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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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"!" The punctuation! It is audible! Also audible: the sound of someone jumping back, tripping, and crashing to the ground with a yelp as the (ex?) Cardinal reappeared just as she walked by.

"... ow." That was her butt she just fell on, dammit.

Hailing from a realm where the supernatural is almost as common as fiction; Albert was actually humored to see the girl fall from her shock. The poor dear probably never witnessed such magic, a testament to how different some worlds may be compared with others. "I do hope you haven't broke something, dear." He commented with a faint smirk.

The girl before him wasn't a striking beauty like the young exorcist he chased after in Shanghai. In fact, she was almost a homely looking thing. An average girl of average height, that seemed to have wounded her left arm rather badly. Albert’s eyes lingered upon her bandaged arm as he wondered what might have caused such a grievous wound. From what he knows about the Garden, Albert was right to assume that this girl was one of many mercenaries training here.

Extending his white gloved hand towards her, Albert welcomed her with a polite grin. "Come now, the floor is no place for a lady."

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?"

Alice enjoyed almost every minute she spent in the Quad each day after her long, and rather tiresome classes. She'd occasionally bring a book of a poetry, or a thick leather-bound bible to page through as she let her thoughts dive elsewhere. There were few things that could drag her from the words of a book, and the sudden flash of light the Cardinal caused with his teleportation was one of them.

She lifted her head as she recognized a thick evil, and stood immediately, book hitting the ground with an echoing thud. She winced, but straightened her back as if to appear unafraid, even though that certainly wasn't the case.

"I can't believe this." Alice whispered the words, a slight tremble to them. She hadn't given much thought to the idea that this man might one day appear, though she had known that the possibility was there, she had hoped and prayed, instead, for the appearance of her companions. It seemed her prayers were lost in this new world.

And Terra was currently sitting in the Quad, her head in her hands. Only not literally because that would be kind of gross. She was looking through a book in her lap, trying to figure out the equations in her math class when the sudden 'ripple' of magic caught her notice. She glanced up, startling to see the man just... suddenly there</>, and her book fell to the floor as she let out a surprised little, "Oh!"

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.”

Once believing he was brought here to this realm alone, a look of surprise settled within the cardinal’s eyes as he stared at Alice before him. His usual unreadable gaze quickly replaced it, but the mirth that settled upon his expression was evident. “It seems we meet again, Sister.” Albert said with a faint smirk. Taking a quick glance, Albert realized that the girl was here alone.

“No companions to come fetch you? It seems as if your little group of ‘Merry Men’ has dwindled.” Noting the exorcist’s fake bravado, Albert wondered if his comical words were indeed true. Unlike that time he met with the young woman at the church in Rouen, it seems that Alice wouldn’t have much of a choice about her arrival here to Balamb. He quickly figured that despite the absence of his younger foes, they could eventually arrive here at any moment. Thus why he was secretively scheming to kill Alice before her friends could arrive to save her, although could he actually get away with such a fiendish scheme here?

He sighed softly, shaking his head at his own murderous thoughts. “This leaves me at quite a predicament.”

Dispensing the magic he cast to reach the quad, that tear in time and space vanished just quickly as it appeared. The stately gentleman glanced towards his right once he spotted the girl, mildly taken back by her exotic locks. "My pardon, miss." He apologized with a smile. The poor dear was probably studying before he barged in.

Terra shook her head, leaning down to pick up her book again. "That's... it's quite all right, the Quad is a place for anyone to rest. I just didn't expect to see anyone else here." Especially not in the particular way he had arrived.

He chuckled lightly at the girl’s reply after noticing the cover of her book. “Mathematics?” Albert questioned aloud with a slight intrigue. The cardinal figured there would be some similarities between this realm and the next, but he hadn’t expected to find a young mercenary reading up on arithmetic. “Having trouble with mathematics, are you?” He asked wondering what sort of math the Garden requires their young pupils to master.

"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.”

The Quad, once an area of relaxation for Alice, was now tainted. Her moment of peace had been shattered, and if this wicked man were to forever haunt Balamb Garden, then she would never feel safe. The idea was stifling, and in a moment of self-comfort, she gripped her hands together in the form of a makeshift prayer.

"Yuri is here." She wasted no time in letting the other know that her hero, too, was pulled to this world with them. She wasn't alone, and if anything were to happen to her, he would know it. That knowledge brought her little comfort, though, not when she stood in front of the very man who murdered her father, the very man who threatened her world and life.

How could it when danger was so near?

She lowered herself to the ground for just a moment, to appear as nonchalant about his appearance as possible, and picked up her book that had fallen earlier with a white gloved hand. The book wasn't her bible, that was still in her dorm (she never gave thought of encountering an enemy here), but it was heavy and thick and if she felt cornered, she could use it as makeshift weapon.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon." Alice had no real knowledge that Yuri was going to appear, her words were just a bluff, but she hoped to God he would believe her.

As soon as she mentioned Yuri, Albert couldn’t contain his smile. “Is that so? I’ll be sure to greet him.” Even if Yuri was here to protect her, he was feeling rather confident in his skills as of late despite the Messiah’s untimely disappearance. That doesn’t mean that he underestimates the harmonixer’s skills, but rather knows he’ll be able to overcome whatever tricks that boy has up his sleeves. He scoffed lightly once Alice clasped her hands together, wondering idly if she truly believed that Yuri would come rushing to aid now. Who knows where Yuri is but for right now, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Still debating if he should make good with his scheme to rid himself of Father Elliot's dear daughter, Albert stayed his hand for a moment longer. It would be no fun to dispose of her, at least without Yuri watching. “Do you recall what we discussed prior to our last meeting?” He asks considering it seems that this Time Compression is capable of luring all sorts of people here from various periods.

“If so, care to humor me?”

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.

And the reluctant hero arrives (fanfare). Jogging down the steps that lead into the Quad main, he's looking more harassed than usual and comes to a short stop, panting a little and out of breath.

"Alice! There you are– geez, you're hard to find in this place, should put a leash on y—"

Before his thoughts can delve delightfully into the gutter (he he), he notices the familiar Brit. It's the top hat, what can he say. His expression changes but not for the worse– the last meeting he had with him wasn't so unpleasant, and he'd maybe even gained some sympathy for the guy.

"Hey, it's the old fart," he straightens and heads over to Alice, but her frightened posture and look of distress clue him in to the foreboding nature of the meeting. Of course, if she wasn't from the same time as Yuri was, she wouldn't know all about Albert yet...

"When'd you get here? Whatcha two chatting about?" His tone is suspicious and he angles himself so that he's oh so subtly in between the two, blocking Alice from potential harm's way. Hey, old habits die hard and he did try to destroy the world and all.

As soon as Albert heard the footsteps, his attention drew away from Alice and towards the young man who approached. Yuri looked a tad different these days, sporting the still shaggy hair but this time it seemed to have gained more volume. Not to mention the youth's voice changed slightly, just a little deeper than usual. However, what alarmed Albert the most was that Yuri didn't automatically leap in to attack. Usually by now, the boy would have his fists up, but it seems he's opted for a more defensive stance for the sake of his girlfriend.

"'Old fart?'" This boy's language gets more colorful by the days. "You address me so plainly, Yuri. Almost as if we've old friends." Now Albert was certain he's gone mad, or at least madder. Pondering on what to do now that Yuri returned, Albert glanced over towards Alice briefly.

"As I asked her, what is it you last remember?"

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NOWHERE TO BE SEEN HUH YOU OLD BASTARD? alicemun i hope you dont mind me jumping in?

Oh, CRUD! IF IT ISN'T THE BOY WONDER! ~_~