Application for The Dark Fields

[formersurgeon]

PLAYER
Name: Kitty
Over 18: Y
Contact: herekitty
Current Characters: N/A

CHARACTER
Name: Joan Watson
Journal: formersurgeon
Age: 45, but it's hard to tell exactly how old she is. With the right makeup she could pass for a woman in her twenties.
Canon: Elementary
Canon point: End of season 6
Abilities:

Deduction
Joan is extremely observant and able to use her observations to "solve" things, be they cases or people. (Note: I will only use this ability on other players with their permission.)

Medical training
Joan is a trained surgeon. She is unlikely to perform surgery outside of absolute life-or-death circumstances, but she can still do things such as suture a wound, diagnose a disease, or recommend (not prescribe) medication.

Combat
Joan is trained in a number of forms of combat, including boxing, baton, and single stick.

Lockpicking
Joan can quickly and efficiently pick most locks.

Pickpocketing
Joan can quickly and efficiently pick most pockets. Or lift someone's watch.

Hotwiring
Joan can unlock a locked car door and hotwire the car to start without a key.

Bilingual
Joan can speak Mandarin, although not as well as her mother would like.



Personality:

Joan Watson is a short woman with long black hair that she often wears in a sensible ponytail, an athletic build that she maintains through a daily six mile run, and skilled hands with closely manicured nails and softened skin, both habits acquired during her career as a surgeon. She has an almost effortless sense of style, preferring muted colors and soft fabrics, and when she's not wearing running shoes, she's always wearing heels. Always. Even her snow boots have heels.

Joan carries herself with a nearly unshakable sense of self confidence. She's soft spoken in most situations, but has no qualms with raising her voice and becoming confrontational when necessary. In most cases, though, she presents a calm demeanor even when she is sad or angry or afraid. It's a method of self-preservation, not allowing others to see her rattled, as well as not allowing herself to get flustered and make stupid mistakes. The major downside to this is that she can have trouble being vulnerable in her relationships. Sometimes things can be seriously wrong, and instead of opening up to those who love her she will double down on her work, isolating herself.

One of the main reasons for this instinct to work harder when things are wrong is the fact that doing her best in whatever she does is very important to Joan, and she has an impeccable work ethic to show for it. Anything Joan considers worth doing, she is determined to do well. She was valedictorian of her class in medical school, and a talented surgeon before the mistake that cost the life of her patient and her confidence as a doctor. When she became a consulting detective, she dove into that work as well, becoming a talented investigator.

One of the things that drew Joan to Sherlock's work in the first place is what Sherlock called her "affinity for the bizarre." Even before meeting the detective, Joan, much like Sherlock, had a skill for noticing things that were unusual, out of place, as well as for reading people. These skills enabled her to help Sherlock on his cases early on in her work with him as a sober companion, and attracted Sherlock's interest in her from the beginning as worthy of further instruction. Her work with him as an investigator has helped sharpen these skills considerably, and she uses them in just about every situation, from cases to interactions with friends, colleagues, and family members.

Doing right by the people she cares about is also very important to Joan. She is a devoted daughter, a devoted sister, and a devoted friend. However, one consequence of this aspect of her personality, particularly where it intersects with her drive to do her best, is that she has a tendency to shoulder a lot of guilt. Sherlock has helped her considerably by showing her that the death of her patient, the defining moment in her life pre-Sherlock, was an accident. However she has still taken on quite a bit of guilt during her time as a detective, such as for the death of her boyfriend Andrew when he accidentally sipped a hemlock-laced latte that was meant for her, and for the death of Shinwell, a former patient she befriended and whose life she was trying to help reform.

Romance-wise, Joan has come to the conclusion that a relationship just won't work for her. Spending the vast majority of her days and nights, weeks and weekends on the work, there just isn't room for a romantic relationship. And after Andrew died because of her...she couldn't risk that happening again. However, she has learned from Sherlock that sex doesn't have to be limited to romantic relationships, that there is value in casual, almost transactional sex, based on mutual respect and satisfaction. So Joan, like Sherlock, has had a number of "exercise partners," men that she invites into her bed for a night and then sends on their way in the morning.

Last but far from least, there is her relationship with Sherlock. Sherlock is the most important person in her life, not only her companion and partner but also her closest friend. She is deeply loyal to him, and to the work they do together. Their partnership is absolutely paramount, and she will do whatever she can to maintain it, including following him to London after he is expelled from the United States for taking the rap on a murder charge to protect her. The two of them have recognized that they love each other deeply, a strong platonic love that defines both their lives. If she is without Sherlock, she will feel a deep void in her life, like something important is missing, even if she doesn't know what.

Canon history: Wiki

Alternate memories:

Jingyi (Joan's Chinese name...she still goes by Joan outside her community) was born in Chinatown to first generation Chinese-American parents. Her father was a Chinese medicine practitioner, and although Jingyi had an older brother, he was a ne'er-do-well and had no interest in medicine, so it was Jingyi who helped her father from a very young age. She was intelligent and curious, and had read all of her father's medical texts by the time she was seven, so started checking medical books out of the library. Her parents were very proud of her and even started saving up money to send her to medical school.

Then her father died, and everything fell apart. Jingyi, twenty-five at the time, tried to take over her father's clinic, but the more traditional Chinese patients thought her too American, while the less traditional patients began seeing Western doctors. She had to shutter the clinic two years after her father's death, and with debts piling up, no help from her brother Lian, and her mother in poor health, she started taking whatever jobs she could find, just to keep money coming in. There were a few patients here and there that she still cared for, visiting them in their homes, but for the most part she worked minimum wage jobs at restaurants and shops, usually more than one at a time. At times she was tempted to take jobs that were...less that legal. As a child, an uncle who was a locksmith taught the clever and curious Jingyi how to pick locks, and Jingyi herself learned how to pick pockets from a book. She managed to not resort to using those skills to get the money she needed so they didn't starve, but it was a near-constant temptation.

When the Dragon's Den opened Jingyi went looking for work there, fully aware that would entail more than just waiting tables; she would be on the menu for the right price. She didn't care...it would put food on the table and heat the tiny apartment she shared with her mother and brother.

Then Lian was arrested for drug possession, and when Jingyi arrived at the station to bail him out the cops took her into a back room and made her a deal: she would be their inside guy at the Dragon's Den, reporting to them everything she saw and heard, or they would throw the book at her brother and let him rot in jail.

She took the deal. She had no choice.

Now she's trapped, working for the club and for the police, her mother's health continuing to deteriorate, her brother still desperately addicted to opium. It's probably only a matter of time before she's found out...

Plans for your character:

I would like to have Joan caught between two worlds, working for the Dragon's Den and part of the illegal activity that goes down there while at the same time feeding information to the corrupt police force to protect her brother. She'd be in constant danger of discovery. I would also like to have her investigate the murders, perhaps because she knows one of the victims.

Inventory: A telescopic baton, a set of lockpicks, vinyl examination gloves, evidence baggies.

SAMPLES
Sample 1: Joan's boyfriend Ted is kidnapped

Sample 2: Joan is the last person on earth. Or so she thought.