Bone Fiddle-verse 221B: "Setting the Tone" (part 1)

[vulgarweed]

A very belated New Year's Eve-themed 221B drabble. I'm dedicating this to write_out because she's had a crap week.

Title: Setting the Tone (pt 1)
Fandom: Sherlock (AU, Bone-Fiddle-verse)
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Once again, John teaches Sherlock to have a little respect for tradition.



“John, what are you doing? It’s freezing.”

“Put more wood on the fire then,” John shouted down the stairs. “And don’t close that door. We’ve gotta let all the bad luck out!”

Sherlock stood at the bottom wearing that venomous expression he got when he was personally offended by someone’s stupidity. John turned his back on it and went to open windows in the upstairs bathroom and the dusty bedroom they never used. If Sherlock closed them downstairs, there’d be hell to pay.

Instead, John heard stalking, stomping footsteps behind him as he went to the bedroom they did use (very well). As John hoisted the old wooden windows open, a blast of frigid mountain wind howled in. “New Years Eve, Sherlock. Tradition. We’re having ham and cabbage and greens and black-eyed peas tomorrow too, because that symbolizes money, and Mrs. Hudson will probably put silver in the cabbage, so mind you don’t swallow it.”

“Tradition--” Sherlock said, about to launch into a diatribe.

“Hush,” John said. “You’ll like this one. What you’re doin’ at midnight, you’ll be doin’ all the rest of the year.”

Sherlock looked mutinous.

John looked at the clock and grinned. “You know what I wanna do all year. So take off your clothes and get in bed.”



~



Any other drabble writers out there driven absolutely mad by the way Google Docs and Open Office don't register word counts the same way, so they never match exactly? Open Office says this is a legit 221B, goddammit.

Comments

[justgotone.livejournal.com]

Damn. All I did at midnight was eat 12 grapes.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

That's a good one too! Wishing you a joyous and healthy and wealthy New Year.

[justgotone.livejournal.com]

Back atcha! Especially wealthy. :)

[write-out.livejournal.com]

OHHHHHHHHH. You are fucking fantastic!! Thank you!!

"Sherlock stood at the bottom wearing that venomous expression he got when he was personally offended by someone’s stupidity.

I love this description so much. It's perfect. Sherlock is perfect. John ignoring Sherlock's whine is perfect. This entire fic is perfect. Thank you so, so much for another story in this most amazing verse! What a way to make a shit week better! Now I can go off to bed and fall asleep thinking about what (who) comes next.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Thank YOU so much, and you're welcome! I am SO GLAD you enjoyed it so much, yay! <3

(There's more, ahem, coming. The rating on that drabble collection at AO3 isn't E right now. It will be. :D)

[write-out.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it SO much! Seriously. Thank you again!

I thought I was subscribed to the drabble collection, but I wasn't. Horrors! I just fixed that!

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

I haven't added this one there yet. I'm waiting for the other parts.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Love it! John's accent just tickles me pink. :)

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

We always struggle a little bit with how much to write the accent out. Laying it on too thick is just horrible, but we want to make sure the reader can "hear" it. (For those characters who have it, that is. Sherlock and Mycroft don't - they speak like the moderately wealthy, well-connected Central/Northern Virginians they actually are.)

It's very difficult to convey, without outright stating, for example, that Sherlock and John do not pronounce "Appalachian" the same way. :)

[azriona.livejournal.com]

How do they pronounce it, then?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Sherlock, like most outsiders, would say it "App-a-laytch-ia". 3rd syllable has a long A, doesn't rhyme with much except the letter h (aitch!).

John, who grew up there, would say it "App-a-latch-ia." Short a in the third syllable. Rhymes with patch, snatch, catch, and Cumberbatch.

Though Sherlock has probably noticed this and done a little correcting on it. He can mimic the accent when he has to. Going native, one syllable and one rednecky habit at a time.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you. (But the real question is: how do they pronounce "pecan"? *grin*)

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Could be any which way really, but it only ever comes up in conjunction with "pie" and only when Mrs. Hudson is baking one. :)

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

This is serious business:

http://www.notsville.com/2011/01/congress-to-vote-on-pronunciation-of-appalachia.html

[azriona.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

So most of the world will spend all year watching fireworks then? ;)

I don't know anything about Google Docs, but I was once told that OO counts correctly while MS Word counts part, determines the average number of words per line and then multiplies that with the number of lines. Hence probably 221B, yes!

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Yes! And being very, very drunk.

Oh, that's interesting about OO and Word. Yet another reason why Word can't be trusted. OK, I'm going to go with what OO says from now on then. Thanks!

[demonicsymphony]

AHHHH GORGEOUS

As far as word count, I've had google docs tell me it was 221 words but AO3 not register all the words? Or something

Bah

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm not bothered about word counts except when it REALLY matters. As in drabbles, goddammit!

[angelislington.livejournal.com]

Hurray for more! Very much looking forward to the next part :)

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[hsavinien.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, oh, that's a custom I'm glad my family didn't use.

[mildred-bobbin.livejournal.com]

Love it!