Day 48: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

[longlivetehking]

[From here]

His mane was still damp from the ridiculous human cleaning ritual, something that Scar found rather dissatisfying. At the very least he had been able to leave the showers quickly, so the change in tactic had at least worked for now. There was a major downside, however; he had to put up with a certain female's well-meant praise as he

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[scientist_skye]

Ema had skipped lunch. The nurses had been successful in coaxing her out of the corner she had been sulking in since retreating from Lana, but the coaxing had only gotten the girl as far as the nearest couch. It was there where Ema had parked herself and refused to proceed further, insisting that she wasn't hungry and wanted to be left alone. After a prolonged dispute, the nurses relented and left Ema to herself, although one of them had mentioned making a record of her behavior in her patient records.

Honestly, Ema couldn't bring herself to care. Her patient file was among the least of her problems. She was no closer to getting out of here than she was before, Lana was here through some impossible time paradox and was as distant and aloof as ever, Mr. Edgeworth had been in the Institute but had vanished somehow, and her legs both still bothered her enough to be a nuisance. All in all, things in this place just kept getting worse and worse, and Ema had less and less control over the situation. In an attempt to regain some sense of efficacy, she had spent the entirety of her lunch shift curled up with her notebook, taking notes and trying to draw any scientific conclusions she could with the limited data she had.

Other patients--prisoners, Ema reminded herself grimly--flitted in and out, mostly concerning themselves with the bulletin board during the changing of shifts. A few lingered, which meant that lunch was officially over and Ema had nothing more than she had when the shift had started. Frustrating.

After a few moments' consideration, Ema forced herself to get up and go to the bulletin board, searching it for clues. Lana had also replied to Mr. Javert, which was unsurprising, but she'd also posted a request for information. Guess she didn't believe what Ema told her after all. There was also a message addressed to a "Phoenix," but no reply. Ema really, really hoped that it referred to a code name and not Mr. Wright. His presence would have been a huge help, but this was the sort of place that she wouldn't wish on anybody.

That seemed to be the only notes of interest, as far as Ema could figure. She stepped back a few paces and ended up nearly bumping into someone in the process. She didn't realize she wasn't the only person looking at the board. Looking up at him, it wasn't a face she recognized--just some guy with long blonde hair. At least he didn't seem menacing. "S-sorry..."

[rocksthecourt]

If there was one good thing about being here for over a week, it was having learned the hard way not to one's guard completely down. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have given the movement a second thought. Here, however, he caught the approaching motion in time to jerk away just slightly. Astounding how precaution could become second nature so quickly. The girl caught herself, too, and both kept themselves from colliding into one another, thankfully.

Out of pure instinct, Klavier flashed a bright smile down at her. No harm done, after all. And best to reassure any fear of antagonism in a place like this. In fact, he'd opened his mouth to wave off the apology. But he didn't. Instead, he blinked down at her with... a far more openly surprised expression than he may have normally allowed. Her face. And her voice. She looked just like...

[scientist_skye]

The stranger smiled down at her, which was a reassuring sign, but the expression quickly faded. The way he was staring at her made her a little uncomfortable, like there was something going on that she had been deliberately left out of. He was surprised, and maybe she was imagining it but he seemed to recognize her? It had never occurred to her that the scientifically impossible (yet empirically proven) time paradox of this place would mean that she might meet people from her future.

Maybe she was just imagining the recognition part. Maybe she just looks like someone he knows, like a kid sister or something. That made much more sense.

"Do I know you?" Ema couldn't keep the slightly-defensive tone out of her voice. She had had too crappy a day to even try.

[rocksthecourt]

Actually, he was thinking along the same lines. The resemblance to Skye was so exact, this had to be a younger sister or somewhere along those lines. True he couldn't remember her mentioning anything about a sister before, but it wasn't as though the two had made a habit of chatting. The "good detective" was about as likely to share personal stories as she was her snacks.

But again he hesitated. The way she snapped at him made her seem less like a relative and more like a less loudmouthed clone. In fact, he could almost swear that... Haha. It seemed like all these discussions about time distortions and alternate dimensions were altering his judgment. After all, wasn't it far more probable Fräulein simply had an extremely short-tempered, grouchy family?

Klavier laughed lightly as though dismissing the question as a joke. "Ah. Perhaps." The smile and friendly atmosphere were back in an instant like nothing had just happened. "That would depend... Does the name 'Skye' mean anything to you?"

Best to just ask directly. He wasn't much for beating around the bush and spinning right 'round the issue wouldn't do either of them any good.

[scientist_skye]

He knew her name?!

"Y-yeah... That's my name. Ema Skye." Ema took a few steps back from this guy; she wasn't sure what to make of him. His knowledge of her name had thrown her for a loop, and a knot was beginning to form in her stomach. It was possible that this guy knew her sister--Lana's business was often conducted away from Ema, after all--but that didn't explain the way in which he recognized her. Lana and Ema had their similarities, but they were far from twins.

The fact that he was acting so casual about the whole thing wasn't any help. He had an unfair advantage in this conversation, after all. The shock of hearing her name from his lips quickly faded into continued (and growing) irritation.

"Who are you and how do you know me? Do you work with my sister or something?"

[rocksthecourt]

Ema Skye.

With that proclamation, all doubts and questions flew out the window. He didn't really want to accept the idea himself, but with everything he'd seen over the last week, it certainly wasn't a complete impossibility. That and it was really hard to deny her identity when she kept barking at him like that. Still it was hard to think he was actually talking to the younger version of someone he knew... This was much easier when he could imagine Wright was just suffering from memory loss.

But he had other issues to deal with right now, like how to approach her questions. Just how much should he tell her? She looked rather taken aback already and all he'd done was point out her name. The last thing he wanted to deal with at the moment was a panicking girl (or a needle in the arm). Let's calm her down a little first and explain this smoothly. ...Assuming she wouldn't continue to get so worked up. This was Skye, after all.

He laughed again in an attempt to ward off any wariness hovering between the interaction. "Your sister? No, I can't say I do. But..." He ran a hand through his hair distractedly and looked away a bit pointedly toward the nurses hovering about. Hopefully she would take that as a hint about eavesdroppers. "...I think this may not be the best place for this kind of talk. Let's have a seat, ja?"

He made a gesture toward the inside of the room. She was free to interpret that as 'Lead the way' or 'Follow me.' Whatever made her more comfortable and less likely to draw nurse attention. "I'm Klavier. Klavier Gavin. ...I'm guessing you haven't been here very long. Is that right?"

[scientist_skye]

Ema followed his gaze toward the nurses and caught the hint. The nurses worked for this place, after all, and they already had written her up once today. She didn't really want to add anything further to whatever records the nurse had meant before. Good thinking on his part; maybe he wasn't quite the idiot that he seemed so determined to come off as with that smile and accent of his.

The man gestured vaguely, which Ema took to mean that he intended to lead her toward a seat. This guy--Klavier Gavin, he said his name was?--was the one with the information, after all. "Yeah, I woke up yesterday...around now, actually." She had already been there a whole twenty-four hours. That was a depressing fact. "My sister's been here about as long, although she says it's December and it was February when I left. Someone warned me about this, but it's really weird to have it actually..."

And suddenly, his behavior clicked. There was only one way in which he could recognize her without the reverse.

"You're from my future, aren't you?"

[Soooooo sorry about the fail here. Are you okay with backthreading for a bit with these two?]

[rocksthecourt]

When she moved to follow after him, he started moving toward one of the nearby sofas, glad she seemed more willing to follow along than her elder counterpart might have. She was far more forthcoming with information, too. He was almost starting to like this arrangement. But most surprising of all was her coming up with an accurate conclusion so quickly. He looked at her with a look of both surprise and complete amusement. Ohhh! Well, look at her.

"Achtung! Someone has been doing their homework!" He wasn't sure if he should be impressed she actually figured that out on her own or repulsed such an idea crossed her mind in the first place. Either way, it saved him the trouble of going into a long-winded explanation, so he certainly wasn't about to complain. "I suppose if you want to put it that way, then yes. You could say I am. Sorry to say this sort of thing doesn't seem to be a terribly rare occurrence here. I suppose it can be rather jarring." That was the understatement of the century, but downplaying it a little made it feel less... insane. At least for him.

Klavier quickly took a seat at the first empty sofa they reached. They were both handling this well so far, so maybe he didn't have to worry too much about upsetting her. A good thing since he didn't much feel like handling the 'sensitivity' card at the moment. "If it's any reassurance, we don't meet terribly far in the future. ...Ten years, perhaps. Maybe less." Depending on how old Fräulein was supposed to be.

[scientist_skye]

Mr. Gavin didn't seem surprised at her conclusion, which meant that he must have been around at least long enough to know that time in this place was a strange thing. Hopefully that would be the end of the incredulous staring and the two of them could move on.

Once they reached the couch, Ema had a seat. Now that she didn't feel like she was being leered at, the defensiveness was starting to subside in favor of curiosity. He was from her future--a whole ten years! There was so many questions he could answer for her, but one question was more pressing than any of the others that came to her mind. Ema would start there.

"State vs. Skye, back in 2017. Do you know what the verdict was? It's tied to SL-9 and the Joe Darke killings.... it's my sister, Mr. Gavin, and I really want to know if she comes out okay." There was a hint of desperation in her voice that she couldn't quite suppress.

[rocksthecourt]

Maybe Ema considered it strange, but Klavier hadn't given her temperament much second thought. It was pretty normal, actually. So the last thing he was expecting was a sudden, sullen shift in behavior. The look she was giving him now was so completely different from anything he had ever seen on her before. A borderline pleading inquiry from that headstrong detective? To him? Never. That just made the request seem that much more important.

He blinked at her for just a second before looking away as though thinking carefully over this. An elder sibling connected to a court case... He certainly could empathize. Wasn't State vs. Skye the case Edgeworth had mentioned to him on his first day here? He hadn't imagined that was actually connected to Ema... or the Joe Darke killings. Yes, he'd heard of them, but he didn't know any details. Nothing that could offer reassurance. He turned back to her.

"My apologies, Fräulein. I know nothing about that particular case. ...However, there may be someone else I can ask. I will let you know immediately should I find anything out." Edgeworth would have known, but he wasn't around anymore and trusting Wright's memory was like trusting a child with a lighter. Kristoph's memory and attention to detail were impeccable enough that it was entirely possible he could remember hearing about that case. He had only to ask... which was the problem, wasn't it? Regardless, that was a better answer to give her than nothing at all.

[scientist_skye]

Ema's face visibly fell at Mr. Gavin's answer. He didn't know? She was so hoping he would. "I-I see..." His reassurance that he could find out went nearly unnoticed. It almost seemed like Mr. Javert's assurance to let her know what happened to Mr. Edgeworth--honest, but without much hope that there will ever be something to pass on. Or maybe Ema was just being too negative.

A long stretch of silence followed as Ema tried to think of something else to say. Pushing for more information about her sister was both depressing and useless, since he had no idea what the outcome of the case had been. But there were other things that he did know, and Ema didn't exactly want to pass the opportunity up. "Well... what am I like in the future? How do you know me? Am I a famous scientific investigator?"

Maybe those answers would cheer her up. She certainly needed it.

[rocksthecourt]

It seemed his answer hadn't been enough to raise her spirits. He could practically hear the disappointment dripping from her voice, which was understandable. Being left without a clear answer for such a delicate subject was probably frustrating. Klavier was actually planning to alleviate the situation by diverting to a more pleasant subject when she started asking him questions again. He shouldn't have been surprised by it, really. After all, wouldn't anyone be curious if faced with someone from the supposed future? But that last question gave him pause.

He'd have to be a deaf, dumb, and blind idiot to not notice Skye's interest in forensic science, but he'd always figured that was just some overzealous hobby of hers. Where was this girl pulling this "scientific investigator" thing from? Was that supposed to mean she hadn't wanted to be a detective in the first place?

The girl was looking up at him with this expectant look on her face, waiting for his answer. And... Sigh.

"Ach. It may not be a good idea to share so much about your future, you know. ...But if you must know, we've met through work. I've had the chance to work with you quite frequently, actually." He chuckled a little and beamed a bright smile at her, hoping maybe it might be infectious. "I'm actually a criminal prosecutor. You've investigated several of my crime scenes before. ...In fact, it's thanks to you I've managed to get hold of some rather case breaking evidence."

Nevermind, she wasn't really supposed to touch things until forensics got there...

[scientist_skye]

Mr. Gavin seemed almost reluctant to answer her question, which Ema supposed made sense. Knowing one's future could be really dangerous, if every movie ever made on the subject proved to be accurate. Not that her curiosity was lessened any by it.

Considering the answers Ema had received to her questions so far, Mr. Gavin's answer came as a pleasant surprise. She had half expected him to tell her she'd flunked the hiring examination and had been forced into a lower department, but apparently that was not the case! He was a prosecutor (which surprised Ema, considering how entirely unlike Mr. Edgeworth he was), and she worked with him! As a scientific investigator! With case breaking evidence!

It was the best news she'd heard in quite awhile.

Finally, Ema's face began to mirror Mr. Gavin's smile. "Wow, really...?" Her tone was awestruck. "Well, in that case, we should keep working together while we're here! I'm already making a name for myself and all, and investigating how to get out of here will be great practice! And it will get us out of here." Really, getting out was the important part; as much as it killed Ema to admit it, the science was quickly becoming secondary.

As if to seal the deal, Ema stuck out a hand. "How about it, Mr. Gavin? I'll try to work as hard now as I'm sure I do when you met me."