justonetruth | Fresh from that wonderful RP, Adstringendum

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Fresh from that wonderful RP, Adstringendum

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.

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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."

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?"

"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.

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?"

"I think the spirits were there before we were. They have a rather sadistic sense of humour, view all of us as their 'toys', and enjoy seeing how rough they can 'play' before we break." Hence the occasional month-long blizzard, drugged food, and man-eating turkeys.

"Male?" He wanted to make sure he was hearing it properly.

Something in the way Hakuba said that ... Conan shivered. "Ne, you're sure you don't want anything? I've been exploring, I think I know where most things are here."

"Male," Conan said firmly. "And district-champion in karate. Also somewhat sensitive about how he looks so if you value your bones, don't say anything."

((icon chosen for expression -- still has the glasses on.))

"A kitchen or some place with food would be nice." He admitted. "Possibly also somewhere I could find a change of clothing and a bath."

"All right. I shall have to remember that. Thank you, Edogawa-kun." Not that he would have said anything normally, but... Mouri Ran as a male. Unusual.

"I can do all those things. It's just a matter of in what order." Conan paused, reconsidering the condition Hakuba was in. "Or I could bring things to you here."

"Food would be nice." Spoken in a casual way, but with the idea of 'I have eaten almost nothing but rabbit soup since October and I am starving' lurking behind the calm.

He gets to his feet with a slight laugh. "I'm not quite bad enough off that I can't walk, Edogawa-kun."

That tone is -- ever so slightly unsettling, yes.

Conan reserves judgement on Hakuba's ability to walk until he sees him on his feet, leading the way towards the staircase. "This way, nii-san."

"Thank you, Edogawa-kun."

Hakuba can walk, thank you very much. He's limping with his right leg, but showing no outward sign of being in any pain, too used to the throbbing ache from his broken ankle to even let it show on his face.

"How long did you say you'd been here?"

Yes, Hakuba can walk. See Hakuba walk. Walk, Hakuba. Walk.

"I've only been here a day, but Ran-niisan's been here weeks!" Childish dismay. ""But it's really weird. He only left the Agency about a minute ahead of me."

Did you read that in your school books today, Conan-kun? Was it hard to read?

"That could be a difference in how time flows here compared to there. Do you know if any one has managed to get back hom-- to where they were before?"

If by 'hard to read' you mean 'hard to refrain from beating one's head against their desk after reading it', then yes. Yes, it was.

"I haven't met that many people here, but Ran-niisan told me that he knows a Shinichi-niisan here whose talked to three people who have. We go down the stairs."

Aw, aren't you so cute.

"I would like to speak with him at some point then."

Looking at the stairs, down and up. "How many floors does this building have?"

"That won't be a problem," Conan said cheerfully, bouncing down the stairs shounen-tantei style. "There must be at least 20 people here, and of them only 3 we know of left, and they were brought back again -- so I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunity."

He paused halfway down the stairs, looking back at Hakuba. "I've been as high as the fourth floor, but Ran-niisan says its endless."

Hakuba followed at a more sedate pace, "These twenty-odd people, are they all from various versions of the same world?"

Brilliant. An endless building. "That's highly improbable. It would take too much energy to construct."

Conan paused to stare back at the other detective. "You sound like you know a lot about this place already, Hakuba-niisan."

"That's what I think," he continued, turning away to hop down the remaining stairs and wait for Hakuba on the landing. "But Ran-niisan says he hasn't found the end to the corridors or the stairs." He kept his opinion on Ran's navigational skills firmly to himself.

"It was just an idea, Edogawa-kun. As I said, I've had experience in a similar situation."

"They might loop rather than just continue." That would make more sense, or at least, be less unsettling. Endless hallways lined with rooms? Who knows what could be there.

Conan waited for Hakuba to join him before leading the way down the main hallway. "That might explain the hallways -- but not the stairs," he said with a slight frown. He was definitely making a trip to discover the roof at some point. "Do you want the dining hall or the kitchen?"

"Are the floors numbered?" If they weren't, the stairs could be looping as well.

"There's a dining hall?"

"The rooms are -- or some of the rooms are -- but you can't see that from the stairs," Conan said, pausing as he considered the same possibility that Hakuba was. But that defied all rules of architecture surely?

"It's a really big room with a long table and all sorts of food!" Conan thought of Genta, injecting some of the other boy's excitement into his voice. "They have everything, even dessert!"

"This actual physical world might not be set up in a linear fashion." More to himself than to the smaller detective, puzzling over the annoyance of things which stretch his understanding of 'logical'.

He knows that Edogawa isn't this child-like. Sometimes. Occasionally. At least, not at the Detective Koshien. "Brilliant."

What kind of tools would you need to construct something along those lines? It -- almost didn't bear contemplating.

Almost.

Conan found the dining hall door easily, going on tip-toe to open it and drawing it back for Hakuba. "See? There's enough food here for a hundred people or more!"

"That seems a bit excessive."

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