Summer 2021 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 this round. Being in this community with you is a joy and an honour.

Reveals and the Master List go up on June 21st. Until then, please enjoy and comment on all the lovely fanworks. (If you haven't thanked your creator for your own gift yet, please do!) 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 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.


17pansies
alisha1221
arwamachine
BookGirlFan
c.art / comicArtistA
commoncollective
deelaundry / dee_laundry
discordantwords
eliza_underscore / marveling_under_an_open_sky
firecat
fleetsparrow
fridaythegowerstreetcat / gowerstreet
ghostbees / vernets
graycardinal / gray_cardinal
happyeverafter72
helloliriels
iwantthatcoat
language_escapes
marta-bee
merinda / Janto321
milverton / algy / AlgySwinburne
monkiainen
natrix_natrix / two_nipples_maybe_more / Biscia
Noob / 0archangel0
nottoolateforthegame
ohlooktheresabee
oldshrewsburyian
oraorahime
papysanzo
pipmer1 / pipmer
queenoferebor
rachelindeed / educatedinyellow
Rocío / disheveledcurls
saki101
sanguinity
sanspatronymic / sans_patronymic
senmut / Merfilly
simplyclockwork
strampunch / Dapperpunch
tepidspongebath
thedoubtfulguest / violet_strange
trobadora
urbanhymnal
vulgarweed
write_out / thetimemoves
yuliares


Go forth and leave love for your fellow Holmestice artists, authors, podficcers, and vidders! See you again on the 21st, when we reveal who made what!

Comments

[oldshrewsburyian]

Absolutely superb, fellow-disciple of the Master! I used to love those logic puzzles too, but I haven't done one in ages. In supportive (and/or misleading) affirmation, I observe that I do indeed have a great weakness for both Wimsey and the gratuitous use of Latin. I also love Joan Watson... and, for what it's worth, appreciate a good archival organization joke.

[iwantthatcoat]

I found this post soooo relatable it was painful.

I am the Mycroft Holmes of guessing posts. I have some brilliant theories, but they would require the legwork (fingerwork) of wading through who offered what, and frankly that is far too much methodical thought/work for my current state of mind, so I too am going by gut instinct and easy research— which I know will get me only about a quarter of the way there, but maybe someone else can run with what I dig up and make a reasonable guess?

Using my half-assed techniques, I shall deny having written “Rulers Make Bad Lovers” (which, if you know me, means very little), and suggest the possibility of Vulgarweed, who I know to be a *supreme* music nerd, and the line “don’t fuck where you sleep” has Vulgarweed written all over it. I know her to be well-versed in Watson & Holmes (we have even chatted w the author on Twitter a bit). But the huge caveat here is have not made it through all the stories yet. Not even a significant dent.

[trobadora]

And Sang likes punching, and there is at least mentions of punching in that.

Oh, that is a delightful clue! I did not know this!

[iwantthatcoat]

And also hilarious.
Sang likes punching.

[graycardinal]

1. Darnit, now that you've picked up the baton for "comic relief guesser", I'm going to have to come up with a new niche! (Not actually serious. There's undoubtedly room for at least two Comic Relief Guessers in this gallery. Do you want to be Statler, or Waldorf?)

2. The one thing I can be reasonably sure of in this round is that I will at last break my streak of confusing sanguinity with gardnerhill ...because the latter isn't actually listed among the contributors this time out. Although I have certain suspicions which we may get into later.

3. And of course sanguinity is already grinning like a Cheshire cat at both of us, just because she can.

[language_escapes]

That is probably a pretty good assumption regarding Sanguinity and my gift - I remembered vaguely she said something along those lines, but I couldn't remember WHEN, so I couldn't remember if it was for source review purposes or for, as you said, better understanding a fic.

Ooooo, that DOES strengthen the argument for GrayCardinal being the person who wrote "Box One". I didn't check previous works, so I was unaware of their epistolary work in the past!

[language_escapes]

I just said above that GrayCardinal having written epistolary fic in the past made them a stronger contender for "Box One", but now you're saying you could go on that suspicion list as well... there are too many suspects! If only there were a locked room involved - I still know how to pick locks, far better than I know how to make deductions!

[language_escapes]

Ah, see, I did not know either thing about vulgarweed!

I'm amused that so many people are finding my guessing post relatable, because I think of you all as master guessers! Your brilliant theories are always quite dazzling.

[language_escapes]

I had a moment where I was worried I had shared something I shouldn't, but no, I know that specific syntax of "Sang likes punching" because it's a tag of theirs on tumblr, so it can't be too secret! I feel better now.

[language_escapes]

1. Ha! (I lean Waldorf - I am both short and round.)

2. Ooooo, you think gardnerhill is a secret participant? I cannot WAIT to see your guesses!

3. Oh yes. Absolutely grinning. Maybe even cackling at this point.

[language_escapes]

To help alleviate more creator worries: I, too, tend to hold off on kudos and comments until afterwards. As I write in the small fandoms, even one kudos could give me away to our excellent guessers, and watching the guessing post is always one of my favourite parts of this exchange!

[iwantthatcoat]

I’m of the theory that if it is find-out-able on public forums, it is fair game. Vulgarweed is a music nerd on main. Or at least on Twitter. ;)

[iwantthatcoat]

Ooh are we approaching signing up for Holmestice under a different name....? Now *that* sounds intriguing.

[language_escapes]

I feel like that is probably a logical next step. A devious one, but a logical one.

[sanguinity]

Since Lang pointed out the tag exists, I'll be a good sport: Sang likes punching

You'll definitely find there some opinions Sang has about Holmes and punching.

[graycardinal]

> 2. Ooooo, you think gardnerhill is a secret participant?
> I cannot WAIT to see your guesses!

Nothing so complicated. I'm just struck by the authorial note posted with one of the very first treats, which says straight out that "The Thought of Settling" is a makeup for its author's having to default due to real-life issues...and while both that fic and the Mystrade casefic it evidently replaces are BBC Sherlock, which gardnerhill doesn't normally write for Holmestice, it's also true that gardnerhill has been known to violate that rule occasionally, usually in connection with fic that centers on women from the BBC canon. And we're told that the Mystrade casefic was/would have been focused on "Anthea and the homeless network", which certainly fits that description.

So as a first guess, put me down as strongly suspecting that, BBC notwithstanding, I think "The Thought of Settling" may be by gardnerhill.

[rachelindeed]

Very well-reasoned! I believe you! *applauds*

[rachelindeed]

Okay, guys, apparently the absence of grammar-clue guessers this round has created a vacuum into which I am being resentfully drawn...I didn't mean to do this! I just noticed that "BOX ONE" was an all-caps title and decided to very quickly skim through the participating authors' AO3 profiles to see if there was someone who always wrote their titles in all-caps because that would have been an easy signpost (for the record, none of the participating authors I could find on AO3 do regularly use all-caps titles, so that's a bust). But, while skimming past people's AO3 pages, I UNWILLINGLY noticed a few tics that scfrankles and starfishstar have apparently conditioned me to double-take over, and so I regret to inform you that I have a few grammar-and-tag-based Rational guesses:

Happyeverafter72 has written Coules fic before, uses the tag "Cuddling & Snuggling" for many of their works, and deploys a very distinctive two-line run of short dashes to indicate scene breaks, so I'd say "The Case of the Missing Marrow" belongs to them :)

Disheveledcurls tends to write Elementary fic titles all in lowercase and specifies where the fic falls within the show's canon timeline in between [brackets] in their summaries. Therefore "all the way" can be traced to their doorstep!

Yuliares uses an html quote indentation in all their summaries. "Weathered til Content," j'accuse!

*collapses onto my fainting couch, urging the disgruntled grammatical spirit of absent detectives to move along to someone else in this seance*

[pipmer1]

You're having fun and you know it!

[starfishstar]

Oh I LOVE that you've decided to join the guessing! Hurrah! Obviously I'm not going to tell you whether your guesses are right or wrong...or perhaps a mixture of both...?? But this is delightful and I hope you continue to be a Great Armchair Detective!

[starfishstar]

You know, folks *do* sometimes sign up for Holmestice under a different username from what they've used previously. Though not usually for the nefarious reasons y'all are thinking. A little internet research can usually track down such things...

[starfishstar]

Wow, what that looks like to me is "someone needs to make Sang a punching vid" – has that ever happened? (Also, how did I not know this about you?? This is clearly critical info, like colebaltblue-and-horses level info.)

[starfishstar]

It would delight me TO NO END if you somehow still managed to mix up sanguinity and gardnerhill despite gardnerhill not even being on the list this round. :D

[sanguinity]

Nope, no one has ever made me a punching a vid!

And yeah, I don't know that my enjoyment of punching has ever come up on Dreamwidth? (Well, maybe once or twice, a long long time ago.) What I talk about on tumblr and what I talk about on dreamwidth overlap less than some might think...

A Study in Inductomancy™ (batteries not included)

[graycardinal]

[deep breath]

Very well, let's see how this goes. Note that the following is neither comprehensive nor guaranteed to be accurate, is not to be prescribed for children under six, and may be dangerous if taken in excessive doses.

Let's begin with the two gifts created for me, a truly excellent podfic and an equally lovely epistolary postscript. For the podfic - after last year's debacle in which I claimed to be able to make a voice match and was proven wrong, I decided to take the methodical way out, and went off and listened to podfics by as many of the nine (!) volunteers who offered to create one as I could track down. (In the process, I found a number of broken links to older podfics; creators take note.)

After due research, I believe my primary gift is the work of the inimitable and delightful rachelindeed. As to my treat, a brief but immensely satisfying letter from Dr. John H. Weston of Druid's Blood - I'm interpreting a clue given elsewhere differently than the reporter of said clue did. I think Albion's Seed is from sanguinity, and that the above-cited Esther Friesner novel is the book she was rereading in the interests of canon review.

Keeping focus on sanguinity, then, what might she have written this round as a primary work? There are several promising candidates, including multiple entries in the cluster of cases featuring Mary Sutherland (I do not exclude "Three Gay Bowls" here, though I count it one of the less likely prospects). If it weren't gifted to her, I'd be really tempted to credit her with "Her Own Circle". I'd have credited her with one of the Elementary stories - but that turns out to be contra-indicated for reasons I'll get into in a moment. In the end, I'm left with just one option, albeit a dangerous one: Box One of the Norton-Holmes Correspondence Collection. At least I can be fairly sure gardnerhill didn't write Box One if I turn out to be wrong.

Now let's turn to iwantthatcoat, who is famously versatile, famously devious, and known for famously eccentric punctuation. For this round, I think that adds up to The Madness of Colonel Warburton.

Continuing with the author-by-author approach, what might trobadora have written this round? The prime candidate is A Scientific Match (being a Moriarty origin story), although I am seriously tempted in the direction of best things dwell out of Sight, which includes some key background Moriarty development and also represents a really outstanding feat of extrapolation from both ACD and the Ritchie/Downey movies - it's a kind of inventiveness that strikes me as being in trobadora's wheelhouse based on prior work. The guess could go equally way in either direction...but I think I'll take the safe path and go with A Scientific Match.

Now, if trobadora didn't write best things dwell..., who did? This is a damned good question, as this sort of fantasy/SF is not a subgenre in which most of our veteran players dabble often, and the first handle that comes to my mind isn't in the credits for this round. That suggests someone among our newcomers as the likeliest candidate...and I find myself drawn to senmut, on grounds of both demonstrated versatility and familiarity with universes in which telepathy is an established presence.

We also know trobadora didn't write The Lion's Roar (because it was gifted to them), so who did? There are enough signups for Study in Emerald to make this potentially difficult, so we shall gaze into the Crystal Ball of Inductomancy™ in hopes of an inspiration...ah, there we go.

Turning back to the matter of Elementary stories - I had been going to assign all the way to sanguinity, but in the course of checking another guess I ran across a signup offering only one other fandom besides Elementary - and that fandom is represented in the round only by a certain podfic, which I've already assigned elsewhere based on what I think is a voice match. So either I'm wrong about my podfic creator (always possible), or (despite a neat bit of deduction by another guesser) all the way just about has to come from eliza_underscore.

I may have one or two other guesses late tomorrow, but for the moment, I think this will do. So, to summarize:

Albion's Seed (treat) - sanguinity
all the way - eliza_underscore
best things dwell out of Sight - senmut
Box One of the Norton-Holmes Correspondence Collection - sanguinity
The Lion's Roar - oldshrewsburyian
The Madness of Colonel Warburton - iwantthatcoat
A Scientific Match - trobadora
The Women in the Case (podfic) - rachelindeed