Case: 018

[1_truth]

{{ →!Action | 915 Bilko Boulevard | Evening - Early, EARLY morning }}

[ Since returning to Mayfield Conan has locked himself in his room with any mystery books he could find. If he figured out the trick and murderer before he finished his book he'd toss it in a pile of books that couldn't hold his attention for long. If he is kept guessing until the end then he sets it aside on his night stand to read through it again and find the key details that point to the murderer. So far he has not come across such a mystery. Normally, he'd finish reading the book despite figuring out the trick-but this is different. He's only reading to keep his mind focused and off Ran. ]

[ He's been having difficulty concentrating on anything lately because he's been constantly worried about his childhood friend. He closes the last of the mystery books he'd managed to find and tosses into the pile with all the others before sinking down into his pillows. Ran would be okay... wouldn't she? ]

[ He takes a calming breath and tucks his hands behind his head, staring fixedly at the ceiling... ]

[ ... ]

[ ..... ]

[ ... ]

RAAAAAN!

[ He wakes up in a cold sweat, immediately sitting up and breathing hard. What a Nightmare. ]

{{ →!Action | 915 Bilko Boulevard's front yard | Morning }}

[ Conan's not in a good mood today. He's stille feeling jittery and shaky so to calm himself down as best as possible he's got soccer ball out and kicking it at the side of the house-when it bounces off he rushes to meet it and kick it again. ]

[ It helps. But he's obviously bothered by something as he keeps missing the small 'x' he drew on the side of the house with a piece of chalk. ]


((ooc: If you're curious about Conan's dream I've left a link to it as I wrote it out in a separate journal entry. Warning. It involves violence. ))

Comments

[1_truth]

Oh, yeah. I wrote it down so- [ He pulls his pocket notebook out and opens to the page he's referring too: ]

[ -couldn't be better. He's given us everything we could have wanted, and more. Why do you have to go and ruin it with talk like this? You always do this!

I'm just saying, what if Grey was on to something? We didn't really give it much thought, but now that we have a chance to calm down and really think about it-

-we'll what, exactly? Go to Johnathan and tell him thanks, it's been a swell week, but we'd like to come back down to earth now? How do you think the poor man would take that, after all the work he's done? Did you even see the carnival outside?

It's the carnival that got me thinking about this. I didn't realize just how much power we were giving this fellow. If he can conjure something like that out of thin air, who knows what he could do to us if he felt up to it?

Charles! You're acting like he's some bloodthirsty communist or something. The man is a saint, and we owe him our lives. I won't have you embarrassing me in front of the other survi- citizens like this.

I suppose you're right. Even if we did want to go back, I suppose that's out of the question now...

Now that's more like it. Why don't we go to the carnival today? You need to relax- (too much static)

If you say so, de- (probably 'Dear') ]

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Huh... I'm impressed you managed to copy down a conversation this long.

[1_truth]

I have a good memory.

Anyway, I don't know, yet who the woman is but she's in favor of Zemekis so it might be Ms. Johnson. The man, Charles, could be Jack Smith-san. But that could be completely off the mark.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

I see... It's frustrating getting all these random pieces but not the full puzzle.

[1_truth]

I know what you mean, but soon enough we'll have all the pieces.

Something that strikes me as odd though- the use of the words 'Communist' and 'fellow'. They're words you don't really hear very often anymore- 'Guy' has mostly replaced 'fellow' in modern language and communist-in that context- was a unique insult used in the states during the cold war and through the seventies-I think it mostly fell out of use in the eighties.

And, obviously 'Survivors' is pretty suspicious.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Right, I mean "survivors" clearly indicates that there were people who weren't survivors of whatever it was.

[1_truth]

Mm. To have survivors, generally, you have to have victims.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

I wonder what they were victims of?

[1_truth]

It might be a disease...

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Or it could've been something more malevolent...

[1_truth]

I don't know...

It's definitely possible, but so is the idea that someone preserved their minds while their bodies were dying-Of course it's also a possible the person that came up with the solution was guilty of inflicting the necessity of such measures upon the other residents.

And it may have actually happened in the fifties.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

The fifties had nowhere near this level of technology though. It's just as likely a future time where 50's lingo has come back into vogue.

[1_truth]

...No, not that was available or known to the public, anyway. But there's another part that bugs me, this- 'If he can conjure something like that out of thin air?' If the person knew about CGI effects and that sort of thing then 'Conjure' isn't really the right word, is it? It should be something along the lines of 'look how easily he's accomplished this' or 'look what he's done.'

Then again, that follows the assumption this is really just a simulation when there might be another answer we haven't thought of yet.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

I suppose so...

[1_truth]

No matter which way you look at it-we just don't have enough information yet.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

It's such a pain to deal with...

[1_truth]

Yeah, but I think it might be that it won't take much more and things might start coming together.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Right... If just the right loose thread pops up, then everything could potentially be unravelled.

[1_truth]

All we can do for now if keep tugging and gathering up the strings.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

It's still a real pain waiting to find the right one though.

[1_truth]

Agreed.