Nature, Nurture, and the Veil Between
Title: Nature, Nurture, and the Veil Between
Fandom/Rating: Sherlock (BBC), rated G
Word Count: 320 words
Summary: People think Sherlock is the strange one.
Author's Note: Written for watsons_woes JWP#19.
People see Sherlock Holmes and think 'other'. He is too smart, too thin, too striking, too… too to be human. They mention his piercing eyes and his keen mind, his fits of boundless energy or the languid bleak periods that follow. His companion, however, barely makes an impression. When pressed, if they can recall anything about him at all, he is remembered mostly for his averageness. Average height, average colouring, and average countenance. Nothing remarkable sets him apart, he is simply another person they come across in a typical day.
How wrong they are.
Even Sherlock, for all his brilliance, fails to see John Watson for what he is. He sees more than most, of course, but his observations are coloured by expectation. He has seen the same military posture and musculature in soldiers before and it is not hard to come to similar conclusions when he reads them on John Watson. It does not occur to him that someone else might know how to observe same the minutiae that he does, that someone might take all those tiny, trifling details, and embrace their usage to hide beneath them.
His paperwork is flawless, Mycroft's research pulls together exactly the type of file he anticipated when he'd first observed the man. Typical CV, standard annual reviews, dutifully paid taxes and expected credit card usage. Unremarkable upbringing, normal schooling, everything completely commonplace and normal. The history of the man it presented was one he'd read hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. There's just enough there that might garner Sherlock's interest (soldier and doctor was an unusual combination, Watson's missing the excitement of war, etc.) but not enough that might lead Sherlock into further danger. All in all, Mycroft approves and moves onto other things.
John Watson is aware of it all. His disguise perfect he wanders, wolf amongst the sheep, seeing everything as it truly is yet never truly being seen.
Fandom/Rating: Sherlock (BBC), rated G
Word Count: 320 words
Summary: People think Sherlock is the strange one.
Author's Note: Written for watsons_woes JWP#19.
People see Sherlock Holmes and think 'other'. He is too smart, too thin, too striking, too… too to be human. They mention his piercing eyes and his keen mind, his fits of boundless energy or the languid bleak periods that follow. His companion, however, barely makes an impression. When pressed, if they can recall anything about him at all, he is remembered mostly for his averageness. Average height, average colouring, and average countenance. Nothing remarkable sets him apart, he is simply another person they come across in a typical day.
How wrong they are.
Even Sherlock, for all his brilliance, fails to see John Watson for what he is. He sees more than most, of course, but his observations are coloured by expectation. He has seen the same military posture and musculature in soldiers before and it is not hard to come to similar conclusions when he reads them on John Watson. It does not occur to him that someone else might know how to observe same the minutiae that he does, that someone might take all those tiny, trifling details, and embrace their usage to hide beneath them.
His paperwork is flawless, Mycroft's research pulls together exactly the type of file he anticipated when he'd first observed the man. Typical CV, standard annual reviews, dutifully paid taxes and expected credit card usage. Unremarkable upbringing, normal schooling, everything completely commonplace and normal. The history of the man it presented was one he'd read hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. There's just enough there that might garner Sherlock's interest (soldier and doctor was an unusual combination, Watson's missing the excitement of war, etc.) but not enough that might lead Sherlock into further danger. All in all, Mycroft approves and moves onto other things.
John Watson is aware of it all. His disguise perfect he wanders, wolf amongst the sheep, seeing everything as it truly is yet never truly being seen.