Piter Raw Chapter 4

[pennypaperbrain]

Title: Piter Raw (part three of Four Corners of the Western World) Chapter 4 of 8
Author: pennypaperbrain
Fandom Sherlock BBC
Betas: Chloe, eldritchhorrors, russpick by madoshi
Rating: Teen for Chapter 4, NC-17 for the fic
Warnings for this chapter: depictions of bipolar disorder, canon-typical violence
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Wordcount: Chapter 4: 5,004. Fic so far: 16,679

Comments

[mazaher]

I had a whirlwind of a day. Will read tonight!

[pennypaperbrain]

OK! I have a question about animal behaviour that's relevant to the fic though. It's at the top of my tumblr at the moment. I bet you would be the perfect person to answer it.

[mazaher]

I'm a bit out of my field of expertise here (cats and horses more than dogs, so by any means, gather more info if possible), but as far as I know, the dog will likely bark for a while, then if nobody comes to take charge of the situation it will shut up and still keep an eye on the intruder, waiting to be relieved by his human

[mazaher]

OTOH, if you *want* the intruder to get away, he should try to find and use gaps in the training or mindframe of the dog. Quite tricky, but not impossible.
E.g. take the Ovtcharka, who has broad guidelines to follow but is used to use his own judgement on the specific situation. The intruder could try presenting himself as not-an-intruder by visibly relaxing, stretching, yawning, turning around and curling with a sigh, then "sleeping" for a while. If all goes well, when he "wakes up" he may try approaching the dog submissively and make acquaintances in a canine way by sniffing.
A human who managed to speak dog without too much of an accent should be able to get himself shifted to a different mental slot and perhaps, after a while, be allowed to wander away.

[mazaher]

I read. It reminded me of an athlete who suffered from some mysterious metabolic condition, and tried himself at some slightly more intensive training after a cure which was expected to bring relief. It didn't, and for the effort he gave, results were below average. The small glimmers of hope here only add to the distress at this point. Sherlock "would like to lie down in the snow and die" but still he walks ahead, and John "can't love him back to sanity". I do get how this is the very moment when shooting a loved one in the head and then shoot oneself may seem like a good idea, and the reason Sherlock doesn't do it is that he implicitly *trusts* John wanting them both to live on for more serious reasons than commonplace opinions about "the gift of life

[pennypaperbrain]

Ah, you look so thoroughly into things and come up with aspects of my stories I hadn't thought of myself. I just pasted 'the reason Sherlock doesn't do it...' into my work in progress document as that is, of course, just it. There isn't and probably never has been anyone else from whom Sherlock would take the statement 'you should keep living' on faith. But now there's John. Without him, Sherlock would probably reach a certain point and check out of life as a matter of, as he sees it, logic.

[mazaher]

I can also see the logic in that. But somehow trust is more rare than logic, and precious for that reason if for none else.