Sherlock Holmes

I have done my share of "irresponsible" things in the past, at least in the Yard's eyes. Burglary, for one.

I wouldn't say they were irresponsible though. I have always been perfectly willing to take responsibility for them, on the nonexistant improbable chance that I got caught. In any case, charges of burglary don't mean much to someone so well aquainted with Scotland Yard as I.

If I ever were to do something completely and really irresponsible, that had no consequences, I would involve Watson in some of my most dangerous cases, and not just the relatively safe ones.

I can think of nothing more irresponsible that I possibly could do than to put a friend at risk for my own benefit. If there were no consequences though? I would do it in a heartbeat. A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so, especially in those cases of extreme danger and difficulty. Not only would he be there to aid me, but could also write about the incident afterwards.

But in this world, alas, there are always consequences. This is why I had to send away my trusted Boswell before I engaged Moriarty at Reichenbach, and countless other occasions that I felt the danger to great to inflict upon any but myself.

What am I dissatisfied with most?

The criminals. The utterly simple and uninteresting criminals. Or perhaps more correctly, the lack of challenges they present me.

My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. Solving complex problems, chasing down crooks; that is the work I am made for. Without it, my mind rebels.

The criminals of London just don't present any sort of difficulty for me anymore. Oh, here and there a singularly interesting case will present itself, but nothing like when Moriarty ruled as the Napoleon of Crime.

( [private] )

In my line of work, I have crossed paths with many people who would have done better to have made a different choice somewhere along the line. I’ve seen women and men who put too much trust in spouses or employers, criminals who have made blunders, and Scotland Yard inspectors who’ve done the same. They all could have done with a change of mind.

Yet, if I could change anyone’s mind, about anything, it would my brother's.

Mycroft.

It is perhaps folly to even wish that he might change; he has his cycles and he does not deviate from them. Perhaps it is even more a folly, knowing as I do that his powers of reasoning and observation outstrip even my own ample talents, and if he put his skills towards the same object as myself, I would be quite out of the job!

Where to begin on Mycroft? He has the mind to be a winning detective, but is incapable of using it. He possesses not one spark of ambition or energy, those all important things that drive an investigator to follow up on theories and solve cases.

Often I have gone to him for his input on some problem of mine, and nearly always is he unerring. But that is not enough. A jury and judge will not accept theorizing as evidence - evidence must be sought out. And Mycroft has not the drive to do this.

My brother is lazy.

And I wish he weren’t. To see someone with so much potential waste it all, to see someone with absolutely no ambitions in life, no hobbies or interests...it is a terrible thing. Even at risk to my own livelihood, I would see him get out of his chair at the Diogenes club and actually do something, anything, that would give him a taste of the life he has missed while sitting in silence at his club.