[ Sherlock is adjusting the video. He's squatting on a chair. The floor, which is sort of in view, is covered in papers. All scrawled over in haphazard notes. He rubs his hands together, eyes intense and focused but there's a ghost of a smirk threatening to break free. His words are precise, perhaps said far too quickly. ] - Alright. First disappearances, Eight people attacked, an unknown number lost in hallways and now
skeletons. Oh this is
Christmas.
There's a mute button for those of you that don't care for it or are too slow to comprehend, but I think best when I think out loud. Inputs, provided they aren't
dull would be
most helpful.
[ Fingers press against the tips of his nose. ] Now, let's dissect this, shall we? Examine what is factual. One, every jump cycle leads to the disappearances of more people. Two, something on this ship is attacking people. Three, reports of people getting stuck in corridors and finding a door, a door that says open me. Followed by: "Don't believe everything they tell you" and "why don’t you sit down and rest a while? sorry about the mess. best i could do on short notice. you’re welcome." all of these signed with smiley faces. End of obvious facts.
Let's do this backwards start with the fourth point. The smiley face, signatures are important. Take a peek at the way it was worded, first with
Hello. Greeting, familial, informal. - Those of us in the first batch
[ He'll put air quotes on the first batch. ] had seen it in an abandoned elevator if my sources are right. The second being, the message on the door -
open me. lower case, smiley, red paint. Because of it's position we can also rule out child, or anyone too short. The strokes get confident in p, e, n and me. O is faded, thinner. Then you enter the room, suddenly - all capitals. What do all capitals suggest? Urgency, look at me. PAY ATTENTION. The strokes are bolder, more confident. We can deduce paint from the texture, left over smudges and brush marks. The writer was not in a hurry - words suggest no hint of emergency; but it's still a point the writer had to get across. Don't believe everything they tell you. Emoticon, again.
Now WHO are THEY?
Now, the bones. Cut, scorned and in Tranquility uniforms. The cuts are precise. A more accurate detail in forensics would have been done had the
unsettling Jack
NOT CHEWED ON THE FEMUR. But we can note that some of the bones are broken. Yet despite the presence of red in the room,
none of this is blood. The food can be taken as a gesture of kindness, like the smiley face. Now if the bones had been here a while, they would have collected dirt. Yet, there is no indication of bone decay or dust. How long the skeletons had been there draws a blank. If I had my riding crop, perhaps an examination of the brittleness would have occurred.
We've been dealing with missing people, perhaps they're turning up? We all go through the stasis tubes during jumps, perhaps a few people in the first batch weren't being entirely truthful about just
arriving? A cycle of new people every month is guaranteed, and if there were little left. Pretending would have been easy enough to manage with a small group of people. Perhaps, 'they' is a reference to that? It's clearly not a
single person we're being warned about. Look at the pronouns! Now, why would people go missing at all? Consider the possibility that the attacks may be a first stage of disappearances and whomever is writing is giving out a warning?
Oh, so many ideas to explore. Give me facts, give me conspiracies, every theory you've drummed up because -
[ Oh he's outright grinning now. ] The game is on.