time to be a Consulting Holmes Expert

[InspectorCaracal]

I have a Challenge for y'all

I don't believe there is a single personality trait or characteristic of Holmes or Watson that's stated or presented within the post-1923 stories that I cannot find pre-existing examples of in not just the public domain works, but the works published before 1900.

PROVE ME WRONG.

edit: physical characteristics that are the result of events post-1900 obviously don't count

[thiskurt]

Before 1900? How about this: an interest in bees.

[InspectorCaracal]

Before 1900? How about this: an interest in bees.

*narrows eyes* Chronology-based hobbies don't count and you KNOW it. But fine you can mark that as a win if you want lol

[skysailor]

Alright, then. Let's start with The Adventure of the Creeping Man.

• Watson is Holmes's drug.

  The relations between us in those latter days were peculiar. He was a man of habits, narrow and concentrated habits, and I had become one of them. As an institution I was like the violin, the shag tobacco, the old black pipe, the index books, and others perhaps less excusable. When it was a case of active work and a comrade was needed upon whose nerve he could place some reliance, my rôle was obvious. But apart from this I had uses. I was a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him. He liked to think aloud in my presence. His remarks could hardly be said to be made to me - many of them would have been as appropriately addressed to his bedstead - but none the less, having formed the habit, it had become in some way helpful that I should register and interject. If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble rôle in our alliance.

• Watson has a "not inconsiderable" medical practice.
• Holmes has hired a person named Mercer, a "general utility man who looks up routine business".
• Holmes thinks people should not try to transcend "Nature" and believes in destiny?
• Spoiler

  Holmes is very against access to life-extending medicine and is a bit of a spiritual eugenicist

  There is danger there - a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher. It would be the survival of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not our poor world become?

[skysailor]

OOC: The beginning of The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire feels so much like it should be the beginning of a fanfic... I hope someone has taken this one and written stories with actual vampires with it.

OOC: 46 OLD JEWRY

Nov. 19th.

Re Vampires

Sir,

Our client, Mr Robert Ferguson, of Ferguson & Muirhead, tea brokers, of Mincing Lane, has made some inquiry from us in a communication of even date concerning vampires. As our firm specializes entirely upon the assessment of machinery the matter hardly comes within our purview, and we have therefore recommended Mr Ferguson to call upon you and lay the matter before you. We have not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.

We are, Sir,

Faithfully yours,

MORRISON, MORRISON, AND DODD

per E.J.C.

[skysailor]

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire:

• It was one of the peculiarities of [Holmes's] proud, self-contained nature that, though he docketed any fresh information very quickly and accurately in his brain, he seldom made any acknowledgement to the giver.

• Watson once played Rugby for Blackheath when he was in his physical prime

[InspectorCaracal]

Oooh, these are gonna be FUN. A couple of them are situational or biographical facts, not character qualities, so they're not really what I was talking about, but I'm excited to dig into the rest. I'll report back within the next 24 hours.

p.s. I can already tell I'm gonna wax Literary Criticism on a couple of those so y'all get to look forward to that lol

[skysailor]

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

• Holmes has a habit of spending several days in bed from time to time
• Holmes would kill someone if they killed Watson and also has a deep loyalty and love for Watson that he masks continuously.
  Spoiler

  'You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!'
  
  It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
  
  'It's nothing, Holmes. It's a mere scratch.'
  
  He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.
  
  'You are right,' he cried, with an immense sigh of relief. 'It is quite superficial.' His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. 'By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?'

[thiskurt]

Before 1900? How about this: an interest in bees.

*narrows eyes* Chronology-based hobbies don't count and you KNOW it. But fine you can mark that as a win if you want lol

CLEAN VICTORY!

[skysailor]

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client:

Both Holmes and I had a weakness for the Turkish Bath. It was over a smoke in the pleasant lassitude of the dryingroom that I found him less reticent and more human than anywhere else.

"[Holmes is] a bit of a single-stick [fighting] expert"

"There was a curious secretive streak in [Holmes] which led to many dramatic effects, but left even his closest friend guessing as to what his exact plans might be. He pushed to an extreme the axiom that the only safe plotter was he who plotted alone. I [Watson] was nearer him than anyone else, and yet I was always conscious of the gap between."