ataraxion | Case File #001: A Seven Per Cent Solution • video

Case File #001: A Seven Per Cent Solution • video

[ And the video flips on to a man in need of a shave, perched on the floor in front of a veritable pigsty. It's hard to make out what's behind him, but the bed appears to have been successfully flipped over, the mattress askew. The wall, already, is absolutely littered with notes, and though the amount is paltry so far - he's only been here a week - it's still a bit impressive. Encoded, likely, though none of it is particularly legible on the camera, especially in his chicken scratch. ]

Observe.

[ As he says the word, he leans in, and even on such a small screen, his eyes are very clearly wide, dilated. He's beginning to set the communicator down onto a bureau, cradling it gently in his hands as though it's an egg. ] An ingenious way of recording one's processes, far more convenient than the written word, faster as well. Now- You'll see-

[ And he takes a flying leap away from the phone, jumping atop the opposite bureau in one fell swoop and spreading his arms wide. The camera isn't panned correctly - his head is cut off - and he takes a deep breath as though he's about to say something absolutely brilliant -- !! ] I am now taller. [ What follows is a small giggle that can hardly be construed as masculine, as he leaps back down from the bureau, catlike. ] Perhaps a rudimentary test, but one must jump before one can fly. Fly before one can fall-!

[ He stumbles on his way back to the dresser, and jars the thing, the communicator with it, and consequentially knocks the feed offline again. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ There sure are some strange people on this ship. Rose decides to reply in kind, unlike her fellow SBurb players who respond in text. ] The instantaneousness of video does more accurately preserve the moments of inspiration, that which makes life more alive. It also reduces the possibility of rehearsal, though, so I would consider it less effective for widespread announcements.

[ Oh, and she speaks on a level far higher than she should - a girl, a child - and it wrings a small smile out of Holmes. When he speaks, it's much more quickly than his usual cadence. ]

The performance therefore being rendered much more raw as a result of its spontaneity, but it isn't always that such discoveries are things so polished, refined, practiced. Something that has taken the time to be so rehearsed will inevitably both run smoother and, consequentially, no longer be the freshest discovery, as more are bound to happen from the creation of the fact to the final production of the fact. Recording what is learned as it occurs is the only true way to document the process.

Sure, but you can't report every observation to the network. You have to choose the most momentous. Did you pretest the consequences of moving to the taller bureau before showing us?

Hypothesis: I can make the jump onto the bureau in one, single bound, without prior experience. Conclusion: Correct. Perhaps the result isn't one very groundbreaking, but similarly it wasn't the sole purpose of the video. Did you catch it?

A second purpose was the practice and subsequent success of using an instantaneous audiovisual recording device, correct?

[ He nods once, though his eyes list thoughtfully to the side. ] Partially. A study in framework, to be true, and the quality of a video therein. The most important details, essentially.

If you're going to exhaustively examine the number of differences between your time and this one, you will have a lot of video logs to come.

A study certainly worth exploring but far less prevalent than my one at hand. The sociological differences between my own era and now is more of an underlying feature, regularly entertained, rather than a main fixture.

Then if you don't mind my more flippant but potentially useful question: What's your next case, Holmes?

[ The young people aboard this ship are successfully beginning to build whatever stock he'd never bothered to invest in children. That's another small grin for Rose. ]

The Unfortunate Events of the Mysteriously Kidnapped. In space, respectively.

It sounds thrilling. I would like to assist you however I can.

Oh? Before we've even been properly introduced.

Pardon me, Mr. Holmes. My name is Rose Lalonde.

Ah, Ms. Lalonde. And it is a pleasure. Tell me, now, have you a history of sleuth work in your colorful thirteen years?

[ He estimates, at least. ]

[ Pretty good guess, Holmes! ]

Exhaustively. I investigated the mechanics and persuasions of a vaguely developed virtual reality game, the former of which produced minute documentation, the latter of which became inconclusive. Failing in this, I moved on to discern a greater purpose for the universe I resided in in question, with the alternate goal of defeating a caninely-inclined madman. My plan resulted quite unfortunately in his further empowerment, but also in the strengthening of myself and my allies.

I hope that this is an adequate resume.

[ ...Well, those. Are. Some credentials. He honestly doesn't question as he would have a week ago, already, because either a lot of people here are unendingly mad, magnificent liars, or, quite simply, he's just gone absolutely off the deep end and it would be Mrs. Hudson's delight to place him within the farthest sanatorium at once. But even this is sure seems to be a lot of things at once, oh. Holmes pauses for exactly three seconds. ]

Then 'colorful' was an appropriate word, you're saying?

The game we played featured nearly every hue. I mean that quite literally.

But then, you've encountered some strange things yourself, even before arriving here, have you not?

Depending on one's definition of strange. Compared to a anthropomorphic canine sort of opponent, something such as a bomb, a sniper, and the human psyche might pale in the shadow of it, if just a bit. I've certainly no shortage of stories.

Literal in what sense?

Every time I turned around, another object infused with a randomly selected and brightly colored shade of the rainbow met my eyes. It was something like a climax of color. And yet the deepest and most interesting part always remains the human psyche, for what is a construction without inhabitants?

A bomb did figure into the game at one point, too.

[ Her description is a strangely familiar one, though if he thinks so, he doesn't say at all. He listens carefully and then: ]

What sort of bomb and for what reason?

A multi-dimensional bomb. It took the matter of two recently-destroyed universes and combined them to make a power source known as the Green Sun. Although it was deployed to create the opposite effect.

[ He cradles his head in a hand, peering back at her curiously. ]

Thus- theoretically creating one?

I can assure you that its effect was not merely rooted in the flimsy realm known as that which could or may not be. I was in extreme proximity to the very real causes and effects of the resulting explosion. My current state of being itself was an effect, as a matter of fact.

Visually, you're not different from an average human girl, no? You'll have to explain. Something well beyond my realm of understanding, perhaps.

Beyond a blindingly cantaloupe-colored hoodie, I'm not that different, no. But the explosion allowed me to rise to a tier classified as godhood, giving me full potential that I've lost somewhat since then as a Seer of Light. It allows me to better strategize by seeing the right path to take. Here, it just means I don't get lost very easily.

[ She hesitates. ] SBurb is a rather complex game.

Case File #001: A Seven Per Cent Solution • video

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