There were some noticeable grammatical errors ("he placed me here and rumor has it," "and there, I had always been there," "after Sherlock's father hied that the youngest son had found," etc.) and awkward repetitions ("I know him better than... no matter how well his companions think they know him").
There was a substantial element of confusion, no doubt intentional. I accidentally skipped over the relevant line the first time, but I could feel it clicking into place the second. The emphasis on the sensuality and emotionality of the instrument, particularly in its role in Sherlock's thoughts and personal expression, reminded me a little of the original stories.

Holy cow, this was awesome! I had a feeling when this started that the speaker wasn't exactly human, but I couldn't be sure. Not only that, I couldn't quite guess what it was until about the middle. And yes, the ending confirmed it indeed. I loved this!

I really love how you made me guess, and I adore how right away, you mention how this is his/her (you never established a gender...but in personification fics, is a gender ever established? Probably not. :P) corner and no one is allowed to take it. I also love that he/she knows him better than anyone...and that is indeed very true. As I mentioned, I did play a guessing game throughout this, and for a little while, I even thought it might be little Charlie (from Edhla's stories) speaking (after she grew up, of course) because of him putting her in the corner. But after the first few sentences, I did away with that idea. Then upon the mention of how much love there was for Sherlock, I thought perhaps it might be Molly...and then my guess was John. And then in the middle, I decided it couldn't be a person at all, but it took me a little while to figure it out completely.

I really love how the violin and Sherlock practically shared a soul...or at least now the violin was able to see Sherlock's soul. I also loved his/her assessments of John, realizing that he's a good man, but he won't let John touch him. And I also love that he will allow him to listen to his song. I absolutely loved the last line! That was just...awesome.

I'm honestly sad it's over. I think you could write a whole WIP based on the perspective of the violin. I am totally impressed and just in awe at this. Totally favoriting! Well done! :)

Hi there! I write for the Sherlock fandom myself, so when I saw this amongst your anime pieces, I was like "oooo, writer going out of their comfort zone!" If that's what this was about, kudos so far. If not...well, just ignore me :). Anyways, enough rambling. ONWARD!

I usually take notes while I review, but I read the entire piece through first because I had a feeling that I already knew who (or should I say, what in this case) was talking and I was right: Sherlock's dear violin. As a former aspiring musician that dwelt in the world of opera, this piece was a joy to read through.

I love how you take a voiceless object and give it such poetic prose. Some particular lines that I enjoyed:

"...beat his intentions into me..."
"...my lovely reddish brown color and my voice tuned from the heavens."
"...what song I will sing for Sherlock tonight;...love it when he touches me out of frustration."

This piece reminds me of a movie that I saw called "The Red Violin", which is about a violin that is passed through generations and makes it way through different, passionate players. Your piece had me wondering whatever would THAT violin say after living through so much passing around!

I also love the personality of the violin. I saw different sides to it, such as:

Pride: "my corner...no one's allowed to take it."
Passion: "...they don't know him the way that I know him."
Sorrow: "...take a piece of the man I loved that I would never be able to get back."
Anger: "He was the one that brought me in."
Joy: "I chuckle...", "I love..."

It was nice to get into a musical instrument's head. Imagine what the pianos of Beethoven and Bach would have to say about their masters. I mean...wow. My mind is getting a tad bit too crazy there, tehe.

There was just one thing I didn't really care for: I did think that the violin's use of the word 'mom' was a bit too casual in the middle of this sophisticated narrative; I think 'mother' would've sounded better.

You have a good balance of short, snappy sentences and longer, flowing narrative. Usually, I'm not a fan of stories that look like this (I'm a fan of longer narratives), but I found that it suited the tone of what was going on just fine. And the violin made its point about its place not just within the family, but within Sherlock's life, too.

And lastly, I like how you brought in Mummy and Daddy Holmes. I adore when they made appearances in fanfiction; sometimes I think writers forget that these characters, though briefly seen in canon can be given great stories if one takes the time to think about it (and that's why I love writing about them so much). Great job with developing the blank canvas of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes...even if it did end tragically. And to that I was like ;_;.

Anyway, thank you for writing this piece. You did a great job, and I will be adding this to my favorites. See you around!

Great opening sentence-it's intriguing because it makes me want to know what the narrator's talking about (what corner? why's (s)he so possessive of it?), but the sort of brusque tone of the sentence already gives you a characterizing detail about the narrator, and I'm a sucker for contractions used in narrative voice, haha.

"I'd been there for every argument and there, I had always been there to argue with the words he was afraid to say" - Saying 'there' three times in a row here was off-putting to me, and I had to squint and tilt my head to the left for a little while to figure out what you were trying to say here.

So far, I feel like you've been doing a really great job of revealing details but only to a certain extent so that you're still curious to keep reading and learn more, but I did get thrown off for the first time by the line "You should see people's faces when I'm wearing my black" - I'm loving the ambiguity so far, but this part was a little /too/ ambiguous, I think. (Or maybe I'm forgetting a canon character whose signature is to wear black or something? Maybe. I haven't watched the show in a while, lol.)

"I think I'll always be there for him, always work hard from my corner because he needs me." - I really like this line for some reason, maybe because it's another nice characterizing detail of both your narrator and Sherlock and maybe because of the metaphorical spin it puts on the 'corner' from your first sentence. Loving your continuation of the metaphor when you start talking about Sherlock's father, too.

"Funny, you'd think that she would be more appreciative of me as I was the one that brought them together." - The comma after 'funny' here should be a colon or long dash.

"I sung with all my heart" - Should be 'sang,' and the rest of this sentence is coming off a little clunky to me. Otherwise, I really like everything you revealed in this paragraph, though - another great blend of detail with ambiguity, and I'm really curious about what singing has to do with things.

"he was the one that brought me into the marriage. He was the one who brought me in." - I like the repetition here a lot!

When you start talking about how his wife would ask him to 'toy' with the narrator - is the narrator a piano or Sherlock's violin or some other instrument? Because reading that sentence, at first I was horrified like what kind of a sex life do these people /have/, but then it clicked to me that that might be what you mean about the singing and the corner (an instrument /would/ sit in the corner of the room) and the reddish brown color, and oh I hope it turns out to be something like that because that is so creative, oh my god. Or even if that's not what's happening, it's a nice red herring in the story, anyway.

Reading the next few paragraphs is starting to convince me that I'm right, haha, but I am a little confused by the black that the narrator (violin? lol) is wearing. Violin case, maybe? A drape over the instrument?

FYEAH I WAS RIGHT. Yes good. I don't have as much to say about the end of the story, but I love how creative this is and the ambiguity with which you executed it - well done! :D

I'm quite excited to see where you go with a Sherlock fic. It's definitely very different from your normal anime stuff, so that gives you a chance to really play around with a new genre and have fun experimenting!

It's really cute to see the defiant, almost childish tone that the narrator has at the beginning, defending the corner in question. It gives us a personification and some characterization right off the bat, and I found it very intriguing, just because I wasn't quite sure what kind of character would make such a statement about something like a corner. Works very well as your lead in, I rather think.

"...they know him." This second "know him" came across as a little repetitive since you used the same phrase in the first clause of the sentence. xx

"...his touch has taught..." I really like the sentiment here, and I feel like this starts to give us an idea of who is actually speaking. The imagery is just enough so that we get a very soft, pleasing image, and it's beautiful to behold. It also has a really nice lyrical quality, that suits the fact that it's thoughts spoken by the violin. The musicality works really in your favor here, and I like the fact that you're using it throughout.

"...showed up" Again, having the phrase twice in the same sentence just feels a bit repetitive.

"...all as fools" There's a certain... arrogance in the tone here that's quite interesting. It ties back to the comment about the corner in the beginning very well, and I like how you're sprinkling it throughout. It shows just how attached to Sherlock this violin really is, but there's a certain amount of attitude that rubs off on him after how long he has been in the family.

"...as I love Sherly..." I found it interesting that this is the first and only time the violin uses the name "Sherly" in the entire piece... makes me wonder what the significance is here... perhaps how long he has known the brothers and can recall them as children? Hmmm... literary analysis ftw!

"...lovely reddish brown color..." should be "reddish-brown" and a comma after "lovely"

"...to be invited" I was a bit confused by the flow of this sentence and had to reread it to understand what you meant quite there. Your mileage may vary, but might want to take another look. xx

"...brought them together" Definitely interesting... I like the way that you're portraying the earlier days of the Holmes family. There's an almost spitefulness in the tone of the violin, and you can see how disapproving he was of the relationship, although not really because of how a human would view that kind of family dynamic, I note. And that seems very fitting right here.

"...of more corner more..." Think there's a bit of a typo here?

"...sleek black dress..." comma after "sleek"

"...my corner, naked." Is it naughty of me to say that I really like the imagery of this bit? Not like *that*! But there's something about it that has a new kind of imagery, a kind of shame that the poor violin is feeling... it's something outside the ordinary of what I would imagine with a simple word like that... very nicely done, I must say.

"...dirty ruddy color..." comma after "dirty"

"...to his funeral" A bit nitpicky, but this sentence seemed a bit out of place here... might be stronger if you took out that part of it, since we get a good feeling of the shame of the violin here, and this just seemed overly... something? Can't seem to articulate it here...

I really loved seeing the way that the violin remembered Sherlock's first times truly becoming the master here. It has a very lovely tone and feel to it, and it's just gorgeous to see... particularly with the ending. It all just has a really gorgeous feel, and I cannot say that enough. It's very different than what I normally read in the fandom, and has more of an ACD quality to it than I normally see on the BBC side of things, which always thrills me as the resident ACD aficionado... Very nice blend of genres and fandoms here. I do really hope to see more from you in this fandom, whether oneshot material or longer stuff, since I feel you really have a talent in his area and you could do really cool stuff here if you wanted to. I really enjoyed this one. Well done and good luck on future projects, whatever fandom they may be. ;)

Cheers, dearie!

This story had an interesting concept, and I think it could be really great, but it does need a lot of work. I found it hard to follow, which is something I never thought I'd say about you. What might help is if you named characters, like the unknown female who is narrating.

I also kept trying o figure out who the person talking was. I kept tossing it up between Watson and Mycroft. I didn't figure out it was a woman(at least not for sure) until she said that Mr. Holmes had taken her dress and left her naked.

I do like how you said Sherlock had touched her in ways that are impossible to describe, because that's what he does, and he's oh so good at it. Though, you left me wondering what he did for her.

If I might make a suggestion for you, I'd look through this again, because I saw several places where I wasn't entirely sure what you were talking about, such as;

"Later, it was found out that had I been able to get out of more corner more to earn him money, he'd probably been alive" This line could be easily fixed by saying, "out of *my* corner more" and saying 'he'd probably *be* alive'.

I hope this review was helpful to you, and wasn't too blunt.

Sorry for the late review; I accidentally wrote a review for something I'd already read and didn't notice until quite a while later.

Aww, what an adorable beginning. I love how matter of fact it is; it establishes the scene and the speaker very nicely. That continues on for the next few paragraphs as well. Solid narrating. :D There is something rather...tunnel-visioned about it though.

"I'm always there for him..." - this sentence seems to weaken a little in terms of the narrative strength. It's more the second half of the sentence. Maybe break it up there? Or skip the young attendant bit.

"snarly" - never heard of that word before. :D

"Sherly" - aww, a pet name.

"as a person as I am" - the wording of that is a little strange. "as the person I am" perhaps?

"It's always been that way..." - too long to go without a comma, particularly with this narrative voice.

The emotion of this piece is really tangible. The narrative is simple, but straight to the point and effective. Frank in showing what they're thinking, how they feel - regardless of the disagreement shown by the rest of the world. I can't help but feel sorry for them.

The way you describe Sherlock is really fascinating as well. He's always been a complex character (and all I know from Sherlock comes from Edhla :D)

And almost misleading. :D That explains the tunnel-visioning. Nice work.

Let me start by saying that I loved this piece. They way you brought the violin to life was magical.
You had mentioned before posting what it was going to be like, but I still found myself imagining that the violin was in fact a woman.
I liked the way the story started with the violin's relationship with Sherlock, but then told the back story on why Sherlock plays the way he does. I felt the heartbreak of the violin when Sherlock's father finally put it down, and the emotional charge of when Sherlock picked it up.

The one and only critic I have (because honestly, you're an amazing writer) is the inconsistency of "father" and "mom". Of course that may just be purely a personal preference.

You've painted a wonderful picture for me to follow, and I thank you for that. Please continue to write more Sherlock, you seem to understand the characters well.

-Meagan

I'll start by saying that I don't know the fandom, but I'll give it the ol' college try.

I was a little unsure at first, especially with me being a neophyte and all, but by the end I was really digging this piece. And, yes, the ending surprised the sweet bejeezus out of me. But in a very good way. Like I said, I'm not part of the fandom, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the piece at all. Big ups to you on that.

There were a handful of typos, grammar mistakes, and what have you, but they were pretty minimal and nothing that can't be cleaned up real quick like. There was one sentence, the one about how she (actually, I don't think you assigned the narrator a gender, but the way this was written it struck me as a female speaking) could have worked on the corner more and probably kept Sherlock's father alive, and no matter how many times I read it I couldn't make it feel right. I understood what you were trying to say, but the wording doesn't quite make sense. Also, you say, "But he left her and I at the door," which reads a little awkwardly. I'd just go with a simple "us" there. When the narrator first starts talking about how Sherlock's father played and how different Sherlock is from that, eight paragraphs in, She/it calls his father "father" and his mother "mom" and that didn't feel quite right either. Those are small issues and somewhat subjective, but still something to consider.

This is pretty unrelated, but I remember you mentioned on the review game that you write poetry, right? Just based off of reading this I'd bet you're a pretty baller poet. You got the same name on Fictionpress, right? I might check some of it out.

Hiya :-) Thank you for writing this - it's a genuinely interesting little piece with some nice twisty bits. I particularly liked the references to the violin "singing" as if with a human voice, and the end line, "out of frustration", equating Sherlock's mental frustration with the sexual frustration another man might feel, which is really clever.

Wow. I know nothing about Sherlock, but this was a powerful and touching friendship monologue it seemed. It seems clear that the speaker of this piece feels he has a special place I'm Sherlock's life and no one is allowed to take it (as you directly stated ;)) I also like that what ever effects Sherlock emotionally, effects the speaker emotionally too-that's a true friend there.

Awesome one shot Neo!

Hi there!

I dunno if I have said this before now, but I love opening lines that hook you immediately. They are like crack for me. That being said, your opening line here: ((This is my corner; no one’s allowed to take it.)) is fabulous. I’m automatically drawn into the piece and wondering who the person is that believes that this is their own spot in the world. I find myself wanting to know more, to learn who this narrator is and why this corner, and just this corner is theirs.

This line here: ((…and when he plays with my heart strings, I can feel every desire, every sadness, every broken word that he can never say.))? This is where the sexual nature that skims throughout the piece really kicks into high gear for me. There’s this sensual undertone in this line that indicates a relationship between a man and woman that is very intimate in nature. The bond between the narrator and Sherlock/player can really be felt. They know each other’s every want, need, secret. They know everything that there is about the other without having to question or to ask for an explanation. It’s a relationship built upon the mutuality of the trust and bond that they share with each other.

I have to say that the unspoken dialogue going on throughout this piece is really what drives it. The tone of the narrator is almost feminine. This is really apparent in lines like ((My sleek black dress)), and ((I didn’t like this touch)), and ((I’m sure he was jealous)) all hint at the feminine. It gives the narrator (whom I know is an inanimate object) a life and a gender, sexualizes the item and turns it into something which can be viewed in the way that you subtly intend it to be taken as. Really great job!

The one thing I love better than a great opening line is a great closing line. And this here: ((I love when he touches me out of frustration)) is a great closer. It’s very sensual still and carries a heavy weight of suggestibility for who the narrator still is, even though it’s clear at this point that the narrator is not who we actually think that it is. Their latent humanity and their internalized dialogue about how they love when Sherlock touches them when he’s annoyed closes out this wonderfully mind bending piece you created. Great job!

Couple of point(s):

This line here: ((I’m always there for him, always have been here…)), I would split the three lines up like this:

(I’m always there for him. I’ve been here since before the old woman showed up. I was here years before the young attendant even showed up.) This is just my suggestion after all, but I think it emphasizes and establishes the difference between each individual person and the narrator.

((…sees me as a person))—as the person

This was a wonderful little piece of deception. You so capably insinuate a relationship between Sherlock and his violin which is almost like the relationships between a man and a woman. There is an intimacy between him and this musical instrument which most husbands and wives lack and that alone is what makes this a piece that sings with life. Really great job!