damned_institute | Night 74: Records Archive (Third Floor)

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Night 74: Records Archive (Third Floor)

[From here.]

After having it built up so much, the Records Archive turned out to be a rather unassuming room.

It looked much like a number of the other rooms scattered throughout the institute. There were computer consoles all along the walls, interspersed with bookshelves that held countless different volumes -- journals, notebooks, and files, all looking to have been organized and cataloged in a very methodical way. There was a table in the center of the room surrounded by chairs; atop it were a few open journals, along with one large binder. Was this what Landel was referring to whenever he mentioned paperwork?

Castiel used his flashlight to take in the whole room, noting that there was yet another teleportation pad in the corner, but it was abandoned save for them. Maybe Landel hadn't expected them to get this far...

Other than the computers, though, this was the sort of thing that Castiel was comfortable with. This was research.

He turned back toward the others. "It looks like we have plenty of work to do."

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Link's eyes brightened when he stepped into the records room to see another group. Part of him... had been hoping that Tsurugi would be among them, by some sort of miracle, but he knew at this point that holding out a hope of seeing him tonight would be foolish.

He swallowed, eyes darting to the door frame behind him before returning to the group before them. Link offered a small smile, but no words. Never having been much of a talker, he began taking a look around.

"Sora!" Lloyd's face brightened as well, and he stood up from the desk he'd been sitting at side-by-side with Kratos. Stepping forward, he gestured around him. "This is the Records Archive! But you already knew that," he laughed. After all, Lloyd had been the one to tell him. "This is Castiel, and that's my fa- I mean, that's Kratos." His eyes darted to his father following the slip. Their relationship still wasn't something he knew what to do with, or whether or not they should even openly admit to it. Landel already knew, though, didn't he? But did that mean it was safe to say it out loud?

Was he even comfortable with it himself?

Kratos's eyes met his, but his face remained impassive, offering him no clues about what he thought. Instead, his attention slipped past him to Sora and Link, and he inclined his head in greeting.

Right. Now wasn't really the time. Lloyd tried to push the awkward moment aside so he could focus on the more important things right now. Like the records archive they were in. He waved the two over, inviting them closer to the computer, even as his eyes were drawn to Sora's friend, curious. Despite the light of his lamp on the table, it was hard to see much in the dark beyond a general impression of face and build. "You guys wanna see the list of all the worlds?"

When the door opened Castiel forced his attention away from the volume in front of him to watch to young men step inside. He only recognized them from having seen them around the different common areas during the day. Lloyd and Kratos looked to be familiar with them, though, and so they should be able to handle orienting them with the room.

Castiel heard Lloyd introduce him and nodded in silent greeting, but that was all he felt was required of him.

Another few pages, and he finally came across "Eric Derringer," Dean's fake name. There was no sign of "Matthew," which meant that of the two of them, Dean was the only one unlucky enough to get picked for experimentation.

There was a date offered for the experiment, but Castiel had no idea when that was compared to now. The first detail offered was that a demon had been the one in charge of Dean's session. How had Landel managed that?

It was kind of funny the way that Lloyd was almost official with the way that he announced the room that they were in and then introduced the others. "Oh, I know Kratos!" Sora said with a smile. "We've worked together plenty of times, right?" He leaned over to make eye contact with the man in question, offering a smile. He looked just as serious as ever...

The other person with them, Castiel, might as well be Kratos' twin. He had the same serious look on his face -- Sora could make that out even from this side of the room.

When the offer was made to see the database of all the worlds, Sora immediately nodded. He was used to learning about a multitude of different worlds, seeing how that had kind of been his job back home, and so he was very curious to see this for himself.

"Sure!" he said, drawing closer even though the space around the computer that Kratos was sitting at was getting pretty cramped.

Edited 2014-01-20 03:36 (UTC)

Link nodded, turning his attention to Lloyd when he mentioned showing them the list of worlds. He had seen all three of these men before, standing around the Institute with the other longtime patients, but they hadn't spoken. His eyes lingered on the book in the oldest man's hands before he stepped over to the device. What was it called, again? Did he know?

The radio had crackled to life briefly when Korra gave her thanks, but other than that, there hadn't been any other requests for specific world coordinates. Kratos slid to the side, letting Lloyd take advantage of the lull to show the other two boys the computer. In the mean time, he picked up pen and paper again and returned to copying coordinates down as they were listed. Just because they had not been requested did not mean they were not important. Not everyone might have a radio, or the opportunity to use one.

Lloyd pointed to the list - or, more specifically, to the worlds that both had Hyrules. "You can see what I meant when I said there were two worlds. That's your world... um... Link, right?" That was what Sora had called him on the radio, right? "I'm Lloyd," he added, just in case he hadn't picked up on that. Now that the other two had stepped farther into the room, it was easier to get a look at them in the light. Link looked like he might be Lloyd's age, and now he could see that his hair was blonder than it was brown, falling in a way that didn't quite cover...

...pointed ears? Lloyd's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Are you an elf?" He hadn't seen anyone here who didn't look human - not counting the monsters he'd encountered at night. He was surprised enough he almost didn't even notice when another voice issued from the radio, and this time not in response to their call.

Castiel had one ear trained on the conversation taking place on the other side of the room, but for the most part it was introductions and explanations. Are you an elf slipped in there, and he glanced over, noting the stranger with the pointed ears. He'd never seen anything like that -- whatever elves were, they didn't exist on Earth.

He returned his attention to the file. This demon, which had somehow made its way into the institute and onto Landel's staff, had started by showing Dean an image of his brother using his own demonic power to exorcise demons.

It was the sort of thing that would have troubled Dean, considering what point in time he'd been pulled from. This had to be some form of manipulation, as it was what demons always did -- pitting the brothers against each other, digging right into that weak spot with clawed hands.

Reading it was enough to start a steady build of anger, but that only showed in Castiel's tensed shoulders.

That Castiel guy was kind of anti-social, wasn't he? Sora wondered what that was all about, though he was quickly distracted by what Lloyd had to show them.

Like he'd said, there were two places called Hyrule on the list. It was kind of weird, but with so many worlds out there, it might be pure chance that led to them having the same name.

Weirdly enough, Lloyd then turned and asked Link the same question that Sora had asked him earlier in the night. Sora couldn't help laughing.

"Apparently not," he said. "I asked him too." Sora glanced over at Link and smiled sheepishly, before returning his attention to Lloyd. "So you have Christmas where you're from, Lloyd?" How else would he know what elves were?

Link cracked a small smile when Lloyd asked him the same question Sora had posed earlier. Apparently, an 'elf' was common in other places...

"I'm Hylian," he clarified after Sora explained that no, he was not an elf. Link eyed the computer, frowning when he saw that yes, there were indeed two places called 'Hyrule' on this device. He read through the descriptions, and they did bear similarities.

"Interesting..." Link swallowed and crouched closer to the screen. His eyes caught on a mention of the Kokiri tribe, and he paused. They had vanished eons ago...

"Huh? What's Christmas?" The look Lloyd gave Sora was completely blank. The word (or name?) meant nothing to him. He could only guess at it from the context. Did it have something to do with elves?

Not that Link's clarification met with any familiarity either. Different worlds, he tried to remind himself. Even so, he couldn't resist another attempt to fit things with what he knew. "Hylian? That's... not another word for a half-elf, is it?" Maybe they just called themselves something different to avoid drawing attention.

Letting Link draw his attention back to the screen, Lloyd smiled ruefully. "You should see the list for 'Earth.' Here- Kratos, go back up."

Kratos gave him a look at that, and for a moment Lloyd could almost have sworn he was about to say 'this isn't a field trip, Lloyd. In the end, though, a contemplative look crossed his face, and he moved the mouse to scroll the screen back up. He turned to look at Link. Something about the way the youth had looked when he'd studied the information on those two worlds... One eyebrow lifted, mild, curious. "Do you have any insight you'd care to share?"

As Castiel read, he learned the upsetting truth of the experiment, which was that Dean had been tricked into giving up even more time for his deal.

He tried to convince himself that it didn't matter, not when he was from a time where the deal was already a thing of the past -- but then he thought of Dean, out there in the world thinking he was a mentally ill person named Eric.

Did the deal stand even then? Would someone be coming for him eventually to drag him down to Hell? Castiel planned to retrieve Dean before that ever happened, but the frustration still burned within him.

He set the journal down hard on the nearby table and then moved over to the group. If they were looking at the different versions of Earth now, then it was about time that he searched for his own.

Castiel paused near Kratos. "Search for 'Apocalypse,'" he said quietly, not wanting to draw too much attention from the younger patients.

So Lloyd didn't know what Christmas was either?

This was getting really confusing, but that was the sort of thing that happened when there were so many different worlds involved. "So you know elves that don't work for Santa?" he said to Lloyd, returning his question with one of his own.

Now wasn't really the time to launch into an explanation about Christmas, and Sora could tell that Kratos was losing patience with them.

When he saw the list of all the different Earths, though, Sora let out a small "Whoa!" and leaned in to see better. He'd known there were a lot, but this was more than he could have ever expected.

Lloyd asked Link a question, though, and Sora pulled back to look at him, curious about what he had to share. He also did what he could to make room for the other member of the group, who had finally moved over and was talking to Kratos.

Link sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and smiling to himself.

"No, a Hylian is a member of the goddesses' chosen race." Upon Lloyd's question, he tipped his head slightly, expression returning to a more serious one.

"I don't know," he admitted, "The description of the 'other' Hyrule mentions groups of people believed to have vanished an age ago. They were alive in the era of the Hero of Time, if history serves."

The look Kratos had directed his way, combined with the timing of Castiel's request, was enough to make Lloyd step back and give the men their space. Kratos wasted no time in bending over the keyboard again, entering the new search parameters with swift keystrokes. Earth and Apocalpyse... A tense moment passed as the computer processed the search.

The screen changed to reflect the results. Fewer, much fewer, but still far too many. Apparently the "apocalypse" was not a unique event. Keeping his voice down to keep their conversation separate and uninterrupted, Kratos shifted to the side, allowing Castiel access to the keyboard if he liked, and said, "Can you narrow it down with anything else?"

-

Leaving Kratos and Castiel to their search, Lloyd only glanced back curiously once before focusing on the conversation he was having. "I've never even heard of Santa," he admitted. "There's elves in my world, but I'm not sure they work for anyone at all. Mostly they just keep to themselves." The same couldn't be said of half-elves, but that was complicated and complex and not really important here, especially not if Link wasn't even from his world or part of the same race at all.

Taking a moment to digest what Link had just said, Lloyd rubbed his chin in thought. "Time?" he murmured, rolling that thought over. "Do you think some of these worlds are... are different times?" That would explain why they had the same name.

Before either Sora or Link could respond, though, the radio crackled to life again. With a quick apology to the others, Lloyd picked it up and listened before responding, then called over to Kratos, "Hey, Kratos, Guy's looking for a world called Auldrant."

Edited 2014-01-23 18:35 (UTC)

While the conversation that the others were having -- something about ancient times and races -- was enough to catch his interest, Castiel forced himself not to listen too closely, instead focusing on the screen in front of him. He would have thought that "Apocalypse" would be enough information to narrow it down to his world, but there were a handful of results on the screen. Were that many versions of Earth on the verge of collapse?

"Yes," he said in response to the question, pulling closer to the keyboard so that he could type for himself. Castiel wasn't at all used to typing like this. He'd done a small amount of texting on a phone before he'd come here, but this was very different.

So it took some time, but he did get the word "Winchester" typed into the search field. Naturally, that brought up only one result, for a world where monsters were real and Sam and Dean had a gospel written about their duties as the vessels of Michael and Lucifer.

"This is the one," he told Kratos, right as Lloyd spoke up with reports of another world. Castiel stepped back, giving room for Kratos to write down the coordinates and then carry out yet another search.

Elves who didn't work for anyone and kept to themselves. It wasn't anything like what Sora was familiar with, but each world was going to be different, so he didn't dwell on it too much. He could tell Lloyd all about Santa and Christmas at another time.

The idea that different worlds were actually more like different times was an interesting thought, but Sora had no idea if it was true. "Maybe? That might be true at least for some of them." But there was no way to know, not unless they sat down and read all of these entries, and they didn't have the time for that.

Besides, that would be a total drag...

At that point, though, someone else called in on the radio, which meant Lloyd and Kratos would need to get back to work. "Well, thanks for showing us, but we should probably keep moving. Unless you need help with anything?"

Link was just about to mention that they should keep moving when Sora chimed in. It wouldn't take all of them to search through this machine for world names. He began preparing to leave, adjusting his gloves as Sora asked if there was anything else they needed.

Once Castiel had narrowed his search to one world, Kratos picked up the pen and paper he'd set down before and wrote the coordinates out under the growing list that he'd copied so far. Once done, he handed the pen to Castiel. "Just in case," he suggested, trusting Castiel to understand what he meant. It went without saying that none of them had any guarantee that they would see each other the next day. It would be prudent, in his opinion, for them all to carry their own copy of their worlds' coordinates for themselves.

With that task done, he continued on to the next, retaking command of the keyboard to search for "Auldrant."

-

Once Kratos had the coordinates for Guy's world, Lloyd passed them on - fast enough that Guy hadn't yet gotten back to him about the name of the other world he wanted. Oh well, he'd probably call back soon enough. In the mean time...

He smiled, holding out his hand, first to Sora, then to Link. It was as much a farewell as a gesture of support and good luck. He had a feeling they all needed it. "I think we're good here. We'll probably stick around and keep copying coordinates for as long as we can. There's a lot of them there." That was an understatement. Still, he felt like they were making a decent dent. "Good luck, you two. Call us if you need any help."

Castiel nodded, not needing Kratos to explain why he was handing the pen to him. He pulled the piece of paper that he'd written Ryuuzaki and his friend's coordinates on and wrote down the numbers for his world as well. He studied them for a moment. Numbers could have great importance, but he didn't see anything that stood out in the combination here.

It looked like the two visitors were going to move on now, which was for the best -- this room was getting crowded. Once again, all Castiel did was offer a small nod in farewell as he placed the sheet of paper back in his pocket. He'd have to keep it well-guarded when day came, although it shouldn't mean much of anything to the nurses.

If Lloyd said that they didn't need any further help, then Sora would believe him. They didn't know each other that well yet, but Lloyd seemed like the honest type and besides, he had Mr. Kratos and their other friend with him.

"Thanks for doing all this," he said to all three of them with a wide smile. "I think it's going to make a big difference."

With that, he waved and turned to Link, moving to the teleportation pad in the corner of the room. After taking a deep breath, Sora nodded to himself and then stepped on.

[To here.]

Lloyd murmured a goodbye to the other two, watching as they stepped onto the warp pad. Kratos nodded an acknowledgment, his own silent form of farewell. Then they were gone, and it was time to focus on copying down more coordinates.

It wasn't long, though, before Guy called them back, giving them the other world's name that he needed.

"Look for an Earth," Lloyd relayed to his father. "Guy said the date there is SD 366." The date didn't mean anything to him, but hopefully it would be enough.

It was. As soon as Kratos had it, Lloyd called Guy back and gave him the coordinates for that Earth.

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Night 74: Records Archive (Third Floor)

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