[network] @ADMIN; Arrival

[snowblindmods]

Welcome to Norfinbury. The time is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R and the date is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R. This network has been provided for your use. Please interact politely with everyone else on this network.

Comments

[howdull]

You're using speech to text. Why?

[devoutish]

Are you sure my writing style isn't very casual?

[But it's not, and Sherlock is right.]

I don't like typing.

[Especially not on the tablets.]

[howdull]

No comma between 'here' and 'you', that suggests the type of pause a speech to text emulator struggles with.

Injured hands, poor education resulting in illiteracy, an ailment such as dyslexia, unfamiliarity with the technology. Which is it?

[devoutish]

What do you think?

[howdull]

Unfamiliarity and cautiousness.

Not of the tablets, though you may have been initially, of the other people here.

[Not afraid, cautious. Careful might be a better word for it.]

[devoutish]

Now you're veered away from the truth. You nearly had it. It was one of your first guesses.

[howdull]

You are unfamiliar with the technology.

[He's so not wrong, he's sure of it. But perhaps he missed something else.]

Not illiterate, your sentence structure suggests at least some education. Hand injury?

[devoutish]

It's not gonna be something that'll easy for you to guess until you're more used to this place.

That's a hint.

[howdull]

World without technology. Different time period to modern technology.

[He's interested now, it's a puzzle to solve.]

[devoutish]

I'll have you know the twentieth century is perfectly modern. What do you think we are, the nineteenth century?

[Jokes, Sherlock]

[howdull]

[He does smile a little, because modern is indeed relative. But the clues are in there too. A man from before this sort of modern technology, one who still thinks jokes about the nineteenth century might be funny. Could be anywhere from 1910 to the late 1930s. He'll take a guess and split the difference down the middle.]

1920s.

[So illiterate might be an option after all, depending what social class he grew up in.]

[devoutish]

1922.

Turn on your audio and I'll turn on mine.

[howdull]

I prefer texting.

[Not another one like Mycroft who always calls when texting will do.]

[devoutish]

Unfamiliarity with the technology, cautiousness, or are you a mute?

[howdull]

Mute. A terrible accident, I don't like to talk about it.

[Talk about it. See what he did there? Come on, that was funny.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie thinks it was, at least.]

And here John made it sound as if you liked nothing more than hearing yourself talk.

[howdull]

That was before. See: terrible accident.

[devoutish]

That's a crying shame.

[howdull]

So you can understand why I prefer text.

[devoutish]

Well, my own fingers are broken, you see, and even if they weren't I kan't spel fo tha lif ov mi.

[howdull]

[Not illiterate, then. Speech to text spells correctly, so he must have written that out, and to spell incorrectly for a joke means he must know how to spell correctly. One theory crossed off.]

Then we are doomed not to converse.

[devoutish]

You can't do little signs with your hands?

[howdull]

Lost my hands in the same accident. I'm typing with my nose.

[devoutish]

So am I.

[howdull]

That would explain your articulacy issues.