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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The guy started to move off and Ritsuka wondered if he'd said something to offend until the stranger decided to answer. And in a most unexpected manner. He looked modern enough, and old enough, he should at least know some of the games in here, right? There were a lot of American games, English games, things he'd seen in movies, even if the guy didn't know video games. Ritsuka followed after him and pulled out a chair, not yet sitting down.

"You don't play games then? Or, uh, didn't? Even as a kid?" Not that Ritsuka could remember playing games either, but he was certain he had. There were photographs of him playing, so he must have done it. Just what kind of life had the guy led? Ritsuka hoped he wasn't weird like that Nana person he met in the video game world. Those people had all been 'observers' too and had made his life a hell of a lot more complicated with their weird rules about yes and no and not telling him everything or telling him just enough to confuse him. "....you're not someone like the Septimal Moons, are you?"

Perhaps Castiel should have considered what would have been normal for a human before admitting so easily that he didn't know how most of the games here worked. Now he was put into a position where he didn't have any answer that would make much sense unless he told the truth. More than that, he wasn't very set on lying. It was sin, even if a minuscule one in comparison to others that he'd committed (such as killing his own siblings), and most of the time it made things far more complicated than they needed to be.

However, from the little that Castiel knew of human children, they tended to be more trusting than adults, so maybe he had a chance of revealing what he was without earning suspicion in response. Though right as he was about to say something, the boy piped up with a final question.

"I haven't heard of these Septimal Moons, so no, I am not affiliated with that." The name was vaguely intriguing, so perhaps he would ask the boy for more details later, especially if he could be mistaken for being connected to whatever it was. "No, the reason is because I am not actually human." That was a bit more vague than coming out and saying he was an angel while still being a decent enough explanation.

Ritsuka let out a sigh of relief when the stranger denied any connection to the group that had killed his brother. Sure, it made him even more confusing, but at least Ritsuka knew he wasn't from his world now. Or maybe just someone not connected to all that stuff. Either way, it meant Ritsuka couldn't mention the craziness that went on behinds the scenes, and it also meant the man was mostly honest. Hopefully honest.

Or just crazy. Ritsuka couldn't help himself and stopped by the table, staring at the older man as he admitted to not being human. He looked human, but then a lot of people here thought they weren't human. Just this morning someone had posted on the bulletin about being changed into something different. Having undergone something of a transformation himself to come here, Ritsuka sort of understood, but he still remained human. He'd only lost his ears, but some people came here claiming they'd lost a lot more than that.

Not quite sure if the guy was crazy or telling the truth, Ritsuka's fingers fidgeted along the edge of the chair for a minute. "So, uh, if you're not human, what are you?"

While Castiel went ahead and took a seat, the boy remained standing for a moment. He seemed uncertain, which wasn't necessarily unwise. While Castiel's lack of powers (and his normal attire) meant that he did not come off as mysterious as he could have, he still suspected that he had a strange vibe to him that some people might notice. And while children were more trusting, they were also often told by their parents to watch out for strangers. Though this boy wouldn't have gotten very far in this place, with its attack dogs and ghouls, if he kept to himself constantly.

So, then, how to answer. Castiel glanced down at the table where he was now seated, taking note of a board game labeled "Sorry" (that was an odd name for something that apparently supposed to be fun) before he glanced back to the child. "I am... a divine being, though my connection to Heaven was severed some time ago." It hadn't been that long in the grand scheme of things, and yet somehow, it felt like eternity since he had seen home.

The worst of it was that he still couldn't decide if he wanted to go back, were he given the chance.

Well, that wasn't the answer Ritsuka had expected. The guy (whose name he still hadn't asked) was claiming to be an angel who was no longer affiliated with Heaven. Which, if Ritsuka recalled correctly, would make him a fallen angel. Weren't they supposed to be evil? Well, he supposed that depended upon which version of the story one was reading and which religious background the writer came from, but still - a fallen angel? Here? Did Landel even have power over the gods?

".....you're an angel?" he asked, trying to hide his skepticism. He didn't do a great job at it, but Ritsuka always thought angels were supposed to have wings and eyes and were a terror to look upon. This guy looked like any other normal American. Like a totally, one hundred percent normal American guy who might have been found working at some company somewhere behind a desk. Salarymen didn't really instill fear and awe into the hearts of the faithful unless they were descending en masse upon a restaurant without a reservation. "...really?"

Thus far, this was the most severe reaction he had gotten to explaining what he was. Castiel had known that he would eventually encounter someone who would treat him like Dean and Sam had when they'd heard the truth (and they, more than anyone else, should have believed), but he had expected a child to be more understanding. Clearly he had misjudged once more, and it only made it that much clearer how he was still learning, and likely would be for a while.

"Yes," he said, somewhat awkwardly as he resisted the urge to shift around in his seat. Castiel was not used to be under this sort of scrutiny with no way to stand up for himself. He couldn't even flicker the lights overhead to prove his point. "It is up to you, whether or not you wish to believe it. My powers are too weakened to rid you of your doubt." While he had nothing to prove to this boy in particular, his reaction just nailed in the fact that when the Winchesters had seen him, they had only reacted with suspicion and wariness. And that would not have changed, the next time he actually tracked one of them down; which was proving difficult enough on his own, as he hadn't been able to corner one of them this entire day.

An angel in the guise of a normal, everyday man. Lions turned into humans. Robin Hood having a tail and ears and believing he was a fox. Ritsuka had run into a lot of people here who weren't exactly human in their own worlds. He could be considered weird from some standpoints, having been born with cat ears and a tail. In his world, that was normal. Maybe in this man's world, angels all looked like he did.

"Oh. Well, I don't really have room to doubt. I've never met an angel before so other than stories told in books, I wouldn't know what one really looks like." So as long as the stranger thought he was an angel, to Ritsuka he would be an angel. He hadn't exactly questioned it when Soubi had come and told him he was a Fighter and that he'd belonged to Seimei after all. A certain amount of suspension of disbelief was necessary when working in the world he lived in now. "Um, my name's Ritsuka, by the way. Aoyagi Ritsuka. I'm from Japan."

He had no idea why he thought it important to include that tidbit, but he had. Maybe it'd give the angel some sort of background to work with? He had no idea. Really, he just had no idea how to talk to an angel of all things. "...um, so you're new? You doing okay?"

Stories told in books. Or the Bible itself, but Castiel wasn't going to get into that, especially not after his interaction with that woman in the library. Instead, he only nodded silently, as humans were really only supposed to know of angels in that context. That was exactly why the Winchesters were behaving the way they were; even if they'd fought ghosts and demons alike, suspicion was always the default response. He couldn't blame them for it, not entirely.

"How I appear now is not my true form," he admitted, "but humans cannot generally look upon angels unless they inhabit vessels." Not even Dean had been able to bear the sight of his actual form or the sound of his real voice, and he was the chosen one. To try and inflict that on anyone here would have been cruel; not that he was even capable of it.

Another patient from Japan, like Orihara. Castiel didn't know if there was any significance to that. There were certain monsters who were native only to those islands, but other than that, what was special about that place? "I am Castiel," he returned. And he wasn't really from anywhere, so he said nothing more than that.

It seemed that compared to some other patients like Renamon, Castiel was new, and so he nodded. "I'm doing fine," he said, and then left it at that. Because he would only ask for help from those who he felt could provide it, and only if he was forced to.

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Day 52: Game Room

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