The Adventure of the Dying Detective: Collapse

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Title: Collapse
Author: spacemutineer
Rating: G

One may spend a week concocting a plan, three days enacting it, and still it can collapse in a second. Belladonna's sting remains fresh in my eyes when Mrs. Hudson checks in. Her worry dissolves into panic and all my careful timing dissolves with it.

Watson is now on his way here as planned. But two full hours too early.

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Author's Note: This two hours wait thing in DYIN is a real sticking point. It makes absolutely no sense to me as written. Why does Holmes play his game this way with so many additional risks of discovery of his deception by the doctor and the risk of Watson opening the box (which he nearly does)? Why does Watson go along with all of it despite calling it "insanity"? It's all ridiculous, so I just had to try to find an explanation for it, hence this 60. It latched onto my mind so strongly that I'm also working on a full fic retool of DYIN with this idea as its basis.

Comments

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

I'm also working on a full fic retool of DYIN with this idea as its basis.

I am interested in your ideas and have subscribed to your journal :-DD

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

i've often wondered about that myself! perhaps Doyle had something in mind that never got written up, Holmes in disguise elsewhere or some such.
Then again two hours is more than long enough for Holmes to wander into his consulting room, settle that daft business with the Mazarin Stone and still catch some zzz's!!

[hardboiledbaby]

The plot has more holes than a sieve—you've done a great job plugging up one of them. :) Am looking forward to your fix-it fic!

[methylviolet10b]

I very much love this, and the idea that this is one of those cases where things didn't go exactly to Holmes' plans. I'm also looking forward to your total retool fic!

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Nice! That does make more sense than the original.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Heh! :) I'll let you know what I come up with!

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who was thrown by the bizarre two hours wait in DYIN. And like you said, Holmes can get a lot done in that time, so why do nothing in this story? So bizarre. Thanks for reading!

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I know! For all his talent, ACD was a bit of a hack. ;) But at least he gives us fic writers plenty of bits to play with!

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like this! For my retool, I'm considering keeping most of the dialogue and writing new text around it. It's tricky, because the new dialogue I add sticks out, obviously. I like the idea, though... we'll see, I guess.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That inconsistency was driving me nuts. This particular plot is riddled with holes. I had to plug at least one of them! ;)

[shouldboverthis.livejournal.com]

LOL! We're solving Doyle's carelessness. Silly Holmes.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

We're fic writers! We are *called* to fix what's broken in canon! :)