Codes and communication
Chapter 1: Notes about milk.
John pov.
John is making a list of the groceries he needs for when he goes to Tesco's. It's early morning and he has a shift at the hospital before he can go shopping, which is the reason for the list in the first place.
Milk
Beans
Bread
Paper towels
Scissors
Kettle
'I think I have everything' John murmurs. He still didn't know what the goal of Sherlock's experiment with the kettle and the scissors was, but both hadn't survived, though it nearly set the table on fire.
John decided to write a note to Sherlock he's going shopping after his shift. Now he only needed to think of a way to get Sherlock to pay attention to it, and maybe even keep him from shooting the wall in boredom a bit longer. His phone had also melted in the experiment which destroyed the kettle and the scissors but Sherlock had said he would get him a new one, and not to worry about it. He knew the perfect way: a coded note. That would keep Sherlock occupied and not bored for some time, hopefully. He stuck he note to the fridge and left.
The note
Gvsfzcqy, W'a ucwbu hc Hsgqc'g othsf am gvwth. W kwzz ps poqy ofcibr tcif, obr wt Zsghfors qozzg opcih o qogs, zsojs o bchs, psqoigs W rcb'h vojs o dvcbs. Hfm bch hc rsghfcm hvs tzoh wb hvs asobhwas. Xcvb
Sherlock pov.
When Sherlock came out of his mind-palace this morning, he discovered John had already left. Remembering John said something about a shift at the hospital he got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, the kettle was broken so tea was not an option. Not that he would ever make his own tea, or coffee for that matter, if he didn't have to but Mrs. Hudson had left for her sister's yesterday.
When he was stirring the sugar into his coffee he discovered a note, stuck on the door of the fridge. He pulled it off and walked back to the couch. Setting his coffee down on the floor at his feet, he focused on the obviously coded message. 'Thoughtful of John to think of something like this to keep his mind busy and give him the information he needed at the same time.' It took multiple tries and fifteen minutes, but he got it. John was smarter than he gave him credit for if he could come up with this after he woke up early in the morning.
Decoded note
Sherlock, I'm going to Tesco's after my shift. I will be back around four, and if Lestrade calls about a case leave a note, because I don't have a phone. Try not to destroy the flat in the meantime. John
Sherlock, happy now he had decoded the note took a sip of his now cold coffee. Deciding he didn't like cold coffee, he walked to the kitchen and put his coffee in the microwave. However the microwave decided that after the experiments of the past month, he'd rather explode than heat coffee. So a few minutes later Sherlock left the kitchen, with a smoking microwave and a new note on the fridge: John we need a new microwave. -SH
AN: to decode the note you need to shift the alphabet around. A is o, b is p, c is q etc.
I found this in the second coded message on the thesienceofdeduction website.