A Study in Reintegration by patternofdefiance (~10,000 words)

The stigma against human augmentation has never lifted – not after the initial kinks in the operating software and hardware integrations resulted in some curious physical and personality…defects. Despite the lives it’s subsequently saved, the tests the procedures have passed, and the unending barrage of PR stunts and ad campaigns.

None of that matters – God, the papers still refer to the riots – which had been in protest against the expense of post-op care and maintenance – as the ‘Rise of the Machines.’

John had just been a kid at Uni when it all happened, hadn’t really been arsed to care, and then he’d swanned off to join the army. Somewhere in that time the landscape had changed, and the first recipients of botched augmentations had stopped being victims and become something altogether more sinister.

And all the while, science had marched on, blissfully ignorant – or at least willfully so – continuing to innovate and improve.

And then John had gone and got himself shot, and science had taken him in like an overbearing mother, like a charity case, and hadn’t taken ‘no’ for an answer, hadn’t wanted ‘no’ for an answer –

And John hadn’t wanted to die.

My vote- In this futuristic AU re-telling of ASIP, John is a former veteran who underwent a radical augmentation procedure after being injured in war. Now he is two-thirds human and rest machine and perceived more as the latter by people. John finds himself treated like an outcast by society at large. He is struggling with a dark depression that is slowly convincing him that he can no longer be defined as ‘human’, when he bumps into Mike Stamford. In the wake of prejudice and humiliation doled out to John by everyone after being invalided back to London, Sherlock Holmes’ complete indifference to his ‘condition’ literally pulls him back to his feet. The rest as they say, is history. I would really love to see this verse continued as the premise is really interesting with a lot of plot potential. Enjoy!

(p.s. The verse is being continued as a series, STATIC. The second story is a w.i.p. Yay!)

The Reluctant Bonded by corpsereviver2 (~17,000 words)

When Sherlock had turned twelve and was considered old enough to be told of such matters, his father had explained that it was the nature of the Omega to be in orbit like the Earth around the stronger, sun-like Alpha who had the responsibility to nurture the weaker mate. Since that lecture, Sherlock had no good opinion of either bonding or astronomy and had decided to ignore the existence of them both as wholly irrelevant.

My vote- In this soulbond AU, Sherlock is an Alpha who is so disinterested in bonding that he is attempting to be the first to discover suppressants through his experiments in order to suppress whatever minimal cravings he does have. John is an omega who has never allowed his status to restrict his ambitions. Neither of them is even thinking of looking for a compatible partner. Fortunately for them, destiny has other plans.

Synthesis by LapOtter (~40,000 words)

syn·the·sis [sin-thuh-sis] /ˈsɪnθəsɪs/ noun, plural syn·the·ses.

1. the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity ( opposed to analysis, ) the separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements.

2. a complex whole formed by combining.

a·pha·sia [uh-fey-zhuh] /əˈfeɪʒə/ noun.

1. the loss of a previously held ability to speak or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury of the brain.

My vote- This story was truly amazing, in that I cannot imagine how incredibly hard it must have been to bring it to life while managing all aspects of it accurately. Sherlock suffers from a head injury, which manifests as a non-fluent aphasia. Although all his faculties of deduction are intact, he cannot communicate, as his brain cannot access language both in spoken and written form, in effect rendering him almost mute.

As you can imagine, for Sherlock Holmes, this was a form of exquisite torture that the writer has executed brilliantly. Sherlock’s depression and frustration at his disability is truly palpable and John has his work cut out to try and make his friend see that despite all his genius, there can be no short-cuts to recovery. It is heart-warming to see how the boys evolve their own form of non-verbal communication while working, even as Sherlock struggles to master the most basic nuances of speech in therapy. Sometimes actions have a way to reveal what words hide (although Sherlock’s first word and sentence both do give him away), which the boys discover as they take their first steps as lovers.

Unfortunately, there is what looks like a self-styled ‘Jack Ripper’ out butchering people and his murder spree is about become personal. Five Stars! for weaving a clever casefic, a wonderful first-time and intelligent Sherlock whump into a story I was hard pressed to put down before I finished it.  

benedictik:

источник-

Sherlock - prayer pose

sashkash:

I’m not ready for the drama yet. 

Shames and Praises by s0mmerspr0ssen (~52,000 words)

Unable but desperate to find a dom who will put up with him, Sherlock swallows his pride and turns to Mycroft for help. Shortly after, John Watson steps into Sherlock’s life.

My vote- In this AU, Sherlock is a submissive, who hates his transport’s cravings but cannot deny his base nature at the same time. He does not tolerate a lack of intelligence in those who dom him, as a result of which he alienates all his previous doms. Out of desperation, Sherlock seeks his brother’s help to help him find a suitable dom. He had never expected that the dom his brother sends him would challenge all his pre-conceived notions not only regarding dominance but also submission. John’s characterization was what set this verse apart for me. A great read, especially for those who love this trope.

The Keeper of Things by myswordfishmind (~15,000 words)

Sherlock, now an eighty-seven year old man, tends to his bees whilst thinking about the life, and the man, that has lead him to this place and time.

My vote- A very beautiful story of two lives well lived. Sherlock is eighty-seven, as he reminisces and ponders the improbability of everything his life has brought him, following on the footsteps of of an invalided soldier, who was in turns his friend, his companion and the love of his life. I really loved the philosophical parallels Sherlock draws between the life of the bees he keeps and his own. And each one of John’s reactions in the past to all the situations Sherlock ever led him into make this story unforgettable.

(p.s. Thanks to ruth0007! Her beautiful rec lead me to this story)

Sherlock by ~Fereshteh

Slender: However Improbable by philalethia (~33,000 words)

Six months after The Fall, John is falling apart. Then a homeless woman is thrown from the roof of St. Bartholomew’s; a tall, thin man in a black suit begins follow him; and John slowly realises that both he and Scotland Yard are very, very out of their depths.

My vote- Woah! Spine-chilling casefic marrying the Sherlock verse with the urban legend, ‘Slenderman’ (which, I knew specifically nothing about, till I read the story). The writer got the gruesome, terrifying and horror aspects beautifully right, so much so that I felt like I was watching an episode of X-Files. John’s pov was brilliant, torn as he was while deciding which was the more difficult part of his life- the one where he was being stalked by an impossible ‘monster spirit’ or having to deal with his confused feelings with respect to his newly resurrected friend. The story kept me hooked from the start to the finish.

sherlockbbcfanart:

Experiments are Fun by *Sash-kash