Open catch-all!

[singlefaith]

Who: Ran + Open prompts!
Where: Varying carriages, including the gym, kitchen, your cabin, and more.
When: Second half of the month of Fiddlesticks
What: Ran keeps herself busy and not thinking about things as much as possible. Karate, baking, cleaning, and hair braiding are all good distractions, right?
Warnings: Possible near dummy decapitation, but that's probably about it.


1. Karate, open - Ran practices karate daily in the new gym area, generally early in the morning, not willing to let herself fall behind -- particularly when there's plainly a chance that fighting will be needed. Mostly she drills, repeating moves until they become muscle memory, making tiny improvements as she goes. Sometimes, though, she'll go after a practice dummy as though it's an enemy, and suddenly she's a flash of movement, kicks and punches landing with powerful, sharp precision until the dummy rocks dangerously.

At one point a kick snaps one of the training dummies from its chain, sending it crashing into the nearby wall.

Oops.

Feel free to catch her when this happens, when she's sparring, or just during drills.

2. Baking, open - Baking is good stress relief for Ran, and another bit of familiarity in the middle of a lot that isn't. After rummaging through the available ingredients, it looks as though she can at least find the makings for oatmeal cookies. Anything with chocolate, of course, would be nicer, but she's not finding any chocolate chips. (Maybe she's just missing them?)

Find her anywhere in the process -- from rummaging for ingredients to making the cookies, to cleaning up with fresh-baked cookies sending curls of fragrance into the air.

3. Cleaning, open - Yet another good way to keep busy. Ran is actually fine with the chores required by the train; it's something she does for her father regularly, or they'd live in a pigsty decorated by pyramids of beer cans.

So hey, she's at your cabin door to clean. Hope you don't have anything stuffed under the bunk that you don't want her to find.

4. Closed to Conan - There's a reason she keeps so busy during the day. It's distraction, a way not to think. At night, though, there's nothing to guard against her thoughts, and she lies awake, staring blankly into the darkness. This isn't her bed. Isn't her room. Isn't the sounds of Tokyo outside her window, isn't the faint rumble of her father snoring in another room. It's all alien.

It's so far away.

Pushing herself up, she hesitates on the bunk a moment, then slides off, padding out the door. She has no particular destination in mind . . . only the vague idea that maybe tea will help. She heads for the dining car.

5. Closed to Misa - Impressed by Misa's braiding skills during the underwater event, Ran had extracted a promise to be taught, and she plans to follow through on it.

First, though, the younger girl has to be found. Ran goes in search of her, starting with her cabin -- and if she's not there, will slowly comb through the other cars. Not knowing Misa well, she's unsure where she tends to be most.

Comments

[knifewithnoname]

She is also in the gym, she is here most days practising fighting, learning from those who came in here to practice also. At the moment though she was climbing, using the climbing apparatus, there are crash mats below so she is safe. She pushes herself, attempting jumps that were further than felt safe, stretching further than her short arms could really manage.

The crashing of the bag into the wall was loud and rocked the carriage, making her lose her concentration and plummet.

The mat enveloped her but she emerged with a breathless adrenaline fuelled laugh.

"Did the bag be insulting you?" She spoke grumpily, hair mussed and over her face as she found her feet and her barings.

Closed to Conan

[deductiongeek]

After so long on the train, Conan's sleeping habits had become erratic at best. More nights than not, he gave up on sleeping midway through the night and found his way to the kitchen.

He'd done this tonight, making himself a big mug of his favorite strong coffee. He'd taken company on more than one night like this.

He just hadn't expected it to be Ran this time.

kitchen

[stealsyourheart]

The smell of cookies draws Kaito like... well, like a hungry teen who smells food.

"oooooooooooh you're baking, Ran-san?"

[singlefaith]

Ran's eyes whisk up as the girl hits the mat, and immediately she's headed in that direction, flushed and worried. Despite the mat, the girl is small, and it's instinct to protect, check.

"I'm sorry!" Guilt is plain on her face, mingled with relief as the girl finds her feet. Pausing at the edge of the mat: "Are you all right?"

Flushing further, she adds, "I think . . . I just got carried away."

Which is an embarrassment in itself -- normally her control is better. She used to cause more property damage closer to the time when Shinichi left, but for the most part she'd leveled that out.

Her eyes flick over the girl. She's standing, but Ran would still like to definitively make sure that she isn't injured.

[knifewithnoname]

"You should be being more careful." She snapped but she paused at the question and did a quick check. She can wriggle her toes, feel her legs, move her arms and fingers. Nothing hurts overly much. She's a little winded but she managed to fall safely.

It had been one of her very early lessons after all.

"I do be being uninjured."

[singlefaith]

"Conan-kun." Ran has arrived with her own tea and caught sight of him -- and does not approve of that big mug of coffee. They say that coffee stunts growth -- which Ran has never looked up and isn't fully sure she believes, but still doesn't mean she believes it's good for a boy as small as he is. (Not to mention that if there's any chance it is true, he needs all the help he can get.)

"What are you doing awake?" Reaching out, she snags his coffee mug, replacing it with her tea. If he wants a warm drink, he can settle for that. It's decaffeinated, and with him needing to get to sleep, he's much better off with it.

Karate

[rookiemistakes]

Ran isn't the only one in the gym so early in the morning. Elena has already been here for nearly an hour herself, working up a good sweat before breakfast. She needs to stay sharp. She can't treat their sudden extended train interlude as a vacation; she and Reno are still Turks, and their mission remains the same regardless.

Elena flips on the balance beam, awkwardly clad in the boxer shorts and t-shirt she sleeps in, since the polo shirt and cargo pants she was initially provided with don't exactly move the way she needs them to. The Turk dismounts with a flourish and walks over to her towel, watching the younger girl in the gym whale on a training dummy. She's not at all bad. Excellent form. When the girl snaps the dummy's chain and sends it flying, Elena applauds.

"Pretty good" she says. "You might want to focus on your footwork, though. I could take you out from behind, if I wanted."

[singlefaith]

It's a well-documented fact that teenage boys are the most dangerous to cookie baking. They've been studied to smell them from up to a mile away.

Ran doesn't seem to mind too much, though, smiling up at him from mixing ingredients. There's a batch already out cooling on the counter (hence the smell), but she seems to be going for another one. "Mm-hm! You're welcome to some if you want. They're oatmeal -- that's all I could find."

Again, she's still missing the chocolate.

Also, he seems to have progressed to "Ran-san"? She finds she doesn't mind, though.

Baking

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin may not have his superior sense of smell anymore, but he doesn't need it to know that someone is baking something sweet and delicious and he wants in on it. He follows his nose to the kitchen, watching as a familiar teenage girl pulls a rack of cookies out of the oven.

"You're Conan's girlfriend," he says, bluntly. (At least he stopped himself from saying 'Shinichi.') Then: "May I have a cookie?"

[deductiongeek]

Conan stifles his protest at the removal of his coffee. He'd gotten used to being able to drink what he liked without much objection.

But he already knew that objecting right now wouldn't do anything.

He stares morosely into the cup of tea, and silently resolves to sneak back here later for coffee.

"I couldn't sleep," he says at last.

karate;

[sunbloom]

Itsuki hasn't really hit the gym car as hard as she should have - the whole suddenly train thing threw her off pretty badly. So she hasn't gotten properly acquainted with everyone that hangs out in the gym. When she comes in today, having figured out something to wear for training clothes but missing her gi, she opens the door and finds the other young woman training. She steps inside and closes the door, watching her, waiting for her to come to a resting point before she tried to introduce herself... when the older woman suddenly snapped into motion. It wasn't long before she flinched at the dummy hitting the far wall.

"That's very impressive," she got out after a second. "Good form." Not that she's entirely qualified to comment on other disciplines, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd seen it up close.

[singlefaith]

Congratulations, Joss. You've managed to take Ran completely off guard with that declaration, so plainly spoken and completely out of the blue. For a moment she stares, cookie sheet hanging in the air, then quickly slides it onto the counter, waving her hands. He can't possibly be serious. "C-Conan-kun stays with my dad and me at home, so we're close. That's why he calls me 'Ran-neechan' -- it means 'older sister.'"

Also, you know, he's seven. And not Shinichi.

Trying to pull back a smile and answer his second question, "Of course?"

Okay, going to put that cookie sheet she's holding on the counter now to try to avoid dropping it.

[dredefulchilde]

Goodness, that hit a bit of a nerve, didn’t it? Joscelin smiles, looking for all the world like a sweet and innocent little boy.

“He likes you, you know. He won’t admit it because he’s small right now, but Conan carries a torch for you.“

He waits expectantly for his cookie.

[singlefaith]

Flushed and breathing sharply, Ran has only enough time to duck her head in a wince as the dummy hits the wall before the voice cuts in. Her eyes dart up, tracking down Elena -- honestly, she'd been focused enough not to be paying attention, having forgotten that the other girl was there. The comment, though, causes her to blink, because honestly, her footwork has always been one of the stronger parts of her karate.

"I think I was forgetting myself," she replies, wry at herself and rubbing at a wrist. "Normally it's better. Do you practice karate too?"

Not many people would make such a comment, after all, unless they had some martial arts background of their own.

[sensitiveapple]

Misa can be found in the dressing carriage. Which, if you want to learn how to braid is probably the best place. She's humming and sitting on something making small stitches in the blue dress she wore on the platform. She should probably have a green dress made as well - she's using this time to find the best color against her skin and so far, blue seems to be winning - but that's an argument for another time.

Tapping her foot to the music in her head, she doesn't notice Ran at first. When she senses someone else in the carriage, she looks up and smiles. "Hi! Did you come to get something made from Kumuko?" She asks, hopping off the seat she was using.

[rookiemistakes]

“‘Karate?’ Is that your specific style?” It looks very similar to what Elena herself had trained in, but she didn’t know the otherworld name for it. She towels off the sweat on her face. “No, not that style exactly, but something very similar. I changed my specialization in the military academy from firearms to martial arts in my second year. Now I use both in my job, almost every day.”

[singlefaith]

Ran is definitely missing her gi as well -- it may be something that she may need to request from the store. For the moment, like Itsuki, she's rigged something up, but practice would be more comfortable in something more familiar.

For her turn, there's a wince as the dummy hits the wall -- it's definitely not something she meant to do. Definitely something she should have had the control not to do, and she's a little flushed as she blinks over at Itsuki's voice. "A-Ah, thanks . . . It's not what I was aiming for, though?"

She didn't set out to cause property damage, anyway.

[singlefaith]

It's been a bit of a trek through the train -- after all, the dressing carriage is the last one before luggage, and Ran can't imagine why anyone would want to hang out there. It smells like her father's cigarettes, and the only company is suitcases. (Though why there are suitcases when they all bring their own rucksacks is another question entirely.)

Ran brightens at the sight of Misa (though she casts a somewhat worried glance to all of the spider webs). "Misa-san -- I was looking for you, actually."

Her eyes slip to the dress. "Ah, that's pretty! Did you make it?"

Fashion is definitely something she misses here. While she's not into it in the same way as her friend Sonoko is, needing the latest styles at all times, she enjoys playing with it . . . and the train does not leave much room for that.

[stealsyourheart]

She was nice to him, and she's now making cookies. Instant upgrade to honorifics is get!

"Still smells good." He wanders over to the bench, hands in his pockets.

"You sure? You're not making them for someone special?" Like Conan.

Although come to think of it, if she's making them for Conan he probably SHOULD swipe one. For old time's sake.

Baking

[adropofsunlight]

Rapunzel was happily making her way to the kitchen, some ideas that she wanted to do in mind so long as she got on it now, but she found herself stopping when she realized there was in fact someone else in the carriage.

"Hello~ Are you cooking something?"

[singlefaith]

"Coffee isn't going to to help with that, you know," she notes, taking a careful whiff of what's in the mug -- and recoils, wrinkling her nose. "Mou, this is strong. You shouldn't be drinking this kind of thing at any time, but especially not now."

Frowning slightly, though her eyes soften: "Why are you trying not to sleep?"

Because that's really the only logical explanation for drinking something so strong and highly caffeinated at this time of night. He can't claim innocence -- it could only have been deliberate. He's too smart for that, and she knows he has full knowledge of the effects of coffee.

[singlefaith]

A quick shake of the head, dusting a bit more flour into the mixture. "I just made them because I felt like it. It's nice to be able to bake again; it's a good way to relax, and I miss it from home."

Again, "Take some if you want them! I'll save a couple for Conan-kun, but it's probably better that you take dibs before they attract anyone else." A flicker of a laugh. "Any extra cooking that people do here doesn't seem to last long."

Which makes her happy, really. It's nice to feel like something she's doing is making someone else happy . . . and that in the chaos of talents and capabilities on this train, something she's doing has any effect.

[singlefaith]

Good, she does seem to be all right. Seems to be moving well, isn't reacting as though anything is injured or broken. Again, the mat should have provided padding, but that doesn't mean that Ran doesn't worry all the same, especially when her own actions caused the fall.

"I should have," she offers with quiet wryness. "I think I got carried away. I'm sorry I scared you."

Her eyes flick up to the climbing apparatus . . . which looks a little large for a child. "What were you doing up there?"

[singlefaith]

Ran is starting to wonder if she trusts that smile. There's a bit of a sting behind it -- like the owner likes saying something startling and seeing what reaction he gets.

Kids are like that sometimes, so it's not as though she sees Joss' little boy facade as false, but that doesn't mean it isn't something to watch for, either.

Trying to keep a smile, she nods towards where there's a small cookie pyramid stacked on a plate. "I think those should be cool enough?"

"As far as Conan-kun . . . I guess little boys get crushes sometimes. On their teachers or friends. I don't think he's ever shown that to me, though -- what makes you think that?"

[singlefaith]

Ran had just been sliding a tray of cookies into the oven. There's plenty of dough left in the bowl yet; it looks like this is just the first batch. She twists her head at the sound of the voice with a bright smile, nudging the oven door closed. "Hello! It's just cookies -- I had the urge to bake, I guess. Were you hoping to make something too? I'm glad to move over."