sortinghat_logs | Hogsmeade Weekend

Makes it sound like a damned if I do, damned if I don't scenario.

You just need something more interesting in your life to think about. Something that takes over your conscious and subconscious thoughts.

Yeah? Like what?

My work?

You’re already helping me in my muggle culture observations and agreed to help in any further attacks on the student body. Why not assist with the rest of it?

Sure, why not? It sounds interesting, so why miss any of it?

Besides, since I've started feeling better, I'm sure it won't be long before I get back in the dating game. That'll occupy some of my time and thoughts as well.

[Sherlock makes a face.]

Do you really go in for all that? Dating? As a means of entertainment?

Well, yeah. And yes, it's a lot of fun going out with girls, but it's not just that, I suppose. It teaches you what sort of person you get on with in general. Besides, you never know; if you're lucky, the next person you date could end up being the one you'd like to spend the rest of your life with.

[Sherlock rolls his eyes.]

I don’t need to have someone sitting in my lap feeding me sycophantic niceties to find out what kind of person I get on with. What you mean is that you get to test how much you can stand of the things you generally are completely intolerant of like benign conversations about grooming products, who’s dating whom else, and ‘Oh, did you hear what Sally said about Nikki?’.

Dating is just biding your time until you can fulfill your masculine prerogative to mate. Base. Dull. Boring.

Edited 2012-11-20 15:14 (UTC)

I wouldn't really consider girls who fit your simultaneously general and specific description there to be keepers, anyway.

Also, speaking as someone who has got rather close to that "masculine prerogative to mate", I'll grant you base. But dull and boring? Not if you're doing right.

[He shrugged.]

Still, you've said this kind of stuff isn't your area, I suppose I shouldn't expect any of it to make sense to you.

Well, at least you have standards. But you forget, whether or not it’s of any interest to me, I do observe it. I’ve seen perfectly acceptable people go from normal if not dull individuals into hormonal messes of rage, lust, and the most irritating conversations on who loves who more when fused together as a couple. Rarely do they bring out the best in each other. Power will always be in the hands of the partner who cares the least and I find it much easier to simply not care at all. The girls who run off to the bathrooms in tears because their beau has moved on, the gentlemen who break their knuckles against the castle stone when their ex walks down the hall on another man’s arm, they are all so dependent on the existence of another that they are nothing more to me than animals.

There is no such thing as love, there is selfish gratification in conquest and the desire to perpetuate the species. Love is a byproduct of low self-esteem wherein justification for one’s existence comes in the acceptance from another. I’m fine the way I am, thank you, and so are you. So why waste time with sentimental syndromes when it can be so easily avoided?

[John held up his hands in a 'calm down' gesture.]

Whoa there. But seriously, you're awfully cynical about the whole thing. You've kind of got a bad sample pool for observation since we're still in school. Of course a lot of people will end up looking like right bastards when it comes to relationships. Everyone's a little bit crazy with hormones right now.

[He paused for a second, giving Sherlock a wry look.]

Well, almost everyone, I suppose. There's got to be an exception to any rule.

Still, is it really that tough to believe that someone might want to be close with and enjoy the company of someone they really like - physically and otherwise? Especially if they luck out and find someone really great. I don't even see how it's all that selfish. Sure, you get something out of it, but so does the other person if you're doing the whole dating thing right.

Well, what makes a date then? What is 'doing it right' as you seem to be such an expert?

[He sat back in his chair, arms crossed.]

I wouldn't call myself an expert. But you keep making it all sound like it's all about exploiting others, when it ought to be more about finding someone who makes you happy and making them happy in return.

As for dating, it's... y'know. It's when two people who like each other go out and have fun. I don't know what you seem to think it is.

So a date is more or less what we've been doing here.

[What with the meeting up, exploring things, talking about personal things....]

[John stared at him for a moment before blinking a few times in surprise as what Sherlock said finally registered.]

No, it's... different. Totally and completely different. The, er, differentness of it is absolute.

Oh.

Well, I'm afraid the finer points of relationships are among the things I won't understand for quite some time, then. You're quite right; there will be a better sample group once I have less hormonal subjects to observe. If in fact things like love do exist outside idealism and fairytales. I'll stick to my current assessments for lack of conflicting evidence.

[Yes, good, John would take that conversation change. Anything that wasn't whether or not they were on a date. Which they weren't.]

Yeah, fair enough. Just don't be too cynical. Not terribly scientific, that. It's one thing to go in with a hypothesis, but quite another to shut out all other options completely.

The girls you dated and almost had sex with aren't your girlfriends now. So what makes you so sure I'm wrong?

[Sherlock finished off his butterbeer. He hadn't meant to get in a somewhat argument slash discussion like this with John. John was just... easy to talk to. Didn't talk down to him. Validated his opinion even if he held contrary ones.

Maybe John wasn't one of the two people having fun at the table, but Sherlock was rather enjoying even the arguing bits.]

Just because relationships can end doesn't mean that it's not worth pursuing them at all. All sorts of things can happen, y'know. You can realize you're heading down two different paths lifestyle-wise, you can decide you're just better as friends... her dad can barge in with your trousers around your knees and you have to dodge jinxes while you try to get the hell out of the house...

[He winced and finished off his own butterbeer. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't having a good time as well, despite occasional awkwardness.]

[Sherlock’s brows rose in surprise before he started chuckling softly. What a mental image.]

Well, it’s a good thing we’ve got you back fighting fit. It’d be a shame to lose the head on your shoulders to the whims of the one in your pants.

I’ll keep an open mind. Might be nice to be wrong.

[Although John's expression started off sour at that, he couldn't help breaking into a fit of giggles himself.]

I'll say. One of the jinxes actually grazed me a bit. Singed most of my right eyebrow off. For three weeks that summer I had to use my sister's eyebrow pencil so I'd only look mostly weird instead of incredibly weird.

Well, if you do, don't just go barging into any old relationship as an experiment. I imagine helping to get someone out of a terrible relationship is a fair bit harder than keeping them from drowning in a sink.

[Sherlock tried not to relate that to Jim. He was relatively sure that didn’t count even if he was rather trapped. He could handle Jim. Eventually. Somehow.]

No worries there. I could probably say ‘I love you’ convincingly enough but I have no interest in any follow through. An experiment is only as good as one invests in it. I have far more important things to do than figure out what is so great about kissing or holding hands. A lack of knowledge there has hardly had a negative impact on my work.

Good to know you won't be intentionally going about breaking any hearts to prove some hypothesis. Too faithfully married to your work.

Well, and I've already seen it done. No reason to repeat the experiment on my own terms.

[John frowned at that a bit.]

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