Characters / Deliver Us from Evil Series

Heroes: Civilians

Sherlock Edward Holmes, Esq.

• Death Seeker: Played with - there are times that he does not want to die, and then there are times that he craves death.
• Disney Death: Twice. The Reichenbach Falls, of course, but the middle of Mortality also counts.
• Honorary Uncle: The Lestrade children consider him to be this. Yes, that is as ironic as it sounds.
• In Harm's Way: So often that Wiggins actually calls him out on this 'several times]].
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: It may be Adaptational Attractiveness, but Holmes is definitely this in the author's illustrations. He is also 6'2", a nod to Jeremy Brett.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Culverton Smith and Colonel Moran have to find this out the hard way. It's really not a good idea to make the Great Detective mad at you.

John Hamish Watson, M.D.

• Deadly Doctor: Eep, do not mess with Sherlock Holmes. You'll be very sorry you did.
• Determinator:
  "Porlock, there is no use in arguing the point. I shall search for Holmes. Whether you help me or not is your choice, but you shan't stop me — you have my word on that."
• Enemies with Death: He's a doctor. It's his job.
• Fake Nationality: In-universe. Watson speaks and acts like a Londoner but is a full-blooded Scot.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Never explicitly stated but heavily implied when he interrogates and then kills a Mook.

Mycroft Tristan Holmes, Esq.

• Aloof Big Brother: In terms of plot, only. In characterization, he has a definite...
• Big Brother Instinct: He's actually quite protective of Sherlock.
• Not So Stoic: Mycroft experiences nearly a full range of emotions in Mortality alone.

• Sharp-Dressed Man

Baker Street Irregulars

David "Davy" Jonathan Wiggins

• Calling the Old Man Out: Does to Holmes regarding his recklessness with his own safety. several times.
• Establishing Character Moment: Wiggins's first scene neatly establishes him as a sardonic, concerned Hyper-Competent Sidekick.
• The Lancer: To Holmes's, then Watson's, leadership.
• Promotion to Parent: Had to step up to be the man of the house and the father-figure to his siblings when his father abandoned them.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Davy is just 22, but he tends to act older (and, in some cases, wiser than his own employer). Though he has a mother and a home, he worked as a beggar and pickpocket before being hired by Holmes.

Peter Wiggins

• The Lancer: To his brother's leadership of the Irregulars.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Approximately 19 or 20, his backstory is the same as his brother's, barring Davy's Promotion to Parent.

Supporting Women

Mary Watson neé Morstan

• Establishing Character Moment: Mary's first scene sets and cements her sibling-esque relationship with Sherlock.

Rose Hudson

• Love Hurts: When her characterization finally starts coming through in Mortality, it's when she's acting very much like a surrogate mom to a very damaged Sherlock Holmes.
• Team Mom: Very much on the sidelines, but still there.

Annie Rebekah Lestrade neé Rhys

• Brainy Brunette: Annie is incredibly well-educated for a working-class woman, having largely taught herself through books. She can speak several languages aside from her native ones: French, German, Italian, and Breton, as well as classical Greek and Latin.
• Breakout Character: Annie was intended to be used extensively as the series progressed, but the unexpectedly enthusiastic response to her initial minor appearances in Mortality led to more scenes than originally planned.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dark hair, dark eyes, and fairly brown skin.
• Odd Couple: Not exactly a "fire and ice" deal with Geoffrey, but it's not far from the truth, either.
• One-Steve Limit: Played with. "Annie" is revealed to be the name of Sherlock Holmes's deceased fiancee.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: Subverted. Yiddish was her first language alongside English.

Heroes: Scotland Yarders

Geoffrey Michael Lestrade

• Consummate Professional: Or, in Holmes's own words, the "best of professionals."
• Dark Is Not Evil: Like Holmes, Lestrade is often described as "dark".
• Deadpan Snarker: Oh so much. The narrative from his Point of View tends to be very dry...
  Watson: (concerning Moran) I think you'd know him if you saw him, Lestrade. The man has a presence.
  Lestrade: Well, then, that limits our man to half the men in that room. Come along, let's get you back out there.
• Deuteragonist: As an Ascended Extra - Lestrade is one of the three major POV characters.
• Establishing Character Moment: The scene that introduces all of Mortality's Yarders (excepting Sean Youghal) establishes Lestrade as a dry-witted, Older and Wiser, generally world-weary Team Dad and Only Sane Man.
• Fake Brit: Another in-universe example, as Lestrade is a London-born Breton.
• Genre Savvy: When you've Seen It All, it's a little hard not to be Genre Savvy.
  Lestrade: I mayn't be a genius — I may even be an imbecile, as Sherlock Holmes is always so kind to point out — but I do know how criminals think.
• Heroic BSoD: When he believes Holmes to be dead - he suffers it again later on, in the aftermath of the raid.
• The Kirk: To Patterson's Spock and Gregson's McCoy.
• Odd Couple: As mentioned in the folder above, not exactly a "fire and ice" deal with his wife Annie, but not far from the truth, either.
• Older and Wiser: Combine Seen It All, Only Sane Man, and Team Dad, and you've very much got this.
• Only Sane Man: Whether he's interacting with the rest of the "Five-Man Band" or his own colleagues, he is so very much this (even when Watson's around).
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Lestrade is fairly short at 5'7", but he's also known to be a holy terror to his subordinates and colleagues alike when he's worked up.
  • Not to mention the fact that his dry wit is a superpower all of its own.
• The Quiet One: Another of Lestrade's superpowers - he's incredibly long-suffering.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Just watch his interactions with Wiggins.
• Seen It All: He's been on the London Met for over two decades, longer than most of his colleagues.
• Team Dad: He even considers himself something of a father-figure to Holmes.
• Tranquil Fury: He's The Stoic that you wouldn't like when he's angry.

Tobias Gregson

• Deadpan Snarker:
  Gregson: (concerning Patterson) Have to admit, I've always wondered what it would be like to have Sherlock Holmes as One of Us. Now I don't have to wonder, and I don't like it one bit.
• Dumb Blond: Inverted. Gregson is the Sherlock Holmes-acknowledged smartest man at the Yard.
• Establishing Character Moment: He is quickly established in his first scene as a smart, snarky Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Friendly Rival: Is this to Lestrade, who doesn't reciprocate the "rival" bit anymore.
• Insufferable Genius:
  Lestrade: Come off it, Tobias — you look like a thunderhead about to erupt.
  Gregson: Volcanoes erupt, Ferret Face. Thunderheads burst.
  Lestrade: What's going on in that bright head of yours, other than the incessant need to demonstrate your superior knowledge?
• The McCoy: Surprisingly so, but Patterson seems to bring out the trait in him. (Canonically, Lestrade and Gregson are more like The McCoy and The Spock, respectively - even in Mortality, they go back and forth as needed.)
  Gregson: [Patterson] could have had enough consideration for the poor Doctor to make his announcement less abruptly.

Daniel Patterson

• Ascended Extra: From one mention in "The Final Problem" to supporting character.
• The Cynic: Then again, he's rather entitled to it, after all the years he's spent undercover in the underbelly of Victorian London.
• Establishing Character Moment: Patterson's is the most concise, introducing him as cynical, sarcastic, cold, and something of an in-universe Expy to Sherlock Holmes. In other words, a true Knight in Sour Armor.
• Foil: Patterson to Holmes, rather as a deconstruction of the popular image of Sherlock Holmes, in-universe but also in Real Life.
  Word of God: I think that by Patterson living the image Holmes attempts to project, it makes Holmes that much more human.
• Hero of Another Story: He's spent most of his career - fifteen years at least - investigating Moriarty.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Often described from Lestrade's Point of View as icebergs or chips of ice, with just as much emotion.
• Insufferable Genius: So much so, in fact, that Sherlock Holmes actually decides to cut back on his own arrogance whilst around Watson and Lestrade in the future!
• Sherlock Scan: He can do this just about as well as one of the Holmes brothers.
• The Spock: To Lestrade's Kirk and Gregson's McCoy, as far as team dynamics go... Really, he's just The Spock, period.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets this from Lestrade and Gregson a few times in Mortality alone.

Roger Bradstreet

Harold Morton

Stanley Hopkins

• The Knights Who Say "Squee!":
  Hopkins: (solemnly) "Sherlock Holmes, detective genius forever and ever, world without end, Amen." (winks at MacDonald)

Athelney Jones

Alec MacDonald

• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Lestrade holds that MacDonald and Hopkins are Sherlock Holmes's biggest fans, John Watson aside.

Sean Youghal

• Ascended Extra: Word of God states that Sean is actually the Inspector Youghal mentioned in "The Mazarin Stone". Mortality takes place twelve years before MAZA.

Villains

Professor James Richard Paul Moriarty

• The Corrupter: He wanted to be this for Sherlock Holmes. Fortunately for the world, Holmes was rescued by The Cavalry.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He calls out Culverton for killing his step-nephew.
• Evil Genius: He's not just a Diabolical Mastermind - he's an astrophysicist as well, one far ahead of his time.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Even from his own brother.
• The Man Behind the Man: To the Red-headed League, Culverton Smith, and purportedly many others.
• Odd Friendship: Played with. He trusts Moran more than anyone else of his subordinates, but he makes it very clear that Moran is a subordinate. Their dynamics are pretty much as "fire and ice" as it gets.
• The Syndicate: He's not just the Diabolical Mastermind - he IS The Syndicate.

Colonel Sebastian Moran

• Even Evil Has Standards: Turns out that Moran does have some respect for the holiness of Christmas.
• Refuge in Audacity: How he survives after disobeying Moriarty...
  Moran: “Professor, I do not enjoy disobeying your orders. But I could not, in good conscience, carry that one out. Not at that time.”
  Moriarty: “And what does that make you, Colonel? A soldier with a heart?”
  Moran: “I hope so, sir. It would be deucedly difficult to live without one.”

Culverton Smith

• Ambiguously Brown: Undoubtedly from so much time in the tropics - Holmes thinks that he could almost pass for a native of Sumatra due to his coloring.
• Deadly Doctor: Played with, as he has all the knowledge of a Ph.D. without actually having acquired his doctorate (or even an M.D.) due to financial difficulty.
• Evil Uncle: Out of Greed for his half brother's estate. Called out on this by the Big Bad, himself.
• Serial Killer: Officially called a "multiple murderer" and unofficially labeled a monster by Holmes himself.
• You Have Failed Me: Gets a verbal, non-lethal form of this from Moriarty, along with a second chance. He blows it.

Minor Characters

Fred Porlock

Major Dick Sharon

• Tranquil Fury: Upon learning of Holmes's captivity and Moran's hand in it, Sharon is described as being quietly outraged.

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