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~ < A LITTLE WHILE AGO, THE SKIES OVER THE GARRISON > ~
This isn't a dogfight... it's a massacre. None of their planes' weapons have any effect on the superior craft of these aliens. And one by one, Adam's squad are shot out of the sky. They had to hold on; they just needed to figure out a place to hit these things... these craft HAD to have a weakness! Numbers dwindle quickly, and the announcement that he hadn't wanted to hear comes over the radio.
<< Adam... you're all that's left... >>
The words send a shock through him, and dread begins to fill the pit of his stomach. There just wasn't anything they could do against these craft. But he had to try! He has to do something! He turns his plane back, to try to aim at weapons, at engines -- anything that might even scratch the craft.
As it turns out, staring death in the face is a very different experience than he always thought it would be. He always thought he'd be ready for it, that he'd made his peace with that possibility... or if nothing else, that his logical brain would let him work through it.
But as the ion beam filled his vision with bright light, his brain isn't thinking logically. The sucked-in breath exits in a cry of surprise and fear. His vision goes from white to black, fear and pain...
~< TRUCE FOUNTAIN COURTYARD, MABASE CITY, TWISTED >~
THUD!
That is the sound of a body hitting the ground. A man in a suit much like a spacesuit, faceshield shattered, helmet cracked open like a dropped melon, the suit charred on the left side. It wouldn't take long for medical personnel to load the unfortunate guy into an ambulance and get him to the hospital. But amongst the bustling, it might not be too difficult to catch a glimpse of the face...
By some very strange coincidence, another person is coming into the bustling situation. Having felt something was wrong, a white haired man arrives, trying to see if there is anything to be done. He's not been here long, but Takashi Shirogane isn't going to just ignore the bad feeling he has. That being the case, as he sees the face of the person who's being gathered, he goes a bit wide eyed.
"Hey, wait..." Shiro wonders, "Can I come with him to keep him company? I think I know him."
The EMTs allow the white haired man into the vehicle, as they start taking notations of the injuries that adorn the man's body. The helmet is carefully removed, giving a completely clear view of the face within, as the medical technicians quickly sanatize and prep any visable wounds there may be. Cuts here, gashes there. Possible broken bones. Extreme burns. All in all, if this man is going to survive, it's surely an up hill battle with these types of injuries.
"EM-One, inbound with one critical. Multiple lacerations and extreme burns. Possible broken bones as well. ETA is seven minutes."
The trip to the Mabase Courthouse isn't a long one, nor is the rapid rise on the emergency elevator to the third floor. As the group exits the elevator, already a group of nurses and medical professionals is rushing down the hallway to converge on the critically injured. Following closely behind them all is man in blue medical scrubs with dirty blonde hair. A white surgical mask has already been pulled over his face as he ducks down for one of the nurses to cover his head with a medical cap.
The man in blue stops for a few moments to converse with the EMTs, before suddenly shouting at the top of his lungs at the medical staff that are already moving into the surgery room, his voice tinged with the hint of some sort of accent. "Prepare twenty CCs of Ketamine, our priority right now is to control the rate of bloodflow through the carotid artery to prevent possible brain lesions. We need identify any other problem areas rapidly. We also don't need him thrashing around. I want him fully under." As he enters the room himself, he gestures to a few of the other members of the medical staff, "Watts, you're on Monitor duty. Campbell, you're on suction duty. Rollins, I need you to keep constant readings with the tricorder. Everyone else, you're on stand-by."
Hands sanitized, and gloves adorned, the doors to the OR are firmly shut as the bright red light above them slowly comes to life.
Shiro will indeed see the injured man's face, once the EMTs have removed his helmet. He's burnt, and not with normal fire. On the bright side he's unconscious, so he's not going to be giving the EMTs much trouble, aside from being a dead weight. Well, a... not-quite-dead weight. Thankfully.
More importantly for Shiro? It's definitely Adam. Once that helmet's removed, there's no mistaking it. Even if there are quite a bit more injuries than Shiro remembers him having.
Shiro will probably be asked to wait in the waiting room while the doctor works on Adam. He is of course burned, though most of the burns are contained to the left side of his body, and there is of course some actual physical trauma -- not surprising since not only did he fall from a moderately high place -- with at least some of his velocity preserved, so there's some road rash, too -- but he basically took both a broken ship and the ion beam that broke said ship, to the face.
Fortunately for Adam -- and for the doctors/nurses -- the injuries aren't too bad. Which is pretty damned amazing considering what he's been through. Of course, no one really has a way to know that yet, since he's not conscious enough to tell anyone yet...
Shiro would be thinking things over in the waiting room. It's wierd enough that he ended up here. Now Adam's here? And from when that happened? Why's someone from a specific point in the past here? ...Was this what really happened to Adam in the first place when they'd said he died? Has Shiro some how gone into his own past? This place is really confusing him since he arrived.
~ONE MILLION YEARS LATER~
Hours pass, and finally, the glowing red OR light finally grows dim, the doors to the operating room opening up and allowing the medical team to move the injured Adam to the recovery ward to ride out the rest of the anasthesia in peace. Sometimes rest is just as good as surgery. Then the man in blue steps out, looking rather immaculate, with no traces of filth upon his scrubs in any way. The mask is removed alongside the hat, which is used to mop at the tiny beads of sweat upon his brow.
A glance is given now towards the white haired man, as the doctor makes his way torward Shiro. "My name is Doctor Rebane. The emergency techs told me that you said you know my injured patient?" There is no traces of sympathy, or even any traces of compassion. The words are blunt, direct, and solely only guided upon getting any information from Shiro as he can.
Once the words leaves his mouth, he does realize how harsh he came across, and he rolls it back some. "Your friend is going to be just fine, and I trust will be waking up in the recovery ward in just a few minutes. If you would like, you can wait in there for him."
"Yes, I'd prefer that," Shiro replies, "...He used to be my roommate several years ago. It is odd though. I was told he died and...he looks like he probably would have around the time I was told he died. His name is Adam Weissman." He seems rather undisturbed by the doctor's way of talking. He was around doctors so much in the past that this probably isn't his first time with someone of this sort of manner.
Fortunately yeah, Adam seems to be doing okay, all things considered. He's probably devoid of the flight suit completely now, it having been removed to get out of the way of the operating doctor. There's probably a lot of bandages, particularly on the left side of his body.
Though if he's supposed to be resting, he's probably 'dressed' (for a given value thereof) in one of those horrible hospital gowns, and covered up with a blanket. Can't have him getting cold -- he'd shiver, and that's probably not good for his recovery!
Takashi Shirogane carefully makes his way into the recovery ward, trying not to be much of a bother. "I wonder if anything I have will fit him," he murmurs as he realizes Adam's state of clothing...or rather lack there of. "I'll probably have to find him something. I don't really know where I should look around this place yet."
The flight suit pretty much was a lost cause. There's no need to ever bring it up again as it, and the helmet, are on their way down now to the incinerator with the rest of the soiled linens and bandages used to treat Adam Weissman.
The Doctor does, however make one final round of checks upon his patient with a small silver tube. A larger object further in the room makes whirling sounds as one of the nurses, presumably Rollins, calls out the readings to the doctor.
"Doctor, three broken ribs as well as a bruised tibia from blunt force trauma. Vital signs are stable. He's ready to be brought out of sedation." The silver tube is placed into the right pocket of the Doctor's scrubs, and a larger tube is retrieved, and then placed against the neck of the injured Adam, forcing a small amount of Ritalin into his blood stream with a simple hiss from the tube.
The Doctor waits for a few moments, carefully watching the young man before nodding his head. Turning once more to Shiro, he speaks. "As you heard, he has multiple broken ribs, and bruised bones. If he's not careful, he'll fracture his tibia, and that'll mean he'll be in a cast and on crutches for the next 12 weeks, and possibly have to go through multiple surguries to repair damage that can easily be avoided by just resting for the next two to three. Make sure your friend fully understands this."
And with that, the doctor and Rollins departs, leaving Shiro and Adam to speak once the Galactic Crash Test Dummy fully awakens.
It's not long after the 'injection' that Adam starts to move around just a little. His head turns a bit, he winces. He opens his eyes, slowly, and starts to look around the room. Though he keeps his head still... there's some burns on his neck and he doesn't want to pull on them. "...W-where...?" he breathes. It sounds more like he's testing his voice at the moment, though. And he looks confused, with the frown. And the nearsighted squint.
"I'm still figuring that out myself," Shiro admits, "I'm not sure how either of us got here, but here we are..." He adjusts his glasses a little before just taking them off. "Umm...good as it is to see you alive, I do still wish it was under better circumstances and all..."
That voice...
Adam's eyes widen, and he turns his head -- slowly, mind -- to see the source. "...T-Takashi...?" He sounds like he doesn't believe what (or in this case, who) he's seeing. He's silent after that for a moment, just taking this all in. His mind doesn't know how to process all this! "They said you died... I didn't believe it..." A pause then, and he squints a bit, to see Shiro closer. "...You've changed..."
Shiro nods, seeming a bit uncertain of how he should take the whole thing himself. He looks calm and collected, but that's that thing he usually does. "They said you died too," he points out, "A few years ago...after being shot down by the Galra. So it feels almost like I went back in time or you got shot forward...but neither of us are in 'Kansas'..."
Adam pauses again, blinking. "A... few years ago." He's repeating the words, to make absolutely sure he heard that right. He definitely remembers it being less than that long ago. It's still pretty fresh in his mind, in fact. "...There wasn't anything we could do. Nothing we threw at those fighters even so much as scratched them..."
Yeah, he's... not even going to entertain the notion of ending up in the freaking Land of Oz right now. His mind can't take it. He's having trouble processing all this as it is!
Takashi Shirogane frowns and nods in return. "The world was mostly taken over by the time I got back with the others," he states, "But we managed to take out the enemy and were in the process of rebuilding when I got here."
Adam just... stares. "...Taken over? The whole world? Then... that means..." He looks up at the ceiling then, and falls silent. He seems mostly calm, though there is a slight trace of a frown in his brow. Or, he might just be squinting to see.
Either way, the reaction is familiar -- something unpleasant, something he really hates. Something he doesn't want to talk about.
What could that be? No one likes feeling useless. Especially galling is that he... well, basically seemed to have died, and it seemed to have been for nothing...
"Sanda died after continously trying to prove that she knew better than anyone else, when she didn't," Shiro states, "Of course that's not what the public hears of it. I know it was on one of her bullheaded orders that you were sent off to die..." He's not the told you so type, or some small part of him might have wanted to remind Adam that Sanda was the same person that was trying to bar him from going to space when Adam agreed with her before breaking it off with him. Thankfully that's not even close to crossing his mind.
Adam is listening. He's not looking at Shiro, but he's listening. His right hand -- the one he can still move without pain -- is curled into a fist at his side. He isn't shivering or notibly gritting his teeth. It's hard to see, since one of the things he and Shiro have in common is that they both hold their emotions in (though for different reasons). But if Shiro remembers Adam's little faces, the little 'tells' in his expression that would only give his feelings away to those who are familiar with him, he'll see it.
Adam's lips are pursed ever so slightly, drawn tightly against his teeth. It's only there where there's a small quiver of anger. It's not aimed at Shiro, no... It's honestly aimed at himself, for being so damned by-the-book, when 'the book' was written by someone who apparently didn't even know -- or maybe she didn't care -- what his squad was going up against.
His anger is only betrayed in his voice by the ever-so-slight tautness as he responds with a simple, quiet, "...I see."
Takashi Shirogane frowns some as he tries to think of how to lighten this up. "...So, you know what the guy said when he lost his right arm," he asks suddenly, making a small wave of his floating arm after saying this.
With his thoughts focused on the thing that's probably going to be eating him up inside for the next... however long he's here, Shiro's next words don't immediately register. Though they do a moment later, and Adam turns to Shiro and blinks. "...What?" he asks, confused.
"Please stop, I only have one left..." Shiro replies with a grin. Ugh, yep, it's definitely Shiro.
Adam just... stares for a moment. Then his head flops back on the pillow again, and he rolls his eyes. "Ugh... Takashi, please don't make me facepalm this soon. It hurts to move." The words are... about what Shiro probably expected. Though that said? Adam is also fighting a smile, and his tone is not so taut here. So yeah, Adam probably expected that on some level. And that ghost of a smile is trying to haunt Adam's face here, despite his attempts to exorcise it.
"Sorry, but I had to," Shiro states with the grin still present, "...Should I tie your arms down and tell some more?" He's obviously just teasing here, he's not really going to torment Adam with puns.
Adam gives Shiro a 'really?' look. "No. Thank you," he replies. He's not angry, at least. Though it would be hard to tell if Shiro didn't know him so well. A moment of silence, and then Adam asks, "So what happened with your arm? And your face looks a little different, too. Not things that would change through aging..."
"When they were saying that Sam, Matt, and I were dead, we'd actually been taken prisoner and enslaved by the galra," Shiro explains, "So things got a little rough...but all three of us are alive and well."
Adam nods. "I didn't believe you died anyway," he confesses. "Particularly not from 'pilot error'. I know you." Pause. "Knew," he corrects himself. "Everyone was too eager to close the case without any effort to find you. I knew something fishy was up, but I had to way to really find out. All the information I could find was locked behind higher clearance levels than I had access to." Indicating that he made some considerable effort to find something out.
Shiro frowns and rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah...I kind of thought that would have been the case," he states, "But I didn't really have a way to get in touch...even when I got back to Earth for a short time before actually returning I was passed out or being held prisoner almost the entire time."
"And of course they didn't tell anyone..." Adam notes. "That would have been admitting someone had lied and that there was something larger going on." Adam has very little patience or sympathy for people who lie to him. It's also worth noting that when Shiro mentions being held prisoner, his right hand balls into a fist again.
Shiro nods in reply. "Of course," he states, "...I mean, the being held prisoner made sense because of what had happened with me, as much as it felt a tiny bit overboard..." He can just hear the time when Coran questioned Iverson about it in his head right now.
Adam also nods. "Quarantine, I suppose," he reasons. "Fear of alien germs, fear of alien corruption..." His voice trails off. He's looking at Shiro expectantly now, wanting to hear the rest of this tale -- clearly, if they were 'rebuilding', then the Galra had been defeated eventually. Besides, there's still the question of Shiro's arm, and why his face looks so different.
"It looked overboard enough the kids 'kidnapped' me in attempt to save me, and that lead to how I ended up BACK in space so quickly..." Shiro explains, "After that I was in space for a lot longer before coming back to earth for... almost keeps."
"'Almost' keeps?" Adam inquires. He's missing a lot of context for a lot of what went on, because... well, he died three years before everything ended, after never having been told that not only did Shiro not die in space, but came back briefly.
"Yeah, we had to go back out into space to fight one more time and I somehow ended up in this place," Shiro answers.
Adam nods. "And... your arm? And your features?" he prompts carefully. There's something weird still going on, and Adam's perceptive enough to pick it up. "It happened while you were in space, no doubt..." No, he's not about to say 'I told you so', even if he wants to -- space did screw Shiro up, just like he figured it would, and he wants to point that out so bad. But now is not the time. He wants information, and pointing fingers would just get Shiro to close up.
"Most of that happened when I was a slave," Shiro answers, "Aside from the hair...mostly." He's already closed up a little just cause he's trying to play it cool.
Adam notices this, and pauses. He dials it back, plays the conversation so far back in his head. And he realizes that he's... kind of interrogating Shiro, isn't he? Which... yeah, fair enough, is pretty standard for Adam. Still, Shiro's probably been through hell out there. And the last thing he needs, even after everything is over -- maybe especially after everything is over -- is for someone to hold his feet to the fire, metaphorically speaking, until he spills his guts.
Besides, Adam realizes... he doesn't have the right to do that anymore. He ended things with Shiro just before the Kerebos mission. But he can still be Shiro's friend. And friends don't interrogate friends. Besides that, this isn't really the best place for a heartfelt conversation. As much as he doesn't like leaving things unsaid, Adam figures he'll have time. Everything doesn't have to come out now. If he's really 'dead', it's unlikely he's going to get snatched away from here anytime soon.
So he reaches up -- slowly, because it still hurts to move much -- and makes to lay his hand over one of Shiro's. He doesn't care which; the metal arm doesn't really bother him. It's definitely surprising, but it doesn't change who Shiro is. "...Takashi," he begins quietly. "You don't have to tell me anything about it if you don't want to," Adam says quietly. "But if you do want to talk about it, I'm here." He's under the impression that Shiro's closed up partly because Adam is being heavy-handed, and partly because horrible things were done to him that he doesn't want to tell Adam about. So he's putting the decision of when -- and if -- back in Shiro's hands.
Shiro seems to relax slightly as Adam says that. "Y-yeah, sorry," he replies, "I was just being vague cause it seems like a lot to drop on someone in your state. And you know me... like I'm likely to spill a load about myself onto a captive audience without having it pried out of me first..."
Adam smirks. "Only if you don't think any of it will worry someone else," he points out. "More seriously... you do have a point. I'm likely to be upset if I was to find out exactly the nature of what happened to you out there. And those sorts of emotional reactions are liable to hurt my chest for a while." Still pragmatic as ever.
"Besides, if I'm 'dead'," he continues, echoing that thought, "then it's unlikely I'm going to disappear anytime soon. There's time for everything to out naturally."
Takashi Shirogane nods in reply. "There's also a lot to tell, and...despite the arm being obvious, a lot of it will probably sound far fetched," he adds.
"And... this isn't really the best place to do that," Adam replies. "That might be best told somewhere that everyone and their dog can't overhear. I was just concerned, since you seem different, in a way I can't really explain. It's not necessarily how you look that's different. Though... it is, but there's something else I can't place..."
"Exactly," Shiro agrees, "...I can shorten it down to lots of fighting Galra in space, finally getting home and then fighting Galra on earth, and then going back out into space long enough to defeat the queen. That leaves a lot out but, that's basically what happened."
Adam nods. "Basically... quite a bit of fighting," he reasons. Another reason he shouldn't be doing any interrogating -- Shiro has been through enough. Besides, there must be a lot he's not telling Adam... and a lot of it is probably highly unpleasant. Because one of the ways that he's different is a haunted look that wasn't there before. It's enough to make Adam resent the hand fate dealt him -- not even able to comfort someone who meant so much to him, not even able to help save his own world.
Shiro gives another nod of affirmation. "But now we're here," he states, "Which...is not there....I still don't really understand where it is, I'm still putting that together, but I managed to see you getting picked up, and I had to be around for when you woke up rather than just letting you wake up to this alone."
Adam's smile is small, but it's there. "...Thank you," he says quietly. "That... makes this a little easier." Not just being here. But basically being 'thrown away', along with his squad. But just... being here, not knowing where he is, not knowing what's wrong with Shiro... Everything. But, well. Other things to be said. "What do you know about this place so far?" Interrogating Shiro about himself may be a little too personal for here. But interrogating him about where they've ended up? That's something else.
"We're in something of a town that seems seperated from everything else," Shiro states, "It has edges that just...go off into nothing...almost makes me wonder if it's like the world on the back of the turtle..."
"World on the back of the turtle?" Adam's a little confused about that. Though there's still more he has to ask, too. "I saw a little bit of the city when I fell... Have you had the opportunity to look around much?"
"Some here and there," Shiro answers, "What is it you need to know? ...And yeah, sorry, that's a mythology you might not be privy to...there's a myth that the world is actually being supported on the shell of a gigantic turtle..."
Adam nods. "What can you tell me about the place? It's going to be a while before I can go out and about, and explore on my own." Because yeah, he's going to be on crutches for like three months at least. And it's going to be hard to hobble on crutches with broken ribs.
Shiro would explain about the areas of the place he'd seen. It's mainly things like the S-mart, the Usual Resturaunt, the schools, and both the apartment areas...basically the more important sorts of areas to take note of.
Adam listens, making mental note of all these places. If he's stuck here, the first thing he needs to do is figure out how to get by -- apartments and stores are a good place to start. He's not sure about a job, but it's going to be a while before he can work anyway. Which makes him wince a bit... what's he going to do 'till then? He's not going to expect Shiro to look after him.
Shiro can probably see the wheels in Adam's head turning here -- the slight frown, the thoughtful look, the wince... Yeah, he's probably thinking about what he's going to do when he gets out. It's typical of Adam to try to plan for the future, and being injured is going to put a damper on those plans...
"I'm new here too," Shiro states, "So we can help each other out till we get on our own feet." He offers without Adam even having to ask. It begs the question what Adam's supposed to be doing for Shiro, but otherwise, Shiro's Shiroing.
And yet Adam still grimaces. But still returns, with some reluctance, "Thank you." A pause. "...I'm going to be injured for a while, so I'm not sure what I'll be able to do when I get out of here. So I'm not sure how I can return the favor. You don't owe me anything, and it would be unfair of me to expect that of you."
"Yeah, but what person with any kind of heart is just going to leave someone homeless and injured in the hospital without any sort of assistance at all," Shiro replies, "Especially when they already know the person?"
Adam looks away here. "...The last thing I said to you wasn't exactly the most endearing thing, though..." he points out. "I still stand by what I said then... but I could understand not wanting to be around me after that." Though that did remind him of something. "Oh, that's right." Finally looking back to Shiro, he asks, "Have you managed to secure a source of medicine here?" He's not going to be able to help Shiro like he used to.
"That's fine...we obviously aren't together in that sense, but you're still someone important to me," Shiro states, "I've got no ulterior motives here." He pauses as Adam asks about the medication. "I don't actually need that anymore," Shiro answers, "No, I'm not saying that in a bull headed kind of way. It's been indirectly cured."
Adam blinks at this. "...Cured? There wasn't a cure in our world. Though I suppose this isn't our world. But what do you mean by 'indirectly'?" Pause. "Or is that one of those things you'd rather discuss in a less public environment?"
"It's....complicated and probably not something you want to hear right now," Shiro answers, "But...it's gone due to something that wasn't meant to cure it at all, and just kind of worked that way as a happy little side effect."
That's... not a lot of information. And it's more than a little worrying. But, yes... the explanation of that will come later. Hopefully Adam can keep himself from worrying about it too much in the meantime... Anyway. Adam nods. "That's good... that's a big worry off my mind. Are you sure it's completely gone, though? You can be sure?" Notably, he asks 'if' Shiro can be sure it's gone, rather than 'how' -- he wants to make sure, but he isn't questioning Shiro's knowledge.
Takashi Shirogane nods in reply. "Haven't had a single attack since it happened, and it's been a long time, with no medication...in space...and out of space, captaining a </b>huge</b> ship full of people to their possible dooms after showing up to a world near entirely dead or enslaved aside from our garrison..." Shiro states, "Not saying it to rub in or brag or anything like that, but that seems like one of the strongest stress tests I can think of."
Aha! Yeeeeeeeeess, information! Though Adam blinks once more at all this. He's not looking at it as bragging or rubbing anything in. What he hears is 'strongest stress test'. "I'm sorry you had to go through it all," he notes. He gives a small smile. "But I'm glad you made it through."
"Yeah...Earth went through a lot...sorry," Shiro replies, "I was trying not to dump big info on you, but, it's hard to avoid some of it...and I'm glad you're alive."
"I don't mind," Adam notes. "And I'm glad that... at least if I wasn't any use, that someone managed to stop them, eventually." That's going to sting for a while, yeah... that he was so absolutely useless in trying to stop the Galra. But, like he said, he can deal. His pride generally gives way to pragmatism, and pragmatically, there's no need to feel bad about it. But there's still that part of himself that is a little upset about it all.
"I was really upset when I found out they killed you," Shiro states, "I failed you by doing what I did...but unfortunately, I'd hate to think of what would have happened if I'd stayed, given what happened due to me leaving."
Adam nods. "That... could be why you were so insistent about going," he notes. "I don't exactly believe in fate... but I don't believe in coincidence either. Maybe something was... calling you out there. Maybe that was why you were so insistent to keep going when you'd already done everything there was to do." Given how spiritually-connected Shiro ended up being to the Black Lion, that could quite conceivably be!
"But you didn't fail me," Adam replies. "We both made our choices back then, and we both did what we thought was right at the time. There's no blame to be had for that."
"I suppose it's true I had no real choice after returning," Shiro states, "What might have been calling me required a good lot of me..."
Adam smiles. "Apparently what you had was enough. Since you're still here, so it didn't take all of you." He pauses. "There's a good balance of learning from the past but looking to the future that's required here, I think. I'm going to have trouble with that. But if you dealt with the problem, and the world is rebuilding... that means you succeeded. You literally saved the world. And that's something to be proud of."
Takashi Shirogane blushes slightly and nods. "It's not like I did it myself, there was a lot of help," he states, "And for one stretch of time I wasn't even able to do anything..."
"You did eventually, though," Adam notes. "Like I said... a balance of not dwelling on the past and learning from it. Don't forget what happened, but use it to try to make sure that if you ever have similar situations in the future, you'll be better prepared for them."
Takashi Shirogane nods again. "Yeah...but you know...this means you didn't really die...apparently there was some sort of time dilation? Or something else is going on. I've been though enough time distortions out in space by now to think that might be the cause...being here still doesn't make sense to me though."
Adam thinks about this. Tries to focus on the sensations he felt before coming here, before the fall to the ground. "...Before I fell... it felt like something physically pulled me away," he recalls, speaking slowly, as if thinking about exactly what he's saying. "Like the sensation of... of a seatbelt suddenly pulling me back. I thought it was the eject mechanism, but I think the craft was destroyed too fast for it to engage..."
"Strange..." Shiro replies, "Maybe things were affected so much the ejection mechanism went off on it's own? That doesn't seem likely though..."
"The eject mechanism would have been a pull upward, not back," Adam reasons. "Besides, if it was just the eject mechanism, I would have just drifted down to the surface again." He looks like he wants to say something... but thinks better of it. He's pretty sure no one wants to hear 'or the Galra would have shot me out of the air', or 'drifted down to the surface where toe Galra would have shot me'...
"True it does nothing to explain why you're here..." Shiro agrees, "...I haven't figured it out for myself either...and I wasn't even in an accident before arriving like you were...I just...got here somehow."
Adam thinks about this a moment. "Do you think the aliens could have done it somehow?" he wonders. See, the Garrison hadn't been keeping the soldiers appraised of the situation with what was going on in space, so there wasn't much Adam knew about the Galra, the Alteans, or any of the other kinds of aliens that came to Earth.
"There's no reason I could think any of them would have," Shiro states, "Everything was working out....we were making universal peace, doing things like getting other planets to consider things more carefully rather than going to war with each other."
"Maybe some didn't want peace," Adam suggests. And he points out, "Just because the attackers have been defeated, that doesn't mean everyone is content to lay down their arms. Unless you managed to destroy every one of the aliens who wanted war, there could have been one or two left. Maybe some of the alien commanders' loyal followers."
"I suppose, but after everything that happened, it seems almost far fetched to think anyone would still do that," Shiro states. He doesn't feel like he should just be blurting out how they literally saved every reality and how the princess is why any of them even exist anymore...but it feels hard to explain otherwise.
Adam nods. "If some time had passed, maybe not. Or maybe they just had to wait to develop the technology they used," he notes. "That said... if enough time had passed and it seemed like everyone was going along with peace, it does seem unlikely. The technology the throw someone into another dimension, or trap them in one, would take more than just a few people to develop."
Shiro nods in reply. "We had some of that technology ourself, but it took a lot of work to get it...and even that wasn't very powerful. The person we fought in the end had managed a far more powerful version of that, and it died with her..."
"Someone could have saved some version of it, one that would just randomly throw people towards a vague dimensional direction," Adam suggests. Though then he pauses, a thoughtful look on his face as he puzzles through this. "Though... maybe not. There's no guarantee we'd have both ended up in the same place in a case like that. Unless this is the place of least resistence spatially, and I can't prove that one way or the other..."
Takashi Shirogane says, "It also took way more effort than one person, or a small group of people could just save up some how...the person in question was a very large, very ancient exception...who did things like managing to destroy a powerful spiritual being that was like some almost religious figure to one of the alien races."
Adam nods. "So... that doesn't seem likely either..." He frowns, looks thoughtfully up at the ceiling (since he's lying down, that's not difficult). He looks determined to figure this out some way. Oh boy. Better get him out of it, Shiro... he's liable to overthink to a massive degree if he's not distracted...
"For now...you must be hungry right," Shiro states, "Want me to see what you can eat?"
"Hm?" See? Adam was going off into his own little world. There will probably be time to try to find out what happened -- maybe -- but right now, thinking about it is just going to get him nowhere fast, given that he has no way of figuring it out on his own. Shiro's words register, and the thoughtful look leaves his face. "Oh, er... yes. I'm not sure what they'll let me have, though."
"Right, I'll page someone down for you and ask them to send in what ever you're allowed to eat..." Shiro replies. He's trying to think of something else to talk about that isn't...bad things ...or food... There's just so many bad things to talk about though. Hmm, maybe talking about the other 'kids' besides Keith and Pidge? "So it's interesting how Hunk and Lance came out of things..." he states.
"Thank you," Adam replies. He starts to relax a little... and then winces a little when he breathes a bit too deeply. "...That's going to be a problem..." he notes. Though he doesn't talk about it at length. Instead he looks back to Shiro at the mention of Hunk and Lance. "Oh? How do you mean? I hope they're all right."
"Yes, well, mostly alright...Hunk's been working on being a sort of space ambassador chef," Shiro explains, "And Lance has gone back to farm work, but he helps teach alien kids sometimes."
"Ambassador chef... that sounds like an odd combination. Though I suppose the first step to making a good first impression to an alien race would be to find food they like," Adam observes. "And... that makes a little sense with Lance. He's had a large family for most of his life, a lot of younger cousins and whatnot. It seems like he would be a natural with children."
"Yeah, he was basically a big kid himself," Shiro states, "Though I think he's taken my issue of aging prematurely...He's already got wrinkles now."
Adam chuckles at that -- he can't possibly know what caused those premature wrinkles, so he doesn't mean anything bad by it. "Poor kid... Though that reminds me, how old is he now?" It'll tell him how long of a time dilation there's been.
"He would be 21 by his actual earth years, but due to time dilation we missed some of those years," Shiro explains, "Just like I'm supposed to be 29 now..."
"Wow.... he's hardly a kid now," Adam notes, with a chuckle. "And it looks like you finally managed to fly past me in even age." He smirks a little. "You always were the better pilot." He's clearly teasing Shiro now.
Shiro chuckles a little. "Yeah, I guess I did," he replies, "..." He's not sure about talking about Allura and her relationship to Lance, or if talking about Pidge would be all that interesting to Adam. He might as well try, since Adam knew the Holts too. "Katie apparently snuck into the garrison pretending to be a boy named Pidge Gunderson," he states, "After already breaking into the garrison's security once before as herself."
At this Adam laughs, though he can't for long, because ow. He winces, and quiets it down to a chuckle. "I hope someone's keeping tabs on her. She's going to cause whoever's in charge some headaches," he comments. "That was dangerous though... why did she do that?"
"Because she was looking for her family," Shiro states, "Probably like you were trying to find me, but a lot more reckless and sneaky. She ended up being one of the ones who 'kidnapped' me to 'safety' along with Lance, Hunk, and Keith."
"Oh, I see," Adam notes quietly. "I did try to dig up some information. If I'd known she was that talented, I might have asked her to get through some of those ridiculous Admiral-level clearance data blocks. From my computer, of course. I wouldn't have gotten her in trouble over it."
"Well, you couldn't have known about it," Shiro points out, "She was sneaky and...you really think a higher up would want to just openly admit that he'd been infiltrated by someone hardly even a teenage at the time."
Adam can't help but chuckle at that. "Probably not," he admits. "Sadly, something that seems to pervade the higher levels of the military, as much as I hate to admit it, is arrogance. And I'm fairly certain that... Sanda especially, her ego wouldn't handle that with any degree of grace at all." Just because he's not aware the level of treachery that Sanda sunk to doesn't mean he doesn't know HER.
Shiro nods in reply. "That sounds like her, also completely unsurprised you'd not be alerted of it for the same reason," he explains, "As for Keith...well...he's still Keith...but less tempermental....and with a wolf."
And Adam just keeps getting surprised. "A... wolf. You... let him bring a wolf in? They're dangerous, though. Is it a wolf-dog, or a domesticated wolf?" He has no idea exactly what kind of wolf Shiro's talking about. Though it's hard to say if he'd be more or less freaked out and/or confused!
"He lives back in his old house with his mother now (she actually wasn't dead and had left to protect us from the war)," Shiro explains, "And it's not just any wolf either, it's a space wolf of some sort that acts surprizingly tame. It's also very smart and can teleport itself or others around as needed."
"I'm glad he found his mother, at least," Adam notes. "Still... a teleporting space wolf... the things you must have seen... I'm realizing that I really did... 'leave the stage', so to speak, before a lot of the more interesting stuff happened."
"But you're here now," Shiro points out, "It feels like we might find even stranger things here...I've stopped thinking I've hit some kind of cap for strangeness."
Adam chuckles. "So there's that, anyway... I don't get completely left out of the strange things," he notes. "Besides, if I saw that device the doctor was using correctly... didn't that look like the same thing the doctors on that show you likes used?" he points out.
Shiro smiles and nods. "Yeah, it seemed that way," he agrees, "I wonder if that tech actually exists here..."
"We'll have to see," Adam agrees. He's also trying not to think how weird it is that he's having a completely normal conversation with his ex. He's also trying not to feel like an absolute louse for breaking things off the way he did -- particularly with how willing Shiro seems to be to help him, despite it all.
"Yeah...some time after you're better we can explore this place more," Shiro agrees, "It'll be nice to get a better idea of what we're dealing with and share our information with each other."
Adam nods. "We'll also need to get a better idea of how far apart time-wise we are," he adds. "A few years at least, from the sounds of it. You talked about having dealt with some time-related strangeness on your own, too." A pause. "Though... I'm going to be out of commission for quite a while... I'm a little worried about it, honestly... I don't know how much help I'm going to need, and I don't know if it's fair to expect it of you..."
"It's not as if I have a job to worry with yet," Shiro states, "There's nothing you're taking me from that can't wait til afterward."
"How will we make it until one of us can find a job?" Adam inquires. "I'm assuming there's an economy here, like anywhere else? Is there a stipend for new people here? Are new arrivals here that common?"
"I haven't figured all that out yet, but this can be worked out one way or another," Shiro states, "We'll figure out more as we go."
"Are you sure? Will you be all right until they let me out of here?" Adam inquires. He's pretty sure they'll feed him as long as he's in need of hospital care, but Shiro he's not so sure about.
"I'm not at all new to tight spots," Shiro reminds him, "I can take care of myself one way or another...while doing more to learn more about what I can in reguard to basic living here."
Adam looks visibly upset. Though it's only slightly, and only really noticeable because Shiro knows him. Otherwise it would look like he was pissed about something. "...I honestly wish there was something that I could do to help." Particularly given everything that Shiro's setting himself up for, with volunteering to help him recover.
Shiro pats at one of Adam's hands. "Hey, it's fine...this is cake compared to some other things that have happened. If you still need to, you can always find a way to help later on." Notably he's not so much asking for help as saying Adam can help.
Adam sighs. "I suppose so," he replies uncertainly. "Still, it's going to make things difficult until then..." he points out. "And even then, I'm not sure what I can do yet, even after I'm recovered..." Thinking way too far down the line, there. But Adam always wants to plan ahead, and Shiro probably remembers that it drives Adam nuts if he can't plan.
"We can get things down once we have more information," Shiro states, "That's why I'll need to get more info while you're still here in the hospital... You can't make any plans now, sure, but plans will be possibly soon."
Adam nods to this. "...That's true. While I'm still here, you..." He pauses. "...Can you try to gather as much information as possible, and then tell me what we're facing out there?" he asks. It's still normal for him to default to a military-style order, but here, that's not appropriate. Particularly since it's very likely Shiro outranks him now.
"Yeah, that's the plan," Shiro answers, "They should let me hang out in your room over nights, given the circumstances, so I can crash in a chair here. Food shouldn't be too dificult to handle either, here or elsewhere." He's no doctor, but he's sure he has enough abilities to make even for food until he's got the basics about this place figured out. He's had to do some surviving a few times, so being in a city this time will be WAY easier.
Adam suggests, "I can share what food they bring me. I've survived on little food before. And I know about how much I'd need to eat and not jeopardize my recovery."
"That could work, yeah," Shiro agrees, "I shouldn't need much for what I'm doing, so it should be fine." He smiles and looks thoughtful. "Anything specific you want me to look into first?"
"Housing," Adam replies. "It's going to be tougher for me to recover if I have to sleep on a street. A few different quotes, maybe... what they want for income requirements, that sort of thing. Then we might need to figure out what kind of jobs are here, since those two are related."
Takashi Shirogane says, "Well I already know where some of the apartment buildings are. I'll look around to see if there's anything else and get the quotes from them. And then yes, jobs." As much as he knows retail is a thing here, he hopes they can avoid making that little use of their skills and knowledge.
"We may need to scrape at the bottom of the barrel to get by for a while, as far as jobs go," Adam warns. "Fast food, retail, or janitorial -- that sort of thing, if they have that sort of thing here. If there's a community here, I can't imagine that they don't. If not, one of these could be a niche we could figure out how to wedge ourselves into, with some cleverness." As long as Shiro's not cooking, of course. That goes unsaid though -- he's looking for seriousness, not jokes here.
"Hopefully not, but that's probably the case," Shiro states, "It's not like I'm going after being an astrounaut anymore... so what to do instead?"
Adam points out, "But you got there. And you made not only an astronaut out of yourself, but a hero out of yourself, through everything that happened. I think, after all that, you can handle just about whatever this place has to dish out."
"I guess that's true," Shiro states, "Just not sure where to go with it next...I'll figure it out though. ...what about you? There are schools around if you'd like to go for a more mundane teacher's job."
Adam thinks a moment. "That... might not be a bad idea," he notes. "I'll give that some thought, and I'll decide once I've got some more information. And when I'm recovered enough. I hardly think a wonderful candidate for a teacher would come hobbling in on crutches."
"Well yes," Shiro agrees, "I'll look into possibilities for you along with myself though. Anything else we should talk about for now?"
"I'm sure I'll think of something later," Adam admits. He usually does; he's always thinking of things he wants information about. He closes his eyes. "Though for now, I think I ought to rest. This all needs to settle in my brain, and I need to try to get some rest." And he also needs to kick that inner voice that feels so awkward talking to Shiro. He honestly never really thought he'd ever see him again -- first because he moved out of their shared dorms, and then because the flight disappeared. Now, with both of them back here? What now? And he just... needs to get his head wrapped around this whole thing.
Shiro nods in reply. "Yeah, you get some rest," he agrees, "I'll stick around for today, so if you need something I'll still be here. I'll get to looking into things tomorrow."
Adam also nods. "Thank you," he says quietly. Though after a moment he open his eyes again. He reaches out, and places a hand on Shiro's arm. This time he makes an effort to touch the forearm of the floaty arm -- a sign that it doesn't bother him. "Takashi," he says quietly. He pauses, as if he's trying to figure out what to say. Finally though, he says, "...I appreciate all this. But it's going to be difficult for us both. You don't have to if you don't want to. Particularly when you're trying to get situated here too. You don't owe me anything."
"It's fine," Shiro murmurs, "You know me...get some shut eye and feel better."
Adam smiles... and simultaneously feels like a massive heel. "...Thank you." There's a bit of tautness in his voice. But instead of explaining it, Adam shifts to lay back down, and closes his eyes. "They'll probably come in and give me something for pain soon anyway, and that will make me sleep, in all likelihood."
Shiro nods and settles down into the chair, taking a rare chance to rest...
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