Fresh from that wonderful RP, Adstringendum

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

This particular flavour of Hakuba Saguru looks a bit worse for wear as he stumbles through a door in the hall. A door in the hall which leads only to another hallway. He's surprised, yes, but not extremely so, and after he checks and confirms he can't get back out the way he came in, he sags to the ground against the wall.

He's dirty, like he's been living somewhere without running water, his once pristine tweed suit is ripped and frayed, and there's snow melting on his shoulders. He's also very thin, almost unhealthy so, and exhaustion is written on every line of him, in the circles under his eyes, in the sunken hollows of his cheeks, in the way he breathes, in the slump of his shoulders.

Whatever life he's been living, it hasn't been kind to him.

Comments

[are-too-holmes.livejournal.com]

Exploring the mansion, intent on disproving Ran's 'endless mansion' theory, Conan rounds a corner and comes across this very worse for wear Hakuba.

He's shocked -- this doesn't seem at all in keeping with what he knows of Hakuba from the brief times they've met, and Conan's motionless a moment, cataloguing all the things wrong with this scenario. When he approaches him, the note of worry in his voice is not fake. "H-Hakuba-niisan?"

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

He glances up, studying the small boy with marked surprise.

"Edogawa-kun?"

He hadn't seen the boy make any posts to the network, not even the traditional accentual video that all new arrivals made. The hall is too clean, too warm (and he is more thankful for central heating now than he has ever been in his entire life, letting the warmth sink into him, after almost a month of constant blizzard) for this place to still be Adstringendum.

"Do you know where we are?"

[are-too-holmes.livejournal.com]

Conan reaches over to brush the snow off Hakuba's shoulders, startled to find that it is real -- and they're not on the first floor, he can't have come in from outside, surely? "You look terrible," he says, trying not to let his alarm show. "What happened?"

He shakes his head at Hakuba's question. "I don't know. I got here by accident and I haven't been here long enough to figure it out."

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

He hadn't thought about what he would look like to anyone from another world, but found himself giving a slight smile as he replied.

"Life, blizzards, collapsing buildings, man-eating rabbits, dimensional nexuses, maniacal all-powerful spirits, small dragons, and various and sundry other things."

A shrug, glancing around the hall.

"Anything you know is more than I do."

[are-too-holmes.livejournal.com]

There were just too many things wrong with that statement for Conan to bother challenging it -- one thing stuck out about it, however. "Dimensional nexuses?"

He pushed open the door nearest Hakuba, the one he presumed the detective had come out of and was not entirely surprised to find it has no traces of blizzard, man-eating rabbits, or anything else Hakuba mentioned. "Ran-niisan said this place is a mansion and it's apparently endless, between dimensions and home to alternates of people we know," he reported shutting the door. "Are you -- do you need anything?"

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

"Well, singular. A nexus, of a sort. Apparently there was a massive scientific experiment that went horridly wrong, created a sort of black hole in the fabric of reality. People from all sorts of different worlds are pulled there."

A pause. Had heard something incorrectly in Edogawa's explanation? "Could... could you repeat that suffix again? Mouri-... san's."

Explanations first, then maybe later everything else.

[are-too-holmes.livejournal.com]

Black hole? Well at least that had scientific theory to back it up, Conan thought sourly. He hoped this place had a library. "And not just people but man-eating rabbits, small dragons and all-powerful spirits too?"

Conan blinked at that. "... Ran-niisan?"

[astolenlife.livejournal.com]

The mansion wasn't so bad, she'd decided, she didn't like talking to too many people though, too many people noticed she was crying and while she had to admit it was a hard thing to miss considering the tears poured like waterfalls down her round face but she didn't need reminding of it.

She turned a corner and nearly ran into Hakuba... only he didn't look so good... not that she any room to talk, what with the bullet wound on her temple. She swallowed. She couldn't face Hakuba. The Hakuba in her world had seen her do it.

"H-Hakuba-kun?" He mouth moved without her consent.

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

His head jerked up, startled and wide-eyed. He knew that voice, what was she doing here? Why was she crying?

"Aoko-kun?"

Worried, he rose to his feet, then walked over to her (limping on his right leg, a broken ankle that hadn't been treated properly before it began to heal).

"Are you all right?"

[astolenlife.livejournal.com]

She tentatively covered the bullet hole as she was sure he hadn't seen it yet. She swallowed and felt a few salty tears slide into her mouth as she shook her head.

"I-um... it doesn't really matter." She looked him over again. "...You?"

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

Saguru had gotten out of practice as a detective recently, and wouldn't have noticed the wound as quickly if she hadn't drawn attention to it by attempting to hide. But she had drawn attention, as quickly as if she had intentionally pointed it out.

"... Aoko-kun? What... what is that?"

He moved closer, bringing up a hand to move her arm out of the way.

[astolenlife.livejournal.com]

Her eyes widened and she quickly stepped away from him, keeping her hand over the bullet hole.

"Don't-" She nearly choked on her tears, visibly shaking at how close Hakuba had come to her. "Just-don't."

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

He stops dead still, pulls back quietly, lets his hand drop to his side.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Aoko-kun. Just tell me what happened."

There's something else off about her, more than the crying and the head injury and the way she shies away from him (though those are all bad enough, forming a picture in his mind that he does not want to think about). Something is wrong.

"Please."

[stagingstorms.livejournal.com]

[Life was really cruel to her. Even though she did find out that Kuroba did not kidnap her, she was worried about her friends back at home. She was just wondering around the mansion for a little bit and then she notices Hakuba. She then gleams at him, a extensive grin on her face She then bends down a bit just to wave and say to him,]

Hakuba-san!

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

He looks up, startled.

"Ah, hullo Aoko-kun."

[stagingstorms.livejournal.com]

[Well, this was like Hakuba. Always calling her Aoko-kun She just laughs and says in a teasing tone]

You don't have to call me 'Aoko-kun', you know! It's too polite! Just call me Aoko-san. Okay? [She winks, mischeviously, but of course she's only playing around. But she does miss her acting.]

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

"All right."

He wasn't quite sure where he was or what she was doing here.

[stagingstorms.livejournal.com]

[She then bobbed her head to the right, curiously and asked] Are you new here too, Hakuba-san?

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I suppose I am."

[hattergems.livejournal.com]

Fark I enjoyed reading the comments here so much.

ooc

[callim-causa.livejournal.com]

fark yourself gemmie. where's your hakuba, huh?

ooc

[hattergems.livejournal.com]

*sheepish cough* I'll give you your SS and then I'll consider. :P

ooc

[just-add-aptx.livejournal.com]

Come on, you know you want to have our Hakuba meet up~~~

ooc

[hattergems.livejournal.com]

It'll be extremely droll. And dull. And overdone. He only seems to have one reaction to seeing himself and that's "interesting" or "fascinating". I want something nuts here.

ooc

[taisho-tantei.livejournal.com]

He could meet up with my Dr. Who crossover Hakuba. The one who is The Doctor (http://community.livejournal.com/justonetruth/21695.html)