Holmestice (Winter 2020): Given & Received

[graycardinal]

Reveals are up for the current round of Holmestice - and there is, as usual, a great deal of excellent fic to be had from that quarter. As usual, I was gloriously wrong with regard to guessing who wrote what, but much amusement occurred on all sides during the guessing phase.

Written for me: a thoughtful and wise character sketch featuring Enola and Sherlock from the Enola Holmes series (specifically the books, rather than the movie). It was a good round for Enola, with two additional stories (both excellent, one inspired by the recent Netflix movie) and a quite charming portrait of Enola and Cecily Alistair.

Her Left Hand Woman by navaan
Fandom: Enola Holmes Series - Nancy Springer
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~1400
Relationships: Cecily Alistair/Enola Holmes
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Enola Holmes, Cecily Alistair
Additional Tags: POV Sherlock Holmes, Secret Relationship, Sibling Rivalry, Family Bonding, Post-Canon, Character Study

After a few years brother and sister have developed a closer relationship and Sherlock gets a glimpse into Enola's life unexpectedly.

 

As for my contribution: I had the chance to revisit an idea I'd previously put forward for @sanguinity, regarding the antecedents of Star Trek's holographic Professor Moriarty. That required a bit of sly hand-waving in the story as initially posted to avoid fully giving the game away as to authorship (not that anyone had real trouble connecting the dots); now that reveals are complete, I've edited just a bit to properly set the context.

The Greater Game by Gray Cardinal
Fandoms: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Professor Moriarty Series - Michael Kurland, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Series: Part 1 of The New Moriarty Adventures
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~4200
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & James Moriarty
Characters: James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes
Additional Tags: Meta, Holodecks/Holosuites, Holodeck Character, Artificial Intelligence

Moriarty found himself repressing a shudder. Paradox is a powerful word to a mathematician, and at present his own existence was more or less that of a living mathematical construct. More, he had seen the records of Starfleet’s prior encounters with self-aware computer intelligences – Vaal, Landru, Nomad, and the like.

I am wise enough, I hope, to resist simple logical trickery. But I must be secure in my own inner nature to move forward in the present game, and I fear the result of probing too deeply on my own. I require…assistance.

 

In other news, my Yuletide story is properly posted and edited, and I appear to have *three* (!!!) gifts awaiting me under that particular virtual tree.