Alice
in which we meet Anthea-of-many-faces
Sometimes, she is Alice. Alice is a charmer, with an abundance of wit and a sweet smile. Her attire is always tasteful, her every movement subtly graceful. Insightful and charismatic, she usually manages to make a good impression to all the right people. She wields carefully-crafted words and a pretty smile as one would a lock-picking kit, using them to garner trust and information from others. Beneath her alluring veneer, however, Alice possesses a keen sense of competition. While she often struggles to prevent her competitiveness from becoming a distraction, it allows her to strive for a degree of flawlessness in her work. She supposes that, as Alice, she is both a thief (though what she steals is usually intangible) and a manipulative liar. It is a necessary and common evil, she admits, although she secretly revels in Alice and her brilliant social competence. She reserves Alice for particularly delicate assignments or for necessary forays into the explosive world of socialites and the prominent (but once in a while, she is Alice on an ordinary day, musing about the difference between being alone and being lonely).
Joanna is plain but vivacious. Her liveliness, possibly the most distinguishing thing about her, remains well-hidden beneath a front of passivity and tedium. She remains mostly unadorned, but she wears snaking bracelets of metal chain around both wrists (as a reminder of her trappings of normalcy), half-hidden by long sleeves. She wears formal shirts and pants in simple, neutral colours and screens her impassive face behind her Blackberry or a newspaper, acting the part of a mindless, insipid drone. However, she texts and reads with brisk efficiency and considerably more insight than the average government employee. Indeed, even as she lounges, she is prepared to spring into action at the slightest signal. When she moves, she does so promptly and confidently; yet, in the next instant, she appears docile and ordinary once again. Onlookers may wonder if they really saw the woman move at all. Truly, she likes being Joanna. Joanna is both steady and fierily unpredictable beneath her apparent blandness. She is the perfect way to hide in plain sight.
When she needs indefatigable strength, she can resort to Matilda. Matilda is severe and disciplined, intolerant of humour or play of any sort. She dresses grimly in dark colours and keeps her hair pulled tightly back. Matilda wears a silver cross around her neck as a symbol of steadfast faith (but not the faith most people assume it refers to). Her face is a study in stoicism and her voice and hands are unfaltering despite the daily stress she is confronted with. She is a resilient woman, who neither indulges nor pardons friends and foes alike. Matilda is recourse when she is weathered down, unable to manage an unusually aggravated and remorseless Mr. Holmes (almost always due to worry for or provocation from his younger brother). However, she never remains as Matilda for long. No, with such earth-bound strength comes some degree of hard-headed inflexibility, inevitably leading to fatal mistakes. Despite this, Matilda is the strongest, and she is one of the rare few who can deal with the volatile inferno that is her employer's temper in its entirety without being burned by his flames.
Olivia can only be described as cold and callous. When she is Olivia, people call her "ice queen" as though it should affect her in some way. It doesn't. They really shouldn't expect it to. Olivia is rough and seemingly heartless but remains as diligent about her work as ever, using steely focus to accomplish her tasks without risking emotional compromise or attachment. To this end, Olivia is brisk, callously professional, and ruthless when necessary. She knows how to make others uncomfortable and uses this to great advantage, crafting the uneasiness she engenders in most people into a tool in order to goad, provoke, and coerce her targets. She is not above causing a few people pain in order to maintain the order of society or the government. As Olivia, she operates under the idea that the end justifies the means. She knows that Mr. Holmes is conflicted about her being Olivia (she sees it in the way he is unconsciously harsher and even malicious towards her when she is Olivia, the way he frowns when she arrives at the office with Olivia's stony expression fixed upon her face, the way he steadfastly avoids his own frigid nickname). However, she suspects it would be rather unwise to voice her thoughts on this matter and, accordingly, holds her tongue. She refuses to allow her employer's unusual bias towards Olivia to interfere with her interaction with him or her work (even so, it is a struggle not to flinch when he spits out her name as though it is poison). As such, she does not enjoy being Olivia, but it is an inescapable part of her job.
Occasionally, she entertains the notion of contesting with Mr. Holmes's younger brother as Olivia (just to see who would win in a contest of "not caring" as the man calls it).
Samantha is a colourful ornament for her employer's arm, displayed flashily at parties where people only know of Mr. Holmes as "some minor bureaucrat." Samantha appears an unambitious secretary, with a seemingly empty head and a flirty, freely-given smile. She wears short party dresses and impractically high heels, flitting along at the side of her employer, arm in bangle-covered arm. Without a single visible speck of intrigue about her, she is merely another pretty face in the crowd (even though she knows that she is not the only pretty face in the room that secrets throwing knives under her dress). Her role is to distract and disguise, allowing the two of them to blend into the crowd as yet another negligible government worker and his attractive secretary-turned-date for the evening. Samantha is only skin-deep; after all, she must never be so foolish as to turn a blind-eye to her employer's safety. She does not particularly like being Samantha, especially when she must paint her face so copiously for appearances and smile and laugh so much that it aches afterward. Honestly, she feels exposed in Samantha's short dress and outrageous heels, with only a few knives between her and the world. No, she doesn't like being Samantha at all, but she will do it if it gets the job done.
Most perilously of all, there is Anthea. Anthea is meticulous and spontaneously laconic, but she is ever so competent. She is the one Mr. Holmes trusts to escort his "visitors" to meetings with him from the back of their sleek, black car. After all, Anthea is very clever. She borrows a trick from dear Joanna and keeps her Blackberry glued to her hands at all times before company. They think she isn't paying attention, and they never suspect the true depth of her ability to multitask. Tapping at her mobile continuously with nimble fingers, she maintains a careful watch over certain sensitive government affairs whilst relaying observations of her current guest(s) to her employer. The driver of the car may be different for each visitor, but Anthea is always the one waiting in the backseat.
Anthea takes care of Mycroft Holmes. She is the one who arranges his schedule, makes his tea, and enforces his diet. She is the one who assists him in acquiring a Christmas gift for "Mummy" each year, and she is the one who can divert him when he is on a path to destruction. She is not as strong as Matilda, who uses pure solidity to stop him in his tracks, but she is the only one who can reason with him and emerge victorious. She exudes calmness and quiet humour and is an expert at distraction. It was never part of her job description, but she finds that she would not relinquish this duty for the world (she trusts no one else).
Anthea is dangerous, even if her appearance says nothing more than "high-end personal assistant." She keeps guns and knives on her person at all times, and is a better shot than her employer could ever hope to be. She dresses smartly in all-black with a ring on one finger that serves a purpose similar to Matilda's cross. She knows too many ways of incapacitating a person and has the uncanny ability to turn just about anything into an effective weapon (her heels, for example).
Anthea is dependability intermixed with thrill. Sometimes, she is Anthea, and it is absolutely exhilarating.
Sometimes, she is Alice.
Disclaimer: I certainly do not own any part of BBC's Sherlock or the original works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This fanfiction is not being used for profit or other such nefarious purposes.
Notes: So, this is my first foray into the world of Sherlock. I don't quite know why I like the character of (Not) Anthea so much...
This will be a multi-chaptered work, but most chapters will likely be standalone stories or drabbles and such. Also, as I live in the US, my knowledge of British customs and lifestyle is rather poor. Feel free to point out my spelling differences, Americanisms, misconceptions, and other general mistakes as well. Any opinion you might provide is quite welcome.
This specific chapter is also an experiment in the stylistic use of parentheses (I normally never use them) and paragraph spacing. I will be trying out many other writing devices in the chapters to come.
Thank you very much for reading!