actually, it's elementary

Task Eleven → Intro & Connections

Basil raised an eyebrow at the question. Yes it was his first time in the restaurant, but he had gone into many establishments over the years that he had never frequented before, and considering many of those times he was attempting to follow someone, he thought he was rather adept at blending in. So if he had just committed some faux pas of which he was unaware, he wondered if he was losing his touch. "It is, but I'm curious as to why you ask. Do I somehow look out of place?"

“Actually…!” Chelsea exclaimed with a wide grin, shoving her hand into her carpet bag. She did have a small foldable hair dryer just for these sorts of emergencies, so, humming the Felix The Cat theme, she plucked it out of the bag and waved it triumphantly. “And I was deemed crazy for carrying a hair dryer with me, you know… And don’t you sneeze at it, it’s much sturdier than it looks. So, wanna give it a try and go back to the library, see if we can borrow a socket to plug this baby in?” The guy looked like he had just been heading out the library, really. Luckily for her, she had been debating on whether to have a late brunch or to take a stroll through the bookshelves and do some more paper-and-pen research for the day.

“Name’s Katz, by the way,” she said, reaching out her hand to shake. “Are you a professor, or something? Those papers of yours seemed mighty important, if I may say so.”

//

He had, of course, meant that as a joke. So to see her actually pull a hair dryer out of her bag had Basil quite flabbergasted, unable to imagine why she would actually be carrying one around with her. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or confused that you actually have one on your person," he remarked, "Either you have a lot of trouble with your hair or you encounter situations like this regularly." He could only assume it was for her hair; she did have quite the mane.

Basil feared they might look rather silly trying to dry out the pages, but he did hope to salvage what was left of his notes, so he sighed and said, "Oh very well. But we'll have to find a corner far removed from the rest of the patrons. I would hate to disturb them with the noise." He raised his eyebrow briefly at the offered handshake, but accepted in the end. "Basil Baker. No, I am not a professor, though I do spend a great deal of time in study. And yes, my notes are always important. I am not engaged in the practice of taking frivolous notes."

“it’s no problem, man. gotta protect those pages” it was the least he could offer the guy, it would be a shame for the books to get ruined. “nothing wrong with doing a bit of both. i’m a bit old-school myself, i tend to write everything out until i’m happy with it. then i’ll do the whole typing thing but i try to avoid it where i can”

Thankfully it seemed he had run into someone who did not think keeping notes on paper was silly. "Thank you again," he said, taking up the new umbrella. Obviously it was too late for that one book and some of his notes, but hopefully the rest would now remain relatively dry. "That's a good way to go about it. I do use my share of technology; quite frankly it's impossible not to these days, but writing notes also helps keep my mind focused."

someone they miss

Basil misses his grandmother the most. He spent a good deal of time with her when he was young, his parents usually having been off attending parties or other important events due to his father's status. But his grandmother was always around, and he will always be grateful to her for introducing him to the exploits of Sherlock Holmes.

Did they like high school or college better?

“No nothing important,” James said. “How are you doing Basil.” He had heard the name falling in the Enchanted Rose café, due to one of his orders. Adam had the habit of writing the names on the takeaway cups and James had quite the memory.

//

Good. At least he had not interrupted anything important. Basil was glad of that, though he was a little taken aback that the man knew his name. "I'm doing well, but forgive me--have we met? Because I don't seem to recall you, and I do tend to have a very good memory." Of course, it was not out of the question that he could have heard of Basil, but he was rather hoping that his reputation as a detective would, for now, remain mostly unknown in town.

“'Confound you’? Where’d you park the time machine, old sport?“ Chelsea laughed. She debated for a moment on whether to help the guy out, even considering flipping a coin on it. In the end, the sorry image of his book falling down with a splat! on a muddy puddle was pathetic enough for her to take some pity and give him a hand. Besides, of course, it gave her a perfect opportunity to sneak a gander at his notes, as drenched and drippy as they might be.

”Ah, it’s all moot, mister. Umbrellas have a mind of their own. They’re their own subspecies, don’t you know?“ The mastermind that she was, Chelsea had four types of umbrellas at all times: two portable emergency ones, each in one bag, and two at home, one for frequent use and the other for when the main one, inevitably, decided it was time to float back up to umbrella heaven in a big gust of wind. ”Here, let me give you a—“ She fiddled with the umbrella, shook it around, struggled with the little lock, until she finally managed to open it —and open it so well that she turned it inside out, effectively making it unusable as an umbrella anymore.

”Oh… Well, there you go. Mind of its own, I tell you,“ she said with a barely-apologetic grin.

//

While Basil was aware his phrasing might not be quite the way that the townsfolk spoke, he hoped he did not sound so out of place as to be coming from another century. "I parked it right next to my flying car," he remarked dryly, not appreciating the jest. He was already frustrated over the ornery umbrella. He did not need to be mocked for his mannerisms on top of that. At least she seemed to share the thought that umbrellas could be a pain, and she was magnanimous enough to offer one of her own.

He was about to thank her when her umbrella chose to behave just as badly, turning itself inside out. "Lovely," Basil remarked, shaking his head, "Clearly I'll be finding no respite from the rain." Glancing down at the wet book and papers on the sidewalk, he sighed and bent down to scoop them up. He attempted to shake them out a bit before slopping them back together. "I don't suppose you have a hair dryer in your bag of tricks as well?" he inquired with a raised eyebrow, "Though given your track record so far, I would not have high hopes for it working anyway."

pegasus had watched on at the man literally wrestling with an umbrella for a duration of time that was more than what would be deemed usual. “never, that would make life too easy for us” he chucked and offered his umbrella “here, take mine. i have a hoodie on and you’ve got books to protect. you need it more than i do”

//

"Oh, really, that's too kind," Basil began, trying to wave off the offer of the umbrella. But the other man had a point. He did want to try and protect the books that had not ended up on the ground. Sighing resignedly, he nodded. "Thank you." Folding up his own broken umbrella, he managed to scoop up the waterlogged book and notes. "I suppose the next step would be for me to not write notes on paper either, but then I fear any device I write them on might rebel on me eventually too."

“Conversely, I’m sure the locals could spot us from a mile off,” Mirage replied coolly. This was, of course, to Mirage’s detriment. It was one thing to drop by a town and leave with the morning mist, another to become acquainted with its town and people. The latter, while it sounded idyllic to some, did not work in Mirage’s favour. Still, she had to wonder what had brought Mr. Basil Baker to Redwood Hollow. Was he a mere tourist? Or did he feel that same unusual pull that she had heard all about.

Basil’s question had Mirage raise an eyebrow, but she found a way to play it off as a curious one, rather than one of suspicion. “I find it all rather quant,” she replied. “Cosy. Quiet. I’m far more used to cities, personally, so in that respect it’s all odd to me…” While it wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t an honest answer either. “What’s makes you find it so puzzling?”

“It’s a pleasure, Mr. Baker,” she continued with a small nod. There was a brief moment, which she had in almost all interactions in places such as this, where she weighed up the option of giving a false name or telling the truth. Mr. Baker seemed the type to pick up on that sort of thing, and so, she went with the latter. “Mirage.”

//

He rather hoped not. While this particular case was not something predicated on secrecy, Basil hoped he did not stand out like a sore thumb either. "That would not be good," he said, laughing a little but more than a little serious. He hardly wanted it known that a well-known investigator was poking around town. Her assessment was similar to his own--a quaint town unlike the cities he was used to. Which made it all the more confusing that such an unseeming place should have such a strange reputation.

"I'm much more used to the urban environs myself," he admitted. He would not, however, admit why he was truly there nor why he truly found the town puzzling. "I suppose it's difficult for me to understand the appeal. But perhaps that's because I am well and truly a foreigner, and even the countryside of my native England is nothing like this town." Her name was met with a slight raise of an eyebrow. "Mirage," Basil repeated, inclining his head, "An interesting name."

Basil did not like when things got the better of him, especially when said thing was an inanimate object. He was currently in a tense battle with his umbrella, the rain not having abated while he had been in the library. Unfortunately, he also had a few books under his arm, one of which had several sheets of notes tucked into the pages, and the struggle with the umbrella led to that particular book falling and spilling the papers out onto the wet sidewalk.

"Oh, confound you, you infernal device!" he snapped, sighing and giving up on the umbrella for the moment to focus on the papers. Noticing that someone had seen the whole incident, Basil bristled a bit and huffed, "One would think, with all the modern conveniences, they would have invented an umbrella which actually works by now!"

the call

“ Haven’t seen you in a year. “ James joked over the phone. He was in a call with well - too much a surprise the guy who stabbed him a year ago. He hadn’t said who did it to the police, had lied that he didn’t know the person and that it was a simple mugging. “All is forgiven, it was my fault for not telling you the full story. I cannot wait to see all of you again.” With that he bumped into someone only slightly, their shoulders brushed but James still felt the need to apologize. “I’m sorry I gotto go-” He said over the phone, before turning to the person. “I didn’t hurt you did I?”

@happieststarters​

//

Since Basil prided himself on being alert at all times, he was not fond of trying to talk on his phone when out and about, especially here in Redwood Hollow where he never knew when he might miss something important. He could not, however, keep the phone off, thus when a call came, he did have to deal with it. This led to him having a brief bump with someone else who was also on the phone, and while there was no harm done, Basil did not like being caught making a faux pas like that. "No, no, of course not." He shook his head, more irritated with himself. "Was it an important call? Because I assure you, mine was not."

Gwen perused the bookstore, looking for new books she could read before the next academic year and add to her syllabus. If she happened to wind up in the romance section, that was purely on accident. And if she happened to pick up a book titled “How To Spice Up Your Love Life: A Guide for Lonely Lovers”, that was probably an accident too.

At least, that’s what she would claim when she saw someone was noticing her looking at the book. Frantically shoving it back on the shelf, she forced a nervous laugh. “Oh my goodness, can you believe the kinds of things that get published nowadays?”

@happieststarters​

//

Downtime was not really a word that was in Basil's vocabulary, but going to pick out a book to read to enhance his understanding on various subjects was about as close as he got. He had just been passing the philosophy section when he noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked up in time to see the woman quickly putting a book back. Having perused plenty of controversial tomes over the years, he was hardly one to judge, though he glanced at the shelf out of curiosity anyway.

"Hmm, shocking indeed," he remarked, "Mainly that no one has realized how many people can see through the scam such books perpetrate by claiming to expand one's horizons. I highly doubt that book has anything truly radical to impart."

@happieststarters

It was chilly out, but Benak Singh had a mission and he was determined to see it through. He had been following the news- the local, state, national, and international- as he always did, and in doing so he had caught onto an alarming pattern of large corporations cornering in on the area around Redwood. It was an issue he was hoping to bring up to the Mayor and his assistant, again, but he knew his fears would never hold any weight if he didn’t have the town behind him.

With the reserve closed to the public today, he had Sabrina take on half the town, and he would take the other. As someone passed him by, Benak spoke.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, but could I get a moment of your time to sign this petition?”

//

Though Basil had learned much of what he could about Redwood Hollow, the town was still continuing to give him new things. Even if some of it was relatively mundane, he had learned never to take anything for granted. The smallest detail could be of vital importance. He was still hoping something would stand out, but so far, nothing had. He was too experienced to allow frustration to get the better of him, but there were still times when he did get a bit lost in his thoughts. This had been one of them, and thus he initially did not realize that someone was speaking to him.

When he did, though, he quickly apologized. "Oh, pardon, I didn't know you were talking to me. A petition, you say? What is it for?"

@happieststarters​

Kevin and Guinevere had decided to spend New Years Eve at the LaBouff’s Estate: as one of the most powerful and rich families in town, it was to be expected. And, normally, Sofia would be happy to stay behind, at home, where she could be nice, cozy and comfortable. The orchard house was far away enough from the ruckus of the town center to be a safe haven for her… Normally. But now, with the sheer amount of sinister theories she had heard of the possible reasons behind the poisonings (which were of course motivated, and not just accidents, like she had initially hoped to assume), Sofia had become more and more wary of being on her own. Especially in a big house like her own, during the cold winter, when whistling winds and creaking floorboards would fire her imagination and make her see strange silhouettes out the corner of her eye…

In the end, she had followed her stepparents into the car, out on the driveway and through the foyer of the grand LaBouff’s Estate: much more glamorous than the orchard house, it was also much more crowded, not with old knickknacks and historic works of art but with guests, screaming and dancing and laughing and celebrating the end of a year and the beginning of another… All those people, together, in one space, where anyone could drop something in a champagne bottle (maybe more than one, maybe in all of them) and send even more people to the hospital…

“What?” Sofia jumped, speaking a little louder than she usually did, when someone bumped into her. The person swung a glass around, almost splashing her in the face, in a gesture that seemed almost like an offer. “Oh, no, thank you… I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a drink, in this current state of events…”

//

Basil had still been keeping an ear open for anything of use he might overhear in passing, but the party was so far proving unsuccessful on that front. He could understand that the guests were trying to have fun and surely to forget the events which had recently transpired, so he did not entirely blame them. But he was trying to conduct an investigation, in as informal a manner as possible, and it was frustrating to not even be catching a bit of useful information.

It seemed he was not the only person at the party who had the unsettling events on their mind, however. When he saw someone bump into a lady and offer her a drink, her refusal was logical, and showed that Basil might not have been wrong in thinking something might come out of the party. After the person with the drink had shrugged and moved on, he quietly approached the lady. 

"Forgive my intrusion, but I just wanted to commend your caution. I too agree it might be a little hasty to be going overboard on frivolity, considering as you said, 'the current state of events.'" Events of which he had no reason to think she knew any more about than he did, but since she had broached the subject, Basil dared to inquire further. "Not that I want to bring down the tone of the party, but what do you think about said events, if I may ask?"