Night 70: Patient Possessions Storage

[knightspirit]

[ from here ]

Instead of checking the room like he normally would have, Kyousuke's eyes were immediately drawn to the white cardboard boxes lining the room. It looked like some kind of storage area, but what they were storing was the real question. Though considering how easy it was to get in, he had a suspicion this wouldn't hold what he and Lloyd were looking for. ... Still. There might be something in here worth grabbing.

He stepped towards the boxes, and on closer inspection, he found that each was individually labeled with a name. ... This must have been the place Kratos and Guy told him about.

"I've heard about this place," he said turning back to Lloyd. "Apparently, they keep items from our fake lives here." That was what Guy told him, anyway—Kratos' explanation had been more vague. To be honest, he doubted there would be much to this place, since they weren't exactly going too far out of their way to convince them that the idea they were insane was anything more than a farce, or at least as far as Kyousuke had seen. ... But somehow, he still wanted to see. It was difficult not to be curious about.

Comments

[redcladidealist]

"There's a basement?" Lloyd echoed in surprise as he followed Tsurugi into the room. "I didn't know that. No one's ever mentioned it." And there was nothing on his maps to indicate there was anything below the first floor.

The boxes in the room immediately drew his attention from there, though Tsurugi's explanation made his brow furrow in puzzlement. "Why would they bother to do something like that? If they're fake, we wouldn't remember this stuff, and if it's in here, then we wouldn't ever get it. They can't guess we'd actually break in here at night." He bent over, reading the labels on some of the boxes nearest to him. He didn't recognize any of the names.

Our fake lives. They'd use our fake names. He hadn't really bothered with learning people's fake names here. It hadn't seemed important, when that wasn't who they were. But he knew his name. Did he have things here from the life they said he lived? What would they have given him? It was hard to deny the urge to look. "Hey, Tsurugi, what's your name here?"

[knightspirit]

"Yeah. I'm not sure what's in it, but it sounds like a lot people have been down there," Kyousuke answered. ... According to Luke, anyway. It was hard to say if that was true or if he'd been exaggerating to try and sway them to go down there with him, although they'd never quite made it either way.

As for the boxes, he didn't entirely agree. "Why couldn't they? They do open the doors for us, so they must know the chance is always there." It still seemed a little pointless and silly, though. They weren't going to believe their lives weren't real just by being told, so did they really think some random items in a cardboard box was going to change that? The whole thing was just stupid. But maybe he shouldn't think that so easily without checking first. He began to scan the boxes a little more closely, moving down the alphabet so he could get closer the fake name they'd given him.

"It's Kendrick Taylor, apparently." Same initials. He wondered if these names were completely random, or if there was some kind of method to how they were chosen, but he didn't care enough to think too much on it. As annoying as it was to be called something else, names were just names.

Meanwhile, he found 'his' box and pulled it out carefully. ... It was a lot lighter than he'd been expecting. It didn't seem like there would be much inside.

[redcladidealist]

"I'll have to ask around..." Lloyd murmured the words, his mind preoccupied. He skimmed the names on the boxes, up, then down, left, then right, stopping and backtracking every once in a while when he had to remind himself he wasn't looking for a box with the name Lloyd Irving. "I'm looking for Nigel Clarke."

And there, there it was, nestled in with the other 'C' names. There was another Clarke above it - Kurtis Clarke - but Lloyd only half-registered the name. He wasn't used to thinking of 'Clarke' as his name, not enough for the connection to sink in, and he was intent on his own box. Unstacking the boxes on top of it, he pulled it out and slid the lid off.

There wasn't much. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but there was a shirt neatly folded inside. Some kind of wrist band sat on top of it with a small, round clock face attached. It didn't look like any of the hands were moving, though, even when Lloyd lifted the thing up to get a better look. A pack of something called Big League Bubblegum sat in the corner of the box, and on top of the shirt, a piece of paper.

How's any of this supposed to convince me I had a different life before? Lloyd frowned and put the band back down, then picked the piece of paper up. It was stiff, thicker paper than he was used to, and the underside felt almost slick. He turned it over, letting his flashlight shine on it.

And froze, sucking in a sharp, shocked breath. "Holy-!"

That was him. That was a picture of him and Kratos. He was wearing strange white clothes with red accents, a word written on his chest that he couldn't quite read with the way the fabric folded in the image. Kratos stood next to him, his arm wrapped around the teen's shoulders, a soft, proud smile on his face to match Lloyd's brilliant grin.

Lloyd choked another breath. "I don't remember this!"

[knightspirit]

Meanwhile, Kyousuke flipped the lid off of his own box, but what he found inside wasn't very impressive. Just a wallet with a chain attached, a little similar to the one he normally carried. But he doubted that was the end of it, so he flipped it open, and almost immediately, a handful of plastic gold coins fell from the wallet into the box.

Arcade tokens? .... That was weird. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd been to a place that; he tended to stick to the outdoors when he wanted to have fun. Apart from that, it seemed to be completely empty, until he noticed a strange-looking gap in the stitching, and tugged on it lightly, finding that there was more hidden in the wallet's lining. First was a small ticket stub to what he assumed to be a soccer game, which wasn't so odd, but he didn't recognize the names of the field or either of the teams, and there wasn't a date to be found. Thinking it unimportant, he tossed it aside moved on to what looked to be an old, folded up newspaper clipping.

This ... wasn't at all what he was expecting. It was a picture of his brother, maybe a year or two or younger. He had his hair up in a way that he hadn't bothered with since their childhood—not since the accident—and he was wearing a uniform Kyousuke had never seen before, but more importantly than that, he was running. Playing in a game. Doing what he loved the most, like he hadn't been able to six years.

A complicated feeling washed over him as he looked at that image, so absorbed in it that he didn't even notice Lloyd's surprised noises just across the room. There was something warm, seeing this, the very thing he wanted for his brother more than anything, but his stomach also seemed to be twisting itself into a knot. It just wasn't possible. ... Not yet. That feeling grew even worse as he read the caption below it:

Lance Taylor, 17, has become a local celebrity through his phenomenal playing skills, and is a shoo-in for the national team.

Just like they'd always dreamed of.

His hand crumpled around it, suddenly extremely angry. How dare they try to lure him in with this crap? Did they seriously think he was going to change his mind about anything just because they showed him a future that had once been ripped away? That he'd let himself be exploited for this like he had been in Fifth Sector? Screw this...! And yet, though he knew it was fake, and that they were trying to rile him up by using his feelings for his brother against him, he couldn't quite bring himself to destroy it.

"Dammit," he hissed, closing the fist around it even tighter.

The sound of his own voice made him realize that during that time, he'd gone unnaturally quiet, even for him, and a bit after the fact, he realized Lloyd was having his own struggle only a meter or two away. But what did he say? 'Are you okay?' ... Yeah, right. There was nothing more useless than a question you already knew the answer to. Probably, the best thing he could do was continue to keep his mouth shut. On top of not being good at this sort of thing, he'd just received a bit of a shock himself, and sometimes well-intentioned prodding just made things even worse. He'd likely be doing them both a favor.

[redcladidealist]

The image was so lifelike and realistic, more so than any picture Lloyd had ever seen painted before. He couldn't even see any brush strokes in the paint, or feel their texture on the paper. It was like someone had captured the picture straight from life. But he didn't remember it. He didn't remember ever wearing those clothes, or Kratos holding him like that. Even before Kratos had betrayed them at the Tower, they hadn't been that close. A hand on his shoulder, maybe. But an arm around him? With a smile like that? He looked as proud as any

father. Lloyd's breath caught in his throat again. That was what he looked like. He looked like Lloyd's father in this picture, a man proud of the son next to him, who'd been there to help him achieve whatever accomplishment Lloyd was so pleased with. But it wasn't possible. Lloyd had lost his father when he was three. Dirk had found him and raised him. Dirk was the one who gave him looks like that. Kratos just. Didn't. There wasn't any way this picture could be real.

So why couldn't he tear his eyes away from it?

It took Tsurugi's whispered curse to break the picture's grip on him. Abruptly, almost roughly, he flipped the piece of paper in his hand, fingers clenching so hard they were almost trembling. It's not real. It's not. It's just another trick. Flushed, angry, he reached into the box and pulled everything out. The wrist band thing and the gum went into a pocket on his tool belt, and after a moment's hesitation, he shoved the picture behind it. He wasn't sure why, but it was proof he couldn't just leave that they were doing something in this place. What that was, he wasn't sure, but maybe there was some kind of hint hidden in the things they'd left for him. The shirt, a plain white shirt with a large red number one, was too large to fit in any of his pockets, but easy enough to tuck into his belt.

Then he looked at Tsurugi, his eyes meeting the other boy's. The dark-haired boy was holding something in his hand, but Lloyd couldn't see what it was. He didn't need to. He understood. They'd given Tsurugi something impossible, too, something they were deliberately trying to provoke him with. Understanding passed between them.

Lloyd's jaw clenched. It was hard to hold his anger in check when it felt like the Institute was taunting them.

"Did you find anything you can use?" He wasn't going to ask about the paper in the other's hand. He was glad Tsurugi hadn't asked him about the picture. He didn't think he could sort out his own riotous feelings in his head, let alone talk to someone else about it right now. He could extend the same to his friend, unless Tsurugi brought it up first.

[knightspirit]

"... No," Kyousuke responded tersely, unable to filter out any of the harshness in his tone. "We should leave."

It was possible something else in here could serve some menial purpose, if they cared enough to look, but that sounded too invasive for his tastes, especially for something that probably wouldn't make any dramatic difference. He pulled himself to his feet stiffly, and from there, he hesitated. What did he do with this picture? Both instinct and anger told him to shred it to pieces and be done with it, but something buried underneath all that almost made him want to keep it, even knowing that no good could come of it.

He shook his head. What was he doing...? This was just pathetic. There was no need to get so worked up over something like this. Things may have not turned out ideal for them, but his brother was happy, and he knew he wouldn't want him to to let this bother him. It wasn't like he'd be stuck in that bed forever. ... Not anymore. There wasn't anything to be worrying about. Somehow, he managed to loosen his fingers, and the wadded up newspaper fell back into box where it belonged.

Lloyd's reaction seemed to be the opposite of his—he scooped up everything, no matter how useless. ... Or maybe they had more meaning than he realized; he didn't know whatever he saw. He wasn't even going to ask, unless he felt like telling him about it for some reason. But he could still ask one thing about it.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" If the message in Lloyd's items was as messed up as Kyousuke's had been, it seemed like it would just cause him a lot of heartache later on. Besides... It wasn't real. There was no need to pay any attention to it. That was what he wanted to say, but he knew shouldn't press it. Instead, he fixed him with a penetrating look. ... Maybe he'd understand.

[redcladidealist]

It didn't take much to realize that Tsurugi was referring to the things he'd just taken. Lloyd blew out an angry breath, none of it directed at Tsurugi. "I don't care if they realize we broke in here." That was what he thought the other boy was concerned about. "They know what they're doing is wrong. They shouldn't be surprised when we do stuff they that they won't like!"

Shoving his empty box aside, he straightened up and headed for the door. "Besides," he said. "Even if it's fake, they said it's our stuff, so it's ours. There's nothing wrong with taking it." And it would be their own fault if he could figure out a way to use these things against them, even if it was something as small as proving the picture was fake.

[knightspirit]

That wasn't quite what Kyousuke had meant. How did he phrase it...? But his ability to process things had been clouded over by his irritation, so he couldn't quite think what to say. He ended up just shaking his head at him.

"... Fine. Suit yourself." Misinterpretation aside, there was no use arguing. Lloyd seemed set on it no matter what Kyousuke said, and going back and forth about it wasn't going to help them cool their heads. There was a certain tension to the atmosphere where it felt like they'd just end up in an unintentional yelling match if they weren't careful. ... Though be to honest, part of him almost thought it would be relieving.

He turned slightly towards his box, still left open in the middle the floor, and narrowed his eyes at it before turning to leave. ... The sooner they got out of here the better.

[redcladidealist]

Even if Tsurugi had pressed the question, Lloyd might not have been able to answer it. There was more to it than just a desire to prove the Insitute wrong, but he couldn't have said what drove him to take everything in his box. The picture had hit a sharp cord deep inside of him, and he was reacting, lashing out, unable to just let it go. Maybe if he had more time he could figure it out.

But not now. Maybe in the morning, when they were safe and trapped and the only thing they could do was go where the nurses told them. Maybe when he wasn't so riled. But tonight they had too much to do to take the time to pick apart why he'd taken all those things.

"Come on, let's go to the next room." He pushed the door back open.

[To here.]