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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 19 2009, 19:49:19 UTC
Allen was almost happy to be taken back to his room. The nurse still insisted on calling him "Marcus," but at least there was food waiting. He was definitely hungry, and he didn't really care what they served him. There wasn't really any such thing as bad food, after all!

As they walked back to the room (too slowly for Allen's stomach), he thought about Giovanni and what they'd spoken about. And that note on the bulletin board about worlds. What did that even mean?

Golems in the shape of humans, really. He knew the term for demon, but it wasn't the same intonation, it didn't mean the same thing. He couldn't explain that in a few quick sentences on a note, and that was a little frustrating.

He was surprised to see someone in the room when he got back. Had there been two beds before? Well, that was strange! Oh well. He could share a room just fine if he had to. He hoped that his roommate wasn't like Kanda, but most people were way nicer than Kanda.

Much as he wanted to just start eating, he didn't want to be rude. So after the nurse had left, he said, "I guess we're sharing for a little while, huh? I'm Allen. Nice to meet you!"

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Re: M38 usoppsenchou November 20 2009, 00:21:13 UTC
Usopp was a little startled when someone else came into the room--not that he hadn't expected a roommate, he was just prone to being startled. But the guy seemed friendly enough, and polite too, so he managed a quick, "'m Usohh, hi," around a mouthful of shrimp before swallowing.

Figuring that wasn't enough introduction, he turned in his seat to face Allen. The shrimp weren't that good anyway, Sanji's cooking had spoiled him. "I mean, hi. I'm Usopp. Nice to meet you, too!"

He wondered if the guy's name was really Allen, or if he should have introduced himself as Terence. Usopp also wondered about the arm, but it seemed a little rude to ask how he'd gotten the arm injury right after two of them first met. Somehow, it didn't seem likely that a paw-handed Shichibukai had tapped him, too. Usopp was becoming increasingly aware that he was not just lost, but very lost. At least he had food, and aside from the insanity, people seemed to be pretty nice overall. "I just arrived here this afternoon. It's kind of a weird place to get used to."

Leaving food alone without worrying about Luffy stealing it was also strange.

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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 20 2009, 05:26:40 UTC
Allen smiled at him and went over to his own food. At least he was friendly! That was good. Friendly people were the easiest kind to have to share a room with.

"I just woke up here a couple of hours ago, too," he said, smile fading a little. "It's really strange, though. Apparently they call everyone the wrong name. I thought it was just me, but someone I met right before I came back here told me it's everyone! This place is so...strange..."

He trailed off for a minute, but with food to be had, he wasn't lost in thought for too long. It tasted fine to him! Jerry made better tempura, but he wasn't picky. It was a shame he couldn't ask for seconds, though. He could tell he was going to finish this quickly.

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Re: M38 usoppsenchou November 20 2009, 05:53:24 UTC
"It is strange," Usopp agreed, nodding and scratching the side of his nose absently. "I've got a sort of idea of how I might have gotten here, but it doesn't really make sense if I think about it too hard... and the nurses all call me Terence. It's not even a good fake name to have. I could be... Excelsio, or something like that."

He shrugged and turned back towards his food, not wanting it to get cold. After a bite and a little thought, he added, "The two people I talked to were arguing over whether our fake names, I mean the nurse names, are real or the names we know are real. Or even whether our lives are real. The one who was siding with the nurses was convinced we were all insane, or at least people who use the names other than the nurse ones are, and everything we thought was real before waking up here was a lie."

Pausing for a little more food, he added, "I'm the world champion of liars, though, and I'm sure this place is the lie."

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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 20 2009, 06:51:02 UTC
Allen laughed a little and put down his chopsticks. "Excelsio! Really? I don't know what I'd be if I could choose! The nurses keep calling me Marcus, but I think I'm fine with just Allen."

He chewed while Usopp talked. Why would someone argue that the nurses' names for them were the real ones? That seemed odd.

"What? We're not insane! I mean, I know I'm not, and you don't seem crazy to me. Anyway, how would they explain..." he trailed off. He didn't like talking about how he got the scar on his face. He didn't like to tell people he was cursed if they didn't know on their own; that wasn't anything anyone needed to know! And what about his arm? He couldn't get the bandages off right now for some reason, but he knew what his own arm looked like!

"You really think it's a lie? But...why? Why would someone do this to us?"

Allen liked to believe that people were inherently good. Even if Usopp referred to himself as a liar, he seemed okay to Allen. People had good in them! The thought of someone actually conspiring to convince this many people that they were crazy didn't sit right with Allen at all.

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Re: M38 usoppsenchou November 20 2009, 17:05:16 UTC
"Hmm, Marcus isn't bad either." Usopp judged carefully. "It's not as flashy, but it does have a kind of nice ring to it, and it's a really firm sounding name too. I'd still like it better than mine. Maybe they'd let us trade." Not that it was too likely, but nothing that had happened today had exactly been likely.

Allen seemed really nice and kind of mild-mannered too. Usopp balanced back a little in his chair, trying to get it to stand on two legs. It wasn't too hard. "I don't know why. The guy who wanted this to be serious, and for all of us to be crazy, didn't want to talk about it, but they were saying something about fighting."

It hadn't just been fighting, had it? Usopp frowned, tilting his chair forward again with a light thunk. "Uh, actually, they said something about monsters too. I haven't actually seen any monsters, so I don't know. That doesn't make sense, but neither does this whole place. Do you know how you got here?" Maybe that part had just been genuine crazy, although sadly, monsters had a bad habit of stubbornly existing when Usopp wanted them to exist the least.

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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 20 2009, 19:45:27 UTC
"No way! I don't want to be Terrence either!" Allen said. It might be kind of funny to ask the nurse if they could trade, though, just to see how she'd play that off. As it was, he was sure she'd been mostly ignoring everything he said, earlier. So did she really think he was some poor crazy person? He hadn't realized that!

"Monsters? What kinds of monsters?" His face became serious upon hearing that. Where there Akuma here? The girl on the board hadn't seemed to know what they were, but then, not everyone did, so it was understandable. Maybe Usopp didn't know, either, and that was okay, but if there were Akuma out there, he had to get those bandages off his arm! Whatever they'd done really bothered him.

He thought for a minute. "No, I...I don't know how I got here. I assumed I'd been hurt in a fight, since it, um, wouldn't be the first time. But I couldn't remember being in a fight like that! So I guess I don't really know."

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Re: M38 usoppsenchou November 20 2009, 20:30:09 UTC
Allen's expression had clearly changed, and it wasn't surprising to hear him talk about fights considering the arm and the weird tattoo (or whatever it was) on his face, despite his light attitude before. He looked a little younger than Usopp, maybe, but not too much. "I don't know what kind of monsters, they were too busy disagreeing to really explain it. They were disagreeing about being ninjas too, or at least I think they were."

Simon hadn't really openly stated that he believed in the 'delusions' after Sean came on the scene, but it had been pretty clear from his attitude before and after, and even in the conversation once pushed, that he also wasn't buying into the Institute idea.

"It's still kind of a blur. I was sent, or I wound up here, after a fight too... I think. What kind of monsters are you used to fighting? I'm a great pirate, so of course I'm used to sea monsters like the Seakings! But I've been to desert islands and winter islands, so I can adjust to any sort of situation with no problem." He hadn't been a lunatic asylum island before. It was a change of pace.

Thinking about Simon's certainty that Usopp knew him but wouldn't remember him just made it more confusing. "Listen, I'm going to try to sneak out of the room later tonight, okay? I--kind of want to meet up with someone, and I don't know if I could talk to them in private during the day with all the nurses around."

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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 21 2009, 07:22:57 UTC
Allen blinked at him. "Ninjas?" he asked. A bite of food was halfway to his mouth, so he went ahead and ate that He wasn't sure he knew what a ninja was. Maybe he'd heard the word somewhere, but he couldn't place it.

"Seakings? I've never heard of that. I'm an Exorcist, so, I fight Akuma. I haven't been to an island before! I thought islands were tropical. Well, I guess Japan is an island, but that's not the same thing..."

Allen thought pirates were really only in books, but even after traveling with his master, it wasn't like he knew everything. Was this what the person on the board was talking about when she said "worlds" before? Was that like countries, or...what? Allen was still confused.

After a few lightning quick bites of food, he realized he was almost done. Was that really all that was on his plate? It was a little disappointing.

"Well, I won't tell if you sneak out! I actually wanted to meet someone in room M14. We'll have to see if we can get out, okay?"

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Re: M38 usoppsenchou November 21 2009, 16:09:05 UTC
Usopp just stared for a moment. Not knowing ninjas... well, okay, not everyone was interested in adventure stories, and he hadn't even been sure they actually existed before he'd met one, or two, or none, depending on how the weird talk today was interpreted. Not knowing about Seakings was weirder, but Usopp guessed it was possible. Some people just stayed safe at home their whole lives and didn't take an interest in outside events. If your island wasn't near a Seaking nesting ground and none had wandered far out enough to become a local menace, you might just never hear about them. But that was still all depending on your island.

Which you lived on.

It might be a sprawling kingdom, or a charming small town and forest delicately perched out of the sea, but it was still an island. Maybe it wouldn't be a normal island or something, like Shabondy, or maybe it'd be something weirder, like that island-ship Moria had and the Sky Islands, but it was all still at least sort of an island. Unless it were a boat, and Moria's territory sort of crossed even that line. Tropical, or temperate, or one of the Grand Line's weird seasons...

What in the world wasn't an island that you could live on your whole life and not even learrn about islands? Where did Allen live, the floor of the sea? He sure didn't look like a fishperson. Did people on the Red Line have no idea about the rest of the world? And what was Japan?

Maybe something like that could explain him not knowing ninjas and Seakings, too... Before Usopp could verbally express his amazement, the nurse had come back to take their trays; apparently dinner was over. Well, maybe he could just ask later. Or find out if Simon was crazy first, then go from there to deciding what kind of crazy house this really was and who to sort into the 'nuts' and 'maybe also not nuts' files. "... oh, right, okay. Yeah. Let's do that."

Not an island?

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Re: M38 destroyeroftime November 21 2009, 22:37:17 UTC
Usopp looked really confused. Had he said something that strange, really? He felt like their wires had gotten crossed somewhere, but he wasn't sure what happened.

It was good that he ate fast, since dinner hadn't seemed to last very long. Well, now they had to just find a way to get wherever they were each going, wasn't that it?

"Well, um, I hope you're able to get where you need to," Allen said, trying to sound less confused than he was feeling. He guessed there was nothing much else to do. A quick look in his closet revealed a flashlight, which would probably be useful. He decided to take pen and paper in case there was anything worth remembering too.

"Good luck, Usopp!" he said. Reaching for the door, he realized it was...unlocked. That was strange! He just hoped none of the nurses caught them sneaking out.

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