1. ➟ video

[heymcfly]

[ The video starts with Marty holding the communicator really, really awkwardly. Behind him you can probably see a line of freestyle soda machines behind him. Marty has a dollar in his hand, but apparently something's not working for him. ]

Okay. So...ah, I'm Marty. I guess I'm new? I don't know if you gotta introduce yourselves or anything when you make a new one of these, but...

[ He gives the communicator a sheepish kind of shrug, unsure of whether he wants to feel stupid holding a camera like this, or feeling uncomfortable because people were looking at him weird. ] ...right. So I got a question. I guess.

So these touch vendor-things are everywhere, right? How the hell do you get your soda?

[ Marty turns the video to the machine, where he presses his finger against 'diet coke' on the main screen and then mashing it against the PUSH button. ] I press diet coke on the menu and it takes me to this thing where it shows me all kinda of flavors, but it won't give me my soda!

[ joke's on you marty, you have to select the big fat diet coke button before you can get your soda, duh. that's probably why people are looking at you weird.

Eventually he just lightly taps the toe of his shoe against the bottom of the machine. ]

This thing sucks. I don't even like coke.

Comments

[eastdetective]

[Something wasn't making sense here. ]

But what does that have to do with the current technology?

[heymcfly]

I mean...

I thought with the technology we got now, we'd be able to make cars fly. Y'know? Think big or go home.

[eastdetective]

[This was just making Conan more suspicious. Not of anything specific yet, but...

Conan was a detective. He knew when he was hearing evasions. ]

Then what does the future have to do with it?

[heymcfly]

I thought that in the future, cars could fly. Or somethin' like that.

[ HOW OLD IS THIS KID

If Marty ends up screwing the future timeline up again somehow, he's going to retire early. ]

[eastdetective]

You just said that you thought we could make cars fly with the technology we have now. [Conan smiles brightly as he points this out. Cheerful and childish and completely unwilling to let the puzzle go.]

[heymcfly]

I mean. I just...

[ Kid who are you even ]

N-Never mind. Guess I'm just a little...confused, I guess?

[eastdetective]

[If asked, Conan would simply describe himself as a detective. In his opinion that was more than enough explanation.]

Really? What are you confused about?

[heymcfly]

I mean, everything? It's just...can't say I was expecting to be a superhero, y'know?

[ oh my god ]

[eastdetective]

I've been trying to ignore that part.

[heymcfly]

[ Subject change! Good, good. ]

Yeah, it's kinda hard, isn't it? Especially when people are lookin' at you funny all the time. Y'know?

[eastdetective]

[Conan was more offended at the idea of superpowers in the first place. He preferred it when the world was a little more logical than that.]

What do you mean by funny looks?

[People gave him funny looks all the time. He hadn't noticed that much difference in the looks he got. People tended to stare whether you were a child prodigy detective or a child with super powers. ]

[heymcfly]

Well, they gave me weird looks when I first came. [ But then, Marty had been dressed in a godawful cowboy costume that was probably the biggest Halloween mistake ever. He was doomed to be looked at funny to begin with. ] I think someone said all imPorts are kinda looked at weird at first?

...I mean, they don't look atcha like they're gonna kill ya or anything. They just look at you funny.

[eastdetective]

I noticed. It doesn't seem very different from home.

[Then again, before becoming Conan Shinichi had been a local celebrity as a detective. He wasn't the best person to judge.]

[heymcfly]

From home? [ Marty could kind of understand. A kid wearing glasses that were almost as big as his head was kind of one of those things that would get heads to turn, as awful as it sounded. That's the only thing that can come to Marty right now.

Those glasses, man. ]

Wait, you mean your real home, right? Why'd they do that?

[eastdetective]

I've been living with a famous detective for a while. Sometimes I help him out as an assistant.

[At least that was the story he wanted the media to believe. A seven-year-old solving all the cases that stumped the police was even less believable than a detective who became a genius at solving cases when he was asleep.

And even before that, as Shinichi he had been the only son of a internationally best-selling author and a popular actress. He'd grown up as a celebrity kid. ]

[heymcfly]

[ That kind of explains things. ]

Oh. I gotcha.

[ Marty almost spewed the guts of the future to a detective. Oh man, wouldn't that be great. Doc would be absolutely furious with him if anything happened. Marty could almost see it now. ]

And how old are you again?

[eastdetective]

I'm seven.

[Actually he was seventeen.]

[heymcfly]

Wait.

No, you're not. You can't be!

[ Marty tries to smile. Tries. ]

There ain't no way.

[eastdetective]

What's so hard to believe about my age?

[heymcfly]

You just seem really smart for your age, I guess?

I mean, not all seven year olds are stupid, but...

[eastdetective]

Lots of people say that. It's probably because I watch a lot of documentaries.