Day 27: Library

[not-rly-fai.livejournal.com]

Libraries, he'd found, were rarely as dull as people made them out to be.  Though he felt no magic in these tomes, they were still full of useful information.  Maybe some of them could tell him a little bit more about this world he'd landed himself in. 

For that matter, why hadn't he run into any of the others yet?  They'd all been fairly close together when they'd left Rekord, but he hadn't seen a trace of any of them.  He was able to communicate easily with the people here though, which led him to believe Mokona was within a mile or so.  Unless the ones running this little game had some other way to let all these other-worldly people communicate amongst themselves.  In which case, the others could be very far away indeed.

The library had that wonderful smell of old books, and Fai traced his fingers along the shelves, skimming titles and pulling books that struck his fancy.  Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The War of the Worlds, and with a smile, he found Bram Stoker's Dracula as well.  Raven had been telling the truth then, in spite of his own lies.  Ought to be a good start.  He sat leisurely at one of the tables and began flipping through his selections.

[waiting for Tamaki~]

Comments

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

Well, the first was quite new. "I hadn't heard of the former, but the film was what I was referring to." He'd deffinitely have to ask the Captain about the military program...

"Apparently, the station I was on when I died was shown in this film." Which should be impossible. But quite a lot of impossible things had been going on lately...

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust nodded, still frowning thoughtfully. "I'm sorry to say that I don't watch many films so I haven't a clue what you're talking about."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"Neither do I. About the films, I mean. Appart from the fact that... well, in the film, the government I fight for is defeated." Which was a depressing and frighteningly possible idea.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust frowned. "That is rather depressing," he said. "But, unless it was a documentary or something of that nature, I wouldn't take it to heart. Fiction is fiction."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"The existence of the station was not made public until recently. They couldn't possibly have known about it for as long as it seems they had." Not enough time to make a holovid about it blowing up, in any case.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

"Then I wouldn't believe it at all," Faust said with a nod. "Don't forget about the rumors of alternate realities."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"I don't completely believe it, but I've got little else here." The stuff about other dimensions just made his head spin even worse than the holovid business, so he tried to not give it too much thought.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust nodded. "Well, I don't know what to tell you," he said. "You are welcome to believe whatever you wish." He offered a slight smile.

He wondered what it was like, to hear people talk about your life as though it had been on public display like that.

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

What he really wanted now was someone to tell him what to believe. He sighed, uncomfortably aware again of the fact that his armor was gone. "I'd like to find out more about it, in any case. To see how much of it squares with what I know."

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust nodded. "It's made me curious. I think I will ask around myself."

If only to be a bit more current with recent (or not so recent?) events.

"I'll be glad to pass along anything I find out to you if you'd like."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"That would be helpful." He was considering posting a question about it on the message board, but he was almost afraid of the answers he might get.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust smiled. "I would be glad to help however I could." He tilted his head slightly.

"You mentiond CQC before. What does that mean?"

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"Close Quarters Combat. Hand-to-hand and melee." It wasn't used often, but that didn't make it any less important... if he hadn't been able to give that rebel spy a good punch, he would have... died a few minutes earlier. But as it was, the rebel hadn't escaped, at least. He wasn't going to be killing anyone else, now.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust nodded thoughtfully. "I see..." Close combat wasn't something Faust was big on. He was more the 'stand behind these dead folk and let them kill you' sort of fighter.

"I am sure you'll be getting quite a lot of practice with that here."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"I will, or I'll be dying fairly quickly." Again. "As long as things go reasonably well, I won't be doing that any time soon." The damn thing was, he had been so prepared to die the first time.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust frowned. "I doubt that you'll be dying anytime soon," he said. "Not if I can still do my job properly." It had been a while, but not that long. "I am a descent medic."

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

622 shrugged. "I'm not doubting you. It just happens pretty quickly to soldiers like me, that's all." It wasn't fun to think about much, but... well. It wasn't something that was easy to explain to a civvie.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Blinking, Faust tilted his head. "Soldiers like you? What do you mean?"

He didn't like the idea of a man so content with death.

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"I'm a clone. Like I said, we have a short lifespan to begin with. We train to fight wars, and that's it. And one major theme of wars is quite a lot of deaths in all of them. I've gotten used to the concept by now." Otherwise he would have lost it. Some did. Usually not the Fett clones, though.

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Cloning was a common practice where TK was from? Amazing.

"That is incredible," Faust managed, once he was able to speak again. The idea of cloning wasn't new to him, but seeing (and being able to examine him)... Really, it took more self-control than Faust though he had to simply not jump the poor man here and now.

In a purely scientific way of course. He was married after all.

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

That reaction was not one he would normally expect from a civvie, but he generally didn't get to know them. "It's been going on a large scale for about thirty years now. I'm only thirteen, but I'm from the old template."

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust nodded, uterly fascinated now. "Thirteen and yet you appear... Incredible." It was the only thing he could say.

The implications, the possible break-throughs that could be made from this one encounter.... Faust was dizzy with it all.

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

622 didn't really know what to say in response to this. "It's just so they don't have to train us as long. We're battle-ready at age nine."

[empty-death.livejournal.com]

Faust frowned as he thought about that.

"Doesn't seem right to me though... setting you up as merely cannon fodder," he shook his head as he spoke. "You are still a living being, right? Your feelings and self deserve some consideration."

That was the crux of the whole 'clone' issue back home.

[loyal-soldier.livejournal.com]

"I don't know about the ethics of it all, but yes, I'm human." Morality was one thing he never really understood at all.