damned_institute | Day 52: Game Room

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Day 52: Game Room

Lunch had taken his mind from his worries, if only for a few minutes. But after the intercom sounded and the nurses began leading patients onto the next activity, one look at the bulletin board brought everything back in full force. No replies from Ashton, Dias or Dad. By now Claude felt like he was practically counting down until the end of the day, when he was going to have to finally grapple with the real possibility that most of his friends from before Landel's, as well as his own father, had fallen victim to the institute.

And now he was going to have to deal with his mother being here on top of that. It didn't seem like a coincidence that she'd show up right when his father's whereabouts were so up in the air. But what did it mean? Why couldn't Landel leave his family out of this?

Normally, the announcement about new video games would have made him perk up, but his eyebrows only knit together with concern as his nurse led him into the game room. That didn't seem to stop her from trying to get him to unwind, though.

"Oh, come now, Thomas, you've worn that expression for most of the day!" she told him with a frown. "Why don't you have a bit of fun now that your eyes are all better? I'm sure you could use it."

The last thing he wanted was to be reminded of his "sleep studies", he darkly thought to himself. But before he could protest, his nurse had sat him down in front of one of the television screens. There was an old gaming console, one Claude had never seen before, and he glanced at her with a confused expression. "Go on," she encouraged as she placed one of the controllers in his hands. "I know how much you enjoy these kinds of things. Someone will come play with you soon, too, I'm sure. Doesn't that sound nice?"

He didn't have time to answer her, because she'd soon bustled off to tend to some of the other patients. Claude watched her leave with a sigh. He realized the daytime staff meant well, which made knowing what they turned into at night even worse to think about. But now he was just being negative for the sake of it, wasn't he?

Taking in a small breath, he reached over to the console and turned it on. As long as he was waiting for some kind of answer from the bulletin, there probably wasn't much he could do except pass the time. Claude watched the title screen appear on the television, his expression growing more curious in spite of himself. Super Mario Bros....

[For Prussia!]

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So it was Claude!

Prussia wasn't too bothered by the fact Claude didn't recognize him—given the state he'd been in that night, he would have been more surprised if the kid did. He was obviously doing better now (more or less) than he had that night, which came as something of a relief. The only other guy Prussia had found bleeding had been in a worse state, but he was also gone... At least he could be sure that Claude had survived, unlike Raph.

"Yeah, we've met. Name's Gilbert Beilschmidt... and I heard your name from Ronixis," Prussia explained. Hopefully the kid would at least remember something about that night, but he couldn't blame him if his memory was a bit foggy. Just in case, he added, "We ran into you on that fancy spaceship a few nights ago."

Edited 2010-10-06 16:50 (UTC)

"Gilbert?!" he echoed so loudly that some of the nearby nurses glanced in their direction. Claude ducked his head a bit, rubbing the back of his head with one of his hands while the other still clutched onto the control. It was so weird not knowing what this man's face looked like until now, when he had his vision back. Claude suspected if he had, he would have thought to find him sooner. But as it was, he'd had a lot on his plate until now.

So he'd known Dad, and had been the other person on the ship who'd helped him out that night. The next time Claude spoke, his voice was much quieter. "I remember. It was when the doors were acting so strange."

And it was also the night of his "sleep study", but he didn't feel as inclined to bring that up right then.

"I never got to thank you personally for helping me out," he said, growing a little more subdued now. "But I owe you for what you and Mr. Ronixis did back there." If he'd been left on his own, there was no telling what could have happened to him. Not only had he been unarmed and weakened from the experiment, but he'd also been unable to see on top of that.

"Was that your first time in space?" he asked, wondering what Gilbert's original time and place was. It was possible he was from an underdeveloped planet or from an era when Earth hadn't yet made advancements in interplanetary travel. "Sorry you had to get caught up into all of that."

He was startled when Claude repeated his name so loudly, but with the way that he'd ducked his head right after, it must have been that he'd been surprised to hear it in the first place. Claude's next words confirmed it: he'd remembered his name, but obviously not his face. Or, at least, he hadn't remembered until the reminder of that night.

"Yeah, yeah," Prussia agreed, preening from the thanks. It always felt damn good to be appreciated. "That was the night. I'm glad to see you're doing better now... Don't know how you ended up there in that condition, but Ronixis and I had just left a bathroom. The—what was it.... Kalnass?—the ship was about the last thing I expected to find."

He grinned at the memory; the doors leading any which way had been pretty damn confusing then, but looking back on it now... It was actually kind of fun.

"And yeah, it was my first time in space!" he answered, laughing. It'd probably his only time, too, unless there was some need for nations to leave Earth. But that would be a long time in the future, he was sure, if it even happened at all. "When I'm from, there have been a few rockets and missiles that have reached space before, but no one's actually been up there. The only place you'd find a spaceship like that is in fiction!"

A bathroom and an advanced spaceship couldn't have been anymore different from one another, and yet somehow Gilbert and Dad had found their way from one to the other. It was almost as strange as Claude's own experiences, having spent a portion of the night blindly stumbling around until he collapsed onto what he guessed must have been the bridge of the Calnus. If he hadn't had other people to verify that it'd really happened, Claude might have thought the latter half of that night had just been a vivid dream or hallucination.

But, no...Gilbert was here, even if Dad wasn't right now. Rather than finding the experience frightening or off-putting, though, he seemed to have actually enjoyed it. Saying it was the last thing he expected to find was...probably pretty accurate, though.

"You and me both," Claude said with a sigh. "I just wish I knew how all of those portals were able to connect to so many different times and places, and why we all wound up on the Calnus at the same time."

Of course, the fact Gilbert hadn't been in space before that night meant that he'd seen a lot of things he shouldn't have. Not that anyone could have helped it, but it was definitely one of the many things on Landel's growing list of crimes. On the other hand, the only organization who would put someone on trial for something like that was likely the Federation, and Claude had seen enough in the universe to know they weren't invincible. It was doubtful the brass would ever get their hands on Martin Landel themselves...

"Are you from Earth, then?" Claude asked, genuinely curious. If that was the case, then he imagined he was one of the decades leading up to 1969, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions, either. "How long have you been here?"

Oh, the ship was called the Calnus. At least he'd gotten it pretty close.

"I'm from Prussia," he answered automatically, giving something much more specific than just 'Earth'. 'Earth' was far too general; he could have been from anywhere if he said it that way, and he wouldn't want Claude to think he was Austrian. Or Polish. Or French. Or anything other than Prussian, really.

But then again... Claude was obviously from the distant future (he had to be, since Ronixis had said they weren't aliens and West hadn't said anything about spaceships being common by 2010), and Prussia wasn't exactly in a hurry to find out if the name 'Prussia' might mean anything to people that long from now. He liked to think it did, that he'd make a comeback, but he didn't want to hear it if didn't.

"It's on Earth—part of Germany. And I've been here for about," he added quickly, pausing to make a count, "five days."

What Claude said before was starting to gnaw at him; it was pretty obvious that the doors had connected different places together or else there was no way they could have ended up on the spaceship, but... Time was another matter entirely. "You really think the doors made us travel through time, too?" he asked, curiosity taking over.

Edited 2010-10-07 17:28 (UTC)

Sometimes it was kind of funny meeting someone who said where they were from based off of their country. When working for the Federation, people had a tendency to see things more from an interplanetary, rather than a international, perspective. Though once Earth began reaching out to the stars and getting into conflicts with other races, it would make sense that many people would gradually begin to identify more as Earthlings first and foremost. In that way, his own era could probably be described as being somewhat post-nationalistic.

"Oh, okay, so you're originally from Europe, then," he said with a smile. They were probably just recovering from world war in Gilbert's time. Sadly, it wasn't going to be the last, but there wasn't any reason to bring that up.

Either way, five days was definitely awhile in this place. It was good Gilbert had managed to hold on so long, while others could sometimes disappear in a matter of a couple days. Hopefully he would stick around longer than some of Claude's roommates.

When Gilbert brought up the question of time travel, Claude actually paused at that for a moment. "I don't know for sure, but it's definitely possible. I mean, the fact you and I are both here means Landel has some kind of time-traveling capability, right? So that might mean it's possible to go to different times from here if the conditions are right."

There was something else on his mind, though. The blond looked at the other man, unable to hide his own curiosity. "How long have you known Mr. Ronixis, by the way?"

"That's right," he confirmed proudly. The year would have probably made a lot of difference in giving Claude a clearer picture of where he was from, but he hadn't thought to mention it. He did wondered what Europe might be like in Claude's time, whenever that was if they had spaceships. It had already changed a lot since he'd first made a name for himself there, and he couldn't imagine it ever stopping.

Talking about the future, however, was… humbling, in a way. "I guess so," he conceded. "I mean, I know that everyone here can be from different times; none of the other…guys here that I knew back home are from the same year as I am, or even the same decade. But ending up in a different decade just by walking around.…"

It sounded as crazy as time travel at all had sounded just days ago, or as going from Earth into space in seconds would have if he hadn't experienced it himself. Maybe Claude was right, and they'd gone through time that night as well. If they could get their hands on whatever the boss here had used to do it, that would be of extreme strategic significance. "If it is, it could be a way to get us out of here," he suggested.

He considered asking if Claude knew anything about time travel himself, but then he'd already gone and asked a question of his own, about Ronixis. He'd known since the ship that the two of them had already known each other, but… "Not long," he answered. "I'd only just met him the night we ended up finding you. Why?"

So Gilbert had some friends here, too. While it was good to know that he wasn't in this alone, Claude couldn't hide his surprise at being told that some of them were decades apart. Then again, considering the situation with him and his dad, maybe nothing should have been so shocking by now. But, still, most groups of friends he'd met here at least came from the same decade. The Auldrant group was a prime example of that.

He wasn't sure whether he ought to tell Gilbert that he technically had walked into a different century altogether, but decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he nodded when the made the connection between the portals and a way home. "That's what I was thinking, too," he said. "I mean, it's possible the whole thing was an elaborate set-up, but I don't know. Some of the stories I've heard from other people sort of point to at least some kind of time travel."

Either way, it didn't sound like Gilbert had known Dad all that well. If Claude wanted to be honest with himself, he'd been hoping that Gilbert had been a friend or ally his father had worked with on more than one occasion. But that didn't look to be the case, and so Claude did his best to mask his disappointment with a small smile. "Just curious," he answered, then hesitated for a moment as he glanced toward the controller in his hands. "I haven't seen him in awhile, so..."

Edited 2010-10-11 08:00 (UTC)

"I've been wondering if there's any reason why some of us come from different times than others," Prussia proposed. "Obviously some of the other prisoners couldn't be here right now without time travel, but if they could have captured us from any time... Why us, and why at that point?"

In truth he'd only given it the most cursory of thoughts before, usually when talking to West, and it wasn't something that had kept his attention long after he'd ascertained that it wasn't because of any particular weaknesses. Still, maybe Claude would have a better idea, and he could pass it on to West.

Now that Claude had mentioned it, Prussia hadn't really seen Ronixis around much (or at all) since that night. He hadn't exactly been looking—his brother had shown up and things had happened—but if Claude hadn't seen him either...

"Have you tried asking the wome—the nurses about him?" he asked. "They're at least useful for that; they didn't mind telling me that this other guy I knew wasn't here any more. If you haven't been able to find Ronixis, maybe they'd be willing to tell you if he's at least still here."

Why us? Why now? Those were some of the questions all captives here probably asked themselves, but no one had any answers. Claude couldn't count how many times he'd asked himself why Landel felt this need to target his family, why he'd grabbed his parents from just before Claude's conception. Had he really done it for entertainment value? Or was there some other underlying purpose for it?

"I wish I knew," Claude sighed. "I mean, so far it's looking like they want to use us for something, but I'm not entirely sure what." Whatever it was, it had to be pretty involved if they felt like they needed to brainwash them for it. Or was brainwashing their way of weeding out people they didn't want to use?

To be honest, he hadn't considered talking to the staff about his dad before now. Normally he liked to leave messages and try to find out what happened for himself before turning to the staff for answers. But apparently Gilbert had gotten some clarification about a missing friend that way, and it'd been accurate enough.

"I'll ask about him after the shift is over," Claude said with a small nod. "Thanks for the suggestion."

He glanced down at the controller in his hands, trying to suppress a frown. The thought of losing Dad on top of everything else that had happened didn't sit well with Claude for a variety of reasons, but he knew it was a very real possibility. There wasn't much he could do about it until he talked to a nurse, though.

"So, stuff like this must be pretty new for you too, right?" he suddenly asked, changing the subject as he gestured to the console in front of them.

He tucked the bit of information of the warden wanting to use them for something away, trying not to think on that too much right now. The quarters here were pretty nice most of the time; they were fed and clothed well, and aside from the supposed monsters roaming around at night, there wasn't much in the way of a sense of imminent danger. But some people who had been here were gone now, like Raph and maybe Ronixis, and Prussia didn't want to start thinking about what might have happened to them if they'd outlived their usefulness. The very thought made him uneasy, and he barely heard Claude say that he'd try asking about Ronixis at the end of the shift.

He did, however, latch on to Claude thanking him for his awesome suggestion. He grinned proudly, giving Claude a curt nod, only to bristle defensively a moment later when asked if the stuff here was new to him. His grin took on a nervous twitch.

A bold denial of 'No way; I know all about this thing!' was on the tip of his tongue, but he narrowly bit it back. The simple truth of the matter was that it was new to him, and no matter what kind of disadvantage admitting it put him at, telling Claude (the guy who hadn't batted an eye at the spaceship) was far better than telling one of the other nations present. Like Russia. Or Austria. He hadn't even wanted to tell Japan what year he was from on the bulletin board, and Japan was alright.

"The nurse called it a 'video game'," Prussia replied after a lengthy silence, not answering the question directly in the end. He glanced down at the object in his hands, then the box the wire attached it to. "She didn't say how it's supposed to work." Or what it had to do with seeing, though he now suspected that might have had something to do with the televisions and the colorful images on their screens.

Claude watched Gilbert, and he belatedly realized that he might be the kind of person who got embarrassed over not knowing about something. If he was from further into the past, though, he imagined this wasn't the only thing that was new to him. Still, it was completely understandable that he'd be kind of out of his element here.

"That's right," he said with a grin. "A lot of people play video games for fun." Claude leaned forward and gestured at the buttons at the front. "You push this to turn it on and off, and you push that--" He pointed to the one next to the power switch. "If you need to reset your game."

As he waved at the area where the cartridge was situated, he added, "You put the game you want to play in here, turn it on, and you're good to go. We've already got one in here, though."

Holding up his controller now, he pointed to each of the buttons as he explained them. "If you press these directional buttons, you can move your character around on the screen. This button over here is for jumping." Bringing down the controller into his lap, he demonstrated how it was supposed to be held. "The object of the game is to get through the area without dying before the time limit is up."

Turning toward Gilbert again, he smiled. "So, what do you think?"

A game played on the televisions? ...Or on the box, but obviously displayed on the sets.

Prussia listened with rapt attention as Claude explained how to operate the whole thing. He felt a bit embarrassed that he had to be told how to use it, but at least if it ever came up again, he would know. The other nations wouldn't find him at a disadvantage (and it was one more thing he would know about that Austria didn't).

He didn't really know what to think of the game when Claude asked, however; having it explained was different than trying it himself. As it was, he was a bit skeptical.

"So it's some kind of obstacle course?" he asked. With the time limit and the jumping and the 'getting through the area', that was the best he could come up with, but he wasn't exactly sure why someone would play a video game instead of the real thing. But Claude had also said something about dying, so... He added a conclusion for the sake of confirmation, "A dangerous one."

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Day 52: Game Room

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