[network] @ADMIN; Arrival

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[howdull]

What gave it away? The people calling me Sherlock, or me responding to it?

[ooc: Sorry, would you mind please filling out the permissions post so I know how much Sherlock can deduce (if anything)? Thank you <3]

[bookofnope]

That isn't what I mean. I meant I was - I believe the saying goes, expecting someone taller.

[howdull]

[He doesn't know that saying. Idioms are hardly useful information to retain, like solar system knowledge. Therefore he may mean literally, which means he's seen photographs. Sherlock tends to be photographed with John, so:]

It's the perspective. Everyone looks taller compared to John.

[bookofnope]

[Beckett, in turn with his own expectations, reads it as snark. Not bad.]

He must be delighted to have you here. Except possibly for the part about constant psychological trauma and mortal danger. Has he told you about the Victorian novels yet?

[howdull]

No, I've read about them on the previous network posts. I would like to read one, if they're written with more finesse than John's blog.

[It doesn't bother him so much to be thought of as fictional, he's seen as pretty unreal by most people in his world anyway. Besides, the multiverse theory does have some legs.]

[bookofnope]

First the height, now the writing. Your literary counterpart is a lot more civil to his loyal assistant, I have to say.

[howdull]

Victorian sensibilities, manners were everything.

[A small pause.]

Civility and affection are not necessarily linked. There are plenty of ways John excels, his writing and his height are neither of these ways.

[bookofnope]

He is still the narrator in the historical fictions. That is, a Doctor John Watson is. And now for all I know poor Sir Arthur was getting his cues from another dimension, somehow.

[howdull]

[The blog of its time. How ridiculous.]

That Doctor Watson was probably attempting to make his Sherlock sound 'more human'.

[He's fallen victim to that himself. Stupid John, stupid blog.]

[bookofnope]

[Somewhere behind his tablet, Beckett snorts. Alas, text.]

You are human, last I checked. Unless Dr. Watson is either a very good liar, or especially oblivious.

[howdull]

That's not the point, people don't need to know that.

[bookofnope]

Would you rather not be? It's a shame I'm prevented from offering my assistance in this matter. I'd have liked that bragging right.

[howdull]

Most of humankind are idiots, and a slave to their sentimental desires and clouded judgement. But I am what I am.

[Offer assistance in not being human? Possibly a killer.]

[bookofnope]

I hate to disappoint you, but most non-human kinds I've known are exactly the same.

[Yes, he's gently pushing towards The Point. Colour him curious.]

[howdull]

Precisely how many non-human kinds would that be?

[bookofnope]

Back home I have personally catalogued some eighteen major variations. This is excluding types that are arguably humans with supernatural talents, and subspecies, which would bring the list up into rather tedious hundreds.

Here, I believe the list stands at nineteen, including those who have died.

[howdull]

[Is he joking?

No, he doesn't think so. Which means he believes this, another victim to the hallucinations of this town. His words also suggest he believes himself supernatural. A supernatural creature who can cure another of its humanity.

Zombie. No, not intelligent enough. Werewolf? Possible.]

You're a vampire.

[It's an educated guess. And what he means is that he believes he's a vampire, as vampires are patently not real.]

[bookofnope]

Nicely done, Mr. Holmes. Just the accuracy and speed I would have expected. Unless you just read that in the guide.

[Does Sherlock believe him or not? Can't tell, from just a few words of text. so he baits a little.]

[howdull]

[That's insulting, why would he have read that in the guide? What fun was there in reading the list of dangerous people rather than figuring it out himself?]

Unable to make the offer currently, you have been rendered impotent in vampiric terms. Mortal now.

[Mortal all along.]

[bookofnope]

[Impotent, is it. Is someone feeling smug.]

Not a terminology we'd normally use, but yes, in a sense. The negation is universal in the town. An application of MN, it seems. Rather a bother, when someone doesn't take you at your word.

[Among other things.]

[howdull]

[This is fascinating, and starting to help things click into place. The drugs, likely in the air or food, are designed to make everyone believe in these supernatural entities. Either that they are one, or that they can see them in the form of the anomalies. But, obviously, real supernatural powers don't exist, so a secondary reason is invented for why all of these gifts are non functional.

He's grinning to himself on the other side of the tablet.]

I can imagine it would be. Have you found another way to prove to your detractors what you are?

-> video

[bookofnope]

[By way of response, Beckett simply flicks the video function on, and lets Sherlock have a look of the lot: his unnatural gray pallor, his fangs when he pulls his lips back briefly, and the demon red glow of his eyes.

Since he's started feeding regularly, the glow hasn't faded. With his glasses off it's as bright as the tablet's own light, and there is a definite organic quality to it. He lets it speak for itself for a moment.]

People who have been here for a while mostly find that a claim of vampirism is one of the least fantastical things they end up encountering.

text;

[howdull]

[Thank God that he's using the text function now, because the startled yelp and fear that crosses his face is pretty damn embarrassing.

He knows what a dead body looks like, and he knows he's technically looking at one right now. The fangs and eyes are nothing that cosmetic surgery and contact lenses can't achieve, but that skin. He would see if it were make up, and there are no diseases he knows of that can deaden the skin quite so much.

His heart hammering, it takes him a while to rationalise it. More special effects, just like Davesprite. Or maybe it is make up that he just can't see - he misses things sometimes, after all. It doesn't stop his hands shaking slightly as he responds.]

Very persuasive.

video -> text

[bookofnope]

[Beckett can't help it; he grins a little, mirthless and predatory, before switching back to text to put the exchange on even ground again.]

Not convinced, I take it. Well. To be honest, considering your alleged reputation, I would have been disappointed to be taken at face value. But I am curious as to where you draw the line, Mr. Holmes: alternate realities and fictional counterparts yes, vampires no?

[howdull]

You believe you are a vampire, just as the other people here believe they know fictional versions of myself and John, or are from alternate realities. All of this is patently ridiculous, I have seven current theories on how this is all being achieved.

[So he draws the line well before vampires.]