#belladonnaxy

[waitedforgarridebs]

Save the date:

On July 9th 2023 the current hiatus will be as long as it took the show to initially air.

[swissmissing]

It’s literally Christmas in July!

Look what I got from the amazing @belladonnaxy​ and @kirincalls​ as a thank you for translating their fics from German!

And here is everything unwrapped:

Each package has a meaning as related in the accompanying note:

A Study in Pink - Translator’s Care Packet

1. Comfort food, knotted version (gummy bears) 2. The Irish temptation, like Moriarty (Irish shortbread biscuits) 3. Some juicy lemons (lemon throat lozenges) 4. Rub out translation, excuse the pun (2 erasers shaped like books with “English” and “German” written on them) 5. This is so hot... (hot spice mix) 6. In case you find yourself biting your lips a lot... (beeswax lip balm) 7. Spicy nuts (Wasabi peanuts) 8. If John Watson was a tea... (gunpowder green tea) 9. Wildflower honey... 10. ... summer rain, nightshade and adventure. Danger. Moonlight. (bath salts) 11. In case you find yourself pulling your hair out (deep conditioner) 12. Afterglow (face mask) 13. A substitute - in case you ever want to slam us against a wall (flyswatter) 14. ... aren’t we all just little pigs? (plush piglet, symbolizes good luck in German) 15. Comfort food, English version (wine gums)

Some of these are particularly meaningful in relation to the stories, so if you are intrigued, check them out:

Raw by kirin_calls (149K, E, Johnlock, Johnstrade, Viclock) When John takes up mixed martial arts training, he doesn't expect it to lead to a new relationship. But there are darker things afoot at the gym, and John is soon drawn in deeper than he wants. When an old flame from Sherlock's past turns up, it's time for everyone to declare their loyalties... and for John to finally discover where his heart truly belongs.

Vertigo by kirin_calls (133K, E, Johnlock, Viclock, John/Victor) Sequel to RAW. John is struggling with his loss. Plagued by nightmares, his life gone topsy-turvy, he is no longer able to lead a normal existence. As he seeks out some stability, some way to slowly pull himself up out of the morass of his grief, old rivals become friends and details about Sherlock's past come to light, leading John to discover something strange that won't let him go.

Love Me, Love Me Knot (English Version) Lby kirin_calls, XBelladonnaX (WIP*, E, Johnlock, John/OCs) In an alternate universe, the Omega Sherlock and the Alpha John meet by chance and enter into a pact which leads to far-reaching consequences. What is meant to be a simple solution to their problems turns out to be a challenge that pushes both men to their limits. * The German version is complete with 203K. The English translation is halfway complete and currently posting about every 2 weeks.

[charcubed]

this is a terrible question but do u happen to have a rec list of johnlock/tjlc blogs. just wandering around looking to get hurt again

NOT a terrible question. Welcome (back?) to the winning team!!

This will hardly be comprehensive but off the top of my head...

@garkgatiss @afishlearningpoetry @coffeeteaitsallfine @ferm-acid @devoursjohnlock @belladonnaxy @waitedforgarridebs @incurablylazydevil @sarahthecoat @featuresofinterest @tjlcblr @watsonshoneybee @hudders-and-hiddles @inevitably-johnlocked

Chances are HIGH I will come back and edit this post when my brain reminds me of the many, many people I have forgotten to list, but these are ones I think of per my dash immediately lol. To anyone tagged pls feel free to add more recs, to anyone NOT tagged pls know I’m sorry and my brain is just tired and I likely love your work too <3

Also you can always check out my TJLC tag, as well as I have a side blog @frankhudson where I sometimes reblog highly specific s4 meta things just to index it for later and not annoy people with it on main. WOOO JOHNLOCK IS REAL BAYBEE 

[waitedforgarridebs]

The meta gods have spoken very clearly tonight.

[swissmissing]

Is it hot in here or is it just this fic?

I am translating chapter 8 of Love Me, Love Me Knot by @belladonnaxy​ and @kirincalls​ and I literally have to keep taking breaks for Reasons.

If you want in on the ground floor for this dual timeline alternate meeting Alpha/Omega Johnlock extravaganza, all I can say is SUBSCRIBE! You will have 0 regrets.

[roadswewalk]

Heeey. So I'm sorta participating in one of these Tumblr games aimed at increasing the level of general happiness of the population, so go ahead, name 5 things that make you happy and send these instructions to 10 people in your most recent notifications. Good luck with that.

Too many people keep asks turned off, so I’ll start another thread of this game.  5 of the many things that make me happy, in no particular order:

a well-executed drop in aerials

waking up naturally, five minutes before the alarm

baking

a sip of cold, clean, free water

dawning comprehension in someone’s eyes

Tags under the cut.

@katthepotato, @s4erlock, @shysherlockian (come on out!), @belladonnaxy, @caressthosecheekbones, @swimmingfeelsinajohnlockianpool, @holmesguy, @m0riartysbitch, @rainbowgolded, @meant-to-221b

(And thanks

@love-in-mind-palace

for tagging me in!)

[waitedforgarridebs]

😘

When your friends just know you!

Thank you @waitedforgarridebs

(I snorted)

[waitedforgarridebs]

Somehow, this sums up our interactions so much, @belladonnaxy​ lmao

[silentauroriamthereal]

belladonnaxy replied to your post “I was just editing the last section I wrote and found one of the most...”

Maybe he’s just v e r y flexible ��

Ahaha, could be!! The best bit is that it’s both hips, not even just one, so either he’d have to have a split lizard tongue that could get both in one lick or else do a quick bend for one, then the other. You know, just keeping those hips wet. As one does. (Wtf is wrong with my brain...)

[waitedforgarridebs]

Oh my god you didn't 😂😂😂😂😂😂 I'm crying

(Glad you've replaced me with another Garridebs tho, I approve.)

@waitedforgarridebs had at that time deserted our Dracula watch, the only selfish action I can recall in our association. I decided to watch Granada’s The Mazarin Stone.

[waitedforgarridebs]

@belladonnaxy, our bet for season 5 about [plot point for which the world is not yet prepared] needs a Tumblr post to officially be sealed for eternity

🤝

[waitedforgarridebs]

“We are what we are, Watson. And... I love you, too.”

Or: The story of how @belladonnaxy and I unknowingly (!) went to a stage play that made Johnlock canon*

Yes, they did that.

(*And we totally took that picture before going in ... we been knew.)

More of my personal impressions after the cut (beyond the one, big fact that I obviously already spoilered), but: 

Before that I’d like to present to you the great and almighty archive.org, where I found a recording of the play (x) done at BBC Radio Four’s More Than Words Festival in Bristol (2012). 

So, please, enjoy – because there is so much gay subtext in this play, and the feeling of getting the pay-off for it at the very end is the best thing in the world.

Other than the radio play, the original production (and ours now) was only done by three male actors, and only the actor playing Watson was never really changing to play other people (and is therefore considered the “lead character” thehe). Both the actor who played Holmes, and the actor who played Sir Henry, were changing a lot, which led to some very funny pauses sometimes, where they played up the time it took to change into the other costume for laughs a lot.

There were... a lot of fourth wall breaks, in general. Which didn’t hurt me, like, at all :) 

Do you like puns? Because there are a LOT of them in this play (and I mean a lot). Especially about dogs. But more so... about gay things.

You know, like...

Watson describing a walking stick as “a thin, length of wood with a curious curve at one end”.

Watson is Holmes’s conductor of light, “my(!) torch. Just... turn yourself on. And keep yourself turned on whenever you are around me.”

There are two posh guys getting off ... [long pause] ... the train.

Furthermore:

Watson is obsessed with food (and never gets to eat) – he especially would like a sausage.

When Watson is writing Holmes to report about what’s happening, he is pondering about how many kisses he should put next to his name when signing the letter (no joke).

Sir Henry constantly keeps pointing out the beauty of women to Watson, who simply shrugs it off each time and has like zero opinion about it.

Watson: “I just feel like... nothing compared to you.” Holmes: “You are not nothing, Watson. You are my torch.” Watson: “I love you, Sherlock.” Holmes: “I know.” (which, thank you @mollydobby, is possibly a Star Wars reference (x) :))

Holmes: “I need you, Watson.”

And, the famous last line of the play: “And, Watson: I love you, too.”

On a sidenote: There was a horse named Victor.

And before the interval, they raised all the open questions about who Cecilia Stapleton really is, “so, was it a girl or a dog?”

Yeah.

I’ve not listened to the full recording on the archive yet, so I don’t know how they would implement certain things, because this one is a radio and not a stage play – so, just to give you some visuals, too:

Watson and Holmes meet Sir Henry for the first time in a sauna in the London steam rooms, sitting there with him, Sir Henry’s crotch on eye-level (because Sir Henry is sitting on the upper bench), and Sir Henry casually completely unwraps his towel to readjust it, and stands there, flashing all his glory right into Watson’s face.

Leading to Watson blurting out, “We need to get out of here or I’ll explode.”

The first night at the Baskerville manor, it is so incredibly scary, with all the thunderstorms and hound-noises from the outside and whatnot – we see Sir Henry in his bed (which is standing upright on the stage, so we get the view from above), and he’s so frightened he yells out Watson’s name - who too, is frightened... so yes, in the end, they were bed-sharing. :)

Before the interval, one of the actors “fainted”, which was their perfect excuse to announce there shall be a little break.

After the interval, the Holmes actor came back on stage, holding up his phone like a drama queen and gesticulating to the Watson-actor, “READ IT!” - apparently, someone had tweeted during the interval, that while it was an enjoyable play, the guy who played Holmes was dragging out his lines like an asthmatic donkey, which is why the play felt really slow. So, making an “executive decision”, they would re-do the entirety of the first act now, but faster. Which. Was. The. Funniest. Thing. Ever. (And while skipping a lot of lines, naturally, they made really sure not to skip any of the gay subtext.)

When “Sir Henry” died by falling off the precipice after being chased by the hound, Watson tries to do CPR on the body, while Holmes stands there yelling it is useless, because “half his head is missing”. Watson ends up looking at Holmes like “try me bitch” and stubbornly keeps doing the CPR. Holmes, “What kind of a doctor are you even????” Watson stands up, “FINE!”, and kicks the rag-doll that is the corpse across the entire stage. Repeatedly.  Holmes, suddenly yelling, “This is the worst thing that happened in my entire career!”, joins in the kicking the corpse around to relief his frustration. 

Watson is being a bit bumbling and slow-witted in this one, so there is this one moment where he said something incredibly moronic, and Holmes just looks at him, sighs, is #done, #this is the idiot I married, #lies down on the floor and cries.

At one point, Sir Henry was shaving and Watson suddenly rushes him to go downstairs to meet up with Cecille Stapleton. But there is still all the shaving cream on his face, so Watson shall help clean Sir Henry up, quickly. The shaving cream is everywhere... on his face... in his mouth... in his eye :)))))

Watson and Holmes at one point disappear to play snooker together. You know. Aiming at the ball with a stick, trying to hole it, making way more rhythmic “aiming motions” with the stick than really necessary... 

In general, there were a lot of sticks. And guns. And torch-guns.

Disclaimer (because I know this question will come up):

The entire play was a comedy, quite slap-stick, maybe a bit of Monthy Python-y humour – but yes, still, during the break we had our doubts whether all the “gay jokes” would end up being queerbaiting or not. 

While we really thought they were genuinely funny jokes then already.

And they also dragged the straight cliché plotline of “he was a boy, she was a girl” through the mud a little with the whole Sir Henry / Cecille thing – going so far as including an entire tango dancing scene montage with disco balls and ridiculous music.

But in the end, both Sir Henry and Cecille AND Sherlock and John ended up saying “I love you” to each other in the second act, just to really drive it home what saying these words to another person actually means.

And it was glorious.

Second disclaimer:

This play told a story, and this story is over. And yes. There was gay subtext and there was pay-off for it at the end of this story. 

So, please: Don’t salt about Moftiss on this post.

If you find this after series 5 has aired and they actually haven’t made it canon, then yes, go ahead and salt if you really have to. But not now. Not on this post.

Also, one more thing.

I’d like to point out the official listing of characters on the theatre’s website:

We should maybe have seen it coming... ;)

Anything to add, @belladonnaxy? 

[waitedforgarridebs]

@belladonnaxy​, you will not lure me into re-reblogging that angsty headcanon post, but I do want to publicly call you out for what you added to it

[waitedforgarridebs]

“If the world’s in danger and disaster looms ... dance a waltz ♪”

@belladonnaxy and I did it again, but I’m afraid we weren’t quite as lucky as last time (x). It was quite amusing, nonetheless.

Also, what a plot twist for a play that’s called “Sherlock Holmes: Next Generation” – who would possibly(!) have expected(!) that there would be a young man who turns out to be Sherlock’s son(!!!!). Shocking!

You might already have figured that this play is very hetero, but you have no idea just how hetero it is... Spoilers ahead:

Not only did they flip the whole Reichenbach scenario to make it so that Sherlock now avenges Irene’s death by plunging Moriarty into the Falls and killing him (for real), but then – 25 years later – the “orphan”, who turns out to be Sherlock’s and Irene’s son, 

can you believe, his name is John Shadler. SH-Adler. Honestly.

is set up with this young suffragette medicine student lady (Katherine), and of course they venture from a song about how “boys are dumb and girls are stupid” to being love interests. Like, as a woman who’s studying medicine, of course you can only really truly be free after you found ... a man. She sang a whole song about that, so it must be true. 

Turns out, however, that Katherine’s mother is in fact Moriarty’s evil sister, who is now planning to take le revenge on Sherlock, but eventually “the invisible clue” – her perfume(!) – gave her away, Sherlock solves the case, the end.

So yeah, that Katherine girl is a Moriarty. Straight!Sheriarty is canon, guyse.

As is Adlock.

And I swear to god, even if it is never mentioned, but ... for plot reasons, they had stationed John Watson in Egypt during his military service, where also apparently the Moriarty family had fled after James Moriarty died 25 years ago, and with Elena Moriarty being so completely fed up by men because they are just trash and they just disappoint you, yadda yadda ... 

Hot take: John hooked up with the Moriarty sister in Egypt and Katherine is the happy result.

So, in the end we’ve got an Adlock son and a Johniarty daughter being happily in love – honestly, the spawn of this relationship can only be the Antichrist themself.

... I am obviously kidding.

The play borrowed very heavily from BBC, with the Belstaff, the “mind palace” (”thought room”), the TBB-esque sequences, sometimes even the soundtrack a little bit – which you can find on Spotify (x), if you are interested.

The fact that they gave John Watson a whole sequence about his PTSD kinda salvaged the play in my opinion, but it never really mattered for the plot in the end, which was a bit disappointing.

While they did kind of critisise marriage in general on a couple of occasions – you know, with the kind of “haha I hate my wife” straight humour – the whole play itself was quite heteronormative. They did have some “bisexual-flavoured” scenes during an opium trip in Chinatown where the evil-evil Chinese people tried to randomly kill Katherine with poison – and I honestly have no idea where to even start unpacking this scene... but other than that, they made sure to have their boy+girl pairings at all times and genderswap where necessary.

I mean, pictures this: Irene gets shot (and dies) and Sherlock holds her body and yells into the sky, with his fist in the air, “Moriartyyyyy!” – and then later, John gets fucking shot, and while he doesn’t die, Sherlock isn’t even there to Garridebs the fuck out of that scene. Like, that’s just rude. 

(I’m sorry, I do have strong opinions on this topic.)

(Yes, I know that Sherlock was kidnapped then, but that’s a very disappointing writers’ choice if you ask me.)

Sherlock and John had surprisingly little time on stage in my opinion, it was more a play about young!John and Katherine, so it did live up to its title in that regard: It was more about the next generation than anything else, and the rest was just Sherlock Holmes flavoured enough to still count as a Sherlock Holmes play.

So yeah, @belladonnaxy thanks for ... an evening.

(jk, everything before and after the play was awesome ♥)

[waitedforgarridebs]

@belladonnaxy, so how ready are we for today?

[sassy-little-hedgehog]

Thanks @theresnoescapingfromtheheartache and @forfucksakejohn for the tag!! (I love doing picrews too)

Tagging: @belladonnaxy @finamour @hudders-and-hiddles @jaaaaawnjaaaawn if you want to and anyone else who wants!

@oetta-cedo

here's the picrew! i made a new post cause the original was long

(here's the picrew)

i'm tagging: @dcat-could-be-spookier, @teafandomhive, @anxious-little-faicye, and anyone else who'd like to try it :)