Night 64: X-Ray Room

[damned_intercom]

As soon as the patients entered the dark room, the first thing they might have noticed were a couple of short bursts of static from the intercom. But no voices or cryptic messages greeted them.

Instead, their eyes would undoubtedly be drawn toward the strange picture of a human stomach carefully painted onto the southern wall, its paint casting an eerie green glow that cut into the darkness.

Although the artist had done their best to make the picture as clear as possible, they had apparently decided to leave a sharp kitchen knife perched on X-Ray table to compensate the patients for their troubles. Hopefully whoever picked it up would be able to make good use of it and the clue created for them.

Comments

[his_legacy]

Link nodded. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if one of his friends came here and got hurt, or worse, because he had failed to help.

"Well... Why don't you tell me about where you come from?" He offered Sora a mild smile. Despite the fact that he needed to know more about his present situation, Link didn't feel like talking about it right now. At least, not with Sora. It certainly wasn't anything against the younger boy. He just seemed like the type who would rather focus on the good than the bad, and with the jarring reality that faced them upon entering this room, Link figured lighter conversation would do the Keyblade Master some good.

[lighthearted]

It was an odd thing to ask, especially when Sora could only imagine that Link was filled to the brim with questions about this place and why they were here. He'd covered some of that during dinner, but he'd really only skimmed the surface.

Still, if this was what Link wanted to talk about, then Sora wasn't about to complain. It felt surreal to be hanging out in a random room chatting about their past lives, but it wasn't like he had the energy to do much else. They'd made it this far, and that had been his main goal for the night, even though he wasn't too happy with what he'd found.

"Well, where I'm originally from is a place called Destiny Islands. It's... about as relaxed as you can get!" he explained, smiling to himself as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. "It's a small group of islands, and really, people's lives there are pretty uncomplicated. For most of my life I was just living my life there, going to school and playing with my friends, but a lot's changed since then." A whole lot.

[his_legacy]

Link honestly wasn't particularly worried about being in the institute- not yet, anyway. He'd been thrown into his fair share of seemingly impossible situations before and come out victorious. He was determined to do it again.

"That certainly sounds familiar..." Link said with a smile. He had never been to school, but he had lived life as a simple ranch hand before the Twilight curtain nearly stretched into Ordon. Then, just like Sora said... a lot changed. Link liked to think that he had grown from it all, though.

"Do a lot of people go to school where you come from?"

[lighthearted]

Familiar? So it sounded like there was even more that the two of them could share. Sora smiled, lifting his head up for a moment so that he could make eye contact with Link.

The question that came soon after made it clear that their situations weren't exactly the same, though. Link sounded surprised that he'd been to school, whereas for Sora that had just been expected. Of course, his studies had been cut short due to having more important things to deal with, and he really had no complaints there.

"Yeah, I guess so! Every kid is supposed to go until they're old enough to start working," he explained. "Our parents needed to make sure we had something to do while they were working during the day." Of course, that precaution hadn't always stopped Sora and his friends from getting into trouble. It wasn't his fault that most of his classes had been boring!

"Why, did you not go to school?" he asked in return, sitting up so that he could fix Link with a curious look.

[his_legacy]

Interesting...

"I was taught to read and write properly, but other than that, the Ordon isn't big enough to warrant having a schoolhouse. Then we can learn a trade if we find a proper mentor, I suppose. I spent my time training in swordsmanship and working on the ranch." At least, until he had left for the rest of Hyrule.

"So I guess I didn't have a formal school like you seem to. But I learned what was necessary."

[lighthearted]

What Link was describing actually made a lot of sense to Sora, and he nodded along as the other boy explained. "I think that's better, actually! I dunno, I learned a lot of stuff that... I wasn't sure why I was even learning it, you know?" Like math. Being able to add and subtract stuff was important, maybe, but past that he just didn't see the point.

Still, it made sense that different places would handle it in different ways, and Sora had at least gotten to know his friends through his classes. Then again, he figured he probably would have come across them anyway, since Destiny Islands was so small.

"So Ordon is the place that you're from?" he asked. It had a ranch, at least, and Link had been able to learn how to use a sword there, so it couldn't be too small.

[his_legacy]

"Math is mostly reserved for architects, I think... I can add and subtract and such, but nothing special." It simply wasn't necessary. A traveling swordsman rarely had to stop and calculate equations. "You never know, though. Someday you might be thankful for knowing it. It certainly can't hurt." He wasn't about to jump at the opportunity to learn something like that, though. He may be intelligent, but mathematics... weren't exactly his area of expertise.

Link nodded. "Yes, Ordon is my village. It's in a province south of the main kingdom. It's about a day's trip to Castle Town and back for trading."

[lighthearted]

Sora couldn't really think of a situation in which he would be thankful he'd learned more than basic math, but then again, you never did know for sure. He shrugged and started to swing his legs back and forth where they were dangling off the edge of the X-Ray table.

So, Link lived near some kind of kingdom or castle or something. Sora had been exposed to worlds like that, so he was getting a slightly clearly picture of what Hyrule might be like.

"It sounds nice," he said after a pause, smiling slightly. "Uhh, but... I guess no one else is coming, huh?" He glanced toward the door they'd come through and let out a sigh. Was Lingormr making trouble for everyone else? If so, why had they been let off easy? "Should we try to go through there?" He nodded to the other door in the room. Chances were it wouldn't have anything that interesting, but at this point Sora was just getting bored.

[his_legacy]

"Yes, that would probably be better than sitting around here any longer." In Link's experience, checking every possible new area always led to something good .

Link glanced sideways at the door they had entered from.

"I do hope that Lingormr isn't giving our expected company more trouble than he gave us, though..." He considered checking outside for a moment, but Link realized that that would be a foolish risk to take- especially if the possessed man was reacting violently to potential newcomers.

[lighthearted]

"I guess... if we look around everywhere here and no one has shown up by then, we can go back out and see what's going on." Sora knew that it was a bad idea to toss himself into a dangerous situation again, but the idea that there were people out there who might need his help was hard to ignore.

First, though, would be exploration. Sora pushed off of the X-Ray table and moved to the mystery door, opening it up with a creak.

"We might get ambushed by monsters or something, so stay close, okay?" he said to Link over his shoulder before stepping through.

[To here.]