Secrets, Consequences and a Catch All

[deductiongeek]

Who: Conan and others
Where: Various
When: Imagination 26 to Jelly 5
What: Secrets have been revealed and talks need to happen. Also a general catchall for Late Imagination/Early Jelly

1. Imagination 26 
The day after the Winter Fair, Conan was up early with a long list of things to get done. His world had suddenly changed. Again. And that meant that there were some conversations that needed to happen and some plans that needed to be made.

He seeks out Haibara first. Then Sera. Then Jounouchi to return the clothes he'd borrowed. And after all of that was done? He needed to make the rounds of the people who were in on his secret. He needed to check in with Ran.

And he needed to plan. Vermouth was still here, after all.
 

2. Late Imagination and Early Jelly

For the first time ever, Conan does not go out onto the platform to meet the new arrivals. The drama of the confrontation with Ran and the lingering worries about such a massive change in his life had been more than enough distraction. He spends the first few days afterwards trying to give Ran space to process everything. He spends a lot of time in the library re-reading through the mystery section. Afternoons, he can be found in the gym working out his thoughts by kicking a soccerball against the wall.

At night? Well, he hadn't exactly been sleeping well before this. And now that Ran knew.... Well, there wasn't any reason to try and conceal his insomnia any more. In the early hours of the morning it isn't unusual to find him wandering in the direction of the kitchen or the library.

Comments

1

[tactlesstantei]

[Masumi, meanwhile, has also been looking for Conan in hopes of talking about what they knew, so when she spots him she wastes no time in getting his attention.]

Hey, there you are! How were things yesterday?

[Please fill her in on what happened, she didn't see him around the faire at all.]

[deductiongeek]

[ Conan was mentally and emotionally exhausted from the past day, and looked it. He was relieved to see Sera. It saved him the effort of tracking her down.]

Can we move this to a quiet room? [He casts a wary gaze around the hallway.] I don't think we should talk here.

[tactlesstantei]

[Ah. She can see that yesterday must have been a lot for Conan, so she readily backs off on the topic of what happened in favor of just getting to the important stuff.]

Sure, I have some things I don't really want to say in public too, so I was planning to head there anyways.

[The whole train does not need to know about what they have to talk about.]

[deductiongeek]

[He lets out a relieved sigh and quickly leads the way to an empty quiet room.

Which he immediately sweeps for bugs. Vermouth was still on the train, after all. Let alone any of the strangers from other worlds.]

1 (Much later in the day)

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita's mood had, whether she'd intended it to or not, picked itself up over the course of the Faire. She'd met a fair few people, done some shopping for family and close friends, and just generally felt better about herself and her situation on the train.

(That she'd gone back and cleared off the vent-snowballs herself, after those who'd come to chat with her had left, was a reflection of this that no one would ever know about but the Voidtrecker Express itself.)

That said, she still found herself busy with various minutiae on the train - but not too busy to ignore her friends.

"Oh? Hey, Conan," she said, turning to look at him while balancing several different cleaning products.

"You need something? I can put these down."

[deductiongeek]

He shakes his head.

"Nothing urgent, but if you have some time to talk I'd appreciate it."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Well, what makes it not urgent?"

Nita looked curious, rather than bothered or even bemused.

"This is just cleaning; it's not the end of the world if I'm not doing it every second."

Kaiba might be smiling at that, somewhere.

[deductiongeek]

"Only that you're not directly involved." Conan frowns. "Can you meet me in the quiet rooms, then? I don't want to talk about this in public."

1

[mtsilver_conquor]

He'll find Eva in the Standard carriage, notebook open to a page of stick figure art (both people and ... pokemon?) half-buried under badges yet to be polished, and a mug of cold tea half-drunken.

She's only just picked up the Boulder Badge when she notices him. "Conan-kun? What's up?"

[deductiongeek]

After the last day, Conan was emotionally and physically worn out, and it showed. But he had a lot to get done today, and not much time to do it in. So he was just pushing on.

"There's something I need to talk to you about. Do you have time right now?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Sure." It's with a quick flick of the hand that everything bar the mug of tea is sent to her arms band. That's picked up and there's a mental note to buy a thermos and keep it filled with hot water, and tea and a mug in the arms band. "Quiet cabins I assume?"

She's already headed that way.

[deductiongeek]

"Yeah. I'd rather not talk about this in public."

Like most of the things he talked about.

2 - Early Jelly

[secretmakesawoman]

After her run in with Ran, Vermouth knew a change had happened. Ran was, after all, uncannily observant. While Sharon had tried to gently ease her away from the idea, she knew Ran hadn't imagined seeing Shinichi. After all, she knew Shinichi had been be among their numbers from the start.

Vermouth generally avoided approaching the young detective, preferring to watch him from a distance. However, this development called for something more... direct.

Late night suits her purposes best. The hallways might be lit, but there's enough shadow to limit one's sight and far fewer people around to overhear. And so, halfway between his wandering to the kitchen, Conan will hear her pleasant yet dreaded voice.

"An interesting hour for a stroll."

Her darkened silhouette can be seen up ahead, leaning against the hallway wall. Almost as if she had been waiting for him.

[deductiongeek]

He instantly tenses at her approach. He knew better than to think this was a coincidence. If she was here, that meant that she wanted to talk to him.

"Insomnia is hardly unusual on this train," he says blandly as he tries to size up what she wanted from him.

[secretmakesawoman]

Vermouth takes a step forward, slightly out of the darkness, but otherwise keeps her distance. Whether this is a peace offering or a precaution on her part, who can say?

"My, my. Aren't you a little young to be having trouble sleeping?" she asks lightly in that annoyingly glib tone of hers, making it sound more like teasing than an authentic question of concern. (One could argue it would make more sense to ask if he was too old for such problems... if she thought he was his apparent age.)

[deductiongeek]

Either way, Shinichi wasn't about to let his guard drop. He keeps one eye on the distance between them as he focuses on the conversation.

"Does age really have anything to do with it?" His tone is bland, and a little impatient. Were the games really necessary?

Late night early morning Jelly 2.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter still has his premium membership card to club insomnia so when the night comes sleep doesn't and he lets himself out of the sleep car after about in hour and ends up in the kitchen to put together a snack and head off to either the cinema car or game car. He'd decide when he got there.

He pauses though as he see's Conan and quickly dumps the cup of coffee he'd been fixing himself. No amount of sugar in the world could fix that level of bitter.

"Hey! You're still here! I found I lost like at least a month-or wasn't here for a month-It doesn't feel like that but several people have told me that's how long I've been gone. Everything okay?"

[deductiongeek]

Conan stops and stares.

"Peter? When did you get back?"

[hashtagparkerluck]

"Uh... I mean, I'm still don't really feel like I left but uh... last platform stop? I just woke up like I did back on the first day and found out apparently a lot has changed." He shrugs, somewhat apologetically.

"So... how have you been? I still have all my notes about uh-that thing I promised to work on for you. They're just uh... in a notebook. And hidden somewhere. That I don't exactly remember. But they're still around and I'll find them." He flashes a thumbs up.

[singlefaith]

He may have intended to check on Ran after giving her some space, but it's Ran that finds him first -- late in the night on the first day as he's holed up in the library, plucking the coffee mug from his hand even as she settles across from him with a sigh. There's no deliberation in the movement; her mind clearly isn't on the mug as she sets it down on the opposite side of her, out of his reach.

Her legs draw up, and she leans on them, eyes slipping closed for a moment. She looks a little worn.

[deductiongeek]

His expression shifts from being offended over the removal of his mug to worry when he sees her face.

"Ran... are you okay?"

[singlefaith]

No -neechan. It's expected, but still foreign, strange, just like the lower timbre he uses when he speaks. It's not as though she needed a reminder of all that's happened in the last day, but it's a reminder all the same. Her eyes slip open to look at him, even though her head still rests against arms and legs.

"Just tired." Her smile is small, a little lopsided, but genuine. "It's . . . been a long day."

A hard day, in a lot of ways. She's dealt with a lot of emotions, had difficult conversations. Slowly tried to learn the world that she had never known existed.

And then returned to him. "But . . . I wanted to see you."

In spite of everything, in spite of how it feels to look at that small face, being next to him feels like the right place -- reassuring. Like puzzle pieces snapping into their grooves.

1, now that I have a better idea of how things go with Ran

[deage]

Presumably, Kudo would seek Haibara out in her room. A secret knock, something to that effect, and the door slides open to reveal a Haibara with an extremely morose look on her face.

"Nobody's here right now, get inside."

Kudo can probably guess why she's in a Mood.

[deductiongeek]

He had a very good idea of the reason, yes. This was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

With a quick nod, he moves inside the door and takes a seat.

[deage]

Haibara, notably, does not sit down. As soon as the door is closed, she looms over Kudo. Truly impressive for somebody of her stature.

"So. You couldn't keep your secret."