[center][color=silver][sup][i]Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in...[/i][/sup][/color][/center]
[COLOR=SLATEGRAY][CENTER][sup][h1][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/lqBwuez.png[/img][/center][b][center][color=black] S H A D O W O F   T H E   B A T[/color]
[color=lightgray] S H A D O W   O F   T H E   B A T[/color][/center]
[/b][/h1][/sup]
[/CENTER][table][row][/row][row][cell][center][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color] [/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Strand_paget.jpg[/img]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   S U M M A R Y[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[sub][COLOR=darkgray]John H. Watson | Sherlock Holmes[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup] 
[COLOR=darkgray]Consulting Detective[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]Scotland Yard[/COLOR]
[sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=darkgray]Multiverse 221B[/COLOR]   [b]|[/b]   [COLOR=darkgray]Inquire about Collaboration[/COLOR][/sub][/center]
[indent][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   N O T E S[/color]
[color=lightgray]C H A R A C T E R   N O T E S[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][hider=][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[indent][sub][b][color=lightgray]   M I S C E L L A N E O U S[/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[COLOR=darkgray][color=lightgray][b]►[/b][/color] Core Cast[/color]
Sherlock Holmes
Mycroft Holmes
John H. Watson
Mary Watson, nee Morstan
Mrs. Hudson
Inspectors Lestrade, Gregson, and Jones
Bruce Wayne
Commissioner Gordon
[COLOR=darkgray][color=lightgray][b]►[/b][/color] [url=https://i.imgur.com/IkP6fHH.png]Wayne/Kane Family Tree[/url][/color][/sup]
[color=#2e2c2c]-[/color][/indent][/hider][/INDENT][indent][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P O S T   C A T A L O G[/color]
[color=lightgray]P O S T   C A T A L O G[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[INDENT][hider=][color=#2e2c2c]-[/color]
[indent][sub][b][color=lightgray]   P O S T   C A T A L O G[/color][/b][/sub]
[sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
The Adventure of the Dutch Diamonds	
[COLOR=darkgray]◼[/COLOR][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5499994]Part I[/url]
[COLOR=darkgray]◼[/COLOR][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5504374]Part II[/url][/SUP]
[color=#2e2c2c]-[/color][/indent][/hider][/INDENT][/cell][cell][INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] W H A T   I F...?[/color]
[color=lightgray]W H A T   I F...?[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][indent][i]What if Sherlock Holmes met the Batman of the 1800s?[/i]

Dear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,

It is my sincerest hope this letter finds you well. I write you now to congratulate you on the success of your most recent novel, [i]The Maracot Deep[/i]. Once again sir, you have proven yourself a masterful storyteller. Your prose remains as illuminatory as ever, with your particular attention to the vast seas and the handcrafted details with which you suffuse your Atlantean culture. I am reminded as ever, of how I could not have picked a more exemplary editor or agent for my [i]Sherlock Holmes[/i] stories.

It is on the subject of Holmes I write as well. As you know from our correspondence on ‘[i]His Last Bow[/i]’, rheumatism has crept upon me in my old age. As a consequence of this affliction, I have been forced to give up the pen, spare the occasional correspondence, though once Holmes passed on I found little reason to continue, even with such trifling writings. I had few to correspond with, spare yourself, though I know you to be embroiled in the dramas and grand motions of the ever shifting literary world, leaving you little time to respond to one who has not been in that world in decades. Instead, I cherished what time I had left with my Mary, she as gray and wrinkled as I, yet as radiant as the day we met. I thank you for your letter of condolence for her loss from last year, though I failed to reply to it. You may have thought my response lost in the throes of my grief, but on the contrary, it has remained upon the top of my mind.

Each time I take up my pen in these gnarled knuckles to begin my epistle, even as pain flares through my fingers, I am drawn back to my halcyon adventuring days with Holmes, and the plethora of stories I submitted to your humble office -- but most of all, I remembered those stories which I did [i]not[/i] submit. Despite the breadth of my oeuvre, there are those cases which I or Holmes had deemed unfit for public consumption. 

As you know, Holmes and I often altered or omitted details in our submissions, as to better protect and preserve the privacy and dignity of affected parties. You will recall, for instance, the legendary scandal centered around the photographs in possession of one Irene Adler, in reality photographs of His Majesty Edward VII, late of Great Britain, whom we disguised as the king of the fictitious nation of Bohemia. Nevertheless, there are still stories which we elected not to submit even in modified form, deeming them unsuitable for mass publication.

The reasons for such omissions are as multitudinous as they are varied. In many instances, this was owed less to our discretion and more to the singular natures of the cases, which we deemed to be of a quality so implausible or, indeed, even absurd, as to defy reason and beggar belief. These events, queer as though they may appear, are nonetheless as real as Holmes’s battles with the infamous Dr. Moriarty, and had an equally profound impact upon my late companion’s career.

Despite the profundity of these cases, and the soundness of my past motivations to conceal them, as I advance in age, one collection of such cases lays restless in the belfry of my mind, and inspires my fingers to burn not with the pain of my condition, but with the blazing desire to record it for posterity, and, indeed, perhaps share it with the world.

As fantastical as the cases herein may be, at their heart lies an ultimately flawed, vulnerable man, as human as Holmes or I, whom is just as deserving of our discretion and respect, if not more so, than any individual I have protected within my prose.

You may recall hearing news of the ‘Bat of Gotham’, an anonymous vigilante and detective whose powers rivaled or even exceeded those of Holmes. Indeed, you may even recall his brief appearance in London, much noted in many major publications. Though these events were seemingly unrelated to the exploits of my friend and I, this was yet another clever omission. For in reality we had undertaken a collaboration with the so-called ‘Batman’, and forged an enduring secret partnership. 

We would encounter the Bat many times hence, and over the course of our campaign, we came to know his innermost secrets. Included amongst these secrets, and indeed amongst fantastical details of the enclosed cases, is the true identity of the Bat, which Holmes, Mary, and I finally uncovered during our extended stay in Gotham some years ago.

Thus, attached to this letter you shall find a new Sherlock Holmes manuscript, entitled ‘The Shadow of the Bat’. Given the sensitivity of the details contained within this report, it is not to be published until the year of our Lord 1939, or after my passing, whichever should come first.

The tale begins, as ever, in 221B Baker Street, on a cool summer’s evening in the year of 1890…

-John H. Watson M.D., July 1929
[/indent][/COLOR]
[INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color]
[color=lightgray]P L O T ( S )   &   G O A L ( S )[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][INDENT]I have been reading [i]a lot[/i] of Holmes lately. Over the last year or two I’ve been through the originals twice and several series of pastiches. Comic book fan that I am, I wondered if the Great Detective had ever crossed over with Batman, only to find only two such official instances. One features Holmes as a decrepit, impossibly old man, essentially saving the day at the end of one of Batman’s cases. The other is an episode of Batman the Brave and the Bold in a tale with elements of time travel. I want to tell a story that is slightly more grounded than either of these tales (no magic anti-aging honey and no time travel), but also one thats able to take more time to get more out of the premise. In the comic Holmes is only there for a few pages, and in the show, only a single episode. I think told in this fashion, I can plumb greater depths of both characters, holding them up as mirrors to one another. Batman is nominally an update of Holmes, so I think it will be very instructive to measure those ways they do and don’t match up. As well, I hope to have Holmes encounter a handful of other curious comic characters, each made Victorian in their own ways.[/INDENT][/COLOR][/cell][/row][/table][hr][/COLOR]