Nanny John 'Verse
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Nanny John 'Verse |
| Author(s): | emungere, Elfbert, thirdbird, rabidsamfan, NoStraightLine |
| Date(s): | 28 September 2010 - present |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | Slash |
| Fandom: | Sherlock (BBC) |
| External Links: | Ain't Seen the Sunshine, Nanny John Verse, The Boring Life of John Watson, Interesting Murders Not Boring Stuff |
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The Nanny John 'Verse is a multi-platform shared universe by several authors. The main pairing is Greg Lestrade/John Watson, and it is a kidfic AU where John is Sherlock & Mycroft's nanny. It began with a prompt on the Sherlock BBC Prompting Meme; emungere posted a 28-part fill titled "Ain't Seen the Sunshine" to her LiveJournal account; and once that was complete she posted the completed fic to the AO3 as the first fic in a series with the same title. Since then, she has written several more fics in the series and opened up a moderated collection so that other authors may add fics as well. In January 2011 she started a role-play blog on BlogSpot, where she has been posting as John Watson ever since; in February of that same year Elfbert started a companion blog posting as Greg Lestrade.
The Prompt
The prompt that started the 'verse was left anonymously on the third prompting page of sherlock-bbcfic on 28 September 2010. It went:
John is the new nanny employed by the Holmes family. His task? To watch the unholy terrors known as Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. No other sitter will touch them, but John desperately needs the money. Besides, his army training should be good for something, right?... Right?
The Fics
Ain't Seen the Sunshine
From 6 November to 13 December 2011, emungere posted her fill, titled "Ain't Seen the Sunshine," to her LiveJournal. Though the prompt was gen, emungere added John/Lestrade pre-slash to the relationship dynamics, and the story also worked in a retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles." After it was complete, emungere posted the fic on the AO3, where it ran 26,592 words and was rated Mature. To date, it is one of the most popular John/Lestrade fics on the AO3.
Between 25 July 2011 and 17 March 2012, emungere posted four sequel fics focusing more on the John/Lestrade relationship and moving the characters to London, bringing the series word count to 39,141.
Nanny John 'Verse
On 29 May 2011, Elfbert posted a Lestrade backstory fic to her LiveJournal with emungere's permission. On 27 August 2011 Elfbert posted another Nanny John verse fic, this time to the AO3, and on 3 September 2011 emungere created an AO3 collection for all the stories in the verse. As of 18 October 2013, Elfbert has posted six fics to the collection, many of them tying in to specific blog entries. On 25 June 2012, rabidsamfan also posted a short fic to the collection, and on 8 May 2013 thirdbird posted a medical casefic AU to the 'verse.
Other Nanny John 'Verse Fics
On 17 April 2013, NoStraightLine posted a short PWP fic titled "Make Them Last" that was inspired by a section in emungere's Nanny John 'verse fic "Five Blog Entries John Watson Will Never Write." As of 18 October 2013, it has not been added to the Nanny John 'Verse collection.
The Blogs
On 9 January 2011, emungere announced[1] that she had opened a blog called "Nothing Happens To Me/The Boring Life of John Watson" in which she role-played as Nanny 'Verse's John Watson. There were backdated entries going back to the beginning of the first story, now dated 22 September 2010, when in-universe John's therapist ordered John to stat a blog as part of his therapy (paralleling events on the show that tie-in to a show-run blog by John Watson). Readers are encouraged to comment either as themselves, as other characters (primarily Lestrade, Sherlock, and Mycroft, but periodically also Mrs. Hudson, Anthea, Mrs. Holmes, Harry Watson, Sally Donovan, and some of John's army friends, as well as a few Nanny John 'Verse original characters like Lestrade's sister and niece), or with sock puppet accounts, so long as they don't break the fourth wall or attempt to add plot/drama by role-playing as a character like Moriarty.
On 17 February 2011, in the comments to the announcement post, Elfbert asked emungere if, in addition to simply commenting as Lestrade on John's blog, she could start up a companion blog for Lestrade.[2] On 21 February 2011, emungere announced[3] that Elfbert had done so with a blog titled "Interesting murders not boring stuff," under the conceit that Sherlock & Mycroft had started the blog for Lestrade, in the hopes that he would post about his work as a Detective Inspector. The blogs link to each other prominently in their headers.
Over time, the blogs have gained a fairly large stable of regular commenters (enough that several regular anonymous commenters had to give themselves descriptive handles) and developed some regular habits (for instance, a new post after the most recent post has reached 200 comments, and John and Lestrade generally alternating posts with a day or two in between). Several later Nanny John 'Verse fics (especially those by Elfbert) elaborate on events mentioned on the blogs, and there have been several major life events that have been chronicled on the blogs but never in fic (for instance, John & Lestrade's marriage[4]).
Recs & Reviews
The original fic and the series have both been rec'ed widely.
This fic is just wonderful in so many ways. There’s gratuitous BAMF!John as well as BAMF!Lestrade, wonderfully well-developed plot, fantastic characterization, and some heartwarming moments from kid!Sherlock. I really can’t recommend it enough.[5]
i wasn’t sure about this fic when i first read the description. john hired as mycroft and sherlocks nanny is strange but works very well. the characterizations are perfect. young!mycroft and young!sherlock are adorable. there’s also a bit of john/lestrade in here.[6]
This one just makes me smile like crazy. I love Mrs. Holmes, who has decided (quite rightly) that surviving a war is perfect practice for being a nanny for Sherlock and Mycroft. I love John, who feels utterly unqualified but who loves his two charges immensely, even when they're being irritating. I love Lestrade, who is sweet and wonderfully calm under pressure. And I absolutely adore the young versions of Sherlock and Mycroft, who are unique characters all of their own though you can clearly see the seeds of the men they will grow to be. A brilliant AU that makes me smile every time I read it.[7]
Moral of the story, I would still have to search long and hard to find stories that capture the emotional bond between John and Sherlock to the degree that this one does. Any other relationship that John has fades into background noise in face of his bond with his young charge, and isn’t that the spirit of Johnlock; that they are the most important part of each other’s lives, whatever the nature of their relationship?[8]
References
- ^ john's blog, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ Comment by Elfbert, acccessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ a very brief post, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ Wedding Time!, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ Monday: Damn Good Fics, on fuckyeahsherlockfics, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ Fugues Fiction Recommendations, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ janes_recs, accessed 20 October 2013.
- ^ Johnlock Fanfic, accessed 20 October 2013.