Come out and play

[impulsereader]

Grandmere is dying to hear about one of Sherlock and John’s adventures. Which ACD story should be adapted for her benefit? Come on – throw me your favourite – Silver Blaze, Yellow Face and Speckled Band are the only stories off the table as I’m trying/planning to use or have already used those.


I’m still not sure what Mycroft is building – or assembling – he has the MJN crew bringing in one element and Sandy Arbuthnot flying in another – there may very well be other components as well... This leads one of the opening scenes in the Much Ado season to feature a dogfight bringing down Sandy’s plane and a group of armed men hijacking Gertie! Luckily, John and Not Anthea look harmless and are taken along as hostages. It does not take them long to return control to Martin (who displays a slightly startling willingness to be Captain even when doing so requires him to be kidnapped at gunpoint. “No, being Captain means taking the bad with the good, Douglas.”).

What is Mycroft building/assembling? Maybe he’s let one of you in on it? He doesn’t seem inclined currently to tell me.


Mycroft refers to the clan as ‘a blizzard of Holmeses’. Do we like that or can you lot come up with something better? I know djarum99 is good at this – a charm of hummingbirds - *happy sigh*.


Do John and Sherlock exchange gifts? If yes, what would you like to see them give each other? Two holidays here, mind…is anyone interested in any other possible gift exchanges?


What do you think might be in the bottle (sealed with lead) which Sherlock pocketed in the attic?


The boys are scheduled for a final fitting of their costumes. I think this requires another canon character (anyone but Donovan *glares at Sally*) to drop by the flat coincidentally while Sherlock is trying on dresses. Who would you like it to be? What else is going on in November at Baker Street? What are we talking about while the fitting is going on? Is there a case on? Maybe we can even put in another ACD adaptation here…go wild!

Comments

[pargoletta.livejournal.com]

Do John and Sherlock exchange gifts? If yes, what would you like to see them give each other? Two holidays here, mind…is anyone interested in any other possible gift exchanges?

Here's an idea. Somehow, I've heard that Sherlock's birthday is January 6, which is awful close to Christmas. My sister's birthday is January 23, which is usually fairly close to Hanukkah. Sometimes, in the past, someone has given her something really nice as a combined holiday/birthday gift (there's a chair that I might do that with this year if she's still interested in it). Maybe John finds something nice for Sherlock as a combined Christmas/birthday thing. Or maybe he gets two small things, figuring that all the rest of the Holmes family always combined gifts and Sherlock got skimped throughout his childhood. Or maybe even two halves of the same gift (i.e. a gift in two parts, one for Christmas, one for birthday).

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Hm. A discussion has apparently been boiling over for years... http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-curious-case-of-a-birthday-for-sherlock/

I can see John, in this first year where we're angsty giving Sherlock something meaningful - no, wait - that's not right - he's joking him out of his doldrums.

Finding the sonata is meaningful - the gift should be pure fun.

[djarum99.livejournal.com]

The words for birds aren't mine, they're a product of centuries of the human habit of giving fanciful names to preternaturally beautiful and wondrous things - but I'm flattered :-)

A flock of rooks is a clamour, a group of raptors is a convocation (I like that one) or a kettle (?), and owls en masse are referred to as a parliament. A murder of crows and a kindness (or unkindness, depending on who you ask) of ravens are terms used a little more frequently.

Perhaps these for Sherlock's gift from John, for the texting :-)

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

You deserve credit for spreading the word...give me an educated magical guess on what a group of Holmeses might be whimsically designated...you are my resident authority on magical poetry.

Oh, that is a lovely sort of gift for Sherlock. He would totally appreciate that. And here I thought the Sharper Image and Pier 1 were completely useless; it turns out that in fandom they are completely wonderful...

[djarum99.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a "cornucopia of Holmeses," or a "conflagration," or a "Gordian knot" :-)

[221b-hound.livejournal.com]

I've always been massively fond of both The Red-Headed League and The Solitary Cyclist (the latter because Violet is pretty BAMF, considering).

I'm wondering now if Mycroft is *not* building something sensible and grown up but completing an experiment from his teenaged years, for which he needs the engine of a Trabant (weird communist car from Eastern Europe). Perhaps he always fancied that he could soup up the engine of that thing so it was less like a lawnmower. Or that he could use the lawnower engine of the thing to build one of those mini-helicopters. I think I'm just amused by theidea of it being Mycroft for a change who is indulging some fanciful inventor/experiment ideas. Just a thought.

Instead of a blizzard of Holmeses... a gaggle of them, maybe? (I'm thinking of geese, all long necks and imperiousness and bad tempers).

The bottle may contain the results of one of his earliest experiments with chemicals, and he wants to see what the chemical soup has turned into since then?

I love those touchscreen gloves that djarum99 linked to. Apart from practical gifts, I wonder if John might find experiential gifts for him. I mean, I expect Sherlock acutally knows how to ballroom dance, but a set of lessons in salsa might come in handy for a case sometime. There's actually this neat thing you can do in Poland, where one of the last steam trains still running a commuter route exists. For a week you can learn how to be a steam engine driver and then take the train on one of its runs. With his medical contacts, John might be able to arrange for Sherlock to spend time observing some kind of medical specialist at work. Or, if he wants it to be more of a kidding around present, a cookery course in some cuisine that John really likes. I read someting recently about an apron that reads "Cooking is science for hungry people".

I wonder if Sherlock might be willing to give John sort-of experiential things too, instead of material gifts. Like a note promising to not destroy the kitchen for a month. Or to do the shopping at least once in January. (And when he does it, he does the shopping EXTRAVAGANTLY).

Though maybe he might just get John a really, really, really good bottle of whisky.

Or typing lessons. In retaliation for last year's cooking lessons.

I think Molly catching SHerlock in a dress would be all kinds of hilarious, because she'd be blurting out things and trying to be all 'Oh, it's cool, my uncle's a cross dresser and you like much nicer than he does. More feminine. Uh. And. I have a handbag that would go nicely with that..."

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I like all of these - thank you so much for weighing in! I appreciate it immensely...nearly at the point of posting the first section - thankfully...

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Perhaps just 'a knot of Holmeses' I like that, knots are complicated...

[djarum99.livejournal.com]

Or a labyrinth :-)

[northernwalker]

1. I liked A Scandal in Bohemia and The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.

2. Not sure- he hasn't told me either.

3. A murder of Holmeses, like crows?

4. I have trouble seeing Sherlock giving gifts.

5. A shrunken head.

6. Mrs. Hudson walks in. She doesn't even blink- she's seen far stranger things. Public holidays inclued Guy Fawkes Day on the 5th and St. Andrew's Day on the 30th- though that's only for Scotland. Mrs. Hudson may be Scottish, though.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

I know what was in the lead sealed bottle I suggested, because I know what story I swiped it from. And I'm fairly certain your story wants nothing of the sort. :-)

Hmm. I know that there have been stories of rare spirits being used as tontines. Maybe everybody died and it's simply the last remnants of a very good whiskey. (I can hear Sherlock say "dull".)

A mysterious chemical that does something might be good. Holmses (an extravagance of Holmeses?) may have been mucking around with scientific experiments since the days when it was alchemy. Maybe it's a hallucinogen. Maybe it attracts cats. Maybe it gets the stain out of the tabletop. Maybe it clots blood. Maybe it is a nearly perfect lubricant and is needed to unjam some stuck machinery used to operate the sets or spills across the floor and makes things more hazardous. Perhaps it gilds things and causes awkward stains. It could be, but probably isn't, an aphrodisiac. Maybe it's a sentimental keepsake and someone from the family recognizes it—"Oh, that's water and sand from the seaside where your Great-Grandmother Rose proposed to your Great-Grandfather Henry." or "Great-Great-Great Uncle Herbert always loved the smell of his flatmate's moustache wax and wanted to preserve it forever."

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait... something Holmeses might find useful based on the two we've seen so far: a chemical synthetic hormone that influences people's perceptions and makes the wearer seem more likable. Good for politics, good for investigations, good for cutthroat dinner parties....

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Hm. This is all good to meditate on. I very much like the idea of something I can then translate into one of our interludes - like doing the shopping as a present. I think I'd quite like to write John and Sherlock out grocery shopping. Ugh, that would require quarryquest to work overtime as I've only been in shops in London very briefly.

I'm actually toying with the notion that the bottle contains something other than a liquid. A note, perhaps? I kind of want to go for - a genie - but on the other hand want to keep the story firmly in RL.

I quite like fanciful!Mycroft as well. I think whatever he's assembling is something that he's over-complicating. He's flying things in and being all secretive and telling people off because they're interrupting his working on it and he ends up with a can opener or something.

Yes, Molly might be good. Having just read Pargoletta's fic Nearer My God to Thee - highly recommended, by the way http://pargoletta.livejournal.com/tag/nearer%20my%20god%20to%20thee - I was meditating on bringing in Sarah to poke fun at Sherlock in a dress.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. Yes, I'm liking a labyrinth of Holmeses and an extravagance of Holmeses. Apparently I'm liking words that are sounding complicated and elegant to my ear for this. An elegance of Holmeses?

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Oh, two votes for the Solitary Cyclist. I'll read it and see what I can come up with. Thanks!

Man, Mycroft is being a little bitch about this. I'm really going to have to have Not Anthea scold it out of him.

I'm liking a labyrinth of Holmeses or an extravagance of them so far.

I agree, I'm not sure about the gifts. I do think, though, that in this case Sherlock is aware that he's been putting John through the wringer a bit and he might be inclined to want to do something nice for him. We shall see...

Wait? There's a shrunken head in the bottle? *Boggles* I was thinking something not liquid, but - wow. Okay, that's cool. That might actually lead to something in an interlude. How big would a shrunken head actually be? *circles this idea warily*

I must put Mrs Hudson in somewhere, I really must.

Thank you! All this is lovely and makes me think thinky thoughts which was exactly the point! Well done!

[northernwalker]

I like labyrinth, since it's the Holmeses.

Maybe buying John some tea? Unadulterated by Sherlock's experiments, that is.

According to a site I found, they could be the size of an orange, though there is a rare African shrunken head the size of a man's thumb.
http://www.notsonews.com/shrunken-heads-how

Mrs. Hudson MUST be involved. Perhaps she and Grandmere have been corresponding off a pen pal site!

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Shrunken heads are super creepy. I'll have to see if this hatches anything in my brain.

Grandmere has a laptop? Cool. Maybe Mrs Hudson sends her Sherlock updates.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Oh, where did you swipe it from? I kind of want there to be a genie in it, but I don't really want to go Fantasy suddenly in the middle of the fic. I do want its contents to spark something - some action on Sherlock's part - maybe not a full-blown case since I'm trying to keep these interlude chapters under some sort of control (they are now laughing and pointing at me and beefing up their word count as I type) but something...

Your list is amazing, I love it. Hm...Sherlock is in the flat and doing experiments on the liquid? He's trying to figure out what it is...I wonder if I could make that entertaining.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on my shelves there is a book of short stories whose names I have forgotten. Or maybe it was on someone else's shelves entirely; I'm fairly certain it was in a different book.

At any rate, in one of these stories (or perhaps the other stories), a man acquires and opens a beautiful and mysterious antique lead sealed bottle. It turns out to contain a jinn who has spent enough time trapped there to become phenomenally irked. As retribution against humanity (the specific human who did this to him is long gone, of course), he traps the human in the bottle to take his place.

So presumably the bottle contains a somewhat miffed human, or the remains of one. Now, Sherlock does like human remains, or at least interesting human remains. But to have them come tumbling out of a bottle that's demonstrably too small to contain them would be somewhat unnerving even to him. And I have in the back of my mind the idea (forgive me, it's been a while) that it may be necessary for something to be in that bottle.

I have every confidence in your ability to make things entertaining.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

This is predictably lovely. The story you enjoyed (or perhaps the other story you read and liked) sounds quite familiar. I'm not sure if this means we read the same story at some point or if bottles and jinn's just travel together as a rule - though the addition of a human is suggestive - perhaps this is Gaiman? I am flailing about here much as Martin is doing after Douglas has declared him French - within the lemon ep - listening to that now and using the concept of travel to link the events in my head...oh, poor Martin...

Sorry - Cabin Pressure being a radio show - it is sometimes difficult to weave into a fic-based post...

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

This story sounds hauntingly familiar. I've either read it at some point or this scenario is somewhat commonly used in fiction.

I recently watched Labyrinth for the first time and was both surprised and (at the same time) realized I (possibly had) should have known that Brian Froud was involved in that. Biting fairies tend to = Brian Froud.

The dichotomy of fairy tales interests me a lot. These were cautionary tales originally but modern media has transformed them almost completely. Still, there are hold-outs who keep insisting on doing away with the sugar-coating which somehow also make it into the mainstream - producing Grimm as a quite recent example. Obviously, this isn't even scraping the surface here...

jinn/djinn/genies seem just about ready for their own pop-culture make over. I Dream of Jeanie and Aladdin are things my generation grew up with and are bound to be sentimental about. That's my prediction for 'the next big thing'. Fairies out, Jinn in. This, of course, will be a mixed blessing on their house.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

In which I am extremely disorganized... So, in order to better make myself look scary, I've sent a second reply to this. One - I'm glad I had something slightly more interesting to say this morning. Two - must be better about clearing inbox of replied-to messages.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

The first book that popped into my mind was Kitty Raises Hell. But I think the Bartimaeus books have jinn in there somewhere, and P.B. Kerr has an entire series, so maybe it's a thing with children.

I think "I Dream of Jeanie", like "Bewitched", is largely about the pressure to conform to standards of normalcy in mid-20th-century America, even when one is extraordinary, even when it's not part of one's culture and one doesn't understand it.

One of the differences between working with a story involving the fae and working with a story involving a jinn is that the traditions surrounding the fae are largely familiar to my presumed 'Western' and English speaking readers. As long as I keep to the more mainstream types of fae, I can assume that both my reader and I are coming from a similar familiarity and perspective and I can make my variations as variations. The jinn are unfamiliar to both myself and, usually, my reader. There are the common ideas that they are obligated to grant a certain number of wishes, that one must be quite careful regarding what those wishes are (a common theme in fairy tales) because they will generally disappoint, and that they are magnificent. I gather there is a rich tradition beyond that, but it would require both research and careful introduction to the reader or I'd run the risk of bad cultural appropriation and/or boring my reader with exposition.

On the other hand, vampires are almost nothing like they were before Stoker and subsequent popular fiction got hold of them, and that's worked out for the most part.

Don't mind me, just babbling.

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should do that with comments on "Wrong". I want to say something really impressive about it and how much I liked it, but I've been known to get so intimidated from not figuring out how to say what I want to say that I just wander off and don't comment on something after all.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Babble away, it's always terribly interesting and insightful. The only real danger is that I'll babble right back.

Yes, you've pegged "I Dream" and "Bewitched" just right there. A lot of people don't realize that though and still make with the sentimental glow of youth.

Gosh yes, everyone knows that those wishes are bound to be more trouble than they're worth, except the person making them...

You're right about the research, and I wonder if it's just about time for someone who is familiar/has grown up with the culture to come along and dazzle us all. I think there's enough set up now that an educated take from a talented writer could really accomplish something. Alas, that writer will probably not be either you or me; neither of us will get Harry Potter rich over Jinn as we weren't farsighted enough to start the research years ago. Oh well.