"Listen to this," said John, handing the mp3 player to the lanky man who was sprawled on the bed. The mp3 player hung in Sherlock's hand, without his fingers actually clasping around it.
"Why should I do that? It's not another trivial pop song, is it?" he asked.
"No, it's not—Sherlock, that wasn't just another pop song, that was a prospective clue—"
"Yes, but it turned out to be irrelevant," said Sherlock, sitting up suddenly in his place. "And I don't have the time or brain energy to waste on another Madonna song."
"It isn't any of that—it's a podcast," said John. "You know, like a blog, but voiced—"
"I know what a podcast is," said Sherlock. "And I know of several fan-podcasts of mine, as well." He took his face from his tented hands and faced his partner. "I'm not completely oblivious, you know."
"Then I am sure that you can spare the twenty minutes it takes to listen to this podcast," said John. "I think you might find it… interesting."
"I'm busy," said Sherlock, rolling over into a semi-fetal position, facing away from John.
"You're full of shit is what you are," said John. "Just listen to the podcast, and I'll look around the newspapers for another case."
Sherlock turned his upward, back to John. His eyes rolled around in their sockets, and he closed his hand on the mp3 player. "If it's not worth my while, I'll just forget about it later. And you'll pick me up another couple of packages from Molly later. She said she would save me something interesting."
"Just put a lid on the Tupperware this time, would you?" said John. "I don't like finding severed fingers airing out next to the meatloaf Mrs. Hudson made for us."
It didn't matter, because the earbuds were already in Sherlock's ears, and he couldn't hear John over the words being softly related to him: "A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
"Welcome to Night Vale. "
"John, I listened to it."
"Good, how did you like it?" John looked up from the tea he had been drinking, and the newspaper he was reading. He hadn't found anything that would really rate past a five on Sherlock's scale of importance. He also hadn't expected Sherlock to be done so quickly.
"Quite a bit. Very interesting. You only had the first two episodes on this device, though, and you seemed to have changed the password on your computer. I can't download the rest of them."
"How did you listen to both of the episodes already?" asked John.
"I listen to most everything on twice speed," said Sherlock. "I don't have time to waste on waiting for the story to play out."
"I'm sure you can figure out my password," said John.
"And like I said, I don't like to wait for the story to play out. But I do want to know what happens," said Sherlock. "I don't' have a media player on my computer, it's a waste of space, and I need to find out what happens next."
John looked over his friend for a moment, seeing the desperation on his face for more of the story, and realized that it was the same face that he wore when he needed to find out what was going to happen next in a case. He gave him a little smile. "Studyinpink," said John.
"How quaint," said Sherlock, trailing off as he went into the living room. He perched in John's desk chair and tapped at his computer. "I can see there wasn't anything interesting in the paper," he continued. John began to reply, but Sherlock continued before he had a chance to. "Good. I'll be busy for the next day or so. I hope you don't mind, I'm deleting your Madonna, and your, well, everything, to make room."
"Have fun with that," said John, but again, the headphones were already in Sherlock's ears. John shook his head and took another sip of tea.