justonetruth | (no subject)

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[You can smell smoke.

This is not usually a good development, so it's natural that no matter where you are in the mansion, you'd stop what you're doing and look around. Maybe glance towards the open window and catch sight of a plume of grey smoke in the distance. Glancing out of the window, you can see that there is a small -- shed? shack? At this distance it's hard to tell -- building erected on the lawn.

In front of it a small campfire is burning brightly. There's no sign of anyone tending it. Do you invest--

Sorry. Silly question! Forgot who I was talking to a moment there.

Of course you investigate.]

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'Outside'? [he seems to have put a curious emphasis on that]

As much as you'd like, of all sorts. Do you want to see? [stands, still holding his hand]

Outside. Where the food comes from.

[Conan doesn't verbally answer Ran, but the hand she's holding tightens around hers, and she might be able to feel the tension as he nods.]

Edited 2012-07-22 06:01 (UTC)

Then let's have a look.

[starts leading him towards the Mansion doors]

So you can't acquire food 'inside'?

[Conan shakes his head.] Inside's ... inside. It's all sealed off. Even the air tastes different.

Kaa-- I mean, Ran-neechan's sure it's okay?

Sealed off? You mean underground?

Very sure. Many of us have been staying here quite some time. The food is perfectly safe.

No, the mining is Outside too. I think they have some factories Inside, and they're underground, but most of it is up.

Not the food. Going in there.

Factories inside of what?

[why would factories be inside? And underground when everything else is Above...]

Oh, of course. You can even choose a room of your own.

It looks like a big white dome. I don't know what it's made out of but it's light and strong, and dynamite doesn't work on it.

[The face Conan makes at the comment indicates he is not exactly enamoured of that idea. He's looking increasingly wary as the mansion draws nearer, but keeps his pace matching Ran's as best he can.]

A dome? Whatever for?

[suspects he may change his mind when he sees what the Mansion has to offer, but there's only one way to find out. Opening the big double doors one-handedly with no trouble]

Well, that's where they live, of course.

[The sight of the luxurious foyer is momentarily daunting, but Conan relaxes somewhat as he realises that there is no one there. It's reassuring ... but not so reassuring that he's going to stop walking close enough to Ran that he accidently bumps into her occasionally.]

They?

[going slow enough for him to catch himself every time he trips into her, heading for the dining room first]

[Well, at least the slow pace allows Conan plenty of opportunities to assess the organic nature of the interior of much of the mansion, notice smells and traces that don't fit what he knows of Inside and really notice that the mansion is not as inhabited as it should be.]

Them. They don't really have a name, I don't think. At least not one we can say. Is it always quiet like this?

What are they like?

And no, not always. There doesn't seem to be many people about today. Or they may be on the higher floors.

We're not going up there, right? [Reassurance comes before explanation.]

The centaurs are pretty scary. You only see them when something's gone wrong. They're really big, and they've got two really big claws out front -- like pincers. They can go outside if they have special equipment. The nurses are smaller. They're not as scary. They took care of me at first, before I had Kaa-chan.

[Ran's hand gets squeezed again.]

The spiders are the smallest of all and they're everywhere. It doesn't matter if you step on them, more come. [Pause.] I don't see any here and that's weird because no matter where you go Inside, there's something.

Not if you don't want to.

[...wh...at... slowing even more at all that]

Centaurs with claws? And— nurses?

That's the names people gave them, 'cause they had to call them something. I think there might be other types too, only not everyone gets to see them.

I don't know why though. Spiders make sense -- they're little and have lots of legs too, and they climb anywhere. But I haven't seen a real nurse, and Kaito-nii says that centaurs aren't real.

What in below are they?

Isn't that rude?

They don't sound even remotely human, or like anything else I've ever heard of!

But when I asked Ran-neechan, she told me off!

[props free hand on her hip!]

I still look like a lady, don't I?

Very much like a lady! You've even got a bonnet.

[Shyly]

It looks really nice!

[mollified! good going, conan]

And that's why it was rude to ask.

[continues on to the dining room]

... [Conan's still unsure about this logic Ran.]

I'm not.

It's not rude to ask what something is if it doesn't look human and you are wholly unfamiliar with their species.

[come on, basic etiquette. most people don't give the rubbery men even that much[