#barachiki

So here it is, I just wanted to wish you an absolutely awesome day. You’ve been doing so much for our tight knit fandom for what feels like forever, and it really shows. You’re honestly legendary, and I hope you know how much you’ve shaped things and inspired people along the way. You deserve to feel incredibly proud of everything you’ve done. xoxo barachiki

I LICHERALLY had a double take to see who sent this.

Barachiki. This is such high praise from someone I consider a legendary staple of the fandom themselves, from someone I genuinely admire and am intimidated by. I literally cried when I saw this come into my inbox a few days ago, and again now as I am replying to this.

I often don't FEEL like that I'm really doing much around here, I just... "do my thing" and carry on, but lately all these amazingly kind messages coming from everyone is really overwhelming for me (in a GOOD WAY!!!! I PROMISE) and messages like this are what keep me going here. I love this fandom so MUCH, and while I'm not as deep into it as I once was, I can honestly say I stay because I feel like I am loved and appreciated here.

I love reccing fics. I love writing meta. I love drawing. I love making people feel welcome in a fandom that can be overwhelming for new people. It's a weird thing to "be", I know, but there we are.

Seriously though, your message is OUTRAGEOUSLY kind and generous, and I am so overwhelmed with love and happiness. Thank you, Bara, for taking time out of your day to exposit appreciation for my blog and taking notice of my little corner over here. I genuinely didn't think I was on the radar of people who are bigger staples in this fandom than I am, and this makes me all fluffy inside.

That all said, I will take this opportunity to thank YOU for all your amazing gifs and graphical contributions to this fandom!! It's awe-inspiring, and as a professional graphic designer as a day job myself, the TIME it must take to do what you do is not lost on me. I love your work. Thank YOU for being here forever giving us the best silly graphics for us to use as memes <3

A Series for Fandom Trumps Hate

ART BY @barachiki OMG

@fandomtrumpshate strikes again, in fact it strikes twice. @randomwordsonpaper gave me a prompt for FTH 2023 that went, roughly,

Sherlock is marrying an American, and at the rehearsal dinner, best man John makes a drunken love confession he doesn’t remember the next day. Badly hungover, John can't find anyone to tell him what the hell happened to the wedding, where the grooms are, or how he can put it right so that Sherlock can be happy. But what if he's dead wrong about what will make Sherlock happy?

8/8 ch. (17K words) of POV John later, A Case of You's happy ending made Sherlock sit up and howl that he hadn't had his say. Enter Holy Wine (13/13 ch., 37K words, Sherlock's a mouthy bastard), the same events from Sherlock's POV, but including 18 months John wasn't present for:

After Sherlock fails to amaze and delight John at the Landmark, he learns that John’s cut contacts and left London. Sherlock has to start his life over, without the man he gave up everything to save.

Holy Wine makes sense without knowing A Case of You (and vice versa), and together they make a story I love as well as anything I've written. And because I never can say goodbye, part 3 is the Outtakes, a series of one-shots that didn't fit into either fic.

Thank you, barachiki and @demonicangeling, for offering your magic for FTH 2024/2025. Thank you to everyone who helped midwife these stories, especially the FTH mods and goddesses.

Thank you readers, and bless you rebloggers! I've tagged some tumblrs under the cut.

What a fucking delight to find these in my inbox! Lovely Reader MonkeySock recently left me some real day-making comments on Boyfriend Material (which inspired me to finish/edit/post a chapter of One-Man Advantage this weekend, in case you wonder whether commenting on fic matters), and said they "have an artist friend on tumblr" and would I enjoy some art?

Would I?! WOULD I?!

So with a thrillion thanks to MonkeySock, I got these fucking coolass things from the unfathomably talented fandom treasure, @Barachiki !

A logo with BRASS KNUCKLES?! Something something my kinks something something hockey fights something something bruises. This logo is literally perfect and so cool and I want it as a sticker a poster a t-shirt a reusable tote a coffee cup and possibly a tattoo.

Oh, and here's these sexy beasts wearing their uniforms and pads and helmets and numbers! They even look a little sweaty omg I'm literally dying!

The CRUEL of Baskerville

Something is lurking in the Cephalopod Research Underwater Experimentation Laboratory — something with which Sherlock and John are about to become intimately acquainted…

Please mind the tags and the archive warning.

Dr. John Watson is on call at the A&E when he attempts to treat a very special patient. Instead he finds himself a very special treat.

Here is the divine coverart I´ve won by @barachiki​ , thank you so much! I´m so in love with it.

Reply: Sorry for the late reply! Yes, I have a lot of fics that deal with mental health. I probably am not the best judge of whether they are good vs. stereotypical depictions, but here are the topic-relevant lists I’ve already put together. Most of these don’t really go into the treatment side of things.

Mental health tag

PTSD tag 

PTSD John 

PTSD Sherlock

Sherlock imagines/hallucinates John

Sherlock is in a mental hospital

Sherlock is depressed/suicidal

Amnesia (of Sherlock or John)

Eating disorders (scroll to the bottom of the food fics list)

From those, here are some that I feel address the topic more in-depth and seriously, including treatment:

2007 by 7PercentSolution, J_Baillier (151K, M, Gen) Sherlock loses his mind. Mycroft loses control. It's 2007, and the Holmes brothers must come to terms with their demons—and each other.

Bring Me Back to Life by yalublyutebya (51K, E, Johnlock) After being injured on the Front, John Watson is sent to Craiglockhart Hospital for psychiatric treatment and finds himself sharing a room with the mysterious Sherlock Holmes.

Four Corners of the Western World by pennypaperbrain (100K, E, Johnlock) Undercover after Reichenbach, tracking the snipers who threatened his friends, Sherlock has one thing left he can depend on: his mind. But when he faces making his first kill, alone among the mad excesses of Las Vegas, the pressure turns out to be greater than even he can endure without John beside him.

In Confidence by emmadelosnardos (40K, M, Sherlock/OMC) Reason for referral: Patient was admitted to dual diagnosis unit for detox on 27.5.2002. BIB brother, Mycroft Holmes, following arrest for intoxication on 26.5.2002. Pt was under the influence of cocaine when he was admitted. Pt was admitted for 28 days with possible extension to two months. Requested single unit. Request granted by special permission of the Director.

Insanity by The_Cool_Aunt (18K, T, Johnlock) “I’m going to New York,” he replied impatiently. “Do you not listen?” “Sherlock, you’re ill,” Mycroft explained. I could hear what a strain it was to keep his voice level and low. “You are not thinking clearly.”

Lunar Landscapes by J_Baillier (57K, M, Johnlock and Warstan) An accident forces John to face the fact that Sherlock's downward spiral had started long before his flight to exile even left the tarmac.

Radioactive Trees in a Red Forest by Maribor_Petrichor (280K, E, Johnlock) John Watson is what happens when a man can no longer see a reason to go on. John Watson is what happens when a man starts to let go." It is what it is." John Watson is what happens when what "it is" becomes too much to bear. This is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of John Hamish Watson.

The Craven Hive by OldShrewsburyian (35K, T, Gen) In the last days of the First World War, Dr. Watson returns from the service for which he departed in "His Last Bow," and looks for a new kind of work. He joins Dr. Arthur Hurst in his pioneering treatment of shell-shocked soldiers. But their work on the forefront of medical research, locked in battle against the destruction of the war, is disrupted by violent death. In addition to the obvious danger near at hand, there is the risk that this will discredit Hurst’s unusual methods. Dr. Watson does the only thing he can do: he calls in Holmes. The case will require their joint expertise, and all the wisdom of their shared experience.

The Fabric of Life [orphaned] (156K, E, Johnlock and Warstan) The fabric of life rearranges itself around the re-emergence of Sherlock.