Ficbit: Communications 2/?
Aug. 29th, 2004 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetSo, yeah. I am _way_ overdue for doing this >_<, so I'm going to try and finish it up in more or less one go.
Communications
Fandom: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Summary: Kaito, Shin'ichi and Ran explore Toichi's theatre, looking for clues.
Kaito stared.
He blinked, twice, half-hoping the image would vanish when he closed his eyes; it didn't.
He frowned inside slightly at the two children trying to get into the theatre, wondering what they were doing. They were his age, one boy, one girl, both with brown hair, their backs facing him. The girl's hair reached almost to her shoulders and she was slightly taller than the boy she stood next to. The boy's hair was short, sticking up a bit in the back, and there was something familiar about him. Very familiar, in fact. Kaito shuffled through his mind for a name to match the figure, and stumbled across one, surprised.
"Kudo-kun?" The boy jumped back from the door guiltily and turned to face Kaito, the girl falling into a slightly clumsy fighting stance beside him. "What are you doing?" Kudo-kun relaxed a bit, recognizing the speaker, but looked almost no less guilty. The girl next to him straightened from her stance and looked confusedly from one boy to the other.
"Kuroba-kun! Well, uh, you see…" Kudo-kun shifted uncomfortably.
"Shin'ichi?" the girl asked, confused. "Who's that?"
Kudo-kun's ears turned red. "Well, you know that thing I had to go and do last week?"
The girl crossed her arms and scowled. "Yes. And you still owe me a candy bar for telling the teacher you were sick."
"Well, he's the person I went to see."
Abruptly, Kaito found himself the subject of an intense measuring gaze. "What's he got to do with the important thing?" the girl queried.
Kudo-kun looked briefly at Kaito. "I told you about the magician I went to see the other night, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, he's the magician's kid."
"Oh." Enlightenment dawned. "Oh! Right." The girl had the grace to look embarrassed.
"Anyway, Kuroba-kun?" Kudo-kun addressed Kaito. "This is my friend Mouri Ran. I told you about her a little, remember?" Kaito nodded. "Ran, this is Kuroba Kaito."
Kaito smiled pleasantly and bowed. "Nice to meet you, Mouri-chan." He pulled a daisy from thin air and handed it to her. Mouri-chan blushed and tucked the flower behind her ear. Kudo-kun scowled slightly at Kaito. "Anyway," Kaito turned back to Kudo-kun. "What are you doing here?"
"Shin'ichi's trying to get into the theatre so he can look for clues." Mouri-chan stated, matter-of-factly. Kudo-kun glared at her but without much venom. It had not escaped Kaito's notice that the theatre they stood by was the one at which his father had preformed. He brushed the thought away. "I came along 'cause I'm learning Karate, and I can break through doors that he can't get open and if he runs into any bad people I can protect him." Mouri-chan inflated with self-esteem.
Kaito frowned. "You can't get the door open?" He didn't much care for the idea of his father's old theatre being damaged.
"No," Kudo-kun replied, "It's locked up."
"Here, I'll get it." Brushing Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan to the side, Kaito took a set of oddly shaped wires from his back pocket. Selecting a few, he clutched the others between his teeth and set to work. After thirty seconds and a few odd clicking sounds, Kaito tried the door; it swung open easily. Smiling, Kaito replaced the lock picks.
Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan openly stared. "How did you do that?" Kudo-kun inquired.
Kaito flashed a small smile. "My dad taught me. He said it was for any time that something was locked that I needed to get in or out of. But I'm only s'posed to use it when it's really important." He gazed somberly at the open doorway. "I figure this counts as 'really important'. Don't'cha think, Kudo-kun?"
Kudo-kun's mouth shut with a faint 'click'. "Uh, yeah." He regarded the doorway for a moment before nodding once. He stepped through with an abrupt "Let's go," Mouri-chan and Kaito trailing behind him.
Kaito looked in awe around the darkened theatre. Empty tables were scattered around the floor, chairs resting up-turned on their surfaces. Unlit chandlers dangled from the ceiling like cobwebs. What sunlight that managed to shine through the high-up, distant windows only enhanced and distorted the odd shadows reaching across the floor. Dust settled everywhere with no one there to disturb it.
Kaito didn't care much for the atmosphere in empty theatres. They always seemed colder, less friendly than during a performance. During shows, it was still very dark and full of illusions, but the audience and performer cheered it up to no end, bringing life to an otherwise dead room. From the corner of his eye he saw Mouri-chan shiver slightly, and Kudo-kun move almost invisibly closer to her; it seemed he wasn't the only one who didn't appreciate the atmosphere.
"Look," Kudo-kun motioned to the dusty floor. (Why was he whispering? Kaito wondered. For that matter, why did he feel the need to cultivate the silence? Usually Kaito felt oppressed by it, but now it seemed somehow appropriate, as if making any noise louder than a heartbeat would attract untoward attention.) "Footprints. Someone's been here recently, and it doesn't look like they've left yet." Mouri-chan squeaked faintly, and clung to Kudo-kun's arm.
Kaito glanced behind them. "Kudo-kun? Do we need to be worried about someone noticing our footprints?"
Kudo-kun glanced back and gulped. "Um, I don't think so, but just in case, we'd better be extra careful." Kaito and Mouri-chan nodded, grateful to be doing something, even if it was too little, too late. Near-silently, the trio made their way to the stage area.
Near the side entrance two sets of stairs stretched away, one up, one down. Kaito's gaze flowed from one to the other to backstage, then to Kudo-kun. Kudo-kun was examining the possibilities in his own way, precise and calculating. Mouri-chan was mostly watching Kudo-kun for cues, though she stole her own glances up, down and to the side.
"Should we split up?" Kaito whispered.
Kudo-kun shook his head. "No. We stick together. Better slow and careful than fast and sloppy. Besides, I might get to someplace locked, and that would be a dead-end."
Kaito nodded, accepting the logic. "Which way first?"
Kudo-kun's eyebrows drew together. "The stage. If there are any obvious clues, they'll be there. There's not likely to be as much in the pit or on the catwalk." Kudo-kun's eyes flickered suddenly, and he grabbed Mouri-chan's wrist and dragged her to the curtain, hissing a "Come on!" to Kaito. Kaito hastened to follow.
Wrapped in the billowing cloth and shadows of the drawn curtains, Mouri-chan, Kudo-kun and Kaito huddled close together. "What—" Mouri-chan started to ask, but Kudo-kun cut her off with a hand over her mouth and a sharp "Shh!" Mouri-chan looked irritated, but didn't do anything. They waited with baited breath.
Then, Kaito heard it. A soft, echoing 'thudding' noise, then clicks accompanied by creaks, as if someone large were climbing a rather old iron staircase. His eyes darted to the stairs leading up from the pit.
Hidden in the curtain, Kaito, Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan watched as a man ascended the stairs. He was of average height and weight and wore all black—even a hat and sunglasses, which was odd, especially indoors. His hair was a reddish blonde, and reached just past his ears. His un-obscured features were mostly Central-European, though there was a strong hint of Irish to them as well. The man carried himself in a way that suggested anyone who found fault with him would soon be in very deep trouble, and would remember it for a long time to come—should they get a chance to walk away. Kaito swallowed as he watched the man walk towards center stage.
About halfway there the man stopped to pick something up. He straightened and lifted it to the light; something long, thin and silvery glinted in his fingers. The man tucked it into a pocket and pulled out something else—a phone of some sort. Hitting a selected few buttons with the ease of familiarity, the man held the phone to his ear and waited a moment.
Silence for a few seconds—the silence of an empty stage and a deserted theatre, of a man waiting patiently and three children also waiting; mostly of calm but spiked with traces of fear. Then the man broke it.
"Rum here. Objective completed." Slight pause. "Confirmed. No reason to believe that." Slight pause. "The records have already been taken care of. There is nothing to suggest murder." Longer pause. "New objective?" Short pause. "Understood. Rum out." Folding the phone, the man returned it to his pocket. With the same air of dangerous calm he had so far moved in, the man turned, walked offstage and out a side exit. The door clicked shut with an air of finality.
When the last echoes of the shutting door faded the three figures hidden in the curtain relaxed. Kudo-kun dropped his hand from Mouri-chan's mouth, and Kaito began to breathe normally again. The trio shared a smile, giddy with relief and fading adrenaline. Kudo-kun pulled the curtain aside and walked towards the stage. He crouched down near where the man— Rum? —had bent over and peered at the floor. Kaito and Mouri-chan leaned over his shoulder.
"What is it?" Kaito asked in (still) hushed tones.
Kudo-kun pointed to something on the floor. "An outline. The man smeared is some, but there's an outline from what he picked up." Kaito squinted and saw, faintly, a patch on the floor naked of dust. "It looks about the right size for a match stick," Kudo-kun muttered.
"It looked kind-of like a needle when he held it up," Kaito remembered aloud.
Mouri-chan nodded. "I saw it flash."
"…A thicker-than-usual needle that had something to do with murder…" Kudo-kun mumbled, half to himself. Kaito and Mouri-chan observed his musings in awkward silence.
"Maybe the needle had poison in it?" Mouri-chan suggested, timidly.
"If it had poison in it there wouldn't be nearly enough to kill him with." Kudo-kun pointed out.
"Oh."
"What if there didn't have to be a lot?" Kaito asked.
Kudo-kun shook his head. "If there was a poison that could kill someone from such a small amount, it would probably do some pretty noticeable damage to the body."
"I mean, what if it didn't have to kill? What if there just needed to be enough to—to hurt really bad? Or stun or something?" Kaito clarified. Kudo-kun turned and stared at him. Kaito shifted slightly, uncomfortable. "When you do magic, there's a lot that has to do with timing," he continued, "Especially with really big tricks. So if you have to pay attention to something else during the trick—"
"Something might go wrong." Kudo-kun finished for him. The three stared for a moment at the broken silhouette in the dust, silent. "I think," Kudo-kun said, slowly, "that we aren't going to find anything else here." Kaito and Mouri-chan nodded. Wordlessly, they made their way back out of the theatre.
Kaito blinked in the open sunlight. Suddenly the events of the theatre seemed much less real. He stepped away from the door and it swung close with a click, the tumblers in the lock sliding back into place. Kaito pulled the handle to make sure the lock was working; satisfied, he turned back to Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan.
Kudo-kun spoke up first. "We have a method, now." He said, in neutral tones. "And possibly a murderer. Or murderers. But we don't have a motive or evidence."
"And we don't know who that guy was or if we'll see him again." Mouri-chan added.
Kudo-kun nodded. "That's why we can't tell anyone. They'll never believe us without proof."
Kaito looked from one to the other. "So I guess that's what we look for next." That hadn't come out quite right. Kaito frowned and tried again. "What I mean is, we watch and listen for the stuff you said, not that we actually go looking for it." The sheer enormity of the situation had begun to dawn on Kaito, and it scared him more than a little. Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan seemed to echo his sentiments. Kaito cast a wistful glance at the road. "Anyway, I'd better go. I told Mom I'd pick something p from the market for her." He bowed swiftly to Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan. "Nice meeting you. See you later."
The corner of Kudo-kun's mouth turned up in a sort of a smile. "You, too." Mouri-chan nodded, smiling somewhat more obviously than Kudo-kun.
Flashing a grin of his own, Kaito began to walk away and waved over his shoulder. "Bye!" His walk turned to a jog, and he hurried to the market.
--End—
Rum's full code-name is Rum N. Coke. If there is already a canon character that has this name, I am unfamiliar with him/her and apologize profusely for the misuse of it. Also, I couldn't really see Gin, Vodka or Tequila rooting around dusty theatres for small needles, and Vermouth doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would deal with that sort of thing.
I don't know a lot about poisons, so if anything I wrote is inaccurate, well, it's unintended. Also, about the only thing I know about theatres is stage directions, so I might have gotten some things wrong there, too. I'm still unfamiliar with canon, but I'm messing around with continuity anyway, so readers might be more inclined to ignore those mistakes (though why I don't know). Still, if anyone notices any glaring inaccuracies, I'd appreciate knowing about them.
...Come to think of it, I'm missing a disclaimer. Oops ^^;... I'll just take care of that now...
Disclaimer: Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are by Aoyama Gosho; concepts and characters have been used without permission.
I had way too much fun with this installment. There was a lot of mood stuff to do, and I just ran away with describing the out-of-use theatre. I also don't get to do suspense often. So, all in all, a fun ficbit.
Communications
Fandom: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Summary: Kaito, Shin'ichi and Ran explore Toichi's theatre, looking for clues.
Kaito stared.
He blinked, twice, half-hoping the image would vanish when he closed his eyes; it didn't.
He frowned inside slightly at the two children trying to get into the theatre, wondering what they were doing. They were his age, one boy, one girl, both with brown hair, their backs facing him. The girl's hair reached almost to her shoulders and she was slightly taller than the boy she stood next to. The boy's hair was short, sticking up a bit in the back, and there was something familiar about him. Very familiar, in fact. Kaito shuffled through his mind for a name to match the figure, and stumbled across one, surprised.
"Kudo-kun?" The boy jumped back from the door guiltily and turned to face Kaito, the girl falling into a slightly clumsy fighting stance beside him. "What are you doing?" Kudo-kun relaxed a bit, recognizing the speaker, but looked almost no less guilty. The girl next to him straightened from her stance and looked confusedly from one boy to the other.
"Kuroba-kun! Well, uh, you see…" Kudo-kun shifted uncomfortably.
"Shin'ichi?" the girl asked, confused. "Who's that?"
Kudo-kun's ears turned red. "Well, you know that thing I had to go and do last week?"
The girl crossed her arms and scowled. "Yes. And you still owe me a candy bar for telling the teacher you were sick."
"Well, he's the person I went to see."
Abruptly, Kaito found himself the subject of an intense measuring gaze. "What's he got to do with the important thing?" the girl queried.
Kudo-kun looked briefly at Kaito. "I told you about the magician I went to see the other night, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, he's the magician's kid."
"Oh." Enlightenment dawned. "Oh! Right." The girl had the grace to look embarrassed.
"Anyway, Kuroba-kun?" Kudo-kun addressed Kaito. "This is my friend Mouri Ran. I told you about her a little, remember?" Kaito nodded. "Ran, this is Kuroba Kaito."
Kaito smiled pleasantly and bowed. "Nice to meet you, Mouri-chan." He pulled a daisy from thin air and handed it to her. Mouri-chan blushed and tucked the flower behind her ear. Kudo-kun scowled slightly at Kaito. "Anyway," Kaito turned back to Kudo-kun. "What are you doing here?"
"Shin'ichi's trying to get into the theatre so he can look for clues." Mouri-chan stated, matter-of-factly. Kudo-kun glared at her but without much venom. It had not escaped Kaito's notice that the theatre they stood by was the one at which his father had preformed. He brushed the thought away. "I came along 'cause I'm learning Karate, and I can break through doors that he can't get open and if he runs into any bad people I can protect him." Mouri-chan inflated with self-esteem.
Kaito frowned. "You can't get the door open?" He didn't much care for the idea of his father's old theatre being damaged.
"No," Kudo-kun replied, "It's locked up."
"Here, I'll get it." Brushing Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan to the side, Kaito took a set of oddly shaped wires from his back pocket. Selecting a few, he clutched the others between his teeth and set to work. After thirty seconds and a few odd clicking sounds, Kaito tried the door; it swung open easily. Smiling, Kaito replaced the lock picks.
Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan openly stared. "How did you do that?" Kudo-kun inquired.
Kaito flashed a small smile. "My dad taught me. He said it was for any time that something was locked that I needed to get in or out of. But I'm only s'posed to use it when it's really important." He gazed somberly at the open doorway. "I figure this counts as 'really important'. Don't'cha think, Kudo-kun?"
Kudo-kun's mouth shut with a faint 'click'. "Uh, yeah." He regarded the doorway for a moment before nodding once. He stepped through with an abrupt "Let's go," Mouri-chan and Kaito trailing behind him.
Kaito looked in awe around the darkened theatre. Empty tables were scattered around the floor, chairs resting up-turned on their surfaces. Unlit chandlers dangled from the ceiling like cobwebs. What sunlight that managed to shine through the high-up, distant windows only enhanced and distorted the odd shadows reaching across the floor. Dust settled everywhere with no one there to disturb it.
Kaito didn't care much for the atmosphere in empty theatres. They always seemed colder, less friendly than during a performance. During shows, it was still very dark and full of illusions, but the audience and performer cheered it up to no end, bringing life to an otherwise dead room. From the corner of his eye he saw Mouri-chan shiver slightly, and Kudo-kun move almost invisibly closer to her; it seemed he wasn't the only one who didn't appreciate the atmosphere.
"Look," Kudo-kun motioned to the dusty floor. (Why was he whispering? Kaito wondered. For that matter, why did he feel the need to cultivate the silence? Usually Kaito felt oppressed by it, but now it seemed somehow appropriate, as if making any noise louder than a heartbeat would attract untoward attention.) "Footprints. Someone's been here recently, and it doesn't look like they've left yet." Mouri-chan squeaked faintly, and clung to Kudo-kun's arm.
Kaito glanced behind them. "Kudo-kun? Do we need to be worried about someone noticing our footprints?"
Kudo-kun glanced back and gulped. "Um, I don't think so, but just in case, we'd better be extra careful." Kaito and Mouri-chan nodded, grateful to be doing something, even if it was too little, too late. Near-silently, the trio made their way to the stage area.
Near the side entrance two sets of stairs stretched away, one up, one down. Kaito's gaze flowed from one to the other to backstage, then to Kudo-kun. Kudo-kun was examining the possibilities in his own way, precise and calculating. Mouri-chan was mostly watching Kudo-kun for cues, though she stole her own glances up, down and to the side.
"Should we split up?" Kaito whispered.
Kudo-kun shook his head. "No. We stick together. Better slow and careful than fast and sloppy. Besides, I might get to someplace locked, and that would be a dead-end."
Kaito nodded, accepting the logic. "Which way first?"
Kudo-kun's eyebrows drew together. "The stage. If there are any obvious clues, they'll be there. There's not likely to be as much in the pit or on the catwalk." Kudo-kun's eyes flickered suddenly, and he grabbed Mouri-chan's wrist and dragged her to the curtain, hissing a "Come on!" to Kaito. Kaito hastened to follow.
Wrapped in the billowing cloth and shadows of the drawn curtains, Mouri-chan, Kudo-kun and Kaito huddled close together. "What—" Mouri-chan started to ask, but Kudo-kun cut her off with a hand over her mouth and a sharp "Shh!" Mouri-chan looked irritated, but didn't do anything. They waited with baited breath.
Then, Kaito heard it. A soft, echoing 'thudding' noise, then clicks accompanied by creaks, as if someone large were climbing a rather old iron staircase. His eyes darted to the stairs leading up from the pit.
Hidden in the curtain, Kaito, Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan watched as a man ascended the stairs. He was of average height and weight and wore all black—even a hat and sunglasses, which was odd, especially indoors. His hair was a reddish blonde, and reached just past his ears. His un-obscured features were mostly Central-European, though there was a strong hint of Irish to them as well. The man carried himself in a way that suggested anyone who found fault with him would soon be in very deep trouble, and would remember it for a long time to come—should they get a chance to walk away. Kaito swallowed as he watched the man walk towards center stage.
About halfway there the man stopped to pick something up. He straightened and lifted it to the light; something long, thin and silvery glinted in his fingers. The man tucked it into a pocket and pulled out something else—a phone of some sort. Hitting a selected few buttons with the ease of familiarity, the man held the phone to his ear and waited a moment.
Silence for a few seconds—the silence of an empty stage and a deserted theatre, of a man waiting patiently and three children also waiting; mostly of calm but spiked with traces of fear. Then the man broke it.
"Rum here. Objective completed." Slight pause. "Confirmed. No reason to believe that." Slight pause. "The records have already been taken care of. There is nothing to suggest murder." Longer pause. "New objective?" Short pause. "Understood. Rum out." Folding the phone, the man returned it to his pocket. With the same air of dangerous calm he had so far moved in, the man turned, walked offstage and out a side exit. The door clicked shut with an air of finality.
When the last echoes of the shutting door faded the three figures hidden in the curtain relaxed. Kudo-kun dropped his hand from Mouri-chan's mouth, and Kaito began to breathe normally again. The trio shared a smile, giddy with relief and fading adrenaline. Kudo-kun pulled the curtain aside and walked towards the stage. He crouched down near where the man— Rum? —had bent over and peered at the floor. Kaito and Mouri-chan leaned over his shoulder.
"What is it?" Kaito asked in (still) hushed tones.
Kudo-kun pointed to something on the floor. "An outline. The man smeared is some, but there's an outline from what he picked up." Kaito squinted and saw, faintly, a patch on the floor naked of dust. "It looks about the right size for a match stick," Kudo-kun muttered.
"It looked kind-of like a needle when he held it up," Kaito remembered aloud.
Mouri-chan nodded. "I saw it flash."
"…A thicker-than-usual needle that had something to do with murder…" Kudo-kun mumbled, half to himself. Kaito and Mouri-chan observed his musings in awkward silence.
"Maybe the needle had poison in it?" Mouri-chan suggested, timidly.
"If it had poison in it there wouldn't be nearly enough to kill him with." Kudo-kun pointed out.
"Oh."
"What if there didn't have to be a lot?" Kaito asked.
Kudo-kun shook his head. "If there was a poison that could kill someone from such a small amount, it would probably do some pretty noticeable damage to the body."
"I mean, what if it didn't have to kill? What if there just needed to be enough to—to hurt really bad? Or stun or something?" Kaito clarified. Kudo-kun turned and stared at him. Kaito shifted slightly, uncomfortable. "When you do magic, there's a lot that has to do with timing," he continued, "Especially with really big tricks. So if you have to pay attention to something else during the trick—"
"Something might go wrong." Kudo-kun finished for him. The three stared for a moment at the broken silhouette in the dust, silent. "I think," Kudo-kun said, slowly, "that we aren't going to find anything else here." Kaito and Mouri-chan nodded. Wordlessly, they made their way back out of the theatre.
Kaito blinked in the open sunlight. Suddenly the events of the theatre seemed much less real. He stepped away from the door and it swung close with a click, the tumblers in the lock sliding back into place. Kaito pulled the handle to make sure the lock was working; satisfied, he turned back to Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan.
Kudo-kun spoke up first. "We have a method, now." He said, in neutral tones. "And possibly a murderer. Or murderers. But we don't have a motive or evidence."
"And we don't know who that guy was or if we'll see him again." Mouri-chan added.
Kudo-kun nodded. "That's why we can't tell anyone. They'll never believe us without proof."
Kaito looked from one to the other. "So I guess that's what we look for next." That hadn't come out quite right. Kaito frowned and tried again. "What I mean is, we watch and listen for the stuff you said, not that we actually go looking for it." The sheer enormity of the situation had begun to dawn on Kaito, and it scared him more than a little. Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan seemed to echo his sentiments. Kaito cast a wistful glance at the road. "Anyway, I'd better go. I told Mom I'd pick something p from the market for her." He bowed swiftly to Kudo-kun and Mouri-chan. "Nice meeting you. See you later."
The corner of Kudo-kun's mouth turned up in a sort of a smile. "You, too." Mouri-chan nodded, smiling somewhat more obviously than Kudo-kun.
Flashing a grin of his own, Kaito began to walk away and waved over his shoulder. "Bye!" His walk turned to a jog, and he hurried to the market.
--End—
Rum's full code-name is Rum N. Coke. If there is already a canon character that has this name, I am unfamiliar with him/her and apologize profusely for the misuse of it. Also, I couldn't really see Gin, Vodka or Tequila rooting around dusty theatres for small needles, and Vermouth doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would deal with that sort of thing.
I don't know a lot about poisons, so if anything I wrote is inaccurate, well, it's unintended. Also, about the only thing I know about theatres is stage directions, so I might have gotten some things wrong there, too. I'm still unfamiliar with canon, but I'm messing around with continuity anyway, so readers might be more inclined to ignore those mistakes (though why I don't know). Still, if anyone notices any glaring inaccuracies, I'd appreciate knowing about them.
...Come to think of it, I'm missing a disclaimer. Oops ^^;... I'll just take care of that now...
Disclaimer: Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are by Aoyama Gosho; concepts and characters have been used without permission.
I had way too much fun with this installment. There was a lot of mood stuff to do, and I just ran away with describing the out-of-use theatre. I also don't get to do suspense often. So, all in all, a fun ficbit.
