Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

I wrote a modern day AU 'Moriarty meets a random guy to have sex with once only things don't really turn out that way' (the 'random guy' is Moran of course) fic and I'm giving serious thought to writing a proper story for publication using this fic as a basis but revising and expanding on it. I would love to include some of my OCs in it too.

Although I'm currently trying to finish this fic I started which is a sequel to another fic I wrote based around The Final Problem. In it Moran seems to be flirting with practically everyone, has previously probably slept with at least two of the characters aside from Moriarty and because I'm still a Moran/Holmes shipper deep down I decided to include this thing I started ages ago where it's kind of a threesome but not but also it's Moran/Holmes but in some sense it's Moriarty/Holmes by proxy? (I am really not a Moriarty/Holmes shipper but I do like the idea of Moriarty being amused by screwing with Holmes by having Moran seduce him in front of him. This probably sounds kind of like dubcon out of context but it really isn't.)
Moran is just... very shippable with a lot of characters (sexually anyway. I don't see him as having real 'feelings' for anyone except Moriarty though)

"Natalie Dormer portrays Irene Adler who, in a stunning move, is also revealed to be Jamie Moriarty. Thus, in a clever narrative twist the woman whom Holmes found most impressive in the original stories in terms of intelligence and resourcefulness the one who would always be known as the woman is also his archenemy. The evil Professor James Moriarty, Napoleon of crime is now a beautiful but still treacherous consulting criminal, a near-perfect  femme fatale.
Those working with Doyle's stories often superimpose a romantic interest upon Holmes' relationship with Adler. In Elementary this is, very successfully, transposed to the relationship Holmes has with Moriarty"

"We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went."

According to this Moriarty literally hangs in the air for several seconds with his feet either not touching the ground or barely touching the ground and his hands touching nothing before he finally falls. This is the Victorian equivalent of a fucking Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon.
Once again:

Me, looking through photos and videos of the Reichenbach Falls and trying to match these up with the descriptions from The Final Problem and The Empty House: Arthur...

Dude, you literally went there to see this waterfall and it still doesn't match what you wrote! I know the path and the rock behind the falls have both eroded so the path is now much further back from the waterfall but there's no way everything else changed that much! The rocks aren't black! You can't see to the bottom through the spray! Or hear anything over that water noise! And there are loads of trees and plants and grasses and stuff on the edges!

On the plus side watching these videos has me more convinced than ever that Holmes didn't have a clue what happened to Moriarty after he slipped over the side of the path thus Moriarty survived. I mean I've been saying this for ages but this is the first time I have seen any videos from above the waterfall.

I swear the more attention you pay to The Final Problem in particular the more things you find that just do not make sense and yet nobody seems to have ever addressed this unless it's in some completely unobtainable article from an obscure magazine from like 70 years ago or something but given that all these 'scholars' are obsessed with Holmes being unable to do any wrong ever I doubt even that. Like why does Holmes clear off before handing over his evidence of Moriarty's guilt? He literally puts it in his 'death note', how to get the evidence to the police, did it never occur to him that's something they probably needed way sooner? Why does he make it so clear to Moriarty he/the police can't do shit until 'after Monday'? Why does he flee to some foreign country and then to a really desolate place just right for Moriarty to murder him there if he's actually so afraid of him and so convinced Moriarty is going to kill him? Why for that matter does he keep running about all over the place instead of hiding in some safe place in England even before he leaves for the continent? Why does he leave Moriarty to the police when he thinks the police aren't capable of dealing with him? And if Holmes's evidence is what will convict them, how can the police arrest the 'gang' before they actually have the evidence? They can't just arrest them and hold them for days on the basis of nothing which is exactly what they seem to have without Holmes actually giving them the evidence (even on the monday they have not got Holmes's evidence still, they can't have it if it's 'in pigeonhole M' and they need Holmes's written instructions on where it is/how to get it). And why would Moriarty need to kill Holmes to silence him if the evidence is elsewhere? And why the hell is everything hinging around the word of one man anyway, one man who is not in the police? I'm sorry but as great as Holmes is, he's one amateur detective who is very clearly obsessed with Moriarty to an unhealthy degree and who cannot possibly be correct about Moriarty being basically responsible for practically every crime in London as he claims, that is simply not possible. Yet the police take him at his word, basically try to arrest everyone on his say so, don't bother to get any actual evidence from him before trying to arrest them. Frankly they look corrupt as hell. And if Moriarty is so brilliant that he has escaped detection for years, why would he suddenly leave this paper-trail of evidence linking him to every crime and to every person who commits the crime, which is what Watson is trying to claim Holmes has? And how do you fit all of that into one "envelope", are we supposed to believe Holmes magically invented modern computers and tiny USB memory sticks to go with them or something? And if Moriarty is so desperate to kill Holmes where are the actually good assassins with the airguns i.e. Moran and co? Supposedly he makes all these attempts on Holmes's life... with the most useless incompetent assassins ever. If he knew where Holmes was going to be as Holmes is saying he must do for him to make these attempts on his life, he would have good assassins there, not resort to using some rando on a roof chucking bricks at him (or are we also saying Moriarty is actually so bad at maths as well as plotting crimes that he'd not realise the probability of killing Holmes with a brick thrown from a roof is almost non-existent?) And why does Holmes not even seem to consider those at worst were just 'warning shots' but there's also a very strong possibility they were just coincidental accidents/incidents and nothing to do with Moriarty. Like I can't believe Watson, a doctor, who knows about Holmes's drug use, who knows Holmes has had a total breakdown before, never at least wonders if Holmes isn't just imagining at least some of this and ascribing things to Moriarty that are absolutely nothing to do with him particularly when Watson never once sees any of this, never meets Moriarty, never does more than glimpse someone who may or may not actually be Moriarty and when everything bad claimed about the man is filtered through Holmes and Holmes only.
And who the hell is Inspector Patterson and why does he seemingly vanish without trace and why if the evidence was enough to convict everyone in the gang are Moran and at least two high-ranking others still not only at large but not suspected by anyone even years later even when an acquaintance of this 'brilliant marksman' and former intimate associate of the Napoleon of Crime gets ~mysteriously~ shot dead, and why if the rest of the gang were all tried and found guilty including of involvement actually with Moriarty did Watson need to write a story to try to shut Colonel Moriarty up anyway and where is the actual evidence of any of their guilt even in that story because that is literally all 'Holmes said this so it must be true' and no actual evidence at all (like he could have mentioned a couple of other cases that were proven to be linked to Moriarty, cases we'd already heard of before, but no, even that didn't happen, there is literally no evidence other than what Holmes claims to be true anywhere. Same in The Valley of Fear also too, it's literally just Holmes's word for Moriarty's involvement there also). Also if Moriarty was always pretty distant from the actual crimes how could he possibly be tied to these other people and most of those crimes anyway? Most of those people probably had no idea who he was, it probably would have been people like Moran or someone even lower down the chain who dealt with them, not Moriarty. Moriarty is supposed to be brilliant, as smart as Holmes if not even smarter, and all of this just undermines him so much and then that in turn undermines Holmes too because if Holmes is as brilliant as Moriarty only actually Moriarty turns out to be very stupid then that means so is Holmes.
Also that Watson is meant to be married at this time and then he promptly clears off with Holmes leaving his wife behind and neither of them ever once seem to think 'hey if this gang is so desperate and so vindictive, might they not try to target Mary?' seems extremely callous (as does Holmes's attitude to 'Porlock' for that matter. Sucks he's no longer useful to me, I hope Moriarty doesn't kill him even though I've asserted Moriarty kills all of those who let him down but hey never mind, I'll soon forget about him.)
 
And honestly it really is infuriating how little sense any of this makes and how it does really start to look like Holmes was actually either a/ a very cold calculating murderer who tried to fake evidence and deliberately lured Moriarty away to murder him which is a horrible interpretation, or b/ he was basically insane and imagining most of this and at the very least he was definitely extremely paranoid probably as the result of drug use. Oh and also the whole police force is probably corrupt either way. Which is not really a great interpretation either, even though it fits.


Another one of our dog friends died yesterday, I am so sad again. Sweet old lady Millie the (I think) staffy x jack russell, both of them breeds that can be pretty iffy with other dogs especially but she was the gentlest soul and one of my dog's first friends. RIP darling girl, you were a very good dog.

I really need a better example of something where Holmes just shoots Moriarty, which is a crap ending to all of that but whatever, I'm sure I do know of other things where that happens but right now when I need another example I cannot think of anything else that does use that. The one example I can think of is a particular famous Holmes/Watson fanfic that I hated even when I actually gave a shit about shipping Holmes/Watson and there's no way I want to reference that by name in this essay. 

(Somehow this song becomes slightly unsettling (in a good way) when it's slowed down)

I'm reading bits of Masculinity, Crime and Self-defence in Victorian Literature and

I do wish I could give a damn about Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened because a Ukrainian-based company releasing anything under those conditions deserves major respect and I think yes donating money to help people out is good but so is actually buying stuff from Ukrainian people or companies.
But even if I could play computer games (I can't play computer games) and even if I liked the whole premise of the game (I don't) I don't like the way Holmes looks in it at all, I don't like the way he looks in Chapter One either, why does he looks like some modern young trendy ~emo~ rock star or something? And The Awakened doesn't really look any better. Which sucks because while I've never played it and never will play it, aesthetically Holmes in Crimes and Punishments looked pretty much like I imagine Holmes, like if I could draw the perfect Holmes it would look like that, and I'm forever bitter that it is just a computer game I can't play and not some kind of full animated film or something. (The Devil's Daughter... I haven't seen much from that in images or gifs, actually I've barely seen anything from that, but I don't think it looks as good aesthetically and also I very much dislike the 'Moriarty is dead but he has a daughter' thing cos I mean... no. But at least Holmes doesn't seem to look so ~young and trendy~ in that.)

 Anyway now I'm thinking about how in some ways the portrayal of Moriarty in AGoS is sort of... backwards?
Listen, I love Jared Harris's portrayal with all my heart and soul but part of the reason I've written I think only two (?) fics that were ever specifically set in that universe as opposed to using his (and Paul Anderson's Moran's) portrayal(s) but within the canonical universe is because some elements of Moriarty's character in the film especially his motives have always, always bothered me and struck me as being wrong and almost the opposite of what they should be. 
I'm probably going to write about this in that essay (which is forever getting longer as I think of more stuff to incorporate into it) but it's like... they show Moriarty in a very elitist university setting, they portray him as being best mates with the british PM and very much sort of... in British high society, in with the elite and ruling classes. Whether he's meant to be Irish or of Irish family is not really explicitly addressed, it's sort of suggested perhaps with the casting but was that coincidence or deliberate I don't know. I mean I don't think Moriarty is actually really canonically Irish in any truly meaningful way, like for one I don't think he cares about nationality it all means nothing to him, also he seems to be living and presenting himself as British and his names are the anglicised names so... 
I've lost my thread now, what was I going to say?
Well anyway I do think... Moriarty's not some kind of... big part of the british ruling/elite classes, he's probably not actually going to be best buddies with high ranking members of the british government. He's probably not really motivated by money either, he is almost certainly (like Holmes) motivated mostly by simply trying to avoid the tedium of existing. And even if he isn't Irish as such, possibly he or almost certainly his relatively recent Irish ancestors probably did suffer under the British. And really canonically Holmes is the one who is helping to prop up the british government (and thus british colonialism and all the other associated bullshit); Holmes is really in with the government (like with Mycroft, for instance, of whom it is said he literally IS the government sometimes); he seems to be very much a Real Patriot and pro-monarchy and all that jazz, shooting VR into the wall and being rewarded by Victoria herself. Moriarty is the one going against all of that canonically. And Holmes is the one descended from 'country squires' (i.e. english landowners who essentially owned entire villages) and generally the one assumed to have attended one of the really elite universities while Moriarty is only said to have worked in one of the 'smaller' ones (also as a university professor he is probably not going to be regarded as anything other than middle class).
But in the film Holmes (and Watson and Simza and the rest) are fighting against him where he kind of represents british imperialism and all that crap. I do think it is kind of... backwards.

Usually it's Moran who I think meets up with Holmes from time to time in a sort of... not stalking exactly but they get thrown together occasionally and they're both extremely suspicious of each other while being fascinated by each other, and I don't really care for most Holmes and Moriarty interaction or that whole idea that Moriarty has this real obsession with Holmes (something the Conan Doyle Estate have tried to claim is true, literally calling Moriarty "Sherlock’s number one nemesis and obsessive fan" which probably says all you need to know about the canonical accuracy of that idea. This from the same people by the way who have listed Eurus as if she's a canonical Holmes sibling) but I am suddenly very enamoured by the idea of Moriarty being slightly creepily sinister and sort of randomly appearing to Holmes in completely unexpected places (like sidling up to him while he's, I don't know, browsing through books in a book shop or something) and making rather cryptic remarks to him, an idea which probably fits my vampire universe very well (though I still have no clue what I'd actually do with Holmes in this universe. I really have no interest in making it about Holmes/Watson or even really involving Watson in it at all or having a major focus on Holmes. But I am still very much interested in the canonical Odessa Odesa thing and the Trepoff murder (though I still don't know if Trepoff was the murderer or the victim, although let's say that I would have absolutely no moral objection to having a Russian villain in this) and that is something I would still like to explore with Moriarty and Moran's involvement in that, which means also Holmes (but not Watson) would probably be involved there somehow.)