Twenty Centuries of Stony Sleep

So, I’m a bit of a Harry Potter nerd. A recovering one, certainly, but I have the periodic relapses that are common in anyone who spent significant portions of their childhood standing in midnight lines in their father’s graduation robe or shouting nonsense Latin as they pointed sticks at their friends.

I’m also a fan of magic systems as seen in roleplaying games, the more thinky kinds of fantasy novels, and (unfortunately) quite a bit of New Age literature.

I’m also an academic by trade.

This was probably inevitable.

So, my friends, I give you a brief essay that suggests a system that might explain how the magic of Harry Potter works on a theoretical level. It’s probably a work in progress, and I’d love to hear responses to it.

I’m sorry.

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songlinwrites:

tentacle-monster:

ruingaraf:

Hello BBC Sherlock fandom, we’re going to talk about Sebastian Moran today. And by talk about him, I mean I am going to put up a large number of friendly reminders about canon. While headcanon is well and good (and Moran, as a minor character in ACD and a nonexistent character in BBC thus far, is more headcanon than anything else), canon is canon for a reason. Please remember the following when writing Sebastian.

• His father has a canonical name and occupation: Sir Augustus Moran, Ambassador to Persia. While Persia comprised several modern-day countries, the most likely modern-day substitution would be Iran. Yes, Sebastian’s father was knighted, which was and still is a Very Big Deal.
• He attended Eaton and Oxford public schools. So Sebastian attended a very nice boarding school and got into a really fantastic college. Both of them are expensive, so between this and the his father’s position as an ambassador pretty much spells out he was born into money.
• He is a published author. He has written and published two books, “Heavy Game of the Western Himalayas” and “Three Months in the Jungle”. Whether the latter is autobiographical or an adventure novel is open to interpretation, it is never stated what the books are about.
• So let’s review so far. He was born into money, is highly educated, and has written two books. Three things the fandom forgets really, really often, especially when they write him as being stupid or semi-illiterate. Now let’s go on.
• He is stated as having “the brow of a philosopher above and the jaw of a sensualist below”. Once again, since in Doyle’s time a lot of stock was put into a person’s face and how it related to their personality, he is actually really intelligent, although obviously not smart enough to outwit Holmes. As such he is not smarter than Moriarty, either, but he is damn smart.
• “The man must have started with great capacities for good or for evil” Holmes goes on to speculate that he went bad because his father went bad, so we can safely assume his father was also a bag of dicks.
• Continuing his physical description, “cruel blue eyes, with drooping, cynical lids”, “threatening deep-lined brow” and “a fierce, aggressive nose”.
• His eyes are canonically blue, it doesn’t matter what your headcanon eye color is for him, if you write about his eyes being any color than blue and colored contacts are not involved you are wrong. They are also repeatedly described as savage, shining, and cruel, Doyle sees fit to mention them multiple times.
• He has facial scars. ”His face was gaunt and swarthy, scored with deep, savage lines” And he has a tan, presumably from the army or the jungle or both.
• He is mentioned several times as having an enormous, bushy mustache but since Watson doesn’t appear to have his in BBC either, I’ll let that one slide. Which is just as well, because can you really imagine Martin Freeman with a mustache?
• He lives on Conduit Street.Some contemporaries, like Newman (Hound of the D’urbervilles) have taken this and run with it, making Conduit Street the sort of evil equivalent of Baker Street, and making Moran the flatmate of Moriarty in much the same way Holmes and Watson are. Anyway, it’s not all that important but it still drives me nuts when people give him an address and it’s not Conduit street.
• Homes mentions his bag of tigers being “unrivaled”, implying the tiger Sebastian killed in the drain pipe was far from the only one he’s killed, since he is a heavy game hunter and a shikari.
• He was not only there at the Fall, he actually shoved boulders down the cliff face at Holmes until he thought he was dead. Dear god, I hope that transfers to him making Sherlock’s fake suicide hard in BBC.
• That’s about it, thanks for listening.
• I don’t mean to be angry, really, I don’t. But if you’re going to write a modern AU version of Sebastian Moran and stick him in with the BBC cast, please make sure to pay attention to what Doyle actually said about him! Thank.

Right, well. =pulls up soapbox=

This is a fantastic resource, but it makes me see red around the corners of my eyes for a couple of reasons. Primary among those is that it overlooks a basic truth about this fandom.

We are writing fanfic of fanfic.

BBC’s take on Sherlock Holmes is just one of the most recent of a long line of adaptations since Conan Doyle. It’s taken its fair share of liberties with canon, just as all the rest do. (John’s limp, Mycroft’s laziness, Jim’s profession - all huge details in canon, all very different here.) We are operating from a /different/ canon. Any references back to ACD are because we’re going out of our way to make a specific stylistic choice, usually because we think it’s going to be fun. Not because we’re obligated. So this is all fun, and fine, but INCREDIBLY unimportant to how any one author chooses to write Seb.

Canon is not an obligation. It’s a resource. Thank.

(Also, deep lines on his face could just mean that he has wrinkles, or pronounced facial features. Facial scars are awesome, but not mandated even within canon. But GOD FORBID we have an old Seb, no, only pretty people allowed in my fanfic.)

redhandsredribbons:

Apparently some ideas about PTSD and John Watson have been going around again: 1) adventure with Sherlock has miraculously cured John of PTSD, or, 2) alternatively, John never had PTSD in the first place because of his steadiness during danger.

I need to make this announcement again, even though I’ve made it before.

Mycroft: Fire her. She’s got it the wrong way around. You’re under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady. You’re not haunted by the war, Dr Watson. You miss it. 

JUST BECAUSE MYCROFT SAID IT, DOESN’T MEAN IT’S TRUE.

IN FACT, MYCROFT, THIS STATEMENT DISGUSTS ME.

Especially telling John what he’s not haunted by, when John has nightmares he wakes up yelling, panting, and sobbing from.

Mycroft’s completely wrong, because PTSD psychological literature, and more importantly, real people with PTSD, myself included, will tell you that we can be less anxious/symptomatic during moments of crisis than during calm moments. PTSD psychological literature and real people with PTSD can tell you that RISK-SEEKING CAN BE A PTSD COPING MECHANISM.

Just a few (of many) examples of PTSD and how risk-seeking can temporarily alleviate symptoms:

• PTSD is sometimes considered tied to the “fight or flight” mechanism. When it’s actually relevant to actually fight or flee, then the panic can be channeled somewhere.
• PTSD can cause several types of dissociation, which is also a coping mechanism. If you, for instance, are in an intensely dangerous situation, you might feel completely separate from a situation and even your own body, and maybe even feel like the situation is a dream or otherwise fake. This might make other panic-related symptoms fade or go away entirely for a time, with calm detachment/numbness setting in instead. If you’re not real, it’s not real, you’re not connected to anything, you might not panic in the least (though, really, this in and of itself is a form of extreme panic that just paradoxically seems to be the opposite).
• Alternatively, risky situations can make you feel so alive, real, grounded, and non-dissociated that giddiness or gleefulness can set in regardless of how bad the situation is, and temporarily take away other symptoms. In this way, it can get addictive to seek out risk that makes you feel alive.

… Does this sound at all like a character we know and love?

(Edited to add: For a different pop culture reference, please see Season 6 of Buffy and Buffy’s risk-seeking behavior as she copes with dissociation/PTSD. I seriously think this will help you understand John.)

I could go on, but honestly I already have— I discuss John’s PTSD in depth in this fic. The stuff Ella says in Chapter 3, for instance? Doesn’t match John’s immediate needs, and invokes the sort of unhelpfully easy usage of words like “healing” that I have experienced from therapists time and time again, and is therefore a “bad” therapy session for him. However, a lot of what she’s saying is true. Post-traumatic stress disorder is named POST for a reason. Mid-trauma, people do not necessarily have symptoms. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THEY DON’T HAVE, WON’T HAVE, HAVE NEVER HAD (etc etc) PTSD.

And guess what? CRIME SCENES, KIDNAPPING, HIGH-SPEED CHASES— THESE ARE ALL HIGH-ADRENALINE “MID-TRAUMA” SCENARIOS.

Basically, if people without PTSD claim John doesn’t have PTSD, I’m going to side-eye them intensely. Ditto with people without PTSD who use Sherlock’s supposed “curing” of John to unproblematically jumpstart a romantic or sexual relationship between them. Do you think they have so little to connect them that you have to use that to prove that Johnlock makes sense?

tl;dr - John Watson has PTSD.

(Source: quequieresmrmorden)

marlowe-tops:

I don’t want this year to end. I don’t want the next season of Sherlock to come.

Not yet. I’m glad there’s time. I’m glad we have this, right now, this perfect little haven of Sherlock fandom where there are hedgehogs and otters and teacups and umbrellas and pigeons and all these things make sense to us. 

I’m afraid that things will change, that johnlock will be different, that we will meet Mary Morstan, that Moriarty will stay dead, and that Moran won’t be the blond brawler who smokes and drinks too much played by fassy or cparks.

I know that things have to change, and that canon shall storm on through and that Moffat shall crush our dreams and all our Moran headcanons and most of our Mormor headcanons.

But right now, this year, it’s always 1895. And everything is safe and good and hurts beautifully and the fandom is filled with brilliant, talented writers and artists and deducers, creating wonders and solving the many-layered puzzle that is the Reichenbach Fall.

I just want to stay here, forever, where the johnlock and the mormor are blossoming out and shifting and adapting into these beautiful fanon creations that we share among the hive-mind. I don’t want the next season to come, not yet. I’m glad we have the time still to wait.

Just leave me here, in the summer of 1895.

This is lovely. This is /really/ lovely.

Hey all. Here’s a bit of an odd request.

So, my flatmate and I have a stairway, but none of the customary family photos that we are expected to hang in it. Since we’re a fandom household, and unrepentant at that, we’ve decided to hang /fandom/ photos instead. So I’m asking you for recommendations. I was going to ask for monochrome of your favourite fandoms, whether actors or in-character, but I’d like to change that to group shots! Especially looking for Supernatural, Doctor Who, Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Mirrormask… but if you can send Star Trek or whatever you’re currently dwelling on that would also be lovely. (Yes, we already have Sherlock. What do you take me for?)

So yes! TLDR: Rec me your favourite group photos from the fandoms and ships you love.

So what of it? What’s your favourite picture?

Hey all. Here’s a bit of an odd request.

So, my flatmate and I have a stairway, but none of the customary family photos that we are expected to hang in it. Since we’re a fandom household, and unrepentant at that, we’ve decided to hang /fandom/ photos instead. So I’m asking you for recommendations. I want black and white photographs of your favourite fandoms, whether actors or in-character. Especially looking for Supernatural, Doctor Who, Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Mirrormask… but if you can send Star Trek or whatever you’re currently dwelling on that would also be lovely. (Yes, we already have Sherlock. What do you take me for?)

So what of it? What’s your favourite picture?