OoC ∪ Application
Character: Sherlock Holmes
Fandom: BBC’s Sherlock
Deviance: d2 - post canon hijinks
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Canon Used: Just the three episodes - A Study in Pink, The Blind Banker and The Great Game - and some lines from the pilot episode that I liked.
Appearance: He’s so pretty that this section deserves a picspam! (I will do this when accepted because the quotes are hard to do in google doc okay.)
Psychology: Near the beginning, Sherlock describes himself as a high-functioning sociopath. While it is difficult to say if he was simply showing Anderson up for the sake of doing so - he really does hate that guy - or being serious, there is some merit in in the assessment. Whether or not he fits the disorder, one thing is certain: he doesn’t fit in anywhere else.
Sherlock is considered by most to be a freak because of his intellectual and cold nature. These two are linked for him but we’ll cover his intelligence first; it’s his favourite feature. Sherlock is very clever and works based on observation. He can read your life history in your face, the way you walk, the clothes you wear, the mud on your boots, the stain on your shirt, the scar on your thumb. He pays attention to the smallest details and links them all together to form a chain which leads him to his conclusion. He insists that he never guesses and downright refuses to do so. He will only base his theories on facts, never twisting the facts to suit theories. Though he is logically minded, he is so very logical that even the existence of strange or impossible things cannot be ruled out. As he is fond of saying, once the impossible as been eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth. He has turned this into a finely honed skill and even calls his website The Science of Deduction. He considers it as an art, something that requires discipline, mental capabilities, a clear and objective mind and a sense of imagination and creativity, the ability to actually look at the facts and see the story they present. His greatest pride and treasure is his intelligence and he clings to it always. In any situation, he first observes, then he deduces and whatever remains - even ending up on a sex island - is the answer he acts upon.
For all this to work perfectly, however, he cannot allow for emotions. Luckily, he’s not very good at feeling them anyway. That isn’t to say he doesn’t feel them, oh no, but he’s done very well locking them away and keeping them under a microscope. For most people, emotions are the driving force, their reactions to the world and a constant. Sherlock doesn’t think in emotions. As far as nearly anyone who knows him is concerned, he doesn’t feel them at all. He’s spent a long time seeing emotions as only motivations and forces in others. Working with crime, it is obvious he’s seen the most brutal side of emotions. A parent’s rage, a lover’s wrath, what jealousy and anger and love become smeared in blood and bodies. All the better reason to shut these things out of himself. As he tells John, caring alone won’t solve his cases or save lives. It won’t help him think better, in fact it would do the opposite, so he has no need for it.
When he sees emotions in people, he can analyse their cause but has trouble understanding them beyond that. In The Great Game, he can logically see that John is disappointed in him. However, it is much more difficult for him to understand how that actually feels, why John is so upset and can’t just think about it logically and brush it away. His cold exterior - and, for the most part, interior as well - isn’t just the result of his own discipline but is also a failing of empathy. He can understand in a scientific objective sort of way why you feel a certain way, why it would drive an action and cause a crime. But he can’t actually feel it and truly know how emotions really touch people. When he does feel emotions, he doesn’t feel them like normal people. It’s something unfamiliar and incomprehensible. This causes a gap in his knowledge which puts him as a disadvantage at times. In A Study in Pink, Sherlock can’t imagine why a dying woman would still be upset years later over her daughter being stillborn. He is at a loss for it. Though he knows what emotions cause people to do, he underestimates them because his logical mind cannot comprehend feeling something like that. It is a failing that he can’t really fix because he refuses to acknowledge the full power of emotions, lest they infect him as well.
All this said, he isn’t at all emotionless. From the start, it is clear he has a sort of fondness for John, something that becomes much more intense as time goes on. He may not understand it or why he feels it but it is very much there. In The Great Game when John’s life is at stake, suddenly Sherlock is visibly panicked, afraid and his tone and actions are downright frantic. Up until then, the lives were just part of the game. When John became involved, the game ended. Sherlock trusts John with his life and similarly wants to protect John. In fact, the very reason John’s life was at stake is because John is his ‘heart.’ Moriarty threatened to burn the heart out of him now that Sherlock has awoken to these feelings, which does lead one to worry about the pair. It does however prove that Sherlock’s devotion to John is real and noticeable. Sociopaths are said to feel love for a person as an extension of their own mind and feel only for those chosen few while everyone else isn’t even a blip. John, who he introduces as “with him” or “his” definitely is the lucky one in this category. His brother Mycroft notes John has the potential to make Sherlock a better person or encourage his bad habits but that John’s influence is strong. No one is friends with Sherlock Holmes: no one except John. (Even Mycroft is considered a rival - an ‘archenemy’ first and a brother last.)
While it was some sarcasm that led him to say he would be ‘lost without [his] blogger” there is truth to it. He says John is with him, brings John with him everywhere and relies on him. The friendship is strong, something very real and new to Sherlock and something that throws off his logical world. John makes him laugh and smile in a true, sincere way and in John he finds a companion that understands the world is more than 9-to-5 jobs and marriage and drinking and dying. It’s about the thrill, the adrenaline, the complexities, the chase, the feeling of living.
Does that sound like seeking a high? Because it damn well is. Sherlock is an addict when it comes to seeking out cures for his boredom. He can’t stand to be bored, not for a second. He only seems truly happy when he has a strange puzzle to solve and the stranger the better, which in this case tends to be gruesome and deadly. It is hinted that he used to be on heavier drugs and smoked but has since quit - most likely Lestrade’s influence - and has become rather too attached to his nicotine patches, using as many as he wants at a time. [A note here: cocaine dependence feeds into nicotine dependence and visa-versa, which is worth noting since the Holmes of original canon was a cocaine addict, perhaps explaining this as a subtle hint. Also worth noting he still keeps drugs around the flat but likely only as a safety net and not for active use.] He throws tantrums when bored, shooting the wall, defacing it with paint, throwing himself dramatically on the couch and generally sulking around announcing he is bored. These fits are accompanied by a deep depression and he’ll take anything of interest to get out of it. He doesn’t care about the people involved in his puzzles: they’re just game pieces. They aren’t even really human. He throws himself into dangerous situations, ones where he has a very good chance of getting killed, just to have some relief from boredom, to prove that he’s clever enough to win. He is reckless and relentless when on a case, refusing to eat or sleep for days until it is solved. Anything else would slow him down. Nothing else matters but his thrills. In Study in Pink he nearly took a suicide pill just to see if he picked the pill that wouldn’t kill him.
However, his cold heart has a few cracks in it. This seems to be John’s influence as it’s most noticeable in The Great Game. John accuses Sherlock of not thinking of the bomb hostages as people and he is nearly 100% right. Yet, when an old woman starts to break the rules of the game - meaning she’ll be killed - Sherlock is visibly unhappy and tries to stop her. He is unable to and she is killed, something which seems to unsettle him. When a child is used as another victim, he briefly becomes angry with a suspect shouting, “A child will die!” and becomes frantic to solve the riddle. True, solving the riddle mattered most but the lives still played in. Some part of him recognizes that these are people and he may not really care but it’s something close to it, closer than Sherlock has ever come to caring.
As a modern man, it has to be noted he is more outright cruel and mocking than his Victorian counterpart. One could take into account that Victorians lauded intelligence as a virtue, something to be proud of and was a culture of science and invention. Today’s culture caters more often to the lowest denominator: reality tv, funny idiots considered higher than anything, reading something that has to be encouraged rather than a natural part of life. A man of Sherlock’s intelligence growing up in a culture that is backlashing against academia would have a more cynical view and it definitely shows. Sherlock often rails against the fact that no one thinks anymore and that everyone around him is an idiot with vacant minds. It hints that he’s never had any friends because of this - mocked and teased and treated cruelly - and his sneering way of dealing with people and using his intelligence to openly belittle them is likely a reaction to this. The people around him call him a freak and treat him terribly, which he returns with even more loathing. He sees nothing wrong with calling everyone idiots and telling them they lower the intelligence of the room. He gets easily frustrated and angry when people don’t seem to be thinking and tells them so. Even if people’s taunting has left him bitter and cold, he makes no attempts to be nice and simply fires back.
That all being said, he refuses to remember anything he considers stupid and unimportant. This means anything that doesn’t come into his cases. For example, he doesn’t know basic facts about the solar system because it means nothing to him. He doesn’t know politics - that’s Mycroft’s area, not his - or many common sense daily life things. But ask him about forensics, chemicals, law and he can twist your head around with facts. His brain space is too valuable to waste on anything unimportant. Of course, what is and is not important is debatable.
He is also dependent on technology and very good with it, using the internet to quickly fact check himself on crime scenes and texting always rather than calling. He really hates calling. It helps him put a distance between himself and others, something that comforts him. This isolation, however, feeds back into what was earlier said about John. Facing facts, the great Sherlock Holmes is a lonely man, a genius without anyone. John is the first person to actually express, honestly, any real appreciation of it and the fact that he even recognizes something special in Sherlock, that intelligence matters, makes him all the more important. The fact that John is intelligent and good in his own ways just adds to it.
Though he detests most people, Sherlock can be quite charming if he really wants, which is rare. He can act normal or flirty or sweet or however he must to get his information. He fake cries perfectly to a suspect in a case and flirts with Molly about her hair when he needs a favour. Most of the time he’s just his usual, moody, unpleasant and snappish self. However, there is Mrs. Hudson, who he treats nicely, hugging her and kissing her cheek. Sherlock is capable of nice things, it’s just usually not worth the effort on his part. Only when it comes without effort does it matter. He’s trying to get better recently, however, likely under John’s influence. When he suspected Molly’s boyfriend of being gay, he told her flat-out and suggested they break-up. Molly of course didn’t take this well but Sherlock was confused, thinking it kinder to spare her later heartbreak.
As a few final notes, Sherlock generally has no respect for others, not enough to ask for permission on his experiments or to hold regard for their general comfort or safety. Really, he just doesn’t think about it. He doesn’t care what others think, not really. Oh sure, he is lonely and he is bothered that everyone just thinks him as a freak that needs to piss off or as a tool for their benefit but he’s used to it. He acts how he wants and lives how he wants. The only one who can influence him is John, Lestrade on a very good day and Mycroft when he’s very annoying. Boundaries don’t matter and he has no patience or time to deal with dull people and boring situations. All he wants is to prove to himself that he’s clever, to feel the thrill of a good chase and mental challenge and live his life in excitement.
Despite all his eccentric habits, Sherlock will still sit down to watch films with John. He’ll go out to dinner with him and tell jokes and tease and he’s quite capable of normal conversations if he isn’t too depressed. He’s narcissistic and loves compliments. They make him blush a bit, not that he’ll ever admit it. He’s also quite arrogant and doesn’t believe in modesty, holding it as a lie in the face of truth. Very big on the truth thing, Sherlock is. He likes to lecture people on why they’re stupid and takes great pleasure in correcting people on their grammar when they annoy him. He is fluent in a few languages, brilliant with a violin when he feels like it and very good with disguise. Some part of him is still a regular person, not the cold, invincible man he seems to be. He’s just really quite bad with social things and doesn’t care to fix it.
But if you bore him, well, you’re not worth the time to learn any of this, are you?
Other Skills/Abilities: He is capable with a gun, even if not especially good, he can fence, speaks several languages fluently, has amazing fashion sense and he’ll deduce circles around you. He’s also fairly good with technology.
Other Weaknesses: He is human. He can be defeated. If you touch John, he’ll explode.
History: Much of Sherlock’s life, especially his early years, really isn’t known. He seems to come from a well-off background if he and Mycroft are anything to judge by. His mother - mummy - seems to be a sore point for him and has possibly passed on. He was likely fond of her given the way Mycroft can use her against him in arguments. He and Mycroft don’t get along well having a sibling rivalry. Sherlock calls Mycroft his ‘arch enemy’ and Mycroft spies on Sherlock and frets over him constantly. They’re more or less civil at least.
When Sherlock was a young kid, he was pretty much as he is now. He read the papers and kept up on crimes and research and it was because of this that he found the Carl Powers case interesting. A boy drowned in the swimming pool but it was ruled accidental. Sherlock had been sure it was murder and went to the police with his suspicions but, as a kid, they didn’t listen to him. Sherlock considers this his ‘start’ and likely continued to investigate whatever he could.
He did go to Uni, though which one, for what and how long is all a mystery. He had a ‘friend’ there named Sebastian, though friend is a very loose term here considering how ill at ease Sherlock feels around him. Sebastian states Sherlock was terribly unpopular and ridiculed and always knew who was sleeping with whom. It’s pretty indicative to Sherlock’s life and considering he’s baffled by the idea of having friends, well, he’s never exactly been liked.
Sherlock has been taking cases as long as he’s been able to solve them. It seems to gain him allies, at least. A restaurant owner named Angelo greatly respects him for his work in solving his own case and Mrs. Hudson is grateful that he ensued the death penalty on her husband in Florida. He does seem to show a fondness for these people, especially Mrs. Hudson who is almost motherly for him. He’s also shown to be quite happy to travel for his cases and to look into cases posted on his website, The Science of Deduction.
He was on cocaine and smoked for some length of time. Lestrade seems to have been the influence that put a stop to this. He’s known Detective Inspector Lestrade for five years and works well with him. They have a mutual understanding and a sort of respect, with Lestrade being rather fatherly. Now, Sherlock is only on nicotine patches, though he tends to abuse them.
He met John Watson through a mutual acquaintance when they were both looking to share a flat, considering that Sherlock had just been kicked out of his flat again. They clicked well almost instantly and Sherlock was soon dragging John out on the case of serial suicides - well not dragged, as John was really quite willing. John proved his worth on this case, keeping up with Sherlock, helping in the investigation and coming to his rescue in the end by shooting the cabby before Sherlock could be an idiot and take the pill.
John moved in properly and continued to help Sherlock with cases. He also became Sherlock’s only friend quite quickly and the two seem to spend most of their time at home, watching movies and bad telly and bickering over who gets the groceries and so on.
The only really noteworthy thing about The Blind Banker is Sherlock got to solve a case for Sebastian and prove he doesn’t need him or care about him, which is awesome to him. Also John got a job and lost. He gained a girlfriend thing briefly. Sherlock does not care.
The appearance of Moriarty is actually worth talking about. It was a game wherein Moriarty strapped bombs to people and gave Sherlock a time limit to solve cases, all of which related to him in some way. John of course helped him but they argued over the way Sherlock was treating the cases - as super awesome fun - and not as the serious matters they were. Lucky for John, Sherlock realised things were serious when John was the last one to end up with a bomb strapped to him. This greatly upset Sherlock and Moriarty made gay threats about things and implied John is Sherlock’s heart, which is adorable. Then came a final showdown over the bombs but John and Sherlock managed to survive and are now spending their time chasing after Moriarty and continuing to watch bad telly and argue about groceries.
Canon Point: Post The Great Game
Reality Description: Sherlock hails from 2010 London, which is exactly like our 2010 London except for the Sherlock Holmes books never existing. It has the expected level of technology, with both John and Sherlock owning cell phone/mp3/internet connected/blah blahs and nice laptops. London is London. APPARENTLY IT HAS A GORGEOUS SKY MAGICALLY DESPITE SERIOUSLY NOT BEING A NO LIGHT ZONE. Sherlock thinks stars are purdy though so it’s okay. He lives in a flat he shares with John in 221b Baker Street. Their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, occasionally takes care of them and watches bad telly with John. Sherlock also has to worry about Mycroft dropping by and spying on him and pestering him and John. A visit he does actually look forward to is one from Lestrade who gives him cases and is thus amazing and Sherlock’s favourite. Oh and Anderson and Donovan exist, too, he guesses or something. Oh and there’s Moriarty but he loves being a shadow figure anyway so he’s just there to be chased.
Details!
First, there’s the flat: It’s a wreck. It’s actually fairly nice, with John’s room in some vague upstairs area and a nice spacious layout. It’s just that you can’t tell with all the crap piled around. Sherlock’s made a proper mess of it, setting up experiments all over the kitchen, keeping body parts everywhere, having stacks of books and boxes of files everywhere. There’s a tv they watch and presumably a dvd player for movies, couches, chairs, occasionally there is even food. Mrs. Hudson lives downstairs. They seem to be the only tenants.
Mycroft, for the record, is the British government. Don’t believe his ‘minor position’ crap. He’s the government, the Secret Service, the CIA and god only knows what else. He has access to all the CCTVs and has quite a hand in international relations. Mycroft is actually kind of scary. He does all this from the comfort of his office apparently, given that he hates legwork. He uses these things to his advantage and also to bug Sherlock.
Then there’s Scotland Yard. It’s a modern policing place and it’s pretty much the police. They’re the best, with technology and amazing stuff like that. Sherlock only works well with Lestrade. Otherwise the detectives there seem to hate him and it’s quite mutual. He doesn’t really...work with them much now since he has John. They still exist to annoy him however.
Also there’s St. Bart’s hospital! Sherlock loves hanging around the morgue there and experimenting on the bodies. He’s allowed to because the morgue lady, Molly, crushes on him hard. So he uses the labs there for his analyses and so on.
Moriarty still is a creepy flirty lurker.
Fandom: BBC’s Sherlock
Deviance: d2 - post canon hijinks
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Canon Used: Just the three episodes - A Study in Pink, The Blind Banker and The Great Game - and some lines from the pilot episode that I liked.
Appearance: He’s so pretty that this section deserves a picspam! (I will do this when accepted because the quotes are hard to do in google doc okay.)
Psychology: Near the beginning, Sherlock describes himself as a high-functioning sociopath. While it is difficult to say if he was simply showing Anderson up for the sake of doing so - he really does hate that guy - or being serious, there is some merit in in the assessment. Whether or not he fits the disorder, one thing is certain: he doesn’t fit in anywhere else.
Sherlock is considered by most to be a freak because of his intellectual and cold nature. These two are linked for him but we’ll cover his intelligence first; it’s his favourite feature. Sherlock is very clever and works based on observation. He can read your life history in your face, the way you walk, the clothes you wear, the mud on your boots, the stain on your shirt, the scar on your thumb. He pays attention to the smallest details and links them all together to form a chain which leads him to his conclusion. He insists that he never guesses and downright refuses to do so. He will only base his theories on facts, never twisting the facts to suit theories. Though he is logically minded, he is so very logical that even the existence of strange or impossible things cannot be ruled out. As he is fond of saying, once the impossible as been eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth. He has turned this into a finely honed skill and even calls his website The Science of Deduction. He considers it as an art, something that requires discipline, mental capabilities, a clear and objective mind and a sense of imagination and creativity, the ability to actually look at the facts and see the story they present. His greatest pride and treasure is his intelligence and he clings to it always. In any situation, he first observes, then he deduces and whatever remains - even ending up on a sex island - is the answer he acts upon.
For all this to work perfectly, however, he cannot allow for emotions. Luckily, he’s not very good at feeling them anyway. That isn’t to say he doesn’t feel them, oh no, but he’s done very well locking them away and keeping them under a microscope. For most people, emotions are the driving force, their reactions to the world and a constant. Sherlock doesn’t think in emotions. As far as nearly anyone who knows him is concerned, he doesn’t feel them at all. He’s spent a long time seeing emotions as only motivations and forces in others. Working with crime, it is obvious he’s seen the most brutal side of emotions. A parent’s rage, a lover’s wrath, what jealousy and anger and love become smeared in blood and bodies. All the better reason to shut these things out of himself. As he tells John, caring alone won’t solve his cases or save lives. It won’t help him think better, in fact it would do the opposite, so he has no need for it.
When he sees emotions in people, he can analyse their cause but has trouble understanding them beyond that. In The Great Game, he can logically see that John is disappointed in him. However, it is much more difficult for him to understand how that actually feels, why John is so upset and can’t just think about it logically and brush it away. His cold exterior - and, for the most part, interior as well - isn’t just the result of his own discipline but is also a failing of empathy. He can understand in a scientific objective sort of way why you feel a certain way, why it would drive an action and cause a crime. But he can’t actually feel it and truly know how emotions really touch people. When he does feel emotions, he doesn’t feel them like normal people. It’s something unfamiliar and incomprehensible. This causes a gap in his knowledge which puts him as a disadvantage at times. In A Study in Pink, Sherlock can’t imagine why a dying woman would still be upset years later over her daughter being stillborn. He is at a loss for it. Though he knows what emotions cause people to do, he underestimates them because his logical mind cannot comprehend feeling something like that. It is a failing that he can’t really fix because he refuses to acknowledge the full power of emotions, lest they infect him as well.
All this said, he isn’t at all emotionless. From the start, it is clear he has a sort of fondness for John, something that becomes much more intense as time goes on. He may not understand it or why he feels it but it is very much there. In The Great Game when John’s life is at stake, suddenly Sherlock is visibly panicked, afraid and his tone and actions are downright frantic. Up until then, the lives were just part of the game. When John became involved, the game ended. Sherlock trusts John with his life and similarly wants to protect John. In fact, the very reason John’s life was at stake is because John is his ‘heart.’ Moriarty threatened to burn the heart out of him now that Sherlock has awoken to these feelings, which does lead one to worry about the pair. It does however prove that Sherlock’s devotion to John is real and noticeable. Sociopaths are said to feel love for a person as an extension of their own mind and feel only for those chosen few while everyone else isn’t even a blip. John, who he introduces as “with him” or “his” definitely is the lucky one in this category. His brother Mycroft notes John has the potential to make Sherlock a better person or encourage his bad habits but that John’s influence is strong. No one is friends with Sherlock Holmes: no one except John. (Even Mycroft is considered a rival - an ‘archenemy’ first and a brother last.)
While it was some sarcasm that led him to say he would be ‘lost without [his] blogger” there is truth to it. He says John is with him, brings John with him everywhere and relies on him. The friendship is strong, something very real and new to Sherlock and something that throws off his logical world. John makes him laugh and smile in a true, sincere way and in John he finds a companion that understands the world is more than 9-to-5 jobs and marriage and drinking and dying. It’s about the thrill, the adrenaline, the complexities, the chase, the feeling of living.
Does that sound like seeking a high? Because it damn well is. Sherlock is an addict when it comes to seeking out cures for his boredom. He can’t stand to be bored, not for a second. He only seems truly happy when he has a strange puzzle to solve and the stranger the better, which in this case tends to be gruesome and deadly. It is hinted that he used to be on heavier drugs and smoked but has since quit - most likely Lestrade’s influence - and has become rather too attached to his nicotine patches, using as many as he wants at a time. [A note here: cocaine dependence feeds into nicotine dependence and visa-versa, which is worth noting since the Holmes of original canon was a cocaine addict, perhaps explaining this as a subtle hint. Also worth noting he still keeps drugs around the flat but likely only as a safety net and not for active use.] He throws tantrums when bored, shooting the wall, defacing it with paint, throwing himself dramatically on the couch and generally sulking around announcing he is bored. These fits are accompanied by a deep depression and he’ll take anything of interest to get out of it. He doesn’t care about the people involved in his puzzles: they’re just game pieces. They aren’t even really human. He throws himself into dangerous situations, ones where he has a very good chance of getting killed, just to have some relief from boredom, to prove that he’s clever enough to win. He is reckless and relentless when on a case, refusing to eat or sleep for days until it is solved. Anything else would slow him down. Nothing else matters but his thrills. In Study in Pink he nearly took a suicide pill just to see if he picked the pill that wouldn’t kill him.
However, his cold heart has a few cracks in it. This seems to be John’s influence as it’s most noticeable in The Great Game. John accuses Sherlock of not thinking of the bomb hostages as people and he is nearly 100% right. Yet, when an old woman starts to break the rules of the game - meaning she’ll be killed - Sherlock is visibly unhappy and tries to stop her. He is unable to and she is killed, something which seems to unsettle him. When a child is used as another victim, he briefly becomes angry with a suspect shouting, “A child will die!” and becomes frantic to solve the riddle. True, solving the riddle mattered most but the lives still played in. Some part of him recognizes that these are people and he may not really care but it’s something close to it, closer than Sherlock has ever come to caring.
As a modern man, it has to be noted he is more outright cruel and mocking than his Victorian counterpart. One could take into account that Victorians lauded intelligence as a virtue, something to be proud of and was a culture of science and invention. Today’s culture caters more often to the lowest denominator: reality tv, funny idiots considered higher than anything, reading something that has to be encouraged rather than a natural part of life. A man of Sherlock’s intelligence growing up in a culture that is backlashing against academia would have a more cynical view and it definitely shows. Sherlock often rails against the fact that no one thinks anymore and that everyone around him is an idiot with vacant minds. It hints that he’s never had any friends because of this - mocked and teased and treated cruelly - and his sneering way of dealing with people and using his intelligence to openly belittle them is likely a reaction to this. The people around him call him a freak and treat him terribly, which he returns with even more loathing. He sees nothing wrong with calling everyone idiots and telling them they lower the intelligence of the room. He gets easily frustrated and angry when people don’t seem to be thinking and tells them so. Even if people’s taunting has left him bitter and cold, he makes no attempts to be nice and simply fires back.
That all being said, he refuses to remember anything he considers stupid and unimportant. This means anything that doesn’t come into his cases. For example, he doesn’t know basic facts about the solar system because it means nothing to him. He doesn’t know politics - that’s Mycroft’s area, not his - or many common sense daily life things. But ask him about forensics, chemicals, law and he can twist your head around with facts. His brain space is too valuable to waste on anything unimportant. Of course, what is and is not important is debatable.
He is also dependent on technology and very good with it, using the internet to quickly fact check himself on crime scenes and texting always rather than calling. He really hates calling. It helps him put a distance between himself and others, something that comforts him. This isolation, however, feeds back into what was earlier said about John. Facing facts, the great Sherlock Holmes is a lonely man, a genius without anyone. John is the first person to actually express, honestly, any real appreciation of it and the fact that he even recognizes something special in Sherlock, that intelligence matters, makes him all the more important. The fact that John is intelligent and good in his own ways just adds to it.
Though he detests most people, Sherlock can be quite charming if he really wants, which is rare. He can act normal or flirty or sweet or however he must to get his information. He fake cries perfectly to a suspect in a case and flirts with Molly about her hair when he needs a favour. Most of the time he’s just his usual, moody, unpleasant and snappish self. However, there is Mrs. Hudson, who he treats nicely, hugging her and kissing her cheek. Sherlock is capable of nice things, it’s just usually not worth the effort on his part. Only when it comes without effort does it matter. He’s trying to get better recently, however, likely under John’s influence. When he suspected Molly’s boyfriend of being gay, he told her flat-out and suggested they break-up. Molly of course didn’t take this well but Sherlock was confused, thinking it kinder to spare her later heartbreak.
As a few final notes, Sherlock generally has no respect for others, not enough to ask for permission on his experiments or to hold regard for their general comfort or safety. Really, he just doesn’t think about it. He doesn’t care what others think, not really. Oh sure, he is lonely and he is bothered that everyone just thinks him as a freak that needs to piss off or as a tool for their benefit but he’s used to it. He acts how he wants and lives how he wants. The only one who can influence him is John, Lestrade on a very good day and Mycroft when he’s very annoying. Boundaries don’t matter and he has no patience or time to deal with dull people and boring situations. All he wants is to prove to himself that he’s clever, to feel the thrill of a good chase and mental challenge and live his life in excitement.
Despite all his eccentric habits, Sherlock will still sit down to watch films with John. He’ll go out to dinner with him and tell jokes and tease and he’s quite capable of normal conversations if he isn’t too depressed. He’s narcissistic and loves compliments. They make him blush a bit, not that he’ll ever admit it. He’s also quite arrogant and doesn’t believe in modesty, holding it as a lie in the face of truth. Very big on the truth thing, Sherlock is. He likes to lecture people on why they’re stupid and takes great pleasure in correcting people on their grammar when they annoy him. He is fluent in a few languages, brilliant with a violin when he feels like it and very good with disguise. Some part of him is still a regular person, not the cold, invincible man he seems to be. He’s just really quite bad with social things and doesn’t care to fix it.
But if you bore him, well, you’re not worth the time to learn any of this, are you?
Other Skills/Abilities: He is capable with a gun, even if not especially good, he can fence, speaks several languages fluently, has amazing fashion sense and he’ll deduce circles around you. He’s also fairly good with technology.
Other Weaknesses: He is human. He can be defeated. If you touch John, he’ll explode.
History: Much of Sherlock’s life, especially his early years, really isn’t known. He seems to come from a well-off background if he and Mycroft are anything to judge by. His mother - mummy - seems to be a sore point for him and has possibly passed on. He was likely fond of her given the way Mycroft can use her against him in arguments. He and Mycroft don’t get along well having a sibling rivalry. Sherlock calls Mycroft his ‘arch enemy’ and Mycroft spies on Sherlock and frets over him constantly. They’re more or less civil at least.
When Sherlock was a young kid, he was pretty much as he is now. He read the papers and kept up on crimes and research and it was because of this that he found the Carl Powers case interesting. A boy drowned in the swimming pool but it was ruled accidental. Sherlock had been sure it was murder and went to the police with his suspicions but, as a kid, they didn’t listen to him. Sherlock considers this his ‘start’ and likely continued to investigate whatever he could.
He did go to Uni, though which one, for what and how long is all a mystery. He had a ‘friend’ there named Sebastian, though friend is a very loose term here considering how ill at ease Sherlock feels around him. Sebastian states Sherlock was terribly unpopular and ridiculed and always knew who was sleeping with whom. It’s pretty indicative to Sherlock’s life and considering he’s baffled by the idea of having friends, well, he’s never exactly been liked.
Sherlock has been taking cases as long as he’s been able to solve them. It seems to gain him allies, at least. A restaurant owner named Angelo greatly respects him for his work in solving his own case and Mrs. Hudson is grateful that he ensued the death penalty on her husband in Florida. He does seem to show a fondness for these people, especially Mrs. Hudson who is almost motherly for him. He’s also shown to be quite happy to travel for his cases and to look into cases posted on his website, The Science of Deduction.
He was on cocaine and smoked for some length of time. Lestrade seems to have been the influence that put a stop to this. He’s known Detective Inspector Lestrade for five years and works well with him. They have a mutual understanding and a sort of respect, with Lestrade being rather fatherly. Now, Sherlock is only on nicotine patches, though he tends to abuse them.
He met John Watson through a mutual acquaintance when they were both looking to share a flat, considering that Sherlock had just been kicked out of his flat again. They clicked well almost instantly and Sherlock was soon dragging John out on the case of serial suicides - well not dragged, as John was really quite willing. John proved his worth on this case, keeping up with Sherlock, helping in the investigation and coming to his rescue in the end by shooting the cabby before Sherlock could be an idiot and take the pill.
John moved in properly and continued to help Sherlock with cases. He also became Sherlock’s only friend quite quickly and the two seem to spend most of their time at home, watching movies and bad telly and bickering over who gets the groceries and so on.
The only really noteworthy thing about The Blind Banker is Sherlock got to solve a case for Sebastian and prove he doesn’t need him or care about him, which is awesome to him. Also John got a job and lost. He gained a girlfriend thing briefly. Sherlock does not care.
The appearance of Moriarty is actually worth talking about. It was a game wherein Moriarty strapped bombs to people and gave Sherlock a time limit to solve cases, all of which related to him in some way. John of course helped him but they argued over the way Sherlock was treating the cases - as super awesome fun - and not as the serious matters they were. Lucky for John, Sherlock realised things were serious when John was the last one to end up with a bomb strapped to him. This greatly upset Sherlock and Moriarty made gay threats about things and implied John is Sherlock’s heart, which is adorable. Then came a final showdown over the bombs but John and Sherlock managed to survive and are now spending their time chasing after Moriarty and continuing to watch bad telly and argue about groceries.
Canon Point: Post The Great Game
Reality Description: Sherlock hails from 2010 London, which is exactly like our 2010 London except for the Sherlock Holmes books never existing. It has the expected level of technology, with both John and Sherlock owning cell phone/mp3/internet connected/blah blahs and nice laptops. London is London. APPARENTLY IT HAS A GORGEOUS SKY MAGICALLY DESPITE SERIOUSLY NOT BEING A NO LIGHT ZONE. Sherlock thinks stars are purdy though so it’s okay. He lives in a flat he shares with John in 221b Baker Street. Their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, occasionally takes care of them and watches bad telly with John. Sherlock also has to worry about Mycroft dropping by and spying on him and pestering him and John. A visit he does actually look forward to is one from Lestrade who gives him cases and is thus amazing and Sherlock’s favourite. Oh and Anderson and Donovan exist, too, he guesses or something. Oh and there’s Moriarty but he loves being a shadow figure anyway so he’s just there to be chased.
Details!
First, there’s the flat: It’s a wreck. It’s actually fairly nice, with John’s room in some vague upstairs area and a nice spacious layout. It’s just that you can’t tell with all the crap piled around. Sherlock’s made a proper mess of it, setting up experiments all over the kitchen, keeping body parts everywhere, having stacks of books and boxes of files everywhere. There’s a tv they watch and presumably a dvd player for movies, couches, chairs, occasionally there is even food. Mrs. Hudson lives downstairs. They seem to be the only tenants.
Mycroft, for the record, is the British government. Don’t believe his ‘minor position’ crap. He’s the government, the Secret Service, the CIA and god only knows what else. He has access to all the CCTVs and has quite a hand in international relations. Mycroft is actually kind of scary. He does all this from the comfort of his office apparently, given that he hates legwork. He uses these things to his advantage and also to bug Sherlock.
Then there’s Scotland Yard. It’s a modern policing place and it’s pretty much the police. They’re the best, with technology and amazing stuff like that. Sherlock only works well with Lestrade. Otherwise the detectives there seem to hate him and it’s quite mutual. He doesn’t really...work with them much now since he has John. They still exist to annoy him however.
Also there’s St. Bart’s hospital! Sherlock loves hanging around the morgue there and experimenting on the bodies. He’s allowed to because the morgue lady, Molly, crushes on him hard. So he uses the labs there for his analyses and so on.
Moriarty still is a creepy flirty lurker.