Discussion Post: A Study in Scarlet

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Welcome, readers! Let's talk about A Study in Scarlet, a legend in literature and culture in general. As always, I've written up a few of my random thoughts and questions, which are behind the cut. Please add your own in the comments!

( Onward to canon talk! )

The Musgrave Ritual: A Reflection Before Dying

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Musgrave Ritual
Title: A Reflection Before Dying
Author: bwblack
Rating: G
Character: Brunson
Author's Notes: I was sick this week and completely forgot to post this until I was writing this weeks story. Ooops. Inspired by the many similarities to Cask of Amontillado and other Poe works.


Locked in a small underground chamber, Brunson tried to think of anything in his vast, varied vault of knowledge that might help him escape. Instead his mind alit on the Poe stories he'd once shared with Rachel.

"Requiescat In Pace!" she quoted as the door slammed shut.

He could only hope she'd be done in by her own tell-tale heart.

STUD: Private Observations

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Private Observations
Author: smoothe1
Rating: G

A/N: The joy of STUD is the introduction of Holmes and Watson to each other. I have often thought Holmes must have seen something in Watson the very moment they met. I don’t believe Holmes was a person who would make a decision for a room-share lightly. In fact, I could see him turning down many an “applicant” had Watson not agreed. In their short time together at the hospital, I imagine the inner-workings of Holmes’ subconscious running like this:

...Exactly forty-two characteristics can be ascertained through a firmly-given handshake. I must write the definitive monograph someday.

This fellow, Watson. Now here’s a singular specimen. At our handshake…surprise, but quick recovery. Determination to match my strength. But more. Not merely Afghan service. Loyalty, courage. Obedience to duty. This is a man who can be trusted. On whom I can depend...

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

A Study in Scarlet: Threads

[ennui-enigma.livejournal.com]

Canon: A Study in Scarlet (STUD)
Title: Threads
Author: ennui_enigma
Rating: G
Warnings: none
A/N: Inspired by a quote from Holmes in this week’s story. “There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”

His life was a colorless skein unless the scarlet thread of crime was knotted within. He untangled this singular shade to relieve the monotone of his existence.

Then another thread came. It gradually wove into the fibers of his heart. It was a golden thread of friendship. Rather than untangle this thread, he twisted round it all the more tightly.

A Study in Scarlet: Jefferson Hope's Horse

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Jefferson Hope's Horse (part of the Ocelot Tales)
Author: thesmallhobbit
Rating: G

It’s not every cab horse that gets to be driven by a detective inspector.  For some reason my regular driver was riding inside, perhaps he wasn’t well, there was a doctor with him.  But the inspector told me it was to do with the tall thin gentleman, who was quite a clever chap, although his methods were a bit strange.

A Study in Scarlet: Words

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Words
Author: spacemutineer
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: The angst fairy had a lot of magic dust to sprinkle on me this week. Be warned.


Words are chosen carefully by many, but writers select words as others select fruit, picking only the best, most apt of specimens.

These words were horrible. I should have been prepared, given his dark history, countenance, and carriage. Still, it was chilling.

Watson's lost mates were "hacked to pieces".

He never spoke of them again. Certainly I never asked.

A Study in Scarlet: The First of Many

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: The First of Many
Author: impulsereader

------------

Our first deduction concluded with my explaining my profession in full. Watson could not be blamed, of course. Despite the many clues I had left lying about our rooms and dangling over dinner, deducing that a man is the world’s only anything is hardly child’s play. He chose to observe rather than inquire, that was the crux of the matter.

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A Study in Scarlet: A Tonic for the Doctor

[methylviolet10b]

Author: methylviolet10b
Rating: PG
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson
Summary: Why take a particular case? Holmes has his reasons.
Warnings: Once again, nearly spoiler-free for the actual story.
Word Count: 60
Author's Notes: 60 words of my own inspired by one of the canon stories.
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

STUD – A Tonic for the Doctor

I had not realized the toll Watson’s ongoing ill-health took on his mental well-being until he seized upon my observation of the Royal Marine with the light of battle in his formerly dull eyes.

I took Gregson’s case to keep that spark alight. Watson’s improved spirits afterwards, despite his physical exhaustion, was just as uplifting to me as the concert.

A Study In Scarlet

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study In Scarlet
Title: Literary Criticism
Rating: PG

When I came home to find Holmes reading my feeble attempts to describe him and his work, my heart froze in my chest. He looked up with an unreadable face and it took all my courage to ask, “Well?”

Holmes settled back in the chair and steepled his fingers. “One question, Watson. What do you have against Mormons?”

*

A Study in Scarlet: Hands, Habits & Holmes

[trillsabells.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Titles: Hands, Habits and Holmes
Author: trillsabells
Rating: PG
A/N: I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do this week as I was moving but somehow I managed three. First two are Watson's POV, the last one is Holmes'


It wasn’t until I read the published account of my memoirs with its many references to my friend’s fascinating hands that I realised how greatly I had failed at concealing my attraction.

Holmes reassured me that no one would suppose the author of such a damning description of his nose would be the eager recipient of that ‘delicacy of touch’.

~

When I compare my friend and companion’s current habits – staying up all night playing the violin, case notes flooding every nook and cranny of our living quarters and long days without eating a jot – to those of when we first began to room together I become convinced at some point someone kidnapped my friend and replaced him with a copy.

~

At first I intended to refuse; such an easy case would do nothing to ease the mood I was in. But when one is living with a chap whose frank disbelief of one’s own abilities is so easily dispersed with mere trifles, and the result of such disabuse comes in delightful ejaculations, any opportunity to showcase one’s skills will do.

60 for 60 II, 3- A Study in Scarlet - Faded

[sabrinaphynn.livejournal.com]

Canon story: A Study in Scarlet

Title: Faded

 Author: sabrinaphynn

Rating: G

Warnings: none

Author's notes:  I used the prompt about color and also considered how much the Afghan war had taken from Watson.  Watson tells us Stamford was his dresser, or surgical assistant, during his time at Bart's and they were friendly but not especially close.  I imagine that Stamford was a a year or two behind Watson in training and idolized him a bit, as a professional.    This is Stamford's POV.

I spotted Watson first, barely recognizing my former idol.  His skin browned by the sun, certainly, but more notably,  his very essence faded.  The surgeon of Bart's, with his deft fingers, wry humor, and witty tales, seemed irretrievable.  With his spirited ways and morbid experiments, I could only hope Holmes might be unusual enough to restore the doctor to himself.

A Study in Scarlet: Valuing Lestrade

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Valuing Lestrade
Rating: G
Character: Watson
Author's Note: Inspired by this first time that Watson Avails himself of Lestrade's notes.

Watson hadn't updated his diary since leaving Afghanistan. But Sherlock Holmes' life work deserved a more thorough cataloguing than could be expected from the daily newspapers.

There were so many fascinating details. Watson wondered how he'd keep track of it all, until he saw Lestrade jotting notes in his little black book.

"Sir, might I make use of your notes?"

STUD - A Fateful Prediction

[mistyzeo.livejournal.com]

A Fateful Prediction by mistyzeo
Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Rated G - no warnings.

Because I love nothing more than the moment of their meeting.

I have always loved a good mystery. I have no idea how this Mr Sherlock Holmes had uncovered my history within ten seconds of meeting me, but he fascinates me already. His easily offered list of vices is not so objectionable, and he did not seem put off by my own admittances. I think I shall like living with him.

A Study in Scarlet: Initiation

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Initiation
Author: hisietari
Rating: G
A/N: My second round of 60s will concentrate on the Moriarty family, which I've based on canon as far as possible, but tweaked a lot due to gaps in canon. You can find a family tree and some explanation in my journal, but please feel free to ask, too.
Three for the price of one! Played a bit of doomsday fairy by placing important events of some major characters all in one year.


I

Officer Higgins would never be more than a copper, and he did not mind. He saw, but wouldn’t ask, and he didn’t enquire why one evening in the summer of 1881 Icy Jane, their best whistle-blower, got arrested. Not even five hours later she was led away, accompanied by some weird government fellow called Holmes. They never saw her again.

II

It couldn’t have gone better. Freshly returned from service in India, Michael O’Connor had been approached by several publishers for his memoirs. Before he knew, his tales had sparked a wildfire. The letters of admiration he did find a little ridiculous, especially when written by academics such as that young mathematician Moriarty. The boy couldn’t hear enough about tiger hunters.

III

Old Mrs Coulter had gladly taken care of late Mrs Moriarty's youngest daughter. A peculiar child, not quite right in the head, four years old and silent as a stone. Until dearest Doctor Petersen visited to check upon Mrs Coulter's increasing state of indisposition. “Poison in his pocket” little Mercy sang, sang at Mrs Coulter’s grave, too, until Petersen confessed.

Oversights

[dreamtimegirl.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: Oversights
Rating: G

Never before had an ill conceived attempt to test a fellow-lodger’s limits backfired so spectacularly! I was immortalised in The Strand with not only my own numerous eccentricities, but a number of moronic oversights that I would never allow myself to make.

When a client mentioned it to Watson some years later, I saw the damnable man stifle a laugh.  

A Study in Scarlet: The Hand of God

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet
Title: The Hand of God
Author: Castiron
Rating: G
Author's Notes: What if Hope misheard, and that poisonous plant *didn't* come from South America?

-----

It was not merely sorrow that killed my husband's newest wife.

Our elders might rebuke me, but I have fasted and prayed; God's will is clear to me, though His reasons are obscure.

I have sent the leaves I found in Lucy's room to my botanist cousin in Pennsylvania.

After death I will learn why God asked this of me.