anarfea

Enter your cut contents here. So, here's the year in review but my writing. I stole this format from out_there

January

A Need and an Ecstasy by Anarfea

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 8,616

No Archive Warnings Apply

Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade

Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mating Cycles/In Heat,Bonding, Rape Aftermath, Rape Recovery, Implied/Referenced Incest, Omega Mycroft, Alpha Greg Lestrade, Flashbacks, Fisting, Mycroft is a 'bad survivor', past Mycroft/Sherlock

Mycroft’s brows knit. “It isn’t fair that I shared one of the most intensely intimate things one can experience with Sherlock and not you.”

“I know.” said Greg. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Be brave.” Mycroft brushed his fingers across Greg’s cheekbone. “Give me a chance to have that with you. Please.”

Reflection

This was the sequel to That Which Has Been Your Delight, which dominated my 2017. I really wanted to write the story of how Mycroft and Greg came to bond. I do like it, but there are things about it I want to fix (like Greg sucking Mycroft's cock, what was I thinking, that's a known trigger for Mycroft). Overall I don't think it stands up to TWHBYD.

February

Wednesday by Anarfea

Words: 7,511

Fandoms: Sherlock (TV)

No Archive Warnings Apply

Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade

Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade, Lady Smallwood (Sherlock), Sherlock Holmes, Sally Donovan, Anthea (Sherlock)

Angst with a Happy Ending, brief Mycroft Holmes/Lady Smallwood, Debatable Infidelity, Light BDSM, Under-negotiated Kink

Greg and Mycroft have been seeing each other (neither of them calls it dating) for several months when Greg asks Mycroft on a date on Wednesday. Not ‘Valentine’s Day,’ even though it is, because Greg doesn’t want to spook Mycroft by appearing overly sentimental or romantic. Mycroft spooks anyway.

Reflection

This was written for the Mystrade Valentine's day calendar. I had fun with it. I would have liked to publish it chapter by chapter, but the challenge required me to post it all at once. This was my first foray into "pure" Mystrade without another pairing in the fic. Well, there's some brief Mycroft/Lady Smallwood. Which some people took umbrage with (it's tagged!).

March

Three Little Pigs by Anarfea for splix, AllTheThings, NaughtyPip

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 16,490

Rape/Non-Con, Underage

Sherlock Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Mycroft Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Eurus Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Eurus Holmes/Original Male Character

Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Jim Moriarty, Bill Wiggins, John Watson

Dark Fairy Tale Elements, BDSM, Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane, Incest, Canonical Character Death, Breathplay, Rape, Not involving Jim I promise, Unreliable Narrator, Childhood Sexual Abuse

Summary

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. The eldest little piglet had a secret he hid from everyone. The middle little piglet hid a secret from himself which he needed to uncover. The littlest little piglet tried to tell her brothers a secret they couldn't hear. And the Big Bad Wolf let each of them whisper their secrets in his ear....

Reflection

This was actually mostly written in 2017 but I guess I finished it in March. This was a real "blood sweat and tears" project. I struggled a lot with this one. Overall I'm happy with the structure of the three pigs story and the way that it frames the stories of the Holmes Siblings and their relationships with Jim. And I think my backstory for Eurus makes more sense than Moftiss's. She can't just be evil.

June

La Villanelle by Anarfea

Fandoms:Killing Eve (TV 2018)

Words: 139

No Archive Warnings Apply

Anna Leonova/Villanelle | Oksana Astankova, Eve Polastri/Villanelle | Oksana Astankova, Nadia Kadomtseva/Villanelle | Oksana Astankova,

Villanelle | Oksana Astankova, Nadia Kadomtseva, Eve Polastri

Poetry, Canon-Typical Violence

Summary

A villanelle written from Villanelle's POV.

Reflection

I actually wrote something from a non-Sherlock fandom this year! I just wanted to write a Villanelle about Villanelle, so I did.

October

By His Dirty Hands We Know Him by Anarfea for n_a

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 16,217

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade

Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes, Lady Smallwood (Sherlock), Sir Edwin (Sherlock)

Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Real Events, Kidnapping, Mycroft Whump, Terrorism, Torture

Summary

Mycroft and Greg are getting serious, and Greg is starting to ask serious questions about the difficult and sometimes unethical decisions Mycroft has made. Mycroft breaks things off before Greg can find out the darkest secret in his past--which is about to catch up to him.

Reflection

What the hell was I doing between June and October! Working on this fic, I guess. It was a beast, and it really didn't want to be born. This was for Fandom Trumps Hate 2018, and I spent most of the year writing it. It's a piece of historical fiction based on a real terrorist attack that happened during The Troubles. I'm really proud of it, but the experience of actually writing it was a struggle.

sapnu puas by Anarfea for solrosan

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 455

No Archive Warnings Apply

Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade

Mycroft Holmes, Anthea (Sherlock)

Tumblr Prompt, Bad Jokes

Summary

Anthea was giggling.

Mycroft didn’t know that Anthea could giggle, let alone that she would dare to do so in his presence. But she’d been sitting next to him in the back seat of the car, smirking at her phone, and now she was giggling.

Reflection

This was just a fun little tumblr prompt I took fromsolrosan because I hit 800 followers. I had fun.

Flavour by Anarfea

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 100

No Archive Warnings Apply

Mycroft Holmes/Sherlock Holmes

Mycroft Holmes Sherlock Holmes

Sibling Incest, Love, Chronic Illness, Drabble

Summary

“It’s one thing to cut calories, Mycroft, and another for everything to be so bloody bland. Giving up butter I understand, but there’s no harm in lime and chili–” his eyes narrow. “You have an ulcer.”

Reflection

I have no clue when I wrote this but it wasn't 2018. I found it going through my old WIPs and decided it was finished and worth publishing. My first drabble.

The Butterfly and the Moth by Anarfea

Fandoms:Crimson Peak (2015)

Words: 5,085

Graphic Depictions Of Violence. Rape/Non-Con,

Edith Cushing/Lucille Sharpe,

Lucille Sharp, Edith Cushing,Thomas Sharpe,

Anal Play, Bondage, Character Death, Horror, Murder, Wax Play, Spanking

Summary

“Why are you doing this?” Her breath shakes, but her voice is steady.

I twist my fingers in her hair, wrenching her curls from their pins, and press her face against the wood. “Because you’re nothing. Because fucking him won’t make you mistress of this house. Because I can, and he won’t stop me.”

Reflection

Yet another non-Sherlock fic. This one was published for Halloween. I'd been working on it off and on since the movie came out but had never gotten around to finishing it. I'm sad this one didn't get a better reception. I posted about it while I was working on it on tumblr, and a lot of people said they were interested and wanted to be tagged when I posted, but they didn't actually read the fic once it was up. Oh well. It's still a really good story, IMO. My first work of femslash noncon. I always feel like there's this weird pressure on femslash writers to make everything soft and fluffy and wholesome and "good representation" and this is very much not that. It's dark and gritty.

November

Dance ‘Till You’re Dead by Anarfea for HiddenLacuna

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 6,488

Major Character Death,

Sherlock Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes/Andrew West,

Sherlock Holmes, Jim Moriarty, Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes), Mycroft Holmes,

ACD Canon Characters, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BDSM, Bipolar Disorder, Drug Use, Dysfunctional Relationships, Mania, Mental Health Issues, Suicide, Love, Story: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Internalized Homophobia, Closeted Character, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Infidelity, Non-Consensual Drug Use

Summary

Sherlock Holmes is a burglar, traveling the world pulling heists and hiding from his meddling older brother. Jim Moriarty offers him a new identity for a price Sherlock pays willingly--and for which he gets more than he bargained for.

Reflection

I've been omitting WIPs that I updated in 2018 that were mostly written in other years, but this one is going in 2018 because it was all written in 2018, though I won't finish until 2019. I'm stuck on this. I think it's off to a good start, but I don't really know where to go once the case resolves.

December

Fideles by Anarfea

Fandoms:Sherlock (TV)

Words: 4,744

No Archive Warnings Apply,

Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, Greg Lestrade/Greg Lestrade's Wife,

Greg Lestrade, Greg Lestrade's Wife, Sherlock Holmes, Molly Hooper, John Watson, Mrs. Hudson (Sherlock Holmes), Mycroft Holmes,

Mutual Pining, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Infidelity

Summary

It’s Christmas Eve, and Greg’s wife confesses she’s cheating on him. Greg goes for a walk to clear his head, and gets a phone call from Mycroft Holmes, who deduces Greg is out alone. Mycroft invites Greg over for a drink and a fire, and possibly more.

Reflection

I finished the year with Mystrade. It's really become a favorite pairing in 2018. But one of my complaints about Mystrade fandom is that I think Greg's wife often gets reduced to a villain. So I wanted to write a fic about the end of Greg's marriage that didn't do that. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.

What's your own favourite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest:

By His Dirty Hands We Know Him. I don’t know if it makes me happy, but I’m the proudest of it.

Now your most popular:

Amazingly, By His Dirty Hands We Know Him was my most popular fic, too. For once my opinion aligns with that of my readers.

The other top 4?

Three Little Pigs, Wednesday, Fideles, A Need and an Ecstacy

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Three Little Pigs. I really wish it had gotten a better response. It’s probably because it’s tagged underage noncon and focuses on childhood sexual abuse. I know that’s a hard topic for lots of people, but I feel like I handled the subject matter tastefully and with a lot of restraint. This piece is my example of why I think underage and noncon fic is so important and why banning it would be horrible for everyone.

Easiest story to write:

Wedensday came together pretty easily. I wish I could have posted chapter by chapter, but the challenge meant I had to post it all at once, so I had to flesh out the whole thing and know where it was going in a short timeframe. I’m pleased with it.

Most fun story to write:

Sapnu Puas. It was just so hilarious imaging Mycroft realizing that terrible joke.

Hardest story to write:

Tossup between By His Dirty Hands We Know Him and Three Little Pigs. I struggled with both of those. FTH is hard. Writing for a prompt is hard. Writing on a deadline is hard.

Fic writing goals for 2019?:

I have to finish Dance Till You’re Dead for FTH, hopefully by March when the bidding starts for FTH 2019. And I’m going to write a Holmescest FOD fic with my co-writer from TWHBYD, Theirwholebohemiansoul. I’m excited for that. And I want to finally finish Toplock Talent Search and my Sheriarty 30 Day Challenge.

Favourite opening line

“Once upon a time, there was an old sow, who had given up her livelihood to care for her three children, only to discover she lacked enough to keep them.”--Three Little Pigs.

I just love the way that this is a classic fairy tale line, but there’s little twists in there, Jim is getting his digs in at Mummy Holmes for quitting her Maths career to raise children.

Favourite closing line

“He looks back towards the house, sees Mycroft standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the interior lights. Then Mycroft closes the door, and the entryway goes dark.”--Fideles

I really liked the closing image to the last fic I wrote in 2018. Greg is literally and figuratively letting Mycroft close the door on this particular opportunity.

Favourite line from anywhere

I really love the opening sequence from Dance Till You’re Dead. It was actually originally Mary’s POV, in another fic, but that one fizzled and I re-wrote this scene from Sherlock’s POV. Anyway, “Sherlock flashes the blacklight stamp on his wrist (a white rabbit, who does this Moriarty think he is, Morpheus?) at the bouncer at the door. The thudding bass resonates deep in his chest as he steps down the long hallway which eventually opens out into a blue smoke and strobe filled room. He scans through the flashing lights for his contact. Go-go dancers in cages hang from the ceiling, clothed in white and red and black spandex--no, bodypaint--patterns of spades, clubs and diamonds. The lead singer on the stage in the back of the club is made up like the Red Queen, complete with an ermine stole and a heart-embossed velvet dress.

Off with your head

Dance dance ‘till you’re dead

Favourite title

By His Dirty Hands We Know Him. I really struggled to get this one just right. I wanted to reference the essay Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands by Michael Walzer. “Here is the moral politician: it is by his dirty hands that we know him. If he were a moral man and nothing else, his hands would not be dirty; if he were a politician and nothing else, he would pretend that they were clean.” That quote really explains who Mycroft is, to me. He gets his hands dirty, and he owns that.