shellphones | text; follow up survey

Type: Text
Sender ID: vulturvolans (Alhaitham)
To: Public
Subject: Follow Up Survey
Warnings: Subtle unsubtle bragging, and Gay

This is Alhaitham.

I have a survey for people to respond to. Those who have filled up my previous survey from last year may consider this as a follow up of sorts to it—those who have not are free to respond to this one all the same. Regardless, there are similarly no restrictions or stipulations to the nature of the responder; the only thing that I request is for honesty when filling this in.

1) Are you currently in any sort of romantic relationship? (Arrangements made purely for physical reasons do not count.)
2) Does an institution of marriage exist in the world that you come from? Does it play any sort of significant cultural role? Feel free to describe as much or as little as you want.
3) Do you consider the idea of marriage important? What is the primary endgoal in any romantic relationship that you pursue?
4) What do you envision as your ideal future with a partner?
5) What does the concept of 'home' mean to you?

You are free to leave your answers in this post or direct them to my inbox. I will follow up on whatever answers that I feel are necessary.

Thank you for your time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Hell's bells. The message isn't stopping. Rather than picturing possible scandalous scenes behind the "Untranscribable noises :(" Sherlock's imagination provides another interpretation. ]

I sincerely hope that the complications and apparent untold number of procedures in relation to this subject has not broken Miss Mehrak. I begin to question why anyone embarks on this infernal path, and it is a practice of frustration and mysterious rituals. I feel my sanity slipping in trying to understand.

[There is a long pause. And then--]

Mehrak's fine I just didn't program her how to transcribe certain things and I will keep it that way.

Sherlock, foreplay is about enjoying one another. It's not a complication to making love, it's something that enhances it.

It can be overwhelming at first, but its something that gets easier with more experience. Of course, a highly experienced partner also helps.

[At least its purely text so Sherlock will not know what he could've been subjected to.]

[ He liked it better when he didn't have to worry or think of any of these things. These feelings may never manifest beyond hypotheticals. More infuriating is that every time he thinks he understands the whole of what encompasses those feelings, there is yet another element to discover. ]

Yes, well, I still maintain that romance and desire are two increasingly baffling and maddening conditions man has ever found himself in.

As for that last point, an experienced potential partner is the only matter going for me at the moment.

Well, many ancient scholars did liken it to a form of madness.

But it's not the sort of thing that can be denied or bottled away. It just eats you from the inside out and turns to the vilest sort of hate if it's let rot. True wisdom often begins life as deep confusion--let it carry you through it, whether it passes or grows stronger with time, Sherlock.

Yet time erodes what was once concrete as water breaks down stone. The longer I am away, the less certain I am of my memory of him.

[ Heizou noticed Sherlock sketched John often, as if Sherlock worried about forgetting his face. He might have hit on some truth of it. ]

What if I've fallen for some ideal built up in my head?

Edited 2025-06-17 08:20 (UTC)

[Well Alhaitham can't say that that particular worry isn't unfounded.]

Ideals, dreams and goals have and always will play a large part in how we dictate and shape our own lives. There is no shame in liking that. The important thing is that you must be open to accept the other side of the proverbial coin.

[He loves Kaveh as much as his senior frustrates him many a times, but that too is simply part of what it means to have made his choice. Kaveh is his ideal, but Kaveh is also more than the sum of them.]

...you've spoken of him with love since the day you got here, though. It's not as though these feelings didn't exist until he was absent. Time makes memories strange, I can't deny that. But if you are worried your love is only based on that haze, I wouldn't be.

I've had issue with my memories where I believed a false narrative for many years. The truth had been drastically different.

While perhaps not as extreme as then, I worry I may lose what is John Watson and what was another, mixing the two because neither is by my side.

Those are vastly different circumstances. [For one, you were eight and traumatized?? Or something like that anyway.] Besides, seeing as you've constantly kept him in your mind this whole time, I highly doubt this will be much of an issue—and when all else fails, you have your journal to fall back on.

[He knows how much you've written on it, Sherlock. The written word, at least, is something solid and unchanging. Take it from the guy who studies languages for his thesis.]

[ Sherlock logically knows that they must have seen his casebook at the S.H. Detective Agency because he left it there on purpose in case something should happen to him. The information could help point to what had happened.

He just... tries to avoid thinking too much about what else they might have seen. Perhaps he should come to terms about that some time. What secrets might they know? What of glimpses into his insanity? ]

I have written extensively about him in my attempt to build a complete profile, though I never get his limits. There are unexplored possibilities about him, possibilities that feel unlikely to be explored with each passing day.

[Alhaitham, at least, hasn't really seen anything himself; he's just mostly extrapolating based on what he already knows of Sherlock, and if wasn't already giving the answers away, its also not a hard conclusion to draw to, either.]

And that's not exactly something that any of us have any control over, so I don't see any point in harping on it. Being contentious is fine, but even that has a limit.

[ And those most likely to see his casebook are those whom Sherlock is most likely to trust should that information get revealed. It might even become a weight off his shoulders someday.

Also, half of it is ridiculously like a teenager writing or doodling his crush. No one needs to be exposed to that. ]

Yes, you're right. My thoughts have merely been off balance as of late, and I find myself missing him greatly for it.

Of course.

[Unsurprising, considering everything that Sherlock has been through... and Alhaitham knows all too well the comfort that having somebody you trust wholeheartedly brings.]

That's not much advice that can be given which won't sound superfluous given your circumstances, so I'll refrain from it. Just know that any offer I have given you in the past still stands.

[ Indeed, what is there to say that won't be superfluous at the moment? ]

That continues to be appreciated.

text; follow up survey

He thinks all this is stupid

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text; id: paradisaea

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