Gifts: Holmestice 2023

Beginning another round of catch-up:

I got both a gift and a treat for Holmestice this summer; there was some discussion in the guessing post as to which was which, but as a practical matter, both were delightful and gratefully received.

One was a lovely podfic:

Podfic: A Foregone Introduction
Source Work: A Foregone Introduction
Fandom: kitten!Holmes, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Narrator: evilinsanemonkey
Author: graycardinal / Gray_Cardinal
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Characters: Dr. Stamford, Murray, Sherlock (kitten!Holmes), Watson (kitten!Holmes)

A fateful meeting takes place at the Bartholomew Street Animal Shelter.

The other was a very well executed fic set in Mercedes Lackey's "Elemental Masters" universe, into which Lackey herself has inserted Holmes, Watson, and Watson's canonical wife, the former Mary Morstan...

Shrouded in Silk
Fandom: Elemental Masters - Mercedes Lackey
Author: tepidspongebath
Rating: T
Category: gen, casefic
Warnings: minor character death
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mary Watson, Nan Killian, Sarah Lyon-White
Additional Tags: casefic, fantasy, ghosts

“It is bad enough,” said Holmes, that Charles Augustus Milverton is the most sordid blackmailer in London in the ordinary sense of the word. It is repugnant that he conducts his business with the sort of thoroughness and calculation that would have done credit to a legitimate endeavor. But it is worse--a hundred times worse!--that he uses your brand of talents to ensnare victims he would otherwise have no hope of trapping."

A retelling of The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton in the Elemental Masters universe

Fic: Written for Holmestice, Summer 2023

I remain mildly amused that I was not immediately tagged for this in the guessing interval (and wholly flattered that the wrong guesses were for some of Holmestice's most talented writers). Likewise, I am still boggling a little at the degree of enthusiasm expressed in the comments on this story over on AO3....

The Mice and the Mastermind
Fandom: Basil of Baker Street, Without A Clue
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2200
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, Basil of Baker Street & Sherlock Holmes, Reginald "Sherlock Holmes" Kincaid & John Watson
Characters: Basil of Baker Street, David Q. Dawson, John Watson, Reginald "Sherlock Holmes" Kincaid
Additional Tags: crossover, AU-Canon Divergence

The Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world has learned all he knows of detection and investigation at the feet of the Master himself. And then one evening in Baker Street, he and Dr. Dawson discover that they may not know Sherlock Holmes quite so well as they think.

Fic: Into A Bar 2023

For once, I actually got an entry into intoabar on deadline! Go me!

Alfred Pennyworth walks into a bar and meets...Mary Russell!

Under the Hill and Far Away
Fandom: Batman - All Media Types, Mary Russell - Laurie R. King
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1100
Relationship: Alfred Pennyworth & Mary Russell
Characters: Alfred Pennyworth, Mary Russell
Additional Tags: crack, magic

It's been almost half a century since Alfred Pennyworth, long-retired from British intelligence, has seen one of his oldest colleagues in spycraft. Now he's about to find out what she's been up to...and where.