sophie-says-what - Tumblr blog

[sophie-says-what]

Can’t stop thinking about that post that proposed the Doctor was a lawyer on Gallifrey before running away. Imagine you get into an altercation and have to go to court, and you get defended by a guy who only passed the bar by 51% (I know that’s not how that works in real life, shhh) and is generally considered a freak, and has never gotten his driver’s license, but is a good lawyer and exonerated you during your case. Then he runs away, is made president of your planet against his will, becomes an intergalactic myth of a hero who saves people, then traps your planet in a pocket dimension during the worst war in the entire universe. And then his childhood best friend kills everyone on your whole planet including you

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not edwin realising his suppressed homosexuality and super intense feelings for his best friend of 30 years because a cat flirted with him and then a crow kissed him

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Visiting Fulworth

Today @jeremys-come-to-bed-eyes and I went on something that I might have been classified as a "research trip" for The Beekeepers Picnic, if it had happened a few years ago! As it is, there's no hiding that it was just a geeky fan trip.

I didn't invent the idea of Holmes retiring to keep bees in a village called Fulworth - it gets alluded to a few times in the stories, and there is one story set there, 'The Lion's Mane'.

We know Holmes' retirement home is either a 'cottage' or a 'villa', it's a few miles out of Eastbourne, and it's clearly somewhere where it's possible to walk to the sea for a swim. Sherlockian tradition is that the real-life place fitting this description is the village of East Dean.

So, that's where we went - walking from Eastbourne.

This area is famous for it's white chalk cliffs, which are eroding away very quickly. Here is a path to nowhere!

These cliffs are known as the Seven Sisters. They all have names but the only two I remember are Short Bottom and Rough Bottom.

The beach there is all pebbles - I knew that when creating my game, but I felt like a pebble beach just wouldn't look right all in pixels, so I made it sandy instead.

East Dean is absolutely gorgeous, basically everything I could have hoped for.

Here is the village green - flying a Ukrainian flag in solidarity!

And here is Mr Holmes' official cottage. As far as we could tell its now an office of the local estate rather than someone's house, so we didn't feel too weird taking lots of pictures! The Lions Mane implies his cottage is a little way out of the village, but I'll forgive them for putting it in the centre instead.

(I think that the dates are obviously the dates he lived there as recorded by his biographer - our last information on Holmes is from 1917. I think they made the right call not to try to invent a date for his death.)

A lot of the cottages in the area have this really distinctive mixture of pebbles and brick which I think must be a hallmark of the local area, but I was pleased to see a few whitewashed buildings like the ones I put in the game:

Thank you for reading, please enjoy this adorable foal.

[sophie-says-what]

THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON part 3 (part 1) (part 2) as promised here they are enjoying committing a crime (to quote Watson: "I thrilled now with a keener zest than I had ever enjoyed when we were the defenders of the law instead of its defiers").

Nearly made myself ill drawing them holding hands WHAT IS IT WITH GAY PEOPLE (me) AND HANDS

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series!)

[sophie-says-what]

When Holmes and Watson go to a concert, this is what's happening in Watson's mind the whole time.

[sophie-says-what]

How did you figure out your chronology?

I started by following the Baring-Gould chronology, but then realized that he's decided Watson gets married 3 times. I wanted to figure out a version where Watson only marries once, to Mary Morstan, so I sorted the stories by references to his marriage and engagement. Sometimes Watson gives a date for the stories, which I tried to honor as much as possible, but he's not very reliable (he literally places one story during the time that Holmes is supposed to be dead!) so I didn't feel too bad ignoring the dates when it fit my purposes.

And then I tried to place the stories in a framework that built up their relationship. Watson's hero worship slowly changes to something more domestic and familiar. Holmes's need to cultivate mystery and said hero worship changes to teasing Watson and expecting (and loving) to be teased in response. There's also an arc of Holmes going from an eager-to-impress young man who doesn't feel the weight of his cases very deeply - a Holmes who lives outside the world as an observer, rather than in it - to a man more set in his habits, more eccentric, and more affected by the world (references to his cocaine use and eventual weaning off of it were helpful here). I wanted to explore how loving Watson would bring him into the world, and the weight that comes with that!

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Part two of CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON (part 1 here) - this story really truly has everything and I haven’t even gotten to the crime yet. In the last entry I went off canon, but this update is almost all line for line in the book…why are they like this

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series!)

[sophie-says-what]

THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON - part one of several, because this is one of my favorite Holmes stories! Ever since I read it I had a feeling there was something more...personal...going on with Holmes's hatred for Milverton than simply a principled stand against blackmail. A lot of this is directly pulled from the books but of course I took it in my own direction!

This is in the Watson's sketchbook series, and specifically references the Hound of the Baskervilles entry in that series :)

also thank you to my friend Phoenix for reading this when it was in sketch phase and reassuring me that it made sense!

Milverton design under the cut:

watson says he has a 'touch of Mr. Pickwick about him' so I tried to do Pickwick but...scary

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"Friends dont look at friends that way" COWARD. I look at my friends with awe in my eyes, my chest is filled with love, im glowing because i get to be near my friends. I look at my friends and i would give them my everything. SO SKILL ISSUE, look at your friends with all the love that you have

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oh to one day live in a world that doesn't hinge on the whims of the united states of fucking america.

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Doodles for SHOSCOMB OLD PLACE, a wholesome adventure in which Watson and Holmes go fishing and hang out with a dog. Don’t worry about the charred human bones in the furnace.

(This is part of the Watson’s sketchbook series!)

[sophie-says-what]

THE VALLEY OF FEAR pt 2 - part 1 here - My headcanon is that the complicated Mr Douglas / Mrs Douglas / Cecil Barker triangle was in fact a messy throuple. Also Holmes eats 4 eggs and there is some ~foreshadowing~

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series!)

[sophie-says-what]

it’s so bizarre when animated American films are set in a certain location and then only certain characters have the accents of that place. It makes no damn sense!! like

WHY IS SHE MORE FRENCH THAN THE REST OF THEM???

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THE VALLEY OF FEAR part one tbh there are so many iconic lines in this one (“you are scintillating this morning, Watson”) (“One more coruscation, my dear Watson - yet another brain-wave!”) it’s obnoxious

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series!)

[sophie-says-what]

Do you have a list of the stories you’re planning to draw? I’ve been reading them along with your series but I’d love to be able to get ahead a little bit

Here’s the planned chronology for Watson’s Sketchbook! Subject to change according to my whims of course:

Up next: The Valley of Fear, Shoscomb Old Place, Charles Augustus Milverton, Copper Beeches, Sign of the Four, and The Cardboard Box.

Then we enter Watson’s married era: Stockbrokers Clerk, Crooked Man (maybe…this one is so stupid), Engineer’s Thumb, Naval Treaty, Boscomb Valley Mystery, Orange Pips, Scandal in Bohemia, Man with the Twisted Lip, The Blue Carbuncle, The Blanched Soldier, The Dying Detective, The Final Problem, annnnnnd The Empty House.

I haven’t ordered the post-return stories yet but I wanna do them too!

[sophie-says-what]

Gonna start a fundraiser to buy twitter