So the subject of apocafic came up the other day and it got me to thinking about angst in general. I know there's plenty of that to go around in the Holmes 'verse, but I don't remember specifically any apocafic. Can anyone recommend something? Or superangst in general? I know there's Alone on the Water from BBCSherlock, but what else?

Just please, nothing based on Elementary. I can't deal with that show. As always, my heart really belongs in 1895.

Is there anyone still in the Buffyverse on my flist? This is the one I dredged up from remote storage. It's a riff on Neville Shute's On the Beach - very well-written, angsty, and romantic. I was pleased to see that http://www.allaboutspike.com is still out there and available.

Here's the direct link to the fic: http://www.allaboutspike.com/fic.html?id=132 It's called The Last Summer and it's by Annie Sewell-Jennings.

So I was thinking that Hallowe'en is coming up and that always put me in the mood for spooky stories. Anybody got an ACD-verse (or any Victorian, really) story that they want to recommend?

Here's one for you: http://roxy-skip.livejournal.com/880.html It's a seriously scary fic about demonic possession. Eeek!

While I'm on about stories, if you've been following along with Harry and wishing for updates, liederlady221b has just put up a new chapter and it's a real cliffhanger. Go read and comment - let's encourage her to keep 'em coming.

Well, I've finally dunnit. Over the course of the last couple of years, I've read all the way through the AO3 ACD and movieverse-tagged fanfics. Yep, all the way from the very first one, A Study in Sherlock by Dana_kujan, to the present (as of this moment). I may very well have missed some by accident and I know there were some - many - I unapologetically skipped either because I thought they were a) not to my taste, or b) so badly written/out of character/or too anachronistic for me. But wow - that's a lot of amazing fics!

Along the way, I kept being amazed by the creativity of the authors who placed Holmes and Watson in some of the most astonishing predicaments and bent their characters in the most astonishing ways, from genderswap to tentacles to alien beings. There was steampunk and there were mice and cats and vampires and mermen - and of course, pirates - oh, yes, and hobbits. (There were dragons too; but I think all of those were BBC - based.) And yet, they were still recognisably themselves. ACD might spin in his grave at some of the antics they got up to, but I'd like to think he'd be kind of proud, too. (OTOH, maybe not...)

I'm a bit sad that the journey is - well, not over, but kind of paused for now. Of course the stream of fics hasn't slowed down, but the trend, which has accelerated in the last year, is toward almost all Sherlock-based and I just can't get into most of them. To me, there's a charm, a kind of innocence, in the Victorian-era fics that I find lacking in the modern day stuff. Not a criticism, just my own preference, but there it is. I'm not doing lit-crit on the Sherlock fics, so I won't go into why I don't care for (most of) them, but I just don't.

I've read a lot in ffdotnet also, although I need to go back and catch up there. I think I've found all of the still available older archives as well. I've trolled through the musty back annals of LJ, though watsons_woes and many of the other comms, and even searched for vanished sites with the Wayback Machine. Am I reaching the end of the Internet at last? Now there's a scary thought.

I know there are many authors, especially from back when who never published their works anywhere but their own LJs and I've followed up references and trolled through many of those also. moustache_wax is one of them, for example, and so for the most part are calccarbonate and liederlady221b, not to mention roxy_skip. I wish their fics were more accessible, but I've found them at least, although I'm sure there are many more that I haven't located. In fact, if anyone on my flist knows of some fabulous fic that exists only on some obscure lj, please do let me know. I'm open to any and all suggestions, only they need to be ACD-style characters or at least, Downey-verse.

Oh, and let's not forget the incomparable nlr_alicia (sob!) who at least preserved her fics on her Wordpress site and of course Katie Forsyte with the Seventeenth Step.

Actually, I think it's about time I headed back into that little patch of mist for my yearly reread. Anyone else want to join me for a trip down nostalgia lane? We could do a "classic fics" read and discuss if anyone was interested.