The Circus, or in its homeland language Il Circo, was made up by mostly game stalls where children of the performs would pick the unknowing players for wallets and purses, then a large black and crimson striped tent in the center. With its multiple peeks it gave the impression that it would come crashing down or at lest not look as big as it did on the inside. The ramshackle wooden fence circled it in a half moon to keep onlookers away from the workers wagons, animal cages and tents. In the day it was fun filled with smiling clowns and bright colors, but at night, for the fair few that received a ticket, from one of the prettiest of show girls, the bright colors melted into darker shades and the smiles were replaced with masks or sinister grins. At night was when the twisted and grotesque would be put on display for a few pieces of coin.
With in the big top tent the ringmaster waited under the raised floor and the trap door for the smoke and explosion to appear before he sprung threw as if by magic. Behind curtains clowns, acrobats, show girls, the cat tamers watched the fall of the lights and held their breaths in anticipation for the opening act, the Grand Masters speech.
In flashes of light and standard smoke a tall, gruffed voice man stood cloaked in deep purple velvet. Hands by his side to drop the small pelts of smoke on his companions doors he began his speech. ”Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls of all ages, we humbly invite you to join us on a journey into a world of dreams and enchantments. Watch as daring artists fly threw the air as if they had wings on their back, as elephants dances with bears, as even the wildest of man eating beasts be tamed into house cats.”
As his speech reached the end his voice raised and he threw down the small bombs. From the door to his left a sleek black panther emerge, head tall chest puffed in a showman’s pride and to the right a woman. She was clad in black leggings that disappeared into her tall black boots on the top a pure white ruffled shirt with a blood red tuxedo jacket trimmed in gold. Though it was a panther on stage, the back of her jacket had a tiger embossed on the back. She smiled broadly and bowed slightly to the Grand Master when introduced her by her stage name. Electra, the beast tamer.
The Grand Master slowly walked away for the opening performance the cloak dragging and whispering around him like water while the light dimmed and focused on the woman and cat.
The act, was light, minor tricks only to the entice the audience attention but as the cat and tamer bowed the lights flashed, brightening and gliding over to the Grand Master. He had his large arms extended and the cloak billowed around in a torrent before it pulled away over him and revealed his ensemble. Black shiny boot to the knee, white doe skin pants lined down the thigh with gold, a vest of dark green and gold, a jacket in the deepest of purple and a black top hat. Unlike some masters he knew where they held a whip he preferred a simple straight black walking stick. He clapped his hands once and slowly brought them open to make it appear. Twirling it in one hand then the other he slammed in to the ground and took a military stance. Then in a hushed voice he spoke. “Please, enjoy the show.”
The flaps of the entrance erupted with sound and people. Clowns poked and teased the audience as show girls rode horses around and flirted with the men. If the audience looked up they would see acrobats climbing ropes and getting ready. All in all the entire show wouldn’t end till four hours after this mark.
“Arty!” Hakuba crooned to the man closest to him. “Have you ever seen anything like this?"
Arthur looked to their other companion with a patient sigh and shook his head. Robert, however, humored the younger man with a shake of his head. "Only in fantasy,” he said, and then nodded to the center stage. “Don’t miss anything, James. You’ll need to remember all of these details for later.”
The blond turned back around in his seat, eager and excited. “Right, right… Just think of the murders that could take place in such a scene! So many people watching, so many things going on… it would be easy to commit a crime right under everyone’s noses and no one would be the wiser. They could easily rule it an accident… There’d be far too many suspects and far too many witnesses – a diffusion of responsibility and blame – god, what a splendid stage!”
“James,” Arthur said, groaning. “I can’t hear a bloody thing you’re trying to tell me over the crowd! Just watch the show!”
Similar conversations were shouted over the cheering and applause, and Hakuba was keen to join in on the more impressive displays of oohs and aahs. And he was flirted with, of course, as were his gentleman companions in their suits and finely groomed appearances. Those with money and power always attracted interest, and the young heir was particularly susceptible to those siren calls. But that was why he never went alone to this sort of thing.
Kaito was sitting/balancing crosslegged on the backrest of the sofa in his hotel suite, a bowl of breakfast cereal in his left, spooning a big spoon full of cereal into his mouth with the other. He loved it when the stuff was still crunchy, so he was chewing happily, listening to the loud crunches it made.
Today he was not wearing any disguises, so it was his plain, pale face with light blue eyes looking down at the stranger. He had taken a shower earlier and hadn’t bothered to comb just yet, so his dark brown hair was even more of a mess than it usually was.
The stranger on his sofa had been stripped of his shoes, jacket and pullover, hauled onto the sofa and covered with a wool blanket. He was blond, tall and when Kaito had picked him up late at night, completely drunk.The thief had been casing a joint, a gallery, wearing the guise of a young woman and on his way home he’d been harrassed by two guys that were more than a little tipsy and this one had tried to interfere. The other two had taken off quickly after he stepped on one of their toes hard enough and accidentally ellbowed the other in his solar plexus. Drunk blondie though, was ready to fall over all by himself and babbling in a mix of Japanese and English. That had somehow made him curious, so he took him along to his hotel room and let him sleep it off on the couch.
Morning had come and given him enough time to frisk through the blonds stuff. Wallet, keys, two handkerchiefs, condoms, cigaretts and lighter all normal so far, but the notebook and pen, gloves, evidence bags, zipties and handcuffs – that was screaming law enforcement. Particularly interesting he had found the old pocket watch, a very nice piece, not that much value, but very well cared for. The hunting knive was a little unique, too, good quality judging by how well it worked when he’d cut an apple with it.
The stranger was stirring, so he must be waking up. Grinning widely he leaned a little forward, watching the strangers face. “Morning, sunshine!”
Morning? Sunshine?
The headache that permeated Hakuba’s thoughts was not at all conducive to parsing the meaning of those two, far-too-cheerful words, but his other senses were working in the absence of his mind. Hotel room, judging by the state of the nearby linens and the state of the couch that he was pressed upon. The fabric, too; cheap, easily cleaned, but comfortable enough.
He swallowed hard, groaning despite his best efforts, and pushed himself up just enough to lift his head, finding himself staring face to face with… who…?
Shuddering, Hakuba laid his head back down and rubbed the side of his face with a hand, squinting up at the nearby stranger. “Ah…” he mumbled, struggling to get his thoughts together. He vaguely remembered a woman in need of help, but how did he get…?
Heiji just stared for a moment. Was this guy, one who had called Heiji hot-blooded, incompetent and a disappointment. Actually apologizing to him for something that Heiji was clearly at fault for? This was more awkward then finding out Kudo shrank down to the age of a six year old. And that one was rather hard to top.
In good conscience, and of course Heiji had the worst of those. He figured it would be best to dismiss Hakuba’s apology and apologize himself. And maybe, this could erase the bad start the two had? After all during the koushien when all things were set aside the two of them did work well together.
“No, don’t apologize it was my fault. So…’m sorry. I shoulda watched where I was goin.” Heiji muttered as he bowed to the other in apology much like the Brit had done for him. That should show him that Heiji at least had some manners. And boy did Heiji love proving people wrong.
“I hope I didn’t spoil yer fun. After all Osaka throws the best festivals.” he babbled afterwords. When in actually he should have just said goodbye and left. Instead of standing here trying to make conversation with someone who disliked him. Maybe if he prayed hard enough the ground will swallow him, or Kazuha will come and save him from such an embarrassing situation.
As difficult as it was to listen to the Osakan carry on, Hakuba managed a fake little smile and another nod, wincing as he looked Heiji over once more. “Ah, no, I’m certain that things will be fine… one little bump in the road is nothing but an interesting occurrence to break up the monotony of the journey and keep you grounded in the present, hm?”
Hakuba had no idea if what he’d just said made any sense to Heiji, much less to himself, but he hoped that it would at least serve as some sort of transitory passage to let them move on with their lives. If he had to listen to any comments about his yukata, he might die of embarrassment.
“Ah, anyway, it’s fine, and I’m pleased to see that you’re fine, so… yes, go. Enjoy your festival; I’ve heard many wonderful things about it, and am looking forward to seeing what your beautiful city has to offer."
There is a cute little moth sitting on Hakuba’s desk. It’s just watching him with the curious of expressions before raising one of its tiny little legs up as if waving.
“Well hullo there… you seem to be a curious little thing, aren’t you?” Hakuba wasn’t sure that he’d ever seen a moth like that before, and quickly pulled out his iphone to snap a photo and begin searching for any like creatures.
“Is there a particular reason for you to be perched on my desk, or did you just get lost in here?”
“I was actually already planning that~” Kaito snickered, tilting his head to brush a kiss against Hakuba’s jaw, before stepping away. A hand trailed down the detective’s arm to wrap fingers around his wrist and gently tug the blond with him as Kaito continued moving, backwards, in the direction of Hakuba’s bed.
“I hope you don’t mind too much~”
Hakuba followed after, rolling his eyes again, though the smirk of contentment never left his face. “Fine, fine… if you insist. Can I at least get changed, or must I sleep in my full suit?” Using his free hand, he reached up to start tugging at his tie, at least.
“Getting him riled up is always hilarious, but I have to admit that seeing him so lost was refreshing, to say the least!”
He would’ve personally gone with the dye and glitter and perhaps a few ribbons and some lace, but seeing the result of Hakuba’s little stunt made him wonder if perhaps he should switch it up some during his next heist. Oh, if only he could recreate Nakamori’s reaction—!
"And it’s not that difficult to get the dye out.” He glanced at Hakuba from the corner of his eye, smile stretching wide and turning just a tad too innocent. “But if you’d prefer, I could always go with princess dresses instead. Say, how do you feel about pink, detective~? Then again, white is more your color. Hmm. Decisions, decisions~”
Hakuba came to a full stop to give one of his sternest glances down at the other teenager, stomping a foot to emphasize his meaning.
"Ohhhh no you don’t! You are NOT putting me in any dresses, Kaito! Nakamori-keibu, certainly, but definitely not me. I swear to God, if you try to put me in a dress…!"
4. MUN X MUSE: how would our relationship go? Oh… goodness. I’m already married, let’s put that out there right now, and very happily so. But if it were to somehow happen where I was in a relationship with Hakuba, well… huh. It’d probably be fine since we’re both fairly polite and into books, though I’d feel constantly intellectually inferior to him. And jealous because he would still have fan girls/boys to fawn over him. HMMM.
Mostly we’d be doing damage control, though. Who’s more depressed today? Oh okay cuddles for you, then. I’d have a hard time with how much he works, too… but then I think he would be really irritated by my lack of follow-through and inability to be punctual.
10. If my muse were to die, how would I react? I would be utterly heartbroken! Though, depending on the hows and whys, it could be a very good thing. I think he’s a character with great potential to make a large impact if dead (hence the fanfic that I’m writing), given who his father (the Superintendent General, aka the highest ranking officer in Japan), with international reputation, connections to Scotland Yard, the French Police, etc… who has personally met The Mouris, Conan, Hattori Heiji… If he died, it’d definitely cause a stir for the police, but likely in a personal way for our main cast, too. Just think of how many people would be effected if Hakuba died, despite being, really, such a minor character? He’s just in a great position to be a catalyst for character development. ESPECIALLY if it was, say, Conan’s fault. Mm.
11. What is muse’s biggest secret? It’s got to be that he either knows Kaitou KID’s identity and has yet to turn him in (Boscombe secrets, I tell you!), ooor the fact that he was abused as a child. It’s fairly obvious to anyone who gets to know him, but he’ll adamantly refuse to tell the story unless you approach it in a very specific way…
12. What does mun ship muse with? Hakuba seems to be ridiculously compatible with most good characters. I think my main ship with him is Hakuba/Kaito, but it’s worked really well with Hakuba/Heiji, Hakuba/Shinichi, and Hakuba/Akako before. I also wouldn’t say no to Hakuba/Shiho, Hakuba/Sonoko, or Hakuba/Ran, either.
There are plenty of crossover characters he works well with, too (Kyoya, Tamaki, Jeanne, Sylwen, Sherlock, etc), and OCs are super precious (Emi, Madison, Mitzi, Miyu, etc.) … It just has to hit the chemistry just right. I bet he’d like an Elizabeth Bennett.
15. What mun secretly wants muse to do. Actually tell his scar story to someone in character in an actual thread. LOL. So far he’s managed to elude it… but that may be partly because he’s always overly dressed.
18. What muse prefers the most on Tumblr. Lots and LOTS of variety, freedom for HCs and NPCs, and that I can RP/answer questions/draw fanart/write drabbles, and that there is a willing audience to receive it.
20. What does mun dislike about muse? He’s really bad at interacting with anyone unless he has a specific reason for it. Most often, he’ll want to approach something, but works himself up so much trying to think of a good excuse, that he ends up just being anxious and avoidant and awkward all together. And then he goes to drink. c_c
Oh, goodness. Great question, Tintin! By the way, you are a super cutie in case you weren’t aware. I have really enjoyed following you and hearing of your exploits via Emi.
Let’s see. Why did I choose Hakuba, of all characters, to play?
Backstory:
A few years ago, I met a girl whom I’ll call Clover through a mutual friend (hi Krista!) who invited her along to one of my Conan parties. Those are basically ‘eat curry, sushi, junkfood and cookies shaped like Conan’s head while marathonning the movies/arcs/specials/etc’ all day long.
Clover and I hit it off and started to talk online, discovered we were both RPers, and had a mutual thirst for DCMK. It was her idea for me to start RPing as Conan, which I was hella nervous about because I’d really only RPed as OCs until that point.
BUT, with a little brainstorming, we came up with this incredibly epic plot to resolve the series once and for all, and we divvied up the characters accordingly. She picked Kaito (her favorite) as her MC, and took on the task of writing Heiji, Kogoro, the Detective Boys, Ran, Chikage, Gin, some OCs, and various other side characters etc… while I took on Conan/Shinichi, Yukiko, Yuusaku, Sonoko, Eri, Vermouth, Vodka, Akako, Aoko, Kazuha, aaaand… Hakuba.
The fun part of the story was that Clover, like many people, didn’t like Hakuba to begin with because he’s not only an antagonist for KID (her favorite), but also one for Hattori Heiji (whom we all adore). But, since my introduction to him was a bit different (Sunset Mansion was my very first exposure to him, followed by Koushien, then the MK cases), I saw a very different character than perhaps others did, and took on the task of engineering him to be a character that you (hopefully) can’t help but fall for.
Hakuba, to me, is very interesting because even though he’s one of the four Gosho Boys, he has very little exposure series-wise. He’s only in DC twice and only in MK a handful of times, and we know very little about his background. We do, however, know some very specific things canonically that allows us to extrapolate a LOT of possibilities.
As a writer developing a character, this is gold.
Here’s what we do know:
He’s driven and determined with concrete goals (career)
He’s well on his way to achieving these goals (over 500 cases in Japan alone, Scotland Yard has worked with him before and wants to again)
He has personal motivations that are important to him (learning a criminal’s modus operandi)
He’s good at billiards
Seems very comfortable with adults/professionals
Flirtatious and chivalrous with women he doesn’t see on his level (yes, he’s sexist — it’s part of his White Knight syndrome, which I’ll go into later)
Has relations with the media (TV, newspaper, probably magazines, an agent)
He’s a proficient austringer (if Watson is, indeed, a female Eurasian Sparrowhawk, he must be one of the youngest licensed hawkers in the UK— those birds are for advanced austringers only, and you can only become one if you pass all sorts of tests… those birds are only with you on a relationship of mutual trust; if he wasn’t good, she wouldn’t stay with him for a second)
His father is kindly toward him, but has no problems embarrassing him in front of others (there’s the whole issue of nepotism in Japan, and it’s got to be awkward to be the son of the Superintendent General)
He is frustrated by Nakamori-keibu not listening to him, but is quick to make sure that Conan’s voice is heard in both cases
Keeps accurate time with his watch + excessive note taking
Has eidetic memory
Has access to his grandfather’s laboratory + seems to know how to use it
Travels often (London, France, Japan at the very least)
Has a governess who drives a fancy sports car; it’s pretty clear that he comes from money. Wears fancy suits. His idea of ‘casual clothes’ is not wearing a tie and not buttoning his jacket.
and so on…
All of these traits appeal to me because they’re interesting problems to have to deal with in terms of getting a profile down…
if he hunts with a hawk, he can’t be afraid of getting his hands dirty
if he’s solved so many cases, he’s not going to be skittish around blood
if he’s been living in England for all of these years, there must be something going on between his parents – his dad is obviously Japanese, being the Superintendent General, so what of his mother?
does his meticulous time-keeping habits have anything to do with the problems sometimes inherent with having an eidetic memory?
If he openly flirts with girls/people unlike the other Gosho Boys, what is his experience? Is it merely cultural difference?
If he’s born on August 29th, that puts him right at the deadline for the school year in the UK. That makes him the youngest of his class, and potentially the youngest of the Gosho Boys if they’re all 17. Is he used to being the smallest/not taken seriously?
If his mother is British and living in England, there’s a good chance that their family is at least somewhat religious. Incorporating that into his character would be a great contrast against the others, who have their own varying Eastern religious beliefs (and not).
It also counteracts (and balances) the logical detective side with things of a spiritual nature, which honestly fits with a more idealized perspective aaaand scientific theory. Since he’s “proto-Shinichi” it makes sense to me to switch him to the other side of the coin. While Shinichi says “ghosts can’t exist because we can’t prove that they do,” Hakuba says “ghosts might exist because we can’t prove that they don’t.” In this way, he pairs well with Heiji because they’re both more on the superstitious side.
So I start getting these ideas, and I’m getting really excited. There’s a ton of material that I can work with, here, all derived from canon extrapolations.
If Watson trusts him, he’s probably very good with animals
I’ll make him an Animal Lover as part of his introvert/social awkwardness around his peers. He always deals better with critters than people, and that’s a soft spot.
If he’s, say, Catholic, it would make sense to send him to a boarding school for part of the time in England, since they are well-off and he seems very prim and proper.
This allows me to make plenty of biblical references in posts and view the Japanese world from a Christian perspective (which works for me because I was raised Christian and I’m only sort of familiar with Japan, so this is a good vehicle for me to explore spirituality of differing types and the fallacies therein)
We can also work in a bit of painful backstory here because there have been several instances of child abuse at these boarding schools, which I think could be useful to drive Hakuba’s need for understanding motive. Why did this happen to us? Why would someone do this? Why would God allow it? Why did I allow it to go so long?
This also gives him secrets to keep, which is fun in RP
…and also more cases solved in his past as well as potential future villains.
Working with Scotland Yard means that he’s had a lot of opportunity to learn policy/procedure and probably get a lot of really fantastic outside world perspectives.
Shinichi got to travel a lot with his parents, it seems, so Hakuba is his natural counterpart in this sense. Kaito and Heiji, however, seem bound to Japan so far… which means bringing different experiences to the Gosho Boys as a whole.
…anyway, this is just an example of the process I’ve gone through to invent this character, but I guess you could say that I really love his type of character. That is, a young teenager trying to solve adult problems while struggling with a myriad of complications, many of them stemming from his own inexperience or miscalculation. I love that he has a TON of problems just because he is who he is, and he’s busily trying to solve them ALL by himself because he feels that he has to.
Hakuba is a walking contradiction. But in him I see potential for a funny, sensitive character who is competent, merciful, and helps to round out the team with common sense, determination, and a gentle hand.
…like really, I think he’s the only one of the Gosho boys that is a true pacifist, which is funny.
I hope this sort of answers the question. I guess it’s just… I really relate to him in a lot of ways, and I think I can bring a lot of insight to his character, and in a way that will not make people hate him so much.
