application

Name: Steph
Livejournal: knights_say_nih
Contact: UndrwO on AIM, underwater. owl @ gmail.com
Other Characters Played: Xerxes Break mister_hatter
Are you 18 or over? Yes

Canon: BBC Sherlock

Character: Sherlock Holmes

Timeline: Brought in right at the end of the last episode of the first season, gun pointed at the bomb, steely eyed and prepared to be blown to smithereens.

Personality: I actually laughed out loud when I read this question. Sherlock’s personality is best described as ‘godawful.’ The man is a self-impressed, self-obsessed, selfish braggart with a tendency to lie, manipulate, steal his flatmate’s things and generally say outright nasty things in public around and about people who have committed no greater offence than to be in the same room as him.

Alright, more seriously; most of Sherlock’s personality (and lack of it) stems from his intelligence. Profoundly gifted and observant to the point where it’s frightening, in canon we see how his intelligence impedes his ability to relate to the people around him. An ex schoolmate, Sebastian, gloats about how much of a freak he was, and how all the other boys hated him because they’d come down at breakfast and he’d know who they’d been shagging. This is part of a pattern of callous deductions that he makes- in an argument with a police sergeant he tells everyone loudly about an extramarital affair she's been having, mentioning the fact that she's wearing the same deoderant as her male coworker, meaning that of course she just happened to stay the night at his place and that she must have been over all night scrubbing his floor, given the state of her knees.

On the other hands, not all of that callousness seems to be born of malice. In another scene, he remarks to Molly, a young coroner, that the person she’s dating is gay, citing levels of personal grooming, a prominently displayed particular brand of underwear, and the fact that he’d just slipped him his number. The method of delivery is astonishingly cruel, and Molly leaves in tears, but Sherlock seems at least mildly bewildered when Watson chastises him for what he’s done. It’s my belief that it isn’t really a case of him pretending to think he was doing the right thing for her- so much as being a bit of a snot nosed brat and also… prizing honesty above all else? And maybe being a bit petulantly possessive- Molly had had a terrible crush on him before and he’d used it furiously to his advantage, getting into the morgue on several occasions in order to beat corpses with riding crops to see how the bruising set in, or to check for secret tattoos on the feet of his victims.

Watson. Doctor John Watson is Sherlock’s brand new flat mate, and by the end of the first season, his closest (and only) friend. The use of the language surrounding friendship in the show is important, I think. In the first episode, several people warn Watson that Sherlock will never be his friend- Mycroft, Holmes’ brother, asks if he seems like the kind of person that has them, and describes himself as his arch-enemy. In the second episode, Holmes introduces Watson to the (rather rude) old schoolmate as his friend, and Watson quickly corrects him, with a sharp little ‘colleague.’ The friend smirks, and Sherlock’s expression doesn’t betray so much as a flicker. In the last episode, of course, the two are ready to take a bullet for one another. They’re bickering as much as ever, Sherlock is leaving severed heads in the fridge, but when it comes down to it, Moriarty kidnaps John as a threat to ‘burn the heart out of’ Sherlock, and it’s clearly a very effective threat. Over the course of the show, the two of them have become as close as it is possible for two friends to be.

On the inevitable Holmes/Watson slash issue… no. Not something I put any stock in. It comes up in the tv show- several people assuming that they’re a couple, but John is dating Sarah, and in one situation when Sherlock believes John is propositioning him, he very politely and gently lets him know that he considers himself married to his work. So while Sherlock can flirt in canon to get what he wants (he tells Molly her hair looks fetching parted this way in order to get into the morgue) I intend to play him as completely asexual.

Sherlock wouldn’t be a Holmes without the fits of depression, although they never seem to get quite as bad in the miniseries as they do in other canon sources. At his very worst he lies around in his pyjamas and shoots a few holes in their wall. There are brief implications of past drug use, and that Lestrade was somehow connected to or knows about the addiction problems, but Sherlock insists vehemently that these days, he is clean. He’s substituted the stimulation of cases, of ‘risking his life to prove he’s clever’ for the high of the drugs, and between cases, he crashes, succumbing to paralytic boredom. He has experiments, of course (heads in the fridge, eyeballs in the microwave) but they aren’t sufficiently entertaining to make up for the lack of casework.

One of my favourite things about Sherlock is what I see as the manifestation of his alienation from humanity. He identifies as a ‘high functioning sociopath,’ which probably isn’t accurate, but it says something that they’re words he chooses to apply to himself. He hasn’t tried to make any friends… probably partially due to inability, but for someone as intelligent as him, on some level there must have been an element of choice there. In his grand final conflict he informs Moriarty that he has been informed that he doesn’t have a heart- and while his nemesis corrects him and says that isn’t quite true, with a helpful nod at John, I think on some level Sherlock would like it to be. His mind, he refers to as a hard drive, with a certain amount of space for information that he could either use up on important things, or on useless knowledge like whether or not the Earth goes round the Sun. He’s impatient with the very humanity of the people around him, preferring logic and deductions and the unemotional.

In most versions of the Holmes story, Watson is kind of a foil to this behaviour, being the sweet one ready to step in and offer a cup of tea- but Sherlock’s John is ex-army and just as likely to shoot someone in the head as Sherlock is (if not more likely, really.) I think Sherlock is all the more drawn to him for it- one thing his Watson does is never demand that he be normal. On some occasions, John is disappointed with his cruelty and apparent lack of caring for the lives at stake. Sherlock takes the view that caring would interfere with his ability to work, and reminds John that he is not a hero and not to try to make him one.

Background:

I’ve gone into a lot of this in the personality section, but let me rehash it in an order that makes more sense. Sherlock Holmes is a young, bright consulting detective that assists Scotland Yard in various investigations.

He is the youngest of two siblings, and has a tempestuous relationship with his older brother, Mycroft, who ‘is the government’ and has complete access to the surveillance cameras in London. Mycroft tries to meddle in his brother’s affairs, and Sherlock resists him furiously, even when he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face. The two of them working together would be a force to be reckoned with, if they didn’t bicker constantly over who upset mummy.

School was difficult for Sherlock. Although he’d no doubt be sent to all the best schools, the boredom would have set in early- a child as bright as he was couldn’t hope to remain engaged in a standard classroom. In one particular incident, he went so far as to try to get the police interested in what had been ruled and accidental drowning, since he suspected foul play. This first attempted collaboration with law enforcement was unsuccessful.

University was very much the same. Unable or unwilling to bite his tongue and hold back his deductions, Sherlock faced alienation from his peers and irritation from his teachers, who he’d generally publicly outsmart, correct, question and no doubt humiliate with that same blinding ability to observe. The first time he deduces anything about John, John tells him he’s brilliant, and Sherlock looks mildly perplexed ‘That’s not what people usually say.’ ‘What do people usually say?’ ‘Piss off.’

The drug problem probably started in university, and so did the smoking- in an environment where drugs are available and parental controls are scarce… it might be one of the only understandably human things about him. As a chemist, I like to imagine Sherlock making his own illegal substances, and Mycroft eventually being the one to intervene.

Rehabilitation would have been a sticky mess, and only really successful after Sherlock decided for himself that he wanted to actually get clean. Any forcible attempts would have been easily thwarted- but iron self-control would have seen him through. (This also feeds into my perception of him as resisting his own frailty and human nature- learning to mistrust his own desires and needs. He also doesn’t eat when he’s working on cases, on the grounds that it slows him down. Shoving away sensations as basic and human as hunger, simply to compute a little better?)

After that sticky patch in his life, Sherlock went on to establish himself as a consulting detective, both available for personal hire and working for free with Scotland Yard, particularly with Detective Inspector Lestrade, who trusts him and relies on him, and hopes that he might one day become a genuinely good man. Lestrade shouldn’t hold his breath.

He works in London, and knows the city backwards, forwards, and inside out, flashing throughout the show to a roadmap in his head that lets him dodge through backalleys and over rooftops in order to catch a speeding cab. Sherlock also makes use of the resources the city has to offer, maintaining friendly relationships with young graffiti artists, with a network of homeless people who provide him with information when he needs it (a version of the Baker Street Irregulars discussed in the original stories) with local mobsters turned restauranteers, and most of all, with his lovely and longsuffering landlady, Mrs Hudson, whose husband he managed to get convicted for murder in Florida. In exchange for which she offers him a good deal on his rent, and occasionally makes him a cup of tea.

John came into his life in the very first episode of a show almost by sheer chance. Both of them had complained to a mutual acquaintance that they would be difficult people to find flatmates for. However, their difficulties suited one another perfectly; John loves living with Sherlock because of the adventures he drags him along on, Sherlock loves having John along because a) he values his advice as a medical doctor, b) he’s useful in terms of splitting the workload, c) he can be relied on in a tight spot better than anyone he’s ever known, and d) he genuinely quite likes him and is friends with him, and that isn’t something Sherlock Holmes can say about anyone else in the world.

Abilities/Additional Notes:

Abilities! Sherlock Holmes is a dangerous character to play, because he kind of constantly verges on the edge of infomodding. My plan to negotiate that is as much communications with other muns as possible, and the frankly convenient fact that he’s addicted to texting- so won’t make as many snap judgements about characters as he would if he were on video feeds all the time.

What’s also convenient, is that in this canon, he sometimes gets things wrong- and jokes that there’s always one detail he misses or mistakes (not guessing that John’s relative ‘Harry’ is short for ‘Harriet,’ that sort of thing.) That will make playing him a little easier.

Other abilities… the chemistry goes without saying. In terms of physical prowess, he’s very fit and not a bad fighter- in the beginning of the second episode we see him best a man with a sword, bare handed. He’s forever breaking into buildings via the fourth story balcony or chasing taxi cabs through public streets. In the original ACD, he’s a boxer, and while that isn’t explicitly stated in Sherlock, it’s part of my headcanon for him that he has boxed at least a little.

He’s a good shot with a gun, if he ever manages to get his hands on one- but not quick to fire, since he’s more interested in learning than he is ending a confrontation. He can never quite resist asking the next question.

Sherlock is very good with computers and other electronics; he manages to mass text entire rooms of people during press conferences.

Sample Journal Post:
[Text]

Consulting detective services available.

Specialties include solving the apparently unsolveable, chemistry, criminal subcultures & serial killers.

Fees negotiated on sliding scale, will work pro bono

[It takes a second, but he adds]

or for tea & soup.

-SH.

Sample RP:

The little living space Sherlock has claimed for himself is already filling up with clutter. A chemistry beaker here, a glass bowl there, paperweights, bird feathers, pillaged cushions and apple crates. One battered, brocade armchair has been dragged in front of a little fire, and Adstringendum’s newest consulting detective sits slumped in it, long legs sprawled out, feet propped up on the hearth, fingers steepled thoughtfully, forefingers pressed against his bottom lip.

There’s little to do, now, with this corner of space carved for himself, with a post up on the PCD advertising his services. Sherlock supposes he might consider beginning scavenging for food, or continuing to read through the past communication history on the devices… but the nicotine cravings are seriously setting in, impeding his ability to focus and his motivation to do anything other than sit and sulk.

Five more minutes, and he caves. Puts up another network post.

Craving cigarettes. Are you there, John?

Because if people can come here from other worlds, and more than one person from each of them, then perhaps, just perhaps John is out there somewhere. This house has two bedrooms, and one of them will remain empty until he gets a reply.