Voice Testing *Homeless

[holmestheelder]

You are adorable.

Really. In that fascinating way small children are adorable so long as they are quiet and belong to someone else.

I have no interest in inhabiting your head or dancing to your whims. Kindly take your misguided notion of a 'good idea' and apply it to someone else.

Do not make me repeat myself, it is tedious in the extreme. I have a government to keep track of and a brother to run; or the other way around, it changes each day to the next.

Comments

[holmestheelder]

I've been aware of the deaths since the first one. It, naturally, pinged my attention.

I did not start to consider it note worthy until the first death from the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers.

[There was no apology in his voice. Mycroft had his own internal criteria for what triggered a sense of importance and up until that particular death, he had simply noted it and passed it over as being Doctor Watson's personal business.]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[Sherlock opens the file again, this time to read it more carefully.]

Have you explored the possibility that this is connected to John - because John is connected to me?

[Is it Moriarty?]

[holmestheelder]

Inconclusive.

[Just the one word as it covered questions both spoken and unspoken. Yes, he'd explored the possibility, no he hadn't been able to find a direct connection.

However, he hadn't been able to rule out a connection, either.]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[That's not helpful.]

Look, I know how you love to watch me work. But since this is personal, why don't you just tell me everything you've done rather than making me ask?

[There was a stressed tone, though he was trying to keep it civil. The problem is: this involved John, which made it personal.]

[holmestheelder]

[That ... almost sounded like a please.

Mycroft studies Sherlock for a long moment before making a bored sound. In truth, its to cover the flash of approval for the idea that Sherlock is invested enough in Watson for this to be personal but Mycroft would die twice and be buried before he'd admit it.

Instead, he pulls open a desk drawer and withdraws a second file. Setting it on the desk, he shoves it across the blotter towards his brother.]

I wrote out my notes.

[No, seriously, he actually wrote out his notes, didn't simply dictate them or fob them off on his assistant.

After all, this was personal.]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[Almost is a long way from actually stating it. But when Mycroft produces his notes, Sherlock's eyebrows shoot up. Mycroft never takes his own notes, which means that if he did... he was invested in John as well.

If that's the case, Sherlock can be civil for John's sake, because it can't possibly be that Mycroft cares about him.

He reaches over and takes the file.]

It would be faster if you told me, rather than trying to make-out your chicken scratches.

[He knows that Mycroft has all his notes memorized, but the hand-writing jab was just an added bonus.]

[holmestheelder]

[Let us do both our sensibilities justice and simply not discuss who cares about whom.]

Undoubtedly but reading my notes will fill the remaining time it takes for John to be delivered to us.

[Chicken scratch indeed, you are impossible, little brother.]

However, I shall tell you this.

[In fairly direct language, Mycroft runs down the steps and investigations he has already made into the matter. Follow up with the military, including unearthing the sort of 'targets' and mission statements that are never written down in the actual files.]

There is no indication that John himself was directly involved, however as you well know, such a fine distinction is not always made in these situations.

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[All right, that last bit wasn't quite what Sherlock was expecting.]

Are you proposing... not that John might be a target ... but rather that he is involved somehow?

[...pause...]

He lives with me.

[As in, he'd know. - well, maybe he'd know. No, he's pretty damned sure he would. His respiration is getting the faintest bit faster, as he thinks about John as a perpetrator.]

If he is. And I'm not in anyway convinced that he is. If he is. He is doing it under threat or order - when it comes to the military, it's the same thing.

[holmestheelder]

[It is perhaps a testament to the idea that he might care about his baby brother, that Mycroft quickly schools his features away from reacting to Sherlock's misunderstanding of his words. Instead, he merely repeats himself, more carefully this time.]

John's unit was involved in clandestine operations. There is no indication that John himself partook an active role in these operations but to someone not looking all that closely, one member of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers would look the same as the next.

[Mycroft hated speculation, he did not deal in speculation, he dealt in cold, hard facts. Despite this, he was speculating, that John could be in danger, simply because of his unit designation. Not because he had ever had anything to do with the original war crime.]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[Sherlock appreciates Mycroft being careful and calm - not that he admits it. It grounds him, reminds him to be calm. It is so dangerous for him to care - he makes mistakes.]

And who were those operations set against? What groups in particular.

[Because it will narrow down the possibilities of who might be taking out the Unit. He looks through the files again.]

Not even the same rank.

[holmestheelder]

The details are in my notes, Sherlock. I am finished drawing you a pretty picture.

[He also did not want to be caught discussing such things out loud. His notes were typed on generic paper, there would be no way to directly tie them back to Mycroft.]

John should be here soon. I imagine you wish to speak with him.

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

You mean, you can't complete the picture which is why you came to me for help.

[Mycroft, in the end, is no different than Lestrade.]

[holmestheelder]

[Cruel, little brother, cruel.]

Meaning that despite the delicacy of the background of events in this situation, I assumed you would want to be involved.

[From a national embarrassment stand point, Mycroft should have held on to the file and done the work himself.]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

[He doesn't think it's cruel. A simple fact, among many.]

Involved? No. Ensure John's safety? Always.