damned_institute | Day 51: Breakfast

Yuffie Kisaragi, indomitable bouncing ball of sunshine and unfathomable ebullience, was tired. It'd been a long night full of gibberish and getting nowhere fast.

"Can't I—"

Plucky, who had been busily loading a plate full of French toast and bacon, tittered. "I'm afraid not, Hanna, darling. A chat over a nice, hearty breakfast would do you a world of good, don't you think?"

"Aaaaactually—"

"Come on, let's find you a seat. Plenty to choose from this morning!"

For a long moment, Yuffie seriously considered doing something—anything—to act out. Punch her nurse, rub jam in an orderly's face, climb a wall and hang off the ceiling, jump on a table and parody Loveless… A ruckus like that would definitely jolt her back into gear, right? Sedation aside. And it'd turn Plucky's good day right on its head, which was always a bonus worth shooting for.

But, by the time she'd reached a decision—and it was an epic decision, a really awesome one; everybody'd appreciate the genius, she was sure—she was already alone. Her breakfast tray had been set down neatly by the nurse, who had left with an infuriatingly winsome smile.

"Wow," Yuffie muttered. Shaking her head, she picked a chair at random and threw herself into it. She kicked back, one arm slung across her eyes, to wait. For what, she wasn't totally sure. Some moron to decide that she looked like good company? That was how it usually went.

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"Oh!" Leela smiled, pleased to hear that Ilia was another space traveler. "I'm a starship captain, and it's the thirty-first century for me."

She knew 'starship captain' might be misleading as to the heroicness of her actual job, but she just couldn't bring herself to say 'glorified delivery girl.' And if dealing with Bender on a daily basis didn't earn her some hero points, nothing would.

"One of my theories is that we're being held in a zoo for observation, by a mad scientist or something. Like a regular zoo, only we're the exhibit. My roommate thinks there might be battles to the death sometime." She said it quite casually; after all, she'd been in a situation like that before. "But that's really out-there. Even mad scientists have rules they follow, and one of them is that you don't pit people against each other without fair warning." Which wasn't to say such a warning wouldn't be coming. After the last two nights, Leela would hardly be surprised if events took a turn like that.

She looked down and laughed. "Sorry. I'm used to people thinking I'm nuts because I'm from so far in the future. We're not the only ones, though. I know someone who was born on Mars, and someone else who's a robot. But they did something to him to make him human. I know it sounds crazy. It sounded crazy to me." Reverse fossilization was a pipe dream even in Leela's world, possible only in what-if scenarios. "I probably wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't changed me, too."

Ilia's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open for a moment when Leela announced herself to not only have come from even further in the future than Ilia but six centuries further! Ilia understood that the scope of time was infinite but thinking that far ahead seemed so unreal. It was different than thinking back into the past on times that had already gone by and become history.

She closed her mouth and managed to smile a little, the surprise still apparent in her voice. "Well, to think I've been talking with a captain this whole time. Shall I call you Captain Leela?" Ilia didn't want to seem rude, after all, though Leela had been pretty casual up to this point. "Back home I'm second-in-command aboard the starship Calnus." As well as the head scientist aboard the vessel, but Ilia wasn't one to rub her Ph.D in everyone's face.

"Oh, I get it." Being held for observation would make one feel like they were in a zoo. But when Leela mentioned battles, it sounded a lot more like human dog fights. "I don't know about mad scientists having rules. Maybe twisted morals..." Though Ilia hadn't had contact any with mad scientists, despite her roots in that field.

"Oh, no worries. I mean, it's a little hard to imagine meeting people from the future, even for me." Ilia chuckled, trying to imagine if this was the same way Roddick, Millie and Dorne had felt when she and Ronyx landed before them. She did think the idea of a robot becoming human sounded a little out there. AI technology certainly was moving at an incredible pace during her time, but here in the twenty-first century it was still in its early stages. Even Ilia had never met a truly living robot.

She quirked an eyebrow when Leela mentioned her own change. "Changed you? How?"

"Oh, no, you've don't have to call me 'Captain.'" Leela waved a hand, all modesty, before hastily adding, "Unless you want to."

It was surprisingly easy to tell people about her roots here. Leela hadn't yet run into anyone who was biased against sewer mutants. Most places didn't have them, or didn't have them yet, she'd gathered. Taura's world had sounded like it had something like them, but she'd seen things from the same side as Leela, and understood.

It probably helped that she didn't actually look different at the moment.

"I'm a mutant. I was born with only one eye. I had an operation once that gave me two, but the extra was purely cosmetic. This one--" She tapped it, remembering to aim for the corner, this time. "--actually works. No one can do this kind of surgery where I come from, either. So even though they have all these ancient games and books around, I'm not so sure we're when we seem to be."

It could have been worse, as virtual reality went, if it was virtual reality. There could have been shuffleboard.

Leela certainly wasn't a military type that would demand everyone's deference, but Ilia could see she liked the idea of being shown the respect of her station. "As long as you don't mind, Captain Leela." Her voice held a tone of amusement but inside Ilia was full of respect for the woman. It was always refreshing to meet other young women in high positions aboard a starship.

Ilia remained quiet while Leela explained her situation. It was fascinating to think a place like this could give someone a real working eye when even Leela's time wasn't capable of such a thing. And if she considered it logically, it made sense that such a surgery would be impossible, as eyes required an intricate pattern of nerves to operate. Making a perfect eye even with the help of a donation would be incredibly difficult. "That's amazing. We don't have mutants in my point in time, but some people are born with birth defects despite our medical advances. I don't think it would be completely off base if we concluded this was just some set up, created to make us think we were in the past."

But if that was the case, then really, what year were they in? What time would have technology so advanced that they could create such flawless, functional body parts? And Ilia was also interested in Leela herself. What really was a mutant? How did they come to be? But asking those questions didn't seem fair. If underdeveloped planets were left alone to evolve and thrive on their own, then getting any information that might somehow change Ilia's future was against the rules, wasn't it?

Day 51: Breakfast

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