notquiteheartless | Deduction 3 - [ action / visual / written / accidental audio ]

[Residents of Community House 4, prepare for a long, noisy week.]

[Day one:

Action-

Luceti community homes are all uniform. They might be mirrored, but they are all the same. There are three bedrooms, two of which share a wall.

That is the wall that is going to be destroyed.

Those two bedrooms are useless, after all, for someone living alone. Particularly when two people of a similar scientific frame of mind have decided that the space is better used for a shared laboratory. Like any sound method, there is a logical starting point. In this case, prior to the import of any furniture or tools, a wall must be removed.

They’ve obtained the proper tools. Goggles, masks, and gloves. Hammers and prybars and saws. The procedure is simplistic, one that should not take more than a day. It doesn’t require much thought, peeling off the first layer, making holes, then stripping the wall down to its wood base. It takes effort, but it is not mentally taxing, and the two geniuses are more than capable of the work.

Only the bottom wood studs remain by the time they call it a day.]

[Day two:

Picture & Written-

There are benefits to these journals. Aside from proving to be effective communication devices, without laptops or cameras, they are the best system of recording two scientists can get. What they found, upon preparing to finish what little work was left, required documentation. It bordered on the impossible, but the proof was undeniable. The wall between the unused rooms was completely in tact, as if nothing had been done the previous day. Even the dust that had been left was gone.

The photograph captured by the journal’s camera provides the unfortunate evidence.

Another photograph is added a half hour later. The wall is now successfully portioned off into a six by four grid of twenty-four rectangles, separated by lines of duct tape. On the leftmost square of every wall, the word “control” is written in neat block print. The remainder of the squares are labeled with letters to indicate the row and numbers to indicate the column.

Scribbled into the notebook is the following information:]
A1-A3: removal of surface material
B1-B3: puncture of wall: large hole
C1-C3: removal of drywall
D1-D3: removal of wooden beams (full removal of unit)
E1-E3: incision of wooden beams
F1-F3: puncture of wall: small hole

[Pictures then follow.. The wall immediately after its alterations. And the wall again, every hour on the hour. For about six hours, this pattern is maintained. On the seventh, a new kind of picture appears. The wall, every segment of it, is completely fixed. The duct tape and writing are still present, but the damage has been erased.

Beside the picture, a different kind of handwriting has made a note:] Gone for ten minutes. Brewed tea. [It doesn’t explain what happened, not really, but it’s a note for their reference. An absence.]

[Day Three:

Picture & Written-

A photograph of a pristine wall, once again sectioned off into units through use of a duct tape grid. In the same neat handwriting is an alteration to the list from the previous day:]

A1-A3: light searing with blowtorch
B1-B3: exposure to diluted HCl
C1-C3: heavy searing with blowtorch
D1-D3: destruction via chainsaw
E1-E3: exposure to diluted H₂SO₄
F1-F3: destruction via chainsaw, cauterised by searing with blowtorch

[And, like with the previous day, photographs follow. An image of their handiwork is posted every hour in the journals. At 3 am, the photograph shown is that of a fully repaired wall, with only the tape and writing remaining.] Looked away for less than half a minute.

[Day four:

Voice-

The journal was opened for note-taking, to try and figure out their next move. Inspiration has not struck, though. In the frustration of a self-repairing wall, the initial objective of wall removal had been forgotten in favor of simply seeing the full limits of this technology. In getting up to inspect the wall again, one or the other turned on the voice recording option.

It’s Sherlock who can be heard first:] It doesn’t make sense. I mean, obviously, it’s happening. We have the proof, but it shouldn’t be possible.

There is a limit to every technology. [A pause as she presses her hand to her lips, thoughtful.] It is only a matter of time until we find the one variable the apartment cannot fix.

A flat shouldn’t fix itself at all. [He sounds almost petulant.] Might actually have some character with a few marks. [It’s just irritating at this point. A matter of principle, beyond wanting the space for a laboratory. And then...] Explosives?

[You can easily imagine the nod of another equally frustrated scientist. Even if this is only a matter of unusual technology, it only serves to exemplify all other oddities Brennan has since encountered.] Perhaps we can obtain phosphoric acid, as well.

[His smile is obvious in his voice.] Even if it didn’t work, it’d be fun to try.

[A chuckle.] I cannot argue with that. Though... Give me one moment, Sherlock. I’ll be right back.

[A minute passes in complete silence. Then, all that’s recorded is the sound of a handgun firing. Four rounds, straight into the wall.]

(Feel free to respond with your character [especially you CH4 residents!] at any time during the days when Sherlock and Brennan are working. Just specify what day it is.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sherlock, huh? Lupin files this away for later--it's entirely unimportant. He has his suspicions, and has for a couple of weeks now, but it doesn't matter in the current state of affairs.

He has something useful:]

It'll just come back like all the rest if you blow it up. It took less than a day when I did it, though the fire was really the hardest thing to put out.

And how long ago was it that you conducted your own attempts at wall removal?

It was accidental, and back in late January. All I really learned was to not make smoke bombs after being up for nearly twenty-four hours, and to not piss off my upstairs neighbor that happens to know magic.

...The fire was extensive, but it was all repaired as if nothing happened by the time I woke up the next morning.

[Up for only twenty-four hours and unable to make a proper smoke bomb? Sherlock gives a soft snort at the idea, though it could have been applied to anything said (like the talk of magic) or something else entirely. Like the memory of all the dust everywhere these last few days.]

Accidental and undocumented and, I assume, not repeated.

Hardly conclusive evidence for a scientific approach.

[He looks at Temperance and gives her a slight smile.] At least we've been thorough.

[Circumstances, man. If only you knew.]

...I didn't have a chance, honestly. My friends made me swear not to try that again, several others yelled at me, I damn near gave both a doctor and a Jedi a heartattack, and I was dealing with cracked ribs after the affair--which then got broken in a later event.

If you come up with something interested, would you be kind enough to share? I do have a shack behind my building that's almost done, and I'm thinking on a few actual experiments myself.