All gifts are posted: let the guessing begin!

[tweedisgood]

Greetings gentlefans

Please commence to place your bets/guesses on who wrote or created what in the comments to this post, and please also do comment on all the lovely entries, especially if you have not yet had time to thank the creator for your own gift - but generally comment all over the shop, we all thrive on it and positivity at the moment is so very welcome.

Reveal post (and ficlet) on April 1st!

Comments

[scfrankles]

The Taste of Truth: I enjoyed this fic a great deal and was so impressed by it - the creativity, the reframing of events in canon to make everything recognisable but entirely new, and that balance of examining the characters’ feelings but also giving the reader an engrossing story, wondering what’s going to happen next.

Some minor things I noted about this particular fic:

the author knows how to use the DW blockquote html tags. Yes, ok, a very minor thing but not everyone is comfortable and competent with html;

the length. That made me think of a particular author who had written something of a similar length for Holmestice;

Holmes and Watson aren’t written as soulmates and Mary isn’t written as a minor bump in the road to them getting together. Watson has feelings for and is attracted to Holmes. He makes his move, is rejected and… he gets over it, moves on and falls in love with someone else, as people tend to do in real life. When he finds out Holmes had in fact felt the same way his reaction is rather dispassionate because he knows if his life had taken that path at that time, he would have missed out on his relationship with Mary. That way of looking at things again makes me think of a particular author;

and finally, in the fic Moriarty’s work On the Dynamics of Asteroids is revealed to actually be nonsense. This is ringing a vague bell. I am half certain someone has brought up something similar before. And if my memory isn’t playing tricks on me, it might have been brought up by someone in my acquaintance who has a maths degree…?

Anyway, I’m guessing the author to be sanguinity.



Riddle Me This, Mr Holmes: This is one of the very last fics posted - the final two being a gift for one of the mods and a gift for an external pinch-hitter. I am going to put forward the hypothesis that “Riddle Me This, Mr Holmes” has actually been written by that external pinch-hitter.

Who could this author be? Well, there is some evidence as to their personality. “Warnings: Nah.” The fic is rather quirky and unusual. Rachelindeed has an extraordinarily positive and emotional response to the fic in her comment, indulging herself in the use of many capital letters. And also there is: “Additional notes to come on the AO3 following reveals.” Calling the site “the AO3” is perfectly correct but… hardly anyone actually calls it that.

And there is someone who isn’t officially part of the exchange but has been commenting on the gifts. And they haven’t commented on this one. I’m going to say this fic is a pinch-hit by ancientreader.

[rachelindeed]

Oh brilliant, it hadn't even occurred to me that ancientreader might have been the pinch-hitter for this round! Very cleverly reasoned, as usual :) And the concisely sharp, humorous, elegantly suggestive style of "Riddle Me" does indeed feel like her prose, now that you mention it!

And I am beyond surprise when it comes to Sanguinity at this point, so you may well be right about that one as well. I certainly consider her an excellent suspect. There are a few things about "Taste of Truth" that don't quite strike me as Sanguinity-like, I suppose, so I'll wait for the grand reveal to resolve all doubts!

[scfrankles]

There are a few things about "Taste of Truth" that don't quite strike me as Sanguinity-like, I suppose...

Yes, me too. I am honestly not confident about either guess ^^" But we shall see ^__^

[rachelindeed]

Sanguinity has just reminded me, though, that she loves epistolary fic and is currently enrolled in an exchange focused on fics that tell their stories through letters or diary entries...maybe writing "Taste" revived her (wait for it) taste for that genre and inspired her to write more for her other fandoms in that style? Your guess is looking better and better, I think...

Also, as long as I'm diving back into the guessing post: I think maybe Love As Fearful Torment might be Garonne's.

[rachelindeed]

You were right as usual! Amazing detection!

And we both missed Capt_Facepalm, of course, because THE EXCHANGE RULES CHANGED HOW VERY FIENDISH, lol! But even there your instincts were on the trail! Hers was indeed the ack! of a fic writer approaching her goal (while also presumably snickering into her sleeve!)

[scfrankles]

The things is, we were both maybe 25% there. You realised that all but one creation were H/W and therefore capt_facepalm couldn't have come up with anything but her own gift. And I realised that the comment on the mods' chivvying post probably meant she hadn't dropped out. (I really don't think someone who was actually thinking of dropping out would draw attention to themself in that way, but I do wonder if capt_facepalm left the comment to try and make us think she was having trouble with her fic. I am pretty certain she hung back with the commenting to make us think she'd dropped out.)

But we didn't put those facts together because we weren't prepared for that Napoleon of Crime-level of sneakiness ^___^

[methylviolet10b]

Apparently our announcement of the reveal on April 1 inspired the good Captain a great deal. We couldn't resist the request to be assigned to create their own gift; it was just too brilliant an idea. :-)

[ancientreader]

I really, really thought that if I left off the usual obsessive source notes I could sneak past all the Holmeses in this comm, especially since I wasn't even a participant. BUT NO. Busted, as always!

[sanguinity]

Even the scantest author note is enough for these bloodhounds!

[sanguinity]

Masterfully guessed, as always! Thank you for your kind comments; I do not mind in the least being known for giving Mary her due. I remember writing the journal entries about Dynamics and wondering if you'd nail me for that particular headcanon, but I honestly thought it was the backstory set in Nelson's navy that was going to be the anonymity-buster. (After you made this guess, I said to my beta that maybe I should get myself some new mathematical headcanons for Moriarty? She replied that it wouldn't help; I'd still write Moriarty like someone who had informed opinions about mathematics.)

[scfrankles]

I think when I got to the line another sketch of two Naval gentlemen wearing the high cocked hats of Nelson's era..., I may have thought of you and your other major fandom ^___^ But it was primarily your attitude to Watson's relationships with Holmes and Mary - giving them equal weight - that made me think of you.

And it makes me smile that I had (half) managed to recognise you from your mathematical headcanons for Moriarty, of all things ^__^

[sanguinity]

It makes me smile, too. I'm very flattered that you remembered that little sixty!

[scfrankles]

Oh, it was a 60! Thanks for putting me out of my misery - I just couldn't put my finger on the context. I'd thought it was something you'd mentioned on Tumblr, to be honest ^___^

[sanguinity]

The Dynamics of Intimidation. Although I might have talked about it more generally on the comm, too.

[ancientreader]

CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!

[scfrankles]

I was so pleased with myself for spotting you ^__^ It was one of those times where, after looking at all the clues, the solution seemed to come on its own in a leap of inspiration.