[Open to All; Multiple Threads Welcome]

[modernholmes]

The more baffling a mystery was, the more interested Conan became.  But this was just too baffling.  He could remember all those weeks of believing he was somebody else.  How had that happened?  Had it been a dream?  Reality?  And if it was reality, how much did Neal
remember of that confrontation?  He kept turning all of these questions over and

Comments

[itchafes]

Neal watches from a distance for a short while before approaching the kid. He feels a little bad, even if their last conversation was rather enlightening. "You're better at that than I ever was. Me, sports. Never really got along."

[modernholmes]

Conan catches the ball with the top of his foot and tosses it up to bounce on his head.

"It isn't difficult. I've just practiced a lot. And I like soccer."

[itchafes]

Neal leans against the wall, his guarded smile dropping into place almost subconsciously. Almost. "Just like you practiced being a detective by reading novels."

He tilts his head forward, giving Conan a look that would be librarianesque if he didn't have that smile on his face. There's a chance Conan doesn't remember their previous conversation, but he's willing to risk it - besides, he might still learn something new.

[modernholmes]

And there was the confirmation on whether that incident really happened.

Conan bounces the ball back to the ground and stops it under his foot. He eyes Neal coolly. There was no point now in putting up the childish act. But he still had some advantages. Neal knew that he had skills far beyond his apparent age. He did not know the rest of it. And Conan had no intention of allowing him to find out any more.

And if he tried to force the issue? That was what the ball was for. The best weapon was the one no one else knew you had.

"Exactly."

[ledfromthepath]

Kat is outside the wall, prowling the fringe of the woods. She hasn't gone in yet- she's not sure she wants to, given how many mixed scents there are inside, only a few of them familiar. This must be where everyone else ended up.

Then there's a scent that's particularly familiar and particularly close, though... It's weird. Different. She raises her head to get a better whiff and spots Danny at the top of the wall, hesitates a moment, and then drifts out from under cover to look up at him. Her nostrils flare, she squints, and then says, "You smell more today. The hell is that about?"

sorry, forgot to switch journals

[invisibill]

Danny tenses and nearly fumbles the device when he that sudden comment. He hastily shoves it into his pocket and looks around nervously to find the source of the voice. That... that was the werewolf girl he'd met in the forest? And he smelled? What?

"Um, what do you mean?"

[ledfromthepath]

"You smell more? More like a person and less like where a person stepped? And you look..." She trails off, squinting at him. "What happened to the-" she waves at her eyes and her hair. "All that."

Kat's eyes narrow suddenly and her voice goes sharp. "You make a deal?"

[invisibill]

Oh this was so not good. About the only bright side Danny could see at this point was that it was Kat. Not a human. If anyone here could get the whole 'secretly only half-human' thing it would be a self-admitted werewolf.

None of which would matter if he couldn't get her to stop talking about it. Which meant admitting to what he really was.

Some days Danny hated his life. Sure all the ghosts back home knew what he was. But he'd never had to actually tell anyone. It was something all the non-humans knew.

He stands up, hastily glances around for witnesses, and hops off the wall to land next to her.

"Look, you can't mention this to anyone, okay? And I didn't make any deals." He rolls his eyes. "Give me a little credit. I'm not that stupid. This is just something I've always been able to do. And none of the humans around here know I can do it. I'd kind of like it to stay that way."