Name: Charlie
Contact Info: allheartsarebroken (gmail) fluentindetail (aim) and charlieeee
Other Characters Played: N/A
Preferred Apartment: #1.002 (Preferably with John Watson)

Character Name: Sherlock Holmes
Canon: Sherlock (BBC)
Canon Point: Post His Last Vow
Background/History: Episode summaries.
Personality:

'Sherlock' is a modern adaptation of the original canon book series, Sherlock Holmes. As such, Sherlock largely stays true to his original counterpart, the only real difference being that it's all set in the modern day. For instance, Sherlock is well up to date with all things technical, he uses nicotine patches instead of smoking a pipe and he watches 'crap telly' (which he didn't do before John came into his life, might I just add).

Anderson: According to someone, the murderer has the case. And we find it in the hands of our favourite psychopath.
Sherlock: I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.
- Sherlock corrects Anderson, 'A Study In Pink'.

Sherlock defines himself by using medical jargon. He calls himself a high functioning sociopath (a term no longer used, as it's now grouped in with ASPD - Antisocial Personality Disorder - which suggests [under my own speculation] that Sherlock is simply spouting labels to see if anyone catches him out. They don't), which isn't necessarily a true diagnosis. It would be more accurate to say that he's either suffering from aspergers syndrome (given his acute obsession with puzzles, but not with people, and the way he watches others whilst feeling detached himself), Savant syndrome or even a slew of different definitions all rolling up into one thing to make Sherlock who he is. Suffice to say that it's not so simple as to place him into one category; people are much more complicated than that, and the diagnosis of sociopath is most likely something to throw people off of him, to stop them looking closely at something he doesn't want them to. It also gives him the benefit of being treated differently. If it is something like autism, he might still feel but he'll be unsure at what his emotions actually mean; either way, he's unsure about his own feelings and is likely more comfortable ignoring them all together, which makes him come across as almost robotic in his actions and his 'emotions'.

Moriarty: If you don't stop prying, I will burn you. I will burn the heart out of you.
Holmes: I have been reliably informed that I don't have one.
Moriarty: Oh, but we both know that's not quite true.
- Sherlock and Moriarty, The Great Game.

It seems that Sherlock has a limited emotional range. He feels excitement, pleasure and adrenaline, but it really takes John being tied up in explosives to see that somewhere in that cold, too-small heart, there's the smallest grasp at something close to companionship. Moriarty rightfully guesses that John is his heart - something Sherlock might not have seen before that moment, or at least, something he hadn't really considered before he'd been presented with the possibility. It's very telling that, as soon as Sherlock can, he strips John of his coat laced with explosives, adamantly asking if John's all right several times over - for someone so repeatedly level-headed in the midst of several crisis to show his nerves physically affecting him is quite a feat (if you watch closely, he starts waving his gun around in a fit of adrenaline, talking warily, and his hands are actually shaking!).

Sherlock: All right? Are you all right?
John: Sherlo- Sherlock, I'm fine.
- Sherlock panicking whilst he pulls John's coat off in 'The Great Game'.

His intelligence has always set him apart from everyone else (and I think that whilst this paragraph is mostly filled with speculation, it all works out until we meet the present day Sherlock Holmes). This means that he's always been regarded as 'odd', and it's a part he's literally fallen into. At a very young age, Sherlock learnt that he wasn't like everyone else, and he learnt that he had to make certain allowances to become like them. He learnt to fake smiles, he learnt that crying was an emotional response that lead others to feel sympathy for you, and he learnt that being intelligent wasn't necessarily a good thing. He built himself from the ground up, because that's what he had to do to be considered 'normal', and for a long while, he was content pretending. This is why he's so good at falling into someone else's shoes, faked or otherwise, because he's had a lot of practise pretending to be everyone other than himself. Being a genius certainly has its drawbacks, and to be a genius in the first place means that other things have to balance out the brilliance of the mind. For every excellent quality Sherlock has, he has a flaw to counter it.

Sherlock Holmes is nothing short of amazing. He has an eidetic memory, which is rare in of itself, and as a result of this, he can run through the various and erratic stages of his mind, often coming up with disjointed thoughts that eventually fit the big picture. He's always thinking, always above everyone else, always faster and always following something that seems improbable or even completely random to other people. To himself, his thoughts make perfect, logical sense, and he can't quite understand why people have such trouble keeping up with him. Because his mind is so much faster than the average person, he has to dumb himself down and explain things at every step, which is obviously irritating for him so he often ignores questions and concentrates on his own. It's obvious that he's not used to having a partner, and it does take him a while to get used to the idea of sharing thoughts aloud when he would usually just keep them to himself and start running off somewhere.

Being so intelligent can have some major problems, and Sherlock can't really cope at all when he's not got something to keep his brain working. He literally falls short, content to laze around on the couch wearing nothing other than his pyjamas until a new case falls into his lap. He won't go out searching for one, people have to come to him. He's been known to do a lot of strange things when cases are limited, such as experiment on decapitated heads, hit corpses with riding crops, put eyeballs in the microwave and he's even shot the wall, claiming that '(the wall) had it coming'. Whenever he's in one of his moods, it's usually best to leave him be, as no one can really get through to him. He sometimes goes for days on end without speaking a word, and it's also not a stretch to see him picking up his violin to cure his continuous boredom.

John: Who are you? What do you do?
Sherlock: I'm a consulting detective. The only one in the world - I invented the job.
John: What does that mean?
Sherlock: It means when the police are out of their depth - which is always - they consult me.
- Their first proper conversation in the back of a taxi, 'A Study In Pink'.

Sherlock is arrogant. There's no denying it, he has a definite sense of self, and he knows that he's smarter than most everyone around him. He doesn't necessarily go out of his way to prove just how intelligent he is, but he does, when the moment calls for it, berate and belittle those who fail to grasp his line of reasoning. He's different from everyone else in an obvious way; he sees things others don't pick up on, he can make conclusions about people he's never even met from the size of their shoes and he can assume elaborate stories from looking at a simple mobile phone. Because of all of these abilities, he knows that he's unique and that he's brilliant - the police haven't got a single hope in hell of solving the crimes Sherlock solves, and especially not at the rate he's been able to solve them. Sherlock is more than aware of how much the police need him, and that only adds to his excessive ego. Because he sees and regards himself so highly, he can and often will come across as cold. Sherlock is, by default, a cold and is often likened to a machine in the way that he pushes people out of his equations and concentrates, instead, on the puzzle at the heart of it all. He doesn't care for the people involved, only the problem and how it might be solved, and he does this without feeling any empathy for whoever's caught up within the middle of his games. As a result of all of this, he can appear to be stand-offish and unemotional at things that would move even the hardened of criminals; Sherlock is interesting because he understands emotions on a clinical, text-book level, but he doesn't quite grasp their meaning or what they are. He understands that love is a powerful and dangerous emotion, plagued by dopamine and other endorphins released in the brain, and it often leads to some of the most heinous crimes he's ever had the pleasure of solving. He also understands that hatred, whilst considered a powerful emotion, usually lays dormant until something more motivational, such as love, becomes involved. People, to Sherlock, are complicated creatures, so he feels the need to de-construct them down into strong emotions, which are easier to understand than meddling with the ones in between.

John: So why is he doing this then? Playing this game with you? Do you think he wants to be caught?
Sherlock: I think he wants to be distracted.
John: Well, I hope you'll be very happy together.
Sherlock: ...sorry, what?
John: There are lives at stake, Sherlock! Actual human lives! Just so I know, do you care about that at all?
Sherlock: Would caring about them help to save them?
John: No.
Sherlock: Then I'll continue not to make that mistake.
John: And you find that easy, do you?
Sherlock: Yes, very. Is that news to you?
John: No... no.
Sherlock: ... I've disappointed you.
John: It's good. It's a good deduction, yes.
Sherlock: Don't make people into heroes, John: heroes don't exist, and if they did I wouldn't be one of them.
- One of John and Sherlock's first real arguments from 'The Great Game'.

On a personal level, Sherlock is difficult. He's difficult to get to know, he's difficult to talk to, he's difficult to read and he's most definitely difficult to understand. He has no sense of depravity, he believes that everything in the flat is his to use as he pleases (including John's things, such as his laptop and his phone) and he hasn't quite grasped the concept of sharing. He doesn't go out of his way for anyone other than himself, he has no qualms with finishing off the milk and then letting John find out that morning that it's gone, he has no problems with making John go to the local supermarket to get their shopping. He's also not adverse to lying back and letting John bring said shopping up the stairs, through the flat, and then stack it into the kitchen all on his own either. He is, as Mycroft puts it, hellish to live with; he has no real sleeping pattern to speak of, he eats very rarely, he's been known to pick his violin up at three in the morning and scrape against the strings in annoyance, and most importantly, he's been known to do drugs.

Lestrade: And I didn't break into your flat.
Sherlock: Well, what do you call this, then?!
Lestrade: It's a drugs bust!
John: Seriously? This guy? A junkie? Have you met him?
Sherlock: John.
John: I'm pretty sure you could search this flat all day, and you wouldn't find anything you could call recreational.
Sherlock: John, you probably want to shut up. Now.
John: Yeah, but come on. [Eyes Sherlock] No.
Sherlock: What?
John: You?
Sherlock: Shut up! [Turns to Lestrade] I'm not your sniffer dog.
Lestrade: No, Anderson's my sniffer dog.
Sherlock: Wh- And-? Anderson, what are you doing here on a drugs bust?!
Anderson: Oh, I volunteered.
Lestrade: They all did. They're not, strictly speaking, on the drugs squad, but they're very keen.
- Sherlock, John and Lestrade talking about Sherlock's habits, 'A Study In Pink'.

Sherlock: Oh, so, what, you set up a pretend drugs bust to bully me?
Lestrade: It stops being pretend if they find anything.
Sherlock: I am clean.
Lestrade: Is your flat? All of it?
Sherlock: I don't even smoke.
- Sherlock and Lestrade continued, 'A Study In Pink'.

Sherlock has had past experience with the use of narcotics. Going by the original canon, Sherlock likely injected cocaine. Whilst cocaine isn't really injected much at all in this day and age, have we ever really known Sherlock to go by the norm of society? It largely depends on the type of high he's searching for, and injected cocaine gives him everything he wants (the high, the adrenaline - though instead of making him rush around, it gears his brain up so that he can think as he does on a case. It's been stated that he feels as though his mind rots when it's left to think on nothing, so cocaine is a way to alleviate that symptom). It also correlates to his thrill-seeking behaviour; those that have been addicted to cocaine show more signs of seeking out pleasure (like we see with Sherlock quite often), and one is never really rid of the effects of cocaine. Because of the high it gave the brain, it remembers and it wants that high back - this is why, after withdrawing from cocaine, people often go back to the drug, and why Lestrade doesn't necessarily believe that Sherlock's clean. It should also be noted that when Sherlock steers the conversation from his flat being cleaned, he shows obvious signs of avoidance - he refuses to answer the question, and instead, pushes it into another direction entirely.

Sherlock Holmes, in conclusion is a man that few would like to deal with. He's irritating, he's unusual, he's rude, he's arrogant and he's self-obsessed. But he's also brilliant, and when pushed, he can be shockingly loyal - especially to John, which is odd given Sherlock's general outlook on people. Their friendship is unlikely, insane, nonsensical and completely out of this world. And that's why it suits them both down to the ground.

Abilities/Powers:

The first thing to note about Sherlock Holmes is his intelligence. There's a reason he's known as the best literary figure throughout history; his logical mind is nothing to scoff at. He has the power to recall images without a single fault, he can recall words and how they're pronounced whilst simultaneously running through a dictionary in several different languages and he can link up logical facts from obvious clues scattered around the crime scene, and this is all within the confines of his own mind. Furthermore, he has the ability to observe things with an obsessive amount of detail; for instance, he's able to see and understand whether someone's left handed by taking a quick sweeping glance through their apartment, he can determine whether someone is lying by a series of mental cues he's trained himself to take notice of, and he can catch people out by listening to the phrases they've chosen to use. 

Sherlock holds the ability to slip into people's personalities as though they were a new wardrobe. He can change his mannerisms completely, the name Sherlock Holmes completely disappears in lieu of this new character. It's definitely a skill worth mentioning, as he really does change everything about him, from the way that he walks to the formidable air that seems to follow his every step. He can push out certain believable flaws, allowing him to act as though he's awkward or uncomfortable. He constructs a storyline within his head based upon the people he's talking with, and he can create everything up from the ground, such as his characters likes and dislikes, little quirks and the things that make them enthusiastic. He can (and will) drop these masks without any notice, becoming his stoic and expressionless self once he holds the information he set out to gain.

He has extremely steady hands, thanks to the more scientific side of Sherlock. He needs his hands to be as steady as possible, especially when working with dangerous chemicals and using pipettes to drop an exact amount of liquid into a certain other chemical. As a result of meticulously forcing his hands to be steady, when holding a gun, his aim is near perfect.  He's also studied a special type of martial arts called 'Bartitsu'. The general idea is that you assess your enemies strengths and use them against them, whilst simultaneously using the element of surprise. 

Sherlock Holmes has always had a gift with music. When he was a child, he picked up the violin and had found that playing was second nature to him; he's a modern day virtuoso, able to play anything by ear with skilled musicians fingers. The most interesting thing about Sherlock is that he could hear something playing in the background and only subconsciously take it in, and the next time he picks his violin up, he could be playing it with intricate additions of his own.

Not only can Sherlock use the language of music, he's very apt at multiple languages, though he's mostly keen and more accurate on the languages spoken in Europe.

At the end of his extensive list of amazing abilities is his innate knowledge of all things technical. He can touch type, he can somehow use the phone networks to text an entire room of people, and he's intelligent enough to be able to crack computer passwords with ease. 

Items/Weapons:

♛ violin & bow (inside a hard case - which also has a stash of cigarettes inside. Let me know if that's alright.)
♛ the gun he used in His Last Vow
♛ the knife used in Hound of Baskerville to stab the Cluedo board into the wall

He will also have the clothes on his back, which includes:
♪ the coat
♪ the hat
♪ the scarf
♪ the shoes
♪ the trousers
♪ the off white / blue shirt

Sample Entry:

_{[ Having found himself in an apartment complex he doesn't know, with a phone that's just bordering on ancient, Sherlock Holmes is a name he's weary of using (and he's certainly not ready to let people see his face). With the utmost amount of care, he carefully presses the receiver close to his mouth, and when he speaks, his accent is Irish and his voice is gruff. ]}

So, um. I'm new, which... is probably pretty obvious, isn't it? <sub>[ He fumbles with the phone but continues talking - naturally, his voice is somewhat distorted due to the fact that he keeps moving the damned thing. Clearly he's not used to calling people, or phones in general.

Or that's what he wants you to think. ]</sub>

Look, I just- what's the deal with these plants? I mean, sure, yeah, ok, we're all in an apartment welcome to your new life and all but this fucker keeps trying to grab my wrist and I'm not into that hentai shit, so. I don't know, man. Slashing at it isn't exactly keeping the brute at bay, y'know? Thanks.

<sub>[ And then the phone cuts off. ]

(( If you guys need a more Sherlock being Sherlock sample, there's one right here, though it's text and touches on nsfw things. ))</sub>

Sample Entry Two:

Log set just before The Sign of Three.