St. Peter's Asylum discussion

"You're putting them to their exact words," Raven replied matter-of-factly. "Besides, you shouldn't trust anything they say anyway. Every one of them's stressed over Arabelle's death and all that."

"Oh, I am so sorry for trusting what the certified doctors and nurses said." Heavy sarcasm bent her tone. "It is wonderful to know that I can't trust the very ones that could potentially mean my survival." She meant if she ever required medical attention. Which she didn't. No siree.

"I knew you'd be whining soon enough." Raven slowly eased up on his branch to avoid a fall, plucking a peach from the branch above him and dutifully dropping it down onto Lena's head. "Now shut up or talk to me about something else. I don't want to hear it from a girl like you."

She snatched up the offending peach, which had luckily been rather soft and hucked it at Raven. "What kind of girl am I Raven?" She inquired curiously.

"A sophisticated one definitely above complaining," the Indian replied. He caught the peach as it flew up towards him and now simply tossed it at the ground. He wasn't in the mood to play games today.

"Sophisticated?" She snorted. She was simply being...Lena. Not at all sophisticated, at least to her knowledge. "I am not allowed to complain?" She asked, laying against the trunk of the tree without meeting his eyes.

"Nope."

"Well damn, that ruins my fun."

"Too bad." Raven rolled his eyes, then glanced down at her with an expression that was almost irritated. "And I thought I told you to shut up."

"Well alright, I guess I can stop talking." She just really said that to talk more. But she met his eyes and went no further.

"Good."

((Fade?))

((Wait for it, this is my last post, then yes.))

Lena sighed, drawing what seemed like a labored breath and began climbing down the tree, prepared to travel to the nurses. For medicine that would actually work. She slipped down, her toes touching the ground and made her way out of the clearing, hinched over slightly.

The peach tree seemed to be a place of serenity and for great thinking, so that is where the Hunter found herself to discover what she would do and say to the sadistic bird next time she saw him. How would she word what she wanted to say? Well, she could begin with I just attacked a nurse so we could get this damn prophecy over with. Still feeling great from her adrenaline rush the torturing had given her, Rosemarie smiled and pulled herself into the branches of the peach tree where she could be bathed in the sweet scent of the fruiting blossoms.

And unbeknownst to her, Raven was sitting up against the trunk, directly on the other side. For once, he looked at peace there, leaning against the rough bark with his eyes closed and his legs crossed. He might have been sleeping had the way he stripped the bark from a stick not given him away.

And Rosemarie with the eyesight of a cat had spotted the littered bark on th ground and went down to investigate. She picked up a piec of bark and inspected it. It had obviously been cut and she wondered by who. She wandered around the trunk of the tree, stopping when she spotted Raven.

The corners of Raven's lips raised in a barely-noticeable smile at the young girl's approach. He didn't move, didn't stop stripping the bark from his stick, but gave a quiet laugh. "Hi, Rosie. What are you doing, trying to sneak up on me?"

Rosemarie didn't say anything, she just stood there and thought. What to say, what to do. She had already done so much thinking, her brain was weary so the Hunter merely acted on instinct. The girl sat down beside the Indian, and let tendrils of fiery hair fall on Raven's shoulder as she leaned in and pressed her lips against his fiercely.

That made him open his eyes. In fact, the surprise was so great that for a moment Raven was completely stunned, and then he yanked himself back purely upon instinct. He was panting, just a little. "Rosemarie," he managed, complete shock in his eyes, "What was that?"

Rosemarie opened her eyes, blushing just a little and looking Raven in the eyes, feeling a slight satisfaction in the surprise in his expression. "Well most people would call it a kiss," she replied with a slight frown. "Why? Was it bad?"

"No, but it was unexpected." Raven frowned too, just a little. Was she toying with him? "Do tell me why you did that. It was completely random."

"Because I wanted to?" Rosemarie raised an eyebrow, almost wondering why Raven was so befuddled by her actions. Then she realized that not everyone was caught up in her actions quite yet. She leaned back against the tree, watching Raven closely.

"You wanted to kiss me." Raven also raised his eyebrows, his tone disbelieving. "Exactly what kind of pill do the doctors have you taking, Rosemarie? Never did I ever think those words would come out of your mouth; and thus I'm figuring they have you medicated. What's going on?"

Rosemarie sighed. "They don't have me on anything, Raven. I simply wanted to and so I did. I've been doing a lot of that, lately."

"Okay, fine. Let's say that for all intents and purposes that I believe you. Why the heck did you want to kiss me, anyhow?"

"Well, I did a bad thing that I'm sure Artemis wouldn't approve of?" Rosemarie explained as she began to fiddle with the stray pieces of bark surrounding her. "Dinah, the Prophet here, has been getting visions from Apollo and Artemis that Artemis wanted me to betray her. We're not sure why, but if she wants me to, then I will, and so I did." The former Huntress nodded as if that were all she needed to say and then added in after thought, "it's not like you've never kissed me, before." In truth, Rosemarie was anxious to end the conversation so that she could inform the sadist of what she had done.

For a few moments, Raven was silent. "You mean to tell me that you just went and made my job ten times easier? Purposely?" Good grief. Rosemarie had betrayed Artemis, the one thing that stopped her from outright saying she loved him? That was a little hard to wrap one's head around, especially because this was Rosemarie. Slowly the Indian shook his head. "That's it. That's it, I give up. I'm going to try and figure you out later, once there's no danger of my head exploding."

"Then I suggest pressing your hands against your temples to prevent your rains from leaking all over me encase I have more to tell you." Obviously excited now, the reread say up straighter against the tree trunk.

"Well, I doubt you can shock me any more than you already have. So let's hear it."

"I found this the other day." Shereached into the pocket of her jeans and handed Raven the now bloody knife. "And I attacked Wes with it right before I came here." Blushing and grinning sheepishly she added, "it was really fun."

Upon seeing the knife, Raven began to laugh. "Rosie, that's wonderful! There's hope for you yet." He went and inspected the little thing, a slight grin tugging at his lips. He was still chuckling just a bit. "Geez, you got blood all over this thing. What did you do?"

Rosemarie rolled her eyes at the Indian's praise, though she was of course delighted that he was proud of what she'd done. "Well I tol him h had a big mouth, so I traced his lips with the knife."

That got him to laughing again. "Good for you. Did he scream?"

Rosemarie shook her head. "No. He behaved really well, I was pretty disappointed that it was so simple."

"Normally that's how it is." Raven gave a shrug. "Take it from me: the ones that struggle are normally a lot less fun than the ones that don't. You end up having to kill them." As he spoke he pressed the blade to the grass, first one side and then the other, cleaning it off. He slid it into his own pocket. He was fairly sure he could hide it better than Rosemarie, who had almost no experience.

"It's much more boring, that way," she complained with a scowl. "For some reason he thought you had something to do with it. I had to tell him about five times that you didn't even know I was there."

((Yay, I get to do some deadpan snarking! By the way, this is Raven.))

The boy laughed. "That's only because I always have something to do with it. In some way, I'm involved in just about everything. This is natural, you shouldn't worry about it when somebody's stupid and doesn't realize that."

[Oh boy. Hi, Raven. :3]

She shrugged, running a hand through her bright red hair. "Well he didn't exactly believe me, so I don't know what he'll do. I really don't think I scared him well enough, to be honest." What could she say? She was an ametur, new at this. It wouldn't gonoerfecly the first time around.

((Now he's sleeping. :P))

"Okay, well do you think he'll report you?"

[Draw on his face!!! XD Or put his hand in warm water. Cover his hand in shaving cream then tickle him!]

Another shrug. "Not sure. He looked pissed, though."

((What? Hell no; he'll kill me!))

Raven looked rather serious now. "Rosemarie, you might have gotten yourself in trouble. Do I need to talk to him?" The Indian was pretty sure he could keep the boy quiet for at least a little while, and now almost felt the need. Rosemarie was making him nervous, trying to play the game without knowing the rules. It could end up horribly for both of them.

Rosemarie looked him in the eye, reading his expression. If she'd screwed up like she suddenly had the feeling that he had, Raven could surely fix it and fix it well, but then that would imply that he was involved as she had told Wes he was not. "No, I can manage. If you stay out of it, then you'll at least look innocent and I thought we decided you should stay as innocent as possible so you're not in a bad mood."

Raven blinked in disbelief. "You hold my mood in front of your freedom?" he asked, looking genuinely confused for once. "Why the heck is that more important to you than keeping out of a padded room?"

Rosemarie rolled her eyes. "Your mood is just an example of why you shouldn't get involved. Another is that your name is already wrapped into too much gossip as it is and this will get you into a padded room permanently. Besides, I think Wes will keep quite for at least a little while."

Raven let out a quiet scoff and rolled his eyes. "I won't get a padded room anyway," he said. "I'm pretty sure I scared Domonic into silence. And if not, well, I can remind him why we made an agreement in the first place, just with a little extra hint to make sure he gets the message. It wouldn't take too long and I have nothing but time."

Rosnarie frowned, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "What did you do to Domonic that would scare him so badly he wouldn't put you in a padded cell?"

The Indian gave a chuckle and raised his eyebrows. "Why don't you go ask him? You won't even have to say anything, it's pretty obvious. Just mention me and you'll be able to see the full extent of his punishment."

"I don't ever see him. I'm apparently a good patient and he doesn't need to see me, but okay." Whatever he had done, it had been bad, obviously worse than whatever had happened to Wesley. Perhaps she would bump into him in the hall sometime. And now what? She looked back over at Raven expectedly though he didn't seem to be acting any differently than his usual.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Now what?" She asked, again expecting Raven to know the answer.

"Now what? Now you give me something to work with so I can taunt you." Raven grinned, fighting back a laugh to maintain at least some degree of seriousness. "That or you kiss me again. Whichever works."