Distant Minds {{Sherlock Rp with Circledude5}}

[Circledude5]

"And I don't," Sherlock shot back, "He just seems to be the most..accessible form of entertainment, if that's what it's even called."


He found Anderson's blundering idiocracy amusing, but only to see his face when he was corrected. Because Anderson was under the delusion that he was a genius, or at least someone who deserved a great deal of respect. That fact alone was funny by itself.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera threw her hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, okay." She replied with a grin as John and Molly began snickering. Ciera cleared her throat in an attempt to cover the sound, though she knew it wouldn't do much good. "So what do we have?" Ciera asked, nodding to the copies he had made of the autopsy report that he was holding.

 

[Circledude5]

"Some conclusive evidence." Sherlock told her shortly.


To his delight, Molly had confirmed subtansial DNA damage in the stomach, intestines, and some in the oesophagus as well. He'd have to do further testing, but this meant that a radioactive substance had been used to poison the body as well. But the subsequent radiation screen came up empty. He was only thirty two? Hair loss suggested otherwise, but then...Polonium-210 only emits alpha radiation.





An unbidden but helpful memory appeared from his room.


...Common effects of Polonium-210 poisoning are hair loss, vomiting, and diarrhea, especially if ingested. Most of the radioactive material will be excreted through feces, but will cause lasting damage or death...





It was from his first ever chemistry book. Page 274. He remembered it well. In fact, he remembered the entire book well; he could probably recite the entire thing verbatim if asked.

 

[Shadow Cat]

"Good." Ciera replied simply as she turned back to take a sip of the second cup of tea she had gotten while Sherlock had been copying the autopsy report.


She couldn't seem to put a finger on him. At times he was so quiet, lost in a world of thought. Other times, he could have an almost childlike sense of humor, or like now, no humor at all. He was very odd indeed.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock noticed John was giving him one of "the look"s.


"What?"


"Unbelievable." John almost whispered.


"What?"


"You two are unbelievable." John said more clearly.


"What?"

 

[Shadow Cat]

"What?"


Ciera asked at the same time as Sherlock after John had said they were unbelievable. She wasn't aware of anything that they had said that would be considered 'unbelievable'.

 

[Circledude5]

"Aren't either of you capable of normal human interaction with eachother?"


"Yes, John." Sherlock said. "What? We're talking to eachother. As far as I'm concerned that is 'normal human interaction.'"


[sorry it's short]

 

[Shadow Cat]

"What's fun about normal?" Ciera said with a grin just before taking another sip of her tea. "As far as I'm concerned, normal is boring." She finished with a shrug as she glanced over at John.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock shrugged. It was true, but then, he would. Most people were boring, just as most people were normal.


He remained mute, however, as he then began taping up the new information onto his makeshift crime wall.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera got up and walked over to read the papers he had begun taping up. She preferred to have all of the information, and she remembered it better if she read it herself. Her eyes scanned the pages as she stood a few feet away from Sherlock so that he would still have enough room to tape up the pictures without her getting in the way.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock looked at Ciera out of the corner of his eye. She was standing awfully close behind him, even though she seemed to be making a concious effort to give him space. But for some reason, he found that he didn't really mind.


When he'd finished taping each page up, he went and got the string.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera moved closer to the pages so she could get a better look as Sherlock moved out of the way. She saw him get his string out of the corner of her eye before turning her attention back to the papers. She finished reading a moment later and stepped back out of the way silently so he could get back to his crime wall.


John, meanwhile, was still sitting where he had been when she had left her seat. His face showed a mixture of amusement and annoyance, probably because they were still both so focused on the case.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock started connecting different clusters of evidence with the string, sometimes an entire clump, sometimes just one page. All the while, the northern library table was becoming more and more covered with odd objects in weird formations.


Polonium, VX, and strychnine would all induce vomiting. Polonium had been effective, leaving behind substantial damage. So how much had been ingested, and when?

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera's eyes darted quickly from page to page as she worked to connect the dots. Strychnine was a pesticide, Vx had no known usage except in chemical warfare as a nerve agent, and Polonium was usually used in anti-static brushes for printing presses. She couldn't really see a connection there.


Polonium was discovered in Poland, Strychnine discovered in France, and VX was discovered in Britain. No connection there, except for the Anglo-Polish Alliance made in 1939. She doubted it was related.


Perhaps, then, it was the amounts that had meaning. Problem was, how did they go about getting the amounts?

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock shut his eyes tight. His table was becoming more and more cluttered as he pulled information from other cases and the archives.


A half-eaten apple was balanced precariously on a red cup of tea and dainty little saucer, a giant stuffed hissing cockroach and a jumbo deck of cards - the poisons. All of them next to other oddities: a tap dancing bundle of cash, a little moving clay dog eating cheese, and a match emitting purple sparks.


Think think think! Why couldn't he calculate what he needed to?

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera had completely forgotten that there was anyone else in the room as she stared at the papers. There was something there that was so completely obviously out of place. It was staring her right in the face and she just couldn't seem to see it.


There! Her eyes locked onto it as she found it. She had missed it because the report focused more on the obvious suspected causes of death than anything else. The had been internal bleeding, and though the amount of blood was relatively small, it seemed to effect every organ. Blood had been in his lungs, his brain, and bladder. That most likely meant the kidneys had stopped functioning as well before he died. After he died, his blood would have begun to gel, inhibiting any bleeding. So then that had most likely occurred first. But what had caused it? What would have cause internal hemorrhaging and failing kidneys?


"Check Cyclosporine levels." Ciera said simply without taking her gaze off of the papers.

 

[Circledude5]

What?





Sherlock's quick calculations and associations were interrupted by an external voice.


Check cyclosporine levels.





Ciera had said it. Why? His eyes darted around the board.


...There were signs of internal bleeding in many of the major organs...


...the right lung was hemorraged...


...the brain bled in the hypothalamus...


...suspected renal failure prior to death...


By God she was right.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera looked back as no one moved. Sherlock was looking at the board, quickly piecing together why she had said what she had said. John was sitting in his chair, his mouth agape and a disbelieving look on his face as he gazed at both of them. Molly had an eyebrow raised as her gaze went from Ciera to Sherlock. "What?"

 

[Circledude5]

"Molly I need you to check the cyclosporine levels in the body now," Sherlock told the pathologist urgently, "It could provide an important lead."


Sherlock took note that the cause of death had been left with "unknown".


"...and a clue as to how this man died. And the others, for that matter. Check them too, if you can."

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera nodded in agreement at the instruction, watching as Molly stood and walked out to check the levels. She walked back over and sat down in her chair as she took another sip of her tea. She smiled faintly as she remembered her concern on the plane that she might be bored over here. She couldn't have been more wrong.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock went back to the library and saw that a new item had appeared: a paper cup of tea.


Oh, great. A human associative object.





But Ciera had gotten it right, hadn't she? Well, not yet. But she'd spotted it first. How? No, why? Why hadn't he spotted it sooner?


Mind-Palace Mycroft appeared out of nowhere, tutting.


"Oh, dear Sherlock," Mycroft said patronisingly, "She spotted the vital clue before you? This woman who works under Anderson? You really are as stupid as I always thought you were."


"Go away!" Sherlock muttered angrily. He couldn't let Mycroft get to him now.


"What?" John had looked up.


Shoot; he'd spoken out loud again.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera looked up from where she had once again began coding for the website. After a brief shrug, she went back to what she had been doing.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock didn't respond to John. As tolerant and accepting that the good doctor was, he could never understand just how Sherlock's mind worked. It would have been assumed that that was obvious, but it wasn't for lack of trying. To be perfectly honest, Sherlock was a bit surprised to find that John hadn't turned tail and run at first glance, and, further still, was later able to comprehend what and why he was doing things. That was something no "ordinary" person had done before.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera submitted the new string of code and looked back up. John was doing a crossword puzzle and Sherlock still seemed to be off in his own little world.


"Thirty one across is cryptography."

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock looked around. Ciera had provided an answer to John's crossword. He'd always liked puzzles; that was why he liked crimes. He'd even tried his hand at making them, but John didn't seem to appreciate it much when Sherlock went and made a four-hundred and thirty-seven clue crossword puzzle and set it in front of him.


The detective went over to John to take a look at his new crossword.


"Seventeen down is 'enthralled'." Sherlock said. Just as John started grudgingly filling it out, however... "Actually, no. It's enthusiasm."


"Enthralled works!" John said exasperatedly.


"No it doesn't. Because twenty-two across is 'Asteroid' and it needs the 'S' from 'Enthusiasm'."