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[retroductions]

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[ INMATE REGISTRY ]

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[He takes his pipe back, casually slotting it between his teeth with a faint clack.]

Mm. Good. In that case, my only hope is that your reticence from now on--when it concerns your belief regarding a certain correlation to solitary--lightens its load on your shoulders, Ms Vaux.

[velluminous]

[ she will dare to brush the back of her hand against his shoulder ]

Don't vanish on me, and perhaps.

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[He only grins.]

I do not plan on going anywhere until the mystery of this place is well and truly solved.

[velluminous]

No one in solitary meant to go to solitary, Herlock.

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Perhaps not, but you will find that I am a uniquely stubborn sort of man. Infuriating, at times, as I have been told.

[velluminous]

You are lucky you are cute.

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[He barks out laughter.]

And do not forget -- devilishly clever, as well!

[velluminous]

Fit to hoodwink Mammon himself...!

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Expect nothing less from the Great British Consulting Detective himself!

[Why are you inflating his ego, why.

PUFFS HIS PIPE WITH SATISFACTION]

[velluminous]

This I would love to see.

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I am able to achieve very great things, you know. I should tell you about my cases, someday, and I know that would chase away all doubt.

[velluminous]

Mm. You should.

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Shall I recommend the titles of a few? And you may narrow it down to which tantalizes you the most?

[velluminous]

[ turning her chair more towards him, she deposits herself back into it ]

Indeed. Tantalize me.

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[Sholmes looks increasingly pleased by this turn of conversation.]

A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle...and...

[Hmm.]

The Musgrave Ritual.

[velluminous]

[ well, you can't just casually mention a ritual to Sprezzatura Vaux. ]

Musgrave Ritual, if you don't mind.

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I do not mind at all. No doubt you were enticed by the idea of a ritual, hm? I should preface this now: there was no magic involved.

[velluminous]

I am no longer interested.

[ she's KIDDING ]

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And if I tell you instead that math was involved?

[Is he joking in turn? HARD TO TELL.]

[velluminous]

I suppose ....

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And a very tall tree... and treasure!

[velluminous]

Tell me story already, Herlock.

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Very well, very well. Get comfortable now.

[A long puff of his pipe, a longer exhale.]

It started with a visit to an old acquaintance. An old acquaintance out in the vast country, no less, living in a grand old house. Reginald Musgrave. The visit was a social one at first, and I refuse to bore you with the details of... [hand wave] ...idle chatter between old university students. What is important is that, eventually, he came to me with a problem: two missing individuals from the staff, a maid and a butler.

[velluminous]

[ out of everyone in Reverie, she just may be the one person who would be interested in hearing about the conversations of two old friends from university, but Sholmes wisely follows it up with that hook. ]

Hm?

[ tilting her head encouragingly ]

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[Oh, university days were a bore. There were only so many teachers that kept his interest, and even then, Sholmes is a waffling man with impulsive desires for a very specific kind of knowledge. The fact that he met with an old uni friend at all was something of an anamoly.

Well, anyway.]

The pair vanished after the butler was dismissed rather quickly by Musgrave after being found rifling through his things. More specifically, and most enticingly, after reading through an old document scrawled with a riddle. It was entitled The Musgrave Ritual.

Would you like for me to recite it for you?

[Of course she would, of course she would.]