damned_institute | Day 28: Germaine Street

Entry tags:

Day 28: Germaine Street

Rhode didn't want to have to let go of Allen, not ever. It could be forever before she was able to be with him again! But the nurses were persistent in moving her off the big yellow thing, as was Allen for getting away from her. Even outside of the building, people were just determined to keep her from being with him! It wasn't fair!

Once off the bus and shivering just slightly from the crisp fall air, Rhode was handed a small booklet of what the nurse called "coupons". It took some explaining, but Rhode was eventually able to understand that the thin pieces of paper in the book were supposed to be used like money here. She wasn't at all accustomed to buying things for herself; that was supposed to be the Earl's job. When Rhode expressed this problem, the nurse only gave her a sad smile and patter her in the direction of the buildings.

"Why don't you go find something fun to do? There's a toy store just around the corner there. Don't worry about being alone though, we're all here to keep an eye on you. If anything happens, just come get one of us," the nurse explained, nodding to the staff members that were set to parole the town for any problems their more unruly patents could cause.

So, they were all going to be watched even though they could roam about freely? Rhode took a look back towards the yellow things but was unable to pick out Allen from the mess of patients. In a few moments, she probably wouldn't be able to find him at all or for the rest of the day. Should she just resign herself to that for now and use the small bit of freedom to her advantage? Being with Allen was important, and a lot of fun but...

She glanced down at the coupons again, smiled up at the nurse as best she could, and gave a quick, "Okay!" before running off as suggested.

A small bit of freedom was bound to make her feel better. Maybe she could use it to remind herself of how she was supposed to handle Allen Walker, an exorcist. This town did have a similar air to that of the Rewinding Town, after all.

[went here]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nah, you wouldn't find unicorns here," Jack said. "They're methane breathers. Oxygen atmosphere's poisonous to them, poor things."

When she mentioned the year she was born, he nodded. "The 21st century's an interesting time," he said. "Everything changes." He grinned. "My home changes pretty often. Cardiff's a nice little place, but I haven't been there near long enough to go native. And I wouldn't want to. The Welsh are a little... dreary, aren't they?" He much preferred his image as a brash American, even if that wasn't entirely accurate either.

She blinked at his comment about unicorns. "What?"

"I've never actually met anyone from Wales," she admitted. "At least, not that I know of. People don't get in or out of the States much in my time anymore. Everyone I've met has been pretty much the same."

Except when they weren't, but that was usually an entirely different sort of stretching the imagination for most.

He breezed along past the idea of unicorns. He didn't like repeating himself. It made him seem much less mysterious if he actually answered questions. And that was half the fun, right there.

He nodded wisely at her comment about people not traveling outside the states. "Yeah, that's understandable," he said. He grinned. "Oh, I doubt that everyone's been the same."

"You don't think so?" Max retorted, arching an eyebrow at his flippant answer, then stopped in the street and fixed him with a narrowed gaze, hands propped on slim hips. "Do you know about the Pulse?"

"I'd almost go so far as to say I know so," Jack said. He grinned. "And yeah. June 1st, 2009. Gotta know your important dates in history."

Max stared at him in stunned surprise, caught off guard by that. "Holy shit. You're the first person I've met that actually knows what I'm talking about!"

"Aren't most the people around here from before that, anyway?" he said. "And there's that whole different dimensions or maybe just planets thing..." He grinned and gave Max a wink. "But I'm glad to give you that taste of home."

"How much do you know about it?" she asked, her gaze narrowing in curiosity, dark eyes lit with an intrigued light. She had to admit, it did feel like a huge relief to meet someone with a common knowledge of where she was from, what she knew as home. "What year are you from?"

"Just history book stuff," Captain Jack said, with a careless shrug. "Dates, a couple political implications that I don't really remember well, that kind of thing. One of the major events of the century, but there are a lot of centuries to choose from."

He gave her a conspiratorial smile. "I'm from a lot of years," he said. "I get around."

"You come from various times," she deduced, studying him with an intrigued expression, head cocked to the side like a curious puppy, her ponytail swishing behind her.

"Nothing like that exists where I'm from, only in science fiction and theory, so you must be from further ahead. Or somewhere else altogether."

She'd come across stranger things upon arriving here in Landels in the past week. At this point, if she was believing elves really existed, and she'd had breakfast with a person who didn't exist from a world that didn't exist, then why not believe in time traveling too?

Which brought up the question...

"Are there really unicorns?"

Jack grinned. He liked surprising people. "A lot further ahead," he said. "And somewhere else altogether." His grin got a little broader. "And yeah. They're from Omicron 7."

"How far ahead?" Max asked, looking even more intrigued. "The furthest person I met was my first roommate, and she was from 2260, and she was from some Earth-force Alliance or something, but she wasn't here long. I never found out what happened to her. And where's Omicron 7? Is that in outer space?"

"I've been all over the board, but I started out in the 51st century," Captain Jack said. He wasn't handing that information out to just anyone, but he rather liked Max's style. "Omicron 7's a gassy little planet near U Cygni. So yup, out in space."

"The 51st?" she echoed, her jaw dropping. "You're freaking kidding me. Does earth even exist that far in the future??"

"Oh yeah," Jack said. "The Earth keeps existing until the sun expands into a red giant and swallows it. There's just a lot of other planets to go around. And New Earth's a lot prettier than the old one."

"I think I need to sit down," Max said suddenly, feeling slightly overwhelmed. "Please tell me that doesn't happen in my lifetime? At least it wasn't some freaky comet carrying a genetic virus so the snake-people can take over the earth..."

"Don't worry. It doesn't happen for another 5 billion years," Captain Jack said. "It all keeps ticking along fine until nature takes over. Which everyone seems to find surprising." He grinned. "And the snake-people don't show up until the 25th century, so you don't have to worry about them either."

"Seriously?" she arched an eyebrow. "There's really snake people? I mean, more than the crazy ones from my time, and they weren't really snake people. Mostly."

"There're a lot of planets out there," Captain Jack said. "Just about any kind of people you could imagine are living on them, too. We're not alone in the universe by any stretch of the imagination."

"huh," she replied, mulling that over. "Well. That's just the icing on the cake of mind-boggling revelations for the day. So in all your bouncing around times and places, have you ever come across someone capable of doing what they're doing here? Drawing people from all over, limiting their powers, keeping them captive? Any idea who's behind this and why?"

"Haven't run across anyone doing all three at once, but plenty of people build clever prisons, and have ways of restraining their prisoners. A few races that can do time travel, too, and a few that can fuck with dimensional rifts, though that takes a boatload of power and makes things messy." Jack nodded. "But as to who specifically could be behind this, haven't the foggiest. I know it's all possible, but I couldn't say until I get a look at their tech. Until you see the machines, it all just looks like voodoo of the same sort."

"What if its not machines doing this?" Max countered logically. "I've seen a lot of unexplainable things since coming here. What if there is some sort of voodoo involved?"

"Then we're in a lot more trouble," Captain Jack said. "I've dealt with stuff that isn't machines before, and you can't fight it or reverse it or any of the useful things you can do with machines. You pretty much just have to hope it resorts to finding amusement elsewhere, after a while."

"The chances of that don't seem very likely, do they?" she replied dryly, shaking her head.

"Too bad they didn't bring me here over a week ago. Maybe my 'destiny' would have followed and the comet would have crashed into the Institute instead," Max retorted, smirk once more twisting across her lips. "Shame they couldn't be that helpful."

"Just have to hope for the best," Jack said. "There's really no solid indication of what we're dealing with yet, so that's probably good. Sufficiently advanced technology sure looks like magic, but it's still got an off switch." He seemed quite cheerful about the possibility. "We might get lucky. I've got a friend with a time machine and a built-in trouble magnet, so I'm expecting him to poke his head in at some point. Though soon is a relative term, huh."

He laughed. "The Head Doctor could use a comet in the face. Obnoxious asshole, isn't he?"

Day 28: Germaine Street

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)