December 23
From Domina Temporis: Celebrate the holidays with Moran and Moriarty
For Moriarty, the holiday season was a waste. Economically, it did not make sense in his calculations. Hard working peasants spent money they didn't have to purchase gifts for people that didn't need them. It was a misappropriation of precious resources. The great arachnid of crime organisation didn't understand why human societies propagated the tradition. He preferred to ignore the whole fiasco and spent the holiday hours quietly drawing up his mathematical calculations and plotting his nefarious schemes.
~o~
Colonel Sebastian Moran was educated at Eton College and Oxford University before embarking on his military career. He was a devoted sportsman and distinguished himself as a highly skilled marksman. Although he was forced to retire from the army, his courage and daring were never questioned after he reportedly crawled down a drain after a wounded man-eating tiger.
Moriarty saved each scrap of news reported on the man. He read the man's books 'Heavy Game of the Western Himalayas' c. 1881 and 'Three Months in the Jungle' c. 1884 several times, lapping up the drops of inference from the narratives. The Colonel strolled the streets of London with a veneer of a gentleman's respectability but underneath, the genius of the dark underground criminal network spied a monster. Here was a man untamed, ravenous, and hungry for challenge. With his air rifle and his unparalleled marksmanship, here was a man ripe for special assassinations… Moriarty didn't hesitate. He recruited him soon after he landed on the shores of London.
The mastermind of criminal psychology allowed Moran his freedom. He let the man roam like a tiger – stalking, silent, biding his time until the opportune moment. After the killing of Mrs. Stuart in 1887*, he asked the Colonel to be his chief assistant. When the man accepted on Christmas Eve, Moriarty smiled. Here, at last, was a Christmas gift worthy of the season.
A/N:* In The Empty House, Sherlock Holmes mentions the death of Mrs. Stewart, of Lauder, in 1887, but he couldn't prove that Colonel Moran was at the bottom of it