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 Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 7:30 pm
"What do I mean about what?" She didn't know how to say she was just giving him a hard time for fun, though he certainly wasn't the most fearsome person she had met. So it was both a joke and the truth. Not that, considering she had met so few already, it was saying much of anything. In fact, she had yet to meet anyone truly scary, not that Mills was about to complain...
"Tonny? No, I didn't come in here to help anyone out. I was dared into it because it was like one of those haunted house kind of stories. They aren't supposed to come true man. I was tagging out front, but I didn't tell you that. Then there was a storm and when I came back out to leave, some guards decided to play target practice. Good thing I'm fast." She shrugged. Was it cold in here? "But at least when I get out of here I'll have all kinds of stories to tell." And in all of those stories she would reign victorious. Anything less would incite pity, which was unacceptable. She rubbed her arms and set her jaw.
And it was not as if she had anyone to help her find something like a lock. A lot of good so-called 'friends' had done for her so far. "Well, maybe someone like you just needs someone like this Daniel guy to protect you. I take care of myself just fine. But anyway, I was pretty much doing the same thing. Exploring and looking for useful stuff. Or maybe I can go pick on one of the doctors and they'll give me those teeth and spikes."
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Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:41 pm
"Dared?" Lennox had to admit he was a bit surprised. "It sort of seems like this was a dare you should not have taken then. Maybe your folks will come and get you though. Eventually someone will admit about the dare and they will come for you...I envy you of that." Lennox mused wistfully. He had so wanted to believe his mother was going to come and save him...to come and take him out of this horrible place... "Will I be one of your stories?" Lennox found himself asking with a small perk of curiosity. His tail flicked up behind him, causing the colorful tip to flop against his arm as he considered whether anyone would believe her when she explained what he looked like.
"Ah...I would love to say I do not, but the sad truth is I really do. He has helped me twice so far to get out of some fairly bad spots. I've been told it's better not to have friends here." Lennox lifted a hand and worriedly twisted the tip of his pointed ear. "So maybe you will fare really well on your own. I don't think I'd be able to survive without Daniel. Something would have happened by now to me, he's what keeps me safe. No one would dare mess with Daniel." Except a doctor...and if Lennox was careful enough he would never cross path's with any of them. He'd even be careful of all the other staff.
He stopped his inward fussing and worrying to look back at Mills. "I...I wouldn't suggest that miss. The doctors are more likely to take things out of you then add. I don't think I've heard of anyone here actually being changed by them. As far as I can tell we all arrived like this, and then the doctors fuss with the strange ones and study them. Your actually possibly safer from the doctors...but being normal you may be the target of jealousy. You really should find a locked room... I could help you if you like? I'm looking for a room with a working bathroom area actually as a sort of..well... a gift of sorts I suppose. If I could find some tools I think I'd be able to fix some things around here. I think I am okay when it comes to repairs."
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 11:32 pm
"Yeah, well... not a lot I can do about that now, unless you know someone that can time travel." The girl shrugged and scuffed her foot on the floor. "Got no parents." And no one would come looking for her. If they did, well, it would be stupid of them. "But yeah, you'll be one of my stories. Absolutely. Only the interesting ones make it into my stories," she grinned.
She watched him while he described this Daniel person. He seemed vaguely nervous, as if he was worried that something might happen to Daniel, thus putting them both in danger. Even someone that tough is in danger? No one's safe? If that's true then everyone's doomed, right? It was not a satisfying thought. Unsatisfying thoughts left her antsy and almost angry.
So the doctors weren't an option. Should she continue to try to avoid them and remain an unknown entity? In that case, she would stay on the run, like a fugitive, for the rest of her life here. The ones who worked here were the danger, and the patients could turn out to be enemies too. Even this guy Lennox was a potential hazard, even if he didn't mean to be. This bit of news could be associated with more dissatisfaction, except that she had been living on her own, fending for herself, for years already. She could take care of herself, she just had to adjust to this place and its weird inhabitants. She could build herself a bunker and squirrel away all kinds of good stuff that would keep her alive. Food, weapons, traps, you-name-it.
She blinked as she registered something else he said, and frowned in confusion. "Wait. Jealousy? What do you mean? I'm basically down here," she held a hand flat and parallel to the floor, then held the other farther up, "and everyone else is way up there. I got nothing extra to protect me. I can't even hide just because I look normal!" It seemed the opposite of what could possibly be the truth. "But if we're both lookin' around, we might as well go together."
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 6:33 pm
"Time travel..." Lennox mused softly. His hands spread before himself and he could not help the slight urge to chuckle despite himself. "In this place, who knows? I could see that being a possibility." His sense of humor quickly dulled though when Mills admitted to the lack of parents. "I am so sorry to hear that. What about the people where you lived?" Surely she had foster parents, or some state appointed watcher?
Lennox's tail swayed gently from side to side. "Interesting...yes I suppose I might be. At least in appearance. I'm afraid I'll probably disappoint you in other things though. I'm a very boring and ordinary guy under all this." Lennox lifted his hand to pinch at his hair with one hand and his tail with the other. Holding them up for a moment, he released them to let them flop back into place. He was still normal inside. Lennox was convinced of it. All those years of living as a human, he could not just have some magical switch that flicked and made all of that change. He still remembered the Christmases and birthdays he had celebrated. He still remembered how hard it had been for him to learn to read. He still remembered how excited he had been at the thought of learning to drive, how proud his father had been when he started looking for small part time jobs to pay for his own car eventually. None of that just went away, he knew that it was all real. He only wished his his parents had thought the same.
Lennox pulled his thoughts from himself and he forced a fake smile to his lips. "I suppose I was just jealous of the thought that you would have someone who missed you enough to come and save you. A lot of people who are here do not have that possibility. So when you told me that you were not actually admitted here I just..assumed. I apologize for assuming wrongly though." Lennox placed his hands behind his back and turned to wander out the door of the room. His head turned to look up and down the hall before he continued.
"Actually, someone here pointed out something to me that I think may be true." Lennox turned to wave a hand up and down Mill's body. "It's better for you that you are normal. The doctors won't take as much a interest in you. See, someone that looks strange is likely to get their attention and get dragged off to be examined. But your just a girl. A pretty one but still just a girl. So you really only have to watch out for the other patients I suppose. Where as the rest of us have to be on guard against everyone....well..Maybe that's not as nice a silver lining as I thought it might be..." He paused and rubbed a pair of his fingers behind his ear as he considered what he'd just said. "The other one explained it far better then I have I'm afraid." Lennox coaxed a finger after him and started down the hallway.
"I have been scouting for a while in the halls and..well..I think I know of a room that has a working lock. But it's a real mess and smells because of the mold in the bathroom. If you don't mind working to clean it up. I can show it to you and bring you something to clean it up? I would help you more but I promised another person I would try and fix a working bathroom for her."
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:46 am
Mills shifted her weight, crossing her arms across her chest. "Okay. I don't know how much plainer I can be. I got no family, no friends, no home. I live on the streets." She frowned. "Well I did. Now the halls are like my street." And the empty rooms were alleyways where drug deals and other crime happened. And the patients were just another kind of bum. She shrugged, wearing a wry little smirk. "It's a little like home..."
"And nobody's perfect." So Lennox was boring. At least he wasn't a big, slobbery monster. She'd met some of those before she came to the Asylum. In those cases, it sometimes pays to be small; small and fast.
She did not know how to reply to his apology, so she used that fast movement to her advantage and quickly took to his heels. People don't apologize for nothin', and anyone that said he'd try to save me would get laughed at. Nobody saves Mills. Mills walks all over people. She just could not understand how people might be nicer in a place like this, than they would outside. Makes no sense. But if this guy is going to lead me around forming a salvage party, who'm I to complain?
Frowning and blinking at Lennox' gesturing hand, she almost swatted at it, until she stopped to listen. Normal is really better? She still wasn't convinced, though his logic seemed to make sense. "I suppose..." She didn't try to keep the doubt from her voice. "What if they're more interested because they think I was experimented on, so they want to know what 'else' is weird about me?" she muttered darkly. She didn't know any better though, so maybe he was right.
She turned her thoughts to the scouting 'mission' ahead of them. It was better than all this higher mumbo-jumbo chit-chat. Stuff she could finally understand. Maybe the other stuff she'd come to understand once she was here for a while. Not that she was going to stay for very long. She was going to bust out of this place... "Well, looks like you'll have your bathroom and I'll have my lock. Maybe there's other stuff we can use too." Stuff that isn't permanently reeking of mold. Who knows, it's possible. "We should go there." She made to push his back forward, then thought twice before touching his wings. They looked ridiculously fragile. "Lead the way o... wise one. And while you do, you can tell me what it's like to be a guy and a fairy. Don't people give you crap for that?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:03 pm
"Perhaps you will not find this place so hard to manage then." Lennox mused as he considered Mills words. If she was used to a hard life, with dangers, and struggling to provide for herself...how much more different could the Asylum be for her? For himself it was nearly impossible. He had grown up in such a sheltered home in compared to this place!
Lennox turned his head a little to look towards Mills when she mused about a thought that not even he had considered. "Hmm. I do not know. I guess...if one grew interested in you, only the doctors know their own minds, then there is nothing you can do to dissuade one." Not that he really had a clue. He was fortunate to have never crossed paths with anyone he could not escape from...as of yet. "Though I would not say your weird. Merely interesting."
Lennox turned his attention back to the hall ahead of them. He was not entirely concerned about crossing paths with anyone dangerous on this floor. If there was one thing he had learned thus far, it seemed to him that it was the lower levels that were the more dangerous. Perhaps he was wrong though...so it did not hurt to be a bit wary right? Besides, he didn't want to accidentally lead Mills into a bad situation. She seemed to be a simple human girl, with nothing beyond the norm for skills. He didn't want to have her follow him into a situation where..well..to put it simply, where he'd run off like the coward he was and leave her to deal alone.
Lennox's lips peeled upwards a little in amusement to the 'wise one' crack. The points of his teeth peeked out as he looked ahead. "Person rather then people. Daniel is always making fun of me for a number of things. Being a fairy is certainly one of them." His tail twitched from side to side like a felines as he crouched forwards a little so he could peer around a corner. "Thus far though, I think the people I have met have been uncommonly kind. No one has really teased me for my appearance. I am looking forwards to the day when I can make myself look normal again. I still catch my ears with the brush when I run it through my hair and that sort of smarts."
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:47 pm
Mills did not outwardly respond to Lennox' reply beyond an inward glance. Perhaps it would not be difficult for her to get by, if she managed to avoid the more dangerous inhabitants of this place, but there was something else that bothered her, if just briefly. This Daniel person in particular seemed like someone Lennox could rely on. Others he spoke of were, to use his own words, 'uncommonly kind.' Even if it was not wise to make friends, allies - Badass armies! - surely would wisest of all. People you don't get too close to, so that when you lose them the pain isn't as great, but when they're around everyone gains. Kind of like now. Then, with all of our allies, we could stand a chance against these guys. Help rescue people like that Tawny person was doing. Take the asylum. Demand better work conditions and minimum wages. Yeah. Right.
She glanced up and caught a flash of his toothy grin. Were they... pointed? Having missed him baring them earlier, she could only assume that her imagination and the shadows were playing tricks on her. "We need a flashlight, dammit," she muttered through gritted teeth, mentally adding to her To Scavenge list. After all, if she was right, then he was probably a carnivorous fairy, and couldn't he be scarier than he was pretending to be? Less likely things had happened down here.
"You and Daniel sound really close," she smirked. This time she didn't hesitate to touch him, punching his upper arm lightly. "He saves you and he gives you crap all the time. And you run errands for him like you're bringing home roses. You guys brothers or something?" Of course, in a place like this, 'brother' wouldn't be a literal label. "I bet you were both normal once, huh? I bet you had families. What kind of psycho experiments on normal guys and turns them into monsters?" she asked harshly, brushing her fingers through her thick forelock of chestnut hair.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 1:14 am
The passage seemed clear enough. Lennox started to creep down the way, then paused as Mills would jab her fist against his arm. He paused and felt his tail stiffen. It took a small force of will to keep the fur from rising to their tips and fluffing up his tail. There was something about that harmless action that had ever nerve in his body burning to...to what? Lennox furrowed his brows as he tried to calm the racing of his heart. He was feeling far more aggressive lately then he liked. Maybe it was this place...
"I haven't had any problem seeing in the halls so long as they aren't completely pitch black. Though a flashlight would just draw more attention to you and make it easier for the dangerous things to locate you." Lennox lifted his hand and gave a tentative push back at Mills while taking his eyes off the hallway ahead. The questions she asked about Daniel caused the tip of his tail to flick into a curious sideways curl. His multi-hued eyes blinked, and a strange grayish color dimmed the black of his cheeks.
"Daniel is...is amazing." He replied with a small twitch of his lips upwards. "He's very smart, and he has a survivors skill. He's also pretty strong. Oh! And he can fight really well!" Lennox gestured with his hands in front of him as if the other were standing before him. "He's a little taller then I am, and more muscular. When we first met he was really intimidating, you know we actually fought? Well..." He paused with his tail curling up tightly against his back into a hook shape as he mused aloud.
"It wasn't really much of a fight. He could have really hurt me if he wanted to. He is the without a doubt the best thing to have ever happen to me." Lennox's cheeks resumed their natural black tone as he glanced upwards towards the cracked ceiling above. His voice dropped a small octave and his tail relaxed behind him. "Meeting him makes all this worth it. I've never admired anyone the way I do him. I wish I could be more like him..." Lennox's mind was slow to shift from it's moment of unrestrained hero worship and back to the conversation Mills had carried on with. Lennox found himself turning to look at Mills with a undeniably twisting of his stomach. How could he possibly answer that question? His hand reached back and he wrapped his hands around his left wing where a piece of the filmy rainbow membrane had been cut off.
"I..." His stomach twisted again, and Lennox shook his head a little from side to side. "Daniel is not a monster. He's just had to deal with...a lot. He's stronger for it though. He's powerful. No one messes with him. He's not a monster...he's my friend." Yes...that was the best way to answer such a question. Lennox's brows knit together and his fingers tightened to the point the membrane of his wing crinkled unpleasantly between his fingers. "I am though. I wasn't turned into anything. I'm not...I've never been...I mean..." Lennox hissed softly through his teeth and turned to look back down the hallway. "I'm a real monster. Not Daniel."
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:14 pm
If Lennox was stiffening from such a light touch, it brought a frown to Mills' brow. Maybe people are 'uncommonly kind,' but they're also not very chummy... Well, this is no place to make friends anyway, right? I get it. She also 'got it' that there are sometimes reasons why people shy away from a casual touch, regardless of whether it comes from a stranger or a friend. Things like fear and abuse and instinct; it does weird things to people that they can't control.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She rubbed the back of her head. He was right about the flashlight. There was no sense in drawing attention to one's self if possible. "Guess I'll have to get used to seeing in the dark." It was possible. She could at least see murky blobs and indistinct movements in the darker halls. Maybe it was like living in the sewers. She could adapt to that.
She listened while Lennox described Daniel. If he was half as cool as he said, she'd probably want to meet this guy at some point. He'd be a great addition to her future army. Future because there weren't any soldiers in it yet. Maybe he could be a general. She glanced at Lennox. And you can be like a flag boy or a page or something...
She hardly blinked, and she had already been half-staring at him. "Er, I meant that they made you guys look like that. I wasn't implying that you were horrible people or anything. Are you... saying you were born like that?"
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 11:58 pm
"I think that with time you'll get used to the gloom." Lennox would offer when Mills would agree that a flashlight would have been a bad idea. "It just seems like a light would draw everything's attention to your area. It tells them, something is here. Something that could have something you want." He replied with a flick of his tail. Lennox allowed his wings to fan out a little, in order to ease the tense feeling in his muscles, and resumed creeping down the hall.
A part of him felt a little sullen at the moment. Though only for a moment, after all, Daniel didn't seem to mind too much what he looked like. She didn't know, maybe she didn't believe that things like him really existed outside these cursed walls? Lennox stopped his creeping and turned to face Mills eye to eye. "I know...I'm sorry if I seem a bit..odd about this." His hand lifted to pull through his hair self consciously. " But yes...I was born like this. This is...is what I really am. Daniel though...he's a normal guy. He's just been changed or something. I am not sure. I don't want to ask him and bring up bad things." Lennox lifted his hands to look at their black digits. "I do not even know what I am."
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:12 am
Mills could not argue with his logic. It made perfect sense. She remembered times when, if you had something flashy, new, or expensive-looking, people noticed. And soon you might not see it anymore. It would work like this here. Commodities like batteries, paint, food, clothing, light bulbs, locks - basic things! - were now luxury items because the patients were isolated and neglected.
But Lennox was also obviously stressed by what she had said; his rainbow-colored wings made more noise than he probably realized, and any tension was vividly expressed, even in subtle movement. His explanations (defense?) for Daniel and himself were obviously unrehearsed and difficult to follow. Daniel was a normal guy, but he was changed, but he was still normal. Lennox had once been normal, yet he had always been this way. All of it made the girl's head spin. Or perhaps there was something else she wasn't getting, something she couldn't possibly understand because she didn't know either one. So, Lennox was speaking figuratively; and maybe Lennox had done something that made him a monster? Well if whatever it was wouldn't threaten her now or in the future, she didn't really care. Everyone does things they aren't too proud of. Like, next time she passed that one outside wall, the one with the half-finished tag, she'd probably kick it with her heavy boot. That didn't make her a monster though, it made this stupid fortress her territory... and it also made her kind of stupid. Damn it.
"Well, I don't know what you used to look like, but you look like some kind of fairy to me," she shrugged, saying not at all what she was thinking. "And you're also a liar if you don't show me that room with a usable lock." Maybe a distraction from his train of thought, that is, their initial goal, would end this mental spiral. And then she would stop thinking in circles and polygons. "But... you seem like an okay guy Lennox." She wondered if placing her hand on his shoulder would get a crazy reaction out of him and decided against touching him in any way. But she smirked lopsidedly at him, what passed for a friendly smile. "In some ways you're innocent, like a little kid. You might think you're a monster, and in some ways maybe you are, but you can't fake this, it's unconscious."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:09 am
He was putting too much thought into this. Too much gloomy thought that is. mentally Lennox felt like he needed to smack himself. Either that or get back to Daniel where he was constantly worried that a depressive gloom would encourage the other to kick him out. Then he was too preoccupied with making certain Daniel was happy, on unannoyed, with his general presence. Lennox took a slow steadying breath and forced himself to push away the urge to sulk. His lips pulled upwards, revealing the little tips of tiny fangs.
"I look like a fairy? Yes, I am sure the wings really scream that don't they?" He looked over his shoulder to where the translucent colorful membrane could still be glanced. Ah...the locked room... Pulling his sight away from his own wing, he glanced on ahead. "Of course...of course...it's down a little ways more. I just don't want to be careless and stumble on something neither of us want to deal with." He quickly explained while pausing to peer through a empty doorway. With a small sniff and a glance around, he moved on further down the hall.
He did wonder if Mills was only trying to be nice now, with her comment on how he was okay, and somehow innocent. He shook his head a little and gave soft chuckle. "Innocent...come on now Mills. Anyone our age can't be innocent. Thanks though, I appreciate the compliment...." Lennox came to a stop before a door and gently tested the handle. As it turned, he made a waving gesture with his hand. "Step on back, I don't want to trip on you if something jumps out at us..."
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:34 pm
"Well I don't know what else you would look like. Your wings aren't feathered so you're not an angel, and you don't have bat wings so you're not Batman," she stuck her tongue out at him when he glanced over his shoulder at his 'screaming' wings. "So you're a fairy." She frowned at his response about age and innocence. Unless he had grown up on the street too where there is no innocence, only survival, most kids her age were pretty damn innocent. 'Are you shitting me?' innocent. Daaay-am innocent. How old does he think I am? She shrugged it off though.
They approached what could only be "the room." Lennox' sudden cowardice left her growling. "Trip on me? Excuse me? You chased an unarmed girl into a pitch-black room you better damn well stand your ground now! Or are you THAT kind of coward?!" How annoying. But... not as annoyed as she sounded. She was actually steeling herself in case there really was something in there worth some fear. She didn't even have a fake weapon to brandish this time. And if he turned around to snarl or retort, he'd find her pressing her lips together getting ready to pounce... on whatever it was. With her bare hands. Of course.
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