Tick... Tick... Tick...

The clock droned on endlessly as it hung from the bland, white cement wall of the room. Lying on the bed, the brunette stared blankly at the ceiling. It had been just a week since she was placed in this nut house, and she was still fuming over it. One minute, she's showing her loving parents her power and the next, they're trying to send her away. They called the cops, the paramedics, and a God damned dog catcher. In mere moments, all the trust she had in them was obliterated. Now, she sat in a white-walled room in some asylum because she was apparently "crazy."

Rolling over on the bed, Sloane let out a sigh. The sound of the door opening caught her attention, and a nurse came in with a glass of water and several pills. Sloane gave the nurse a dissatisfied look, but she took the pills and the cup of water, tossing them to the back of her throat and down the hatch. She had learned quickly that taking the pills willingly was a far better option than refusal. The nurse set the tray on the table in the room and motioned towards the door, "C'mon, time to socialize."

Reluctantly, Sloane got up from the bed and followed the nurse out to the hallway. She was wearing a sad looking pair of grey sweat pants and an over-sized white shirt, complements of the nurse. Everything here was white-washed, and the silence was enough to drive one further into madness. Rounding the corner, the nurse led Sloane into the day room, and left her to it. With her head down, she walked over to a chair and took a seat. Looking up, she scanned the crowd of crazies for any sign of sanity, and much to her surprise, there were several people who seemed somewhat normal, like herself. A few were conversing a few feet from her, a couple across the room as well. At least there was noise, voices to remind her that she wasn't as mad as they were trying to tell her.

When Veleno heard someone asking her something, she turned to look to whom the voice belonged, soon finding out. A guy, one she had seen several times before in the asylum, but had never spoken to, though that wasn't too special. Since she was put in the asylum, she hadn't said anything more than what had to be said, and that worked out pretty well for her. She hadn't really planned to make friends anyway.

The guy always looked pretty normal to her. He didn't act as if he was insane. He probably wasn't that bad, she figured, and he was the first who tried to talk to her. She considered snapping at him, scaring him away as she always did to people, keeping him at distance. But for once, she didn't. She had gotten tired of always keeping up he same, mean attitude and wanted to just act normal for once. After all, it would be nice to actually have a decent conversation with someone for once. Besides, her power didn't seem to be working in here, she had noticed that a while ago, when she had scratched a mouse. If she couldn't even kill a mouse at the moment, than how could she hurt him?

"A woman." She answered, showing him the drawing. That was simply all there was to the picture, a peaceful woman in the middle of a field. No one special, just a simple woman.

Jerry felt relieved when the girl he had approached gave him a smile and a nod, he smiled back. Jerry felt a tad ashamed of how he had preemptively judged this girl by her appearance, especially since he didn't have the most inviting look himself. Come to think of it, he didn't really understand why he had been the slightest bit nervous in the first place, I mean to think the ever nihilistic "Gutrot" was afraid of some girl in a nuthouse.

She asked him if he was fine, and this caught him off guard "huh?" he questioned "me? fine?" he inspected himself, he was wearing a slightly torn and stained Insect Warfare shirt, not exactly the most stylish look, he checked his short scraggly beard, and then his long scraggly hair and then laughed. "Oh!" he chuckled "Yeah, I'm fine, just a little out of fashion.". He extended his right hand to the girl "Name's Jerry." he said in a warm tone, "but they call me gu..." he paused for a moment before stammering "uh...Jay! my friends call me Jay!" he figured introducing himself as Gutrot wasn't the brightest of ideas, he put on an awkward smile as he tried to correct himself.

Beebee2121 said
Hiro narrowed his eyes at the book again and nodded curtly. He didn't understand reading for pleasure, but he tried it a few times. It killed time, but he sucked at reading. "Mikael. I'm Hiro," He said and a wry grin slid on his face, "I'm as 'crazy' as they come." He also used air quotes. He was starting to like this guy, but a lot of it had to do with their conversation being the cure for his boredom. People didn't talk much in the asylum after being around for so long. "I lost count. Too fucking long, if you ask me." He sank back into the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. "There's not many ropes to get either. Rule number one: Stay away from that guy." He jutted a thumb over to the masked man. "He bites." Subconsciously, he rubbed the scar on the side of his jaw. "I like to play with fire," He said, choosing his words carefully, "And when you play with fire, you get burned. But with enough practice, it's not so bad."

"Fire. That's cool. Fire is cool." he said when he mentioned fire. A few seconds later, he realized what he just said. "Did I really say fire is cool?" and laughed. He laughed a belly laugh that roared across the room, certain to catch the attention of someone. "And that guy... I wouldn't come near that guy even if you didn't tell me." he said. He watched the other people, and there were some that struck him as...not off. They seemed normal enough, and he thought about approaching them.

"Hey. Do you know those people?" he said, pointing to some of the normal looking ones. Some were even talking amongst themselves. "Either way, you think they're normal too? I have this weird feeling that they are. Maybe we should talk to them? Form some sort of group or something. If I don't talk to normal people I'd go crazy. Crazier. Whatever." he said to Hiro.

Jennifer liked her little spot in the corner, even if she wasn't constantly watching the room in favor of being curled up into her own little world. It was the spot she sat content in every time she had to come out to the leisure room. On one of her chance look ups, she saw someone wearing a face mask walking around smelling people. Her brows pressed together, a frown taking control of her lips. Crazy or not, that was weird and she wasn't about to sit still to let the guy smell her.

She stood, keeping her sweatshirt hugged tightly to her with the sleeves balled up around her hands. Keeping as much space between her and the weird guy, she crossed the room to where her brother was and sat in one of the chairs close to him, but was against the wall instead of at the table at which he stood. She always felt more comfortable with her back to the wall than at a table anyways. Her legs tucked back up letting her curl up against one edge of the chair like she had on the other end of the room. Her gaze shifted over the others in the room, more wary now - after she saw someone walking around smelling people - than she had before.



Alex stepped closer, deciding to sit rather than hover over the girl and the table. He glanced to the side when he saw movement, and the corner of his lips turned up when he saw his sister moved closer. Turning his attention back to the woman, his gaze fell to the drawing when she offered it up. "Oh, wow, that's really good." He leaned closer to see the picture better. Even if she brushed off his compliment, the drawing was still better than anything he could do. Ever dream of doing, really. In the other institution, they kept wanting him to draw or paint or do something like that, but aside from very abstract paintings, nothing else looked good; when he tried to draw a dog people thought it was a cow.

"Did you do a lot of drawing before...here?" It felt awkward, just saying the question. He was still getting used to the idea that not everyone was in institutions before coming here. It was the newest arrivals that did it. He knew his sister hadn't been in another institution before, but that didn't really hold much weight for him since she could have ended up somewhere like this a long time ago. Discarding those thoughts, it was still fun to come across people with talent.

After Virgil did his rounds, getting the smells of the "not so crazies" in his memory he sat down and started to draw. It was what Virgil did whenever he didn't have the damn blindfold, no one talked to him if he didn't have it on. Anyway, Virgil started drawing a tree but deciding that he didn't like it drew a different tree, one you would see in the swamps, then he started to draw the swamp. The murk, the moss, the fog. Nothing was forgotten. As Virgil gazed at the drawing he was stuck nostalgia and homesickness, wishing he was back at his swamp. He should have eaten those hikers when he had a chance.

After breaking the spell Vigil started on the centerpiece of the picture, him. However it wasn't this body, it was the body he had been forced to stay out of. Big, strong, fast, dangerous. It had been so long since he had experienced the joy of living like that, life had been so simple. Wake up, eat, patrol territory, eat hunters looking for a dangerous croc....Heh. Lost as he was in his thoughts he didn't notice that he was done with the picture. As Virgil put his pencil down he sat back and admired his work. A large croc with human like features bursting from the swamp and heading towards the person looking at the picture, art. Well, not as artful as his cooking. The things he could do in a kitchen. Virgil sat back and daydreamed of jambalaya as his mouth watered.

Jessica met Jerry's out reaching hand with her own and softly shook it. "Well Jerry, do you believe it's guilt we all share or regret; Perhaps fear?" She couldn't decide what common principles held these inmates within this prison, she believed all have regrets and fears this was obvious due to many being reserved and deciding to stick in small groups... well it was either guilt or shyness and she couldn't believe so many were shy. "Why do you think you're here?" She asked while her black eyes focused on his face.

She knew of the guilt in her life, the events that felt so real and still held open wounds on her soul, unhealing and in no great hurry to let her forget. However was her memories real, all of this was on debate. Perhaps if her powers were her insane imagination then her dreadful acts were also nightmares, she attempted to find solace in that thought but found herself unwilling to believe that they didn't happen in some way.

"Jerry, are you scared?" She asked with a small tremor causimg her to briefly shake, she would blame this on a chill in the air but she knew deep down that not knowing was more terrifying than knowing.

"Well, fire is cool," Hiro added, "So cool, that it burns." He joined in on the laughter with a chuckle of his own. What he would do for a light right now. Somewhat subconsciously, he began to rub his fingers together, savoring the small heat the friction gave him.

"Those people?" He looked around to where he was pointing and shrugged. "We're in an asylum," Was the only answer he could provide. He suspected there had to be something wrong with everyone or else they wouldn't be here. The skepticism he felt towards his suggestion was plain on his face. But it could be that being in this shit hole clouded his judgement of the others. Newguy's mind was still clear. "Alright. Fine," He said and stood up, "I'll do the talking first. They know my face."

Sloane looked up as the sudden sound of laughter filled her ears. It was different from the maniacal laughter that she had heard several times in her few days here... it was a genuine laugh. She looked to see the pair of guys a few chairs down sharing a laugh, perhaps over a joke. It was kind of comforting, knowing that there was some sort of happiness being shared here in this depressing place. A small smile made an appearance across Sloane's face for a brief moment, until she remembered that she was still stuck in here and her powers somehow disappeared when she arrived here.

Just talk to someone... make life a little easier on yourself. she thought to herself. No, making friends won't do you any good. Just keep to yourself. The argument in her head continued for several more moments before she let out a long sigh and stood up from her chair. If she was going to be here, she might as well make some acquaintances so that it wasn't as boring as it had to be. Now... who to talk to... She scanned the crowd yet again, moving from the pairs of people and separating the real crazies from the ones who seemed to have all their marbles in the bowl.

John walked away from the wall as he scanned the area, most of these people were nutheads, but there were a few that stood out of the crowd, acting like normal people, who just had confersations with one another, having a laughter and even making jokes.
Still... Something felt odd, everyone in this room was here because of a certain thing, perhaps...
John smiled a bit as he walked towards a girl, who was sitting all by her self, if he could find out if it was true what his mind brought up, then he would know that there was more to this place than it was visible to the eye.
As he reached the girl {Sloane} he smiled at her.
"You don't seem like one of those nutheads who just scream at the walls. Why are you in here anyways?"
John went straight to the point, he wanted to know if it could be true, that he wasn't the only one around here that lost his powers since he got inside of this damned place.
"The name's John by the way, it's quite misbehaved if one doesn't tell you who he is"
John smiled at her again, for he just set his plan in motion, if she told him what he hoped to hear, then perhaps there also was a way out of this godforsaken place.

(New turn now.)

"Sure." Mikael said to his new friend. He looked around as he stood up, and he had a sudden change of plans. "Hey, man. You should go gather them around. I'll.. check out that girl." he said, signaling towards the long haired girl, sitting down and drawing with her paper and pencil. He didn't wait for a reply, and quickly scooted over to the girl's table.

He made his presence known. "Hey. Mind if I sit with you?" he said, and like before, he didn't wait for a reply. He pulled a chair beside her and sat down. "What are you drawing?" he asked, as he couldn't see much because of her brown hair. "I'm Mikael, by the way. Apparently I'm crazy. Are you?" he said, and this time, he waited for a response.

It was weird being in a place like this with other people.... she didn't do anything wrong right? All she did was accidently hurt her father with her.....gift. Sometimes she called this abilities a curse, some say it was a blessing. Being in an Asylum with bunch of people, sitting around thinking were crazy is a blessing? Wow. Melissa sighed as she grabbed the paper she was drawing curling it up, breaking it and shoving it aside.

She noticed a guy coming to her table, he asked her if she could sit but he didn't even wait for her response. Rude. "....Sureeeee........" she shooked her head grabbing another paper and beginning to draw. "I dont know what, Im drawing. I just wanna do something. Im Melissa and I am not crazy, but congrats for admitting your crazy." She said not even looking at him as she began to draw trees, birds, etc.

Veleno nodded. Before she was put in the asylum, she had done a lot of drawing. Whenever she got the chance to, she would be drawing. She loved doing so, and that way, she definitely couldn't kill people. "Before I was here I spent most of my time drawing. I wanted to become an illustrator, but I doubt that many people would hire someone who has been in an asylum." She told the guy who sat down next to her, when she realised she didn't tell him her name yet. "My name is Veleno, by the way." She said to introduce herself.

Looking at the drawing again, she sighed. The reason for all of this, that she was here, was because her grandma thought that she was crazy. After telling the elderly woman about her power, the woman refused to listen to one more word Veleno had to say. She had thought that her life couldn't get any worse when she had killed her own parents, but her grandma had proven her wrong.

"Wait, what-?" Before Hiro could finish, Mikael was already over by Melissa. "...the hell?" Something was off about that guy, which wasn't surprising considering where they were, but he still wasn't about to let his new friend cause problems for either of them. He followed him, put his hand on his shoulder and crouched down, putting their heads at the same level. "Hey Melissa," He greeted her with an amiable nod then snapped a hard stare at Mikael.

He dropped his voice low, so Melissa wouldn't hear, but she might have been sitting too close not to catch a word or two of what he was saying. "What the fuck do you mean 'gather them around', huh?" He muttered, agitated, "Look, if you wanted to meet a girl, you could've just said so and I would have introduced you, but..." He shifted closer and shot a glance to Melissa, then to an orderly observing them from afar, "We're not allowed to have sex with other patients. The orderlies already don't like it when we get too friendly, you know? And you're new, so they're gonna be real harsh on you, so..." He pulled back before he could go on and just shook his head at Mikael. He looked to Melissa again and saw her drawing, "Nice picture."

"Well, I heard some places don't mind if a person's got talent like you," Alex said, offering her a smile. A chuckle started when he realized he was trying to comfort her, and what the hell did he know? He leaned back in the chair, lacing his fingers behind his head and cupping the back of his head with them to give it a cushion for his lounging. "Then again, that's just word of mouth. Lots of people say lots of stuff in places like this. I got real good at puzzles before I came to this one though." A one shoulder shrug followed the latter statement. There weren't as many people talking to themselves here as there were in the last place though. "I'm Alex."

He glanced over his shoulder at his sister then looked back at Veleno. A nod of his head indicated back toward her. "If you can't tell that's my sister, Jenn." He looked back over his shoulder, hands still against his head. "Hey, you should come over and talk too. Doc says it's good for you."

Jennifer's gaze snapped to her brother, partially hidden by a veil of her own bangs. For a second, she considered just going back to what she was doing, but it was Alex asking. Alex wouldn't ask her to socialize then abandon her. Unfurling from her position once more, she crossed the short space between them and quickly curled back up, hugging a knee to her chest with the other curled underneath the upright leg. "Hi," she nearly whispered. A sleeve covered hand brushed at her bangs, but not enough to keep them from falling right back into place to cover all but one eye.

Alex smiled as he turned back to Veleno. "So, what do you like to draw? Anything in particular?" As he spoke, he let his arms drop, one wrist resting on his thigh while his other arm fell across Jennifer's shoulders to hold her close.

Jerry listened to Jessica talk while shaking her hand "Well Jerry, do you believe it's guilt we all share or regret; Perhaps fear?", Jerry tried to look like he was truly pondering what she had said but all that he thought was "what in the fuck? What's this chick talking about, guilt?" Jerry stammered a bit, until she began talking again "Why do you think you're here?" Jerry was done bullshitting, if he was really crazy then that was it, but he needed to get the truth out. "I'm here because I'm special" he spoke with a smile he lifted up one of his palms to Jessica "These hands can melt through steel, like some comic book shit" he was nowhere near as eloquent as Jessica, but he wasn't afraid to speak in his own style anyway. "I..." he stopped for a moment "I just can't do it here, something is preventing me" he stared at his palms for a moment before putting them back in his pockets. "I'm not scared, I'm not scared of nothin'" he shook his head at Jessica. "So tell me, what can you do?" everything was out in the open now so he might as well see if she was like him at all.

The word specisl caused Jessica's interest to pick up and she turned to watch him mime his "comic book shit" powers and smiled at his wording. "Interesting" she gave him another smile, he'd given her a valuable clue about the prison and was curioud about how they both believe they are special. "We are from entirely different backgrounds but both believe we are special. Either this is a shelter for mental patients or we could truly do what we believe we can do. If the latter is true I believe we could be unstoppable." She leaned her red lips softlyttowards Jerry's ear. "We should create an army from the most powerful and destroy what stops our powers. Truly we were created for more than this." She whispered into his ear so close none else could hear.

Leaning back into a more casual stance she stared at her own hands and like Jerry felt she had to mime a motion to truly get her point across. "I along with what ever I held could become a living stream of smoke, no prison could contain me, no human catch me. It unlike yours is a curse" Her hands dropped to her sides and her head looked away from her companion. "I've done terrible things"

"I belong here" Her mind spoke out of turn.

Just as Sloane was about to move from her stagnant position, a man approached her from the side. She turned to look at him, and returned his smile with a small one of her own. Even if he was a nutcase, she would have someone to talk to it seemed. But this guy skipped the formalities and went straight into the questioning, taking Sloane by a bit of surprise. "You don't seem like one of those nutheads who just scream at the walls. Why are you in here anyways?" She kind of shrugged as she thought of an appropriate answer for him, "I, uh..." before she could get anything else out, he revealed his name.

"I'm Sloane," she held her hand out in greeting, "nice to meet you." After shaking his hand, she returned to her thoughts on formulating the right response to his question. Should she tell him? What good would that do her? Then again... what harm could it bring? She was already locked in this godforsaken place. "You don't seem all that crazy yourself there, John." She turned her head from side to side, seeing several patients that were rocking themselves in the fetal position or scribbling nonsense on a piece of paper. Turning back to him she nodded, "I was uh... put here by my parents. I tried to tell them something, they didn't believe me. So I, uh, showed them myself. And then they called animal control and the goddamn police." She shook her head slowly, "And to prove that I'm not crazy, I would show you myself. However, since I've been here I have lost the ability to do what I used to do." She shrugged, she probably sounded cuckoo for coco puffs right now. "Yeah so... what about you? Why are you locked up with this bunch?"

As John listened to her, he also took out his notebook, writing down each piece of information that he gained from her. It could be usefull later on... Once he would plan his escape.
As she was done talking he looked at her and smiled "Because i ain't crazy, these bastards just coudn't handle me"
He paused for a moment as he looked around the room, he did notice all the others who just didn't looked like the crazy guys who were inside of this place, instead they all looked normal, just like Sloane...
"So... Your parents placed you here because of an ability? What kind of ability was it?"
He just glanced at her, trying to use his own ability and yet he failed again... Why did he lose it... What kind of power is disabling his power?!
"I got placed here because I killed some humans, nothing more nothing less"
Altough he twisted the trueth a bit, he did told a part of it, it was true he killed humans with his ability and yet, he didn't told her about his ability, for it would stay a secret for now, for if he had to use it on them!

After finishing his drawing Virgil was left with nothing to do, he had gained the smells, he had drawn a picture, and all that was left to do was...socialize. Virgil hated that, talking to people. They always had something to say about one thing or another, not like the crocs. They were quiet, calming, and more importantly respectful. Humans don't really care about anyone but themselves, his "family" taught him that.

Not really wanting to start a conversation, Virgil continued to sit in his chair and relax. It wasn't a rock out in the swamps, but it was as good as he was going to get. With a dejected sigh, Virgil sunk himself deeper into the chair and waited until lunch.