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CLOCKBOX APP
PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Gee
AGED 18+? 21!
RESERVED? Yep!
IN-GAME CHARACTERS: Invited by V
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: John Watson
CANON: Sherlock
CANON POINT: His Last Vow, at Sherlock’s parent’s house for Christmas prior to forgiving Mary.
ARRIVAL TYPE: Accidental!
IC USERNAME: DrJWatson
HISTORY: here ya go
PERSONALITY:
John Watson is an ex-army surgeon, both a doctor and a soldier, wounded in action and sent home after a tour in Afghanistan. He can take a life just as deftly as he can save one, and he’s best suited to do it all in high-pressure, high-risk environments.
He’s a mess of contradictions. John, addicted to danger and throwing himself into the fray, is also a fan of crap telly, sitting comfortably in an armchair with his laptop and spending at least two hours out of every month playing age old board games with his best buddy. John’s a proud man, and as such he’s highly conscious of people’s perceptions of him. He does his best to fit in, to paint himself to the world as an everyman, perfectly average in his behaviour, perfectly capable of doing normal people things like settling down in a nice home with a nice job and a nice wife - but he’s also spent a good chunk of his time boasting about his extraordinary adventures with the world’s only consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. He gives off the air of a man you could probably get along with - goes to the pub to watch the rugby with mates, greets patients with a smile and an amicable manner. He’s pleasant in doses: good sharp wit for conversation, polite enough where it matters, patient to a point. Half the time, somewhere to put his feet up, the newspaper and a decent cup of tea actually does it for him. Isolate him though, or force him to be that man for too long without an offset, and that whole image starts to unravel. It’s not just that he wants thrills, he actively needs them to remain properly operational in his regular facade.
Look for longer than a brief glance and you’ll find something a little less comfortable. John’s an abrasive man. His sense of humour is dark, unapologetically so, and he only sometimes bothers to hold his tongue when his mouth’s full of words meant at other people’s expense. Except with those closest to him (and often unwittingly with them too) he’s selfish with his use of people and careless with things that don’t rank amongst the top of his priorities: his mates are a convenient way to get out of the house and seem normal for a couple of hours; his string of past girlfriends were another great way to relax, boost his ego and keep up the act, and were consequently constantly dumping him when they realised he was never going to put them before his life with Sherlock. John even went so far as to allow a woman to pull him out of his depressive slump and then marry her, knowing full well he’d never be happy with a life of domestic bliss. He’s got a strong set of morals and standards and often seems to hold other people to them more than he applies them to himself - he’ll capriciously switch between claiming to adhere closely to his work ethic and falling asleep at his desk or tugging at a stranger’s beard at the slightest indication of something less boring. This side to John is a rude and impulsive with a quick temper and a sharp, silver tongue, and he fluctuates between these two personas - harmless, long-suffering doctor and acerbic man in his prime - with the frequency only a man who doesn’t realise there’s any disparity, or think that it’s any of his responsibility, can manage. Generally he means well, but he has his moments.
John’s moral code is strict but questionable. Human life is always important to him, worth saving and protecting and fretting over, fighting for however one can - it just so happens that sometimes some lives are slightly more vital than others, and John has no qualms in raising his weapon to shoot a man dead to keep those ones safe. He has a strong personal sense of justice that often doesn’t have much to do with the actual law and a strangely skewed idea of self-preservation. Constantly he’ll put himself in ever more dangerous situations in search of the blood pumping through his veins, and his loyalty, once given, is fierce enough that he’ll happily lay his life on the line at the word of or for the person he’s pledged himself to. He’s not afraid of death or the threat of pain. The things that scare him most are all internal.
Emotions are probably John’s biggest downfall - the vulnerability inherent in feeling too much and letting other people see terrifies him. Generally, he’ll convert any strong, painful or confusing emotion into something he understands how to handle; anger or jealousy, prone to flip-of-a-switch fits of fury and frustration that see him marching off or seething quietly to himself. If anyone assumes him to be in pain, he’ll more often lash out rather than let them see him hurting. Similarly, he’s bad at talking about anything that might require him to express feelings. It’s difficult: he’s always taught himself to hide anything that might show his hand or let people see too much of him, and so he struggles to say the important things.
Despite this, John is still a very emotional man. It comes through most strongly in his relationships with other people. Although it can take a lot to properly find a place in the incredibly select group of people John thinks of as family, once you’re in you’re in. He’s fiercely protective of those people who deserve it of him, expresses it in flash-fire verbal and physical defences and all the most dangerous parts of him ready to whoever might raise challenge. His care comes out in quieter ways: John is observant, learned to be both thanks to and before Sherlock, and he’s generally good at picking up on emotions. If you’re worth the effort, you can count on him to offer a pint, a piece of toast, or a stupid cat video of a kitten leaping and missing the table when you need it. Sometimes he’ll be wildly off the mark, but he’s a quick learner too, and he’ll figure it out.
Worst comes to worst, call him out on some of his shit, any of the extremely obvious emotional baggage he thinks he keeps so well buried, and he’ll probably ignore you for long enough that you won’t have to worry about him getting in your hair.
TL;DR, externally a pretty laid back, ordinary, cardigan-wearing sort of a guy. Actually an angry trash man full of old rotten angst that should’ve been emptied out years ago but is instead decomposing and functioning as fuel for the continuation of his shitty evasive behaviour cycle. See also: a human receptacle for every single feeling about Sherlock Holmes. He has all of them. Every feeling. They are suffocating. Free the feelings.
INVENTORY: The clothes on his back!
CHANGES: No need!
SAMPLES