damned_institute | Day 22: Brunch

Cid usually liked sleeping in, especially in a place as messed up and uninviting as this, but this happened to be one situation where he really wished he hadn't.

Right there, on the bulletin board. The Head Doctor and he'd fucking missed it? Some part of him wished he'd been there to take his eye out and another part of him knew he wouldn't have been able to. No man that powerful who hid for so long went to dangerous places without some kind of entourage.

Brunch sounded like it'd be filling, at least, though he nearly stopped in his tracks when the bastard announced TEA. TEA. It'd been a damn long while since he'd had some fucking tea, though with all the stress this place had found fit to rain down on his fucking head, it hadn't really been the first priority on his mind. Kinda nice, even if Cid was sure this was just some game the mother fucker was playing to get them all stuck neck-deep in Stockholm Syndrome.

He scanned the mostly-empty room for any sign of a familiar face once he'd piled waffles and sausages and syrup on his plate, though the person he really wanted to talk to was that Reynolds guy. "Spaceship" was the last word he remembered clearly before waking up in his bed, and dammit if he wasn't going to keep it stuck like glue in his mind.

He found a table where he could watch people come into the cafeteria and grabbed for his mug. The steam rising from his drink and the bag of herbs in it was nearly enough to make him grin despite it all, and it was with marked leisure and a little relief that he drank his goddamn tea.

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Cliff let the man process what he'd just said. It was a lot to take in at face value if he didn't come from a world where things like other worlds and monsters were common.

"Close to a week." Cliff replied after a moment's thought. "I'll run out of vacation days at this rate."

He popped the sausage into his mouth, actually swallowing before he spoke again. He could do manners. "Where're you from?"

"I'm from Shiroiwa," Kazuo replied. "Shiroiwa Junior High school, class nine. And you?" Of course, they'd have been on the news. They always announced things like that. After a moment and another bite of noodles, he added, "I won."

Huh. He looked a lot older than a Jr.High School student. It was strange that he'd named a school and not a country. "Klaus III, originally." He speared another pieces of food, stopping before he put it into his mouth. Cliff raised an eyebrow. "Won...what?"

"I've never heard of that," Kazuo said. And that he didn't automatically know what Kazuo was talking about was interesting, too.

"I won the survival program," he said, as if this should be obvious. "Oh, but...of course. If you've been here without a tv for a week you wouldn't have known. My school was picked for Battle Royale, and I'm the winner. That's why I'm at this hospital. That's the only explanation that makes sense." Kazuo was nothing if not logical. "Although why it's a mental hospital I have no idea. That part doesn't make sense. I was shot, not crazy."

He glanced back at the man and said, "What were you doing before you were here?"

The more the teenager talked, the more disturbed Cliff felt about the whole thing. A middle school had been part of some survival program called Battle Royale and this person was the winner. Was it...some kind of strange reality TV show?

Cliff shook his head. "Sorry, I've never heard anything about a battle royale. What's it about?"

The second piece of food finally made it to his mouth. He really needed to mention the fact that they all came from different worlds but he wasn't sure he'd be believed at this point. "Oh...slacking off." Which was more-or-less true. "Traveling, bodyguarding, whatever comes up. You know how old people can be."

"Traveling?" Kazuo's interest was piqued. He'd never been allowed out of Japan, and with all putside things forbidden, he'd always wondered what else was out there. "Where did you go? I never got to travel at all."

He paused for a few more bites of food. Well, if they guy had never heard of it... "Battle Royale is a government program. They pick a few classes every year. The class gets put on an island and everyone gets a bag of stuff...random weapon, some food, things like that. Everyone has an explosive collar on them too. And then you have three days and you have to be the last one alive. If there's more than one, the collars go off and everyone dies." He said this emotionlessly, as though discussing the weather. He shrugged slightly. "You do what you have to..."

Cliff felt his blood run cold as the teenager explained. He wanted to ask at first if he was serious, but something about the way the kid spoke told him he really, really was.

"Why would the government do that?" He asked finally, distaste readily apparent. He'd been exposed to all sorts of culture clash in his time but he couldn't wrap his brain around a government that would kill off a bunch of little kids every three years - or worse, have them kill each other. That was Darwinism gone hideously wrong.

And he was looking at the winner.

He tried to shake off the lingering feeling, tried to follow the second subject line. He still didn't know if he and the boy came from the same...reality.

"I'm not sure you would recognise the names." He replied, maiming his food with a fork. He seemed to have lost his appetite. "See...most of us come from different worlds."

"Different worlds? How does that work?"

Kazuo considered his question. "Well...mostly to keep everyone in check, I guess. Some people say they take the winners and make an army with them. I guess I'll find out when they come get me out of here."

"Well...where I come from, space travail is pretty common unless the planet is underdeveloped." He explained. "But even that level of technology doesn't explain how they took people without anyone noticing."

At the teenager's answer, his brain said 'It's not likely that they know you're here.' but his mouth said; "And you're totally ok with that?"

"I don't have a choice," Kazuo replied. "Better alive than dead."

He tilted his head a bit and rested his chin in one hand. "Space travel? Really? I never heard of that."

Of all people, he should have known that not everyone was able to fight back. Those who couldn't had to cope somehow. He sighed and schooled his expression into something more neutral.

"Not even the concept? You know, planets revolve around a star..that sort of thing?" It wouldn't do a lot of good trying to explain how ships worked if they restricted knowledge like that on his world.

"Well, I know those things," Kazuo replied. "I like science. My country doesn't have any kind of rockets or anything though. Some other countries do, mine doesn't. I think that'd be amazing though."

Cliff grinned. "Yeah, it really is sometimes. Did you want to know about the science or what it's like out there?"

There was the whole UP3 thing to contend with but Cliff didn't see any harm in it.

Day 22: Brunch

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