justonetruth | (no subject)

Conan judged it had been long enough and swung open the door. "Oh." He glanced back at the seal in disappointment. "I was hoping for something a bit more exciting. This ..." He let the door swing open to display a room that resembled a motel room with a little kitchenette. "Boring!" Conan annouced, closing the door. "This time, I'm going to do it." He concentrated, and when he opened the door again, it was on to a wide room that looked something like a warehouse, freshly caught fish lying on beds of ice in styrofoam containers. There were odd packing crates and trolleys lying around, while large freight containers divided the wide room into sections shadowed and mysterious. Conan hesitated in the doorway, not sure which part to explore first.

He's a seal, what were you expecting?

Moving, with the awkward motions of a creature that was not supposed to spend large amounts of time on land, towards the fish. It smelled really good.

Something more like the aquatic enclosure in a zoo, actually. But that is 7-year-olds for you. Conan followed Hakuba along, looking at the fish. They were all species he'd seen in the supermarkets back home or while taking foreign visitors of his parents to the famous Ginza fish markets. "I wonder if they're the same because I imagined them or because of the way this mansion works?" he wondered aloud, poking at a vast blue-fin tuna.

Well, maybe the mansion was more inclined to basic human places. The idea of "place with food" could go any direction.

Fish, fish, nosing around in the fish.

It could indeed. Conan was certainly happy enough with the warehouse, pushing some cardboard boxes aside to free a trolley. He pushed it back and forth, grinning as he discovered that the wheels rolled smoothly. Impromptu skateboard get. "Watch this!" he told the seal.

And watch he does, after selecting a good-sized fish from the ice and settling in to eat it, ripping off chunks of meat with quick efficiency.

Conan takes a running jump onto the trolley, momentum and a few good kicks carrying them across the floor at a good speed. A very good speed, in fact, and it is with surprise that Conan realises that they're not very far from a stack of boxes. Unfortunately, it is a lot harder to stop a trolley than a skateboard, and the resulting crash buries trolley and rider in a cascade of boxes and ice.

And he can't move very quickly like this, but he moves as quickly as he can over to the pile, and starts nudging things out of the way.

"...ow."

Fortunately Conan seems more surprised than hurt by the accident, quickly discovered beneath the boxes, managing a smile for the seal as he shakily stands. "So maybe that was a bad idea." Even though he makes a brave show of dusting off his banged knees, one hand reaches for the seal's coat, seeking reassurance."

And petted again, blinking up at the boy.

"Lucky its just you," Conan says, still sounding unsure of himself. "If Ran saw that, she'd have fussed like anything. Kaito ... he'd probably have laughed."

He knows Kuroba well enough to address him by given name. Without honorifics for either of the people he mentioned. Hmmm.

Conan tested his knee and discovered he could bend it without wincing. "He's mean sometimes, even if he is my second best friend," he continues. He pauses to thoughtfully study the seal's expression, as if seeing something he recognises in it.

A wide yawn, before the seal decides he is tired of the and starts moving away.

Hakuba isn't used to keeping up this facade.

Conan huffed. "I was going to say you could be my fifth best friend," he said. "But obviously you've got better things to do." He turned his attention back to the boxes, wondering if it would be possible to free the trolley himself.

He's not leaving the room. He just left his fish over there, and it was a decently tasty fish, so he has to get it and bring it back with him as he watches the scene unfold.

Unfold is not the right word, as Conan manages to unsettle another avalanche of boxes upon himself. This keeps him happily occupied, however, and he eventually manages to free the trolley through the careful application of a lever. He's very proud of himself as he wheels his prize free again.

Why is the seal babysitting?

Hakuba wanders over to the trolley and studies it for a moment before nudging at it with his nose.

Because this Conan clearly needs supervision of some sort.

"Get on if you want," Conan offered. "I'll push." He doesn't expect the seal to understand this instruction so he pats the trolley helpfully. "Up!" he explains.

And up, blinking at the boy.

Conan carefully puts the remains of the fish on the trolley too, before getting around the back and pushing. Luckily the cart has been oiled recently, because the seal is heavier than he anticipated, and it takes all his strength to get it moving. Once they're underway, however, piloting the trolley across the floor is no trouble. "We're going on a tour!"

This could be informative. And amusing. He grins.

The lack of lifts ensure that this is going to be a tour of the first floor only, but even then there is still a lot to see. "This is the lobby. Aoko-neechan and I flew paper planes here. You get the best distance if you throw your plane from the top of the stairs. That's the infirmary. I don't like it so much. Do seals even need infirmaries? I suppose that unless a vet shows up you'd have to go there to. Next is the kitchen!"

They paused in the kitchen, Conan needing to get a snack.

Hakuba doesn't get off the trolley. It was bothersome enough getting on in the first place. He just watched Conan's actions.

Hakuba has made the smart choice. Leaving a trail of crumbs and mess in his wake, its not long before Conan is back at the wheel of the trolley. "This is the dining room. Isn't it huge? There's food up on that table though you can't see it -- you can probably smell it though."