damned_institute | Day 40: Recreational Field

Kio's breakfast ended on a much happier note than it had started. However, for once the announcement truly surprised him. He blinked as his nurse came to pick him up. Recreational Field? But.. but if they had a greenhouse, he wanted to go there. The prospect of gardening was a truly liberating one, an island of joy in this hellhole. He thought about going to the Sun Room and lying down, but it occurred to him that he hadn't had proper fresh air since being here. With a cheery goodbye wave to Honey, he followed his torturer outside.

It was much better than he had expected. The sun wasn't too hot (what time of the year were they in, anyway?), so he walked slowly along the walls, fascinated by the size of the field. He wondered if Sou-chan was alright. He hadn't even checked the board. Well, if Soubi wanted to apologize, Kio would be willing to listen. The place was so crisp and clean. He had to think if anyone had ever gone over the walls. What was out there? Freedom? Or a different sort of monster?

Leaning against one of the walls, Kio took as much advantage of the sun as he could. He desperately wanted a lollipop. One was quietly nestled in his pocket, but he would need to wait until the nurses were busy with other patients before he tried anything. Soubi had gone to some trouble to get them, the least he could do was make sure they didn't get confiscated. So with bated breath, Kio waited for a shift in the mood. He was, for once, content. Not happy, but not going crazy either.

[Sou-chan! Team Loveless deploy!]

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"Then please, just call me Allen," he insisted, smiling back at Endrance. He seemed like a fairly nice person.

"I'm sorry, I'm still not very good with the modern vocabulary," Allen admitted. "Television is what those picture boxes are, right? I'm afraid I don't know much about Tokyo, but it sounds nice. There's a lot of people here from the same area I think." It'd been something of a hotspot for Akuma in his time, but maybe things had changed a lot since then.

"Kio said that too. I guess I'm just not used to how things have changed."

"All right...Allen," Endrance said, nodding. He had to bite back a very tiny urge to laugh when he mentioned 'picture boxes'. That was easy enough to do, since he didn't want to actively offend the other.

"Ah, you're from the past?" He cocked his head to one side, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "But yes, you might call televisions picture boxes. Computers, too - though the monitor, where the picture appears, is only one part of the whole thing," he said, with just a faint smile.

"Are there?" That was strange, then, Endrance thought. If that was really the case, then surely one - or more - of them would have heard of The World. With 12 million users in R:2, and a large percentage of them being Japanese...then it was strange that there wasn't at least one more player. The odds were against it.

"I suppose I...just haven't met many of them," he said, finally. "This is only my second full day here."

"Mmhmm," he nodded, "it was almost 1900, right around the turn of the century. When I went to town for the first time I couldn't believe how far people have come in only about a century. It's really incredible." The flying machines and rockets were his favorite, but there were so many things it was hard to keep up with it all.

Well, there were a lot of people in the lost and found club, Kio, and more that he knew of that were from Japan, at least originally. "I've met quite a few at least. I don't know if they're from the same time, but I know it was around the same place. I'm sure you'll meet them eventually."

Did I hear that correctly? Endrance's eyes went wide. "...that's quite a long time in the past. It was 2017 just before I was brought here. So everything must be quite new to you..."

He hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose...one does see a lot of Japanese names on the bulletin. And I did meet one other person this morning, from Tokyo. I...well, I'm just confused about how time even works here, I think. Apparently things I thought were common... aren't."

"It really is," he gave a short laugh. "I traveled a lot before I wound up here, but even all the things I saw around the world couldn't really prepare me for this time and place." He hadn't meant to shock or surprise Endrance all that much. Maybe it was better not to mention the boy he'd met at breakfast that claimed to be from not just a couple hundred years in the future, but four thousand! He still had trouble wrapping his mind around that one.

"I don't think anyone knows for sure. Since people come from all times and places and even mm... versions of Earth that should be the same, but are different, you know?"

"I don't know that anything could prepare anyone for this place..." Endrance returned that short laugh. "Though I'll admit I'm not so well-travelled as that. I...think this is the farthest away from home I've ever been, to be honest, wherever the place is..."

His voice trailed off, and he focused on the piece of grass between his fingers again, staring at it as if it were a precious gem. "Different versions of the planet?" The words came out filled with anxiety. Was that what was actually happening?

"Can you explain that a little more...?"

"That's certainly true," Allen replied, rubbing his arms at the chill in the air. This place felt alien and strange from the moment he'd arrived. No matter where the location was, it would be hard to ever feel completely at ease.

Endrance had to be new if some of the concepts he was talking about were still surprising. It was no longer a shock to Allen to hear about them, but trying to figure it all out was another thing entirely. "I honestly don't know much about how it works," Allen made sure to give the disclaimer before starting, "but it's something like that. Say... the time I was from for instance. I don't know if my past lead to this present or if it's another one entirely. Even though this seems like Earth, no one here knows about Akuma or Exorcists or the Order I was from. It's like it never existed."

He sighed and crossed his arms, "but it's the same for others. Even though they all say they're from Earth, it's like... different versions of it. They're the same place or time even, but important things are missing or added or... well, any number of things."

"It is...that message I woke up to, that first night...it was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It was terrifying." A faint chill went down Endrance's spine at the thought of it. "Nothing like that would have happened at home." Not even seven years ago...

He listened to the explanation, nodding. "That would explain...quite a lot, actually, as strange as it is to even consider the idea..." He brushed his hair out of his eyes, leaning back on the heel of one hand. "Just as you say people aren't familiar - as I'm afraid I'm not - with certain things, the same is true for me. It's hard to imagine, or to even wrap my head around, but..."

It was truly strange, though. "It's a lot to process..."

Day 40: Recreational Field

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