damned_institute | Day 56: The Bookworm (Late Afternoon)

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Day 56: The Bookworm (Late Afternoon)

"Hold on a second. I want to check something."

Lunge paused in front of the book store, frowning a little. He'd looked in the little shop a couple of times, just to get a better sense of Doyleton as a whole, but had yet to explore inside properly- understanding Doyleton hadn't especially been high on his list of priorities, but after their conversation last night he found himself curious about a few details here and there. It didn't seem that L had any plans for the rest of the day, so there wouldn't be any harm in stopping in to chase up his hunches.

'Artificial'. What did that mean, precisely? Precision, that was what they needed now, hard evidence instead of aimless, endless stabbing and theorising. It was also exactly what they were lacking. What constituted evidence in a place where everything experienced around you seemed to fall to the whims of one man and his computer?

Ah. Not quite one man. Aguilar apparently had at least one man under him to do the less notable jobs, like working the intercom back at the Institute. At any rate, it was likely that their reality was just so easily moulded as it had been before. It would be interesting to see how far that applied to Doyleton, if they peeled back the corners and took a good, hard look at what lay beneath the obvious. Details, details; the people seemed genuine enough at a glance, but what about after an interview? And the books? He hadn't yet found a town that didn't pride itself on the single non-fiction novel written about it, its heritage. But did this town even have a heritage? Or was it purely the invention of two men, Landel and the man it was potentially named for?

A gust of wind ripped past his cheeks, chilling the Inspector to the core even through his heavy coat. He hadn't felt especially bad leaving Edgar at the Twin Pines- he'd lived through his own session, after all, and they weren't ever fatal- but even so he couldn't help but think that the cold would hardly be what the man needed.

Pushing the door open, he held it aside for L to head in before him. Silently, he wondered if they were thinking the same thing- they were generally on the same page for the most part, but occasionally it felt as though he were somehow working lightyears ahead of him, consuming and digesting information at an unthinkable rate. Most of the time, though, it was clear that the man was just as in the dark as he was.

[TEAM LARS VS HARRISON FORD THE FIRST, GET]

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Some conversation just a little while earlier had been nice, but what (or who, rather) she had been looking for wasn't there. Lion was almost beginning to wonder if she'd ever find him at all-- just how hard could it be? The town may have been small, so theoretically it should have been nothing but easy to locate someone else... No, it really wasn't a stretch to believe that it was entirely possible to keep missing a person, too, given that the town was just big enough for that.

Lion wasn't often frustrated, but her moments weren't exactly rare. Right now, she could feel it, but she hadn't blamed anyone but herself.

Nonetheless, there was still some part of the day left. She could still make good use of the time.

Sooner or later Lion ended up in a bookstore; she wasn't quite expecting her cousin to be around here, as he never did seem the sort to particularly enjoy reading... Well, it never hurt to try, either. After all, she was trying to be thorough here.

So in she went, and quickly found that the atmosphere was a little pleasant, much like she would have expected a bookstore to be in a quaint little town, especially after coming in from the frigid temperatures outside. It was almost a little tempting to just grab something potentially interesting off the shelf, plop down in a chair somewhere, and get lost in a novel for a little while...

But, Lion soon found out as she turned the corner of one of the aisles she wandered down into, someone had already beaten her to it. Someone who she didn't actually think would be doing so already.

"... Battler?" she spoke up to him, sounding only mildly surprised.

... Well, that was surprising. The town itself was small and quiet, and it wasn't like there were that many people from the institute, but on the other hand, he could only claim to be acquainted with a few people, so Battler couldn't say that he'd been expecting anyone to call out to him. He looked up from the book to whoever was speaking. Something about their face was a little familiar, wasn't it? It reminded him of something, but he honestly wasn't sure what. ..... Was he just imagining that? ... No, he must have been. Any vague feelings aside, he was almost certain he'd never seen this person before.

"Who--..." he'd started to ask, but instead, his face clouded over. It was that, wasn't it...? Someone else who remembered him, even though they'd never met. Now that he thought about it, there had been someone else who had contacted him hadn't there? It was funny, but he'd forgotten all about that. Or less that he'd forgotten, and more that he really just didn't want to think about it. ... He probably should have known he wouldn't be granted that kind of escapism for very long. Even if he wanted to, issues like this couldn't be put aside for ever, could they? And now that it was right in front of him, he wasn't so irresponsible he'd continue to leave it hanging. It'd be better to sort things out as soon as possible.

"How should I put this..." he wondered aloud. There were a lot of things he could say in this situation, but most of them seemed kind of harsh. ... Was there any delicate way of telling someone who expected you to recognize them that you didn't remember them at all? It was awkward enough when you'd only forgotten. Here, on the other hand, there wasn't even some kind of reassurance that something would bring it back. .... There was no way for him to remember, because for him, it had never happened.

He shut the book he'd been reading and set it aside. "Do you mind sitting down? There's ... probably a lot we have to talk about." Ahhh, dammit, that way too cryptic, wasn't it...? Nobody was going to be able to figure out what he was talking about if he put it like that. ... Well, it was still a start. There was plenty of time, wasn't there? It wasn't like there was pressing need to explain everything all at once.

There was a beat, but in that moment several things had begun to cross Lion's mind.

...So it really was true that Battler hadn't remembered-- no, known her was the correct term to use here. He nearly began to ask who she was, hadn't he? That on top of their exchange on the bulletin... It was an outcome she had dreaded a little to face, but the truth was Lion knew she should have expected it. This place had brought others in from all sorts of universes, with time and placement being as unpredictable as a fly's direction; that's how Lion was beginning to understand it, at any rate. And so, naturally, Battler had come from a universe, Fragment-- whatever they may be called-- that was not hers.

The only one Lion existed in.

Of all the thousands upon thousands of these universes Rokkenjima's tale and the Ushiromiya family's glory were present in, there was only one small chance in all of that would Battler had come out knowing Lion has a fellow family member. Surely, it would have taken a miracle for their meeting right now to have the opposite outcome-- one so small that Lion couldn't stay crushed for long that it didn't happen. Of course, she was disappointed-- a familiar face who couldn't even recall you just wasn't the same-- but at the very least she couldn't say she was surprised at all.

"Very well," Lion responded, as contently as if this were like any other meeting on a normal day. But Battler seemed troubled, she could tell, simply by the expression on his face; it was nothing like his usual cheery and confident disposition that he held that she had been familiar with. Not that it was too surprising; a supposed stranger just approached him, after all, and his question from the day prior still rung clear in her mind-- had anyone remembered him when he didn't for them?

Lion sat down on a small chair across from him, intertwining hands in her lap; even now she still retained her regal posture with nothing casual about it. And then, another short pause, but before Battler had any chance of speaking up, she continued on, "I take it you might feel a little shamed that you can't remember me, correct? It's fine, I don't feel insulted. The truth is, I suppose the only simple way to put this is that you've yet to meet me at all."

Battler wasn't really sure what he'd been expecting in a conversation like this, but this.... probably wasn't it. Not to say that it was a bad thing but it was a little strange to hear so directly that the situation was fine. But then, was it really so surprising? Apparently, it was common enough here, and with exception, nobody really seemed to fault him for it or treat it as an excuse. It was probably out of consideration—there was just no way this wasn't weird—but even so, bit by bit, he could feel himself beginning to relax some. Maybe explaining wouldn't as awkward as he thought.

That last bit, however, definitely caught him by surprise. "Yeah, that's right," he nodded. ... It was the same explanation that he'd come up with. He thought he was going to start from the very beginning when he explained things, but had someone already beat him to the punch? ... But it was still kind of strange, hearing it on those terms, especially when what he'd been told himself didn't match what he'd come up with on his own. Could they be thinking the same way, even though he hadn't told anyone about it...? ... Well, he wasn't about to complain. If it could already be thought of like that, then this was going to be much easier for to explain.

"I'm not sure how you know about this, so sorry if I'm just repeating a bunch of things, you already know, but... Apparently, this sort of thing is pretty common here. Sometimes people will appear here and suddenly vanish. Except that, sometimes they come back, and don't remember a thing about the time they'd spent here. The way I heard about it, it sounded like they're ... 'reset' and have had their head screwed with somehow, but I don't believe that explanation at all. It's ... an interesting story, and it might be good for some kind of horror story, but that sort of thing shouldn't be possible, right? Instead, it's exactly like you said. ... 'Ushiromiya Battler' may have been here before, but that Battler and I aren't the same."

It was like playing a new piece on the board. It only made sense those variations wouldn't have the same memories, right? They couldn't even be called the same person, so much as one of who knew how many possibilities. ... He wondered if what he was saying was going to get across, or if he'd have to explain it more. Honestly, in most cases, he wouldn't have bothered at all. It was ... strange, and not many were going to understand or believe it outside certain experiences. Even he wasn't really sure if he should be accepting something like that so directly, but still, it was better than the alternative, wasn't it....? There was just no way in hell he was going to accept that he had something missing. And even if that weren't the case, it was hard to completely deny something he'd experienced for himself, right?

Content to listening through his explanation, Lion had come to find that no, she actually hadn't known about that. That people came and went... yes, that much had been explained to her the very first morning she were here-- but to leave and be brought back, only to remember nothing? It was somewhat surprising to hear about; what was the point? That is, if they were truly being 'tested' like she was currently under the impression of. Between what Peter had told her in their first meeting and what had come from their captors over the intercoms back in the institute, it sounded like the general idea of why they were here. So to toss someone who, by the latter's standards, hadn't deemed themselves 'worthy'... It sounded awfully strange to bring them back in and expect different results. Would the changes be that drastic?

...Then, on second thought, if what Battler were saying was true-- what more did they want from him? To think he'd have to experience this a second time, regardless of his memory or not--

Well, it wasn't any use feeling angry about something you couldn't help. One's mind and energies were better put towards the things they could.

"If I may be honest," Lion began after he had finished, sounding as though she were choosing her words carefully; most times she was actually a proficient speaker, but even this was a topic she wasn't entirely sure how to approach. Battler was already troubled enough by this situation, so what was the way to put all of this in a way that wouldn't add to it? "I'm fairly new to this institute myself-- today is day two, if we're counting-- and I hadn't known about that certain piece of information."

A small shift in her chair later, Lion attempted to feel less uncertain and more confident in where she had been going with this. "So, in short," she went on, "the chances that you and I, whether it's the Battler that you know yourself as or a different one entirely, have ever met here... I would assume, at best, they are very minimal.

"But, perhaps I should put it in this perspective." Lion donned a more personable smile, if only to emphasize that she wasn't harboring any sort of ill intent by revealing this. "Since I know your name, it's only proper that you know mine. ...I am Ushiromiya Lion, and I live in Grandfather's mansion on Rokkenjima."

So, in other words... they'd been there about the same length of time...? Which meant that they couldn't have met before at all. Not here. Just what did that mean? Had he been jumping to conclusions too fast? .... No, it ... couldn't have been anything normal, the way it was phrased. 'They hadn't met yet.' It could almost sound like they were acquaintances who hadn't been formally introduced yet, but in that case, you'd just say that and not put it on such vague terms. This had a totally different feel to it, like they were supposed to have met and something had prevented that. Or had he been slowly getting so used to screwed up things that he was starting to tear apart even things he shouldn't?

... No, it wasn't it in his head. This really was getting seriously messed up. "Ushiromiya ... Lion ...?" He repeated the name slowly, but it didn't feel quite natural. It couldn't have been a mistake. Ushiromiya wasn't exactly a common name. They'd once been much bigger, but by the time Grandfather had become the head, the branch families were already slowly dying off. ... No, it couldn't have been that simple even they still existed, because even in that case, only the main family would be permitted on the island. But....

He frowned, trying to find the right words, but he'd never been very good at treading lightly in these kinds of situations. "It's not like I'm saying you're lying, exactly, but... I've never heard a name that in my family at all."

Then, what? What the hell did this mean? Was he seriously supposed to believe he'd had some hidden relative he'd never even knew existed at all? Maybe it was possible, but not in such an obvious way. .... There was no way someone else lived in that mansion and he'd never even heard about it, right...?

"That seems to be the case," Lion said, matter-of-factly. She had listened to the way he echoed her name, slowly and tentatively; there was no level of familiarity in the way it was said.

"It's... How should I put this?" Her eyes then wandered upwards in the air as she tapped at her chin thoughtfully, taking a moment to mull on it. "... Shall I use your example? Only in this case I should say, 'Ushiromiya Battler and I definitely know each other, but that Battler and you are not the same'. To phrase it simply."

Battler felt like he understood what was being suggested here, but that didn't make it any easier to comprehend. On the surface, it was almost simple, but things like that rarely ever were.

"So you're saying that ... a world like that exists. One where we know each other. But in that case, ...." he paused for a moment, trying to figure exactly what he was trying to ask. Several questions came to mind, but he wasn't really sure how to sort through them. Why would someone like that exist there but in none of the ones that he'd seen? How was that possible...?

"... Who are you?" he settled on eventually. That would cover about everything, wouldn't it? Instead of something as simple as a name, exactly what their connection was.

'Who was she'? She had already stated her name, but Battler had obviously wanted more than that; perhaps reluctantly so, but it was a feeling Lion could understand. After all, if she were in his shoes, she would be awfully suspicious of some unfamiliar face claiming to have lived on Rokkenjima as well.

"As I mentioned," thus, Lion began. "I live within the mansion. Krauss is my father and Natsuhi my mother, making Jessica my little sister. And so, that makes us cousins. ...I'm simply just another family member, is all."

"Little sister....?" Rather than the fact they were supposed to be cousins, it was Lion's more immediate family that stuck out in Battler's mind. Krauss, Natsuhi, and Jessica. it was strange to be hearing, something that definitely hadn't happened for him, but...

"Now that I think about it, there was a story like that, wasn't there?" he thought aloud. "A baby that got thrown over a cliff nineteen years ago. Could that... be you?"

Or a version of, he should probably say. After all, Lion was perfectly fine.

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Day 56: The Bookworm (Late Afternoon)

/slams into so belatedly.....

(dance_okok)

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omg this is so lame and short i'm sorry

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