[mainecoon76.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! It always makes me happy to hear that someone came across my older stories, and liked them. And yes, I agree that if Moriarty is supposed to be a super-criminal and archenemy, he needs a bit of a backstory. Even in he was probably just invented as a means for ACD to get rid of Holmes, which didn't work.

His inclusion in the Red-Headed League wasn't my idea, though; that's Granada.

I thought it would be a bit suspicious if someone suddenly read and commented on all your stories just after holmestice assignments... ;)

Possibly! ;)

I've browsed through your journal a bit, too, and really love your style - I'll come back and comment when RL leaves me more time (that is, any at all) for fic-reading. And thank you again for your lovely gift!