#-about the story is unintentional and there's a lot of room for interpretation :P

[auriidae]

treebark! (for ask game :D)

THESE GUYS!!!!!!

i watched martyn's third life a whiiile ago and it wasn't my thing but i DO see how people are insane about them one hundred percent. their dynamic is insane holy crap

[ebaeschnbliah]

THE  ‘CABIN’  ON  THE  MEADOW

________________________________________________________________

When I took screenshots for DISTRACTIONS & CONSEQUENCES I noticed a certain object on the meadow near the street where Phil deals with his unmoving car. It looks like some sort of small cabin and is caught by the camera several times in all four sequences of the boomerang case. 

More than one director of the TV series has indicated that nothing is unintentional nor a coincidence in Sherlock BBC (X  X)  Therefore the possibility exists that this object on the meadow, which can be seen multiple times, could have some meaning as well. This in mind, I took a closer look .. 

TBC below the cut ….

1 - The first time the cabin can be seen (during Phil’s visual report of the incident) it is shown only partly. First on the left, then on the right margin of the screen. It stands on the meadow next to the street but is separated from the street by a hedgerow. Therefore it most likely has nothing to do with road maintenance. Otherwise it would be rather impractical to reach.

2 - When John arrives at the crime scene and describes his surroundings via WiFi, the cabin takes a much more central position.

3 - When Sherlock explains the boomerang case to Irene, while the camera circles round them, the cabin turns up multiple times in the background.

4 - It even stays in the frame for some time when Irene explaines the case in the final sequence, while Sherlock watches, drugged by her chemistry.

Gotten curious, because I had an idea what this ‘cabin’ might possibly be, I enlarged one of the sharper pics for a better view. 

Those things can be found in various shapes and forms (some examples below) …  but I think this cabin looks a lot like a container for beehives. 

Of course, even if this cabin on the meadow is indeed a container for beehives, it could simply stand here anyway because it belongs to the person who owns that area and therefore it was caught on camera unintentionally. And naturally it would appear that often on screen because the scene was done by an allround shot. But then, who knows? If it really has to do with bees, I consider a coincident as rather unlikely. After all, bees and beehives are very well known to be closely linked with canon Sherlock Holmes, especially with his retirement upon the South Downs. 

Bees on the South Downs

“It occurred after my withdrawal to my little Sussex home, when I had given myself up entirely to that soothing life of Nature for which I had so often yearned during the long years spent amid the gloom of London.”

-

“My house is lonely. I, my old housekeeper, and my bees have the estate all to ourselves.”   (ACD, The LIons Mane)

---

“But you had retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the South Downs.'

'Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum opus of my latter years!' He picked up the volume from the table and read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.”

-

“I shall get level with you, Altamont,' he said, speaking with slow deliberation, 'if it takes me all my life I shall get level with you!'

'The old sweet song,' said Holmes. 'How often have I heard it in days gone by. It was a favourite ditty of the late lamented Professor Moriarty. Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known to warble it. And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs.”  (ACD, His Last Bow)

A small, lonely farm upon the South Downs, the soothing life of nature, keeping bees and enjoying the honey gathered by them on blossoming fields and meadows. Maybe near a lake or stream? Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere? 

As soon as I considered the possibility that the cabin on the meadow could indeed be a home for bees, I started to look at the place chosen as filming location for the boomerang case, with different eyes. What could have been the reasons for the decision to choose precisely this place? Soft, rolling hills, sometimes covered by woodland, lush green meadows, rivers, streams, small brooks and ponds are characteristic features of the South Downs. (Source of pics: Wikipedia) 

The landscape where the boomerang case takes place could easily be located somewhere in the South Downs … 

It doesn’t take much fantasy to imaginge that Sherlock’s little ‘retirement’ farm lies just round the bend of the street on the pic below, somewhere near that lake or stream. Perhaps there’s even a small boat at hand for occasional trips on the water. After all ... once a pirate, always a pirate. :)

Side note: according to the DVD commentaries for ASIB, the boomerang scene was filmed in a valley in Wales. 

As mentioned in DISTRACTIONS & CONSEQUENCES … viewing Series One as prelude for the whole story, where the first three episodes serve as introduction (ASIP), user manual (TBB) and chapter list (TGG) … the actual story told in Sherlock BBC - the crux of the matter - would then start with A Scandal in Belgravia. Here, Mycroft tells Sherlock (and the audience) that this case is about sex. Sherlock’s appearance as well as the environment chosen for the beginning of the case … 

a naked body wrapped in a pristine white sheet

a heartfelt yawn, as if just woken up from sleep

the lush green landscape of the surrounding area where the case starts

… are metaphors often used as indications for rebirth and renewal. And the boomerang case itself can be easily interpreted as a small foretaste - a teaser - of the central theme told in this episode, respectively of the whole story.

A very short summary of that case interpreted on a metaphorical level:  

A load of unacknowledged desire (obesenes) linked to a certain problem (Phil/John), causes an unmoving body (car) to explode and thus leads to ‘la petite mort’ of a distracted mind (Hiker/Sherlock), who was busily playing with a resurfaced memory (boomerang) from the past (East). The great water nearby (big emotions/Eurus), joined by a small brook (sex/Rich Brook/Reichenbach/Jim Moriarty/Mr.Sex) completes this scene in a perfect way … as do the 59 orgasmic sighs/text alerts of a phone (heart) and Sherlock’s nickname ‘the virgin’ ... given to him by Mr. Sex.

Back to the bees ...

Including a container for beehives into the very beginning of a story that looks suspiciously like a metaphor for the sexual awekening of Sherlock Holmes, shot at a place which has a great resembalnce to the South Downs, is indeed a very interesting filming choice. Bees are strongly linked to the retirement of Sherlock Holmes and therefore to the end of the story. 

Thus, the addition of bees into the boomerang case, creates a full circle and links the end of the story, the retirement of the original character Sherlock Holmes, to the sexual awakening of the same character at the beginning of ASIB in this modern adaptation. 

And it’s not the first END from canon, which is linked to a BEGINNING in Sherlock BBC. The famous quote “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same …” from His Last Bow, chronologically the last of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, is taken up partly in the Unaired Pilot of Sherlock BBC, when Sherlock calls his brand new aquaintance, whom he knows at this point only for a couple of hours … “Good, old Dr. Watson” (X).

Bees and cars ….

ASIB - an unmoving car, next to a container of beehives, makes a loud, explosive noise and as a consequence causes the death of the distracted Hiker. The man is hit by the returning boomerang, his head bashed-in. 

TLD - A car moves at breakneck speed, to the strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. It knocks over some bins before it releases a completely drugged Sherlock from its boot. The driver and owner of the car is Mrs. Martha Louise Hudson. According to Mrs. H. this car was financed by the income of her late husband Frank, who run a drug cartel in Florida and blew someones head off. Sherlock ensured his execution. As has been noticed by a lot of people very early on, the licence plate number contains the letters APIS. APIS is Latin for bee.

The only other person who dirves this car, also at breakneck speed, is John Watson when he comes to Sherlock’s aid in the same episode. And just like Jim Moriarty in TRF, who smashes a glass pane to get to the crown jewels, John’s weapon of choice to break into Sherlock’s room (’Am I the current king of England?') … is also a fire extinguisher.

ASIB - Another car plays an interesing role, most likely a HONDA ACCORD (see pic for comparison) which is strongly linked to the red ‘APIS’ Aston Martin from TLD. Linked by the cargo carried in its boot. It’s the first car of significance in ASIB and appears on screen prior to the boomerang case. The man found in its boot is dead. The biggest mystery though is … this man shouldn’t be there at all.

‘... according to the flight details, this man was checked in on board. Inside his coat he’s got a stub from his boarding pass, napkins from the flight, even one of those special biscuits. Here’s his passport stamped in Berlin Airport. So this man should have died in a plane crash in Germany yesterday but instead he’s in a car boot in Southwark’

Later, in the same episode, the plane crash in Dusseldorf, Germany, will turn out to be the rehearsal of the flight of the dead. The ‘maiden flight’ of ‘the dead’ never takes off though. Irene Adler is able to get to the relevant informations. She passes them on to Jim Moriarty and the criminal mastermind thwarts Mycroft’s ‘neat’ plan entirely. 

In TFP, nine episodes later, Sherlock himself becomes the pilot of the ‘flight of the sleeping’ and safely lands that plane.

Sherlock Holmes baffled ...

That’s the title John chooses for the unsolved case of the dead man in the boot of the car. This title refers to a short American silent film from 1900. It’s the earliest known film which shows ACDs detective character Sherlock Holmes on screen (X). Here John’s post reaches 1895 hits before it freezes. 

The case immediately afterwards is the one in the theatre where Sherlock takes the deerstalker hat from the prop room to disguise himself because of the press waiting outside. (Stalking the Deerstalker)

Then Phil’s car 'explodes’, the Hiker’s head gets bashed-in and Mycroft (RATIO) orders his brother to take on the 'sex case’.

Series Four of Sherlock BBC sets a lot of circles in motion which move backwards before closing. It’s very interesting and thrilling and it reminds me of the snake biting its tail … the ouroboros. :)  (X X)

A last afterthought regarding the three linked cars and where they come from: 

HONDA is a Japanese brand

SAAB is a Swedish brand

ASTON MARTIN is a British brand

Locations and directions seem to play a big role in Sherlock BBC … not to mention the EAST. Considering this, the first car is linked to the Far East, the second one comes from a place east of, but much closer to Britain and the last one is British. This reminds me of Anderson’s map, shown in MHR, and Sherlock’s supposed journey homewards, leading him from Tibet to India to Hamburg, the Netherlands and France. He travels back home from the East ... like John from Afghanistan …..

May, 2019

I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

[whopooh]

Did someone say I do? The MFMM November challenge

Does this count as a wedding?

In November, there was time for wedding bells to ring—but also for plenty of twists about how to get there, or maybe not get there at all. The trope was “An (Un)Expected Marriage”, and this is really one of the tougher questions in the Miss Fisher world—in what circumstances could Phryne possibly be aligned with the idea of marriage? And how can Phryne and Jack find a joint view? This is a mystery just as much as the murder mysteries. The fandom, this month just as in others, decided to go all in to twist and turn the trope in different directions, except one, it seems: here are not really easy weddings without struggle or a special take. Just as the trope name suggests, as well as the collection teasingly called “Did I say I do?”, there’s room for all kinds of interpretations and surprises. 

Apologies for being late with this overview for November, I have had a bad case of RL—let’s just agree this fits with December as an amnesty month, okay?

First out are fics where the marriage happens to other people.

In 912luvejaxlean’s lovely “Something old”, the focus is on Dot and Mr Butler in the preparations for Dot’s wedding. Dot has for her Four Wishes something from Phryne and something from Mac, and then Mr Butler offers her something old. It’s perfectly sweet without being too sweet at all. There is the expected marriage coming up between Dot and Hugh, and there is the unexpected marriage in that we learn about Mr B’s backstory and marriage. There are so many lovely details, and the moment between Mr B and the young bride-to-be becomes a very meaningful one. “Mr. Butler looked down at the promise of Dot’s future arrayed upon Miss Fisher’s dining room table. He felt and remembered a past that was so long ago. Unable to meet the young woman’s eyes, he blinked back tears.”

Also @zannadubs23's “Altar’d State” is emotionally intense, although in a completely different setting. It plays a lot with the readers’ expectations, and unfortunately I’ll have to spoil it a little bit here. Reading the story, one might for quite some time think it is about Phryne and Jack marrying, and Jack being surprisingly tipsy on this occasion. That connection is definitely emphasized by a dialogue like this about Aunt P:

“It was very nice of her to throw this party,” Jack noted quietly, “even if it is awful. ‘Society’ can take a flying leap as far as I’m concerned,” he added as a quiet aside. “She adores you, Jack,” she said, “she knows how much this means to you, even if you won’t admit it.”

But @zannadubs23 has cleverly other options up her sleeve, and it turns out to be another couple marrying—and one of those two is very dear to Jack, and the cause for him drinking a little too much. It all makes sense in a lovely way.

Well, that was unexpected.

The next, and largest, section consists of fics that play with the idea of marriage in different ways, but dammit, many of us find it super hard to make them actually marry like normal people would! There are many different takes on this, and they are all delightful.

@longlineoftvdetectives, ”Well, that was unexpected…” plays with many things: the idea of the unexpected, the only one bed trope, and marriage as a ruse to get out of a difficult situation. It has a lovely set-up where Phryne and Jack have done that thing they often do in fic: take shelter in a cabin from an unrelenting weather. This time, though, the owner discovers them—and he has a gun. He doesn’t believe in Jack’s innocence, and there is a wonderful scene where Phryne steps in front of them, naked from the waist up, and stops the nonsense: ‘“He’s Detective Inspector Jack Robinson,” Phryne stated, her voice so loud and commanding that no man present could doubt the veracity of her statement. “I am his partner. And his wife.”’ It’s a great scene, and it’s even better as one of the (disputed but famous) stories of the original Phryne from ancient Greece is that she saved her own life by disrobing and baring her breasts in front of her judges.

Where @longlineoftvdetectives’ fic gives us marriage as a ruse, @221aubrina‘s delightful “Rules of Engagement” instead deals with the aftermath of such a ruse. Jack manages to flirt extensively with Phryne by reminding her she claimed they were engaged when they went to the RAAF base in “Murder and the Maiden”. He sends her a gift and writes in the letter “Imagine my surprise when driving onto RAAF Base 19 last month to find out that, not only was I engaged, but that I had no recollection of the proposal. I do pride myself in my ability of recall, but it seems that any and all memory of this particular incident has completely escaped me."

He also manages to suggest they meet up for dinner. Phryne is delighted with his letter—”Cheeky man! Who would have thought he’d grow so bold?”—and decides to answer in kind, although that chapter hasn’t been posted yet.

A fic that touches on the marriage trope is JustMyType, “Wrong Adventure”—her first fic in the fandom, welcome!—is a lovely fic that predominantly deals with the miscommunication trope, as Phryne has mistakenly managed to send a very harsh telegram to Jack from her travels with her father. In the end there is also a hint of the fake marriage trope, and to top it up there is a wonderful note where the writer laments the difficulty to get the characters to misbehave, and manages to cover an impressive amount of the tropes—fake marriage, metafiction, and finally also the Bonus October trope:

- Did she just mash another trope into the author notes? - Can we get that fourth wall back up now? It's getting cold in here. - Quickly! We need to warm up! * Well, at the South Pole they recommend skin to skin contact... - (eye rolls all round)

@firesign23, “A Multitude of Sins” is such a clever take on the trope, allowing Phryne and Jack to stay in a grey zone between marriage and non-marriage, and with both of them being completely in on it. It’s a lovely almost-marriage, dealing with the problems of both marrying and not marrying, and it’s told from the rather snarky perspective of Dot. Dotis meeting them at the port as they return to Australia, and wonders about the two of them: “Her miss had been rather vague about the specifics of who was travelling with her and how—Dot had enough sense to know that Inspector Robinson’s conveniently timed holiday was by no means a coincidence, but those two did have a remarkable knack for missed opportunities.” Dot is so in control of the situation, noticing everything and telling her husband off in an adorable way:

It was Hugh who spotted her first, raising a hand in acknowledgment before pausing. “That’s the inspector with her,” he said quietly. Dot smiled. “Hugh Collins, if you say one word to scare him off…” “Not certain we have to worry about that, Dottie. He’s just kissed her. In broad daylight.” Well, at least Doctor MacMillan wouldn’t have to get blindingly drunk before dinner as she’d threatened to do. It seemed Miss Fisher’s best friend was about as fed up with those two as Dot herself was.

Dot’s shock and disbelief when the two detectives relay that they’re married, and the way she manages to see through the unlikely marriage, are all lovely.

Also in @whopooh, “The Unintentional Eloper”, the marriage doesn’t come easy. The fic is written from the idea that Phryne and Jack are being outed as newly-weds and elopers—“Wedding bells ring for notorious flapper,” the newspaper states—although they never actually did it. But it’s all in the newspaper, so everyone is sure they’re married, including a fuming Aunt P. It’s a light-hearted start, but it quickly turns a bit problematic: how do you navigate an unorthodox and non-public relationship while outed as married? The consequences dawn on them and there are suddenly choices that aren’t so easy to make: “Phryne is shaken, realising she has changed identity for the world, but without her having any control of it herself. Are people thinking of her as a Mrs—a Mrs Robinson, even? Even as she knows she is deeply in love with the accompanying Mr Robinson, the unfamiliar identity still makes her shudder.”

I was definitely intent to make them choose what to do in this fic, but they insisted on leaving it up in the air; it seems I can’t make Phryne marry! 

Another take on this is the absolutely delightful trope is “they might not be married, but they’re still married af”. In @scruggzi's “In Perfect Balance”, they are not married but still sometimes behave in a rather conspicuous way, which dawns on Phryne when she realises they actually do have anniversaries. This combines a really rather romantic notion of the two of them relying on each other, while at the same time allowing the banter to be on a complete roll. Jack surprises Phryne every year on the anniversary of the kiss at the airfield, and for the 5th one, he has managed to take his flyer’s licence.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked, fully impressed by her partner’s efforts. “Don’t tell me your legendary powers of deduction have deserted you, Miss Fisher.” He exited the car and crossed over to open Phryne’s door, taking her hand as she stepped lightly down onto the grass. She spun in his arms, reaching up to kiss him swiftly on the lips. “I was attempting to employ my equally legendary powers of persuasion.” Jack, however was unmoved. “Clearly, I’ve acquired an immunity over the years, must have been a survival instinct.”

When Jack takes the wheel with a steady hand, he encourages Phryne to wing-walk, and that might be the sweetest metaphor for the balance in their relationship in existence; Phryne’s heart racing “in excitement and exhilaration as together they held their balance, risking everything in perfect safety.”

The conversation about why they never married is adorable, and I admit I squeed when I came to this dialogue and its way if being romantic in a very toned down way. Phryne has asked Jack if he regrets it:

“No, I don’t - I don’t think you were made to be any man’s wife, and, I think I’d rather be your partner than your husband in any case.” It was her turn to smile, tilting her head back to meet his eyes now the question was safely answered. “You would?” He nodded seriously, “Plausible deniability.”

@firesign23, “Le Pont des Amours” includes a similar idea of not-marrying, set in the most romantic place possible, a bridge of the name “The Lovers’ Bridge”. Above all the fic includes delicious banter between the two of them—as much as they have time to between the snogging. There’s even a small nod to the story of the ancient Phryne, as Phryne makes a suggestive remark to Jack and he answers: “Is that why we’re here? I’m not sure the French courts will admit bared breasts as evidence, and I doubt I could convince my colleagues of the necessity.”

Phryne feels the need to talk about why she could never marry, and Jack knows her well:

“I’m accustomed to living my life by my own rules—” “I hadn’t noticed.” She laughed again, eyes still focused on the lake. “There are very few things in my life that are non-negotiable. Life has thrown me enough surprises that I’ve learnt to bend with many of them. But the ability to…” she paused, her clearly rehearsed words failing her. “But the ability to walk away if a relationship becomes untenable… that is one place I cannot yield.” He studied her face for a moment. “It might surprise you, Miss Fisher, but having lived through years of estrangement and later court appointments… I understand that better than you might expect.”

But in the spirit of “we’re still married af”, she also tells a story about kissing on the middle of the bridge entailing you’ll stay together forever, and the banter turns deliciously nerdy and pedantic.

Of course, there are also stories where Phryne does tie the knots. Still, it’s rarely uncomplicated or completely “normal”. @hisreindeerjumper has in “people will say we’re in love” cleverly turned the problem around, still making Phryne a person not easily pegged. She and Jack are married, but secretly—their friends don’t know about it—so she’s still ducking the societal role of wife, and the bond they have forged has still nothing to do with society or expectations. @hisreindeerjumper has a real knack of making their relationship sweet, trusting, and very tight, and in this fic they stand on the side and contemplate their friends, who have come to their party but don’t know it’s an anniversary party.

“Here we are, married for ten years, and not a single one of them knows.” At this, Phryne turned towards Jack and grinned. “Isn’t it thrilling, to have kept it a secret for this long?” she said. Jack’s infamous half-smile told her that he agreed.

The fic also contains the brilliant line that kind of sums up the fic: “Only you would think of marriage as clandestine”.

In @longlineoftvdetectives second fic, “To Leopards Changing Their Spots” there is also a marriage, but it is not in the centre of the story or a pivotal part of it. She goes close to the events in the episode “Death Defying Feats” and gives the continuation from Jack’s perspective, also capturing the irrepressible side of Phryne’s father Henry.

She downed her drink in one gulp. “Father’s not staying for dinner,” she added. “Dinner,” Henry chimed. “Certainly, I have time to stay for dinner. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with Inspector Robinson. You’re staying, I hope, Inspector?” Jack looked to Phryne for guidance on the next answer. Of course, he was staying for dinner. He was the one invited to dinner.

I love that this fic continues on after what we see in the show, it feels like I’m allowed to peek into the things happening off-screen. This is completely credible as a continuation: ‘She moved in closer to him and placed a hand on his lapel, whispering, “Don’t you dare leave while I’m gone.”  / “I wouldn’t think of it, Miss Fisher,” he rumbled, holding her gaze, blissfully unaware that Henry was watching them intently.’ There is the ease between Phryne and Jack, the attentiveness of Henry, and the exact pinning of his character: “Conjuring bonhomie among men of all stripes was an instinctual skill that he had honed to a pinnacle before he ever attained the improbable heights of Baron.”

When the scene changes to the ballroom at the Grand, where Bert and Henry peek in as Phryne and Jack are waltzing, we’re allowed to witness Henry’s point-of-view and also a slight streak of sentiments: “Henry watched, rapt, as an expression of pride made its way unbidden across his face. Suddenly, it struck him that this might be the closest he’d ever come to seeing his daughter dance at her own wedding.” This theme of marriage comes back in the end with a wedding that is low-key and late, but beautiful.

luvjaxlean in “An Intelligent Woman” lets Phryne decide on marriage in the quickest and most en passant way possible. The main focus of the fic is other things: Jack’s work and possible promotion and the way they already live together, and the marriage part becomes more of an afterthought:

“And, societal norms demand that we marry. Now, you may speak.” She said as she removed her finger. “Uh, I…” “I thought you’d never ask. How does next month sound?”

It feels somehow befitting, that if Phryne would decide to marry, she could make a proper fuss about it, but she could also just decide on the course of action as the most natural thing, going with her spontaneous decision.

Did we just create the notion “romantic paperwork”, Miss Fisher?

A similar spontaneity or rashness we find in @ollyjayonline’s beautifully named “A Discourse on Marriage” . Also here, it is Phryne who takes the lead, and rather hastily, after being fed up with them having to be stealthy about their relationship—the scene of how their unorthodox relationship actually turns out to be limiting to her and what they can do is great. The fic makes this very credible, that she would just see how sensible it would be, and then she kind of forgets to actually check with Jack what he wants, which is an interesting part. Jack signs the paperwork and then asks what it is about. which beautifully echoes the time she signs paperwork for him in “Game, set and murder”, and it turns out he has made her a special constable. It speaks about their absolute trust in each other, at the same time that it pushes poor Jack rather too quickly. The last chapter is still not posted, and it’ll be very interesting to see where this leads.

The last section of this post is fics where either Phryne or Jack are involved in marying, more or less outright, but not each other.

@teaandbanjo in “Wilkommen Fräulein Robinson” takes the trope into a completely different setting. In a fic of small, beautiful moments and quirks, and dreams that nudge at the consciousness showing a possible alternate life, but still only being dreams, there is a husband and wife. The unexpected bit is who they are. The fic is both clever and sad, and it makes a convincing case of the question “what if…. Miss Fisher never happened?”

@geenee27​, ”Protest”, has such a clever premise—the idea that after Sanderson’s downfall, also other things he has touched would be questioned, including Jack’s and Rosie’s divorce granted by a man now implicated in the scandal. The realisation that Jack might still be married in the law’s eyes, and Phryne’s reaction to these news as Jack manages to blurt out “I got remarried today. Sort of”—it’s all lovely. The jolt of this possibility shakes them enough to come somewhat clear of what they feel about each other. The fic also has the lovely surprise of Jack hearing “a familiar sound of feminine heels” outside his office, but it turns out to be Rosie instead.

@tannie137-blog/Lady_Lola_Lu, “Scratches”—also a first MFMM fic, welcome!—is a thorough character study of Phryne and Jack, starting with Jack rather dismissively answering “Why would I want to do that?” when Phryne wonders if he’d want to marry. The conversation is about marriage, and it suggests how complicated this is for them even as none of them actually want to do it. The fic highlights insecurities, memories, and emotions from both sides, partly in relation to the half clandestine nature of their relationship, and partly from their different personalities and histories. In the very end, there is a cliff hanger that upends everything, but we know nothing of exactly how—until the possible continuation might come, that is.

@ollyjayonline, “French Appetites” is a delightful and teasing fic, set as a reunion fic that goes very wrong before it goes right. Jack comes after Phryne to England, but she is not meeting him at the port and when he seeks her out, she is gone. Henry Fisher gives him very low hopes—“I’m sorry, lad but she’s larking around Europe with some old friends, has been since we got here”—and when Jack retreats to his uncomfortable boarding room he’s almost giving up. Only through the delightful interference of Guy and Isabella (with a great perspective from Isabella, assessing “Phryne’s policeman” as sad, something that “added rather than detracted from his allure”) is Jack set on the right track, to seek Phryne out in Paris. When he comes there, he finds her in a wedding dress and with a husband, and there is some wonderful heartbreak, incredulity, fighting, and A Very Hurt Jack before the misunderstanding is cleared up—to give us the delicious scene of Phryne, dressed in an elaborate white wedding dress, kissing Jack on a busy footpath while the groom is standing awkwardly a few feet away (oh I would love to see fanart of this!). It all turns out to have been a case, but Phryne has married this young man for real, which allows Jack to actually have “a torrid affair with another man’s wife”.

“Come on Fannie Disher, what are you doing?”

I’ll end this overview with @flashofthefuse’s brilliant “Penny Dreadful”, that manages to bring in both the November trope and the October trope of metafiction (”there is fanfic in our universe”) in the same story. It is a both amusing and touching fic where Phryne finds a story that is suspiciously close to her life, about a Fannie Disher and an Inspector Jake Robertson. It turns out that Dot and her friend Alice take pleasure in writing this kind of fic. Phryne asks to read it, and what she reads is an over-dramatic and wonderfully caricatured version of fanfic—complete with a self-insert of Alice herself, under the telltale name Miss Winsome. It has metaphors like “The silence hung menacingly in the air above them like the blade of a guillotine”, but it also manages to be engaging and a good read.

There are several really interesting points in this fic. First, the way the fic is melodramatic in a fun way, where many fanfic writers likely can recognise herself a little. Second, that Phryne might laughs at it first (“It’s tragically romantic” says Dot, and Phryne thinks: ”A tragically romantic story featuring herself and Jack? She’d probably find it comical”), but as the story goes on she is truly affected by what she is reading, rooting for the characters.

Third, that Alice in the story can’t imagine a happy ending for the independent flapper and the steady policeman; instead giving Jake another woman to marry. Although Fannie and Jake declare their love for each other, and although Jake doesn’t want anything more than Fannie saying she wants him, both their hearts breaking at being separated, they cannot meet. Fannie goes on to live her free life, and they will forever both look back on each other with sadness and some longing. (This part is so poignant because it is also how many stories about ‘modern women’ historically were written. In the fic Fannie gets to say “I’d only make him unhappy in the end. He’d come to regret me. I can’t offer him what she can. I couldn’t be a proper companion to him. Not the way he’d want me to be.” I wrote a post about that two years ago, about how Phryne doesn’t have that sad turn when it comes to her love story.)

Fourth, the way the fictive story makes Phryne want reality to end differently, and the fic pushes her to do something about her own relationship with the inspector—this is set after “Murder and the Maiden” and then continues within “Murder and Mozzarella”. The whole set-up corresponds beautifully to the strain in their relationship because of Group Captain Compton, and makes Phryne’s feelings when she meets Concetta be even more appropriate.

So the unexpected wedding is the wedding in the fictive story, that forces Phryne to consider her own heart more thoroughly, affected by the story even as it annoys her. In the end, her love story doesn’t have to end like the fictive Fannie Disher’s, and the scene from the show where Phryne and Jack “make do” with each other is beautifully expanded,

This was all for the November trope—and this was also the last of my overviews of the monthly tropes of MFMM! December is trope amnesty month, where all the old tropes are open for addition, but no new trope has been proclaimed. It has been such a joy to follow the “MFMM year of tropes”, and to read all the amazing stories that have come out of these challenges. According to AO3 no less than 200 fics have been added into the collections by now! That is incredible.

It has been great fun to write these overviews, where I have tried to show how the tropes have been taken in different directions, and I hope that the overviews have been an encouragement for the writers, and perhaps have both led people to read some fics tey had otherwise missed and also see more clearly all these different choices that have been made in the fics. As well as fun it has also been a lot of work, so even as I’m sad it’s over, I’m also a bit relieved. My thought originally wasn’t to cover all the months, I just started to write about January because I found it so interesting, and then after a while it became a thing I decided to do. But now it’s done—the whole year is completed!

Thank you to @firesign23 for organising these challenges, and to every fic writer who has contributed to the trope collections—you are all wonderful!