St. Peter's Asylum discussion

"You don't know a lot about me." Lena said, leaning down to tug off her boots. Then, swiftly tying the laces together, she hung them of a low hanging branch, the grass whispering underneath her feet.

((Hello?))

"I know more than you think, but only what the files want me to know," Raven agreed. His eyes were back on the sky, and he pretended not to notice as Lena began climbing up the tree as well.

Lena placed her feet, calloused and slightly dirty, onto the soft ridges of the peaceh tree and began scaling it, fingers dancing onto the ridges easily, until she was perched carefully a bit below Raven.

He didn't turn to look. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting. Need I elaborate?" Lena replied, her back arched slightly against the lovely bark, her fingers playing with a soft leaf that had fluttered to lay upon her skirt.

"Must you sit so close to me, though?" Raven gave a dramatic sigh. "I don't like people."

"Neither do I." Lena glanced at him, the faintest of smiles tinting her lips. "But up here is far better then down there." She disliked being within range of her guards, or within range of any number of people. And there certainly were many milling about below.

Raven shrugged, he could live with that. And probably relate too. So he said nothing, finding it easier just to stay quiet and look at the sky.

((I must depart for the evening. Farewell!))

Lena plucked at the leaf's rowan stem, the thin stalk twisting in her fingers. Silence was far better then conversation. Usually.

((Hello?))

Raven had a feeling she was going to stay like that for a while, so he closed his eyes. It was alright, up in this tree with Lena. It wasn't taxing on his mind, if nothing else--this particular girl didn't cause him stress as some others did. He wasn't going to think of their names, not now. Not when he was so close to peace.

((Fade?))

((Sure.))

Lena glanced up at the solemn, mischevious boy, a light smile flickering across her lips before settling against the trunk, content to the silence.

Inspecting the slowly budding blossoms of the peach tree, a dark-haired boy with dark gray eyes stood below the branches that sheltered him from the sun's rays that shone rightly today. His face held a tranquil look to it, with his usual smile planted on his face.

"If you go, they say you're followin'.
If you don't, then you're too good for them.
If you smile, you must be ignorant.
If you don't, what's your problem?

If you're down, you're so ungrateful and,
if you're happy, why so selfish?
And you can't win, no.
You can't win."

Those were the first few lines of Kelly Clarkson's You Can't Win, coming up above Dominic's head. Miriam was actually up in the peach tree, singing down to him. The lines asked him, specifically and discreetly, why the nurses could never accept the patients no matter what they did. Everything they did seemed wrong, and now she wanted to know why.

Domonic lifted his head, smiling up at the little songbird nestled high in the treetops. It seemed almost fitting, for the girl known as the songbird to be up in the tree. Not yet realizing that Miriam wasn't singin but asking him a question, Domonic asked one of his own. "How are you today, Miriam?"

Miriam gave a tiny smile and shook her head a little. She sang the lines again, reenforcing her thoughts: it was a question, what she sang, not just something she did for fun. Why didn't the nurses accept them, why were they always wrong?

Domonic's face lightened up a bit when she repeated the lyrics. Miriam wasn't a patient he usually saw, and forgot that she sang instead of talked. "We don't judge you, Miriam. I'm just ere trying to help you all get better. That's all."

The laugh that floated down to him was loud and a little strained, even slightly shrill, as Miriam's laughs often were. She shook her head again, and fixed her eyes on his. But there's nothing wrong with me, said the look. To prove her point, she sang out a few lines from the song Hello, by Evanescence.

"If I smile and don't believe...
soon I know I'll wake...from this dream.
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken.
Hello, I'm the lie, living for you so you can hide."

Domonic took those words into consideration for a moment, nodding his head in agreement. "Well you may not think that, an I may not think that, but there are a lot of people outside of this asylum that think differently so we're trying to sve you from their torture. It's nothing against you."

Miriam frowned, looking a little confused. Why would people think that? She started, very slowly and carefully, climbing down from the tree--sometimes gesturing when she sang or made expressions made it easier to communicate, and she couldn't do that up in the tree.

The volenteer took some steps back, allowing the little frail songbird her room as she cascaded down the tree. Being a former patient of disease, he thought this place had been like his hospital when he had been diagnosed with cancer. Domonic had the assumption that everyone was here to help cure what ailed these patients, even though it might not agree with the patients.

It didn't take long for Miriam's thoughts to wander from climbing down the tree to something else. And as they did, the girl slipped. She wasn't focusing on handholds or footholds, and so when she lowered one foot down, expecting to feel a branch under her, in touched nothing but empty air. That would have been fine if she hadn't let go of the branch she was holing onto in expectation of a sturdy hold, but she had, and now Miriam fell from the upper boughs of the tree, branches cracking and breaking and whipping her face, falling down with her. She landed hard and awkwardly on the rough roots, letting out a pained squeak as her ankle twisted underneath her when she landed.

[D:]

Domonic rushed over, kicking himself for moving out of her way. He knew she had spells where she lost her connection with the world, why hadn't he thought of helpin her down? "Miriam, are you all right?" Domonic crouched over the younger girl, a mixture if panic and worry in his expression.

((You see, this is why she's never outside. I was gonna do it with Amara, but then you came along. XD))

Miriam did her best to nod, but it didn't look at all convincing when she was lying there with both hands around an injured ankle and her expression strained. She did her best to stand then, trying to prove her point, thinking that maybe if she could stand he wouldn't dote over her. But the instant she put pressure on her right foot she went down again, yelping. There was a lot of pain; it was definitely sprained if not broken. She looked away from Dominic as if ashamed of herself.

"Don't be," th nurse soothed when he saw the young girl's expression. "Come on, I'll help you up and to the doctor. Believ it or not, people fall out of that tree all the time. They're used to it." Though it wasn't exactly a lie, Domonic knew that there weren't a lot of people that fell out of that tree with that bad of injuries, either. He knew he fall had ended so drastically because her bones were so fragile and there was less muscle an fat to protect them from the fall.

Miriam bit her lip and took his hand, pulling herself up but careful not to let her right foot to touch the ground. A worried light entered her eyes as her thoughts turned from pain to Dinah. Would the nurse tell her? What would she say when she found out? Would she be worried or scared, or even angry? Miriam didn't want her to be angry, she hated it when Dinah was ashamed of her. So she whispered, very, very quietly: "Don't tell Dinah."

Domonic turned his head to look at the frightened girl. "Dinah?" Confusion crept into his voice before he relaxed his eyebrows and the frown he had recently adopted lifted away. "Oh, yes. Your sister. Don't worry, I won't tell her. Let's go see if the doctors can't fix you up."

Relieved, Miriam nodded and let him lead her off towards the door. This wasn't so bad. Her ankle hurt but it would get better, she probably wouldn't need crutches or anything (though she glanced at Dominic with a question in her eyes to make sure, pointing down at the foot) and Dinah wouldn't find out. Everything would fall into place and she would be fine.

Domonic glance down at th sweeping foot, uncertainty glinting in his eyes. "I'm not sure. That's up to the doctors to decide," he explained as he walked her away.

[Pûph?]

((Yep.))

[Your turn to post.]

((??))

[Doctor's office lol]

((Oooh. Fail.))

Lena perched on a tall, withering branch of the Peach Tree, gazing out over the vast expanse of the Asylum without much interest. Occasionally, the purple brusies that blossomed over her neck, attained by a particulrly angry patient, throbbed painfully, though she paid no mind. She was fully aware they were unslightly, in the shape of hands, coating almost her entire neck with pale patches of skin peeking through in some areas.

((Ha. Eilir.))

The Oracle had managed to get outside on such a warm day, hoping to find some sort of tincture or tea that utilized the fragrant peach blossoms. They were the only spot of color that she had been able to find in the park.

((I know. ;) ))

Lena's fingers lifted above her to pluck a lovely peach blossom from the tree, it's stem swirling in her finger, twisting about. One little pinch and the entire blossom would be crushed. But she musn't do that. So she simply compossed a poem about peach blossoms in her mind. It sounds like it would be lovely. But if you knew Lena, it would take the beauty and marr into something beautiful and horrible.

As Dinah reached for a particular blossom, another pale hand reached out to pluck it. Startled, she looked up to see a black-haired girl. "Oh, hello there."

She was jostled out of her thoughts, forced to glance at the girl. And she certainly was surprised by what she saw, but not overly. A girl, dressed in a simple chiton type garment, sitting above her. "Oh dear. It seems as if you desired this blossom, isn't it?" She held up the lovely flower in question.

"Don't worry, there are more, too." She laughed. Today's chiton was a pale pink, like the color of the peach blossom's that Dinah was surrounded by. "And who might you be, she who steals peach blossoms?" Dinah grinned down at the other girl.

Lena didn't return the grin. "She who steals peach blossoms may be called Lena." She replied, plucking another blossom from one of the many branches.

"I think I've seen you around then, once or twice. I'm the Pyth-Dinah. I'm Dinah. " She stopped herself, as her introductions as the Oracle sometimes made people, especially the nurses, look at her twice. Speaking of forgetfulness, she had almost forgot to tell Miriam that she had gotten permission to go outside with her. Dinah wondered where her little songbird had gone.

Lena did not do a double take however, appearing quite stotic and believing. "Greetings the Pyth-Dinah. What interesting attire you don." She simply commented, though she had already turned her eyes away and appeared to be speaking to the flower.

"Sorry. I feared if I introduced myself as-erm, the Oracle of Delphi, you might freak out." Dinah blushed. "Hence the attire. A chiton, you see."

Her expression never wavered. "Well, interesting to make the aqquaintance of the Oracle of Delphi. I have always fancied greek mythology." Lena replied. When she had lived at home, she read constantly. And of course, she still did. When you always read, you find out a great number of things. One thing that had interested her was mythology. Any form, it fasinated her. Occasionally these myths came to weave their way into a few select poems.

Dinah's face brightened, for here was one who didn't dismiss her religion. The only other girl like that was Rosemarie, and perhaps Miriam, but Miriam probably didn't really remember why her older sister was at the asylum, anyway. "Yes, well, it's nice to meet one who doesn't immediately dismiss me as crazy because of my past life."

"Well, we all are crazy, aren't way? Just each in our own little ways. But in the Asylum terms, no, I do not believe you to be crazy. I hardly classify anybody as that." Lena replied, twirling the blossom in her deathly pale fingers.

"Hmm. True." Dinah's brow furrowed as she contemplated Lena's words.

A ghost smile tinted the corner of her rose lips. "I wouldn't say it if it was not to be true." Lena replied, on and on the blossom danced.