http://misterprince.livejournal.com/ (
misterprince.livejournal.com) wrote in
damned_institute2007-11-20 06:26 pm
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Day 28: Bus 2
The group hadn't made it to the Twin Pines before the nurses started ushering them back to the buses. Sanji didn't believe the small sack dinner he was handed would make up for the meal they would have had at the restaurant, and aside from that he'd still wanted to check the place out. Now he had no way of comparing it to what they served at the asylum and he couldn't help but wonder if the staff had planned it that way.
Somehow in the large crowd of patients and nurses he lost track of his crewmates, something that seemed to be occurring just as often as Usopp warned it would. He had their room numbers now, though. He would find them tonight if not before.
His dinner was eaten quickly and he found it lacking, but he wouldn't complain. What he really needed was a cigarette. Bringing it up on the walk down Main Street earlier had only made him think about it more, and now he was just irritable. He tapped a light broken rhythm on the plastic pane of his window, staring out at the other patients as they were loaded into the buses also.
Somehow in the large crowd of patients and nurses he lost track of his crewmates, something that seemed to be occurring just as often as Usopp warned it would. He had their room numbers now, though. He would find them tonight if not before.
His dinner was eaten quickly and he found it lacking, but he wouldn't complain. What he really needed was a cigarette. Bringing it up on the walk down Main Street earlier had only made him think about it more, and now he was just irritable. He tapped a light broken rhythm on the plastic pane of his window, staring out at the other patients as they were loaded into the buses also.
no subject
Meeting someone from that time was odd, at best. And from France. A man who had arrived from interesting times. "I can't blame you for not wanting to risk unwanted explosions during your travel. They do have a way of ruining a trip." He wondered how well the time-displaced man was taking the rumbling machine they rode on now. Mark knew the risk of explosion was minimal, but to someone who was from Javert's time, the sounds and smells must be intimidating or at least worrisome. Javert's calm expression was a credit to his nerves.
no subject
He chuckled briefly at the other man's comment. "Indeed they do. Frankly, I've no idea how all of you can stand to travel like this on a daily basis. Everyone in the future must be half-deaf or worse."
no subject
Considering the timing, it could be any number of interesting things... or perfectly normal things, disrupted by circumstances. He privately thought he'd rather prefer hearing about the latter. Javert might not care to talk about it, of course.
no subject
"I was an inspector," he said at last. "First class." He couldn't help but add the 'first class'; he'd worked his way up to the position and, in his own unpresumptuous way, he was proud of it. "Part of the police force - plainclothes, but police nevertheless. You still have those in the future, I should hope.
"And you?" he added. "What do you do? Or will you do, as the case may be?"
no subject
The comment about hoping police still existed brought a nod from Mark, although not exactly a smile. He could appreciate Javert's high rank as an accomplishment, but his own encounters with official law authorities had never been pleasant. At the very best, they tended to show up with the right intentions but too late, and at worst, they were shooting at him. "Yes, we've police as well. They differ from planet to planet, but the Earth police tend to be rather reliably dedicated to their cause of keeping the peace and defending the law." It hadn't been their fault Mark had been on the wrong side of the law most of his time on Earth. At least they weren't like the police on Jackson's Whole...
no subject
"Reliably dedicated, eh? An improvement from my time, then." He smirked. "Any idea how they manage it? Any advice would be more than welcome."
no subject
"I can only imagine it is due to the time to refine the role, since other worlds in my experience don't do so well," Mark answered, raising his eyebrows. "On the world where I was born, the police essentially function as a way of gathering income through bribes or through bail payments. The law consists of whatever is dictated by those with the most money and assets."
no subject
"Speaking of worlds," he added curiously, "how many are there in your time? I should think quite a few, based on what you've said thus far."
no subject
He took a deep breath. Ranting about injustices on Jackson's Whole would be enough to take up an entire bus trip. "But there are many other worlds. I've only been on a handful; some people never even leave their homeworld. Plenty of planets, but only a few dozen major inhabited ones. All are different, have their own way of living." He paused. "You haven't talked much about where you came from. I know from history that it wasn't a very peaceful time, especially in France, but I'm not an expert. I wouldn't mind knowing more."
no subject
He shook his head. "It isn't - wasn't particularly peaceful. It was, of course, infinitely preferable to the revolution some thirty years previous, but the last few weeks have been - were - somewhat difficult for us. Student uprisings, general unrest - the streets weren't safe. A general by the name of Lamarque had just died of tuberculosis - he was a member of the parliament; the poor thought him their champion. Naturally the students chose the days following his funeral to revolt; the last of the barricades fell mere hours before I arrived here." Before he killed himself. No - don't think about that.
"M. Mark, I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain what sort of information you're interested in; if it's to do with politics, you'd be better off reading one of your history books. I'm out on the streets more often than I am inside reading the papers. Was, rather."
no subject
"I suppose I was wondering what your daily life was like. I don't mean to pry into your personal life, but I'm interested in the details that tend to be left out of history books. The individual experience that ordinary people..." Well, maybe he was asking a lot of Javert. Anyone asking Mark for a summary of the daily experience of the average person from any of the worlds where he had lived might have gotten a blank stare or a brief, sarcastic comment. These things weren't recorded well because they were hard to capture. "Never mind, if you don't care to; it's just my personal curiosity."
no subject
He had the impression that his own life had been more varied than most, but to describe it...that was difficult. At the moment, he couldn't come up with anything more descriptive than 'interesting,' and he doubted that would satisfy Mark.
"In a way, I'd imagine life in my time isn't terribly different from anyone's now. People are people, no matter the year - I expect I'd need a more specific question." He smiled slightly. "You must realize it's rather difficult to describe what's normal for me."
no subject
Though he didn't think an inspector was a poor choice for learning about life. Even if it was the criminal life, he knew from personal experience that criminality was not always the result of depravity or corruption, and that the economic and social climate of a place could sometimes be divined simply by the types of crimes committed there.
"I imagine you're right--human nature in my time, in your time and in this place is probably generally all the same at heart." A few monsters, a few saints, and mostly people somewhere between trying to muddle along.