The Common Room Showing 651-700 of 1,208

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

But of course Cat did notice, as soon as she saw the flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye. Goddamn it. She had hoped...well, she didn't know what she had hoped. But it certainly wasn't this sort of reaction, this fear. Fear had been expected, but it hadn't been hoped for. For a moment, she met the girl's wary gaze with a fleeting one of her own, then allowed her song to trail off and switched to another:

"Please, please, forgive me
But I won't be home again
Maybe some day you'll look up
And barely conscious you'll say to no one:
'Isn't something missing?'

You won't cry for my absence, I know
You forgot me long ago..."

There was a message embedded in the lyrics, plain as day: I'm sorry. Cat wasn't exactly asking for Roxie's forgiveness; she knew she might never get that--mostly because there wasn't anything she needed to be forgiven for in the first place--but offering her condolences instead. She hadn't known. She honestly, honestly hadn't known Silas would go so far.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Roxanne didn't relax her tense position, but a little tiny bit of the fear left her gaze. The blonde had to remind herself that Cat didn't do anything, Cat didn't cause this, Cat wasn't to be feared. The shaking blonde took a few deep breaths and lifted her head just a little.

Cloudy green eyes rested upon Cat, and a small amount of fear drifted from them.

The blonde sighed. "Hello, Cat."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Hello, Roxie." It was all she could do to keep the relief out of her voice. She could see the fear and the anxiety behind the blonde's eyes, but it had lessened, and Roxie had taken a step forward just by talking to her without first being prompted. Cat took a more comfortable position on the couch, stretching her legs out in front of her and leaning back so that her head rested on the cushion behind her, and her eyes met Roxie's. "It's good to see you talking again," she offered. There was no smile, just the words. She wanted to be gentle, easy, nonthreatening.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

The blonde nodded a little. "The nurses seem to think so too. They say I'm making progress and stuff."

Roxanne shrugged a little nonchalantly. Her words were quiet and almost hesitant, but they were there.

Cat wasn't as threatening. She wasn't as terrifying. Roxanne felt a little weight lift off of her shoulders as she came to the realization that Cat wasn't the one who wanted to hurt her, she wasn't the one who should be feared.

"A-and you?" Roxanne asked, stumbling over the simple courtesy of a question, and raising a shaky hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Cat shrugged a little and shook her head, smiling on the inside when Roxie asked after her. That was progress, and good progress at that. "I'm all right," she replied. "Nothing new. Honestly, I'd be more worried about how you're doing." Now she did smile, a small expression that was gentle, almost motherly, and looked quite normal on her round features. "I'm glad you're feeling better, though. That's a good thing."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Roxanne shrugged her tiny shoulders. "It's certainly nice to be able to be sociable again." The blonde snorted a little laugh, though it felt just a little forced, and was far too high and nervous.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"I'll bet." The nervous titter to the laugh was noticed but ignored--Cat didn't see the point in potentially making things worse by pointing it out. She leaned forward a little, slight curiosity evident in her eyes. "Who have you been talking to? I never see you around, and when I do you're always keeping to yourself. But you talk like you have become sociable again, just with somebody who's not me."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Roxanne shrugged. "Not many people. I didn't make many friends before, you see, and so I had no pity waiting for me on the other side." Again, the nervous laughter twittered from her lips.

"But I made some friends." The words were said with a shrug; Roxanne didn't see the need mention Carlos by name. It would only make her seem slightly more crazed than she already was.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

((Aw, but Cat doesn't judge. XD))

"Well, good." Cat nodded, figuring she as just going to have to get used to Roxie's lack of detail--after all it wasn't as if the blonde owed her the information. She would just have to keep her curiosity in check, she supposed, that or do some sneaking around on her own (which she, admittedly, was very terrible at doing.)

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

The blonde offered a smile, and she nodded a little. "I suppose it is."

A little more comfortable, Roxanne allowed her head to fall back upon the cushion. "What about you? What have you been doing?"

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Not much." Cat shrugged. "Just getting by, I suppose." She gave a dry chuckle. "I'm not exactly the type of person who goes out of her way to make her life interesting. Around here, I kind of prefer to go under the radar, you know?" Of course, she would love to make other friends besides Silas--but people in St. Peter's weren't exactly focused on friendships. They all had their own problems; there was little room for much else.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Roxanne nodded in agreement. "That's certainly smart. People here can be a little... Crazy." The blonde echoed a dry laugh of her own.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Cat smiled, her tone when she replied playfully sarcastic: "No! In an asylum? I never would have guessed!" She laughed. "Yeah, Roxie, they certainly can. I guess it's kind of this place's calling card."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

((derp. Fade? ))

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

((Fade.))

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan sat huddled as close to the fireplace as she could without burning her wild curls off. Her left arm was in a sling, and underneath her rather tight red sweater were bandages wrapping her ribs; they hadn't been broken, but had come very close. She wore the sweater as to hide the bruises encircling her right arm, and none of the other bruises were visible. The little blind girl sat gazing into the fire, her knees gently pulled up to her chest. She rested her chin atop her knees, a little frown in place.

Morgan hadn't been outside in almost a week, not since the accident had occurred. She liked calling it an accident, although it very clearly wasn't. It was an attack. The young girl was very skittish; she jumped at the sound of footsteps and cowered at voices. The poor girl was traumatized, and yet the nurses had encouraged her to leave her room. They stood at the edges of the room, watching carefully for any alleged attacker, as Morgan had refused to name names.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Across the room sat Raven, his hands folded on his knees, his gaze steady as he stared at the back of Morgan's head. So there she was. It had been a long time since he'd last seen her, his little pupil; and in that time, she seemed to have gotten in a massive amount of trouble. From what he could tell, she had been attacked--by who and for what reason he had yet to discover. The Indian hadn't approached the blind child yet, worried about her, how she could react more negatively to his presence. If he went about it the wrong way, all the work he had done to get Morgan to the point she was at would have been for naught. He was determined to see his goal through.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

The young blind girl sat, entirely oblivious of her onlooking tutor. A little, shaky sigh escaped her lips, followed by a wince as her breathing put pressure on her ribs. She lifted her bruised arm over the few ribs that were very nearly shattered, and in the process her sleeve dropped a bit, which revealed the bruises encircling her wrist, yet not the ones around her upper arm. Glancing down unseeingly at her own wrist, she looked around and pulled the sleeve back over the bruises. And then her blue gaze was returned to the fire, silently, shakily, skittishly.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Quietly, Raven arose from his perch and crossed the common room to the little girl. He had seen the bruises on her wrist, the bandages around her ribs, the sling around her left arm. Without a sound he knelt down next to her--even then, he was looking down at her head. "Morgan," he said softly. His hand came up, as if he wanted to pat her shoulder, but it remained frozen in the air and then was lowered. Even now, he could tell that now was not a good time to be surprising the girl with unexpected touches. "Morgan, it's me. Raven."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

She jumped at the voice, and flinched away from Raven instinctively before his words registered. She shut her eyes tightly, but then she realized. It's Raven. Raven doesn't want to hurt me. With a little sigh, Morgan relaxed a little, and lowered her head a little, not meeting her tutor's gaze.

"Hi, Raven," said the blonde quietly, still refusing to look up at the older boy.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"What happened to you?" His voice was gentle, quiet, concerned. Out of the corner of his eye Raven watched all the nurses in the room tense, as if waiting for some telltale sign that things were going to take a turn. For once, Raven didn't even spare a moment to be angry at them. What he cared about right now was Morgan, finding out what had happened, and helping her. The child had taken the place of his late sister Anna, and that was not something that the Indian took lightly. He cared about her.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan simply shook her head. She kept her head down, crazy blonde ringlets providing almost a curtain between her and the Indian. She sniffed a little, and then reached up her bruised wrist to wipe away a few stray tears, once again revealing the bruises. This time she didn't bother to pull her sweater back down. She shook her head again, not talking for fear of bursting out into tears. "Uh-uh," was all she said.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Don't you start that with me." A note of firmness crept into Raven's voice, and he tapped the child's head with his index finger. "Talk to me, Morgan. Tell me what happened. You know I don't want to hurt you, and you ought to know by now that I don't care if you cry. I've seen children cry before." By the end, his voice had turned coaxing. "Come on, Morgan. It's all right."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan again shook her head, and pulled her knees up tightly to her chest, wincing again. She lifted her chin up from her knees, and turned to look towards Raven, with a little shake of her head. "I don't want to talk about it. You'll be mad at me."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"I won't be mad. I promise."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

The little blonde sighed, and she knew that arguing would be utterly pointless. Raven was not one to argue with, as he would get his way peacefully or not. And Morgan certainly wasn't up for a not-so-peaceful way of confessing.

She buried herself in her mass of blonde curls, and hid her face in her knees as she spoke quietly. "I was stupid and I made somebody mad."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

And because she couldn't see, Raven rolled his eyes. She made somebody mad. That's what every single person who had ever been attacked in the asylum told him, and half of them hadn't even done that. The Indian had a feeling that Morgan was one of those in the latter group--she was five, for God's sake, who could she possibly make mad? Raven gave the slightest sigh. "Did you?" he asked. "And who was that? What happened?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan didn't lift her head, instead staying hidden among the blonde ringlets. "He got mad at me and then he bent my arm up behind my back and then kicked me and then did this thing to my other arm and then he left." She sniffled a little, trying her hardest not to cry, although a few tears escaped and rolled down her cheeks and into her jeans.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

((He didn't get made. He broke a little. :P))

"Who's 'he,' Morgan?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

((Idunno, I don't think she would know how else to put it.))

Morgan shook her head. "Uh-uh. I don't want to tell."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"I don't care what you want to do. I asked you a question." In the span of those two sentences, Raven's irritation became very apparent. Again, he saw the nurses tense, saw several creep closer to them, but that wasn't his main concern. What he cared about was Morgan. Morgan and the truth.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan shook her head quickly. "Uh-uh! I don't want to get hurt again. He'll find out and he'll hurt me." In the span of a few short seconds, Morgan was back to looking rather terrified, huddled in her corner, and her head buried in her lap and surrounded by her curls. "I don't want it to happen again, Raven." The poor girl was far from hysterics, but she was shaking just a little.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Raven sighed. It was a short, almost annoyed sound. For a girl usually so bright and perceptive, it sure didn't take much to reduce Morgan back to the state of a very young child. The Indian closed his eyes, took a deep breath, let it out. Now was not the time to be harsh. "It won't happen again, Morgan," he reassured her. "Whoever it was isn't going to find out a thing, and he's certainly not going to hurt you again. I'll make sure of that."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Again, Morgan forced herself to come to realizations that arguing with Raven was pointless. She sighed a little, her blue eyes scrunched up, and then nodded a little. "Okay, okay."

She lifted her bruised hand to wipe away a few tearstains on her cheeks, and then brushed a few wild curls back behind her head as she lifted her head and turned her cloudy gaze to the corner, still not looking at Raven.

"He said his name was Carlos."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Carlos," Raven repeated. He frowned, went over the name in his mind, tried to remember if he'd ever met a boy with that name or seen word of him in the files. As the asylun's resident hacker, he had to have read the boy's file before, but right now he was drawing a blank. "What was Carlos like?" he asked, tapping Morgan's head once more to get her attention. "Could you describe his personality? The way he talked, or the things he said?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

With the tap, Morgan flinched a little, but turned back to look at Raven. She wracked her own brain, trying to remember anything about him except for the fear. "Um... he said he had been somewhere else than here, somewhere a lot stricter. And he escaped from there."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Another asylum...it clicked. Raven snapped his fingers. "I know who you're talking about," he said. "Carlos Rivera is his full name. He's an odd one." He paused, looking Morgan up and down, his gaze scrutinizing. "Carlos did all that?" he asked. "I mean, he's supposed to be a little unstable--that's what his file says--but it looks to me like he took the liberty of beating the tar out of you. For God's sake, what did you say to him that made him wolf out like that?" As far as Raven knew and could tell, it took an awful lot of pressure to turn Carlos into a psychotic machine. Morgan had either done something very bad, or she had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan shrugged. "I don't know," she said honestly, her pale brows knit together. "I don't know what I did. He just got really mad really fast."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Raven, too, had an expression of thought and concentration on his face. "Can you remember anything about what happened before he attacked you?" he asked. "Something you might have said or done, something that triggered a change that you could hear or just plain sense?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan shook her head. "No. He wasn't angry at all until right before he hurt me, or at least not as far as I could tell." She frowned a little, and brushed her wild curls behind her ear. "I don't know what happened."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Hmm." Raven's lips pressed together into a thin line, and he gave a little shake of his head. "I don't think there's much to worry about, then," he told his friend. "If you had really pissed him off, he would have said something. That's how Carlos is. What I think is that you were just the victim of a psychotic spell. They come, they last, and then they're over and Carlos usually ends up forgetting about the whole thing. He doesn't really care about getting in trouble--it shouldn't matter if you tell a nurse or not. He's not the kind of person to hold a grudge and come after you."

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan knit her brows together. "Will it happen again, Raven?" The little girl looked straight at the Indian, as if she could really see his face. An expression of innocence, true concern, and a little bit of fear colored those cloudy eyes, and Morgan pulled her knees up tighter. "Will I get hurt again?"

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"No." Raven shook his head. "Not of you're careful. Not if you do it right." He didn't know what she might have been expecting; perhaps a promise of protection. But he wasn't the kind of person to hand those out to just anyone--and besides, where was Morgan going to get if he did all the thinking for her, if he fought her battles? Nowhere, and that wasn't where she needed to be. She was young, but the little blind girl needed to learn. Needed to learn what to listen for when talking to the unstable ones, needed to learn not to be so trusting, needed to learn how to navigate the dangerous waters of asylum politics. She would, he thought, in time. If she went through what she just had enough times.

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

As if the blonde were reading his mind, Morgan asked, "How do I know if they're gonna hurt me?" The blonde seemed a little more at ease; getting the truth off of her chest had made her feel better. She visibly relaxed, her tight grip around her knees loosening a little, and her posture becoming straighter.

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Raven considered this a moment. It was so hard to realize danger when one couldn't see--most of the signs were visionary, not auditory. His lips turned down slightly at the corners in thought. "There are certain tones you can look for," he told Morgan finally. "If someone gets very quiet all of a sudden. If they start laughing or start getting excited for no reason." Raven paused, wracked his brain. "You might even want to start worrying if they ask a lot of questions. Things that people wouldn't usually ask. Do you know what I mean?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

Morgan knit her brows a little bit, trying to think back to previous encounters with... sociopaths? Was that the word? Morgan then nodded a little, sending her wild curls bouncing around her shoulders. "Yeah, that makes sense... I get what you mean."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"Good." Raven nodded in approval, and gave Morgan's shoulder a squeeze once he remembered that she wouldn't be able to see the gesture. "That's good. Keep your head on your shoulders, Morgan, and I promise you'll be absolutely fine. If you're smart, this sort of thing is never going to happen again. Do you believe that?"

[Annie, Have no fear of perfection-- you'll never reach it.]

She nodded a little, a tiny smile crossing her lips. "I do."

Despite what most people would say, the blonde actually rather enjoyed Raven's company. He took care of her, and he helped her, and he was certainly far from mean to her. "Thanks, Raven."

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

"You're welcome, Morgan."

((Fade.))

[Hope , I belong here more than they do.]

Carlos couldn't quite put his finger on what he was feeling. His attack on Morgan had left him exhilarated, almost feverishly so, but it had been several days since and rationality had once again started to banish the beast from his mind. With it, there was shame, maybe even a little guilt--he had hurt the little girl, he had really hurt her--but, as was usual after he had one of his spells, those sorts of emotions could not find any holds. So yes, the boy could say he was feeling honestly confused--and he didn't like it.