Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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"M44, M44, alright, I'll remember it and pay you a visit if I ever feel like it. I think we're in the same block." Numbers seemed to stick better than names did in Claire's head. "Oh, I got moved last night as well. I'm in M3 now."

Excellent! Now he had someone he could talk to if his roommate turned out to be the silent type! If he got all his possessions back, perhaps he should mark out Firo's room on the map he'd taken from the bulletin board.

Claire didn't think he had any other questions after this last one. It was also probably nearing time for breakfast to end, right? Not that he was watching the time, but he had been taking a long time trying to decide whether or not he wanted to eat his gruel. Which, he suddenly decided, was a solid, resounding no. Even if he'd skipped dinner last night.

...Oh, Firo was saying something. "Hm?"

And then Claire had to pause for a moment and try to understand. Because...

"... Happy that I'm being called by someone else's name?" Claire asked, not sure what Firo was getting at. He blinked. Why would he be happy?

[immortale]

"If it's M3, it's a different block from me." Now, at least. If only Firo hadn't been moved, they'd be a lot closer to one another-his old room had been M9, and it would have been easy to stop by M9 to check on Claire from time to time. With the walk between M44 and M3, though, chances were pretty good that his friend would be long gone by the time Firo got there.

"Happy that you're being called-" he started, cutting off suddenly. Ah... Was it possible that Claire actually didn't know? Given the whole 'time travel' thing Scott had talked about, even if it had been 1934 when he'd been on his way to prison, there was a chance it might have been a different year entirely for Claire. If so, it could have been before he'd started going by 'Felix Walken'. It had to have been, if he was saying it was someone else's name.

"...Forget it."

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"Ah, really? Perhaps I remembered wrong then. I should re-check the map I found," Claire said. Again, if they gave it back. Maybe he could check out the bulletin board later to see if there was another copy he could take. It sure was something helpful to have.

He waited for Firo to explain, then stared when he cut himself off and told him to forget about it. What? But Claire was curious! What was this all about? He would think that Firo understood how important Claire's names were to him, since they'd known each other for so long. So what was this?

"No wait, what did you mean by all that?" he asked. "Just tell me!"

[immortale]

Firo had been hoping that Claire would just let it go, but he should have known he wouldn't be so lucky. What should he do, though? Would it be okay to just tell someone about the future, or would that cause problems and change it? And for that matter-if Claire had been here a few years ago, why hadn't he ever mentioned the place?

He looked down at his bowl of gruel as he thought it over. Claire had already asked him to explain, so he wasn't going to get out of it easily, was he? It would be a lot less trouble just to tell him.

Firo sighed, and then looked at Claire once more.

"It's just... You've been using the name 'Felix Walken' for a couple of years now."

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Claire just waited, watching as Firo seemed to be either considering what to say or thinking about whether or not tell him. (Not that Claire would have let him get away with the latter. He could be very dogged in his pursuit of answers when he wanted to.)

Finally, Firo looked back up. Oh, so he was going to tell him anyway?

... But what he said wasn't quite expected.

"... But I haven't been."

And Claire was certain of this. He'd been going by 'Claire Stanfield' as his birthname, then 'Vino' as his undercover alias, a few other names he might have conjured up for a few jobs or another and then discarded, and most recently 'Rail Tracer.' But when had he taken up 'Felix Walken'? Pretty sure he hadn't, in fact. He remembered in encounter with that famed assassin himself in the field, but nothing else that would make him take up the name and ask to be referred to by it.

Firo had said a couple years? How could that be possible?

[immortale]

He bit back another sigh, trying to figure out how he was actually supposed to explain anything. He was positive now that he was a few years ahead of Claire, but he couldn't quite figure out if making his friend believe that was going to be very easy or impossible.

"But you will," he said. Maybe if he explained the reason he'd had taken up the name? He'd been told it before, and it really was so like Claire that maybe it would be enough to make him understand. And come to think of it, hadn't Claire had mentioned the Flying Pussyfoot when Firo had first arrived? "You explained it before by saying something like 'Claire's dead, so I needed a new name in order to get married'..."

His right hand tightened around his spoon, though he'd long since stopped mixing the gruel. "If you haven't decided that already, then you must not have bought the name yet. But for me, it's already 1934."

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"... So. You're saying I will take up that name. Meaning 'in the future.' Well, it makes sense. 'Claire Stanfield' did die and it would mean that I, a dead man, can't get married, that'd be weird. Did I think of that? That's smart of me. But still, this can't be right, can it?"

This was... confusing. Very confusing. And difficult to wrap his mind around, because everything sounded just weird. Too weird? Well... probably not. It was... what was a good word for it? 'Interesting'? Well no, not quite... How about 'strange'? 'Impossibly strange'? No, no, for all Claire knew, nothing was impossible, at least not for him. But still! This definitely counted as 'impossibly strange, even for him' right? Right?!

... Wait, did this mean--?!?!!?

It had been a few moments since he'd spoken, during which Claire had probably spent his time making thinking faces. (A rarity, those.) Suddenly, he looked rather shocked. One might think it was a late reaction to what he'd just been told, but it was to something else entirely.

"Firo, how old are you?" Claire demanded, staring intently. If Firo was supposed to be from 1934, that meant he was ahead of him in years. Which was completely unfair! You couldn't just do that! How had that happened?! Time machine? Had Firo discovered a time machine?! If he had, he should tell him these things sooner.

[immortale]

If the whole situation weren't so serious, Firo might have found it comical to watch Claire thinking over what had just been said. It was pretty far-fetched sounding-he'd be the first to admit that, and without all the futuristic stuff in town, he might not have believed it himself. But Claire had already been here longer than Firo had, and even if he'd spent a day or two cooped up recovering from injuries, he'd still had plenty of time to see evidence of it being the future... right?

But of all the questions Firo might have expected Claire to ask about his story, his age wasn't one of them. It took him by surprise, and that surprise was written plainly on his face.

"I'm 22, of course," he said carefully, the surprise giving way to a more guarded expression. If this was leading to a jab at his looks...