tushanshu_logs | Memory Catch All

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Memory Catch All

Characters: Conan, Sherlock, Watson, Penny, Valdis, Raine, anyone who wants to join in
Date: Feb 8-12
Location: The apartment Conan shares with Sherlock, Watson and Penny, KPD, Around the streets of the Central District
Situation: Catch-All for the memory event
Warnings/Rating: murder, mysteries, explosions, small child doing absurdly dangerous things

1 The Apartment

It had been a very long month.

Conan wasn't a great patient at the best of times. A month to recover from his concussion, the inevitable respiratory illness that followed it, followed by another week to recover from falling into the extremely cold river while still sick from his cold?

Conan had spent the last week being decidedly underfoot and grumpy. Even his latest stack of mystery novels weren't doing the job of distracting him. He puts them to the side of the couch in annoyance and reaches for a crossword puzzle. Even if it wasn't really challenging, at least it gave him something to occupy his mind.

2. KPD

The moment he was cleared for getting out of bed, Conan had headed straight for the police department. He had high hopes of finally being able to work on something interesting. Even if he was still mostly limited to paperwork and the forensics lab.

3. The streets around Central District

After three weeks of being stuck inside, Conan was more than happy to spend some time walking about the central district. He takes notes of changes in the district, of course, as well as the progress on repairs after the storm. But much of the time he simply spends observing.

4. Your choice

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They've moved into their new flat, it has a lot more space than the other one did and no one is sleeping on the couch unless they actually want to. Though that really doesn't matter much when two of the people living here have been sick after taking an impromptu swim in the river.

When Conan settles down to do a crossword puzzle, John brings over a cup of freshly made tea and flops into a chair. "Any plans for today besides sitting around here?"

"I might go out this afternoon."

Hopefully he'd get out before anyone started nagging him about where he was planning on going. Conan still wasn't happy about being persuaded to provide a list of his most frequented places.

That is never going to happen because while someone might be able to walk in and out while Sherlock was around without him realizing it, John was different. He didn't lose himself inside of his mind palace and forget that other people even exist.

"Hmm. Have you ever thought about going to school while you're here? Maybe go by the college and see if there are any classes you might be interested in?" John doesn't bother suggesting any of the primary schools that the city has.

"I don't think they'd appreciate having a kid sit in on classes."

Also, why was John suggesting something like that? Conan wasn't hiding his intelligence much within the apartment (partially because Sherlock complained about that habit), but why had he suggested the college first instead of one of the primary schools? It would be more logical to assume that that smart kid would skip a few grades rather than go immediately to college.

Edited 2017-02-09 01:07 (UTC)

Conan is more than welcome to ask about why John doesn't treat him like an ordinary seven year old. Not that he would give Conan the whole truth but it would certainly calm that curiosity of his. Though truthfully John's never really treated him like a regular kid, maybe because of the situation or maybe for other reasons. Probably a combination of both.

"So? If you want to learn and don't disrupt the class in a negative way I don't see why you couldn't take whatever classes you want."

Because people paid too much attention to child prodigies. If he did that, there was no way he wouldn't draw attention.

Okay fine, he drew attention for his cases. But as long as people just thought he was a smart child good at observation and the credit always went to someone else, it was somewhat safe. Going to college as a seven-year-old would be a different level of attention altogether.

But it wasn't like he could explain that.

"Pass. I don't think they have the kinds of classes I'm interested in anyway."

As far as he's aware Conan is the youngest Foreigner in the entire world. That was all it took to draw attention to himself. That's something John learned a while back. Maybe if this were a regular world where there were a million other seven year olds running about then no one would give him a second look.

Though he also knew that even then Conan could never keep his nose out of a murder or other mystery when it fell in his lap. Typically gave the credit to someone else or tried to downplay his own part in solving it but John is sure that some of the people around the kid are aware of just how smart he could be.

Sometimes, knowing things about people - knowing their secrets is not all it's cracked up to be. Especially having to work around that information.

One of his eyebrows raise. "Have you even bothered to look? It's got to be better than sitting around here all day doing crosswords."

"I help out at the KPD sometimes too."

Even though he was fully aware that much of the arrangement was aimed at keeping him out of trouble."

"You are aware of how abnormal that is, right? Helping out the police but not going to school. If it was just Sherlock you were living with it wouldn't matter because those kinds of thoughts don't really occur to him. He doesn't look at you and think that you should be getting an education."

John on the other hand - people would wonder why the good doctor wasn't looking after this kid that suddenly landed in his lap. At this point Conan has already put together that the need for a list of places he was going to be that day happened on the same day that the doctor arrived.

Edited 2017-02-09 02:19 (UTC)

"The person I was living with before didn't care about that kind of thing either." Conan shrugs. "There is such a thing as self-education, you know."

He was about to continue on with further arguments. Conan had no interest in being sent back to primary school. But he suddenly finds his thoughts turning to his real parents, perhaps reminded by the distinct parental flavor this conversation had taken.

“Who are you, old lady?”

Conan was in a car, pressed against the passenger door as he looked up at the driver with alarm. His tone is sharp and just a little panicked.

The somewhat heavy set woman with the horn rim glasses smiles down at him in a kind way. ‘Like I said, I’m your mother.’

Conan’s tone gets sharper. “That’s wrong! My mother is-”

“Kudo Yukiko, correct? “

The woman… She’d given the alias of Edogawa Fumiyo, through Conan already knew that was a lie. She smirks down at him, releasing the facade of motherliness like it had never existed. When she starts speaking again, it is with an air of quiet menace.

“That’s right. Your mother once captivated audiences around the world. At a mere 19 years old she was a beautiful actress who won award after award around Japan. But she fell in love with a young writer named Kudo Yuusaku and got married at twenty years old. Then she left the acting world. She had a son, but she left him in Japan. She then went overseas with her husband, who became a famous mystery writer. You’re that son, aren’t you?”

She turns slightly to stare at him.

“Kudo Shinichi.”

Conan flinches back against the corner between the seat and the door, desperately trying to think of a way out of this. But then he stills as she uses one hand to aim a gun at him.

“Whoa, don’t move. If you hold still I’ll take you to a very special place. A much more fun place then here.”

As the car slows for a light, Conan suddenly jumps over her lap, and slams both feet onto the accelerator, then hits the brakes hard, trapping the car in the middle of the intersection. He makes a jump for the door and runs.

Edited 2017-02-09 02:31 (UTC)

Whatever John had been going to say about education went completely out the window... or perhaps the car door would apply better to this situation. If he had no idea about Shinichi - about Conan or even the Black Organization that memory would not have made any sense whatsoever. He should be surprised and completely confused about the fact that he saw the memory in the first place but honestly John has seen a lot of strange things in the last few months.

Nothing like this has ever happened before but John shook that part off for now. Instead he frowned deeply and stared over at Conan. At this point he's no longer concerned about what he should and shouldn't know about the secrets the kid is keeping. The fact that a gun is being point at the kid is way more important.

"Who the hell was that? Is she part of the Organization?"

Conan freezes, his expression remarkably similar to what he had justheld in the memory.

"Wh-what? What organization are you talking about?"

Jesus Christ. This was not how John wanted to do things. He wanted Conan to trust him a little bit more but there's no going back now. The doctor ran a hand down his face before fixing his gaze on the kid, obviously not joking around.

"You know exactly which one I'm talking about, Shinichi. The one who tried to kill you at Tropical Land but ended up shrinking you instead. The one with black suits and codenames based on various alcohol. That Organization."

He was fighting past the immediate feeling of panic brought on by hearing anything of this, let alone all the details John seemed to have.

But above all else, Conan was a creature of logic. He knew the futility of denying the truth when it was already know.

"How did you find out?" He asks at last.

Because he knew for certain that he hadn't told anyone here any of those details.

John heaved a sigh. Definitely not how he wanted to do this at all.

"I'll explain everything but you have to calm down first. It's going to be complicated and even unbelievable but panicking isn't going to make it easier to hear or understand any of it."

Obviously he's not going to get his answer to whether that woman was a member of the Organization right now. Whether it was or not, Shinichi was alive so he must have gotten away just fine and everything else can just wait.

As for dealing with the panicking teen, John doesn't move from his chair and both of his hands are completely visible to show that he doesn't intend to harm the kid. If he had wanted to then he would have done it in the weeks before Shinichi was aware that John knew the secret.

"First of all, I'm the only one who knows. I haven't told anybody what I do know."

He takes a deep breath and nods.

"I'm calm." Enough to listen through this, anyway. He'd deal with the rest later.

"You kept it from Sherlock." Not a question. "Why? I'm sure you know that this is something he wants to know."

"Yes." An answer to a statement. It is a big deal to keep something from Sherlock. "Because it's your secret and I promised."

As for the explanation, well here it goes. "This isn't the first world I've been brought into. The first one was... it doesn't have a name as far as I'm aware. But there was a ship called the Charon and the ones responsible for everything was a company called COMPASS. They were bringing people onto the ship from all sorts of different worlds for the sake of an experiment. A fear experiment. When I got there Sherlock was already there. Had been for weeks."

This is where it got weird. "He was living in a shipping container down in the cargo hold, pulled off the mattress to his bunk and got himself a private place to live. Loads of people were doing it. Except he wasn't living alone. Sherlock was living with you. I didn't know anything for a long time, not the truth about you or how in your world the pair of us were fictional characters. You were a kid I looked after."

A small sigh and he leaned back in his chair, making sure to keep his hands were visible. "While I said COMPASS was experimenting was fear half the time it felt more like they were researching pain. People got hurt on a daily basis sometimes, definitely on a weekly one. They'd sometimes pit us against each other by using some sort of drug or chemical or they'd send in some monster of the week. People disappeared and we didn't always know where they went or what was happening with them. We'd all say they went home but I don't know how many of us actually believed that. So when two of your friends from home disappeared - Heiji and Hakuba - I went to see how you were doing."

He nodded towards Conan. "That's when you told me the secret. Sherlock had already known then but didn't tell me. He wanted you to do it except you didn't trust me then. Guess after patching you up a couple of times that changed." John does not go into details about what these injuries might have been. "In the time that followed you'd tell me things. Things you wouldn't talk about with just anyone."

Now is when John skips part of the story. Something to save for later.

"Eventually I ended up here. Neither you or Sherlock remember any of the time on the Charon, don't even have any the wounds so I can't really explain why you don't know or the physical differences. All I can say is that Sherlock is from further along in the future here in this world than he had been in the other one." How much of this Conan believed, John didn't know. "I told Sherlock some of that but knew you wouldn't trust someone who wasn't supposed to be real so I didn't say anything." Pretended to not know the kid he was living with.

Edited 2017-02-09 04:24 (UTC)

Conan had promised to listen, and so he does. All through the entire explanation, no matter how shocking it became.

He had toyed with the idea of theorizing about other realities. Between the the current situation and hearing of the odd similarities between Sherlock;s world and the fictional world created by Doyle.... It seemed possible. Even likely. Even if there was no way to prove the theory.

But this... this was something else altogether. Yet how else could John know? John Watson was not a real person in Conan's world. And he knew very well that there was no one here who knew the secret.

And even more so, how else could he know of Hattori and Hakuba. Conan had never mentioned their names in Tushanshu.

Conan frowns deeply as he considers everything.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. That is the thing to say at a moment like this, isn't it? But even so, this is very improbable."

He tips his head back against the couch and stares at the ceiling.

"Is there anything you have that could serve as proof?"

When Conan then proceeded to quote Sherlock - or to quote what Doyle had written Sherlock to say as it were - the corner of John's mouth lifted up because it was a phrase he was familiar with. One that he has already heard his friend say.

"Yes well, we are living on the back of a giant turtle in another world. Fairly certain that the improbable is not out of reach in this place."

He isn't all that surprised when the following question came, asking for proof. While he does have physical proof there is also more information stored inside of that otherworldly pocketwatch that he hasn't yet shared with Conan.

"We've just been given a way to prove it. That memory I saw, the one where the woman came and claimed to be your mother, took you away from Ran and her father then held you at gunpoint. That really happened, yeah? If it is, I can show you." Once they figured out how the whole thing worked.

He grimaces. He wasn't ready to fully trust John yet. This was a trust born out of necessity, because there wasn't much he could do about it.

Even if another Conan (and how strange that was to contemplate), even if another Conan had trusted him, this Conan still needed time to become accustomed to the situation.

But there wasn't much point in keeping this secret, if he already knew the rest of it.

"Actually, that was my mother."

Jesus. His mother. John has never had great feelings about Shinichi's parents. Thought they might be all right for someone who was seventeen years old but not for someone who'd turned into a seven year old physically. They were off in America while their kid had nearly been killed - at least once - and was hunting some deadly Organization. He does understand that it's partially Shinichi's choice, that his parents do help him out some but John's not sure he could ever do the same if it was his kid.

And part of him does consider the teen his kid. Though Shinichi doesn't feel the same, maybe never truly did. John has to try very hard to keep the disappointment off his face but doesn't succeed entirely.

Not wanting to talk about it, he moved on. "Right, so I'll show you a few memories and then... I've got something else you can look at. During my time on the ship, I wrote about it and I've got the device I wrote it on. Those are just words, though. Something that could be faked. Memories are harder to mess with."

His parents were his parents. He'd long ago gotten accustomed to what he could and couldn't expect from them. Maybe they weren't very involved in his life, but they did care. Mostly from a distance, granted. But that mostly suited him just fine.

With all their eccentricities, sometimes his parents were best in small doses.

"The blog Sherlock mentioned?"

John is aware that they care, seem like nice people even with interesting lives but that doesn't mean he has to like how they sometimes handle parenting. He has absolutely no doubt that if Shinichi asked, they would drop everything to help their son but they also have to realize how strongly that same son doesn't ask for help. At least not nearly often enough.

They would be willing to do anything for their kid but they're also halfway across the world most of the time from what John understood and it would take them hours to get home. Sometimes that's all it took for something to go horribly wrong. A situation like Shinichi's couldn't always be easily predicted.

"Of a sort. It's more like a private blog these days, written for me and not something I show to others." He shrugged. "Sherlock steals it from time-to-time to read it."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." He'd known Sherlock enough to know that aspect of his personality.

"And letting me read it won't bother you?" After all, from Conan's point of view he barely knew John.

"It's something I've come to expect from him at this point," John states bluntly. Sherlock has been stealing his computer and sticking his nose into other parts of his life that he's tried to kept hidden - like what his middle name is or how his romantic life is going.

A shake of his head. "No, not really. I was never going to share it with the whole world but I don't mind showing it to others." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something like a pocketwatch. It does keep time like its supposed to but John touches the face and the clock blinked out to reveal that it sort of acted like a smart phone.

"You can't connect to the network from this world or even look at the posts from the other place but it still has my blog entries written up on it. Doesn't need a charge or to be plugged it. Has some useful features like a flashlight, calculator or alarm clock and the program I used to keep my entries in. I'd appreciate it if you didn't take it apart but otherwise, you can keep it as long as you need." John opened up the notepad where his blog entries were kept before handing it over.

The watch itself is ornate, gold and old-looking - something from the twenties yet brand new at the same time. There aren't many scratches on it so clearly it's not been in John's possession very long. Upon using the device, Conan will find that there are all of the apps he mentioned earlier along with a camera that allows for photographs and video, a touch-screen keypad for typing, it serves as a stopwatch and even has a couple of games on it. Tetris and bowling but doesn't seem a way to get more. There's an e-mail system but should Conan try to get into it an error message pops up saying that it cannot connect to 'compass.net'.

Penny appeared in the center of the living room soaking wet. He was trying to travel from upstairs to downstairs, which should have been easy enough, but clearly something was miscalculated and he ended up in the damn ocean just outside the turtle's shell for a second before appearing back in the safety of their apartment.

He looked around to gather his surroundings, glowering at the kid on the couch and grateful that he had his own room now instead of having to share the living space with the insane detective and the kid. The addition of the doctor was definitely the most normal one.

"The hell are you looking at?" He asked Conan without provocation, posturing as usual.

Oh, great. That guy again. Conan still wasn't sure exactly what he'd done to get on his bad side. Ah well, he'd long ago learned that some people just didn't like kids.

"If you don't want to be seen, then why did you decided to arrive here?"

"I didn't." Penny retorted with a glare. Magic wasn't so easy as a casual bamf to the other room. Not always, anyway. He'd meant to be in the kitchen, not awkwardly tucked behind the furniture in the living room, where the boy wonder could make fun of him. Penny would like to see Conan try to do any of the shit he did.

"Move." The Magician scowled as he slipped forward from the other side of the couch, knocking past Conan's small legs with his own, an entirely unnecessary gesture to get by.

Except it couldn't be easy, could it. Instead of slipping by and going about his business, Penny was dragged into another memory, one he didn't recognize.

Conan freezes as a memory starts to run through his head. Out of all his memories, why this one?

It had been hours since he had been shot. Hours of slowly bleeding through what bandaging they’d manage to pull together in the cave.

And Conan already knew it wasn’t enough. He was losing time, drifting in and out of consciousness as the blood loss progressed. He'd guided the kids through this maze of caves as far as he could, but they'd have to figure out the last obstacle on their own. His consciousness fades before he can tell them that the answer to the riddle laid in shogi. He had to trust that he'd taught them enough for them to figure it out themselves.

When he becomes aware again, it is to a tightness of an arm around his neck and the cold press of a gun to the side of his head. He dimly recognizes the voice of the leader of the group of murderers that had been chasing them. He was shouting at the kids. Ordering them to come back.

And Conan knew they would. Even if he ordered them to leave, those kids would never leave him behind. This was bad.

But before anything else could happen the entire cavern is flooded with light, bright even against his closed eyelids. With a sense of deep relief he recognized the familiar voice of Megure-keibu ordering the criminals to surrender. The inspector would make sure the kids got to safety.

Predictably, Conan feels the criminals’ arm tighten around his neck as he starts shouting at the police.

“Fools! Can’t you see this!” He presses the gun tighter against Conan’s head. “If you don’t want to see this kid in pieces, open up the road!”

Conan's eyes slowly crack open as he pulls on all the reserve of strength he held. He breathes harshly, almost panting for breath, as he speaks in a strained whisper.

“You fool. It’s already checkmate for you. Stop struggling already.”

And with a careful motion, he brings his watch up and presses the trigger. The criminal collapses as the sedative dart takes effect, even as Conan slips out of his arms and collapses onto the floor. The last thing he remembers hearing is the cries of the kids and an alarmed call for an ambulance.

Edited 2017-02-11 12:44 (UTC)

Penny stumbles past Conan's leg as he regains his own mind. He immediately uprights himself and then spins to face the kid, brow furrowing at the sight of the small child who's apparently been shot, saved a bunch of kids, and nearly died. In spite of the kid's stupid face and annoying voice, Penny can't help feel a little more respect for him. Not that he's about to admit as much.

"Obviously you survived." Unfortunately, it's not the first weird experience Penny's had in someone's mind even before coming to this turtle island. "Keep your damn memories to yourself next time."

If there was one thing that could break Conan out of the shock of having yet another of his memories displayed, it was annoyance. He huffs dismissively and looks away.

"I was hardly volunteering to share them. If you don't want to see, then maybe you should be staying further away."

At least he could hope that this particular memory would be staying away from John and Sherlock. He'd had more than enough annoyance from that direction already.

"You're the one taking up the whole house," he retorts in very obvious hyperbole. It's bad enough having to hear peoples' thoughts half the time, seeing their memories is that much more annoying. Even if the kid's right about it basically being his own fault.

Penny begins to storm off, only to stop halfway to the stairs and turn back. It's an awkward consideration and one he's hesitant to make. When he speaks again, his voice is considerably less annoyed and accusative. "Does Sherlock know?"

Considering Conan was currently doing his best to stay at least ten feet away from Sherlock at all times, the answer was no. Sherlock might have figured out that Conan was lying about his age, but Conan had no intention of supplying any more answers. With his luck, the first memory Sherlock would see would be that night.

He fights to conceal his wince at the question.

"No. It happened a while ago, so it isn't really important now."

And it wasn't. He'd just prefer to avoid questions about it.

"Look, I won't tell him, but you should talk to someone about this. Not me. Someone else."

It's Penny's way of being nice. He's promising, in his own way, to keep Conan's secret and not divulge any information to Sherlock that doesn't need divulging. He knows the detective will notice that he's treating Conan differently, but he doesn't need to know why and Penny's ability to read the man's thoughts can help intervene when necessary.

"Get that shit taken care of before Sherlock finds out the hard way." With his annoying habit of noticing everything ever.

"Talk about what? And why should I? Like I said, it happened a while ago."

"Because you're clearly hung up on it and I don't want it coming back to bite me in the ass." Obviously this is all about Penny in the end. "And before you ask? Because you're human and that's fucked up that it happened."

"That was something that happened to me months ago." And it wasn't even the worst thing that had ever happened to him. The night at Tropical Land would always hold that honor.

"How does it have anything to do with you?"

"It doesn't," Penny admits. With that, he storms out of the room, soggy and grumpy and knowing that Conan's issues would eventually be an issue. And also knowing that, eventually, he'd have to come clean about being a psychic.

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Memory Catch All

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