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bebepac · 3 years ago

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The Rotten Apple 🍎: Part 2

Yep. I slipped down this rabbit hole again, with another part to this. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to go, or where I’m going with it to be honest. So I’m just going with it.

This continues my previous part of The Rotten Apple that was part of @twinkleallnight happy birthday Drake bash, in which I reintroduced my Evil Drake back to the Tumblrverse. Well Drake’s back with his poisonous fruit.

My evil Drake is first revealed in my first series I wrote, called Their Hidden Pain. It’s a very dark story line that differs from this because Liam does not kill Drake is this spin off but imprisons him for life in the palace jail. Ellie as in my alternate ending is Drake’s biological daughter and not Liam’s.

I am participating in @wackydrabbles prompt # 119 “Stop pinning this on me” which will appear in bold, since I was unable to finish this last week, it also has prompt # 118 in it “I didn’t think you were into that.” which will also appear in bold.

The Book: TRF

Pairings: Liam x Riley / Ellie x ?

Word Count: 1997

Warnings: Profanity, Insinuation of sexual experience, grief, drinking to excess, mental illness.

Rating: PG13

Summary: Ellie must hide the evidence of Nicolai’s murder, and concocts an elaborate plan to bring another to her side. Drake comes face to face with his daughter and has some things to say about her behavior. Nico continues grieving for his son’s death.

Nico, Damon, and mentions of Nic are my own characters, all others belong to Pixelberry.

A/N: I use the CCH again here, which is the Cordonia Coastal Highway.

Original Post Update: 11/6/21 at 5:10PM EST.

Ellie Walker went to the practice arena where the Junior guards trained. Ellie needed another that was as loyal to her as Nicolai was. She had always gone on Tuesdays before when Nico, her mother’s guard, was working and to her surprise, Damon was instead leading the junior guards in drills.

“Your Highness.” He greeted her when she walked in.

“Nico is usually here at this time slot.”

“He’s taking some bereavement time off, in light of recent events."

"Oh….. I understand."

What brings you here today?”

“I wanted to see our future guards in practice that will someday aid in protecting the crown.”

“We live to serve the crown!” The junior guards chanted.

“Please continue with your training Damon.”

Ellie sat in the elevated dais overseeing the training class. She spent time mentally critiquing each junior guard's performance, eyeing each one carefully. None of them were like Nicolai. he had been different, and none of them moved the way Nicolai did.

Nicolai was a carbon copy of his father and moved with the purposeful stealth and precision identically as his father. Both Nico and Nic could almost make themselves blend perfectly into the background, making themselves virtually invisible,

which she was sure was part of the reason why she hadn't noticed Nic following her, even with the passage ways, she had to pass by him unknowingly when she left Drake's cell, as she beat him to their spot and he didn't show up until later.

Maybe it was a mistake to kill someone so close to her that had shown her so much loyalty, because that loyalty could have been very valuable at the right time. Hell he screamed that he loved her after she had hit him with the scepter. He was in love with her as he died by her hands.

She had to find another Junior Guard.

"You're setting your sights too low Ellie. Why just a Junior Guard? You need a guard."

"That's a good idea Father."

His voice, Drake’s voice, was now a part of her thoughts.

Ellie was now in search of a guard.

And she found the right one faster than she thought.

He was a broken man, it would be easy to bend him to her will.

She could hear him weeping outside of the palace chapel.

"I mean it could work. He did teach Nicolai how to be loyal. What is your plan of attack, Ellie Walker?"

"You’ll see."

Ellie slipped into the chapel silently listening to him sobbing.

He sounded like his heart was completely broken because of Nicolai's death. She had single handedly inflicted so much pain on another’s life. She should feel guilty about what she had done, but she wasn’t capable.

"Why? Why did you have to take my son? I don't understand. First you took Daphne, and now him. Why am I cursed this way? Everyone I love..."

Nico had a past riddled with pain. Nico hadn’t done well in the realm of relationships. He was briefly infatuated with her mother, but that love was unrequited. Nicolai was the outcome of a one night stand with a childhood friend. When Nico found out about Nicolai’s existence, he did the noble thing, he wanted to make things work with Daphne, and they rekindled their relationship. When Nico had acquired larger quarters for a family, he sent for Daphne and Nic. They didn’t make it, as Daphne was involved in a car accident on the CCH that Nicolai was sole survivor of.

Nico had also dated Ana, her mother’s assistant, but that relationship had failed as well. After the last failed relationship, Nico gave up on romance and focused all his attention on being a single father to Nicolai.

Ellie reached to touch his shoulder. Before she could even apply pressure, he grabbed her hand, twisting it, and jumped up. He whirled around to face her, once he realized who it was, his demeanor immediately changed.

“Your Highness! My apologies. Are you hurt?”

Ellie cradled her wrist wincing in pain.

“I’m so sorry, please forgive me.” He whispered.

"It's alright, Nico. It doesn't hurt much. I should have announced myself. It's completely my fault, for sneaking up on you."

Nico wiped his tears away.

She looked up at him with tear filled eyes.

“I heard you as I was walking by. I miss Nic too. It just doesn’t seem real.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Do you mind if I sit with you for a bit?”

“No, I would really like the company.”

His eyes were on Ellie as she walked up and lit a candle bowing her head for a moment, then sitting next to Nico.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until an almost inaudible cry escaped Nico's lips.

Ellie didn't know what that felt like grief, emotional pain. In the folds of her dress, she pulled out her monogrammed handkerchief giving it to Nico.

"That's so thoughtful of you Princess." He took the handkerchief rubbing his eyes,

"It's nothing. Nothing at all."

“You’re just like your mother.”

“Thank you.”

That was by design. Everyone loved Queen Riley from the moment she landed in Cordonia. People were infatuated with this common born woman who was a waitress and pharmacy technician that took on their world by storm, and made them all believe she belonged there. She deserved the love of a then crown prince, and she was meant to be Queen of the country. Ellie modeled her ‘personality’ after watching so many clips of her mother over the years that it came second nature; it was almost like breathing.

Ellie’s phone beeped.

“I have to go. Time for princess lessons with Father.”

“Thank you for sitting with me for a bit. It meant a lot.”

She reached out to Nico and gently touched his hand. She noticed right away he didn’t flinch but relaxed into her touch.

“Your handkerchief?” He asked as she started to walk away.

“Keep it.” She smiled at him for a moment before continuing towards her father’s study.

That was enough for now she thought.

Drake's Cell

"Surprised to see you again so soon, Daughter."

"You were right about the voices, Father."

"You did what they asked?"

She nodded.

Drake sat in silence for a few moments.

"Was the guard's son you, Eleanor? You killed him?"

Ellie didn't answer his question, but instead gave a different response.

"Aren't you the one who said I am my Father's daughter?" Smirking at him.

"Stop pinning this on me! Eleanor, I warned you not to get caught."

"And I didn't Father."

"You don't do this shit in your own backyard Eleanor, where things can be traced back to you, with people so connected to you. That was my downfall. What do you think is going to happen when his father gets out of his grief and investigates the 'accident?' I'll tell you what. He will come for you with nothing short of biblical rage. He is the one that found all the evidence of my misdeeds Eleanor. He can catch you too. "

"I have a plan for that Father."

Drake shook his head. Her own hubris would be her own idiotic downfall.

Several Days Later

She had managed to see Nico several more times alone, and he seemed to be warming up to her in a different way. She could see the loneliness in his eyes, as he stared at her every time she saw him. That was something she could use. But she had to wait for the right time.

It was late, and there was silence throughout the palace. Ellie sat up in her bed. She only slept a few hours a night anyway at the very most. She needed to get rid of the bag that had the evidence of Nicolai. Night would be a good time to do that she thought, while the rest of her world was sleeping.

The wheels in her mind turned as she decided what would be the best way to get rid of the bloody clothing and blanket. Burying it seemed troublesome, she’d have to get the gardener's tools, and where would she bury it exactly? Washing it seemed pointless too as the blood would leave stains.

The incinerator. The voice said to her clear as a bell. That voice sounded like her Father’s voice. Her real father.

“That’s a great idea. Thank you Father.”

Something had to be done now, before anyone else noticed it. When she opened the closet door she could smell the odor of the dried blood. She grabbed the bag, sneaking out of the room, heading towards the incinerator.

She tossed the bag inside the incinerator; the flames engulfed the bag almost immediately destroying the evidence. The scepter she cleaned thoroughly with bleach and was back with the other crown jewels. She had gotten away with murder.

Ellie smiled, as she strolled calmly down the quiet halls towards her quarters but halted when she heard a noise in the adjacent corridor.

Nico was slumped against the balustrade, a bottle of alcohol nestled under his arm.

"Nico what are you doing?"

"Thought I would get some fresh air. The palace can be claustrophobic at times."

He took a large gulp from the bottle.

"Let me help you up."

She put Nico's bottle down, he jumped up, but his heightened level of intoxication caused him to fall into her. She stumbled backwards a few paces because his weight caught her by surprise. His arms slipped around her waist holding on to her securely.

As he loomed over her, Ellie stared up into Nico's eyes,

his hand softly grazing her cheek, before he pulled away.

"I didn't think you were into that. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Ellie Walker. This is not a good idea."

"Not now." She grumbled under her breath, to his voice, as Nico led her to his quarters.

"No more of this tonight, you should rest." Putting the bottle on the small table.

"Is that an order?" Nico chuckled.

"My first royal decree! Let's get you to bed."

Nico led her into the larger of the bedrooms.

"I can handle this part myself."

He slipped off his shoes, and took off his shirt in front of her.

Nico's chest was chiseled into perfection, with a very well defined six pack. She bit her lip as her eyes traveled down his chest. Ellie's heart was racing, and she was confused by it, and even more so by the steps she was taking towards him.

Ellie kissed Nico's lips and for a few moments he didn't pull away, need, desperation, and loneliness radiated from his kiss, before he gently pushed her away.

"You should leave Princess. This isn't a good idea for either of us."

Ellie kissed his cheek softly and left the room, but didn't leave his quarters.

After a bit of silently sleuthing through Nicolai's room which appeared to have been left untouched since his death, a nice black suit hanging from the door of his closet which was probably for Ellie's birthday party, Ellie crept back into Nico's room.

Nico was softly snoring in a deep sleep while Ellie stalked silently towards him.

She slipped out of her robe first, then her remaining gown and undergarments and under the covers with Nico. He moaned softly in his sleep from her touch.

The Next Morning

Nico was trained to wake up early and he did even though the excessive alcohol use he had been inflicting on his body to cope with the pain.

He grumbled clutching his forehead.

The soft moan he heard caused him to turn his attention to the person that was sleeping next to him in bed.

The crown princess was asleep stark naked next to him, and he was completely naked too.

"Fuck."

There was an empty condom wrapper on the bedside table.

"Shit."

Ellie rolled over in bed to face him, not shying away from revealing her bare skin to him.

"Good Morning." She whispered to him.

#bebepac writes #their hidden pain #the rotten apple #evil drake #evil ellie rys #trr fanfic #trr fandom #trh fanfic #trh fandom #wacky drabbles #choices fic writers creations #liam x riley #tw mental illness

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kyotakumrau · 4 years ago

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2021.03.10 USEN STUDIO COAST 2nd session with Toshiya and Kyo

Fujieda and Takabayashi again came on stage when the tables were ready and after greeting everyone and introducing themselves F asked fans to give band members a loud applause👏

Toshiya and Kyo came back and they both changed for the second session!

Unconfirmed until DIRT announcement, but most likely T was wearing DIRT items: light grey cardigan and black and white floral print set, top and bottom, with a thick white stripe with black frame on the sides. Plus sunglasses.

Kyo was wearing Madaraningen, MANG white shirt with the tie and black slacks, white socks with colorful accent, gold choice of Madara jewellery. And big glasses.

They sat in the same order as for the 1st session.→F K T Ta

T: I'm Toshiya, yoroshiku onegaishimasu

K: I'm Kyo.

The whole time during the 1st session K was turned slightly to the right, but during the 2nd session he was basically sitting facing F.

F: (after he talked about Rock-May-Kan footage) It's the first time you performed Ochita koto no aru sora. Did you have any trouble with it?

T: hm. Chorus is hard.

F: continues fast.

T: yeah. But you just practice and get used to playing it.

F: Shinya said that thanks to the rehearsal you did as the rhythm section songs he got them back quickly.

T: I see. He should be grateful😆

F: How about you, K? Any trouble?

K: don't know (he's looking to the left side of the venue)

F: you've only performed it once.

K: wah! (still intensely looking at the left wall of the venue or somewhere that direction)

F: 😱?! why are you looking there?? Can you see anything?!

K: thingy there is moving and moving...

F: whaaaaat, don't scare us like that!

K: ... (he continued to look there).

👻？😂

F: Didn't you play Jealous first time in a really long time? Wasn't it hard?

T: it wasn't a big surprise, we were planning it originally for the SOGAI tour.

F: the cancelled tour.

T: We were waiting until the last moment to see if we can go on with it or we have to cancel, so we had the proper rehearsal for the tour. So when rehearsing it for Rock-May-Kan show it didn't feel like it's been a long time.

F: K you said it was embarrassing to remember and perform it?

K made the 'robot move' from PV with a totally blank face😂

F: you also played Umbrella, so will you be playing more old songs?

K: Anything is okay except 'Toriko'. There's a drums solo in the end, it's so long and the switch to the next song gets so confusing.

T: How about we leave S and just go?

😂

Then they talked how Shinya fans and other fans would react.

K: Wouldn't fans be troubled with [he made the robot move]?

😆

F: you T don't mind old songs?

T: they're fine/no problem.

F moved the talk to the flyer and their new artist photo.

K: Auspicious/celebrating. Like New Year. And osechi.

F: I see, if using food to explain it's like osechi.

F: How was the filming of the PV?

T: Really long. But speaking of refreshing/Sawayaka, do you know the hamburger shop with that name?

F: it's in Shizuoka (F then again got very enthusiastic talking about how delicious is the meat there, how very juicy etc)

T: so PV is like that (like a juicy meat😂).

F: the single cover art is very unexpected for you.

K: I know and like this artist from before, I asked her to do it for us. I really like it.

After that was time for the merchandise topic. F announced that he confirmed that the rechargeable heat pack can also work as a charger/power bank. K who asked about it in Yokohama and was then told that no, it's just a heat pack just gave him such a look. F, you're not gonna get out of this alive😂

K: ...it'd be such a good item in winter, so it's for the next one? We don't sell it in winter, only for warm season. Wow, heat pack for the warm season...

/s by K👌💯

F started to enthusiastically advertise the towel saying like a muffler it can be worn on a cold day to keep you warm, and K...😂

But T was also poking so much fun at F with his reactions, 'oh I see! Wow!' 😂

T: I think we haven't had wristbands in a while.

K: what are you actually supposed to do with it?

F: you can wipe the sweat off (he gestured wiping sweat from his brow)?

K: I see. Then what about the towel then? (he also gestured using a towel with one hand and a wristband with the other at the same time [kinda like the Jealous robot move], the look he gave F and that pause when he waited for F to dare to answer, oh my, F, you're so dead🤣)

But T and Ta said that guitarists actually use it to keep sweat off their hands etc.

K: so with all of these fans are settled for the show at Tokyo Garden Theater? (F was nodding to all listed items) These and the ticket and we're good? And the train ticket? Ah no, commuter pass? What should they wear? (F: The hoodie) But then we don't sell any bottoms, should fans go without any pants? What? But we have two items to wipe sweat!

F: fans can bring the travel pouch, usb, they all fit perfectly in the bag! All good items especially if you come from outside of Tokyo.

K: and no bottoms😆

F: well, they need extra money for the ticket and their own bottoms.💦

F also advertised venue limited edition of Ochita.

K: so there are no plans for normal sale? When it gets sold out that's it?

F: yeah.

(it's contradictory with Kaoru's tweet, not sure if I trust F😂)

After that we moved to the section with questions from fans. F as usual split the papers so everyone got some, K this time didn't even read them, just putting them in F's pile😂 but then he was leaning over all the time trying to read what F was looking at😁

F said there many questions about where T stands on the seat choice.

T: on shinkansen I prefer window, on the airplane aisle.

F: why?

T: if I need to stand up to go to toilet etc it's easier.

F: but on the train you prefer a nice view, I see. Shinya said he prefers window seat any time.

T: He's a kid.

F then told her about the rest of the seat preference story (table down idea and S not needing to stand up at all).

F: "are you okay with the pineapple in a sweet and sour pork? Is there any food you're not okay with?"

K: I don't mind. I don't like milk and coriander. But there's something, not exactly food, that I totally hate. You know when you go to a shushi restaurant, conveyor belt sushi, there's alcohol to clean your hands. (K then said if there's a perfume like smell in it you can't enjoy food or something like that).

K (looking at the venue wall calmly): oh it moved.

F: WHAT??!😱

😂

T: I don't mind the pineapple, it's actually very good to help make meat more tender

F: Is there any food you hate, T?

T: The food F doesn't like.

(does it exist??😂)

K: F, you have to understand pineapple's feelings.

K: I thought you F would get pineapple's feelings.

F: I'll try to step in pineapple's shoes...

K: Pineapple is often disliked, but it's being helpful...

K tried to sway F a bit more into becoming a pineapple...

Ta: I'm ok with it, pineapple's feelings are safe.

T: "please tell us F's one good point and one thing you would like him to improve". F is so popular.

F: Not at all😅

K: despite the pineapple...

F: so, T?

T: He can appreciate food/has good appetite, is energetic. Something to fix is that he answers everything with そうっすね/yeahsure

F: K said something similar.

T: About Tooru (he used Takabayashi's given name), he's very good at laying groundwork for projects. Something to improve... well, when I think of something I'll let you know (to Ta).

Ta: Anytime.

K: Ta's good point, he does his job in a matter of fact manner. He doesn't exactly has something to fix, but he can't eat cheese, so fe when we go abroad he can't have pizza.

K: there are so many things F should fix.

F: That ﾊｲﾊｲﾊｲ・yeahyeahyeah

K: ...🙃 just answer with one proper はい

K also complained again about F's eating manners that he opens his mouth too much when eating, sometimes also will turn his head when eating ramen like it's easier to eat (K demostrated F eating posture, arms high and head turned - a bit like Jealous robot pose😆)

F: any good points?😆

K: ...hm. You make every place comfortable. I can relax with you, I wouldn't be speaking at all if you weren't here.

Both fans and F went 'Aaaaaw😊'

Ta: "are there any electronic goods you want right now?"

K: ...hm, solar panels.

F: does that count as electronic goods?

K: isn't it electronic? I want one you can put on the roof and make your own power.

T: yeah, solar panels would be nice.

K: And you can sell electricity to power companies. It's expensive at first, but after 10 years you can start make money, also you can use it if there's an earthquake.

F: can we get it at the store?

K: Why not, you could carry it home on your back!

F: Maybe not...

K: Can I put one on you F?

F: No.

K: then tattoo the giraffe on you, one long giraffe stretching from neck to knees.

F: You like giraffes.

K: Yes (noded)

K got so excited about the giraffe, F won't hear the emd of this idea😂

F: " do you have a favorite female idol or singer?"

K: This morning I was listening to Togawa Jun, レーダーマン.

F: you T?

T: No one in particular. But ones from the past.

F: like globe?

T: isn't it wrong age?

K: globe is the band with Sam?

F: I think that's TRF, in globe it's Mark Panther and Komuro Tetsuya.

F: "how about favorite artist or band you like?" Or just music you like.

K: I'm listening now to Sekiri (赤痢), an old female band.

F: foreign band?

K: From Japan, with 3 female members.

T: I just use shuffle, listen to music without choosing who to listen to.

F: It's a streaming age now.

T: Is it?😆

F: Ok we still have plenty of time, "what's your shoe size?"

K: 24.5, for sports shoes 25.5.

T: 27, for sports I go bigger, maybe 28 or 29. Boots are better just right. But why do you need such information?😅

F: Usually fans can't ask such things, like do you pull your hoodie strings? (?)

K: I don't.

T: it depends on my mood.

F: ok, not much time left now, we will finish soon.

T: but you just said we have plenty??😆

Ta: "what your favorite album/single cover art?"

T: to pick just one is tough.

Ta: S said that Oboro is in his top 5 now.

T: Favorite cover... hm... what is it, I know, MISSA!😆

F: it's cool, it has members photo.

T: it does?😂

K: For me its DUM. It really captured album's worldview.

F (unsure): are you angry?

K: S answered that Oboro is in his top 5 to the question what's your favorite? Why?😑

F explained the situation, that it wasn't to the same question, K just replied 'I see'.

And then when F just wanted to finish K said they should do all of the leftover questions, but without thinking too long, very rapid q&a

(and absolute nightmare to write down but so SO entertaining🤣 sorry I'm not sure about all the questions it was TOO FAST)

K: hurry up!

F: (something about some time in their life)

K: now, next.

F: what about T?

K just rushed him😆

F: food you want to eat now.

K: choboyaki

F: T, a fragrance you like (?)

T: Aroma.

F: sakura season will start soon, do you have favorite spot?

K: when is soon supposed to be?

F: T, is there something you want now?

T: No.

F: K, do you color your hair by yourself?

K: Yes, next.

F: Bread or rice?

T: Both.

F: what do you buy in convenience store?

K: sweets

F: what do you do first after waking up?

T: open eyes.

D: which convenience store do you like best?

K: Convenience store.

F: do you eat skin on the chicken?

T: I like the skin best.

F: (how do you deal with stress??)

K: stress.

F: T, do you sleep naked or wear pajama to bed?

T: Pajama.

F: (something about Oboro photo shoot???)

K did the robot move in reply😆

F: which style of clothes you like when shopping?

T: simple.

F: To finish, what's your favourite obento side dish?

K (gave F disbelieving look): You want to finish with this?

F: We asked others tok, everyone had different preferences.

K: what were other members answers?

F: for Kaoru green beans or asparagus, for S hamburger, Die... we talked yesterday, but what was it?

K (seriously): I like unagi.

(marinated eel is delicious, but also very expensive, so definitely not a side😅)

F: it's delicious.

K: It is.

T: is this really needed? Don't have one, just nothing that makes food soggy... Ah, but you know when you have a pickled plum on your rice, you move it and there's this pink spot with plum flavor? I like that!

Then it was really the end and time for the last comments.

Kyo: I don't have anything.

F: By this you surely mean you're looking forward to seeing everyone in May...

K (killer face): ...💢

Toshiya: Thank you for coming today. We are having a concert in Tokyo Garden Theater on May 6th, please come if you want to. Thank you.

#dir en grey #kyo #京 #toshiya #爆音会 #目黒鹿鳴館gig #talk event #attempt at live report

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ebaeschnbliah · 4 years ago

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SHERLOCK’S WEBSITE

‘Reading the document is the same as seeing the author’

This says a Chinese proverb (X). What does it mean then, when John tells Sherlock in A Scandal in Belgravia: ‘nobody is reading your website’?

SHERLOCK: I have a website. JOHN: In which you enumerate two hundred and forty different types of tobacco ash. Nobody’s reading your website.

Some more musings about Sherlock’s website ‘The Science of Deduction’ and its content below the cut ...

Just a little while later in the same episode - while he writes aboout the unsolved plane crash case in Düsseldorf ... ‘Sherlock Holmes baffled’ - John describes his own blog as Sherlock’s ‘living’.

JOHN: Look at that. One thousand, eight hundred and ninety-five. SHERLOCK: Sorry, what? JOHN: I re-set that counter last night. This blog has had nearly two thousand hits in the last eight hours. This is your living, Sherlock – not two hundred and forty different types of tobacco ash. SHERLOCK: Two hundred and forty-three.

‘This is your living’ is basically the same as ‘this is your life’. This is YOU. The way John describes Sherlock on his own blog, shapes how the public eye views the great detective. The same way as Dr Watson did in canon in his stories for The Strand. This fact becomes even more clear during the greenhouse scene in TAB. Although Dr Watson is aware that he doesn’t tell the truth about Holmes, he doesn’t change his stories about him either.

HOLMES: .... as I have often explained before, all emotion is abhorrent to me. It is the grit in a sensitive instrument ... the crack in the lens. WATSON: Yes. HOLMES: Well, there you are, you see? I’ve said it all before. WATSON: No, I wrote all that. You’re quoting yourself from The Strand Magazine. HOLMES: Well, exactly. WATSON: No, those are my words, not yours! That is the version of you that I present to the public: the brain without a heart; the calculating machine. I write all of that, Holmes, and the readers lap it up, but I do not believe it.

If John’s statement ‘my blog is your living’ can be translated into ‘my blog is your life’ - my blog is YOU - what then can be said about John’s other comment, regarding Sherlock’s website ‘The Science of Deduction’, when he tells Sherlock: ‘nobody’s reading your website’? If the document, the blog, the website reflects the personality of the writer, the author and when nobody is reading Sherlock’s website because nobody is interested in its content ... doesn’t this translate into: 'nobody’s interested in who you really are’? I assume one can indeed read it that way, because the plot confirms such a translation as well.

Oh, don’t worry. I know who you really are. I’m never off your website. (THOB, Dr Frankland)

If Dr Frankland knows who Sherlock really is, just by looking at his website - at Sherlock, the author - maybe it would be a good idea to take a look as well. ... the same way Sherlock advices Kitty Riley in TRF: ‘Well, look at ME and tell me what you see ... you can just read what you need’.

First of all, I’m not going to use the external internet website created for Sherlock BBC in this post. @possiblyimbiassed did already a detailed and very interesting analysis of it in ‘The Science of Reduction’. In the comments of that post I tried to exlpain the reasons for my doubts as to whether those external informations - as fascinating and tempting as they are - could lead to a solution for the story told on TV. Anyway, in this post I’m going to look at Sherlock’s website just as it is presented on screen. But what can be deduced about The Sciene of Deduction by using solely informations from TV? There’s not much to go on, one might say ... and as I’m no Sherlock Holmes either, I will most likely ‘miss almost everything of importance’, like John did with Carl’s shoes. But looking at Sherlock, the author, is definitely worth a try ... :))))

The Science of Deduction

Sherlock’s website ‘The Science of Deduction’ can be seen already in the Unaired PILOT when he is about to answer requests from various people. The very first message he is just writing, is directed at his brother Mycroft who apparently contacted him in a somewhat ... ‘impossible situation’. Sherlock’s answer is a quote from canon, probably the most well known and often used statement of the great detective ... in canon as well as in many adaptations:

Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth. (The Sign of the Four)

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? (The Sign of the Four)

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet)

We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans)

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (Adventure of the Blanched Soldier)

Five more requests wait for Sherlock’s attention. His Inbox is indeed well filled ... at least six possible cases ...

Sherlock answers Gregson’s request about a ‘Church bell theft’. This done, he is clearly pleased about DI Lestrade’s not very informative message ‘Please call me’. When he is about to answer Jones request about ‘Samson and Del’, Mike Stamford and John Watson enter the room and Sherlock stops working through his Inbox.

The next day Sherlock and John meet for the first time at Baker Street 221b. John mentions that he’d found Sherlock’s website the night prior but contrary to Sherlock’s big expectations, John isn’t much impressed (unlike Jeff Hope who thinks Sherlock’s Science of Deduction is brilliant). This scene happens in both versions - PILOT and ASIP - almost identically.

JOHN: Oh, I, um, looked you up on the internet last night. SHERLOCK: Anything interesting? JOHN: Found your website, The Science of Deduction. SHERLOCK: What did you think? JOHN: Quite amusing, I suppose. SHERLOCK: “Amusing”? JOHN: You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and – what was it? – a retired plumber by his left hand. SHERLOCK: Yes; and I can read your military career by your face and your leg, and your brother’s drinking habits by your mobile phone. JOHN: How? SHERLOCK: You read the article. JOHN: The article was absurd. SHERLOCK: But I know about his drinking habits. I even know that he left his wife.

Sherlock BBC, PILOT

One of the small and also strange differences between the two versions is the ‘identification’ text line from Sherlock’s website, quoted by John. In PILOT Sherlock refers to a plumber and his left hand and in ASIP to an airline pilot and his left thumb. “It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles” tells Holmes in The Man with the Twisted Lip and “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important” in A Case of Identity. A lot of such little, seemingly unnecessary modifications and inconsistencies can be found throughout this adaptation. Maybe they are indeed there for a reason?

JOHN: I looked you up on the internet last night. SHERLOCK: Anything interesting? JOHN: Found your website, The Science of Deduction. SHERLOCK: What did you think? JOHN: You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and an airline pilot by his left thumb. SHERLOCK: Yes; and I can read your military career in your face and your leg, and your brother’s drinking habits in your mobile phone. JOHN: How?

Sherlock BBC, ASIP

Why had the profession to be changed from plumber to airline pilot and the body part from hand to thumb, one wonders? Unless it’s because plumbers have to do with water and work down to earth or even underground. They install pipes/tubes or mend broken ones. By the way, in german language the phrase ‘install a pipe’ (ein Rohr verlegen) has the same meaning as the english ‘put up shelves’. Airline pilots on the other hand often tend to be situated high up above the clouds. Well, this sort of topic runs like a red thread throuout the whole story. And that strange change of profession isn’t the only ‘small’ modification from PILOT to ASIP either.

(Strange little changes Plumber musings)

Also interesting ... there are no visuals of Sherlock’s website in the official episodes ASIP and TBB. Only in the following episode, TGG, the viewer is able to take a first ‘official’ look at The Science of Deductions, when Sherlock writes his messages to the bomber. The look of his website has changed completely.

The Great Game: the first entry in the Forum is about Carl Powers shoes and botulinum toxin ... that’s the reason for food poisoning. (Under the microscope)

Next time the website can be seen, is after Sherlock solved the second case and sends his congratulations regarding Ian Monford’s relocation to Columbia ...

And a third time when Sherlock has solved the murder of Conny Prince ...

There is no picture of Sherlock’s website connected to the fake Vermeer painting because this time Sherlock sends the solution not on his laptop but uses the pink phone dublicate instead (Yes, besides 2 Johns, 2 Faiths, 2 Charles, 2 serial killers, 2 empty houses, 2 flights of the dead, various pairs, doubles, twins ... etc, etc ... there are also 2 pink phones present in Sherlock BBC). Anyway, the Science of Deduction can be seen again when Sherlock suggests a meeting with the bomber at the same pool, where once little Carl died, to hand over the stolen missile defence plans ...

There’s no picture of Sherlock’s website in ASIB. The Science of Deduction turns up only in the two short but very interesting pieces of dialogue between John and Sherlock with which I started this post.

John utters the opinion that their clients come to Baker Street just because of his blog. Sherlock reminds him that he too has a website. John then mockingly mentions Sherlock’s analysis of 240 different types of tobacco ash on said website and adds ‘nobody is reading your website’. Sherlock is clearly offended and corrects the number of tobacco ashes from 240 to 243. Some time later John raises the tobacco-ash topic once more, proudly refers to his own blog - and the 1895 hits on it - and tells Sherlock ‘this is your living’.

The next visual presentation of the website can be seen in THOB, when Sherlock shows John the Inbox message of little Kirsty about her vanished, luminous rabbit Bluebell ...

In the same episode Sherlock tells Mrs Hudson that a ‘little blog on the identification of perfumes’ can be found on his website. It turns out that Sherlock hasn’t only extensive knowledge regarding ash, he also knows a lot about perfumes. (Perfumes in Sherlock BBC by @gosherlocked )

The HOUND-episode is also the one in which Dr Frankland tells Sherlock: ’I know who you really are. I’m never off your website’. The Baskerville scientist knows John’s blog as well and is a bit confused that Sherlock isn’t wearing the deerstalker hat, as shown there.

The Science of Deductions turns up next in TRF, in an newspaper article about the recovery of Turner’s masterpiece, the ‘Falls of the Reichenbach’, that Sherlock was able to recover (last line on the left column).

Sherlock’s website is mentioned a last time in TSOT. Not on Sherlock’s laptop but on John’s phone. Mary suggests that John should go on a case with Sherlock. John opens The Science of Deduction on his own phone and asks Sherlock to pick a case from his already ‘bursting Inbox’. Sherlock chooses The Bloody Guardsman. Sadly it’s impossible to get a clear shot of the small mobile-screen. (John’s blog stops at TSOT by @gosherlocked)

THE LOOK

Blue is the main colour Sherlock has chosen for his website ... shades of different blue ... a dark midnight blue and the skyline of a city by night can be dimly seen in the background and - a little bit clearer - on both sides.

As Sherlock Holmes is one of London’s most popular characters, it’s easy to assume that the skyline used for his website is that of GBs capital. With this in mind, the water in the bottom right corner, that can be seen rather good on the first pic above, should be the Thames and the shallow arch above it, most likely one of its many bridges. On the opposite site, in the upper left corner, next to the small, pale tower and right behind the ‘The’ of the website’s headline, the vast vault of Saint Paul’s Cathedral can be dimly seen (the view is better on a TV screen).

If one connects the images of river and bridge on the left with St Paul’s on the right, I guess the background of Sherlock’s website could be a panorama photo similar to the one below. That’s a view from the Southbank of the Thames with Blackfriars Bridge in the foreground. And this location does play a role in the story ....

Blackfriars Bridge is located between Southwark Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. The name derives from Black Freres ... the French 'frère' meaning 'brother'. This referes to the black habits of the Dominican monks. A monk is also called a brother, a nun is also called a sister and the opposite of a ‘black brother’ would be a (ghostly) ‘white sister’. Just saying. :)

(The Roads we walk Vatican Cameos A Christmas Tale)

As mentioned above, this particular cityscape plays a role in Sherlock BBC. It’s a crime scene from TGG.

SHERLOCK: View of the Thames. South Bank – somewhere between Southwark Bridge and Waterloo.

At this place, Alex Woodbridge was found, the security guard and hobby stargazer, killed by the Golem, in the Vermeer case ... the same case which doesn’t turn up in the messages on Sherlock’s website because he uses the pink phone and conveys the solution verbally. Viewed metaphorically ... he speaks through the heart.

Blue is the colour of the sky ... high up, where the aeroplanes fly. Blue is also the colour of the water, deep down below ... where powerful emotions run freely and London is Sherlock’s city. The country, the city, the houses, even cars are closely linked to the famous detective. They seem to represent his ‘body’.

Just put me back in London. I need to get to know the place again, breathe it in – feel every quiver of its beating heart. (Sherlock, TEH)

Brother Mycroft IS government and ‘queen’ at the same time. There are all kinds of networks above and below ground and steam trains run behind fake facades. Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the river Thames are often special eye-catcher. The coat of arms ... with dragon, lion and Saint George’s cross ... make their appearance as well as the great fire of London in 1666, the Isle of Dogs and the Greenwich pips. ‘Transport’ goes from standstill to movement ....

666-The number of the beast Every quiver of his beating heart Saint Paul’s Cathedral Still at the centre of the web From standstill to movement

WEBSITE ... A SITE FOR THE WEB

Sherlock has a website .... John has a blog. Why the difference? Both men, Sherlock and John, are given strongly internet-related nicknames ... Hat-man and Robin:The web detectives ... Sherlock & John: Blogger Detectives. Sherlock is also called ‘Net Tec’ and ‘net phenomenon’. What’s the difference between Blog and Website:

BLOG: The word ‘blog’ is short for ‘weblog’ (web=net + log=logbook), jokingly broken into the phrase ‘we blog’. A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. 'Blog' and 'blogging' are now loosely used for content creation and sharing on social media, especially when the content is long-form and one creates and shares content on regular basis. (X)

WEBSITE: The word website consists of web=net + site=place. Literally web-site means ‘a place in the net’. A website can be used in various fashions: a personal website, a corporate website for a company, a government website, an organization website, etc. Websites can be the work of an individual, a business or other organization, and are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web. (X)

Of course, the word ‘web’ immediately reminds me of Jim Moriarty. The spider at the centre of a criminal web, woven with thousands of threads and Jim knows precisely how each and every single one of them dances. Sherlock is going to monitor the underworld in order to notice every quiver of that web, so he will notice when the spider makes his move.

As mentioned above, all kinds of networks - above and below ground - play a major role in Sherlock BBC. There are Mycroft’s people, his agents and spies. There are terrorists who threaten London with a massive attack. General Shan has a vast network with thousands of operatives and Sherlock calls it ‘a cult’. A surveillance web is closing in on Baker Street, their attention focussed on Sherlock. An Underground network as well as an underground network runs below the surface of the big city. A secret cult of revenging birdes meets in the crypt of a desanctified church. Sherlock is convinced that the ‘world is woven from billions of lives, every strand crossing every other. What we call premonition is just movement of the web. If you could attenuate to every strand of quivering data, the future would be entirely calculable, as inevitable as mathematics’. So many threads - linked and interwoven - they create a web, a net .... a web-net. Basically, that’s exactly how brains work as well. Every brain is a very vast and highly functional biological network ... and Sherlock’s is faster than most ‘... still catching up with my brain. It’s terribly fast’.

Recent models in modern neuroscience treat the brain as a biological computer, very different in mechanism from an electronic computer, but similar in the sense that it acquires information from the surrounding world, stores it, and processes it in a variety of ways. Neurons typically communicate with one another by means of long fibers, which carry trains of signal pulses to distant parts of the brain or body. (X)

And then there's also Sherlock’s ‘own’ network ... the ‘homeless network’ it is called. According to Sherlock, it is ‘indispensible and faster than the police’. Those group of people is based on the Baker Street Irregulars from canon. There, in Victorian London, they are street boys, sometimes employed by Holmes to run errands for him. Holmes speaks of them as ‘division of the detecitve police force’. Dr Watson describes them as ‘little scoundrels’ and ‘half a dozen of the dirtiest and most ragged street Arabs that ever I clapped eyes on’.

While the idea of homeless people who sometimes assist Sherlock in his cases is taken from canon, the name - homeless network - is not. Names are always important in this story. So basically, what is a homless network? It is a network that has no home. At times it is usefull for Sherlock and he pays them for their help. In a way this reminds me of Eurus. She says abut herself: 'to remember everything one just needs a big enough hard drive’. Her intellectual abilities are also of occasional use for the government. In return she requires treats. Similar to Sherlock’s homeless network, Eurus has no home either. She lost it long ago in her childhood days. Sherlock has a website ... a site, a place in the web ... but only very few people are interested in it. Actually just Jeff Hope and Dr Frankland as it seems. Sherlock has a homless network ... a network without a home.

The women of the ‘cult’ from TAB first gave me the idea that all those dangerous groups ... agents, spies, terrorists and the various networks ... could actually be metaphors for something that happens inside Sherlock’s mind. That all those groups represent the awakening of emotional stirrings ... desires, fears, impulses ... that haunt the great detective. There seem to be aspects of Sherlock’s personality which he views as rightous criminal and puts them behind padded walls or elephant glass. Others are just annoying and distracting. Some he ignores most of the time because he considers them to be irrelevant for his system. Some have no home, although they turn out to be usefull now and then. Then something unexpected happens ... something new is coming ... and this marks the beginning of a change of perception in Sherlock Holmes, maybe a revolution.

The reptile in 221b Underground networks AGRA-Under the sign of four Eurus, the emotional memory & The cold war by @raggedyblue

FOUR MESSAGES and a GAP

Four messages can be read on Sherlock’s website. All of them are from TGG, related to four of the five cases, written by Sherlock and directed at ‘the bomber’. As it turns out at the end of the episode, this person is none other than Jim Moriarty, the spider in the centre of the web.

FOUND. Pair of trainers belonging to Carl Powers (1978-1989). Botulinum toxin still present. Apply 221b Baker St.

Congratulations to Ian Monkford on his relocation to Columbia.

Raoul de Santos, the house-boy, botox.

xxx

Found. The Bruce-Partington plans. Please collect. The Pool. Midnight.

Only one of the cold cases is not mentioned on Sherlock’s website, because Sherlock uses the pink phone duplicate, sent to him by the bomber in a strong box at the beginning of the ‘great game’, to submit his message. Sometimes it is useful to ‘mind the gap’ as Sherlock says. Sometimes that, what is left out, is just as important as that, what is there. The ‘gap-case’ is the one about the fake Vermeer painting, whose forgery was first noticed by security guard and hobby stargazer Alex Woodbridge, murdered because of it by the Golem. His body was found at the Southbank of the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge ... the same location Sherlock uses as background for his website. Sherlock discovers and proves the truth due to the display of an impossible supernova on the painting.

A picture pretends to show a scene from the past, but the massive explosion painted on it reveals, that the picture has actually been created much more recently. That massive explosion had never happened in the past.

The bomber’s hostage in the Vermeer case is a kid who is never shown on screen. The little boy transmittes a countdown from 10 to 1, that mirrors Sherlock’s own countdown in TFP (Countdown) while the boy’s plea for help mirrors that of the girl on the plane and also that of Victor Trevor, the boy in the well near Musgrave Hall. Victor Trevor and Musgrave Hall represent two canon stories - The Adventure of the Gloria Scott and The Musgrave Ritual - both set in Sherlock Holmes’ university time, long before he met Dr Watson. Both cases lead back to a time ‘where Sherlock began’.

(Why Victor Trevor was turned into a child by @sagestreet)

THE HOUND & THE GUARDSMEN

Little Kirsty Stapleton’s cry for help in THOB to ‘please, please, please’ find Bluebell, her vanished, luminous rabbit, marks the beginning of the HOUND case. Chemistry, triggered by the pressure of feet, fills the air and drives everyone exposed to it, crazy. Love is in the air .... At the end Jim Moriarty (Mr Sex) walks free, released from his cell by Mycroft Holmes himself ...

Private Stephen Bainbridge’s request in TSOT, regarding a mysterious stalker, marks the beginning of the GUARDSMEN case. Jonathan Small (literally: Jonny Little), a brilliant, ruthless monomaniac (who strongly reminds me of Jim Moriarty), stabbs guardians/facades with a ‘meat dagger’. At the end Mary Watson is pregnant ... ‘stabbed’ by ‘Johnny boy’ (Hamish=James) Watson ... the HOUND hidden behind the facade of the facade .... Matroshka ‘poppets’ indeed.

“Mary – lots of love ... poppet ... oodles of love and heaps of good wishes from CAM.” (Telegram from Magnussen, keeper of the deepest and darkest secrets and scandals,TSOT)

THE BLUEBELL COMPANIONS

Alongside little Kirsty’s message about Bluebell there appear two more requests on the Inbox page of Sherlock’s website (they can be easily read on TV screen). In films neiter images and certainly not texts appear on screen out of coincidence. Pictures are there for certain reasons, even if it’s just for the purpose of a fitting decoration. Texts on the other hand are much more specific. Someone must have had the idea to put it there and someone had to create the image. Especially the makers of Sherlock BBC have repeatedly mentioned that everything that appears on screen has its meaning. With this in mind, what can be deduced about those two earlier requests in Sherlock’s Inbox?

1- Please help victims of China earthquake. It costs just 5p.

China - right from the beginning a certain ‘easterly’ theme appears and runs from there throughout the whole story like a red ribbon until the moment the Eastwind finally approaches in the shape of Eurus. In a metaphorical reading I connect the East to emotions and memory.

An earthquake is a sudden outburst of held back and bottled-up energie. When the pressure gets too high it results in a violent release of that energy. Explosions .... rocks crack, the earth shakes. Earthquakes can trigger landslides, volcanic activity or cause a tsunami. Major changes are also often referred to as ‘earthquakes’.

Costs of 5p ... A penny (p) is a coin and a unit of the britisch pound (£), the official currency in the UK (a currency Sherlock doesn’t know how to spend?). 5p is money. The saying goes that time is money. A minute is a unit of time. Viewing it in reversed order ... money is time = 5 penny are 5 minutes. ‘It took her (Eurus) just five minutes to do all of this to us.’

Reading it that way, a possible translation of the first request in Sherlock’s Inbox could be: “Please help victims of emotional upheaval. It takes just 5 minutes.” :)

2- Re. Mudchute Query

Mudchute is a railway station situated in the Millwall area on the Isle of Dogs. The name Millwall has its source in the large number of windmills built on the river wall in the 19th century. They were needed to ground corn and wheat into flour that was brought along the Thames. The original station was located on an old Victorian railway line that had been disused for many years. An elevated station opened 1987. When the line was extended under the Thames, the station was rebuilt close to the tunnel entrance. It opened 1999 and was finally completed 2009. The station was originally intended to be named Millwall Park but then renamed in Mudchute, refering to the engineering overspill when Millwall Dock was being created in the 1840s. (X)

Basically ... the second request in Sherlock’s Inbox is about a query regarding a railway station, built in the Victorian area at a place linked to mills (♪ Remember the maid ... the maid of the mill ...♪, TAB), disused for years, rebuilt and elevated, named, renamed ... until it was completed in 2009, the same year the Unaired Pilot was created. Well .... that sounds a bit ... familiar?

PERFUME AND TOBACCO ASHES

Appart from Sherlock’s cold case messages addressed to Jim Moriarty and two requests from - Kirsty Stapleton and Stephen Bainbridge - there are only two other entries on The Science of Deduction ... Sherlock’s own analysis about perfumes and tobacco ashes. Basically that’s about ... scent/smell and fire residues.

SCENT: From Kasbah Nights to Claire de la Lune, perfumes play a significant role in this story and Sherlock is a true expert in smellig and recognizing the different brands. The first thing that comes to mind, related to the word ‘scent’ is a dog - more precisely a scent dog. One of the most prominent representatives of that breed is the Bloodhound. And it is well known that Sherlock Holmes is indeed compared to a blood hound in ACDs The Sign of Four. That same quote has been adopted in TEH (Sherlock the Bloodhound), it appears on John’s Blog and is read by Mary. But in Sherlock BBC the bloodhound isn’t only linked to Sherlock himself. The HOUND is also connected to John Watson, Jim Moriarty, Victor Trevor, Eurus and Redbeard the Irish Setter, also a scent dog.

(The dogs in Sherlock’s mind palace The bloodhound in his hands Transformation of Redbeard and the ‘Follow the dog’ series by @sagestreet)

FIRE RESIDUES: Sherlock has an extensive knowledge regarding tobacco ashes. This characteristic has also been taken from canon.

I have made a special study of cigar ashes—in fact, I have written a monograph upon the subject. I flatter myself that I can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand, either of cigar or of tobacco. (ACD, A Study in Scarlet)

In TSOT drunken Sherlock proclaims loudly ‘Ash! I know ash!’ Almost the same words (‘I know human ash’) uses the guy from ASIB, whose aunt had been among the plane crash victims in Düsseldorf (’Sherlock Holmes baffled’). In the same episode Sherlock steals an ashtray from Buckingham Palace. In TEH Sherlock’s return from hiatus is underlined with at least half a dozen scetches of phoenixes, rising from the ashes, at the walls of the Landmark Restaurant. Another bird that has great resemblance with a phoenix can be found on Brenda’s gravestone at Musgrave Hall (Among the funny gravestones).

Ash is the residue of a fire damage. Fire and burning is one of the main themes in Sherlock BBC. From Jim’s threat to burn Sherlock’s heart out to the gingerbread man burned to a crisp, from John’s Guy Fawkes bonfire to Sherlock’s admission ‘I’m burning up’, from the Baker Street living room in flames to the great fire at Musgrave Hall ... not to mention all the exploding or not quite expoding bombs throughout the show ... fire anf burning is never far away in this story.

(Love is a burning thing A case ablaze Set this house on fire by @gosherlocked)

TOBACCO ASHES ... CHEMISTRY BURNED

Tobacco s the common name for plants belonging to the Nicotiana family. It contains the highly addictive stimulant nicotine. The dried leaves of the plant are mainly used for smoking in cigars, cigarettes, pipes, etc ... Nicotine is a widely used legal drug. The burning of tobacco results in smoke and the residue left behind is ash. Sherlock knows ash. Interestingly and unlike to canon, in this modern adaptation Sherlock doesn’t simply know ‘any known brand of cigar or tobacco ash’, he has analysed exactly 243 different types of those ashes and he explicitly corrects the number 240, cited by John. Is this seemingly unimportant correction just there to emphasise Sherlock’s annoyance over John’s mockery or is maybe another meaning hidden behind that corrected number?

243 ... ‘This is your living, Sherlock – not two hundred and forty different types of tobacco ash’ - ‘243!′

243 different types of tobacco ash are not Sherlock’s living. 243 different, tobacco products - burnt to ashes - are not Sherlock’s life.

As mentioned above, tobacco contains nicotine and nicotine is a drug. Viewing Sherlock BBC on a metaphorical level ... all drugs are chemistry and chemistry is love. The chemistry of love, burnt to ashes ... 243 times over. Hmmmm .... Then an idea hit me and I asked Google a question:

This answer is from January 2020. The first official series of Sherlock BBC aired 2010 and the Unaired Pilot has been produced in 2009. I seem to recall that the first and the second series have been accepted by the BBC at the same time and since 2009 several more Sherlock Holmes adaptations have seen the light of day (Guy Ritchie Holmes, Elementary, New Russian Holmes, Miss Sherlock, Mr Holmes, Sherlock Gnomes, Holmes&Watson, Enola Holmes ... to name just a few).

Could it be that the number of different tobacco ashes, analysed by Sherlock, mirrors the number of different adaptations about the famous detective? Sherlock Holmes ... reborn again and again with each adaptation, like a phoenix from the ashes, and yet he was never able to live a full life ... including emotions, love and sex?

‘All lives end. All hearts are broken’, that’s what Mycroft tells Sherlock in ASIB. Chemistry burned to ashes in an endless row. ‘So many days not lived, so many words unsaid’ ... says Eurus in TFP and referes to the coffin whose lid is adorned with a brass plate, I LOVE YOU, written on it (A coffin for love). You are absolutely right @loveismyrevolution with your idea of Sherlock standing between two ‘angels’ in that scene, although I would rather call them ‘choices’. Because this scene has great resemblance with the three solutions/choices Sherlock has to choose from after the event on Barth’s roof (Solutions or choices).

At that time Sherlock is confronted with two elemental forces ... love and sex. The one is represented by Molly (mirror for John) and the other one by Jim Moriarty, Mr Sex. Sherlock chooses neither one of the two. He backs away and walks a third path. He decides to live a celibate life - married to work - solely dedicated to reason and intellect, represented by Mycroft. That’s why he needs to create a strong facade to hide his true feelings for John. But then, unexpected and without noticing it at first (delayed action stabbing), even this facade gets ‘penetrated’ by John. Love (Rosie) is conceived and this changes everything. (Changing of the guard)

After the first shock (shot), Sherlock starts to go deeper into himself than ever before. He repeats the investigations about himself (the pink case) from a different perspective. Everything that happens in S4 reflects, in one way or another, occurances from S1-S3 ... arranged differently and some new actors are added. For example: the morgue-scene in TLD is a mirror of Sherlock’s fall in TRF ... it’s another Reichenbach. Eurus’ five tasks of Sherrinford seem to be a sort of ‘final distillate’ of Sherlock’s repeated analysis. In the coffin-scene Sherlock is once more confronted with a choice. This time though SEX is excluded. Sherlock has to choose between LOVE or BRAIN. And just as he did after the ‘first’ Reichenbach, Sherlock tries again to back away. At that stage though Eurus doesn’t let him. Sherlock’s emotions force him to go back to the very beginning, to find the truth. What that truth is and what consequences will come from it .... is still untold in this story, as I read it. There’s a final distillation but not a final solution at the end of S4.

“This is your living, Sherlock ... not 243 different types of tobacco ash”

... says John, refering to his own Blog. But is this really the truth? The counter on John’s Blog stops at 1895 in ASIB and the text entry, read by Mary in TEH, is a quote from canon. Already in the first series, in TBB, Sherlock asks John - his blogger/biographer - to pass him the pen and near the end of S4, in TLD, John’s Blog has ‘gone a bit downhill’ and people actually think it's Sherlock’s Blog. This leaves the question: is Sherlock taking over the narrative of his own story now? What kind of story will it be? How will it end? Will Sherlock have to make a third choice in the future? A choice between Dr Watson, the ‘fixed point in a changing age’ and John Watson, who could be so much more than just an ‘eternal’ friend? After all, there are two Faiths in the story, two serial killers and Hamish (Jim, Mr Sex) hides right in the middle of John (H) Watson ... at the very centre of the web, one might say.

Two times John Pairs-Twins-DoubleOHs Double OH seven Bond Air is go The big question and an excellent explanation of the idea about ‘Two-John’s’ in the comments on this post by @lukessense

Will Sherlock BBC turn out to be one more adaptation that ends as a ‘missed oportunity’ ... one more chemistry burned to ashes .... another sample of tobacco ash for Sherlock to analyse and add to his list? Or will it be different this time? Something new ... something big? Will it be the story about the emotional and sexual awakening of the literary character Sherlock Holmes?

Only the future will tell ....

Thanks for reading and thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

February, 2021

#sherlock bbc #the science of deduction #sherlock's website #reading the document is seeing the author #nobody is reading your website #nobody is interested in who you really are #this is your living #this is your life #messages #inbox #analyses #tobacco #perfume

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thepersianslipper · 4 years ago

Text

The Persian Slipper Reads the Blog

There isn't that much going on the comments' section of The Great Game, but there are a few details worth mentioning.

1. The Fanclub

The blog is starting to gather a fanbase.

As always, Harry is the first to comment, always excited to learn about her brother's adventures. Then there's Jacob Sowersby (which will be relevant in future entries), among others.

2. Moriarty is Anonymous

Here's the confirmation I was talking about before.

Now, did Sherlock deduce that Moriarty was Anonymous as soon as he began commenting on John's blog in A Study in Pink or did he just realize it after this exchange?

Also, note how Moriarty references storytelling, a theme he'll use repeatedly in TRF.

3. Mrs Hudson and the Internet, part 3

Mrs Hudson is still using Mrs Turner's computer, so John decides (in April) that they are going to give her a computer for Christmas. How nice is that?

4. Ouch...

Did John forget to call Sarah after the pool incident?

If you'll recall, John had left 221b to go to Sarah's when he was kidnapped by Moriarty. In the original The Great Game post, Sarah leaves a comment saying that John hasn't made it to her flat and that he isn't answering his phone.

I guess he's in trouble now...

And look at the time stamp on Sarah's comment. I imagine she waited all day for John to call after she realized he was ok through a post in his blog. Ouch...

Previous < (9/?) > Next

@todaywearesoldiers @fellshish @sarahthecoat @thejohnlockoutlet @sherlockedcarmilla @devoursjohnlock @anchored-in-high-tide @thinkanddoodle-batch

#the persian slipper reads the blog #Sherlock meta #Tgg

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jwillgoose · 5 years ago

Text

PSB crew & friends fundraiser

Dear Listeners,

I hope you are all well and looking after each other, especially those who need the most help. These are very worrying times but all we can try to do is offer comfort and kindness to each other.

As a band, we are in the very fortunate position of being ok financially for the next few months - most bands larger than us are probably in the same boat. One group of people who aren’t as fortunate, though, are touring crew members and musicians; they don’t have the benefit of PRS and PPL payments, streaming income, record sales income, advances against future records and so on.

Even though we had no gigs announced for this year we’d like to do our best to help those we work most regularly with, a group of around 10 to 15 people. All of the below items are being sold by me personally and any funds raised will be placed into an emergency PSB crew and musician fund, to enable anyone who needs help to take advantage of any available money. In the absence of any help from the government (as at lunchtime on March 17, anyway) it seems the least we could do. One of our most regular crew members has lost 14 weeks of work, already; clearly that is going to have a devastating impact, which is why we are doing what we can to help. (We have also made various behind-the-scenes efforts, too, to the extent to which we are able to afford to.)

In the event that none of our crew or session players needs assistance, we will find a suitable charity to donate this money to. Either way it will all end up going to a good cause, and none of it is for the band.

Obviously an unprecedented number of people are going to struggle financially over the coming months - to those with uncertain short-term financial futures who, in normal circumstances, would dearly love some of these items, we can only apologise. It’s not a competition - one group of struggling people isn’t more important than another, but these are people with whom we regularly work and communicate and who are part of our broader family, and we feel obliged to try to help them.

To try to accommodate those without the financial resources to buy these items off the bat, we’re running a raffle for one of the copies of EP One. See below for more details.

HOW THIS WILL WORK

If you’re interested in any item, please email [email protected], clearly stating which item(s) you’d like to buy. I am doing all of this manually so there is a chance the item will be gone by the time you email - apologies if so. I will try to respond as quickly as possible.

Some of the prices may seem high, but they are for the most part very rare PSB items and they are also the last that I have of most of them, so I am trying to get the most out of what I have in order to help others.

The sealed auction will run as an email auction until Sunday, March 22. I will hopefully be able to post the record on Monday, March 23. To place a bid, please email [email protected], clearly stating that it’s for the sealed auction and the amount you’re offering.

The raffle will run until Sunday, March 22 too. Tickets are virtual and are £5 each, to enable those with less disposable income to bid on an extremely rare item (after this fundraiser I will only have 2 left, from an original 250, and they won’t be re-pressed). You can buy more than one ticket but please do so in multiples of £5. If you are interested in taking part, please email [email protected] and clearly state the number of tickets you’d like to buy. You will be emailed further instructions.

Again, I am doing all of this myself, so please do bear with me if demand is higher than I anticipate.

ITEMS FOR SALE

First off - a word about test pressings! They are exactly what they sound like they are, ie pressings sent from the vinyl plant to us for approval or, indeed, rejection. They are often slightly poorer quality than the final version, for various boring reasons, and in some cases some of these have actually been rejected by us for being poor quality. But the value in these items doesn’t lie in their fidelity, rather their scarcity, so hopefully you won’t be expecting a pristine listen, rather an extremely rare edition of a cherished record.

Ok, here we go:

2 x copies of EP One

This is the first PSB vinyl release ever, pressed on 10″ in only 250 copies. After this fundraiser I have 2 more, forever, so they are extremely rare. They regularly go for upwards of £150 on eBay.

One will run as a sealed auction - please send your name and your highest bid to [email protected]. The auction will close on Sunday at 7pm GMT.

The other, to allow those with less disposable income to take part, will be a virtual raffle. Tickets £5 each. You can buy more than one ticket but please do so in multiples of £5. If you are interested in taking part, please email [email protected] and clearly state the number of tickets you’d like to buy. You will be emailed further instructions.

NB - both items have ever-so-slight damage to the covers so they are not pristine! They’ve been in a cardboard box that was taken to numerous gigs and festivals in 2010 and 2011 with me desperately trying to flog them to uninterested parties, before The War Room came out and they started selling online!

TEST PRESSINGS

The following are rare test pressings of various albums, EPs and so on. There are a very limited number of copies available and it’s first come, first served. Please also read the disclaimer on audio quality above. I will try to update this list as they sell, but please don’t be disappointed if you email me and they’re already sold.

Dispatch will probably happen sometime next week (March 23 onwards) provided the postal service is still working; if it isn’t, I will post them as soon as is feasible.

THE RACE FOR SPACE - PLASTIC INNER SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £100 each + p&p

THE RACE FOR SPACE - REPRESS, PROPER SLEEVE 3 of 4 SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £100 each + p&p We had to get TRFS re-pressed from a different master in 2018 so had new test pressings. I have 4 of these newer versions, 3 of which have proper, sealed sleeves.

EVERY VALLEY SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £100 + p&p

INFORM - EDUCATE - ENTERTAIN SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £100 each + p&p

WHITE STAR LINER SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT! £75 each + p&p To buy, email [email protected] - also let me know if you’d like it signed. NB - this test pressing was rejected so it is not great quality, but it is extremely rare!

THE WAR ROOM SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £75 + p&p

PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS NEED COAL (RSD 2018 REMIX RELEASE) - SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £75 each + p&p

THE RACE FOR SPACE - REMIXES SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £75 each + p&p

LIMITED EDITION VINYL

These are all, with the exception of the TRFS remix release, limited editions that have sold out (I think!). I am happy to sign any of them.

SIGNAL 30 RSD 2013 7″ SOLD OUT!

Extremely rare. Orange vinyl, backed with New Dimensions in Sound. SOLD OUT! £100 + p&p

ELFSTEDENTOCHT PARTS 1 & 2 RSD 2014 7″ SOLD OUT!

Very rare. SOLD OUT! £80 each + p&p

THE OTHER SIDE PICTURE DISC - RSD 2016 7″ SOLD OUT!

NB because this is a picture disc, the audio quality isn’t great - that’s the nature of the medium. It looks amazing though! Backed with the Datassette remix. SOLD OUT! £50 + p&p

GO! 7″ SOLD OUT!

Backed with the Errors remix. SOLD OUT! £50 each + p&p

THEME FROM PSB 7″ SOLD OUT!

SOLD OUT! £50 + p&p

PROMO & EARLY CDs

ROYGBIV (FIRST OFFICIAL SINGLE) SOLD OUT!

Backed with a different version of Lit Up, not the album version. Rare. SOLD OUT! £50 each + p&p

THE WAR ROOM (ORIGINAL RELEASE) SOLD OUT!

From back before we had a distributor so I was still selling and posting these myself - relatively rare although a few hundred were made up. In a plastic CD wallet. SOLD OUT! £50 each + p&p

ORIGINAL / RARE STOCK OF PSB VINYL

EVERY VALLEY (CLEAR INDIES VERSION) SOLD OUT!

Still sealed, limited numbers were pressed up and these are 2 of the last 3 I have. SOLD OUT! £50 each + p&p

THE RACE FOR SPACE - REMIXES SOLD OUT!

On orange vinyl. One has slight damage to the shrinkwrap. Price is based on being expected to be asked to sign them! SOLD OUT! £25 each + p&p To buy, email [email protected] - also let me know if you’d like it signed.

POSTERS

GREEN MAN 2018 TRIPTYCH SCREENPRINT SOLD!

NB - this has different text to the image above - instead of ‘Informing...’ it has Green Man Festival and the date of the show (I can’t find the original image). It was a limited edition run. SOLD! £50 + p&p

THE RACE FOR SPACE DOUBLE SIDED A2 POSTERS SOLD OUT!

No image, sorry, but we have a handful of these left. They’re on decent, thick paper, A2 size, one side has the USA cover and one side the Soviet cover. Happy to sign as required. SOLD OUT! £30 each + p&p To buy, email [email protected].

That’s it for now - thanks a lot for any support you can help us extend to our folks.

Yours hygienically,

J. Willgoose, Esq.

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sunken-standard · 6 years ago

Note

16 Sherlolly for the ask meme thing :)

(From this ask meme, I’m assuming, since it’s the last I posted) Thanks, anon :D

16: do either of them have a specialitem (an article of clothing, a necklace, a book) that they use whenthey miss the other? if so, what is it? what do they do with it(read, wear, look at, smell)?

Short answer: nah. I don’t really seeeither of them as being that kind of sentimental at all. They maysee something and be reminded of the other, but that “carrying atoken” trope just doesn’t suit either of them, IMO.

That being said, I started a wanklockfic a long time ago but never made it to the really good bits; post-TRF,my version of Molly’s Christmas gift. Slightly sacrilegious, probably.

Unfinished fic behind the cut; I knowI’ve posted at least one sentence of this before, but I don’t think Iposted more than that. If I have, apologies. It’s hard to keeptrack sometimes.

He was not a religious man. Molly wasnot a religious woman. When he opened her Christmas gift two daysafter she’d given it to him (finally working up to it through theguilt, which was hardly a respite from the weight of his sadness), hewas momentarily confused.

It was a rosary.

Antique, obviously; nothing ornate. Tarnished silver cross and chain, a silver medallion bearing ashrouded skull in three-quarters profile for the centerpiece; carvedivory roses for the Our Fathers and deep red glass beads for the HailMarys. Nice to look at, he supposed, though it was a bit Goth, evenfor his tastes.

While he was wondering exactly whyshe’d pick such an odd thing, he noticed a mark on one of the ivorybeads. Habit had him reaching for the magnifying glass, pulling thelamp closer. There was something odd about it, odd about the grainof the ivory.

Oh.

It was human ivory. A molar. He examined the rest; all teeth.

Molly Hooper always found ways to beinteresting when he was least expecting it.

The rosary lived in the back of hisdresser drawer; he took it out sometimes when he needed to remindhimself that things weren’t always what they appeared at firstglance. He wondered what kind of person it had belonged to, whoseteeth they were. Probably the memento mori of a Victorian widow orsomesuch; he found the notion strangely romantic. He wondered ifMolly had had similar thoughts when she bought it. He found herather liked that idea, even if he didn’t want to admit it tohimself.

He had nothing of himself when he leftLondon; no coat, no wallet, no phone. He was a ghost, after all. You can’t take it with you, as they say.

He was waiting for a contact a weekinto his new existence in the shadows; Florence was hot and the sunwas bright. He milled around a street vendor’s table near theCathedral, a hapless tourist. The sun caught a deep red bead on acheap nickel-and-glass rosary; he bought it without letting himselfexamine why.

It ended up being useful; it gave himsomething to do with his hands while he kept his head bowed in a pewas he waited again the next day for the contact to bring him theflash drive she promised.

He tried not to let his mind drift toMolly like it threatened to do at the worst possible times in thepast week. He’d been a fool and acted on impulse and fear of his ownmortality, kissing her roughly and asking her to remember him, thereal him; asking her to never reveal his secret, no matterwhat happened—if he died on the roof or if he landed wrong or if henever made it back to London. Let them all forget, I only need youto remember.

It was quite possibly the cruelestthing he’d ever done.

He kept the rosary in his pocket. Hewasn’t a person who believed in talismans or good luck charms or anysuch nonsense, but he found the simple act of going over the beadsone-by-one to be calming. Strings of beads were used the world overfor meditation of one kind or another, it was hardly revolutionary.

Some days he was too busy to thinkabout her. Those were the good days, when he was actively gettingcloser to his end goal; closer to dismantling the entire network.

On the slow days and the bad days, shewas constantly in his thoughts. She’d taken up residence in his MindPalace long ago, he couldn’t even pinpoint when. She was mostly justthere, quiet and close, giving him the right things he needed when heput his hand out for something. He was afraid to interact with hertoo much, afraid he might start building her into something shewasn’t. He’d already done that with one Woman, much to his greatdisgust with himself.

The weeks turned into months. In earlyDecember, he found himself in Prague. He liked to meet hisinformants in churches; it had a certain old-fashioned Cold Warcharm. In St. Vitus Cathedral, he read a pamphlet about the life ofJan Nepomucký(or, Anglicized, John of Nepomuk); the patron saint of secrets. Hewasn’t really thinking when, two days later, he found himself in ashop tucked away on a side street that sold religious paraphanelia;he bought a pair of saint’s medals.

Heattached one to the rosary in place of the cross (still in his pocketwherever he went); the other he folded up into a square of shiny redpaper and stuffed into an envelope. He sent it before good senseprevailed; he only wanted her to think of him. She was clever, shewould understand it. He was leaving Prague the next day, anyway; aspirit slipping back into the underworld.

It wasChristmas Eve and he’d never felt so alone in his life. He’d alwaysbeen able to plaster on a smile and make a friend for long enough tofeel like part of the human race when he needed to, no matter howhigh or low or disconnected he was at the time; that night wasdifferent. He lay on his cold sleeping mat and stared at thechipping plaster of the walls of his cell; he wasn’t pretending to bea monk, but he was living like one anyway.

Kama-tanha,he thought, fingering the rosary as he pictured Molly in the dressfrom last year.

Whathe wouldn’t give to go back and live that night over. No making anarse out of himself, no faked deaths or any of it.

Hewould open his damn present in the quietest corner of the flat, onthe sofa, away from everyone else; Molly would point out the tinyspot of decalcification on the rose that had first caught his eye andhe would give in to the impulse to kiss her, finally taste thelipstick she’d put on just for him.

He made everyone else vanish; he resteda hand on her hip, the satin of the dress clinging like a secondskin.

If only he hadn’t been such a coward. If only he’d said yes, I would like coffee with you sometimeinstead of being wary of an attractive, intelligent woman showing aninterest in him. How different would it have been?

If he’d become involved with her then,she would be the primary target now. Or he really would be dead,because he might have had to go that far to save her, even with hisbrother’s help.

The thought made him feel cold down tohis bones, dissipated the first stirrings of arousal curling throughhis gut.

He pressed the medal to his lips, themetal still warm from being next to his body, in his hands; she washis patron saint. When he got back, if he got back, he would tellher. Show her. Until then, she would have his daily devotions; HailMolly, full of awkward grace.

#anon #from an ask meme #sunken's secret stash #sherlolly

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possiblyimbiassed · 7 years ago

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What happened to Sherlock? Part IV – Heartbreak and coma (2)

This is the second post of the fourth installment of my meta series where I try to use Sherlock’s own methods to find out what’s happened to him in the show; you can read the first one here. This is about my hypothesis #4: At some point in time between TSoT and HLV, Sherlock takes an overdose of drugs and ends up in coma. In the first post I tested a prediction to try to verify the coma part. Here are the remaining four predictions that I’ll test the same way, corresponding to the rest of my hypothesis. Since this post won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the first one, and since this is also a monster-post, I’ll put the whole thing under the cut, except for this picture of a comatose hospitalized Sherlock in TLD:

Disclaimer: If you feel the subject matter upsetting, please don’t read further - take care and stay safe! I also want to state that no matter what happens in S4 - like nurse Cornish said in TLD, I’m fully convinced Sherlock will survive this. He will pull through and solve The Final Problem - staying alive.

Prediction #2: It will be possible to deduce from events in the show that Sherlock might have harmed himself, and even overdosed.

Observations: There are some scenes - mostly in TAB and TLD - which indicate that Sherlock’s state of health might indeed be self-inflicted (at least on the surface). The most obvious ones, in my opinion, are:

1. Sherlock’s OD in the airplane scenes in TAB is treated like a fact, but people aren’t acting accordingly. The case is complete with backstory from Mycroft, Dr Watson saying this cocktail of drugs could kill Sherlock...

...and assassin nurse ‘Mary’ suggesting he should be in hospital. And we know from TBB that John has specialist skills in being “able to recognize and give immediate and appropriate treatment to a wide range of medical and surgical conditions including --- poisoning/overdose” (among other things), because this is explicitly stated in his CV. It’s also obvious in this scene that Sherlock has administered the drugs on himself.

But the obviously logical procedure after his OD - taking Sherlock to hospital to try to restore his body functions and maybe save his life - does not happen; no-one disputes Sherlock’s decision to not receive medical treatment. So here we have a person who might just have tried to take his own life with a potentially lethal dose of drugs, but Dr Watson doesn’t even examine him. It’s glossed over as if nothing serious has happened, and no-one reacts properly to it; Sherlock himself acts as if he’s already miraculously recovered, and the others just let him carry on. This is not realistic, it’s not how an overdosed person possibly could behave. Which indicates that this is all taking place inside Sherlock’s brain; it’s Sherlock who wants to gloss over the serious consequences, even though he feels ashamed. Conclusion: the emphasis at Sherlocks OD as such might mean it’s true, but the timeline might be warped and the reactions following the OD twisted because of Sherlock’s drug-induced state.

2. In S4 there are references to self-harm marks on both Faith’s and Sherlock’s arms. The scenes in TLD where Sherlock talks to Faith about self-harm, deducing that her relationship had ended, that she wasn’t ‘getting any’, that she must have scars of self-harm on her left underarm and that her ‘boyfriend’ didn’t notice, are very telling:

But if ‘Faith’ was actually Euros, what was her purpose of first making Sherlock think she was suicidal and then just disappear? I see it as more likely that this is all about Sherlock processing his own relationship with John. Sherlock might have been sexually frustrated for a long time, because nothing ever happened between them. But at the same time Sherlock wasn’t really in touch with his feelings and basically horrified to ever talk about it with John (greenhouse scene in TAB is testimony). It’s possible that Sherlock had started using again when John had decided to get married (like he did in canon) and had scars of the syringe on his left underarm, but John didn’t notice this, because he wasn’t there. ‘Self-harm’ in this case equals drug use.

3. Nurse Cornish tells John in TLD that Sherlock has ‘made a mess of himself’, when what we actually saw was John assaulting him.

But why would the nurse in charge blame the victim in front of the perpetrator? And why all this glossing over the fact that John Watson attacked and beat up his friend to the point of hospitalizing him? Sounds very much like Sherlock’s guilt to me, like he’s actually processing the consequences of what he’s done to himself (his OD) in his Extended Mind Palace.

It also seems like Sherlock is re-hashing things in his EMP, because we already have a scene from the very first episode, where someone accuses Sherlock of having ‘made a mess’:

4. In TFP we learn that Euros cut herself when she was a kid “to see how my muscles worked”. The parents thought it was a suicide attempt. But little Euros is standing here between them, as if the case was being analyzed in Sherlock’s Mind Palace.

So what if Euros is actually a part of Sherlock himself? If S4 all happens inside Sherlock’s head, this could very well be the case. Which means that Sherlock might have been the one to harm himself as a kid.

5. As I’ve tried to show in this meta, suicide is one of the major themes in this show. It has been referred to or implied so many times, rubbed in so thoroughly, that it’s rather upsetting. This is a very serious topic, and I doubt the show-makers intend to treat it lightly. I’d rather believe they want to catch our attention with it, to contemplate the dire consequences to other people of Sherlock’s OD. Just like I think Sherlock himself does in TLD, when he warns ‘Faith’...

...and throws her gun in the Thames...

...and argues the point:

6. And then there’s ACD canon. Before Holmes ’falls’ with Moriarty in the Reichenbach Fall (The Final Problem) he leaves a note to Watson (= a classic reference to suicide). It’s believed that Doyle’s intention was to let him die and end the story with Watson living an ordinary life with his wife and only nostalgic memories left from his time with Holmes. But the fans protested and insisted for years until ACD ‘resurrected’ Holmes and published new stories. So if ACD almost ‘killed off’ this great character in canon, wouldn’t it be rather canon compliant of Mofftiss to almost do the same thing? One of the canon stories is also named ‘The Dying Detective’, but in BBC Sherlock they’ve changed the name to ‘The Lying Detective’ - maybe in order to not make it too obvious?

7. On a meta level, would there be any reasons for the character of Sherlock Holmes to try to commit suicide? Well, yes; I think there are plenty of hints that there might be. And I believe @tjlcisthenewsexy puts the finger exactly on those reasons in this excellent meta (my bolding): “If a person takes their own life due to depression directly caused by a heterocentric culture and institutionalized homophobia, then is it really suicide? Or is it murder?” I think this issue was raised by Sherlock already in the first episode, albeit in a slightly less obvious way; the victims of the serial killer were persuaded to take their own life when the killer put pressure on them.

Same thing basically happened in TRF, when Moriarty pressured Sherlock to jump. And in HLV when Lord Smallwood committed suicide after CAM (=Media as a villain) put pressure on him with blackmail. But the real culprit isn’t the victim; it’s society’s norms and attitudes that pressure them. The issue of homophobia isn’t of course openly addressed in BBC Sherlock, but I think it’s heavily implied for us to read between the lines.

Prediction #3: There will be abundant references to Sherlock’s drugs use, since this is the proximate cause of his state and therefore constantly on his mind.

Why do we see an IV drip with morphine in HLV? Well, this is the episode where Sherlock gets shot in the chest, so naturally he needs morphine as painkiller… But wait a minute; wouldn’t his brother have informed the hospital staff of the risks of giving Sherlock morphine, seeing as he’s a drug addict? And then there’s Janine’s comment:

Observations: There are several drug-related things in HLV that don’t really make sense.

Firstly, after knowing him for merely a month, Janine seems to be very much aware of Sherlock’s drug dependence. But if she is already this knowledgeable, why did he have to tell her that he had been ‘working’ when he had actually been sleeping in a drug den (and she seemed to buy it)? But if she didn’t know about the drugs, who had suddenly told her now?

Secondly, for some odd reason, Sherlock’s drug use seems to be a far bigger issue than his shot wound. A gun is used three times in HLV (twice on a human). But there’s a whole bunch of different drug use references, most of which have to do with Sherlock: a) Isaac Whitney, b) Sherlock found in a drug den, c) Sherlock’s blood tested for drugs at Barts, d) Mycroft gathering Sherlock’s ‘fans’ to search 221B for drugs, e) “Don’t appall me when I’m high”, f) IV morphine drip, h) Janine’s comment about drugs being Sherlock’s dream, i) CAM ‘reading’ opium and morphine as pressure points for Sherlock, j) Mrs Hudson ‘running a drug cartel’ and k) Sherlock having Billy drug his whole family. So there are far more references to drug use than to Sherlock almost dying from a gun shot, which is glossed over; no-one seems to really care about his shot wound or chest pain until he falls apart. Mrs Hudson doesn’t seem overly worried when she learns Sherlock has escaped from the hospital. John - his doctor friend - even yells at him to shut up, and threatens to kill him, when he’s supposedly already dying for the second time:

And Sherlock himself starts to talk about ‘surgery’ and the murderer calling the ambulance and other pieces of absurd, illogical nonsense to gloss over the shot wound, which is now threatening his life again. While at the same time claiming that his drug abuse is actually real; he only solves crimes as a substitute for being high...

At Christmas in HLV Sherlock’s own parents are fussing more over pregnant ‘Mary’ than over their own shot-wounded son. He’s fresh home from months in hospital but doesn’t even move strangely. In hospital he had only a plaster over the shot wound, no bruising visible. This is not realistic in my opinion; if Sherlock was really shot wounded, he wouldn’t have been able to escape by the hospital window in the first place. How did he manage to bring the wheelchair with him, by the way, complete with attached IV-drip of morphine?

The idea of Sherlock risking his life again; all this mystic, dangerous and elaborated scheme to track down ‘Mary’ and confront her with her crime - and for what? Only to then dismiss the shooting as ‘surgery’ that ‘saved his life’ in order to persuade John to stay with her? It’s just not credible; this is more reminiscent of an action movie (Bond?) derailing into absurdity. I think what all these signs tell us is that Sherlock’s real problem isn’t the supposed shot wound; it’s a drug-related problem.

So, now that we’ve established at least the possibility of Sherlock having OD:d on drugs and ended up in coma as a result, we arrive to the point of determining more precisely when it happened.

Prediction #4: If Sherlock falls into coma, there would be a credibility change/difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’ the OD.

Now this is a hard one, because in BBC Sherlock there’s generally a very subtle line between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’. There are a series of weird events in the whole show that I find it hard to believe in, and many of them happen before HLV…

Irene’s mystic break-ins into 221B which no-one had noticed (ASiB)

Sherlock being visited by Moriarty at 221B after the trial in TRF, before even John got there

Sherlock having a conversation with Moriarty on the rooftop in TRF (how did Sherlock predict that Jim would have him jump off a rooftop in particular and therefore made his arrangement of faked death based on this?)

Anderson’s sudden metamorphosis into being Sherlock’s fan-club (MHR)

Torture scene in Serbia and Mycroft’s cruel behaviour there (TEH)

Soldiers who don’t feel when they’re being stabbed in the back in TSoT. (This is such a crazy idea, and the given explanation we have is hard to believe)

These things are weird and not very realistic, but at least they might contain a grain of truth somewhere, albeit dramatized. But in HLV and onwards it does get far worse, in my opinion, when people start acting way out of character or doing absurd or outright impossible things. These could be signs that the events from HLV and onwards are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain, rather than representing ‘real’ things that have actually happened.

Out of character As for acting OOC, I think John’s behaviour has some ups and downs in the show, but in HLV he gets abominable to a point of no return; the idea that he would stay together with ‘Mary’ after she shot his best friend is highly unbelievable - pregnancy or not (in fact it’s even less believable that John would find an assassin, who should be in prison and who attempted to kill his friend, fit to raise their child). And the top of the mountain then comes in TLD, when John assaults Sherlock and acts as if it’s all Sherlock’s own fault. No credibility left.

But I’d still say that it’s an even bigger OOC development to have the world’s most famous detective stop solving crimes and start committing them instead.

Because as far as I can see, crime solving ends with TSoT; after that, Sherlock doesn't solve a single crime case that hasn't directly to do with his own private life: • He fails to solve lady Smallwood’s blackmail case, which instead ends with lord Smallwood's suicide.

• He fails to capture CAM, the criminal who caused this; instead he murders him. The famous crime solver is now a criminal instead. • He fails to solve Emilia Ricolettis case in his own mind; the person he thought was guilty turns out to be Moriarty instead - who is supposed to be dead. • He fails to solve the mystery of why Moriarty's ‘Miss me?’ video is on every screen in the country, which was supposedly the reason for bringing him back to London. • He fails to save a single one of the Thatcher busts from destruction and why would he want to do that anyway; he even smashes the last one himself! • He fails to find the stolen Black pearl of the Borgias; instead he finds the AGRA stick from Mary's assassin gang. • In a highly doubtable deduction sequence without any kind of evidence, Sherlock decides that Charlie Wellsborough's death is no crime at all; he just had an unfortunately badly timed “seizure” in an extremely weird situation. • He fails to solve the Norbury case, which would exonerate ‘Mary’ from accusations of treason; instead ‘Mary’ dies in a most incredible and over-dramatized way which is physically impossible. • He tries to prove that Culverton Smith is a serial killer, but the only thing he manages to prove is that Smith can try to kill him, Sherlock, on his own request. Supposedly, Smith 'can't stop confessing' after that, but we never get to see or know any of these confessions. • The rest of the show (TFP) is exclusively about Sherlock's own family problems. The only 'outsider' crime cases he tries to solve - his sister's death threats against Sherrinford's governor with wife and the three Garrideb brothers - are complete failures; they all die. He believes he saves Molly's life by forcing her to confess that she loves him, but Euros tells him there was never any danger. Failure again. This is rather far away from canon, where Holmes kept solving crimes even after retirement, isn’t it?

But in this show, after TSoT, there’s only one thing that the genius detective manages to do right: he saves John Watson from the bottom of a well. By solving a puzzle.

So yes - I think these things show a huge difference in credibility between 'before' and 'after' TSoT; the world's most famous detective has stopped solving crimes! (But what about all the cases that were supposedly solved by Sherlock 'spinning plates' in TST, you might ask? Not to worry, I'll get back to that later ;))

As for HLV, I think this is the episode where things start getting completely out of control for Sherlock, indicating that he is actually no longer conscious. Which would mean he doesn’t experience new events in the show’s reality, but his brain keeps re-hashing memories, combining them in new ways to solve Sherlock’s personal problems. Apart from the OOC arguments explained above, I tried to point out a series of others in this meta, connected to Janine’s character. We haven’t seen much of her, but in HLV she appears to be a person with less than average intelligence, which I think she didn’t in TSoT:

Why would Janine risk her employment to let Sherlock sneak into her boss’ high security office at night when she knew he was there?

Why would Janine believe that Sherlock would propose to her after they had known each other for a month and he had just left her waiting for him the whole night in his flat without knowing where he was?

If Janine and Sherlock haven’t had sex (because of his reluctance), how come she all confidently just gets into the shower with him?

How can Janine miss out on all the mayhem at 221B - a ‘drugs bust’ with several people present, Mycroft being slammed into the wall, Sherlock talking about her boss as a monster, etc.?

Janine just doesn’t behave in a logical manner in HLV. It. Doesn’t. Make.Sense.

Impossible The first outright impossible thing I can spot, is ‘Mary’ getting into CAM’s office faster than Sherlock. Sherlock makes a whole lot of effort explaining to John that the only way to get into CAM’s office is by his private lift, and just how difficult that is.

Anyone who tried to climb up wouldn’t just need the agility of a circus artist like the ‘spider’ in TBB; they would have to climb the façade, break into the flat and knock two people down in basically no time. I think we can safely say that it’s physically impossible to climb a building of 32 floors and manage all that in less than 45 seconds (which is the time it takes for Sherlock and John to go up with the lift after Janine has let Sherlock in).

Some people may want to talk about ‘artistic license’ here, and claim that this is just entertainment, this is just the show makers twisting reality a bit to make their show more exciting. But don’t forget the major weakness of this argument: if we excuse one clearly impossible thing with ‘artistic license’, then we must be prepared to excuse all of them the same way. Which means that the whole rational basis of Sherlock Holmes’ own methods in this show becomes invalid, because then there are no deductions to be made, since nature laws and reality as we know it don’t exist ‘in-show’. Which could very well be the case, as I see it, if nothing in this show is meant to make sense - or if there’s still a coherent plot-line somewhere, but the events we do see are mainly taking place inside Sherlock’s head. But my idea here was still to try to pinpoint a change, a difference in levels of weirdness, between ‘before’ and ‘after’ Sherlock’s presumed OD.

Prediction #5: There will be time- and place-references that coincide with a possible OD directly after TSoT

If Sherlock would take to kill himself, where would it happen, when and how?

Well, I think Sherlock already explains it to Lestrade in this ‘script’ from ASiP published on BBC’s website, where we get this (supposedly) cut out scene:

In other words: Sherlock would kill himself, but in a different time and place, presumably a) after leaving a note and b) after some ‘prior sign’s. And c) he’d do it in a familiar place that means something to him. So, to track down the point in time when Sherlock might have done this, we need to determine a) when he has left some kind of note and b) what ‘prior signs’ that could have preceded this.

Observations

Point in time: As for a), in TAB, after realising that Sherlock has OD:d, we learn that he has made a list of all the drugs that he’s taken; a promise to his brother since years ago. That’s a kind of note – isn’t it? A note that could help saving his life after an overdose.

But there are also hints that TAB isn’t the real time of the OD event:

JOHN: He couldn’t have taken all of that in the last five minutes. MYCROFT: He was high before he got on the plane. MARY: He didn’t seem high. MYCROFT: Nobody deceives like an addict.

But wait; could Sherlock really have overdosed on drugs and after that performed the whole scene at the tarmac? Where he says goodbye to John, jokes with him and makes a whole little coherent speech about the Game and the East Wind? Not very likely for a person who has OD:d if you ask me…

And then there’s also the fact I pointed out in my last meta (X); that Mycroft talks about this OD coming after a ‘week in solitary confinement’ when Sherlock was locked up with his worst enemy - himself. I think this week could well be the time John was on ‘sex holiday’ after the wedding. If the shooting of CAM wasn’t real (which is supported by the easiness with which Sherlock gets away with murder without any kind of lasting consequence), neither has there been any imprisonment. I can rather imagine Sherlock isolating and locking himself in at 221B for a week, trying to alleviate his pain and heartbreak with drugs after John’s wedding.

Regarding the turn of events after a presumed OD which we don’t actually see, @sagestreet has made a whole reconstruction of how the things could possibly have happened in one of the additions to this meta (please scroll down to the subtitle “TIMELINE FOR A POSSIBLE OD-AFTER-THE-WEDDING SCENARIO”.

There’s also a note playing a central role in TLD, and I’ve tried to elaborate on this in these two metas: (X, X). The episode TLD seems to take place long after John’s wedding, when he already has a daughter. But what if this is actually not the case? What if the whole of TLD just represents Sherlock’s brain going through events that actually happened immediately after the wedding? (Or even immediately after his faked suicide, in some cases)?

Geographic place: The whole sequence in TLD about Sherlock isolating himself in 221B, resorting to an intensive drug abuse that is basically killing him, could be showing what really happened with him directly after the wedding. John has (supposedly) abandoned him (honeymoon?) and he’s turning nuts, talking to himself (Billy Wiggins), shooting the walls and playing out a Shakespeare drama all by himself.

221B would also fit with c), ‘a familiar place that means something’ to Sherlock. The events might in fact be showing some kind of reality, perhaps it’s just the time of them that is twisted and misplaced. Which would seem likely, if this is Sherlock processing his distorted memories of those events inside his still drug-addled brain. On the other hand, the prison where he allegedly would have taken the drugs and got high, before meeting up at the tarmac to board the airplane; none of these places would have the slightest personal meaning to Sherlock, would they? So where exactly is he more likely to take an overdose according to the deleted scene manuscript; in prison or in 221B? I think the answer here is clear.

Prior signs: Regarding b), I’ve already talked about the signs of self-harm in TLD that John doesn’t seem to either notice or acknowledge. The drug abuse is one clear sign of self-harm, but there’s also more subtle things, like Sherlock basically abandoning his job (which he was supposedly ‘married to’) to take over John’s wedding planning; something he would normally find mundane and probably despise. He even tells John’s and Mary’s wedding guests in his speech how utterly useless the ‘wedding tradition’ is. So why does Sherlock even do this? John and Mary would be fully capable of planning their own wedding, wouldn’t they? I think it’s a form of self-harm, self-punishment or maybe even self-imposed martyrdom - “a cross I have to bear” as he tells John, referring to his ‘ordinary’ parents.

The ‘delayed backstabbing’ in TSoT also makes for a dramatic metaphor about what happens to Sherlock; if he’s the un-seen murder victim of this wedding, the effect of it doesn’t play out until afterwards, when he’s left to his own gloomy thoughts and feelings of abandonment in 221B. Which would mean the delayed back-stabbing was a prior sign to Sherlock’s later ‘bleed-out’.

It’s also interesting to speculate about exactly when this actual back-stabbing took place. We never get to see the wedding act in TSoT, but we do see the moment when it dawns upon Sherlock that Mary is pregnant. I think Sherlock’s realization of her pregnancy is the last nail in the coffin; that's what ultimately breaks his heart. It’s not until after this moment that Sherlock leaves the party; a marriage can be dissolved, but a child is a child and it will always be John’s responsibility. Which basically means the definite end of their crime-solving life together...

But I think the most important piece of evidence about the time of Sherlock’s possible suicide attempt taking place immediately after John’s wedding is this:

John’s blog stops updating at this point. The blog also took a pause after TRF, but the current gap is definitely the longest. All this time we’ve had John’s blog as a more ‘sober’ account of the events; a ‘second opinion’, if you like, to what I believe the show is: Sherlock’s more colourful and dramatic tale of their life together. Sherlock hacks the blog and posts one last instalment before the blog dies completely. I believe this last post can be seen as Sherlock’s ‘note’, which I’ve tried to explain in these two metas X , X.

But what about the blog cases of S4? In TST we see a lot of cases listed by John’s supposed blogging; so many in fact that John tells Sherlock that he can’t go on ‘spinning plates’. Yes, it sounds promising, but since a) John is typing on a jpg-file (which is technically impossible, unless you convert it to or integrate it in another format),

and b) there are no references on the real blog to these new ‘cases’, I’d say that none of these cases are realistic. Which probably means they are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain - some of them are even rip-offs from old cases, like The Six Thatchers.

Last but not least: on a meta level, is there a certain significance to TSoT as an episode that makes it a good time reference for being the point after which Sherlock passes to a comatose state? This analysis isn’t mainly intended to reflect a meta level of the show, it rather focuses on the textual level. That doesn’t mean, however, that I find the meta level unimportant. There are quite a few tumblr analysts that have expanded on the form and shape of this show; its ‘messages’, arguments and conclusions on a meta level. For example, @garkgatiss has published several very thorough analyses of the overall pattern of BBC Sherlock as a five-act drama. In the latest one, dedicated to analyzing Bond and Hannibal references, @garkgatiss points out this about the symmetry pattern of S3 (my bolding):

“S3 doesn’t follow the same Bond/Hannibal triad structure as S2 and S4, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Nevertheless, we still find Bond and Hannibal in TEH and HLV — TEH ‘revives’ the myth of Sherlock Holmes that was destroyed in TRF when Sherlock returns from being dead and proves he was not a fraud after all, and HLV gives Sherlock the Clarice Starling creation myth, as befits the true hero of the story. TSOT, as the overall midpoint of the show, serves its own distinct function in the story that I plan to cover in full at some point, but not here”.

So, TSoT represents the midpoint of the story. It’s also the point after which, I believe, Sherlock enters his comatose state and resorts to pure speculation about the future. Or, should I rather say, he resorts to modeling the emotionally devastating consequences of his own choices, in a series of worst-case scenarios, which are basically S4, but start already in HLV. Which would mean yet another indication of the story arc being symmetric, with the figurative ‘murder case’ in the middle; Sherlock’s heart breaks when John not only marries ‘Mary Morstan’, but even starts a family with her. Because Sherlock’s discovery in TSoT of ‘Mary’s pregnancy will (in Sherlock’s mind) most certainly mean that John’s days as a companion to Sherlock’s crime solving are counted. A responsible father wouldn’t run around risking his life on a daily basis, would he? So yes - to me TSoT undoubtedly marks a midpoint in this story.

So, to sum it up once again: my belief is that this show is totally happening within Sherlock’s head, from his PoV. But there’s a distinction between what happens before TSoT and after; in the former case Sherlock voluntarily goes through his memories with John, based on reading his blog. In the latter, I think Sherlock’s body is in coma due to an OD, but his mind is racing, thus the extra weirdness.

Summary

In brief, I think Sherlock Holmes has some serious stuff that he needs to deal with, and so has John Watson, even if maybe Sherlock’s issues are the worst. And in S4 Shelock does; he goes from being someone who constantly tries to detach his brain from its inconvenient ‘transport’ of a body, to someone who ultimately allows himself to care deeply and truly. And I believe that’s basically what this show is about: the long and winding road to freedom, the mental journey home to 221B. And on this inner journey, he has to go through hell, which means pain, heartbreak and loss, but also insight and realization. But since this is also the story of a truly brilliant and remarkable human being and his only ’feature of interest’; an extremely competent, brave and loyal person, there’s good hope that they can actually help each other. They just need to overcome their worst adversaries first; their own internalized heteronormativity and homophobia, imposed on them by society.

I think one of the most interesting things with Sherlock’s process is to see that it’s actually his brain that saves him. While Sherlock’s intense emotions lead him to desperate actions that cause a comatose state in his body, his brain still refuses to give up, because it needs to understand. Which - seemingly paradoxically - leads him to seek contact with his own feelings and thereby solve the problem - the final problem. This character development is indeed extraordinary.

Phew! I’m truly grateful for those of you who might have managed to read through these two monster posts. :) The next installment of this meta series - which will hopefully be a bit shorter - will handle Hypothesis #5: Almost everything we see happen in HLV, TAB and S4 is Sherlock ‘running scenarios’ in his mind, based on a mix of his earlier memories and movies he has watched.

Tagging some people who might be interested: @raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @fellshish @sagestreet @tendergingergirl @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow @darlingtonsubstitution @tjlcisthenewsexy @devoursjohnlock @kateis-cakeis @csi-baker-street-babes @sectoralheterochromiairidum @mrskolesouniverse

#sherlock is in coma #sherlock's od #emp theory #heartbreak and coma

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bbcbreakingnews · 4 years ago

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Recovery of ‘sticky bombs’ indicates initiation of new phase of terrorism in JK: Officials

JAMMU: The recovery of ‘sticky bombs’ from Samba sector in this region last month has set alarm bells ringing within the security establishment in Jammu and Kashmir as this indicates initiation of a new phase of terrorism in the union territory, officials said on Monday. The BSF had recovered the bombs dropped by a drone along the international border in the Samba sector of Jammu region on February 14, putting security agencies on high alert with an assumption that some of the IEDs could have already found their way to the Kashmir valley, the officials said. According to the officials, the drone-dropped consignment had six pistols and 14 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with inbuilt magnets, which could be used as ‘sticky bombs’ by sticking them on vehicles and controlling them using a timer and a remotely-held device. The consignment was meant for The Resistance Force (TRF), believed to be a shadow outfit of banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, they said. This definitely was the first such recovery of ‘sticky bombs’ which has found much use in Afghanistan and Iraq. In India, it was used by suspected Iranian terrorists in February 2012 by sticking a bomb on the car of an Israeli diplomat resulting in injury to his wife. The recovery is a cause of concern in Kashmir and the standard operating procedures for the movement of security forces’ convoys need to be revised to eliminate this kind of a threat, a senior official said. The development comes two years after a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist carried out a sensational attack when he rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying security forces that left 40 CRPF personnel dead in 2019. In response, India had carried out an air strike on terror camps located across the border. Sticky bombs, which were also used by the British forces during World War II, can be put on any vehicle and detonated through a remote control or an in-built timer, the officials said. This is yet another significant recovery after security forces had found three Point Detonating (PD) fuzes, used by the Pakistani army in their 82 mm mortar shells, from a terrorist in North Kashmir. The three PDs were recovered by the Baramulla Police on the eve of New Year when the force intercepted a vehicle. Unaware of the material recovered, the police had declared it “unique grenade” which was later found to be the PD, used by the Pakistani army for the 82 MM mortar shells, they said. The PD could be used during the fabrication (manufacture) of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to increase its impact. It helps in super-quick detonation of explosives or at times can delay the impact mode for a bigger damage, the officials said. The December seizure of PDs was also meant for the TRF group and one terrorist, identified as Asif Gul, was arrested.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2021/03/01/recovery-of-sticky-bombs-indicates-initiation-of-new-phase-of-terrorism-in-jk-officials/

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monikakrasnorada · 8 years ago

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Hiding in Plain Sight- part seven

Evolution- Deductions vs Mind Palace: A Comprehensive Look

“Sometimes a deception is so audacious, so outrageous that you can’t see it even when it’s staring you in the face.”

We’re nearly there. Just one more part after this one. My closing argument and the entire reason for all of these posts. If you’ve ready any- or all of them- I want to thank you and hope that, once it’s all said and done, I haven’t wasted your time. <3

SERIES THREE

TAB:

I really want to try and keep this one short and simple. There’s nothing really left to uncover regarding new revelations about this episode. I mean, it’s pretty straight-forward in that it takes place in Sherlock’s head.

This episode was ground zero for EMP theory. The questionable ‘realness’ of the modern scenes led @the-7-percent-solution, @gosherlocked and myself to discuss the idea that if we couldn’t trust to know which of those modern scenes were real, then how could we know what led up to TAB was real either. And, thus a theory was born!

Right from the start, we knew this episode was going to be a trip. Most everyone in fandom that had been keeping up with setlock during filming probably guessed this would largely take place in Sherlock’s head. I mean, how else could they make a suddenly Victorian era Sherlock fit into a modern series? What we weren’t prepared for was just how ‘immersed’ Sherlock truly would be within the whole thing.

So far on Sherlock

That was an understatement. Immediately, they start the episode off with a re-cap which would usually show the pertinent moments of the show. The things that we should remember from episodes past, that have led us to this point.

In a show titled Sherlock, in the episode just before this one, you would think it would be an ideal time to refresh everyone’s memories on the most important and pivotal moment from that episode. Like, oh, I don’t know:

Instead, this is what they choose to show us, and the dialogue they felt important to refresh our memories about:

Inverted intro to Sherlock

“The name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221B Baker St.” *wink* “Afternoon.”

“Yeah, he’s always like that”

Police officer disguise from TGG

Whipping the corpse, “Bad day was it?”

Meeting Mycroft “Since yesterday you’ve moved in with him and now your solving crimes together” Baker St door slams shut in our face

*Mwah!* To Hudders, “Look at you, all happy. It’s not decent.” “Who cares about decent? The game, Mrs Hudson, is on!”

Parliament explodes

“Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist and if they did-”

John in the Symtex vest at the pool “I wouldn’t be one of them”

“I will burn the heart out of you”

Irene and the vicar “Right, this should do it”

“Are you wearing any pants?” Giggle

Irene using her whiphand “This is how I want you to remember me, the woman who beat you”

“But, there never was any monster” “Sherlock”

“Here we are at last” Moriarty’s suicide

“Goodbye, John” “SHERLOCK!”

“Those things will kill you” As John struggles to get to Sherlock

Lestrade, “Oh, you bastard”

“The thrill of the chase, the blood pumping through your veins”

John chasing Sherlock across the street from ASiP (first case)

“Just the two of us against the rest of the world”

Glasgow kiss

“WAIT!” Sherlock jumps over gate in TRF

“We’re going to need to coordinate” Sherlock’s grave

“I asked you for one more miracle. I asked you to stop being dead”

“I heard you”

“Shut up. You are not a puzzle solver. You never have been. You’re a drama queen. Now there is a man in there-” Sherlock puts on his deerstalker “-about to die. The game is on! SOLVE IT!”

“He is the Napoleon of blackmail” CAM opens the ‘closet’, regards his mind palace

“No chance for you to be a hero this time, Mr. Holmes” as Mycroft’s helicopter hovers

“I’m a high-functioning sociopath” Shoots CAM

“There is no prison in which to incarcerate Sherlock without causing a riot on a daily basis. The alternative however would require your approval”

TARMAC HANDSHAKE HELL™

“To the very best of times, John”

Flies away

“Did you miss me?”

“How is this possible?”

“How is the exile going?” “I’ve only been gone 4 minutes”

“Well. I certainly hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

“Who needs me this time?”

Moriarty’s ‘miss me?’ vid (but not the one that was shown on all the tv screens) The real deal.

“England”

Plane returns

At this point, it is still all about Sherlock and John.

More under the cut.

As I was watching this, I made a separate post about the only bit we see of Mary in the whole thing. But, also what struck me most were the images and corresponding dialogue of this part:

They made certain to remind us that John has called Sherlock a ‘drama queen’. Can’t imagine why that would be relevant in an episode about to take place completely within Sherlock’s mind.

But, I also went out on a limb as to what the second two images could mean with the dialogue they are shown with:

*EMP alert* If I were a person that believed Sherlock is in coma (I am) and that he could possibly hear what is going on around him (I do) then I could argue that this might be a bit of coma bleed-through, or simply that Sherlock is telling himself- reminding himself- that he has to solve this case. This very ‘old’ case of The Abominable Bride because he is, in fact, dying.

What I’m confusingly trying to say, and point out here, has to do with a lot of the complaints of S4. That Mofftiss lost the plot. Which, again, may very well be a possibility. No one is perfect, those asshats, especially, BUT-

Would they have managed to to write Mary as this amazing villain and then boop! in the same episode just erase that entire plot point? To what end? I guess the argument could be made that they merely wanted an excuse to do that whole grand mind palace segment, but did it have to be Mary? They could have had Janine shoot Sherlock, or even CAM for that matter. Sherlock did break into his place of business. It feels as if there is more of a long-game at play here than we are willing to allow ourselves to believe, since S4 aired.

Mofftiss may not be perfect writers and story-tellers, but they can manage to tell a cohesive story. Nothing since the shooting has been cohesive. And that feels purposeful. If they had wanted a truly redeemed Mary, they wouldn’t have made our eyes twitch with this image:

They wouldn’t have pointed and shouted for us to hear these lines:

Over the many years it has been my privilege to recall the exploits of my remarkable friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, it has sometimes been difficult to choose which of his many cases to set before my readers. Some are still too sensitive to recount, whilst some are still too recent in the minds of the public. But, in all our many adventures together, no case pushed my friend to such mental and physical extremes as that of The Abominable Bride.

John’s blog

The last ‘official’ entry made on John’s blog was after the wedding. A month before Mary shot Sherlock. A post made by a pouty baby Sherlock about the wedding and complaining that John was on his ‘sex holiday’. The post before that was dated almost a month earlier (Yes, the dates for the wedding are different in the show as they are on the blog, I don’t know why, but for arguments sake, I’m just ignoring that fact) John doesn’t update on a regular schedule. It seems he posts whenever he gets around to writing up the cases. Which is fine. It’s all good.

The thing is, though, months have gone by. I’m sure it’s no secret to the public that Sherlock was shot, even if they managed to keep who did it from being public. Wouldn’t John have made some kind of post in that six months between the shooting and Christmas, to report that Sherlock was managing. They they would hopefully be able to start taking cases soon. To reassure their adoring public that their favorite crime-solving duo would be back on the case as soon as Sherlock was up to it?

Why are there no blog posts? Especially as we see in S4, there were plenty of cases being taken on. Hell, there were BLOG POSTS WRITTEN AND DISPLAYED ON SCREEN that all they had to do, to keep up appearances that something wasn’t off, was to upload them onto this blog. Instead, they say John is no longer updating. Why would John not be updating his blog, when there are blog posts we can read on the screen and everyone and their mother keep reminding us about if they don’t want to keep up with the blog anymore?

I don’t imagine it was because Joe Lidster didn’t want to do it anymore, since he was so involved with the Sherlock Twitter.

What other reason could there be for the lack of blog updates during all this time, and all these cases and the need to reassure their paying clients that all is well? Hmm???

Well, John certainly wouldn’t update the blog if he were constantly at Sherlock’s bedside, worrying whether his friend was going to make it. He certainly wouldn’t update if it was still “too sensitive to recount, whilst some are still too recent in the minds of the public.”

Short and sweet

This episode is a mind palace treasure trove, as we all know.

It’s full of mind palace within mind palace sequences:

Evidence that drugs are truly at play with what is happening (as began in S2):

Possible coma bleed-through:

You name it, TAB has got it all, in spades.

Modern scenes

This is where we get to the nitty gritty. Which modern scenes are real and which aren’t? Well, I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone, that I believe none of them to be real.

In the first modern scene, we have this bit from John:

“No, he can do this. I’ve seen it. The mind palace is like a whole world in his head.”

John’s seen it? When, exactly? This is a far cry from the way John described Sherlock’s mind palace in THoB. I know it’s possible that they had talked about it. There is time in the show when we don’t know what they are up to, or see what they are doing, but really? Isn’t that our number 1 complaint about these two idiots? They won’t discuss anything of any significance with each other, but we are to believe they sat down one evening, in front of the fire, and Sherlock described it all to John? Pffft. I highly doubt it.

The only way this John knows what Sherlock’s mind palace is like is if this is Mind Palace John™. If that is the case, then this scene has to be fake. Which means the list is fake, and doesn’t exist in the last modern scene, either.

I mean, didn’t we all think it was so very strange that the Moriarty video pops up, everyone panics across the country. They rush the plane back to the tarmac for Sherlock to save England. The whole lot of them suspect Sherlock has just OD’d, but they find it perfectly okay to sit and chat on board instead of, I don’t know, getting him out of there and to hospital, or at least, rushing him out in order to start working on whatever Moriarty has planned next?

They. Just. Sit. On the plane. And talk at Sherlock. All of which could have been done in the car as they sped off to get to work.

I know I am beating a dead horse here with this, but, honestly. None of those plane scenes are real and no one will convince me that they were. Especially when they give us this moment in the last modern scene:

When Mary picked up Sherlock’s phone, he’d been reading John’s blog. He hadn’t seen Moriarty’s video. No one told him it said ‘miss me?’. And, if the first modern scene was real, we are supposed to believe Sherlock doesn’t remember what just happened? Are they supposed to have been missing him because he’s just returned from his thwarted exile, or missing him since he lapsed into his drug-fueled mind palace again? I don’t believe the ‘miss me?’ here is coincidental.

EMP comes full-circle

If we are to believe Sherlock is awake, why this scene at the end? Breaking into our transmission of the show, just as Moriarty did at the end of HLV, we see Holmes and Watson transition to modern day.

WATSON: What sort of lunatic fantasy is that? HOLMES: It was simply my conjecture of what a future world might look like, and how you and I might fit inside it. HOLMES: From a drop of water, a logician should be able to infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara. WATSON: Or a Reichenbach.

That they are discussing what Holmes imagines for the future and how they would fit in it shouldn’t be discounted, especially since we watch as Victorian Holmes and Watson step into the modern age.

@ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @loveismyrevolution @tjlcisthenewsexy @tendergingergirl @the-7-percent-solution @221bloodnun @sarahthecoat @doomsteady @devoursjohnlock @themanandthemachine @sherlockshadow @kateis-cakeis @mrskolesouniverse @iamjohnlocked4life @shylockgnomes @antisocial-otaku @holmesianscholar

If you don’t want to be tagged, please just let me know. No worries.

#sherlock #hiding in plain sight #part seven #tab #emp #reality vs mind palace #mk

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inevitably-johnlocked · 3 months ago

Note

lord steph the 3st! my highness!

may thee bestow upon us a pamphlet of works that ney a soul hath asked for thus far?

*kisses your hand*

LOVELY YOU'RE PERFECT. I genuinely didn't have anything ready for this weekend, and this ask is great so I can copy-paste one of my other lists 💜🖤

Check out today's list; it's a continuation of another list that I posted earlier this year that had too many fics on it so I had to pull this section out to make a part 2. If anyone has a fic to add, please do! Enjoy!!!

INTROSPECTION / CHARACTER STUDIES Pt 2 (MFLs / WiPs)

See also: Introspection / Character Studies

MARKED FOR LATER

Know Him Better by methylviolet10b (T, 450 w., 1 Ch. || ACD Holmes || 221B Ficlets, Introspection) – Holmes and Watson each reflect on how the other is viewed.

Hyperballad by PlantsAreNeat (G, 893 w., 1 Ch. || Angst, Feels, Drugs, POV Sherlock) – Sherlock has bought cocaine after his doubts and fears about his and John's new relationship prey on his mind. Not exactly a danger night, but not not one either.

i can hear it in your voice while you're speaking (you can't be treated) by highfunctioningsociopath (M, 2,500 w., 1 Ch., Post T6T, Depression, Hurt/No Comfort, Pining Sherlock, Relapsing / Drug Addiction, Mental Health Issues, Suicidal Thoughts, Missing Scene, Introspection, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms) – The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, after all. It just so happens to be lined with self-destruction. Part 1 of the wires series

lionheart by dreamweavernyx (G, 4,851 w., 1 Ch. || Harry Potter Crossover || Character Study, Friendship) – Some days, Molly finds her eyes straying to that drawer in her desk, the one holding a slim piece of wood and the memories of a life she's left behind.

wires Series by highfunctioningsociopath (M, 5,000+ w. across 2 works || Series WiP || Post T6T / TLD, Angst, Hurt / No Comfort, Loneliness, Mind Palace, Survivor Guilt, Mental Health Issues, Drug Addiction / Abuse, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Sherlock POV, Missing Scenes, Introspection, Psychological Trauma, Abusive Relationships, Grey Mary, Withdrawal, Depression, Self-Esteem Issues) – The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, after all. It just so happens to be lined with self-destruction. (stories currently in series completed)

The Gun Drawer (Ch10) by CarmillaCarmine (M, 5,985 w., 1 Ch. || Post-TRF, Five Stages of Grief, Suicidal John, Angst, Depression, Grief/Mourning, Introspection) – A dive into John’s chaotic mind as he reminisces on the first 18 months after Sherlock’s fall. Part 10 of the The Memoirs of Dr. John H. Watson series

Breathe by LoloLolly (T, 8,517 w., 1 Ch. || HLV Fix-It, Grief, Angst, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Mary is Not Nice, Feelings Realization, Character Study, Blood Mention, Vomit Mention) – In which Sherlock's death is announced a bit... prematurely in HLV. Things spiral from there.

50 Ways to Feed Your Lover Series by bbcatemysoul (M, 10,509+ w. across 4 works || Series WiP || S3 Divergence / Non Compliance, Light Dom/Sub, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, First Time, Angst, Introspection, Fluff, Masturbation, Developing Relationship, Feeding Kink, Jealousy, Hurt/Comfort) – Sherlock discovers that he deeply appreciates the lengths John will go to in order to keep him fed. (stories currently in series completed)

A Midnight Clear by khorazir (T, 13,120 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas-Carol Inspired || Post S3/Post-TLD / TFP Doesn't Exist, Christmas, Angst, Fluff, Pining, Canon-Typical Violence, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Implied / Referenced Drug Use, Magical Realism) – It’s Christmas Eve, and Sherlock is working. Because that’s what he does. He doesn’t need Christmas, or holiday cheer, or even company. He’s fine on his own, thank you very much – until a series of strange encounters on his way back to Baker Street makes him reconsider.

Just Sherlock by Ranowa (T, 13,720 w., 1 Ch. || Post TFP, Big Brother Mycroft, Protective Mycroft, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Character Study, Repressed Memories, Implied Mystrade) – Post-TFP, John and Mycroft have a much-needed discussion about a struggling Sherlock.

I Heard You Series by Gregorovitch (T, 22,313 w. across 6 works || Unseen Moments, Introspection, Alternating POV, Canon Compliant, Feelings Realization, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Declarations of Love, Conversations, Angst, Grief/Mourning) – All those times when Sherlock and John could have found each other in various episodes...

Nothing Gold Series by Raina_at (E, 27,901+ w. across 3 works || Series WiP || Friends to Lovers, Grief, Mentions of PTSD, Introspection, Domestic Fluff, Blow Job, Relationship Discussions, Developing Relationship, Bisexuality) – What do you do when you can't go back? Do you hold on? Or do you let go? (stories currently in series completed)

Red Number Day by PipMer (M, 39,325 w., 7 Ch. || Magical Realism AU || Friends to Lovers, Light Humour, Minor Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Sow Burn, Angst, Light Fluff, Character Study, First Kiss/Time) – In a world where everybody has a set deathday, Sherlock Holmes is the only person who can see them. As with most talents, it's both a blessing and a curse. Because Death is a fixed point. Indelible, unchangeable, inevitable. It can't be altered, cheated or delayed.

A Thing With Peas by khorazir (M, 39,357 w., 3 Ch. || Post-S3/Post-TLD/TFP Doesn't Exist, Fluff and Angst, Communication, Demisexual Sherlock, Asexuality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Idiots in Love, Friends to Lovers, Developing Relationship, Implied / Referenced Drug Use, Parentlock, First Kiss) – Sherlock does the laundry. John cooks a thing with peas. They talk. Finally.

Mind the Gap by orphan_account (E, 45,089 w., 6 Ch. || Victor Trevor, Dubious Consent, POV First Person Sherlock, Character Development, Friendship, Pining Sherlock, Fluff, Introspection, Parent Death, Vulnerable Sherlock, Doctor John, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Child Abuse, Implied Sexual Abuse, Domestic Abuse) – An introspective journey through the life and relationships of Sherlock Holmes. "I can hear the bones hum beneath pale and freckled skin, this sack that holds my form together. Bits and pieces that start at the bottom and end at the top, hiding the blood, muscle, fat. Cells, knit together, constantly in motion. They'll live and die, and replicate, until total equilibrium is met."

All These Things That I've Done by Ewebie (E, 55,913 w., 15 Ch. || Pre-ASiP, John-Centric, Angst, John’s Past, Doctor John, Soldier John, Jolto, Deaths, John’s Injury, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Character Study/Meta Fic) – How Everything is always John Watson's fault. A study of John Watson's life before Sherlock Holmes.

The Cold Song Series by Eldritchhorrors (E, 72,586+ w. across 7 works || Series WiP || BDSM Themes, Psychological Drama, Music/Violin, Romance, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Anal, Character Studies) – This is how broken people fall in love...

noise complaint by simplyclockwork (E, 85,324 w., 28 Ch. || Younger Characters AU / Alternate First Meeting || Uncertain Sherlock, Strangers to Lovers, First Kiss / Time, Night Clubs, Case Fic, Fluff, Humour, Past Substance Abuse, Gay Club, Mild Angst, Introspection, Family Issues, Meddling Mycroft Controlling Mycroft, Bed Sharing, Family Angst, Acceptance, Falling in Love, Queerness, Community) – One loud upstairs neighbour and three days of non-stop party music lead Sherlock to an unexpected meeting.

The Good Morrow Series by greywash (E, 216,513 +w. across 5 works || Series WiP || Post-TRF Divergence, Horny John, Smut, Feelings, Negotiations, Christmas/Advent, Sherlock is a Mess, Relationships, Addiction Issues, PTSD, Therapy, Injury, Aging, Loneliness, Marriage, Family, Friendship, POV Second Person, Travel, Character Studies, Imagined Sex, Love, Multiple Pairings) – A post-S2 series where everyone has a lot of feels about everything and plausibility is stretched unto breaking. Also: fucking. (stories currently in series completed)

NUTRISCO ET EXTINGUO by Zoffoli (M, 327,772 w., 53 Ch. || Alternating Second Person POV, Post-TRF, Character Study, Romance, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Humour, Mystery) – "You haven't said what you wanted to say." Well yes, some things take you by surprise, and you're not quite prepared for them. Like when your best friend jumps off a building in front of you.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

You're more than what happened to you (Over teatime) by writing5ever (T, 4,377+ w., 4/5 Ch. || WiP || Character Study, Tea, Developing Relationship, Asexual Sherlock, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Drug Use, Four and One) – Four Times John and Sherlock talk about feelings over tea. And One time where they don't have to. - OR - a character study on Sherlock Holmes done through a plotless storyline.

A Piece of Eight Series by by KtwoNtwo (T, 30,562+ w. across 5 works || Series WiP || One Piece Space AU || Character Study, Space Pirates) – Mankind has spread out through the galaxy on ships with solar sails and jump drives. Here be tales about a particular sector of the galaxy where the Commonwealth of New Britannia is adjacent to a gravitational anomaly commonly referred to as the Red Line. Avast all ye spacers, batten down the hatches and prepare for interesting weather; its a space AU crossover between One Piece and Sherlock.

The Edge of the Sea by weeesi (E, 46,455+ w., 14/? Ch. || WiP || Pre/Post-TRF, POV John, Angst, Complicated Relationships, Pining John, Jealous John, Victor Trevor, Grief/Mourning, John's Trust Issues, Closeted John, Character Study, Panic Attacks) – Sherlock is dead. The next week passes in a blur. Mycroft invites John not to come to the funeral if he’d like, except for the fact that Mrs Hudson needs an escort and he’d really rather get through it than wonder forever what it would have been. He goes, and sits, and contains, and pours a cup of scalding-hot coffee down his throat which he hopes will burn down the tumble of nerves and anger and the type of sick-sadness he can’t examine too closely and the other feelings he won’t even acknowledge. He misses not missing him all the same. John spends the next two years alone. Sherlock doesn't.

Shatter Me by Loveismyrevolution (E, 183,191+ w., 22/26 Ch. || WiP || Sherlock Dances, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Angst with Happy Ending, Misunderstandings, Introspection, Mutual Pining, UST, Idiots in Love, Big Brother Mycroft, Implied Drug Use, Suicidal Thoughts, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions) – This is a story about two men trying to find their way back into the comfort of their companionship. No easy task in the aftermath of the events of Reichenbach, a wedding and a shot through the heart. They are facing a very rocky road ahead with a lot of introspection, misunderstandings, angst and pining. They each try to cope in their own particular way. Eventually, they'll find a way to communicate and learn about the true nature of their feelings.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #character study fics #introspection fics #my fic recs #fics to read

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gosherlocked · 8 years ago

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Sherlock. Eurus. Hell.

By now you may know about my pet theory of Eurus being a part of Sherlock. I am not the only one and I love discussing this idea. So I remembered that while the word “hell” is used quite often in the show, it is usually meant as an exclamation like in “what the hell” instead of denoting a place. There are, however, five instances where “hell” is used in the latter sense.

GARY: Aye. God bless Henry Knight and his monster from hell. SHERLOCK: You want me to shake hands with you in hell? I shall not disappoint you.

SHERLOCK: He believes he is to be dragged to Hell by the risen corpse of the late Mrs Ricoletti.

MARY: Go to hell.

SHERLOCK: I’m a mess; I’m in hell; but I am not wrong, not about him.

These are from THoB, TRF, TAB, TST, and LD. We get

Henry Knight (a Sherlock mirror who coped with a childhood trauma by inventing a dog)

Sherlock himself offering to go to hell with Moriarty

Sir Eustace (haunted by a dead enemy just like Sherlock)

Mary telling Sherlock to go to hell for John

Sherlock believing himself to be there

So hell as a place so far has always been associated with Sherlock. And then there is this:

MYCROFT: Heaven may be a fantasy for the credulous and the afraid, but I can give you a map reference for Hell. That’s where our sister has been since early childhood. She hasn’t left – not for a single day.

So suddenly, it is not Sherlock who is in hell but his sister? And she has always been, from childhood?

But it is Sherlock who suffered the trauma as a young child. It is him who has been shaped by a traumatic experience, it is him who has to meet his demons (creatures usually associated with hell). We are even shown the happy little Sherlock from before, they are rubbing it in - the friend, the dog, the loving older brother. And we have to assume that what followed was hell. Therefore I see no reason why Eurus should not be a manifestation of Sherlock’s childhood trauma.

And one last idea - in TFP Mycroft equates hell with Sherrinford, an institution for the criminally insane. And we see Eurus being locked up in a high-tech asylum for the criminally insane. Then why does Sherlock have a padded cell as used in asylums in his HLV mind palace? Long before he remembers Eurus and goes to Sherrinford? Could it be possible that the Victorian padded cell and the high-tech glass-fronted room are hellish creations (or memories) of one and the same brain?

@ebaeschnbliah, @isitandwonder, @tjlcisthenewsexy, @shadow3214, @may-shepard. @goodmythicalmail, @monikakrasnorada, @yan-yae, @tykobrian, @the-7-percent-solution. @impatient14, @kateis-cakeis

#sherlock #emp #sherrinford #hlv #tfp #hell #eurus holmes #moriarty #padded cell #asylum

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mild-lunacy · 8 years ago

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The Trouble with Sherlock's Humanity

Thinking about my post about Gatiss's quote on Sherlock's sexuality from yesterday, I think it didn't quite hit me immediately what really bothered me. It's not like I was surprised; in fact, you'd wonder why I bothered reblogging something like that at this point, even. So it only hit me now that it's just that when you think of how Gatiss referred to Sherlock's increased *humanity* (thanks in part to his experiences with Irene and in Series 3) that it slots together with similar statements Ben C and Moffat have made many times. Sherlock is the way he is and Johnlock isn't an option essentially because Sherlock isn't quite human, by his own choosing.

With TFP and the revelation about Eurus, with Mycroft saying she's the reason why Sherlock's chosen to be the 'high-functioning sociopath', I assume that the implication is clearly that Sherlock's thrown off some of that legacy now. That's his arc. It's just, by tying Sherlock's romantic entanglement so closely to his humanization arc-- both in the show (with that conversation at the end of TLD, once again) and in interviews about Sherlock's potential romantic and sexual interest in John-- the narrative is essentially saying that at the end, Sherlock's *still* not quite human. By choice. A lot of people have called this an issue of 'Chekhov's gun' after Series 4, in that this is a major question that is left hanging. The thing that occurred to me, however, is that from the creators' perspective, this whole thing-- this questioning-- is meant to highlight that this continues to be Sherlock's choice. He is a brain, and he still chooses to remove 'distractions' even as he learns to accept and integrate sentiment so that it's more useful to him, less of a danger. But (the implication is) he remains a being apart. That's the idea.

The problem is, of course, that Sherlock is (and always has been) painfully, ridiculously human. Gatiss acknowledges that during the show, Sherlock becomes 'slightly more human', but it seems... odd to say that there's a stopping point. Let alone a stopping point for Sherlock with John. I mean, he's literally lost his mind for John in TLD. He was so high, he was walking on walls. He's killed a man in full view of the British government. In what way is he still supposed to be protecting himself? In what way does that really work? That's the thing that frustrates me. It's that they all apparently think you can write such a deeply emotional Sherlock and then keep the lid on, so to speak.

The thing is, about humanization arcs, it doesn't make sense to go 99% of the way and then stop. That's not how it works. That's what I was talking about with the post on gay jokes in Sherlock-- alone, these narrative elements aren't damning or overwhelming, but the full story creates its own momentum. The biggest force of momentum has always been Sherlock himself, because of his arc. If you think of other humanization arcs in stories-- say, Spock or Data, or even Pinocchio-- you'll see that the stories generally *emphasize* the character's incremental growth and development. There's no way to do it without going 'all the way'; the idea of stopping at a point where the main character is still not entirely human at the end seems ridiculous.

Note, and I really want to make this clear, romantic entanglement isn't automatically necessary for humanity. In fact, neither of the three characters I mentioned above are known for their romantic arcs. Friendship is certainly enough. The problem mainly arises when you highlight or use the character's difference as a *reason* for why they're not relationship material. This doesn't just happen in interviews but also on the show, of course. Sherlock outright says he's married to his work. It's just that by Series 3, particularly TSoT, this is obviously no longer the case... and fundamentally, I get the feeling that Moffat and Gatiss don't see the conflict being created, because Sherlock could simply keep making the conscious choice to abstain at any point. Even when the *reasons* for it look increasingly flimsy and largely pointless, because he's suffering the consequences of excessive attachment without all of the potential benefits.

With John and Sherlock's conversation at the end of TLD, it becomes explicitly textual that Sherlock thinks of both himself and John as only human. Someone prone to 'human error', someone to be understood and accepted, to be forgiven for their flaws. It's no longer just a subtextual implication is that Sherlock is human: it's so factual that the twist is that *John* is, too. And yet... Sherlock is apart, never going all the way. Oh, he's certainly human: he texts Irene back! And look how he cares about John Watson! He's happy now, really. What else is he supposed to desire but a nice, juicy murder?

In the end, I feel frustrated and confused by the underlying understanding of 'humanity' here. I have to insert canon Johnlock just to make sense of the Sherlock's arc, even though I've essentially said I can see the story as intended, mostly platonically, overall. I just can't reconcile their Sherlock with the Sherlock we are actually shown.

Essentially, without the humanization arc being front and center, if I squint I can see the show and characters more or less as Mofftiss intended (though I grumble about Mary, I can let it go). And I can let Johnlock go on the shippy level; I can usually divorce my emotions from my analysis almost entirely. It's just, I can't dismiss my issues with the main character’s arc, with romantic entanglement being a significant part of it. Without inserting canon Johnlock, you're left with a sort of volcanic explosion of devotion and self-sacrifice that starts in TRF and continues, like Sherlock's pumping out arterial blood for all to see. It only gains force all through TLD, and then... then he's still the one comforting other people, in the end, with both John and Eurus. I'm not even a Sherlock-centric fan, but it's hard not to feel the drama is too much. To suppose that his humanity is still... somehow not quite the same as it would be by others' definition is preposterous. Sherlock has a heart, and it's not just satisfied with texting Irene, or even the cases. If you'll note, most of the S4 cases were surrounding the needs of other people (for Mary, for John, for Eurus, not for Sherlock's own sake). I suppose that by TFP, the idea is that Sherlock's heart is filled by family bonds: he has John, Rosie, and his closer bonds with Mycroft and even Eurus. Family really was the theme of Series 4, as that review said, and mostly I'm satisfied with that. It's just, that is *why* including any arbitrary limits or conditions on Sherlock getting 'involved' doesn't work. It simply doesn't *work*.

#sherlock meta #sherlock feels #narrative #sherlock's arc #queerlock #the lying detective #the final problem #embodiment #series 3 #series 4 #mark gatiss #johnlock feels

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ebaeschnbliah · 7 years ago

Text

..... SO WHO CARES ?

________________________________________________________________

Speculations on the unconscious security guard in CAMs Office

While writing 'Dungeon on the Mind-Stage' I stumbled also across Sherlock's torturer in Serbia - who seems to be quite a special Sherlock mirror. And on the upper arm of this man is a very visible tattoo. As this character isn't the only Sherlock mirror who wears a tattoo I began to wonder if this could be an interesting trace to follow. And I was not disappointed.

More under the cut ....

The unconscious man at CAMs Office (HLV) is a character who appears just for seconds. He has not the slightest impact on the plot, no text and vanishes without a trace. Why is he even here at all? What's the meaning of this man? Could this guy really be a mirror for Sherlock?

SHERLOCK: 'Another in here. Security.'

This man is a security guard! That's interesting. Because since S1 Sherlock himself and some of his mirrors are presented as 'guardians'.

Alex Woodbridge - employed as security guard at the Hickman Gallery - the stargazer with the really big 'magnifier' who recognizes a fake painting (a facade?)

Sherlock himself is dressed as security guard in TGG and as a member of the Queen's Guard in TSOT

the word 'guardian' appears in the deduction cloud around Mary (Sherlock's major mirror) in TEH

of course Major Sholto ... guardian of the empire

Benedict describs Sherlock as 'guardian angel' (X)

Enough reason to look more closely at a character who works as security guard and wears also tattoos.

On prisoners and tattoos with secret meanings

Prior to this post I had not the slightest idea regarding the meaning of the following tattoos. Therefore I interpreted them exactly the way they are presented in this scene ... through camera and dialoge.

(Sherlock walks to the man’s side and looks down at him. Behind his left ear, which has an earpiece in it, is a small tattoo of the number “14”.) SHERLOCK: Ex-con.

(He zooms in on another tattoo on the man’s right hand between his thumb and index finger. The tattoo is five small dots, four of them in a square shape and the fifth in the middle of the square.) SHERLOCK: White supremacist, BY THE TATTOO, so who cares?

Then I began researching these tattoos (here & here) and that was the moment when I noticed something very strange.

Though both tattoos have a connection to crime and prisons, their individual meaning appears .... REVERSED through the special way they are presented ... and therefore INCORRECT.

For it is the number '14' which is used as a symbol for 'white supremacy' and not the 'FIVE DOTS'.

MORE ABOUT THE FIVE DOTS

The five dots tattoo has different meanings in different cultures and as far as I was able to discover it has nothing to do with 'white supremacy'.

a group of close friends,[3]

time spent in prison (with the outer four dots representing the prison walls and the inner dot representing the prisoner).[5]

standing alone in the world,[4]

a fertility symbol,[1]

a reminder of sayings on how to treat women or police,[2]

a recognition symbol among the Romani people,[2]

Side note: Thomas A. Edison had this pattern tattooed on his forearm as well - as noted on his life insurance policy. Why remains a mystery. But maybe it has to do with the fact that he invented the predecessor of the modern tattoo gun and did a bit of experimenting. :)

The Fourty Thieves and the 'five dots'

An American gang had formed in the early 1820s in New York using this name. In London newspapers began to describe a new 'youthful gang of depredators' in 1828 who called themselves also 'The Fourty Thieves'. Both gangs had most likely no connetctions with one another beyond the name. The London street gang became soon the 'terror of their neighbourhood'. The age of the members - boys and girls - did not exceed 18 and they recognised each other by five blue spots on the hand.

Towards the end of the century an incarnation of the Forty Thieves appeared that was exclusively female. It was led by Mary Carr, aka Mary Crane, who was known as the ‘Queen of the Forty Thieves’. She is said to be one of the most astute criminals of the time, assembling a gang of young women which specialised in robbery and blackmail. This female gang persisted through to the twentieth century, when the role of Queen was taken over by Alice Diamond, aka ‘Diamond Annie’, whose punch was said to rival that of any man.

Later, the name of this particular group was changed into THE FOURTY ELEPHANTS, a reference to the Elephant and Castle – the area in Lambeth where the group was based.

It seems likely there was only the vaguest of connections between the female gang of the twentieth century and the child gang of a century or so earlier. The ‘Forty Thieves’ was a name passed on across the years. And although references to the five dots as the badge of the gang evaporate after the 1840s, the tattoo itself has outlasted the name of the Forty Thieves as a mark of street villainy.

Here is a very interesting article about that gang and its history for anyone who wants to delve deeper into that topic.

Sherlock the prisoner

Several times Sherlock is literally shown as a man in a prison cell ... in a padded cell ... even shackled to a wall with iron chains and tortured, in a dungeon-like environment.

On other occasions the audience is told about Sherlock being impriosoned:

MYCROFT: A week in a prison cell. I should have realised .... that in your case, solitary confinement is locking you up with your worst enemy.

Some of Sherlock's mirrors are also represented as prisoners ... in cells, behind bars, tortured. Jim in THOB, TRF and HLV and Ajay in TST.

And most obvious ... Eurus .... the prisoner par excellance ... held captive in a high tech security facility of the superlative. ... behind elephant-glass.

Security guard - former prisoner - tattoos

What could be the purpose of a character who appears just for a few seconds, has no text and no impact on the plot, lies just unconscious on the floor .... and Sherlock uses not more than fourteen words to describe him:

ANOTHER IN HERE SECURITY EX CONVICT WHITE SUPREMACIST BY THE TATTOO SO WHO CARES

And yet .... this insignificant, meaningless character, who is clearly portrayed in a neagative manner .... is nonetheless heavily coded as a Sherlock mirror.

But then .... the creators of Sherlock BBC seem to have a tendency in hiding important information behind a few randomly thrown away words, behind silly or cruel jokes and behind surface-neagtivity. Whereas lies are often presented in lenghthy, comprehensive explanations, as extremly neat and clever plans, embellished with a lot of fanciful details.

But .... 'Only lies have details' Sherlock tells the audience. :)))

TATTOOS - STRIPPED OF THEIR MEANINGS - WHAT REMAINS ?

The nunmber 14: one & four ...... 1+4= 5

Five dots: 5

A mirror for Sherlock .... and on his skin is written the number '5' .... two times.

Might mean nothing - might mean something - I don't know. But this unconscious Ex-con really was a lovely surprise. :))))

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

September, 2017

@gosherlocked @loveismyrevolution @monikakrasnorada @sagestreet @sherlockshadow @kateis-cakeis @darlingtonsubstitution @sarahthecoat @221bloodnun @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue @devoursjohnlock

#so who cares #security guard #cams office #hlv #mirrors

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ai-da-ice · 8 years ago

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[Fan Account] ai-da-ice at Tokyo’s Tonikaku HEY Pre-release Event/Handshake Meeting

So, previously I wrote a guide to attending in-store-lives after going to FlowBack’s for their single “Booyah!”, but a pre-release in-store or live event is a slightly different beast since you can’t just buy a physical copy at the store and receive a lottery ticket. I went into this experience of going to a pre-release event for Tonikaku HEY a little blind, not really understanding how it would work but praying I would figure it out as I went along. Still, since I’ve had a bit of bad luck attending events such as missing the priority seating ticketing (Da-iCE’s Stickyle event), getting the worst lottery number and missing the autograph session (FlowBack’s in-store), and getting on the wrong train and blowing some of my shopping money on taxi fare (Chiruran), I was actually expecting for things to go wrong, but I think it went incredibly smoothly, so I’m a little shocked!

These were the basics I knew before the event: at 9, the venue (in this case, a pretty decently sized stage near the movie theater MOVIX at a shopping village in Akishima) would begin opening preorders for Tonikaku HEY as well as the handshake tickets, which vary from order to order. Basically, if you pre-ordered one album, you could get a ticket to have a brief handshake with all the members. If you pre-ordered all three versions, you could get an extra ticket for a longer handshake with an individual member. At 10, you could start participating in the priority seating lottery (sticking your hand in a mystery box and pulling out a ticket to determine how close to the stage you will be) after you secured your pre-order receipt. At 2 PM, the mini-live would begin.

Naturally, I was wondering about the huge gap between drawing the lottery at 10 and the actual performance starting at 2, so I was thinking I would have a lot of extra free time in Akishima. I even skipped breakfast, thinking I’d grab something when I was there. Also, since most of the events I had been to in Japan thus far hadn’t been big on letting people line up too early, I decided to arrive exactly at 9 for the preorders.

This wound up being kind of a mistake, although it wasn’t one with as many consequences as I had thought. When I arrived at the venue, the line was snaking all over the place and was looooooong. I arrived at 9, but didn’t even reach the pre-order tent until closer to 12. Naturally, I severely regretted skipping breakfast. Luckily, they played Da-iCE’s “Next Phase” album to keep us entertained, but it was still a long wait. Here’s an idea of what the line was like:

(PS I FAILED ART LOL)

There were a few downsides to this other than just waiting a long time and starving, though, like I said, nothing wound up being too big of a deal in the end. One was that we were allowed to choose which member we wanted to do the individual handshake with, and they had a limited number of tickets for each member, to keep everyone from all going to the exact same person and having one member with a gazilion more visitors than another. Sota’s tickets ran out pretty early into my wait, and Taiki ran out about an hour later, and so on. Also the priority seating tickets were also a limited number, so I was pretty convinced I’d miss out on both since I was so far back in the line.

As I finally got close to the pre-order booth, I received a form to fill out to let the staff know which albums I wanted. At that point, the all-member handshake tickets were available and Toru and Yudai hadn’t sold out yet, so I opted to pre-order all three versions and go for the individual member handshake if it was still available. Toru and Yudai are about equal in popularity, so I wasn’t sure which would run out first, and I didn’t mind handshaking with either because I love them both, so I waited to see which tickets were left before writing down which handshake I wanted. The form was fairly simple Japanese, so I was able to understand most of it-- you could choose whether you wanted the albums shipped to you or if you wanted to pick them up in Akishima. The shipping cost was actually cheaper than a round ticket back to Akishima for me, so I decided to have them shipped.

When I arrived at the pre-order booth, I was relieved that both the member handshake and individual handshake tickets were still available. Phew! I wound up with Yudai’s individual ticket, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, the priority seating tickets were all gone (the bad luck finally strikes!), but the venue was set up in such a way that even people outside of the priority area were close, and when we actually got into the mini-live, the members looked at our area to the side frequently.

By time all this was finished, it was already around 12:30, so I made a break for the vending area so I could finally get something to drink and eat. I was a bit short on money, so I wound up getting an ice cream cone from the 17 Ice machine (the company Da-iCE/AAA/TRF rep for-- Hayate was on the vending machine), which also was kind of a mistake since it was very hot and promptly melted all over my hands. But since I got the handshake tickets I wanted, nothing could bother me. (Naturally, I washed my hands right away after finishing my messy ice cream out of respect for the members haha)

Around 1ish, the priority people started being admitted, and at a little after 1:30ish, guess who appeared a bit early...Sota and Yudai!! The two did a mic test and rehearsed Tonikaku HEY and Paradive right in front of us! Of course, this was just to check their mics and make sure the speakers were positioned correctly, so it wasn’t a full vocal performance, but it was still amazing to see them a little extra! They even had a little bit of audience participation by having us sing the songs when they were adjusting their sound sets.

At promptly two, the full group came onstage to kick off with Tonikaku HEY... or at least they tried to, but there was a slight technical difficulty in the intro, and they had to stand on stage for a second waiting for the music to come back on. Then it was off to showcasing their new single. It’s definitely a song suited to live performance like all their summer releases, and calls for several instances of audience participation through chanting the “HEY!” part along with them and mimicking the choreo during the chorus. I think it’s a really fun release which blends retro and modern music and am looking forward to the full release.

After, the five members had an MC about several subjects including the recently wrapped up Chiruran performances and Golden Week, the holiday going on in Japan right now which is one of the reasons the stage was so crowded--students are out of school, and a lot of adults are also off of work. They also did a brief Q&A, which I’d normally love to translate, but i‘m not quite sure what the audience members said because of the high levels of wind during the performance. I have a feeling there was something about ideal types and something about food based on Da-iCE’s responses. Da-iCE also went through and asked what areas of Japan we all came from. Since it was Golden Week, several people had come from quite far since they had the vacation time.

With the MC finished, they moved on to their final song, their hit from last summer “Paradive”! This song is truly a fan favorite for several reasons, but mainly because there is a lot of fan participation from the towel twirling during the chorus to the “HEY!” fan chants during the “come on and feel the heat...” breakdown. The energy whenever “Paradive” is performed at an event is crazy.

Since it was a mini-live, there were only those two songs, but thanks to the hand-shake event, there was still plenty to do afterwards. The group handshake was first, and went by pretty quickly-- I would say you have about time enough to say one quick thing to the members before being pushed along. I decided just to go for “ganbarimashita”-- “You did a great job”--since it’s short and to the point.

If I’m remembering correctly, the handshake order went Taiki-Toru-Yudai-Hayate-Sota. Though it was brief, it was a legit handshake where they clasped your hand in both of their hands while make eye contact. 3/5 members said “Thank you for coming” to me in English (Taiki, Toru, and Sota), while Hayate and Yudai said “arigatou”. Toru and Sota seemed to remember me from Chiruran since they both said “Thanks for coming again” T^T. For both Toru and Sota, I responded coolly with “Oh, it’s no problem,” but YES, it was a problem, because I felt ready to die of happiness~

I was naturally freaking out, but had to run back to the other side of the venue where everyone was lining up for individual handshakes. How this worked was after the group handshakes were over, the members went backstage to change out of their Tonikaku costumes, and the staff set up queues using partitions in front of the place each member would be standing. We lined up behind the signs of whatever member we had a ticket for. If people ordered A LOT of albums, they could potentially have multiple tickets, but they were advised to line up in the longest line first, and if there was enough time, to go back to another line to handshake with a second member. However, there was a cut off point for the event so the members wouldn’t be there all day (once again, it was quite hot).

Since I always blank out when speaking to idols, this time I spent some time practicing the general idea of what I would say depending on which member I was shaking hands with. I had to wait in Yudai’s queue for about twenty minutes before reaching him, so I felt like I was ready by time I reached him. Of course my heart was fluttering like crazy, but I stepped up, and he took both of my hands, and the following conversation occurred (in Japanese):

Yudai: Hello again, do you speak any Japanese? Me: Yes, a little. I met you last year in California. Yudai: Oh, that was [he couldn’t remember the name of which city]... Me: San Jose Yudai: Yes! Waaa, you came so far Me: I'm really happy I got to meet you again Yudai-kun! Yudai: Yes, me too me too (in English) me too 😃

Unfortunately, since my Japanese is so slow, that’s all we were able to say, but just having a longer length conversation with him made me so happy. Yudai, I’ll work harder next time!

After that, I was about ready to pass out from lack of food, so I had to hurry home. But overall, this was one of my most special experiences with Da-iCE. They’ve been so kind by greeting me in English all the time, but I’m going to improve my Japanese more so I can be more confident next time!!

#spoiler: I had a longer convo with yudai in Japanese!#da-ice #fan account

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