[PRP] Second Opinion

[TawnyAngel]

...Woah.

Dith sat back, mind temporarily blank. He didn't know quite what he'd expected, but not this.

"No," he said after some moments, "you... would definitely need your medical records. With something like that unless it's emergency treatment knowing what has already been done, how you've reacted to different treatments or drugs would be vital." He'd had no idea, but then it wasn't the kind of thing you tended to have an idea about. It was invisible and...

Dith reached a hesitant hand towards Luke's shoulder. "Are you okay?" Well obviously he wasn't okay but.... s**t. Why did bad things always have to happen to decent people?  

[Suudonym]

The hard line of his lips eventually moved as if to suggest a smile without ever properly achieving one. "Yeah," he said. "I figured as much." He figured as much, but thus far it hadn't prevented the small hope that there was some way around it, somehow that he couldn't think of without being familiar with all the regulations and jargon. But that was that; it was as he suspected. There was some sense of relief, he supposed, in finally having a definite answer, even if it was an unsavory one.

He made no movement that acknowledged the hand at his shoulder, neither positive nor negative. "I've been better," he said, "in a lot of ways." Obtaining one's own medical records, Luke assumed, probably wasn't too difficult a feat. The problem arose from knowing that his name, the name of the patient those records referenced, was something other than Luke, something that had been kept secret from him for as long as he could remember. That certainly complicated things. "...What do people who can't get their records do? Just wait for an emergency?" That didn't sound like an especially safe strategy, after being told that it was all the more important to receive proper treatment when a heart attack was mild. He didn't want to confront an emergency if it could kill him to do so.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith removed his hand again slowly, cradling his cup delicately in both hands instead. "Well, no," he replied, looking over at Luke and trying to read his face. "If records really have been lost, or destroyed - it does happen - then the doctors will try to deduce what has already been done, through knowledge of what the best practice is and with tests but... well it's not ideal," he shook his head, "if you have any way of getting hold of the records that would be the best by far. Guesswork is never safe in medicine... especially with a condition like that."

The question on his mind at the moment was... why? Why couldn't Luke get his records? He was some kind of nobility back where he came from, wasn't it? A duke, or son of a duke, so surely he would have been given the best possible care (Dith did dislike that fact, but it was true all over the world that rich or influential people got better care than ordinary people) and surely meticulous records would have been kept.

"...There is... a problem with getting your records?" he hazarded carefully after a momentary pause.  

[Suudonym]

That was a more comforting thought, to know that all was not well and truly lost in the worst case scenario. But that, too, seemed a risky game to play; as Dith said, medicine didn't seem the best place for shrugs and assumptions.

He drew from the cup gingerly, allowing the warmth and fragrance of the tea to erode the edge from his anxiety. Dith's question received a terse nod in response, "It's sort of complicated and weird. Apparently my brother and I were raised separately, so when Asch eventually disappeared, they brought me in to replace him so they could go on like nothing happened. I didn't really have any memories at the time because of some kind of trauma, so they pretty much just had me raised under my brother's name." A silent sigh and a darkened expression. "Luke, that's Asch's name. Of course, no one's ever told me mine - the name that would be on those records. My parents don't know I know all this, and since I ran away I don't know how compliant they would be, of if they'd even tell the truth if I asked..." Or if they would seize the opportunity to keep from returning to Kodo, essentially imprisoning him at home again. That would probably be enough to bar excitement from his life and protect his health, if they indeed continued to deny him the truth of himself.

"We're not on very good terms," he summarized, half of a forced laugh giving its best to extract his bitterness from the conversation.  

[TawnyAngel]

For some moments Dith just stared in silence while his brain tried to process everything Luke - or not Luke - had just told him. After some moments he had to be completely honest and say; "I have no idea what to say to all of that.... I'm sorry, for what little it's worth." Who would treat their child - their children - like that? It was unbelievable, and yet he didn't believe Luke was lying.

Dith looked down into his cup.

"I see the problem now... but if it is at all possible for you to find out, you need to." He looked back up again then, his brows creased with worry. "It is your health we're talking about here, surely your parents would have to understand that?... If you want company I would happily come with you." He didn't know what help he could possibly be, but the offer was there if Luke wanted to take it up.  

[Suudonym]

He traced his thumb around the rim of the cup, "I dunno. Before I ran away, they were pretty determined to keep me from leaving the house." Possibly because they knew the dangerous possibilities that existed outside supervision. "If I go back, they might just deny everything and close the doors on me again. I guess I could probably get away again if they did, but..." But that wouldn't get him any closer to finding those records. He clenched his hands gently, in quiet defiance. Was that it? He had to face his parents' lies and deception or risk the possibility of death? A frown, erring on a scowl, spread in his expression, but Dith's offer for companionship disarmed that countenance.

"No, that's-- Grande Ile is awfully far from here, and..." He drew up his shoulders slightly. And I don't even know if I want to go. Was there an option? Any option at all? Going home now just seemed... frightening, company or not.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith raised his cup to his lips, and then discovered he'd drunk all of the contents. Placing it back down on the tray he refilled it carefully, carefully trying to decide what to do next. This was a delicate situation, and the more he heard of Luke's parents the less he liked them.

"I think you should go," he said softly as he delicately picked the cup up again. "If it's something you want to do alone... I can understand that. If your parents try anything foolish we're all only on the end of the phone." Phones. Grand Isle. "Uh... or the pokemon." He would really like to go along, but he knew he was just being invasive and overprotective on that score.... Following Luke, if he did go, would be really stupid of him.  

[Suudonym]

His expression wasn't quite a smile, but it wasn't abject despair and hopelessness either. "Yeah. I guess that's true." The devil's advocate in the dark corner of his thoughts argued that they easily could take his phone and pokemon as well, but a dim optimism countered that it surely wouldn't come to that. He had never been support of his parents' decisions, but they weren't outright evil. They were humans, he told himself, his mother and father; surely it wasn't their ultimate goal to imprison him against his will.

It was so easy to villainize them after all the deception, though.

"If it's something I absolutely have to do, then I guess I'll... figure it out, somehow," he said, though not without hesitation prominent in his voice. "If there's no choice, then there's no choice." It was probably too much to hope, he suspected, that a choice would miraculously present itself.