Jan 06, 2009 16:02
What a singularly delightful evening he'd had. It was dampened, of course, by two things, but those were small things and he supposed he could overlook them for now. First was that his powers had still not returned. If he truly were on punishment as he thought, though, he couldn't very well expect those to come back. Second was that the little
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methos,
s.t.,
meche,
kagura,
edward elric,
batman,
tsubaki,
kaiji,
anise,
skuld,
teisel,
melissa,
blitzwing,
tony castaway,
ken amada,
wolfram,
indiana jones,
kaku,
allen,
seiya,
demyx,
matsuda,
zex,
zelnick,
shinichi,
hikaru,
lugnut,
brainiac 5,
mikami,
the flash,
subzero,
xellos,
usopp,
eileen,
yohji,
elena (ffvii),
akihiko,
fwiffo,
yuffie,
fox,
sync,
ayumu,
honey,
farfarello,
shiki,
masaru,
yukari,
tyki,
kratos,
haseo,
rubedo,
citan,
tony stark,
shito,
homura,
senna,
adelheid,
siegfried,
kaito,
hanatarou,
chidori,
sora,
evangeline,
luffy,
renamon,
claude,
keman,
kristoph,
haruno sakura,
superboy,
hokuto,
edgeworth,
zexion,
joshua,
javert,
harry osborn,
dean winchester,
hughes,
grell,
ren,
hanekoma,
argilla,
guy,
kvothe,
kio,
armand,
hinamori momo,
mitsuru,
depth charge,
reid,
claus,
soubi,
vlad,
allelujah,
wesker,
frey,
valyn,
tokito,
fai,
captain america,
leon magnus,
sheena,
yue,
schuldig,
sasuke,
aidou,
beatrix,
falis,
ophelia,
rangiku,
gin,
scar (tlk),
subaru,
sanzo
There were still some things Claude had questions about, of course. At that particular moment, though, it was the issue of Landel's absence. It wasn't until after he'd put away his things and his nurse had come to bring him to the cafeteria that he got a chance to ask anyone about it, though.
She'd told him something vague and unhelpful about how he'd had something come up, and that he'd be back as soon as he could. Really, Claude wasn't sure what he'd expected. It wasn't like she had any reason to tell him, but it was still grating to always be kept in the dark like this.
Not for the first time, nor for the last, he wondered where Ashton was. With that on his mind, it was hard to pay attention to what he was putting on his tray, but he wasn't terribly picky. And anyway, things like food and sitting down to eat seemed so damn trivial when he thought about where his friend could have been...
Man, he'd woken up in such a great mood, too. What the hell...he needed to just focus on what he could do right then, didn't he? And, at the moment, all he could do was sit down and eat his breakfast. It wasn't like he got more of a right to mope than anyone else. Plenty of people here had lost friends. Guy had probably lost Luke, if the fact his friend just never brought the redhead up anymore was anything to go by. And from what Claude could tell, he'd largely suffered through it in silence. He kind of felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner, but...
Sitting up a little straighter in his seat, Claude took a bite of his sausage, chewing thoughtfully, but still trying to look relaxed and approachable. He didn't want to add to the doom and gloom in this place if he could help it.
[Free!]
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He filled a plate with a selection of food and headed over to a free seat, smiling awkwardly at the boy who was already sitting at that table. At this point, he'd much rarther choose who he sat next to, rather than having someone choose him.
"Ah, do you mind if I sit here?"
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"Oh, not at all!" he replied with a bright tone. "It'd be nice to have some company, really." It was better than being left to wallow in his own misgivings, which wouldn't do any good for anyone at the end of the day.
"I'm Claude, by the way," the blond added.
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"Thank you," he replied politely. "I'm called Allelujah. Nice to meet you."
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The blond took a moment to get a better look at his new table companion. He couldn't have been too much older than himself, and he had a rather distinct hairstyle that covered one eye. With the way he carried himself, he didn't seem like he was the type to go do a lot of socializing. But with the constant dangers that lurked around this place at night, and the monotonous activities scheduled for them in the day, it was good to talk to people whenever possible.
Normally whenever people introduced themselves around here, the logical topics of conversation stemmed from questions like, How long have you been here? or Where are you from? But it'd be nice to start out with some light conversation. Otherwise, it was easy to stay wound up and serious all the time, right?
"So, do you like pigs in blankets, Allelujah?" he asked instead. "I think they're pretty good, but it'd be great if they served a nice breakfast steak every once in awhile."
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He glanced down at the food on his plate for a moment when Claude asked about his food. "I don't know. I've not tried them," he admitted a little embarrassed. "Most of the food here is pretty nice though. Better than the stuff I'm used to."
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He regarded Allelujah curiously when he said he'd never tried them before. "Oh, do they not have pigs in blankets where you're from?" he asked, genuinely interested. "Why don't you try one? I mean, they're not anything special, but it's kind of fun to eat new things sometimes, you know?"
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"I spend most of my time in space," Allelujah explained. "There's not really much chance to get fresh food a lot of the time."
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His interest was peaked when Allelujah mentioned space, though. "Oh, really! Were you serving aboard a ship or something?" Not everyone who spent a lot of time in space were on ships -- some worked in docking stations or bases -- but it was the first thing that came to Claude's mind based on his own experiences.
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That seemed to catch Claude's interest. "Yes, something like that," Allelujah said. "The ship didn't dock that often."
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"I mean, I guess it's not that huge a deal since that's where we are right now, but there are a lot of people from other planets here, too," he added.
Being on a ship that didn't dock that often...Claude could sympathize, at least a little. During his time on the Calnus, they hadn't really docked much, either. "So you're from the future, too, then, right?"
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"I suppose I am, yes," he agreed. Assuming this time period was what it looked like. Definitely further forward than a few other people. "2308 AD. That's the year it was back at home."
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When Allelujah brought up this Orbital Elevator, Claude couldn't entirely mask the confusion on his face. "I've never heard of that before. What is it?"
So he was from 2308AD. He couldn't figure out how that would translate into the SD calendar system right off the top of his head, but he guessed it would be somewhere around the 200's. "I'm from around 2452 AD myself," he replied. "In other words, SD 366."
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Apparently the Orbital Elevator technology was something no-one else had ever heard of. "It's um... there are satellites in a geosynchronous orbit around Earth, and attached to them is a kind of tether which is attached to Earth's surface. Inside the tether, there's an elevator which allows you to go into space in a few hours." It was convenient, even if it was the cause of warfare.
His eyes widened a little at the idea of someone being from further in the future than he apparently was. "SD?" he asked, not having heard of that system before. "I guess we must be from different world though, if you've never heard of the Elevator? How about..." he paused, considering for a moment because surely, they would be recorded, even if only as terrorists, "Celestial Being?"
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He listened to Allelujah's explanation of the Orbital Elevator, occasionally nodding to indicate he was following along. "That sounds really convenient. I'm surprised we don't have something like that in my time." Claude scratched his cheek, eyebrows furrowing a little. "And that I've never heard of it."
It sounded like his table companion wasn't familiar with the Space Date calendar system, either. Strange. And when he mentioned this Celestial Being, it didn't exactly help clear things up. "I can't say that I have," he admitted. "That's really weird. We're both from Earth, but there's all this important stuff I don't know anything about."
It wasn't like he considered himself dumb or ignorant. He'd studied pretty hard back in school, and he'd made decent grades. What was the deal here? "Do you know who Trillas Bachtein was?" he asked after a moment.
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"It's useful," Allelujah agreed. "It makes taking materials up into space much easier. And it transfers the solar energy down to the surface to provide electricity." That was hoarded and controlled by the major governments. "It works well in theory at least," he said with a shrug.
It was a little strange, he had to admit and it made Allelujah frown slightly at the thought. "I've never heard of them," he admitted.
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