St. Peter's Asylum discussion

"Hm?" Cat jumped a little and opened her eyes, glancing around quickly. When she caught sight of the older blonde, she relaxed. "Nah. Go ahead." She moved over a bit and nodded at the space next to her. After all, it was much more comfortable in the shade than it was in the heat.

Murmuring a quick thanks, Roxie took the offered seat on the grassy floor and leaned back against the trunk. She enjoyed the sun; it was not often she left her shadows and the warmth was nice.

"Are you new?" Roxie asked, placing on a curious look. "I haven't seen you around before."

"Yep." Cat nodded and turned to look at her with a little smile. "Me and my brother just got here about a week ago. I'm as new as can be."

"How are you fitting in?"

A smile, however fake it may seem, was slightly genuine. Cat was much more amiable than her brother, Roxie could tell that immediately.

Cat shrugged. "It's too early to tell?" She phrased it as a question. "I don't really know. This place is a little odd, that's for sure." It felt much more like a prison than an asylum--brick walls, cold metal at every turn, guards patrolling and standing watch as if the entire place were full of dangerous criminals. She shrugged again. "My name is Cat. Who're you?" Though she knew not to show it, she was ever-so-slightly suspicious. This girl was the first to come up with her without being prompted to start a conversation, and Silas had warned her against talking to strangers.

A pale hand was offered. "I'm Roxie. I volunteer here."

She smiled a little. "Ours certainly not homey, that's for sure."

She took the other girl's hand, shook it once, and let go. A small smile was offered in Roxie's direction, though slight wariness gleamed in Cat's dark blue eyes. She wasn't quite sure who to trust--and so she went with Silas's advice: trust no one. A shrug came at the second comment. "I suppose you have to be, what with all the mental teens wandering around."

Roxie laughed a little. "There's definitely some messed up kids here."

Like your brother. She certainly didn't say it, but she thought it.

"So...did you need something?" Cat turned away again, back towards the asylum, and studied the grounds before her. Self-consciousness wasn't usually one of her traits, but what were you supposed to do when an asylum volunteer walked up to you to start conversation? She didn't know this girl's angle, or even if she had an angle--it made her a little nervous, not being able to read her intentions. The people back home had been so much easier to predict.

A little shake of blonde hair. "No, not specifically. We just always try to talk to the newer patients."

"Oh. Okay." Cat gave the smallest of shrugs and continued her tune, humming slightly under her breath. It was a little higher in pitch now--she was getting a little stressed. But she kept herself still and willed her mind to calm. Not here. Not now. Freak out later.

A little purse of her lips. As blunt and arrogant as Roxie was, she could obviously sense the girl's distress. "If I'm bothering you of course, that's a different story."

"What? No, I'm fine." She gave a quick shake of her head. "Really. I'm fine." Well, she wasn't and they both knew that--so the question simply was: could she fib her way out? Cat really hated to panic in front of other people, especially strangers. Especially strangers who volunteered at the asylum she was enrolled in. What if the blonde began to make assumptions?

Roxie arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I certainly don't mind."

"I'm all right. Honest."

"Okay, if you say so."

Roxie shrugged and leaned her head back against the tree with a little sigh. She was sore almost everywhere.

((What the hell do you expect me to do? XD))

Cat spared her a quick glance, then turned her attention back to the asylum several meters away. What would it be like to live there for months? For years, as she had been told many of the patients had done? Were their diseases really that incurable; were they really so sick? It was worrying--what if she never got out of here? Or worse, Silas got out and she didn't? At the thought, a flickering of panic entered her eyes. What would she do then?

((I DON'T KNOW AGH. Cat is so much harder xD))

((So start asking questions.))

((Mkhay.))

Roxie glanced at the girl. She needed answers. And she was surely done with being nice about it. If that's how she would have to play with these siblings, then so be it.

"So why are you in here then, Cat?"

Cat gave a little grin and shrugged. "Mental instability, I guess. I kind of get stressed out really, really easily, so my folks decided that it might be better to give me long-term treatment. You know, in case I had a really made attack and they couldn't calm me down."

A slight nod, a little inclination of her head. Blonde hair fell in front of her piercing green eyes, of which were looking the young girl up and down, scrutinizing her.

She seemed quite the opposite of her brother.

"And you said your brother came with you, yes?" Roxie asked, intent on shedding more light on the subject.

"Uh-huh. Just last week." She gave the girl a slightly suspicious look. "Why? Is this all for a file or something?" It seemed an awful lot of prodding from a girl who barely knew her.

"Oh no no, the files are fine."

Roxie smiled a little, although it now came across as sickeningly sweet. "There are just some things the files don't tell us, you know?"

"Sure..." Cat trailed off, uncertain. Something in the girl's smile--and her manner, now that she thought about it--were putting her on edge. She understood curiosity, but this didn't seem like a simple desire to know things. To her, it sounded a lot more like an interrogation. "Why do you care?" she asked aloud, careful not to turn away from the asylum lest her growing unease showed in her eyes. "There's nothing special about me."

"Au contraire, my dear girl," Roxie said with a little smirk.

"I know you're in here for anxiety, as you just told me this. I know you have a brother who followed you here."

Roxie paused a little. "And, based on a personal encounter, I can see that this asylum will do well for your brother. He probably needs it more than you."

A little laugh. Her green eyes flashed with her sickening grin. "Cat, you are certainly more interesting than you give yourself credit for."

Cat raised her eyebrows doubtfully. "You've met Silas?" Her voice wasn't suspicious--not yet--but when she turned back to the girl her eyes narrowed. No, she definitely wasn't liking the look of this girl anymore. Something in her demeanor had changed, and she got the feeling that it wasn't a good something. "What happened?"

There was the name. Silas. Roxie smiled a little.

"Nothing much. The usual, you know, got beat up, a few ribs broken, the works." She scoffed.

Hell. Cat sighed. "I'm sorry," she said, though the look in her eyes was anything but apologetic. If Roxie was beaten, then Silas wasn't giving her a warning--he was threatening her. When the bones started breaking, you knew things had gotten serious. Again the girl sighed. "You must have really ticked him off, Roxie. What did you do? What did you say?"

Pale brows narrowed a little, along with her piercing green gaze, and Roxie shrugged.

"All I did was ask some questions. Turns out he's pretty volatile."

((You mean violent?))

"Yeah. Sometimes. Did you say something about me?" Cat look at her once more, and this time her gaze wasn't fleeting. Her dark blue eyes were almost concerned--but not for Roxie. "He gets really uptight when people bring me up in conversation. Brother bear, Mom called him." Well, Silas's mother, at least. Opal hadn't been hers. She'd never exactly grown attached to the elder Frost.

((Nope, I meant volatile. Unless I used it wrong.))

"I asked about you. But that's simply habit."

Roxie shrugged. "Whatever. Nothing new. No big deal." She waved it aside with a little smirk.

((No, you did. I just didn't recognize the word.))

No big deal? Did that kind of thing happen often around here? Cat frowned a little, but shook the thoughts away. "Do you know where he is now? I don't want him wandering around all angry. He might hurt somebody else." She stood up and looked the older blonde over for a moment. She didn't look that injured, but she knew from experience how good people could be at hiding pain. "And you should go to one of the doctors, too. They'd fix you up."

Roxie shook her head. "Nope. He stormed off."

With her second comment, Roxie laughed a little and shook her head. "I'm quite used to it."

"Broken bones are serious." But Cat shrugged at her choice and turned away, taking a few small steps back towards the building as she prepared to leave. She glanced back. "See you around?"

"I'm sure you will," Roxie said with a little smile, waving at the girl and leaning her head back to the tree.

((fade? ))

((Fade. Well crap, that didn't go as well as I'd hope. Silas still has no incentive. XD))

Felix didn't usually sneak to the places where high-security patients were forbidden. He tried to play onto the good side of the nurses, seeing as he needed their trust to see Ruby. But after his recent encounter with Raven, Felix honestly didn't care.

White gauze was wrapped around the deep cut in his hand, though the wound didn't seem to bother Felix as he snuck into the enclosed space of the peach tree. At first, the young boy didn't spot anybody, and he smiled a little to himself before seating himself against the tree and leaning his head back against the rough bark with a sigh.

And then a head popped down into his filed of vision, and wide dark blue eyes met his. "Oh, hi! Didn't see you there." Cat was hanging upside down from one of the peach tree's sturdier branches, humming gently to herself, and when she heard the soft footsteps of another she'd decided that she might as well have a look. As was common when she was in a particularly good mood, she didn't go about it like a normal person--thus explaining why Felix was now staring at her upside-down smile.

Felix looked up, opening pale blue eyes and letting blue meet blue. He put on a small smile. He had heard much about the new siblings that haunted the asylum grounds.

"Hello," Felix said, his smile verging on a smirk.

"I'll be down in a minute. Just hold on a sec." Cat pulled herself up so that she was more or less sitting on the branch, and then she maneuvered herself so that she hung by her hands. A second later, her feet hit the ground with a soft, pleasant thump and the small girl was left standing and smiling at the young murderer. "The name's Cat," she said, leaning comfortably against the side of the rough trunk. "Who're you?"

"Felix," the young boy said with the same smirk in place. "It's a pleasure, Cat."

Blue eyes looked the older girl up and down. She was the anxious one, with the panic attacks. She seemed fairly normal, a rarity in these parts.

Cat was about to respond, but then her eyes caught on the boy's bandaged hand. "What happened?" she asked, nodding to it with a slightly concerned frown. Whatever Silas lacked in empathy, his stepsister seemed to make up for with her overabundance of it. She wasn't stupid--from her experience, most of the patients were fairly touchy when they spoke of themselves--and so she didn't dote, though it was clear that she wanted to. What could have happened, to require gauze that thick? It had obviously been more than just a fall or minor accident.

Felix looked down, and he chuckled a little. "Ahh, I guess I got a little angry. Accidentally cut my hand."

"Cut your hand?" Cat repeated, a little incredulously. "With what?" Her frown turned into a thoughtful pucker, and she knelt so as to better see the hidden wound on the young boy's hand. It had to have been bad; the gauze nearly covered his entire palm. Her dark brows drew together in confusion. An "accidental cut" wouldn't require that much attention, and she knew it. So why was the boy twisting the truth?

"Ahh, a knife?"

Felix smirked a little, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Someone just threatened my... friend , and stuff just went downhill?"

"Hmmm." The noise was one of slight doubt, but Cat didn't want to pry; so she nodded and let the matter drop. It was none of her business anyhow. "All right then," she replied. But she couldn't help herself from asking: "Is there anything I can do? Maybe I could alert a nurse to the situation?"

Felix chuckled again. "You're sweet. It's fine, I can handle it."

Desperate for a change of subject, Felix said: "So you're one of the new kids, right?"

"Yep." Cat nodded once more and took a seat beside the little boy. Her smile was friendly. "I just came in with my brother a couple weeks ago." She was about to ask if he had met Silas, but decided against it--Silas had told her that he was already making enemies, and he didn't need everybody knowing who he was--so she let the question die on her lips. If Felix asked, she decided, then she could tell.

Felix didn't ask. He wasn't out to pry today. Instead he put a rather amiable smile in place.

"How are you adjusting to it here?"