Richard Brook

Richard has learned quite a lot about this role he's taken on, some of it he's still not quite sure if he believes.

But when Sherlock — that other Sherlock; the really tall one — gave him those DVDs, Richard did what any sensible person would do. He took them home and watched them. The first two episodes seemed largely irrelevant, aside from the fact that they mirrored almost perfectly some of the things that were supposed to happen, or had already done. Just to be sure, Richard did look up as much as he could about the events. He couldn't find anything in the news about a cabbie that was gunned down by some mysterious sniper, and the closest thing he could find to resembling the string of serial 'suicides' was a string of overdoses that spanned the last four months.

Mr Holmes did say that he was friends with some detective or other, so it wasn't completely inconceivable to think that he might have actually taken Dr Watson on a few real cases. And the thought that Mr Holmes might have actually manufactured all of those deaths was one that never even came close to crossing Richard's mind.

The third episode, though. That's where things really began to get interesting. Of course, he recognised Jim right away as the IT specialist, and not just because the actor in this looked just like the Jim he'd met (and therefore, himself, which was still seriously odd). That character was also one that he was supposed to be learning, and it was a familiar scene, right down to leaving his number for Sherlock. He imagined that what he was seeing on the screen must be how this whole thing was supposed to look for Dr Watson, as well as the few other people who weren't in on the game.

By the time Jim came back on screen, Richard was on the edge of his seat. Even though he knew, vaguely, where the scene was going, it was still intense to watch from an outside perspective. It also raised questions that he hadn't even considered before. Questions he hoped he might be able to have answered.

And then it ended. Just like that. Of course, Richard had a good idea of what was going to come next. 'Irene' was going to call him, and he'd storm out, leaving Mr Holmes and Dr Watson alone in the pool. And then he'd disappear again until they were able to secure all the permissions for the bit with the crown jewels. But it still bothered him to not know what would actually come next. Assuming, of course, that thing would continue to follow the same path. Or even would do to begin with. He hadn't even made his appearance as Jim-from-IT yet, and wouldn't do for another couple of months. But the big notebook he'd been given had pages and pages of outline that detailed more or less exactly what he had just seen on the DVD.

He'd heard that things can be got from the Bar, if one just asks, so that was the first thing he did the next time he found himself there. At first Bar seemed reluctant to give him anything. She gave in eventually though, and gave him two more DVDs and a few books. The DVDs weren't from the same thing he'd watched earlier. These ones seemed Victorian, or perhaps some sort of steampunk, which seemed odd. But a quick glance at the books suggested that maybe a Victorian setting was the way it was actually meant to be.

Again, he found his character missing entirely from the first DVD, and while present in the second, not at all what he had expected. This guy seemed somehow less like he knew what he was doing, and more like he was relying on things to fall together (it also struck him as odd that he would have Irene killed, since Mr Holmes had told Richard that Jim's friendship with Irene was meant to be an old one). Apparently whoever made these movies didn't see things in quite the same light. And if Bar was trying to tell him something by letting him see this particular Moriarty, Richard chose to ignore any implications, as the Victorian version wasn't even close to the one he was meant to be playing.

And the stories in the books, Richard found to be a completely different thing still. Victorian, yes, and vaguely following some of what Mr Holmes had set up in places, but some of it seemed largely coincidental. And one thing he found absent in all three — at least, so far in the books; they were taking quite a lot longer to get through than a few DVDs — was the absence of anyone called Richard Brook.

Which, the more he thought about it, seemed like pretty damning evidence that he and Jim Moriarty couldn't exist in the same universe.