(no subject)

[commotiocordis]

What should we call you?: Name's Alexandria. *Waves* Sidenote, I'm CrashCart9 virtually everywhere (Twitter, fanfiction.net, etc.), so if you see me around, say hi!
Where are you from?: Saint Louis, MO. Currently in Springfield, MO for school.
What do you do?: Student. Cell and Molecular Biology, I do research into directed DNA repair, eventually going to medical school. I play the viola (semi-professionally in middle and high school, though sadly only dabbling of late). General layabout and ne'er-do-well.

What other fandoms are you involved in?: I tend to drown myself in whatever is my current fandom to the neglect of all the others, so right now? Sherlock Holmes is my fandom. In general, there's a rarely updated, though fairly exhaustive, list of my ships and shows, if you're interested. Basically, everything slash or femslashable (the latter being my first love) on TV.

What's your experience with the Sherlock Holmes franchise, so to speak?: Umm, Data liked to dress up as Sherlock sometimes on Star Trek: TNG? Nothing before the movie. Since then, I'm working through the books and shows (everything Netflix Instant Viewing-able) and drowning myself in bookverse!fic. More the latter two than the former simply because I drive back and forth between home and school a lot and have been saving the books to listen to whatever ones I can audiofied on the road.

(Skipping all the film bits because, obvs, seen the movie already. Review of the film here, review of the 221.sh game here.)

Why do you ship Holmes and Watson?: I saw the trailer for the first time on July 10th, before a Harry Potter 6 screening. I leaned over to my little sister and said "Slashiest movie of the year, y/y?" That was it. The trailer was so slashily executed that I was in love. So excited that I couldn't wait until Christmas, and had to see it the Monday before at a screening thing similar to the HP one, and even though we were in the crappiest seats possible, I enjoyed it so much that I saw it again in the theatre. I've never done that before in my entire life. I mean, not even for Star Trek, and I've been watching Star Trek since I was in utero. I'm confident that the entire reason I've been so into this movie is the Holmes/Watson. My very first duo love ever, way back in elementary school before I knew what any of this meant, was Xena and Gabrielle--the sort of crime-fighting besties that are together forever pairing archetype, and I've been into that ever since. And, of course, it's a pretty darn ship-friendly source material, I'm learning.

How would you describe their relationship?: It's all about trust. So much more than in pairings with less hazardous lines of work, they have to totally and completely trust each other every day with their lives. I imagine that they were together for years, letting the friendship and partnership and sexual tension build before one/both decided to go for it, so it's inherently a more solid relationship than ones with a basis less bound in solid brotherhood. Holmes is, let's put it frankly, a pain in the ass half of the time, and (though perhaps not as explicit as Holmes') Watson's not without his own vices, but they're so comfortable together that whenever they do cross over into a romantic relationship, they already know how to handle each other and the bumps in the road that might otherwise set a less-established couple off course.

How do you think THEY would describe their relationship? Well, the Labouchere Amendment, naturally, prevents too detailed of a description. Putting it in words is hard, but I think the affection and regard they have for each other is pretty darn explicit as expressed by their own words in the Doyle canon, with the real love peeking out every once in a while (recency effect bringing Holmes' snarl to Killer Evans after he wounds Watson in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs"--indeed, that whole exchange; see footnote 1--first to mind).

If you had to choose for yourself: Holmes or Watson? Why?: Interestingly, even though I'm studying to become a medical doctor, I didn't have to think a second about this one. Holmes. The entire reason I'm fascinated with the medical sciences isn't some sort of helping-people thing--I'm going into emergency medicine because I need the variety of the puzzles of diagnosis. From a very early age, I had the smart person-> social ostracism thing going on in my ghetto public schools, which helps me identify with him more than a little. The propensity to get so absorbed in something as to neglect everything else, the need for intellectual stimulation and, above all, lack of perceived failure to prevent a slide into depression wherein I barely move for days, propensity for addiction to self distructive things (thankfully not drugs on my part, but still). Getting too TMI, but in short, I identify scarily with Holmes. If I were to choose one for myself, then, it'd be Watson, because a Holmes always needs his Watson.

Who tops and bottoms? Or do they switch or do you really not care?: I like the equality aspect of same-sex pairings, so I tend to write that they (and most of my pairings) switch off. Naturally, that's not always feasible in a one-off sex scene, so if I had to pick, I'd say Sherlock would tend more towards the bottom, because I see him as closer to a Kinsey 6 than Watson. Wanna get really explicit (though, hell, we're in a group centered around deliciously gay manlove that asked this question in the first place, LOL), I tend to think frottage is hotter than anal sex anyway because you get to sort of cuddle meanwhile--actually, come to think of it, even with all the fic I've started but never finished/published, I've never written anal sex. Admittedly, most of my writing is femslash, but still, note to self to remedy that.

What would you like to see people write fic about?: I love plotty fic. Fic with mysteries, or at the very least that acknowledges a world beyond the Baker Street doors. Longer fic, most definitely, though I'm fail at writing (nay, not writing but finishing) it myself. Course, none of this is a dead-set requirement because I love just about everything.

(Oh, my God. I put a footnote into a Livejournal post. Too much school is what that means. Didn't want to put the big blacked-out spoiler in the middle of the questions, though, so:)
1:

"You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"

It was worth a wound -- it was worth many wounds -- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

"It's nothing, Holmes. It's a mere scratch."

He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.

"You are right," he cried with an immense sigh of relief. "It is quite superficial." His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. "By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.

Comments

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Hi! Here via, um, whatever community that was, mostly because I took a look at your interrogation form and had to come see if "Benjamin Fraser" was some kind of sly almost-reference to Due South, except I find that you were apparently not in that fandom. Oh well.

And, yes, there definitely needs to be more long plotty fic in the world.

[crashcart9.livejournal.com]

Hee. No, that isn't one I've gotten into, though I've seen enough of it around fandom to recognize how it could be so. I stole and edited that from the 221b.sh game, actually; that was the name on there.

This. I'm hoping the SH big bang will help with that. It's funny when a lot of fic is longer than individual bits of the source material.

[xakana.livejournal.com]

I totally had to look up frottage. I didn't know that had a name. I've written a bit of it, but mostly as foreplay.

[crashcart9.livejournal.com]

Hee. I remember learning that word on some trashy teen TV show I was too young to be watching and my parents being all "Oh, and we're turning the channel now", so I naturally looked it up then, LOL.