C&C Application
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Rose
AGE: 25.
JOURNAL: I don’t really use it, but viedt
IM: I’m on AIM @ stupidspacerocks
E-MAIL: kowainogakuru@gmai.com
RETURNING: N/A
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Dr. John H Watson
FANDOM: BBC Sherlock
CHRONOLOGY: Immediately after the end of series 1.
CLASS: Quiet, unassuming hero. Not that John would class himself as such.
SUPERHERO NAME: Is this necessary? I don't mind if it is, but realistically John would balk at it and insist on his real name.
ALTER EGO: John Watson, former army doctor, currently working as a GP.
BACKGROUND:
Unlike many incarnations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, the BBC’s take on the Sherlock Holmes universe takes place in modern day London. Many of the staple elements of the original stories have been translated and updated: John uses a blog rather than a journal, for example. However much of the spirit of the original canon remains, and as such I tend to use the original stories to fill in data missing from the modern-day BBC adaptation.
Not much of John’s past before his tour in Afghanistan is explicitly revealed during the course of the season. He’s introduced as a former army doctor suffering from PTSD centring on the incident that invalided him from the army a short time before the series begins- a firefight in Afghanistan during which John sustained a life-threatening gunshot wound to the shoulder, that shattered the bone and grazed his subclavian artery. This injury not only costs him his career but also shakes his self-esteem and sense of identity, disrupting the lifestyle he has become accustomed to and the friendships and loyalties he’s built during his tour. So shaken is he by this abrupt change in his circumstances that he develops a psychosomatic limp (severe enough that he is forced to use a cane to walk) and an ‘intermittent tremor’ in his hands, and upon his repatriation he withdraws into himself, uncertain of his future. As the series opens we see John living in a cheap bedsit while he attempts to regroup- the only things in his life appear to be a sense of loss and his awkward, uncomfortable weekly therapy sessions- attending which is part of the requirements for him to receive his army pension, his only source of income. John says of himself: nothing ever happens to me.
A chance meeting with an old university friend and an offhand remark about needing to find a flatmate should he intend to remain in London leads to John being introduced to Sherlock Holmes in the lab at St. Barts. John is altogether caught up by the whirlwind force of his personality, intrigued by his apparent insights- and it just so happens that they are both looking for flatmates. During their meeting at 221b Baker Street, they are interrupted by DI Lestrade, who implores Sherlock to help him with a case- and soon the two are beginning to work together- albeit a little lopsidedly- though it soon becomes apparent that John is perhaps unique in his response to Sherlock’s eccentricity, neither feeling threatened or unnerved by it. It is from this foundation that an unlikely but remarkably strong friendship begins to develop.
Major, character changing/defining moments from this point on include:
- The day after they meet at Barts and immediately after being abandoned at the scene of the first crime John attends with Sherlock, he is ‘abducted’ by Mycroft, Sherlock’s brother (although he is unaware of who Mycroft is at the time), and offered an undisclosed but apparently substantial bribe to supply information to him concerning his brother. Despite John’s lack of real income, and having only met Sherlock twice at this point, John refuses.
- Mycroft asserts that John’s intermittent tremor in his hand is symptomatic not of being haunted by the war, but missing it.
- Sherlock proves to John that his limp is indeed psychosomatic, and that he is capable of overcoming it by distracting him sufficiently with a chase through London, which John participates in with gusto, forgetting that he has left his cane behind. After this, John has no further trouble with his leg.
- Later that same day John shoots a man dead to prevent Sherlock from potentially killing himself by choosing to take a pill that may or may not be poison.
- Roughly a month later (according to his online blog) John goes out to find himself a regular job at the doctor’s surgery, becoming a GP. He finds himself immediately attracted to Sarah, the woman interviewing him, and the two start dating- much to Sherlock’s annoyance.
- John is kidnapped, along with Sarah, when the criminals he and Sherlock are investigating mistake the doctor for the detective. This is the first time John’s life is directly endangered by his dealings with Sherlock.
- Another month later things begin to get personal. A criminal mastermind plans an elaborate game for Sherlock, which naturally involves John, too. While Sherlock’s impersonal approach even while Moriarty is killing innocent people to ‘make the game more interesting’ offends John’s strong moral code to the point where the two argue about it, he remains essentially loyal, if a little disappointed.
- Moriarty kidnaps John, kits him out with a semtex vest and sends him out as his proxy to meet with Sherlock. Once Moriarty is tempted out into the open, John makes an attempt to sacrifice his life to save Sherlock’s.
I am taking John immediately from the cliffhanger ending of the final episode of series one- a hostage situation face-off between Sherlock and Moriarty which culminates in both John and Sherlock consigning themselves to possible death in a last-ditch attempt to neutralise the criminal mastermind.
PERSONALITY:
STAMFORD: That’s not the John Watson I know!
WATSON: I’m not the John Watson you know.
Our first view of John is of a man quietly drowning. Having lost all sense of direction, all purpose, his confidence in his abilities, his physical health and mental wellbeing and even his sense of identity, the doctor in the first few months of his retirement from active duty is floundering in depression and an overwhelming apathy. His statement to his therapist that ‘nothing ever happens’ to him is delivered with wry, steely determination- it’s a self-diagnosis of uselessness, and the prognosis, at least from his perspective, is not good. Suffering from recurrent, intense nightmares at night and bored stiff during the day, John struggles to imagine that things could ever improve. The structure, stability and sense of purpose his life in the army provided gone, John is forced to re-examine himself- and he isn’t pleased with what he sees.
His salvation, in many ways, comes from his meeting with Sherlock- a powerful, enigmatic personality that can take the place of what he’s lost: purpose, direction, excitement- and perhaps more than that- Sherlock seems capable of seeing the worth in John that he himself feels like he’s forgotten or even lost along with his former life as an army doctor. As a self-professed sociopath, Sherlock sees no need to lie to people to make them feel better, to flatter or pity or sympathise unless it benefits him- and something about that, which John views as an inherent, crude honesty, is very appealing to him as a man tired of being a mollycoddled invalid. If Sherlock chooses to keep his company, it means he desires his company, and that sense of uncomplicated appreciation helps John re-centre himself. While chasing criminals through London on the heels of the mad detective, John rediscovers himself and begins to reclaim his talents and strengths.
The reasons John signed up for active combat field medicine are still very much active pulls in his life- his need for adventure and challenge is no less evident, and he is on many levels still a soldier- one who has chosen Sherlock Holmes (singular) as his unit. His loyalty is close to unshakeable, though it is hardly blind: as a man who operates with a strict moral code, John finds it difficult at times to deal with Sherlock’s apparent disregard for the suffering of others. On the other hand, he has no moral qualms with killing a serial killer to neutralise him as a threat, or defending himself and people he cares for with potentially lethal force. Though usually quiet, controlled and careful, John can be prone to the occasional outburst of anger when provoked, though mostly this works itself out in tightly delivered quips and sarcastic remarks rather than out and out confrontation (Sherlock is a notable exception, here: John will quite happily launch into a full on rant at him if he feels he deserves it.). He has a somewhat wry, morbid sense of humour and relies heavily on this when dealing with Sherlock’s moods or Mycroft’s showmanship- though naturally none of these tactics are enough to let him find repeatedly coming across severed body parts in his fridge amusing.
POWER:
As a doctor, especially a field medic, John is capable of patching people up quickly and efficiently. He has some training as a surgeon, too, although didn’t fully pursue this as a career path, and is currently employed as a GP. Being a soldier, John is disciplined and trained to British Army standards, familiar with a fairly wide range of arms and weaponry. His time in Afghanistan in particular has taught him a lot about fighting guerrilla tactics, although as a soldier, not a commander. It’s likely he obtained the rank of captain before his medical discharge from the army.
Canonically, John is demonstrated to be a crack shot, which I’d like to formalise and enhance as one of his powers- and I’d like to make him ‘bullet-proof’ (ie, if shot at, he won't be harmed). John won’t be aware of this, however.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[text]
Alright, own up. As hilarious as this all is, Sherlock, and by god, I’m sure you’re going to love explaining all of this, I’ve had quite enough. Not sure exactly what you’ve done to irritate Mycroft this time round, mind you, but I’m guessing it probably has something to do with nearly getting both of us killed.
Again.
So, assuming you’re even out there and I haven’t been forcibly exiled to bloody New York for my own safety or as punishment for failing to keep you out of trouble, assuming all that, if you could be so kind as to get in touch, I’d appreciate it. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m pretty sure you won’t have any problems finding me.
Oh, and Sherlock? If you only found this because of your ridiculous habit of obsessively googling yourself, don’t even think about telling me you told me so.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
John spent most of the day pacing his room. He would have loved to think that he couldn’t remember the last time he felt this useless and lost, but god, could he. It had felt a lifetime ago, slumping on the cot in his bedsit waiting for nothing to happen, but here he was. Right back at square one. Pulled out of the fight.
It was the ridiculous things that niggled the most, he decided firmly. His mug, the one he’d kept ever since signing up for the RAMC, that he’d protected from Sherlock’s hideous mould culturing experiments, one of the few things that was his- gone. His sun-bleached kitbag was no longer rolled up under his bed. His cane wasn’t propped up in the corner, reminding him that he no longer needed it, and his utterly untouched copy of whatever god-awful detective novel Harry had bought him wasn’t sitting balefully on the bedside table, reminding him that by god, he had better things to be doing than reading Dan Brown, he’d had plenty of better things to do yesterday and would continue to have better things to do tomorrow, too.
It was a good half hour of pacing later that he realised he’d been waiting for Sherlock the whole time. Every single minute of it, waiting for the arrogant bastard to stick his head around the door and take over his life again- or at least, make it make sense (Ah, John. There you are). All of which was pretty ridiculous, really, as the man was about as far as it seemed possible to get from making sense in a lot of ways- and John really had no idea how this situation could even begin to make sense anyway. Kidnapped, snatched from the jaws of death to wake up in a New York- and expected to have developed some kind of super-power through the experience- not that John had seemed to, which was just bloody typical.
He snapped, snatched up his communicator and started typing. Fine. If Sherlock was out there, he had no business ignoring his flatmate, his friend like this.
And if not? Well. John decided that was a whole different matter he’d think over later, if he couldn’t smoke the self-styled consulting detective out with a few choice words. Not worth thinking about yet. At all.