okay reblogging this again just to say that i love love love reading these,, like it’s so incredible how we’re all doing such vastly different things at the same time…ik it’s an obvious thing but it’s also insane to think about.
I love AUs, and this fandom is incredibly rich in them. Here’s a few that I could think of of the top of my head, though I’m sure that I’ve missed a bunch.
If anyone wants to add to this list, please do! @thetimemoves, you must have some saved that I’ve missed here!
All of these are amazing!!!!! Gimme Shelter and Slipstream are two of my all time faves. As is one other addition to the list (another of @raina-at’s): Take Two
@sabrinash221b you might like my masterpost of all the monthly AU rec lists I have made plus artist AU list
Thanks a lot for the rec. I’ve written a couple of AUs, from the above mentioned Slipstream (Tour de France/Cycling AU), to a Bletchley Park/WW2 AU called Enigma, to a Horselock AU (The Horse and his Doctor) – the last one probably being the weirdest of the bunch –, and some Time Travel/Magical Realism AUs.
Adding on with a few more I thought of this morning!
@madgirlspoem tagged me a while back asking for thoughts about the Knee Grope. There’s a ton of lovely meta already written by others in response, but I’m going to add my two cents in the hope that someone finds it valuable.
Let me start with a confession: I’ve only watched this moment once, the first time through. Every other time I’ve had to look away. It’s just too intense. John’s actions are unmistakable: the eye contact, leaning forward, then falling forward as a pretext to touch, touching Sherlock’s knee and then, as if there could be any doubt about his intentions, the quiet declaration of “I don’t mind”. John is coming on to Sherlock as strongly as he can while maintaining some facade of deniability. I mean, look at this:
Sure, you can write it very dryly, “John touches Sherlock’s leg and then shrugs” but the scene itself is filled with all of the nonverbal cues that people have used for millennia to seduce sexual partners. If someone did all this to me - someone I was attracted to - I wouldn’t hesitate in going for the kiss.
So why does Sherlock hesitate?
This is where the tension of the moment is for me. This is the conflict which makes the scene so memorable – and this is why I have a hard time watching it. Sherlock doesn’t precisely reject John, but he doesn’t match him either: doesn’t find an excuse to touch him, doesn’t hold his eye contact, responds to “I don’t mind” not with “Neither do I” but the ambiguous “Anytime” and to “Am I pretty?” with a disquisition on aesthetics.
We see John’s attraction, we understand both his desire for Sherlock and his desire for deniability, but Sherlock on the other hand is inscrutable. Why isn’t he matching John, let alone escalating? How can the most observant man in England be missing these signals? He can’t be - so what’s holding him back? Fear of sentiment? Feelings of unworthiness? A belief that John, like the not-yet-introduced Mayfly Man, only wants a one night stand?
For me, this moment resonates most not with the tarmac scene but a different bookend:
Sherlock’s rejection of John in TSoT is much less explicit than the one in ASiP, and indeed much less intentional, but the dynamics are fundamentally the same. It’s the dynamics of the whole series boiled down into a single moment: John wants something from Sherlock that Sherlock is too afraid to give.
Sherlock’s fear of his own emotions is the single greatest obstacle on this show. It is what keeps him from being a good man as well as a great one; it is what keeps him in thrall to Moriarty, and Moriarty’s memory; it is what keeps him and John apart.
In the next episode, we’ll learn why Sherlock was so fascinated by Moriarty:
“You…You never felt pain, did you. Why did you never feel it? Pain…”
“You always feel it, Sherlock. But you don’t have to fear it.”
Sherlock has changed over the course of the show but he hasn’t fully faced and resolved his fears. Until he does this, narratively he can’t be with John - but oh, on stag night, how tempting it is to shortcut all of that. Life is messy. Stories can be messy. Sherlock and John’s relationship is certainly already very messy. It’s a long and important process and can’t they just skip it? Can’t they just be kissing each other right now?
He means he doesn’t mind pickles on his hamburger.
Okay sorry, I’ll answer sans sarcasm! :) John’s motto has been “not gay!” since he met Sherlock. He’s never acted homophobic at all, but he gets defensive when people assume he and Sherlock are dating. In this scene he’s drunk as hell, in that murky area where you’re making conscious decisions but your drunkenness allows you to convince yourself it’s really your subconscious doing it and you actually aren’t aware of what you’re doing somehow. John’s testing the waters to see if Sherlock is interested.
So he scoots forward, conveniently loses his balance, grabs Sherlock’s knee, then looks at his hand in exaggerated surprise and says “I don’t mind.” He doesn’t mind this highly unusual and very suggestive physical contact. He says it like it’s suddenly occurred to him, like he’s never ever considered it before, and oh, hey, here it is out of the blue and it’s all fine.
Let’s look at the gifs, because…well. We don’t really need a reason, do we?
alright alright alright, scooting forward, eyes on the prize, aaaand balance
target acquired, slide forward, Captain incoming everyone lookout and THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
knee’s just for leverage getting back on the sitty thing like the slick bastard I am now I’ll just leave the hand because whatever I’m totally unaware of it and maybe that’s not even my hand the universe is weird like that man
now then, what were we talking abou—what are you looking at? OH! MY HAND! IT SEEMS TO STILL BE ON YOUR KNEE HOW UNEXPECTED.
HANDS ARE WEIRD LIKE THAT JUST LIKE THE UNIVERSE IS WEIRD AND WHO KNOWS WHY THESE THINGS HAPPEN THEY JUST DO?
a hand is just a hand a kiss is just a kiss a smile is just a smile that’s a great song amirite so who cares about hands really. “I don’t mind.”
omfg that was so smooth Operation Handlock ftfw so now what, Captain? something more unsubtler or like a little less not subtle or OH I KNOW
