diadem app.

[ratiocinations]

Player Information

Player: Jen
Contact: discord/plurk: aurajen, PM this journal
Invitation OR characters played: Current player of Henry Creel from Stranger Things (vecna)
Are you over 18?: Yes!


Character Information

Character: Sherlock Holmes
Canon: Sherlock Holmes (Granada TV Adaptation). His canon point is sometime after the end of the fourth season. In other words, he has experienced all the cases available to him in Granada canon.
Age: Not directly stated, but best estimates based on the cases he's solved and the timeline given in the canonical books put him at ~40-42.
History: Sherlock Holmes is a famous consulting detective who operates in turn-of-the-19th-century London. Known for his observational and deductive prowess, as well as his eccentric nature, he has made a name for himself by solving a bevy of mysteries and crimes for his clients over the years of his career. His reputation is further amplified in the public consciousness largely due to his friend and partner, Dr. John Watson, who chronicles their adventures together for publication in a British monthly magazine, The Strand. Though Holmes is certainly not part of the official police force, he occasionally works with Scotland Yard—albeit often patronizingly—to aid them with solving unusual or complex cases.

Much of the narrative focuses on each case he solves, with far more emphasis on the present than on the past. But his time before his partnership with Watson can be gleaned from canon — mainly, that he grew up in a household where his parents were emotionally distant to him and his older brother, implying that his younger years were both lonely and isolated before he was sent off to Eton. But at school, he collected a few friends, and as a young adult, he moved on to study at Oxford, where it is debatable whether or not he graduated. However, it is often accepted that he studied the sciences, namely chemistry, with great focus and enthusiasm while attending, and that at some point he realized he wished to pursue a career as a detective.

Returning to London, he took the first steps towards starting this endeavor, but given the erratic flow of income that depended solely on how many cases he could solve, how often, and if he even decided to accept payment from a client, Holmes soon realized that he would have to take on a roommate to split his rent. Through a friend of a friend, Dr. Watson was referred to him, and they agreed to become roommates soon after their introduction. Eventually, they became good friends and partners, with Watson often accompanying and assisting him with his cases.

The rest is history, with his career spanning decades. By the time we catch up with Holmes' current canon point, he has been a detective for about twenty years, with plenty of experience under his belt, and is still going strong.

Here is a quick summary of each episode from the series, for reference.

Possessions: His clothing, a small silver cigarette case (with cigarettes), a pocketwatch, and a magnifying glass.
Weapon: A fully loaded, era-appropriate revolver.

Powers/Abilities: He is a normie, so he doesn't have any supernatural, inhuman, or magical powers. That said, Sherlock Holmes is a disproportionately intelligent individual compared to most. His laser-targeted interests make him an expert in his field of detective work, and the art of using deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning to surmise surprisingly accurate information from any given subject is both highly practiced and exceedingly instinctive. He is very observant and analytical, which is one of his most notable traits, setting him apart from any other investigative body in his canon. Basically, this is his superpower, one of the many factors that fuel his success and reputation as a detective.

It is also notable that he has a photographic memory (though he does not choose to always remember everything, only information he deems relevant), has a significant knowledge of chemistry, studies various martial arts forms, and has a near ceaseless fount of energy when he's excited about a case.



Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?

Dr. John Watson is not only his closest friend and investigative partner whom he has known for decades, but also acts as a balancing point against Holmes. Whereas the detective is sometimes distant, awkward, and condescending toward people, Watson is warm and understanding, showing empathy where his friend’s analytical mind fails to extend it. Watson is grounded, and though his detecting abilities are not nearly as keen as Holmes', he is a constant, capable presence whom is relied upon extensively.

Indeed, it has been said more than once that while Watson does not need Holmes, Holmes needs Watson. Given how much care the doctor has plied his way, this is hard to argue against. When Holmes falls into a morose, depressive state, or when he is sick or injured, the doctor is there to aid him and provide a moral boost. More than once has Holmes ventured out to further face a frustrating case, knowing that his friend’s presence is direly needed to get through the day. Watson acts as his sounding board, and it is his temperance that his more extreme decisions are often weighed against. Holmes even says it himself:

"I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.”

Watson is a large part of Holmes' success, but more than that, he is an irreplaceable part of his life. In fact, he had not been present at all, Holmes would undoubtedly have persisted with his career as a detective, but it is hard to imagine it as being half as successful or even as lengthy. Holmes’ actor, Jeremy Brett, has even stated that he did not believe Holmes would have survived as long as he did without his friend — whether in part to drug use, a case gone bad, or spiraling from his terrible moods, there would have been no one present to pull him out of that darkness.

So while they are both independent men in their own right, Watson’s presence is nothing short of critical, poignant, and, as Holmes says, illuminating.

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?

Sherlock Holmes is not necessarily a man of regrets regarding the overarching path his life has taken. He currently desires nothing more than to keep his mind stimulated with complex puzzles and cases, and certainly would do nothing to change that, despite the toll it sometimes takes on body and spirit.

However, there are always past cases that carry a degree of regret: the ones he considers failures. Two examples that come to mind are The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Master Blackmailer.

The former is a good example of Holmes beating himself up for his own perceived failure. Not able to realize quickly enough that a woman was to be buried alive in a coffin, he does manage to save her from this cruel fate, but not before she had become traumatized by the event. The latter represents Holmes' struggle with compromising morality for the sake of getting to the truth; donning a disguise to infiltrate an estate, he grew close to the staff to glean information, going so far as to become engaged to one of the servants, and ultimately leaving her high and dry when the role was no longer needed.

For a man who defines himself so much on his mental prowess and analytical thinking, any failure is nigh a mark against his very personhood. He considers both instances as representative of his inability to think quickly or creatively enough — one, to spare a woman of her trauma, and the second, to spare her a broken heart. (Because, despite what many believe, Holmes may not be a people person, but he is not cruel.) Do not doubt that while he is proud of his successes, he is ashamed of these black marks against his career, which in many ways stand out more amid them all. Because while he can see clearly what he would've done differently, how he might have come to faster realizations or handled things more delicately, there is no changing what has already been done, and he must live with that.

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting? How might this impact their ability to adapt and in what ways will they confront this challenge?

Remember when I wrote that the presence of John Watson was critical to Holmes’ success and well-being? Yeah.

He will miss having his partner around, first and foremost. That degree of stability and support will be absent, and while it will be simple enough at first to fill the void by keeping active, Holmes’ reliance on Watson will be felt thoroughly enough and to his own detriment. He does not have his sounding board, he does not have someone to work a case with him, someone he implicitly trusts and is trusted by in turn. “I am lost without my Boswell,” Holmes had once famously said, and he will feel quite lost, indeed, without him there.

However! In his early years, Holmes did manage some investigating before he met Watson, so it is not as though he is incapable — but he will feel stymied. Empirically, he will have lost a reliable resource. Emotionally, he will have lost the person who understands him best. But though he will not be able to replace that connection so easily, Holmes will attempt to create new connections in this equally new world, and, with any luck, will find similar nodes of reliability and emotional stability in others.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?

A large city with the potential for unsolved crime? Sign him up! Despite the alien circumstances and the lack of his usual support, throwing himself headfirst into his work will be the easiest way for him to adapt. The technology might be foreign and the world itself new, but criminal motivations are universal. The pillars behind the art of deduction remain unflagging. In fact, he is prone to losing himself in his work so much that he may pick up an understanding of newer technologies and forensic techniques faster than one would expect of a displaced Victorian man.

Also, his propensity for becoming depressive, morose, reclusive, and generally terrible to be around will be repressed because there will be plenty to keep his mind active. What possibly gives greater stimulation to the mind—even when lacking a case—but being stuck in a strange world with even stranger Fluxdrifts and natives present to observe, learn from, and maybe pry a gripping tale from?


Samples

Sample:
TDM TL (DIADEM)
CLOSED LOG (SEVEN HORRORS)