Day 49: Evening - Bus 1
Whatever promise the day had seemed to show in the morning, it had steadily turned for the worse since then. The weather hadn't bothered Prussia at all (other than the annoying women who seemed to think he could actually get sick by staying out in it, as if a little rain was just as dangerous as economic trouble), but by the time the nurses were
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Prussia focus was shattered by laughter coming from behind him and a hand clapping down on his shoulder. Had he been so careless as to be caught off-guard by one of the orderly's allies? He whirled around to face the new threat, only to find... no threat at all. This guy couldn't have been an ally of the orderly, not when he was talking like that, saying things like he'd been looking for him.
It sounded like this guy knew him, but Prussia couldn't place when in his history they might have met. He'd maybe seen some people similar to him (ancestors or other relatives, perhaps, if not simply people sharing like features), but not this one; he was certain of it ( ... )
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Truthfully, he could have just left well enough alone; let him learn the consequences of brash actions the hard way. Simply watch from a safe distance as the poor guy was pinned down, stuck with a needle, and carted off in a barely conscious stupor. What did he care? He didn't know this man. Of course, Klavier was stubborn himself and had no plans of watching some imbecile get himself hurt. ...Besides, if one man caused trouble on the bus, it would make the staff tighten security even more. And Klavier had had enough of these people breathing down his neck for one blasted day ( ... )
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The guy was trying to pull him away from the orderly and (eventual) freedom. "H-hey!" he protested loudly. He stumbled along, grabbing onto the top of one of the seats to maintain his balance as he was dragged a few steps away. "What do you think you're...."
Prussia left the question unfinished. This whole time, the guy had been talking as if he knew him; England's claim to be from the future came to mind, and Prussia wondered briefly if maybe he really did. But if the man did know him, then he should have known that he wouldn't be killed just from picking a fight with an orderly or three. He couldn't-wouldn't-die so easily ( ... )
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"I am going to guess you're new. You can't honestly believe you will get past him by yourself? He is trained for this." That shouldn't have even needed to be spelled out. The staff here were fast and held an air of confidence that could only be achieved through experience. Even the women. To believe such invisibility was idiotic. And secondly, "...Do you even know where we are? Or were you just planning to drive aimlessly until we ran out of gas ( ... )
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The orderly may have been trained to prevent escape and quell uprisings, but all he was in the end was a guard. Prussia was a Nation, a soldier, and though times may have changed, he'd often been a nation of soldiers, and of knights before that. He put pride in his strength.
"I'm not 'new'; I've already been here for two days," Prussia answered haughtily. He jabbed a finger in the general direction of the orderly. He narrowly bit back a comment about fighting armies since before the orderly had been born, saying instead, "I can guarantee I've got better training and more experience than he could ever hope to have ( ... )
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Honestly though, the claim that he had more experience and training than an orderly -- guaranteed it, even -- was something to be taken with a grain of salt. True, he knew nothing of this man or his capabilities, so he had no way of telling if that was true or not. But the way Klavier saw it, this guy could only claim such a thing was if he were an officer of some kind, and that thought... was worrisome. Those in the L.A. police department were questionable enough without him having to imagine all officers in the U.S. were like that. Hopefully not so horrible as to act without thinking like this. But he wasn't going to argue the claim. That would only encourage him to try proving himself right ( ... )
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The idea that Prussia would turn himself over to America's authorities was downright laughable, and he snickered. The quiet laugh quickly grew louder until he was cackling. "Go to the police?" he managed. "Really? If we turned ourselves over to the police, we'd end up right back where we started!"
Prussia shook his head, his laughter settling down. "No; in another town, we could actually find out exactly where the hell we are." And when, but he didn't give voice to that question. "Once that's answered, getting back home would be much simpler. What you choose to do after that is your own damn business, but I'm getting out of this country as soon as
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Obviously, the man had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. A wanted fugitive couldn't simply buy a plane ticket and be done with it. It was kind of an insult to law enforcement in general to believe it was that easy to slip out of the country. But the idiot had just let a vital bit of information slip: He was not originally from America. Like so many here, it seemed. He'd established a general geographic scope for about a third of the patient populace. It would be good to build a bit more onto that.
"So you're saying you're not actually from around here, is that right? Where are you from if I might ask?" He was going to take a wild guess and say 'not Japan.'
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Prussia grinned at the man, feeling rather pleased by the stranger's response. It was probably safe to say all of them would rather be neither prisoner nor fugitive, but things being what they were... "I'd rather be neither, too, but I'll take what I can get," Prussia stated.
He glanced back at the orderly and sighed. His opportunity had been essentially lost; if he returned to open an attack now, his opponent had already had ample time to prepare. Reinforcements could be lying in wait by now; Prussia could take them all on, but there was a possibility (however slim) that they could overwhelm him by sheer numbers.
Plus, there was still this guy to deal with. If he went back for the orderly, he might just try to stop him again ( ... )
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The man's response, however, was a bit... jarring. First there was the out of place anti-American sentiment. It wasn't so much that Klavier considered himself a patriot as it was simply odd to see such a strong negative reaction to the simple suggestion of living here. As long as it wasn't any kind of violent hatred, he supposed it wasn't worth dwelling over. And secondly was the answer itself.
German had been unexpected enough of an answer, but Prussian? He was actually wondering if this was some half-cooked attempt at trying to trick him or something. If it was a lie, it wasn't a very good one. Prussia didn't exist anymore, obviously. Normally, Klavier might have thought there was yet another time distortion at fault here ( ... )
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Then again, Prussia wasn't entirely certain he even was foreign. His German was better than anyone else's he'd heard so far.
"I wasn't trying to be entertaining," he defended, confusion slipping into irritation. Where he was from was who and what he was, and to not be believed was frankly insulting. He scowled, the orderly and potential escape now forgotten. "You asked where I was from, and I told you. I have no reason to lie about it." And he wouldn't lie about it even if he did have a reason ( ... )
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Actually, no. When he restated his claim, he stated himself as simply being Prussian rather than from Prussia itself. Klavier had to wonder now.... He hadn't actually been back to his mother country for a while now, had never really lived there for an extended amount of time outside schooling. If he remembered right, there were some German patriots who still called themselves 'Prussian' with regards to their ancestry rather than German. In ( ... )
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However, the man's confusion over saying he was from Prussia still concerned him. "And if I was saying I was living in Prussia until now?" he asked, his own tone friendlier than before. It may have been a part of Germany, but his State was still his State for a little longer. If this man was claiming to be from the future like England had claimed... No matter what, it still seemed too ridiculous of a notion to believe. England had to be lying about it, the way he had lied about Russia taking over. Prussia wasn't going to fall for it, no matter how weird some of the things around here had been ( ... )
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Klavier reflected a pleasant smile back and sat in the seat beside the man. "A pleasure, Herr Beilschmidt. I'm Klavier. Klavier Gavin." He paused for just the briefest of moments to consider how to answer that question. Was this hypothetical or legitimate? The best he could do was answer honestly, he supposed. "...If you were really stating such a thing, then I would have to assume you are... from a time earlier than myself. It may sound strange and unbelievable, but such a thing is not wholly unheard of here." Ha, look how casually he was speaking about such a ridiculous concept ( ... )
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Besides, the nonsense about 'earlier times' he was spouting was much more important. It was similar to what England had claimed, but the way Klavier was talking... It sounded like it was common. England had mentioned one of Japan's people who was supposedly from the 1800s, but that was still coming from England. As far as Prussia was aware, Klavier had less reason to lie to him than a Nation would.
"And when are you supposed to be from?" Prussia asked, neither confirming or denying the idea that he might have been from a time earlier than Klavier. Hell, Klavier may have even meant the earlier dissolution by Germany's government when he said Prussia hadn't been around for a while, rather than meaning the Control Council's law ( ... )
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