[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

[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.]

[bookofnope]

I'd be very interested in hearing your preferred theory as to your own current presence here. The good one, please, not the ones where this is all in your head. Hallucinations are easy and easy is boring.

[howdull]

[At least he can agree with that, but he's still not giving his theory.]

Not until I have lowered the quantity to a maximum of three. It shouldn't be long, theories will begin to eliminate themselves once the evidence mounts.

[bookofnope]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? We've been finding the exact opposite for months now. But I suppose this is when I am told that none of us are Sherlock Holmes.

[He's just gonna. Yank a little. See what that gets him.]

[howdull]

[He smirks at his end of the tablet, shame that Beckett can't see it.]

Most people here will inevitably be idiots. There's no shame in that, most people walk around with their eyes closed to the details so clearly on display.

[bookofnope]

What charming misanthropy. I wish you the best of it, Mr. Holmes, though I do hope your mind is as flexible as it is keen. You know what they say about the bigger they get.

[He is not looking forward to seeing his literary hero be chewed up and spat out by Norfinbury. But he's willing to bet a respectable sum, or perhaps a warm coat, that that is exactly how this will go down.]

[howdull]

[Don't worry about him, Beckett, he's Sherlock goddamn Holmes.]

No, I don't. But I don't care, a trite saying has no bearing on the reality of life. If there is one thing you can trust in, it is my mind.