Guessing Post

[holmesticemods]

Thank you so much for another wonderful round of Holmestice! The mods want to say THANK YOU to all the creators who joined us for this, our twentieth round -- especially given how tumultuous these last months have been. Being in this community with you is a joy and an honour.

Reveals and the Master List go up on June 20th. Until then, please enjoy and comment on all the lovely fanworks. Creators, please do NOT respond to Dreamwidth comments or post your works elsewhere on the Internet until reveals go up in the community. You may of course reply to comments on AO3, which preserves your anonymity.

In the meanwhile, stay tuned: treats are coming up! For anyone thinking of making a treat, we will accept treats right through until reveals, so if there's a prompt that inspires you, please have at it! Just use the regular submission guidelines and send your headers to holmesticemods@gmail.com.

If you'd like to guess who created what in this round, here's a list of all the contributors for the main gifts. (You'll have to put in some extra work to guess the treat-makers!) Go ahead and take a guess! It's all in good fun.



alexcat
apprenticeofdoyle
bakerstmel / Callie4180
cam_elot (used to be thefrenchweirdone)
discordantwords
dryadinthegrove
evilinsanemonkey
fleetsparrow
fridaythegowerstreetcat / gowerstreet
gardnerhill
graycardinal
iwantthatcoat
Keenir/Rodlox/Anthony
language_escapes
mafief
milverton
monkiainen
natrix_natrix
oldshrewsburyian
pipmer1
rachelindeed
saki101
sanguinity
sanspatronymic
scfrankles
simplyclockwork
smallhobbit
starfishstar
strampunch
tepidspongebath
trobadora
twicecurvedspine / eyes-on-stilts
urbanhymnal
write_out



Go forth and leave love for your fellow Holmestice authors, artists, podficcers, and vidders! See you again on the 20th, when we reveal who made what!

Comments

[rachelindeed]

Shall I take first crack at it, then? :)

I only have a few guesses, most remain a mystery! But I'll say:

The Mystery of the Misplaced Detective feels like SCFrankles to me.

The Case of the Stolen Love Notes -- casefic with a guest appearance from Stanley Hopkins? Sounds like smallhobbit!

Forever Turning Corners -- discordantwords, perhaps? The complex mixture of grief, angst, love, and tentative hope feels like their signature :)

Conversations Between Peers -- iwantthatcoat?

(I was close to guessing Sanguinity on 'Conversations Between Peers,' but I don't think she would have thanked herself for modding the exchange, so I'll have to keep looking for her elusive work!)

A Jelly Good Show -- gardnerhill????

I'm sure you can sense my super-confidence about all these :P I look forward to being schooled by our more intensive guessers!

[scfrankles]

Okay, possibly going to be making a bit of a fool of myself but here’s some guesses to get the ball rolling.



A Jelly Good Show: This my delightful gift fic, and it was a tricky one to guess. Before posting started I had made a short list of the three creators I felt I was most likely to be matched with, and they had all been new participants. On receiving my gift I had to rethink that though. As starfishstar mentioned in her comment, the author seems to know me pretty well - puns, anthropomorphism, “Jamsterdam” may be a happy accident but it may also be a nod to my love of Dutch and the Netherlands.

Now, yes, all this could have been discovered by someone new doing a bit of research but the fic seems so confidently sure this is something I’m going to love. And that confidence also seems to be saying that the author feels they have nothing to prove and are just enjoying themself with the story. Psychologically that doesn’t match up with someone taking part in the exchange for the first time. Also, Rachel in her comment fangirled all over the place. We had been through something similar over at ACD Holmesfest - it suggested to me she subconsciously knew who the author was, and it was someone whose work she particularly admired. One last thing - the fic seemed to have been indirectly inspired by The Case of the Six Marmalades in the same ‘verse. And perhaps the person most likely to have been inspired by it is the fic’s author herself?

There is someone else that would be a strong possibility for authorship. But my unrevealed gift fic appeared in my list about a week before works were due and this other writer mentioned on the mods’ later chivvying post that they were still having trouble getting their fic into shape. So, casting caution to the wind and, however unlikely it seems, accepting that someone may have embraced puns for the sake of friendship… I am going to say this fic is by sanguinity.



Art: This Meeting of Like Minds: The only person who offered graphics in their sign-up would not be a good match for the ‘verses here. And there is an author who would be a better match, and whose fic I just couldn’t pick out this round. So, maybe they haven’t written a fic? The artist here also mentions that sanguinity was their alpha and beta reader, which suggests they know sanguinity pretty well. I’m going to say this is by starfishstar.



The Adventure of the Dying Private Investigator: The unusual ‘verse immediately narrowed this down to a handful of participants, and one particular writer was high on the list for me from the beginning. It was the style, or rather the fact there wasn’t a discernible style - I feel this particular author is very good at removing themself completely from a story and not getting in the way of the reader. There is also some more minor evidence. It’s perhaps a bit petty to mention this about such a beautiful story - and I’m going to get slapped one of these days - but the idiosyncratic and inconsistent punctuation really points to a particular writer. I think this fic is by iwantthatcoat.



The Talking Cure: When I first read this, I thought it was by sanguinity. The ‘verse and the bit of headcanon that Holmes came back briefly to support Watson during the early stages of his bereavement. But looking at it again, I began to think I was wrong. The style and quality of the writing certainly could point towards sanguinity, but I feel the author’s notes simply aren’t in her voice. I think this is by rachelindeed.



Podfic: The Kincardine File: Notes on an Untold Case: This is a new voice for me, so I thought at first this had to be by a new participant. However, there is a regular participant whose fic I can’t confidently track down, and they always offer podfic but I can’t recall ever seeing a podfic by them before. So maybe this could be a first for them. They did mention they were writing something but also said they were having difficulties with it. Could they have set the fic aside and decided to do a podfic instead at the last minute? It’s a relatively short piece. I’m going to be bold and say this is by gardnerhill.



Conversations Between Peers: I think just going by the ‘verse, that this has to be by language_escapes. But it reads to me like their style too. They are an intelligent and empathetic writer - they write with both their heart and their head. But I think “head” tends to win out - I think communicating ideas is the most important aspect of a story for them.



The Definition of Irregular: The author mentions that their beta is Trudence. A bit of Googling gives the information that Trudence is also known as noadventureshere, and looking at their fics tells us they are friends with… fridaythegowerstreetcat.



The Case of the Stolen Love Notes: I knew immediately this was a pinch hit by smallhobbit. I’ve known her too long now ^___^ It’s the fact it’s a case fic and that even though Holmes and Watson are a couple, the focus isn’t on sex and romance but on the everyday business of being part of a long-term relationship. Throw in Mrs. Hudson, the Baker Street housemaid and the delectable Stanley Hopkins, and this is unmistakably by my friend and colleague.



The Women in the Case: Gen, many ‘verses, many footnotes, handing their homework in late… I think this must be by graycardinal.

[rachelindeed]

Oooh, I like your guess for Sanguinity! It would be just like her to deliberately write a fic focusing on puns when she's been previously established as no punn-er :) Perhaps she couldn't resist the challenge of trying to sneak it by you, the most formidable of word detectives! But clearly that's a dangerous game...

[iwantthatcoat]

You know what? After being ferreted out by my overuse of ellipses and dashes, I vowed not to use more than one set of dashes and no ellipses whatsoever in this round of Holmestice ;)
I do absolutely agree with Sanguinity for Jelly Good Show.

[write_out]

Here's my first attempt at some guesses! But first, a special note to the BBC writers here- I have read and loved your fics but I've not commented or kudos'd any of them so as not to give away what I wrote. Once reveals are up, I will rectify that!

Also, I'm still catching up on everything- so many lovely works this round, as always!

Okay! My guesses:

Conversations Between Peers- my most excellent gift fic. I think this is language_escapes. Yes, they're the only one who specifically offered the Abdul-Jabbar/Waterhouse series, but one thing I've learned is to never solely go by sign-ups; many of you have offered to write in just about 'verse that even vaguely resembles Sherlock Holmes, so there are some others who could have written this one. That said, I was almost immediately reminded of the Dracula fic from last summer and when I checked, yep, that was language_escapes.

The Essential Layers in a Gentleman's Attire- HNNNNNNG HELLO. I'm guessing strampunch for this gorgeous art.

Some Rest in the Country. I love this art- it's so happy and relaxed and I think it's by natrix_natrix.

I'm still thinking about some of the fic, so I'll likely be back with more guesses.

[starfishstar]

I just want to say, it worked! :D You and a number of other BBC writers didn't leave kudos anywhere, which made guessing the BBC fics – already a difficult bunch – quite fiendish. And I mean that in a good way! ;-)

[mafief]

I think NahirHolmes wrote In The Heat Of Battle.

I’ll need to think about the rest. :)

[graycardinal]

That one's unlikely, as nahirholmes is not on the list of contributors above. (DOn't feel bad; I've committed that particular error on multiple occasions myself.)

[iwantthatcoat]

I’m going with discordantwords for The Emerald Circle as it’s a brilliant bit of queer historical fiction and I can imagine that very much being their area of expertise.

I thought for sure write_out was the author of Conversations Between Peers, until I realized it was written *for* write_out, which was a frustrating discovery. It isn’t me, because I just finished the first Jabbar book last night, and I will def be adding it to my options list next go. Will think on who it is.

For the gift fic for me, I’m going to go with tepidspongebath, for admittedly odd reasons. I can’t shake it being someone I know to some degree. Enough to know what it most like in a fic, and we are somewhat acquainted. Also a BBC person with pretty strong ACD canon ties. Now, maybe the author just happened to hit all the right notes for me by pure luck, or maybe there is more to it than that. In any case, you have my absolute gratitude, author of Forever Turning Corners.

The magical realism turn makes me think Doggone Luck or The Choices We Make as possibly Pipmer?

Sadly, I am way behind in my reading and unlikely to catch up before reveals. All I’m doing this month is putting GED lessons into Google Classroom before my teaching starts up next month. I hope to be able to guess more before all shall be revealed.

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 1

[starfishstar]

All right, y'all. I feel I need to preface this with an explanation.

Right now I have some free time for what feels like the first time in several lifetimes' worth of life. So I thought: wouldn't it be fun if just this once (goodness, I hope I only do this once!) I had a guess for EVERY SINGLE HOLMESTICE WORK?

Yeah, so.

Here we go!

Coming at you in several comments' worth of wall of text, probably.

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 2

[starfishstar]

First batch (chronological order!):


hands full of matter (BBC) – write_out

This was in a final set of just 5 or so BBC fics that I was still struggling with last night, even after I’d assigned guesses to everything else. So some of these BBC fics are going to be my shakiest guesses of all! Here I matched merely on some tenuous formatting things (use of a graphic at the start of the text, sometimes using lower case titles, some similar tags). So it’s one of those guesses where I think I’ve got a reasonable match, but I’m equally aware I could be 100% wrong!


This Meeting of Like Minds (Mary Russell, art) – iwantthatcoat (?)

Another shaky guess, because art (and vids) are the things I’m least able to comment on or analyse in any useful way! I would have thought OldShrewsburyian or rachelindeed (known fans of the Peter Wimsey series, which is the crossover ‘verse here), but they both left kudos! Well, or sanguinity, but Sang is noted as beta here. Oh, and cam_elot is the sole person who offered graphics – and seems to maybe even have a similar style – but they offered only BBC (and I think made a vid!) so this seems less likely. Which leaves me with…known chameleon extraordinaire iwantthatcoat! Who didn’t offer the Mary Russell ‘verse, no, but did offer art, and is known to leap at a new and confounding challenge each round of Holmestice. And could have matched on recipient language_escapes via ACD and Bert Coules, but then decided to try something different instead.


Old Dog Waltz (ACD) – twicecurvedspine

Mostly by elimination (none of the other possibilities seemed to fit in terms of punctuation etc.); also twicecurvedspine offered Holmes/Watson/Other, as well as Holmes/Watson and Watson/Mary, which seems to fit here. :-)


The Choices We Make (BBC) – pipmer1

Again, part of the final set of BBC fics I struggled with! But the use of some specifics like the tag “Alternate Universe – Supernatural Elements” and the Mycroft/Lestrade pairing, put me at pipmer1 as my best guess. I’m far from sure, though!


A Conductor of Light (Ritchie) – alexcat

Another one I was very unsure about, but alexcat could be a match in terms of tags and e.g. style of summary (short, present-tense sentences). Why yes, some of my evidence *is* quite slim. But I’ve got to grasp at something! ;-)


The Adventure of the Dying Private Investigator (Watson and Holmes) – iwantthatcoat (with maybe sanguinity as an outside option)

Okay, I realize this may conflict with what I wrote above, but I do think iwantthatcoat wrote my wonderful gift, set in the rare ‘verse of the Watson and Holmes/A Study in Black comic! Only two people offered this ‘verse, and gardnerhill was quickly eliminated through leaving kudos. I do think it *could* also be sanguinity (who has developed a rather devious habit of just putting “tbd” for which fandoms she’ll offer, which makes her hard to guess!), who certainly could have decided to match herself on me based on the various very rare fandoms I requested. I think I’ve placed Sang elsewhere, but I did have a lot of trouble pinning her down this round (again!) so she’s still a possibility here, especially if I’m wrong about iwantthatcoat here, but right about iwantthatcoat above.


The Mystery of the Misplaced Detective (ACD) – scfrankles

Gen, humor, tags that match SCFrankles, charming and clever? SCFrankles. :D


...Okay, that's the first batch. I'm going to be out for a while, but more when I'm back later this evening!

Re: starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 2

[iwantthatcoat]

Could be right on both; I certainly have been known to pinch-hit.

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 3

[starfishstar]

Oh goodness. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to read this much about my extensive guessing process, but, nonetheless, here we continue…


Forever Turning Corners (BBC) – discordantwords

There’s still a part of me that wants to put rachelindeed here… I was moved by the emotional depth and empathy, which I usually take as a sign that I’ve stumbled on rachelindeed’s fic even if I don’t know it yet! But it maybe didn’t seem *quite* like Rachel (e.g. rated M), and I feel halfway confident about having placed Rachel elsewhere, so this joined that final set of BBC fics I was wrestling with right until the end. The tags here seemed to match discordantwords, as well as a very particular piece of formatting involving a single asterisk ;-) and it doesn’t hurt that I remember being similarly moved by discordantwords’ entries in some previous Holmestices! I feel very confident about this guess. :-)


The Keuka Horror (Elementary) – oldshrewsburyian

I built this guess purely on a close scrutiny of some very specific tags that match oldshrewsburyian but don’t match gardnerhill (and by that point I’d already placed all other potential Elementary candidates elsewhere). Oh, and some m-dash formatting. ;-) It is flimsy evidence and yet I have confidence in it!


Some Rest in the Country (ACD, art) – natrix_natrix

This match is probably obvious to everyone, but I spent So Long hunting up past examples of art by both natrix_natrix and strampunch and yet STILL not being sure. Once strampunch’s art posted near the end, though, I felt more confident about matching these two beautiful works of art to their two distinct creators!


The Talking Cure (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution) – rachelindeed (though it *could* be sanguinity or gardnerhill, and I can’t rule out any of the three conclusively)

Auggggggh, this fic! The author’s notes are 100% rachelindeed. But the fic didn’t feel quite like rachelindeed; if anything it felt maybe more like sanguinity. I don’t *think* it’s gardnerhill (it creates a fix-it in a way I’ve long wanted for this fandom, but which I don’t think I’ve seen gardnerhill lean toward) but I can’t conclusively rule it out. (gardnerhill has eluded any easy guessing in several different corners of Holmestice this round!) There are some real hard feelings between characters at the start, which didn’t align with my usual experience of Rachel’s writing, and it did have that stamp of characters-striving-to-do-their-best-by-each-other that is so very sanguinity. Could Sang have written it, then deliberately mimicked rachelindeed’s style of author notes?? (I wouldn’t put anything past a long-time Holmestice-er and guess-evader like sanguinity.) I considered putting Sang here, and rachelindeed in the mix for those recalcitrant last BBC fics, and gardnerhill…well, elsewhere, which we’ll get to! But it didn’t work, only because of math (if Rachel went to BBC, then everything else refused to fall into line). And thus I am registering rachelindeed as my official guess here. Only because of math. I hope you’re happy, sanguinity!


In The Heat Of Battle (BBC, crossover with Harry Potter) – monkiainen

Again, BBC fics are hard! So many candidates! But this has Mystrade and is a crossover with Harry Potter, and a check of various people’s works suggest that both of those things match monkiainen. :-)


Infinite Variety (ACD) – saki101

I admit it, I got here *only* by elimination, because saki101 was kind enough to leave kudos on almost everything else! :D (We really have created an unfortunate accidental culture here, where we hold back on giving each other kudos out of fear of revealing our own authorship!) But once I got to this guess, I saw some matches in formatting, and also in saki101’s delightful enthusiasm and many exclamation points in answering readers’ comments! (Ha, and you all thought I was the most enthusiastic.) ;-) Oh, and the touch of magical realism seemed to fit, too!


A Jelly Good Show (Whitehead) – sanguinity (yes, I dare to claim sanguinity that wrote puns! though with also an outside possibility of gardnerhill)

HERE WE HAVE IT! THE MOST WONDERFULLY THORNY FIC TO GUESS OF ALL! This fic is not only ALL PUNS, it also has the anthropomorphism that SCFrankles loves. This author knows SCFrankles, 100%. It’s also in a quite rare fandom (Whitehead), which rachelindeed was the sole person to offer. (Well, aside from sanguinity of the “I’m the matching mod and thus don’t have to say which fandoms I offer,” who has written Whitehead before, and did *request* it this round. But we know sanguinity doesn’t do puns!) What with the cheerfulness and good humor here – I was very confident in assigning rachelindeed. But then she left kudos! And commented with *such* enthusiastic praise that I didn’t think it could be a ruse, even if Rachel had done an iwantthatcoat-style feint of creating a fake account. My initial notes did also say “maybe sanguinity (if she sought help with the puns??)” but…sanguinity doesn’t do puns! We know this very well! So I scrutinized who else could have matched to SCFrankles’ requests, and found gardnerhill matched on several fandoms, including a very rare one (Whale!Holmes) that the matching mod might indeed have decided to prioritize. So gardernhill was confidently written in as my guess until almost the end. But then there was that math that didn’t quite work, and I still couldn’t shake the instinct that said “sanguinity!” against all reason. So I decided – fully expecting to be laughed at for even suggesting it – that YES, the pun fic is sanguin-“I don’t understand puns”-ity. I think she enlisted the help of a beloved co-conspirator (grrlpup? language_escapes? colebaltblue? all three??) and had an absolute blast finding out just how many puns could be packed into one diminutive fic.

Re: starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 3

[sanguinity]

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to read this much about my extensive guessing process...

Because your extensive guessing process is hella entertaining! (Surely you've noticed this when graycardinal does it, yes?) And I must say, the part about me is especially entertaining.

interlude

[starfishstar]

By the way, we all agree that T. Rhymer, our anonymous haiku-ist, is graycardinal, yes? (With maybe an outside possibility of iwantthatcoat, I suppose, because you just never know what iwantthatcoat will do! Or sanguinity, who would be pretending to be graycardinal.)

Regardless, thank you, anonymous haiku-ist! I enjoyed watching your poetic commentary cropping up all over.

Re: interlude

[iwantthatcoat]

Ok I’m gonna be absolutely truthful here, for possibly the only time ever in a guess list, and confess I thought about being T Rhymer this time. I truly did. But I knew my work schedule would prohibit me from reading all the fic, and I wouldn’t want to comment on only a few of them.
Honest.

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 4

[starfishstar]

What Is A Man? (ACD) – fleetsparrow

fleetsparrow specifically mentioned trans Holmes in their sign-up – the phrase, I believe, was “If anyone else is asking for trans Sherlock, sign me tf up” :D – and the style seems to match. I’m confident about this one!


Late Nights in Cambridge (BBC) – simplyclockwork

The only person who offered specifically Holmes/Moriarty (though others offered Moriarty in other combinations, or Moriarty-centric ‘verses) and thus a clear choice to match to trobadora. :-)


The Kincardine File podfic (ACD, podfic) – evilinsanemonkey

Oooh, I struggled with this one, because almost everyone who offered podfic is someone who I’ve heard podfic before, so I knew none of them was a voice match for this. And then I found a voice match! And not only that, but a match who’s also the one person who not only offered podfic, but said they would prefer it! And not only THAT, but they matched on recipient graycardinal not only on ACD canon, but also on Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, a rare ‘verse that our matching mod was surely very happy to match on. I’m 99% sure this round’s podfic is by evilinsanemonkey. :-)


Étude for Lovers (BBC) – urbanhymnal

This is one of the small handful of BBC fics I was still wrestling with right at the end! Summary style and various formatting things (use of three dashes, long line for section breaks, double en-dashes with a space after but no space before…) all seem to match. And that’s about all I’ve got!


Conversations Between Peers (Abdul-Jabbar & Waterhouse) – language_escapes

This is a rare ‘verse, and language_escapes is the only person who offered it. It seemed far too easy to assume language_escapes did in fact write this! I considered that someone could have matched on Lang on other fandom/s but then decided to write this ‘verse instead (sanguinity (vids, podfic, ACD), iwantthatcoat (art, ACD, BBC), gardnerhill (podfic, ACD)). But ultimately the author’s interest in (somewhat) more minor characters seemed like Lang, and some formatting things matched *exactly* (row of six asterisks to separate sections!) …to the point that, YES, I considered whether it could be sanguinity deliberately masquerading in language_escapes’ style! But ultimately, I think our matching mod would have jumped at the chance to match on such a rare ‘verse, and thus did so. And thus language_escapes.


Doggone Luck (BBC) – tepidspongebath

Also part of that final cohort of hard-to-guess BBC fics! My guess here is mainly based on elimination after I’d assigned most of the others, but there do seem to be some style matches (e.g., mostly single en-dashes, but then double n-dashes when breaking off a line of dialogue). [Yes, apparently I like to spend my free time thinking about such things!]


The Definition of Irregular (ACD) – gowerstreet

I got this guess mainly through elimination, so I can’t claim any cleverness here! But some of the formatting did seem to match, once I got there. (That’s about all I have to offer; SCFrankles’ guess is much better founded!)

[rachelindeed]

Hey there, just want to say I'm sorry to hear you have been having Medical Adventures, and I hope you are feeling okay and that your recovery will keep going as smoothly as possible! All best wishes <3333

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 5

[starfishstar]

Good morning! Shall we press on? :D

Notes (BBC) – mafief

My guess here is based on the fact that mafief seems most likely to have matched on recipient gowerstreet, and also expressed great interest in Mycroft/Lestrade and thus seemed most likely to have written that pairing!


Standing on Velvet (Ritchie) – sanspatronymic

I don’t know Ritchieverse, so I can’t really judge anything based on content… But of the people who offered Ritchie, sanspatronymic seemed the most likely to have been matched to recipient gardnerhill, since they matched on not only multiple ‘verses, but also a rare ‘verse: Great Mouse Detective. :-) And once I realized that, I checked and saw that VERY tellingly, a tag used here, “Companionable Snark,” can also be found in not one but TWO other fics by sanspatronymic! And especially knowing that sanspatronymic is known for characters who have a bickering-but-in-love dynamic, this seemed like a perfect match.


The Education of Geoffrey Lestrade (ACD) – gardnerhill (but yes, I’m still unsure about this!)

I said above how much gardnerhill has eluded me this round. I seem to have tried to assign gardnerhill just about everywhere! I actually had colebaltblue as my guess for this fic…until the list of creators came out and colebaltblue wasn’t on it. I still don’t actually know if this fic and gardnerhill match, but I know that gardnerhill is the only one who matched with recipient evilinsanemonkey on 3 fandoms, including a rare one (22CEN), and also maybe matches in terms of tags (e.g. this fic is tagged “Greg Lestrade,” something I see gardnerhill has used, even though in this fic he’s named Geoffrey.) :D Yup, my justification is flimsy, but all I know is that the math didn’t work until I tugged gardnerhill away from both A Jelly Good Show AND The Talking Cure, slotted sanguinity and rachelindeed into their respective positions, and insisted that it works this way and could everyone just stay put, please.


Futile Devices (BBC, vid) – cam_elot

A BBC vid! A person who offered vids and BBC! I already thought it *probably* wasn’t rachelindeed, and then she helped me out by commenting on it. ;-) And I didn’t think it was sanguinity, because BBC. And cam_elot only offered vids or graphics, and a BBC vid seemed a far better fit than Mary Russell graphics. Et voilà!


In Full Flower (ACD) – milverton (though still with a possibility of sanguinity or iwantthatcoat)

Ooh, another one that was a struggle! This fic is fade to black (rather than a sex scene), so I thought it was probably an author who didn’t offer rating “3” in the sign-ups…but milverton did offer that rating. I thought it was probably someone who matched with recipient rachelindeed on multiple fandoms…but milverton and rachelindeed match only on ACD. I looked at people who match on rarer ‘verses, but none of them seemed to match in any other ways! milverton does match on some of the tags on this fic and some formatting things (like the “Holmes’s” spelling that some of us were discussing in other comments above!) And besides, milverton’s sign-up specifically mentioned not wanting any mention of Eurus or Moriarty in BBC fics (rachelindeed is an early-series-only BBC fan) and milverton asked for someone with detailed prompts (which rachelindeed gave, and in fact this fic takes one of those prompts as its summary), which seem like factors the matching mod may also have taken into account, in finding people who are a good fit for each other in more than just fandom. And so here we are. I’ll be curious to see whether or not I managed to somehow stumble my way into a correct guess!


Vengeance I Get (Elementary, crossover with Castle) – keenir

I admit I had an unfair edge here, through having happened to see a stray comment (since deleted?) that gave away something of the layout of keenir’s work this round. But the formatting here also matches, including the title formatting! (Capitalizing only the first letter.) I do think keenir is the best match here.


Feel My Heart Banging Like a Gun (BBC) – BakerStMel

Another in that final round of “okay, all that remains are 6 BBC fics, 6 BBC writers, surely they have to match up *somehow*.” This guess is based 100% on the fact that I was down to 6 fics and BakerStMel had left kudos on the other 5 of them… So if I slipped up somewhere earlier in the process, and eliminated BakerStMel from somewhere I shouldn’t have (an ACD fic, perhaps?) then I’m 100% wrong!

Re: starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 5

[iwantthatcoat]

I do know which one is BakerStMel due to a writing room doscussion. So I am not adding them to my guesses. Nor am I saying if you are correct, of course. ;)
I enjoy reading the guesswork involved. We wouldn’t be Holmes fans if we didn’t appreciate good deductions.

[discordantwords]

::cracks knuckles::

Okay, let's do this!

I am in no way confident about my guessing ability, but here goes...

hands full of matter - simplyclockwork
The title in all lowercase letters seems to be something of a signature.

Doggone Luck - tepidspongebath
I'm basing this guess solely on the X-Files reference, as this author has name dropped the X-Files in ficlets before.

Forever Turning Corners - Write_Out
Write_Out has done a post-Reichenbach fic for a previous round, and mentioned case fics in her sign up post.

The Deeds of War - dryadinthegrove
I think this author may have have written in a similar future-y AU 'verse in the past.

The Adventure of the Dying Private Investigator - iwantthatcoat
There's no one specific thing about this fic that I can point to as the reason I suspect iwantthatcoat as the writer, but looking through some of the other guessing posts I see I'm not the only one who came to this conclusion. :D

Etude for Lovers - UrbanHymnal
I'm pretty certain about this one based on the writing style and the summary formatting.

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 6

[starfishstar]

I didn't originally intend for posting this to be a 24-hour process...but here, at last, is the final section!


The Case of the Stolen Love Notes (ACD) – smallhobbit

The inclusion of Stanley Hopkins does seem like a tip-off, as SCFrankles mentioned above. :-) Tagging and summary styles do fit, as well as some format things. So I feel confident in saying this is by stalwart Holmestice pinch hitter smallhobbit!


The Deeds of War (BBC) – dryadinthegrove

There was piece of evidence here that made this quite a straightforward deduction, but it looks like it’s since been deleted, so I don’t want to mention it unfairly! But some tags also match (e.g. “Non-Graphic Violence” and “Aftermath of Violence”) and formatting (e.g. a broken off line of dialogue ends with space en-dash space quotation mark) so this does seem like a good match regardless.


The Essential Layers In A Gentleman’s Attire (ACD/Granada, art) – strampunch

Definitely strampunch! As mentioned above, I struggle to analyze art and often am not sure of a match between art and artist even when it should be obvious. In this round we had two participants who both offered art only (as well as a couple of others who also offered art, but in addition to other fanwork forms). These two offered ACD as well as a number of ACD-adjacent ‘verses (Granada, Russian, etc.) with a clear affection for Granada in particular; both expressed an interest in trans Holmes; and from a bit of a scout around for previous works, both were clearly talented and experienced artists with much ACD art under their belts! After the work-I-now-think-is-natrix_natrix posted, I didn’t feel I could be 100% sure. But once both that one and this were posted, there was more evidence to compare to prior works (even so, I struggled! why do none of the noses match?? does this elbow look like anybody else’s elbow?) and ultimately was able to breathe a sign of relief and match our artists to their art. :-) (An extra clue I don’t think I even noted until now is that this work is explicit but the other is not, and strampunch offered explicit works, but natrix_natrix did not. Ta da!)


Not To Be Repeated (BBC) – trobadora

I know, I know, “if it’s Holmes/Moriarty it must be trobadora” is always an unfairly easy conclusion to leap to! But I did check around, and the more important evidence is that the recipient here, simplyclockwork, is one of probably only two people trobadora could even have matched on in the first place. The other possible recipient match is fleetsparrow, but the gift fleetsparrow received in this round is Holmes/Watson/Morstan, so…clearly not trobadora. Also, Sherlock/Moriarty is among simplyclockwork’s requests but not the top thing they requested, and yet the writer zeroed in on that option… Yes, it’s trobadora. :-)

(Musings for the future: trobadora – or anyone else! – could invite several new, wholly-unknown-to-Holmestice-regulars creators to participate in the exchange, and secretly instruct them to ALL create works for the same niche interest, whether that’s Holmes/Moriarty, or a certain minor character, or a rare ‘verse, or whatever else. And then sit back and cackle evilly as you watch us all be completely flummoxed in the guessing post!)


The Women in the Case (Enola Holmes, Mary Russell, Peerless Peer) – graycardinal

The extensive notes and such are *so* graycardinal. Also the use of en-dashes. And bold headings. And he seems to have attempted to change things up by using =/= instead of # # # for section breaks, but come on. ;-) Also the G rating. And the crossover of multiple rare ‘verses. (Kudos to you, for a triple crossover!) And incidentally graycardinal is the only one who offered Enola Holmes this round. (Though no, he didn’t offer Mary Russell – but has done so often in the past.) And of anyone, graycardinal seems maybe the MOST up for the additional challenge of writing extremely rare ‘verse The Adventure of the Peerless Peer. :-) I did check back to see which of the likely suspects have created for sanguinity in recent rounds, because I know the mods try not to re-match the same people too soon. (No rematches for 6 rounds if possible, I think? Or was it 4?) Of the creators in this round who explicitly offered what I’ve come to think of as the “etc.” fandom (i.e., expressed some form of “I’m up for even more rare/weird things beyond my official sign-up, mods”), all the others were quickly ruled out: language_escapes (left kudos), gardnerhill (matched on Sang last round…and also detests Mary Russell!), iwantthatcoat (also matched on Sang too recently), me (also matched on Sang too recently!). Whereas graycardinal was *just* past that 6-round cut-off – if I’m even right about that cut-off – having last written for sanguinity in winter 2016. [Yes, you probably could say I have too much time on my hands these days.] Unless some very dastardly deceptions are going on, I am entirely confident in saying this is graycardinal.

(Musings for the future: two participants form a pact to deliberately switch identities? Write in each other’s style, adopt each other’s tagging style and commenting mannerisms, and so on?)


The Emerald Circle (Granada) – apprenticeofdoyle

And finally, to round out this lovely round of Holmestice, a long ACD fic (that I’ve barely had a chance to start reading, but am looking forward to). I don’t have a lot of good evidence here – it was mostly that I’d largely assigned the other Granada possibilities elsewhere – but the enthusiastic author’s notes do seem to match the one other Holmesian work I was able to find by apprenticeofdoyle. And this didn’t seem quite like rachelindeed (who had been another possibility)…mainly because of that comment about having equal love for both Burke and Hardwicke as Watson, when I *know* rachelindeed prefers Hardwicke. :D


And that's it! Happy happy happy Holmestice, everyone!!

Re: starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 6

[rachelindeed]

*APPLAUDS WILDLY!!*

What a herculean project, and so fun to see the results! I bet you will turn out to have a high success rate!

And I'll be very curious, as ever, to see which few authors turn out to be too slippery for analysis :)

[starfishstar]

Oh oh oh! Stop the presses!!! I think I've cracked it:

BakerStMel/Callie4180 wrote "Late Nights in Cambridge."

All else to follow. :-)

[rachelindeed]

!!!!!!!!

An exciting new development!

starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 7 (there wasn't even supposed to be a pt. 7...)

[starfishstar]

The new and improved BBC guesses! Ignore what came before, because these are my guesses and I'm sticking to 'em!

I had to go back in and study all 12 BBC fics to figure out where I'd gone wrong, but in the end, the fix was quite simple:


Late Nights in Cambridge – BakerStMel (not simplyclockwork)

hands full of matter – simplyclockwork (not write_out)

Feel My Heart Banging Like a Gun – write_out (not BakerStMel)


Rationales for these gladly offered to anyone who's curious, but right now I'm going to bed. :-)

Re: starfishstar's alarmingly large pile of guesses, pt. 7 (there wasn't even supposed to be a pt. 7

[sanguinity]

I'll go:

Tell us! What's your rationale?

Spreadsheet of Doom: Part the First

[graycardinal]

Time being what it is, best not to put this off too late, and getting the first part out of the way should be relatively brief (especially since I get to piggyback to a significant extent on other people's detective work).

Multimedia

Vid: Futile Devices cam_elot

The Spreadsheet of Doom gives us very few offers for vids, and I agree with starfishstar that neither rachelindeed nor sanguinity are likely candidates for this particular vid. Unless a pinch-hitter picked this up (smallhobbit, perhaps?), cam_elot is the likeliest candidate.

Podfic: The Kincardine File evilinsanemonkey

I had been almost ready to go spelunking in my vault of Ancient Convention Filk Tapes to see if I could find a civilian recording of gardnerhill in performance (we established a round or two back that they and I crossed paths in livespace decades ago in a filk room at Baycon) when starfishstar reported a voice match in connection with their guess for this. I am going to trust that research, although I am still tempted to cross-check, because my first instinct on hearing the podfic was to consider gardnerhill.

Due credit to starfishstar, then -- and we'll see.

ART:
This Meeting of Like Minds penaltywaltz
Some Rest in the Country natrix_natrix
The Essential Layers in a Gentleman's Attire strampunch

On two of these I join the consensus in notable part because it *is* a consensus, and I have no good reason not to trust the collective judgment of the gallery on the matter.

On "Like Minds", I am an outlier. First of all, my sense of the numbers is that there are enough contributors this time out that there shouldn't have been a need for anyone to double-dip and create two main gifts. For that reason, I doubt that either iwantthatcoat or rachelindeed produced art this time around; there are better matches for both among the fic. And if we also eliminate the two other well-matched artists and the likely vidder from the mix, that leaves one obvious candidate for a Wimsey/Russell blending such as this.

More later....

Re: Spreadsheet of Doom: Part the First

[rachelindeed]

A point of order: Penaltywaltz isn't listed among the contributors for main gifts at the top of the Guessing Post. Presumably they were one of several participants this round who had to bow out.

[language_escapes]

I have nothing to add to the guesses - I am TERRIBLE at guessing, alas! - but I just wanted to chime in that I love the guessing post, it's just about my favourite part of Holmestice. I'm hoping to spend some time between rounds educating myself everyone's style and tone and quirks, so that maaaaaybe I can provide semi-educated guesses next round!

[starfishstar]

Last thought from me for the night... This is all I've got on the treats so far, but: do we concur that the BBC vid "Person of Interest" is by rachelindeed? :D

[starfishstar]

And in the interest of striving to register as full a slate of guesses as possible, a last frantic swing at the treats!

In addition to, as mentioned above:

Person of Interest (BBC, vid) – rachelindeed

I'll go ahead and suggest:

The Conductor of Light (ACD) – nahirholmes

...this is based on the strength of not much more than a few em-dashes, but I felt a need to register *some* kind of guess.

And:

An Excerpt from Blood Relatives (Mary Russell, podfic) – oldshrewsburyian (offered podfic AND Mary Russell!)

[(Anonymous)]

We write, make art, we share, and now we’ve guessed;
How eagerly we greet each solstice day
And gather twice a year for Holmestice fest!

Our able mods—the best, the cleverest!—
Assign the match, the rules by which we play.
We write, make art, we share, and now we’ve guessed.

There’s love for every Holmes herein expressed,
And Watson, too, we joyfully portray,
When gathered twice a year for Holmestice fest.

We scrutinize each clue and palimpsest,
Seek fingerprints, find evidence to weigh.
We write, make art, we share, and now we’ve guessed.

So give three cheers! (Prepare to be impressed!)
Full twenty times we’ve held this masked soirée,
We’ve gathered twice a year for Holmestice fest.

Suffice to say, we’re all quite Holmes-obsessed!
Let’s pledge our troth that we shall always say:
We write, make art, we share, and now we’ve guessed!
Let’s gather twice a year for Holmestice fest!

[rachelindeed]

Hear, hear!!

(This is what happens when you doubt the prospect of villanelles, Sang!)

[starfishstar]

BTW, I remain almost entirely convinced that T. Rhymer is graycardinal. :D

[(Anonymous)]

But didn't you see?
The gray one sleeps, while I wake
To pursue my craft.

(Also, I may now
Be a whole conspiracy
Which you might have joined.)

- T. Rhymer

[iwantthatcoat]

Well well well it appears I got so caught up in thinking Emerald Circle was Discordant_words that
I lost my chance at guessing my own gift properly. Shame on me! Thank you for the absolutely perfect story DW!

[iwantthatcoat]

Also....I did make a vow not to use ellipses and dashes. I just...broke it. I just cannot write smoothly without em as that's how they talk in my brain. I have been wanting to discuss this comic for soooo long now, and it has been driving me insane not doing so. I’m relieved.
Also, I finally get it. It's the spacing inconsistencies that are my tell more so than just use. This makes sense, as I have only recently (5 years or so) written fic. Before that was solidly non-fiction and school writing which generally does not use ellipses and dashes at all. I have no idea what the conventional usage rules for spacing actually are. As a result, even though I teach GED and grammar, I don’t have a clue on best practice for spacing. Yes, I did go back and deliberately change some things to commas, but it was a half-hearted effort.
If I had expected so many lovely comments, I surely would have used my other account and left some of my own on there ;)

[sanguinity]

Psst. *whispers* Hit me up next round if you want to know the traditional copyediting rules around ellipses and dashes...