t e x t

[cruciverbalist]

Good day my fellow New Moorians.
I have a few very simple questions here for you all, if you would not mind. It would be most appreciated.

1. What do you think about this whole 'you were fictional but now you aren't' hodgepodge?

2. What do you think of our natives? Do you trust them? If so, why? If not, why?

3. Where do you believe we really are?

4. Do you have a criminal record? Did you have a criminal record? Have you done anything that could have landed you a criminal record in the past?

5. Have you ventured into the Hospital? If so, I would very much like to speak with you.

6. Have you ventured off the island? How far did you get?

[ Private to Commander Shepard ]
Are you effected?

[ Private to Beebs ]
Are you effected?

[ Private to Yourcroft ]
Are you effected?

Comments

[worldsonly]

[ ah, a blessedly vague question which could refer to any number of 'things'. ] Adequately.

So tell me, is your interest in the hospital due to Mycroft suggesting
island-sponsored rehab or is he going to try and hold your hand for
that? I'm sure he'd love to feel useful again considering I've been
clean for years.

[ WELL, IF LOW BLOWS ARE BEING HAD... ]

[cruciverbalist]

Not yet made it to third base yet, I see. He's a lovely fellow.

[ Trite: ] No.
It was cocaine, wasn't it? Your addiction.

[worldsonly]

[ IGNORING THAT 100% NOW ]

Yes, but you already knew that, and my brother would probably have
been happy to tell you anyway. Must you?

[ as if he wouldn't be doing the same had their levels of compulsion been reversed. STILL. ]

[cruciverbalist]

I mustn't, but I'm tempted.
You know how I fair with temptation, it seems.

[worldsonly]

If anyone would.

[cruciverbalist]

Indeed.

Let's talk about Moriarty.

[worldsonly]

Let's not.

[cruciverbalist]

That was terribly predictable of you, Holmes.

How about Moran.

[worldsonly]

It hardly deserves better.

Moriarty's favored sniper. What about him?

[cruciverbalist]

He was known in my world as "M".
Killed 36 people by hanging them upside down, slitting their throats, leaving their blood and tossing their bodies. 36 including Irene, you do know Irene, yes?

[worldsonly]

[ long pause -- not an attempt to keep from answering, only simple shock. but then, the Irene he knows has faked her own murder twice before, so... ]

I know AN Irene.

[cruciverbalist]

[ Alright, he was done. Before his ridiculous ego gets himself in to trouble. ]

Well enough.

[worldsonly]

[ oh no you don't, now Sherlock is interested -- even if there is that uncomfortable flare of, god, empathy all over again, and the memory of writing violin sonatas out of something close to grief. ]

Irene Adler faked her own death before.

[cruciverbalist]

[ Disgustingly human, wasn't it? ]

Had she.

[worldsonly]

[ it's not a question, so Sherlock doesn't have to answer. oh, he could leave it now, drop his phone and abandon this completely until continuing the line of questioning wasn't a double-edged sword -- but then, since when did Sherlock ever heed caution over curiosity? it's not meant to be a blow, he genuinely has no interest in cutting the other Holmes, but his interest has been piqued. ]

Tell me, was her murder the reason you started looking into Moran's case or did he kill her to warn you off?

[ he doesn't admit that he has experience -- to a degree -- with that last one. ish. ]

[cruciverbalist]

[ Luckily he doesn't take it as an offence. Although it does rile emotions. ] The latter. She was victim 36.

[worldsonly]

[ the last victim? what would be the point of trying to scare Holmes away from the investigation if not to continue? and Moran had to have stopped -- at least, it was very likely, since the loss clearly wasn't terribly recent (there would be signs, surely, considering how intensely this Holmes seems to feel about his Adler -- and isn't that a thought to tuck away for later scrutiny, the idea that they might have been friends? god forbid, lovers?) but of course Sherlock doesn't have all the data and couldn't begin to deduce the length of Moran's typical cooling-off period. nor, frankly, did he care: it was virtually irrelevant here.

more interestingly is Moran's choice(?) of pseudonym -- intended to throw the trail off of Moriarty, or intended to link them? Sherlock doesn't think for a moment that a Moran could be working without a Moriarty behind him -- it would, evidently, be as if a Holmes without a Watson.

his own Moriarty has come and gone twice now, but that doesn't mean he's not always vigilant. in fact, if honesty's the key word in all of this, Sherlock would rather the man be present and accounted for, instead of an unknown and ever-looming threat of possibility. what then might the presence of a second, unfamiliar Moriarty might do? ]

Interesting. Why bring up Moriarty at all, then? If
Moran did it.