Telepathic IC 'Inbox' and Messenger Bird Reception

[greatestdefective]

[Catch-all post for one-on-one messages that need to be delivered directly to Sherlock, either through the amulets or with a messenger bird. Meeting in person is also an option!]

Comments

[greatestdefective]

One starts off slow, of course! Test their claims through queries that only certified doctors can answer and allow them to handle small injuries. One can move up from paper cuts to concussions to broken bones. Then, at last, brain surgery!

[He sure is confusing doctors with surgeons...]

[letteropener]

[It's close enough...]

So.. in other words, they would need to go through some sort of process to verify their ability. Much like certification and accreditation for native doctors.

[greatestdefective]

Exactly. Does that not make perfect sense? It can be the same for any profession, I should think.

[letteropener]

[Celestia politely sets aside the fact that his position seems to have completely changed from the start.] So what we must do, then, is establish which professions it is realistic to have such expectations for. Medicine is most certainly one... but music, perhaps less so. What about the work of a detective?

[greatestdefective]

It's difficult to say. There is a difference between a private investigator and one employed by the local law-enforcement, after all. Personally, I fall into the former category, leaving my customers to set their own standards and expectations.

[letteropener]

But does it have requirements? An arrangement with the local police, for example? [Princess Celestia is wise and knowledgeable about many things, so encountering a realm in which she knows nothing -- specifically, private investigation -- is both strange and exciting.] I would love to hear all about it for purely personal reasons, I must admit...

[greatestdefective]

There is something of an arrangement, yes. That is, the moment the blunderers of the Yard find themselves faced with a puzzle they cannot solve, they turn to me for aid. In return, I receive compensation. Some of the inspectors are a bit too prideful to admit that they need help from someone who isn't officially one of them [GREGSON.], others enjoy watching me at work.

[letteropener]

Is that arrangement formalized? [She's still trying to understand just how much scope the negotiations she is in the midst of will take on.]

[greatestdefective]

To a sense, certainly. The Yard is always free to hire outside help from a professional, should they need it. They have similar agreements with morticians employed by local clinics.

[letteropener]

Ah, so they may employ you just as anypony else might.

Perhaps you could tell me about a case you worked on? [This is, of course, beyond the scope of her original question -- but she is genuinely interested, and also thinks that inquiring and giving him the chance to speak about his profession is good diplomatic sense.]

[greatestdefective]

Of course, of course! I would gladly share one of my exciting adventures. Though, hmmm, let's see... Which one should I choose? [He takes a few seconds to think it over. Honestly, most cases he's handled are a bit of haze to him. His memory's terrible.]

Ah! How does the case of the mysterious speckled band sound?

[letteropener]

Mysterious and intriguing! Is it a band of the sort that goes on the fetlock, or a band of the sort that plays music?

[The latter would be even MORE interesting.]

[greatestdefective]

That would be one of the mysteries! You see, it all started aboard a steamship headed from Russia to England. [One sentence in and already he's getting his facts mixed up. This should be good.]

I myself was one of the passengers, having just solved a different case abroad. It was a long journey; one spanning many weeks. One day, we awoke to find that one among us had perished. It was a young Russian man. He lay dead on the floor in his cabin, with no one having born witness to his untimely death- or so it seemed. Beside him, a message written in a foreign language, the victim's own blood serving as the ink. The door had been locked from the inside, leaving it impossible for anyone to have left the scene of the crime. Yes, indeed, a locked room case! Thrilling, isn't it? The sailors serving on the vessel were at a loss for what to do and so it was that I, the Great Sherlock Holmes, began my swift investigation into this obvious murder.

[letteropener]

I take it, then, that the humans of your world do not routinely have access to magic.

[Because honestly, there's not really such a thing as a locked room mystery in a land where simple spells can throw bolts and complex ones can transport ponies in a flash.]

[greatestdefective]

What- [The question throws him for a loop, just a bit. Even knowing what sort of magic Celestia is talking about, he'd never taken into account just how badly something like that could complicate a simple murder mystery.]

Errr, no. No magic. Only ourselves, our wit and murderous intent.

[letteropener]

So that is a puzzler, then. But there is no perfect crime! Some evidence must have been left behind.

[greatestdefective]

Indeed there was! One such piece of evidence was the message written in blood, of course. It read the word... "Tiara", I believe it was. Yes, it was "tiara"! Another was the victim's diary. You see, the very eve before his death, he had written about something rather curious. He had spotted, by the air duct adjacent to his neighbor's room, a speckled band. It had wiggled and caught his attention.

'What was the identity of this speckled band?', I had pondered to myself. Why would such a thing be near an air duct? There was no sign of anything of that nature in the cabin. I decided to pay a visit to his neighbor, a curious Japanese man by the name of... [He thinks for a moment, snapping his fingers.] Natsume Souseki, yes, that was it. Curious man, very eccentric. Mr. Souseki's testimony about what'd transpired during the night would prove to be imperative to solving the case.

[letteropener]

Oh, the air duct! Did you think that the murderer might have slipped through it somehow, or committed their crime through it?

[Celestia is getting into this, or at least, enough so to encourage him onwards.]

[greatestdefective]

Ahah, so it seemed! You see, the moment I questioned Mr. Souseki, the truth revealed itself in small gestures. A shifty glance, a twitch of the moustache, an errant pose... There was no doubt about it, he was hiding something. Within his closet, I found it! It was a stowaway, wearing upon his head a priceless crown! A priceless, stolen crown! Mr. Souseki and his accomplice had pilfered this item and fled the country, yet with only one ticket and two of them, hiding away inside a closet for the entire trip had been unavoidable.

Was the priceless crown meant to be returned to its true owner? Certainly, it was! Was it illegal to hide a stowaway aboard a ship? Without question! Those were two crimes that Mr. Souseki was guilty of, explaining his suspicious behavior. It had seemed, then, that he was unrelated to the murder. However, I began to ask myself the following question; if two crimes take place in one cabin and a third crime next door, are they truly unrelated?

[letteropener]

It seems very unlikely -- and of course, there is still the mysterious speckled band to consider, which of course must surely be key to all of this!

[greatestdefective]

Ahah, indeed! I allowed my gaze to search Mr. Souseki's room one more time, hoping to uncover more stray clues. That is when I saw them; a small whistle on the desk and a saucer of milk on the floor. My deductive power moved swift as an arrow. There it was, right before my nose, the identity of the speckled band. I searched the room with my hands and found it, hidden in a suitcase.

It was a snake, its body donning an interesting speckled pattern!

[letteropener]

And it was the killer, having crawled through the vent to bite and poison the poor victim. [Celestia concludes this confidently -- before she pauses, making a thoughtful noise.] Oh, but surely the bite marks on his body would have been distinctive.

[greatestdefective]

[What- bite marks? Oh, uh. What was it about that, again?]

Err, right! Yes! The bite marks were hidden on his finger tip, which is where the blood came from- The blood which he used to write the word "tiara". With that, I made the final connection. You see, the victim must've found out about the stolen crown and mistaken it for a tiara, which was exactly what his dying message alluded to. Mr. Souseki had set his snake upon the victim to silence him, then called it back through the vent with the whistle. He would've gotten away with his crimes too, if it weren't for the Great [meddling] Sherlock Holmes.

And so concludes the tale of the mysterious speckled band!

[letteropener]

The finger tip? What a curious place for a snake to bite -- no wonder you had such difficulty in identifying the murder 'weapon' at first. So you uncovered many crimes in the case of investigating one. That is very impressive!

[greatestdefective]

Why, thank you, Your Highness! Your praise means ever so much to me.

[He takes a flourishing bow, almost causing his hat to fall off his head. He catches it just in time, though. Meanwhile, a bright little rainbow decorates the room, a result of Sherlock's love for being able to show off.]