damned_institute | Day 39: Sun Room

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Day 39: Sun Room

That really hadn't been the breakfast she'd been expecting, but Yuffie couldn't bring herself to complain. The kid made for good company, and was, if nothing else, pretty entertaining. She could've just done without the whole choking thing. That… That had been embarrassing. A bit. Okay, a lot. Yuffie was starting to get a feeling that this day was -- for once-- actually going to ping on her ‘interesting!’ meter.

Whether or not that was a good thing, she didn’t know.

By the time she’d reached the Sun Room's bulletin board, a kitten on her shoulder and a pen twirling between her fingers, Yuffie was starting to put her finger on why she had that weird, nagging feeling. Though on second thought, it was less like putting her finger on it and more like it had jumped up and punched her right in the nose; the feeling wasn’t just about waffles, magicians, or tricky candy thieves. Sagara hadn't answered her bulletin post; he hadn't answered any bulletin posts. She hadn't seen that stupid, spiky head of his all morning. It was like radio silence without a radio.

Agai-- No, Yuffie cut herself off sharply, frowning. She was just jumping to conclusions. It wouldn't be the first time, right? Right! And yet… instincts were instincts for a reason, and in a dump like this, who knew what could happen?

[for Okita?]

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Methos gave Porky a look of honest bemusement. The man seemed to be determined to ferret out some sort of secret truth. And while Methos himself did have one, he didn't doubt the man would have been just as insistent with someone who truly was absolutely ordinary. "Aside from the time-traveling prison, I've no idea what you're talking about. Though I wouldn't say no to hearing your story, to be certain." He allowed the faintest hint of emphasis to linger on the word 'story', as though he was skeptical about how honest Porky was willing to be. Or about how sane the other man was, given their surroundings. "Truth be told, I collect interesting tales."

He leaned back in his chair, frowning thoughtfully. "Or is that perhaps the sort of thing you meant?"

"A collector of stories, hm?" Porky said, equally amused, "That isn't all to it, I'm sure, but you seem intent on keeping me in the dark! So cruel!"

Honestly, why did Methos try to delay the inevitable? If there was one thing Porky prided himself on, it was his determination. Nothing ever stayed out of Porky's reach for long, and Methos' secret would be no different from any other prize he had won in the past.

"But, since you asked about my story, I might as well tell it!" said Porky, excited to show off a bit. Porky didn't see any reason to be dishonest. In fact, lying would probably alienate Methos further, and Porky didn't want that did he?

"Alright, my story begins in Onett, a small town in Eagleland. Eagleland's a country, by the way. I grew up as a perfectly average boy. Nothing special, really. That is, until a meteorite crashed up on the hill by my house. I just had to investigate it! Wouldn't you? Anyway, inside it was this alien, you see. His name was 'Buzz-Buzz,' I think. He said something about another alien named Giygas coming to destroy the world. Naturally, I was scared out of my wits, and I certainly didn't calm down when one of Giygas' henchmen came to try and kill me! Luckily, I was able to escape."

"Now's when the story gets a little hazy...I think I may have joined some sort of religion..."Habi-Habi," was it? No, that's not it...anyway, I left there eventually and was hired by a man named...errrr...what was it again? It rhymed with monopoly, I think...well, it's not really important. What's important is that I was one of his most trusted advisers, and one of his best-paid advisers, too! Oh, I was living in luxury! I had it all, a corner office, an entire floor to myself, a maid...it was fantastic!"

"Then this idiot named Ness came and beat up Monopoli, or whatever his name was, but I showed Ness! He was trying to get to whatshisname's helicopter, but I got it first! I flew all around the world in that thing. Anyway, it ran out of fuel and I crashed. I nearly died, but I persevered. I eventually wound up in this place called Saturn Valley. They were testing out this machine called the Phase Distorter..."

Porky was certainly enjoying himself up to this point in his story, but thinking back to the Phase Distorter always riled up bad memories...it was a nightmare just thinking about that horrible machine...and...and then what it had done to Porky's body...

"I...I'm sorry," Porky said, shuddering, "It's just that the...the Phase Distorter wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for me..."

Well, it looked like Porky would have to stop his story there for now, but that didn't mean he couldn't impress Methos a bit more.

"Say," Porky said once he had calmed down, "How old would you say I look, Adam? 80? 90? Don't worry, I won't be offended."

A smile crept on to Porky's face. If this didn't impress him, nothing would.

Methos allowed his faint exasperation with the continued insistence that he had something to hide show on his face, a faint tightening around the eyes which vanished swiftly as he altered modes to listen. The tale Porky spun was fascinating, certainly, but resolution to keep an open mind or no, it also sounded much like something concocted by, well, a mental patient. The misremembered names and claims of trauma could have been genuine, but they could just have easily been convenient holes, meant to make sure more outlandish portions of the story would be difficult to question. Who would push a person to distress just to get a few answers unlikely to be relevant to the situation?

Possible madman or no, Methos saw no harm in humoring the man, and so he studied Porky gravely for several seconds before replying, "Somewhere between 70 and 80, I would think, though I'm not terribly good with ages. I'm guessing by your smile that the typical answers might be a little off?"

"Gohohoho!" Porky laughed, delighted that Methos had said such a small number, "I'm afraid you're mistaken, my dear little boy! 70 or 80 years is like the blink of an eye for someone like me! In fact, I'm so old that you may as well be an infant to me! I know this might be a little unbelievable for someone like you to understand, but I'm actually over 10,000 years old! You see, I'm immortal!"

Porky waited for the shock to show itself on Methos' face. There was no doubt that this news would surprise him, normal or not. At this point, though, it was looking more and more likely that Methos was actually just a normal person. No matter. If Methos was actually normal, that would only make Porky seem more incredible!

"It may seem unbelievable, but it's the truth!" Porky continued, delighted to show off, "The Phase Distorter was a time travel machine, but not a perfected one. I tried to use it, but instead of traveling back in time, I became frozen in it! My body ages, of course, but far slower than a normal person! What say you to that, Mr. Collector-of-Interesting-Tales? Is that interesting enough for you?"

Well, that tore it. The man had to be one of the poor unfortunates who belonged in an institution. It wasn't that Methos didn't believe in the possibility of immortality; far from it, considering he could make a similar claim himself. But Immortals didn't age, and even more damningly, he couldn't sense Porky at all.

Not for even a moment did he stop to consider the possibility of there being more than one form of immortality, even spread across time and the entirety of the universe.

"It is rather difficult to believe," he admitted mildly. His fingers flexed against the cover of the journal, drumming an absent rhythm as he considered the elderly-looking man. "Aren't you worried about admitting it, though? Surely there are those who'd covet your longevity. The prospect of eternal life has fascinated humankind...why, almost certainly from the moment we came to comprehend death."

He hesitated, narrowing his eyes in an expression of utmost concern. "Perhaps that's why the people behind all of this kidnapped you here."

Hm? Methos wasn't reacting the way Porky expected...he didn't even seem fazed by it.

"Well," Porky said slowly, "I suppose that could be the reason they brought me here, but I doubt they'd be able to reverse engineer my immortality. After all, it wasn't caused by any sort of potion or something, and I wasn't born this way. It was purely by accident."

Porky looked down, confused. Methos didn't react at all to Porky's claim. He hadn't even raised his eyebrows! All he had done was start drumming his fingers on that notebook of his...

"Wait a minute!" Porky said as he realized something, "You don't believe me, do you?"

But something else stood out...Methos had said "longevity," not "immortality..." Did that have something to do with his reaction? A frown formed on Porky's face.

"And why did you say 'longevity?'" Porky said, "I said I had immortality, not just a long life."

"You did admit yourself that it is rather unbelievable," Methos pointed out, though he'd adopted an air of rueful apology. "According to all known science, immortality is impossible. The number of human ailments that would need to be stamped out...it boggles the mind."

He frowned at Porky in honest bemusement, then lowered his gaze to rest on the cover of his notebook. "Well, let us say for the moment that your claim is perfectly true...you did say you age, didn't you? Slowly, perhaps. A year for every few hundred, would it be? But if you are aging, even at such a reduced rate, wouldn't that mean you'd eventually die?" He looked up again, grimacing slightly, as though he was trying to cover it. "Or just continue aging forever, long past the point at which most of us would simply give out."

Huh. Maybe Porky wasn't immortal. He had never really thought about it before, but what Methos said made sense. If Porky was immortal, then why did he age? Shouldn't he just stay the same age forever? But Porky had lived for 10,000 years! Even if 100 years equaled one year for Porky, that would make him 100 years old! And then there was what Porky looked like back when he had his normal form...to be honest, it was quite ghastly. His body had begun to decay and had turned blue...

"No, I just have to be immortal! There's no other explanation!" Porky said, "Even if I did have longevity, I would still be freakishly old! I'd be at least 100 years old! I mean, look at me! I'm fat! There's no way someone as unhealthy as me would live to be 100!"

"Well, perhaps you're right," Methos replied, laying the journal in his lap to spread his hand in a gesture of placation. "You know far more about this sort of thing than I. As far as I know, as far as I've ever heard, the fountain of youth, whatever form it might take, is nothing more than a very, very persistent myth."

He lowered his hands and laid them back in his lap. "To be perfectly honest, it would be rather daunting to see what might happen if anything of the sort became widespread..."

Porky sighed. Methos made it seem like Porky had convinced him, but it obviously wasn't so. At this point, trying to insist that he was immortal would only make Porky look crazy. Well, crazier. Methos didn't seem to think Porky was exactly sane, even without continuing the argument further.

"Yeah, it would be pretty weird if everyone was immortal..." Porky said dully. Porky had been so happy at the beginning of his conversation with Methos, but now he was just depressed. It was nice to have someone to talk to, though.

"So," Porky said, "Where are you from, Adam?" At this point, Porky didn't care what they talked about. Anything was fine as long as Methos didn't leave.

"Paris, France," Methos replied. "Currently, that is. Have you ever been?" He toyed with the edge of his journal's front cover, an honest frown forming as he considered Porky's tale. Though not one of the more remarkable points in the story, he realized he'd heard of neither the town nor the country the man had mentioned. "It would have to be very far from the regions you're used to, I would think."

Or separated by enough time for the names of territories to change into something he didn't recognize. It was a strangely disturbing thought, even though the phenomenon was not exactly a new one.

"Huh," Porky said, "Never heard of it. Probably means that we're from two different worlds. Well, I guess it's possible that we're from the same world. Is Paris an obscure place? Do many people know about it?"

It was possible that they had come from the same world, but unlikely. Porky thought that maybe Methos had come from the future or the past, and there was a relatively simple way to answer that question.

"Say," Porky said slowly, "Have you ever heard about an object called a 'television?' And, if you have, what about a 'chimera?' Ever heard of either of those?"

"Not remotely obscure," Methos replied. "It's one of the more famous cities on the planet. We get plenty of tourists." He managed to keep his expression neutral at the mention of different worlds, and without as much trouble as he would have anticipated. Time travel, he was slowly beginning to buy into. Other worlds was a harder sell. Though a certain amount of adaptive ability was necessary to survive as long as he had, he could only push it so far in a short period of time.

"The mythological creature, or the biological anomaly?" he asked. "The chimera, I mean, not the television. Last I recall, that's neither a myth nor a living creature." Though thinking back on the bird-woman he and Jones had run into their first night, he had to wonder a little.

Oh, so they weren't from the same world. If they were from different worlds, then there was the possibility that the definition of "immortality" in Methos' world was different from the definition in Porky's world. That comforted Porky, but only a little. Then again, there was the chance that "Paris" or wherever Methos had said he lived was a place formed in the gap between the 1990s and the formation of the Nowhere Islands. There was quite a gap between the two eras.

"No, I mean a real, live chimera. Back where I come from, they're everywhere," Porky said, a little more lively, "Two animals combined, an animal with mechanical parts...it's incredible really. By the way, were you in Paris in the 1990s?"

"Well then, you should feel perfectly at home here, if all of the stories of monsters prove accurate," Methos replied. "But no, the only live chimera I've ever heard of have been simple genetic anomalies, not...fusions of species."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he considered the question. As far as he was concerned, it was still the 1990s, which made the phrasing seem rather peculiar. Unless Porky was attempting to verify his own time-line. Odd as it was to consider things in terms of time travel, it would simplify some of the oddities he'd encountered. "I was. For a significant portion, at least. I've done some traveling."

"Oh, no!" Porky said, "The monsters here are completely different from the chimeras on the Nowhere Islands! The monsters here are just killing machines! My chimeras are far more useful, and they looked much better than these...abominations. Landel simply has no taste in monsters. All of them look disgusting. There isn't a single bit of effort put into their appearance."

That bit about the 1990s confirmed Porky's suspicions, though.

"Well," Porky began, "If Paris existed during the 1990s, and I hadn't heard of it, then we must have come from different worlds. I was a boy during the 90s and hadn't heard of it. That means that either I was a painfully stupid child, which I certainly wasn't, or you and I lived in different worlds prior to our arrival here. I know it seems unbelievable to you, but that seems to be the only solution."

Almost as soon as Porky finished saying that, the intercom clicked on and announced the beginning of lunch. Nurses began to herd the patients out of the Sun Room and into the cafeteria.

"Well, Adam," Porky said as he raised himself out of the chair he was in, "I can't really say that I learned much about you, but I hope you managed to eke some usefulness out of what I said. If nothing else, you were a pleasant person to talk to. I suppose I'll see you later. It's not like either one of use will be leaving anytime soon..."

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Day 39: Sun Room

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