concoursec | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Character(s): Albert Simon & Anyone
Location: Quad, the Garden
Rating: PG-13? ~~He won't zap anyone yet.~~
Open/Closed/Finished: Open
Summary: Did something go horribly wrong or is he merely lucky that his plans were thwarted by divine hands?

In all due truth, there was something humbling about being trapped here upon a foreign world without clue as to how that happened. While he did well not to voice his frustration, Albert was certainly having a difficult time grasping as to how he managed to be swept up within Time’s Current. “How dreadfully odd.” The dapper gentleman whispered quietly as he examined the winding corridors of Balamb Garden. Still quite capable of wielding his powers, Albert found it a tad unsettling to realize that he lost his new ‘Ace’ during the shuffle. He had hoped to bestow Yuri and his stalwart companions with his new form, the Messiah. However, just when he was about to fuse with the fiend, Albert was whisked away from battle by what seemed to be an invisible hand.

“Perhaps I’ve actually caused a rift through time…” Remembering the havoc that transpired within Neameeto, a light chuckle emitted from Albert once he thought of his young foes. “It seems they’ve may have won for now. How disappointing.” While he had promised not to hold any ill feelings if he had lost the bout, Albert felt a tad cheated from losing the chance to battle the young harmonixer one last time.

“Oh well, I suppose it could be worse.” He chuckled lightly. “I could be stuck here with that fool Dehaui. Now that would have been dreadful.” Checking to see if anyone was near, Albert vanished once more only to reappear within the quad. Why walk if you can travel throughout the Garden faster using magic?

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Einiona propped herself up on her unbandaged hand and took a moment to look side to side, not once but twice, before meeting his eyes with some measure of confusion on her face (that's quickly revealed to be a fake by the glimmer of mischief in her eyes). "I don't see any ladies here," she said, almost innocently.

"Only thing that's injured is my pride as a Canning," she added, waving her hand around dismissively - the withered and misshapen digits of her pinky and ring fingers more obvious from this angle - and she settling back, making no immediately obvious sign she's about to accept his outstretched hand. "Expecting some old dude to just teleport right in front of me like that, I wasn't."

Yes, Albert. You're in your thirties, at least: you're old.

Albert had to chuckle at the girl’s witty response, especially since he hadn’t expected it. The little dear’s response reminded him vaguely of the rude harmonixer, but it would be unfair for him to compare to the two. He doesn’t even know her name yet. “You are quite witty, aren’t you?” Albert asked with his hand still offered towards the youth. Eventually he realized that the prideful girl wasn’t going to accept his aid, so he withdrew his hand for now. He hoped that his need for a dramatic entrance didn’t aggravate Einiona’s wounded arm.

Blinking his eyes at the ‘old dude’ comment, Albert found himself comparing the girl to Yuri all over again. Honestly, why must the young ones be so rude? “I am not that old, but I suppose I do owe you an apology for scaring you.”

It's not so much their age as it is their environment; it's safe to say Einiona didn't grow up in a family situation very conducive to manners.

"It's okay, you can kiss my ass," she said as she tucked her legs under her. "'Cause if anywhere's getting a bruising, it'll be that. Think the rest of me - including the nerves - is fine." And with that, she kicked herself up into the air - not very high, mind, just till she and the old man were about eye level - and came back down feet first, knees bent a little from the impact. She grinned up at him from beneath uneven bangs. "You can ignore me any time you like. I've got a smart mouth, Mom always says."

His nerves actually bristled a little at the girl's vulgarity, but Albert did well not to show agitation. It would give the rambunctious girl far too much pleasure to realize she was plucking his nerves already. She reminded him too much of Yuri, far too much for her own good. While he may not hold any true malice towards the boy, Albert wouldn't hesitate killing him. However, if he truly wished to learn more about this institution, Albert cannot partake in his bad habit of electrifying people just yet. For now, he'll simply indulge the foul mouthed girl.

"Ignore you? Now that is a rather odd request from someone so full of life." He replied. "Perhaps instead of me ignoring you, we should at least introduce ourselves." Now here comes the difficult part. After gallivanting across Europe as 'Roger Bacon', did he truly want anyone knowing his real name? The only reason he adopted his mentor's name during his journey was to ruin the real Roger's good reputation. It was the least he could do since his mentor saw it fit to cast him into ruins all those years ago.

"I am Cardinal Albert Simon, and you are?"

"Einiona Canning," she said, and likely he'll never hear that name pronounced properly ever again, so hopefully he'll remember it. She brushed her thighs off and straightened up, offering him her good hand, "It's a pleasure," tossed off carelessly.

"Cardinal, yeah? Didn't know this place's religion ran that way." It wasn't like she had much exposure or experience with the world outside the Garden, short of her initial arrival and subsequent consignment to Balamb Garden's safekeeping - for all she knew, there could be a religion out there with a functionally identical hierarchy to the traditional Christian system her parents had kindasorta raised her in. "Where you from?"

He doubted the girl would state her name again without cracking a joke regarding his age, so Albert hoped to commit it to memory. Einiona is a cheeky little girl, but charismatic enough to warrant his attention for now. She seemed to be well despite her nasty fall, a good thing in his opinion. The Garden values their young pupils, almost as much as his former mentor once valued his own students.

“Heh heh, I wouldn’t be too hasty to believe that if I was you.” He replied to her comment regarding the Garden and its supposed religion. “I hail from another world you see. In the world I am from, it is not uncommon to bear witness to the might of the Vatican.” Where there should be bitterness laced within his words, there are none.

“I am from the United Kingdom, Great Britain to be exact.”

"Really!"

Einiona's expression remained cheerful; if anything, it brightened a bit. "What a coincidence! I grew up in Wales." As if the accent hadn't given her away already, although charitably speaking there'd be no reason for Cardinal Simon to assume such a connection on accent alone, just like she couldn't assume his origin from his title. "Just outside Cwmbran, little town, big man in the church like you, you've probably never heard of it." She waved a hand - she does this a lot - to demonstrate just how insignificant her hometown is in the scheme of things.

She shrugged, looking away from him and shoving her good hand in a pocket. Her bandaged hand gesticulated wildly, meaninglessly, pointing at everything and nothing in particular. "And now I'm here. I'm in another bloody universe on a motherfucking floating school and I'm talking to a teleporting English Catholic. My life is a fucking comic book." Turning back, she smiled, wide and excited and gleeful. "Fucking amazing, innit? The world's a crazy place. I love it."

He immediately noticed the spike of intrigue in her demeanor once he mentioned his origins. It humored him greatly since he truly didn’t care much for noting Britain as his supposed homeland. Considering how long he managed to stay in London, Albert figured that answer would suffice best despite traveling the land so freely in his long years. “Ah, I remember Wales quite fondly to be honest. I used to spend my summers there on occasion.” A pleasant lie, but one that Einiona wouldn’t be able to decipher from truth. “I suppose you’re right considering I never heard of Cwmbran until now.” That would be because the quaint village was established years after his follies in Europe, 1949 to be exact.

Albert quirked his brow up once he noticed her mangled fingers. They looked as if they were broken; every knuckle curved her long digits in various directions like the joints of a broken doll. Hoping to inspect her hand more, Albert was jolted out of his musings once Einiona spoke up. “Heh. It does seem to be that way, does it?” The cardinal chuckled.

“Amazing indeed. I do think it would be boring a boring world if oddities didn’t come about.”

Einiona wasn't particularly nationalist, she's just pleasantly chuffed about someone from a place she'd recognize being here, in a place she quite profoundly doesn't. "Enjoy the rain, do you?"

(The joke in her family went like this: Mom moved them all to Wales because she missed living somewhere the weather was in a meaner mood than she was. This was unfair to poor Mom, but family in-jokes usually are.)

"Every day is boring if every day's exactly the same," she said, all chipper and brisk. "And I hate boredom."

His intentions towards Einiona's hand have not escaped her notice, although whether he's trying to cover them up is another matter entirely; Einiona paused her arm in its gyrations just in front of her chest and looked at it before looking back up at Albert. "It's a sight, innit? Car accident when I was a small one, docs said it was lucky I survived. Most babies don't pull through, when the injury's that awful bad." She shrugged, her smile crooked and sharp. "Another win for the 'oddities' ... something like that, anyway."

Since he’s the kind of person who enjoys miserable weather, Albert truly did enjoy spending his summers in Wales for the dreary but peaceful scenery. “I am not sure if I can agree with your sentiments. There’s nothing wrong in living a mundane, boring, but peaceful life.” It’s the life he always wished he could have. It was the life he was trying to provide for every weary person sick of the conflict brewed by the elitist few.

Straying from his thoughts once more, Albert noticed that Einiona’s pulled her bandaged arm towards her chest. “A car accident you say? I am sorry for your misfortunes.” He remembered how often he said those last words, always feeling a pang of guilt for not being able to do more for those who truly were in need.

“I suppose that arm never healed, did it?” He had to question why the Garden would take in a disabled girl like Einiona if the cadets were expected to fight on the battlefield in the future.

Albert's consideration struck Einiona as the act of a man possessed by a profound sense of pity for humanity, the kind who would reach out to help a homeless stranger to the nearest shelter and be saddened if the stranger jerked their hand away instead because he wouldn't really get why it happened. In other words: well-intentioned guy, gigantic asshole. It didn't make her like him much. This would probably be more off-putting, if she were looking for a friend; as it was, he was fun to talk to, so she didn't really care.

"Nah, never did." She crooked her index finger, wiggled it a bit. "You ever try setting a cast for a baby? Hard work, it is, when the body's growing so fast like that."

She rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck. "I make do."

Only if someone could reward this girl with King Solomon's riches for her skilled analysis of this man. Not many individuals would have guessed the cardinal to be anything else other than benevolent and kind. Then again, those who did know of his true nature were often laid the rest in coffins; just see Father Doyle for that example.

Honestly, her laid-back attitude towards her misfortunes was slightly befuddling, but somewhat admirable at the same time. Einiona was obviously a girl who isn’t going to allow her ill fortune to hold her back in life. Perhaps he could learn something from this foul-mouthed girl from Wales. That is if he allows himself the luxury to think there’s more to Einiona than what meets the eyes.

"It would be quite difficult to set a cast upon an infant's arm, therefore I suppose this would be the only result." Even though he could easily heal such a wound if he desired to do so. "May I ask you a question? Has any word been told regarding how long we may stay here within this Garden?"

Albert's still eager to return to the world he plotted to destroy.

If he tried, Einiona would kick him in the dick before his fingers ever touched her. Not even joking. That kind of pity would offend her on so many levels she'd never forgive him for considering it.

Good thing she had no idea he was considering it, or this conversation would be going very differently!

She raised an eyebrow, her mouth quirking up in bemusement. "I don't know what's stopping you." She looked around at the Quad, gesturing at the scenic environs briefly. "I have to pass some retarded classes first -" her face twists up in a momentary moue of distaste - "but unless you've been shanghaied into this SeeD program I don't see why you have to stay on board at all."

... that wasn't actually what he meant, Einiona. But nice try, anyway.

Letting a deep sigh once he heard that response, Albert fought the urge to zap her. “No, you misunderstand my inquiry.” He corrected quickly as he tightened his grip upon his cane. “I mean to ask what sort of endeavors has been made to fix this Time Compression.” The girl has to know something regarding this topic since she isn’t a native of this world. If not, Albert will merely ask whoever comes near until he finds an answer. If he was truly locked away within another world, then Yuri and the others could already be doing battle against the God he summoned in a vain attempt to halt Armageddon.

“Surely, you know of some news involving this phenomenon.”

"I'm not sure it can be fixed."

Having said that, she sat down on a nearby rock, her elbows propped up on her knees. "It's not like wishing's gonna make you find the end of this rainbow, Cardinal." The way she dropped the title, it didn't sound anything like a term of respect. "Nobody has any control over who stays and who goes. Isn't that obvious?" She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. "I showed up and everybody looked at me like some kind of alien, dude, do you really think they got any idea what they're doing?"

She snorted. "The first time I've been through this dance this isn't, you know." She rolled her eyes. "The people in charge don't know any more about what they're doing here than they did back at Kismet, and it's about as much use expecting them to give a shit. Roll with it, Simon Says."

... d-did she just. She did.

Chuckling, she tipped over till she sprawled atop the rock, staring up at the sky. "Besides, why would you want to leave before you've seen what this place has to offer? They have floating islands! Every star in the sky is new! Just think of learning all the new names for all those stupid twinkling nightlights up there. And that's just to start." She rolled over to stare at him. "Doesn't that make you even a little excited? Shit."

If there were ever a time he doubted his patience, now would be that time. Einiona was infuriating rude, more so than that cheeky harmonixer. In fact, Albert would go as far to say that Yuri possessed more tact than this young girl. Although, she certainly seemed to make a good enough point regarding the reaction of the natives here at Balamb. The Time Compression itself seemed to an unnatural occurrence to this realm, which means the citizens are as clueless as the newcomers are. A shame really, it seems that there are missing pieces to this puzzle that haven’t been found as of yet. Perhaps instead of fussing about his moment of greatness ruined by that foul boy, now would be the perfect time to start investigating this realm.

He listened quietly to the girl as she ranted while moderately wondering if this world is any different from the ruined world he hails from. “With that said, it seems that this is more of a blessing in disguise than a curse.” Albert smiled at Einiona as she spoke.

“You have my thanks, Ms. Canning. I do hope you enjoy your time here at the Garden.” Bowing towards the smart mouthed girl in a gentlemanly fashion, the cardinal set off towards a destination unknown. However, instead of just teleporting towards the next level; Albert decided to go for a stroll.

"Hah! It was nothing, but you're welcome anyway." She waved a dismissive hand. "I don't know that much." She let her hands fall on her chest and fold over each other, staring up at the sky, a wistful expression on her face. "I hardly know anything at all sometimes." She laughed, and she said nothing, just closed her eyes as he bowed to her.

"I intend to try!" she called after him, watching him go with a fiercely unrepentant look of glee on her face.

... a look that fell almost immediately after he left earshot, as she turned back to face the sky, holding her unbandaged hand up to cover a patch of it. Her words were almost a whisper, for herself and none other.

"It's not like I've got any other options, after all."

She bit her lip until she was sure the feeling had faded, and threw herself to her feet. She had a date tonight, after all. A hot date with lots of grunting and shoving and screwing.

... what, she only plans to rip the computer apart and try putting it back together again to keep her mind off being trapped in a completely unfamiliar universe, what did you think she meant by that? Get your mind out of the gutter.

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