Chapter 1
"-- Have I gone mad?
I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll let you in on a secret... all the best people are." - Alice to the Mad Hatter

Rose flopped back on his musty bed, a cloud of dust exploding up and the rusty bed springs screaming in detest. The bed's creaky metal frame had been due for an oil touch up fifteen years ago, and as a result it sound sounded like the equivalent of a tin-can robot groaning. The thought of a robot groaning tickled Rose's funny bone, leaving him busting out into a jovial and most certainly maniacal laugh. He laughed and laughed, until he began to choke from his lack of air. He threw his head back against his bed and studied the Asylum's sagging ceiling. Cracks ran across the cieling like rivers, and chips in the painting ran deep as scars. Rose thought the celing was beautiful in it's own gnarled and scraggly way. Growing restless after just a minute or so of laying, he bounded up off his bed and going to the nightstand -- the lonely quarter's only other piece of furniture besides his bed. He picked up his deck of playing cards, which he kept well polished and dusted, and began flourishing and shuffling to pass the time. One handed shuffles, Dynamo flourishes, springing the cards from the left hand to the right hand, you name it. Rather suddenly, he checked his Alice in Wonderland-esque pocket watch, and rather eerily continued compulsively shuffling the deck of cards in his left hand. The watch was golden with "Down the rabbit hole" engraved boldly on the back. It read half past six o' clock.

Rose figured it would be a good time to go for his evening walk, perhaps he would flip the guards the bird. Now that, would be a riot. At the thought of it, Rose giggled with an unsettling glee. Before he stepped out of his small quarters he decided to duplicate. It started out as a seed of a thought, then it turned into energy, and then after a dull pain he found himself staring into his piercing blue gaze. It felt strange, he didn't have to tell his decoy what to do, it just sort of came to them. Almost telepathic, but there was no thought involved. He kicked open the door of his "cell." His decoy started trotting down the hall, saying hi to random patients, and whistling a jovial tune. The real Rose, with the deck of cards still being shuffled in hand, pushed open one more threshold door, and a cool, light and refreshing breeze kissed his face. However, the sky was overcast and a wispy gray, the clouds mixing and swirling overhead. He took a deep breath of the humid air. Finally he pocketed the deck of cards, and took out a shiny, vibrant red apple from his coat pocket, wiping it off with his coat-tails. He took a massive bite, and a little juice dribbled down his chin. He wiped it off swiftly with his arm. Smiling and munching on his apple, he gazed over the recreational grounds.

Jack had been sitting in the recreation area of the asylum for over a few hours by now, enjoying the weather. Under normal circumstances he would never set foot outside in the day, but with the sky the way it was today, there wasn't enough light to stop him from going outside. That isn't to say that Jack wasn't still shrouded in a cloak of darkness. No matter where he went, he always kept that dark cloud around him, blocking out most of whatever light was on him while still allowing him to see.

Jack took the mahogany chess piece from his pocket and began twirling it in his fingers, trying to distract himself from the boredom that came with being locked in an asylum. As he manuevered the piece in his hand, he recalled how he had heard that there would be some new arrivals today, wondering to himself whether or not to show up and watch the fresh meat as they stepped off the bus. Some of the other arrivals he had seen in the past had demonstrated their abilities in attempts to intimidate the veterans, but almost all of them were immediately taken down by guards. Jack thought it would be worth it to see that again, and decided to get walking to the fence that surrounded the main entrance at the front of the building.

He posted up against the wall that separated him from the outside world, being grateful only for the shadow it cast. As he waited for the new arrivals, Jack wondered if anyone he knew would show up to watch as well.

Baryl O'Connor sat alone in his room, studying a piece of concrete he had found. Barry didn't know the actual names of the many minerals that made up the substance, but he was intimately familiar with each of them. This piece was adequate. Barry placed this rock among the many others in the back corner. This was where all of the carving stones went. He peered over to the opposite corner. In this corner were his finished pieces. Most of them were animals, but occasionally he sculpted other things. He actually had a sculpture of Rose himself, standing beside an exact duplicate. He remembers when he first seen Rose, the sight of two people with the same appearance standing close to each other had been something interesting enough for him to sculpt. He'd never let Rose know these were here though. The man was tolerable most of the time, but sometimes he would become insufferably nosy. Barry avoided him most of the time.

Suddenly Barry begun feeling his stomach gurgle. 6 already? He's been going through the same routine for so long that he could tell the time based on how hungry he was. With a sigh Baryl got up and made his way out of his cell. People who frequented the area around his cell knew exactly when he was going to leave. It became something of a game for some of the other inmates, but Barry did not mind them. He marched through the building at his usual leisurely pace, looking to get a bite to eat.

Ah...Her head tilted as she stared at the box in her way. ...A box full of dead insects. Looks like this had taken quite a bit of time...A small frown graced the acclaimed Berserker's lips before she bent down and hefted it up at the bottom with her hands, the side facing her pressing against her waist as she looked around. Eika should...find a place to put this. Stepping out from the front of her room, the girl began to step down the hallway, what few patients that were around shuffling out of her way or offering a small greeting before continuing on as Eika made her way down the run-down halls of the asylum. This was a bother...Bother that needed to be put elsewhere...With a small murmur, she eventually turned left at the intersection at the end of the hall, and stopped at the small cleaning supply room that came at the fourth door on her right.

Ah. A place to put bothersome things.

The door would be opened up, her taking a step in and leaning down to place the box in the corner, next to several other random knick-knacks and boxes that she'd put down before, and promptly close the door after backing out and staring at it for a moment.
"There we go...Better, better."
Her smile soon returned, a calm, yet pleasant demeanor settling in as she turned around and began to make her way to one of the little "gathering areas" to see what was going on today. The calmer types...One of the groups of people that weren't crazy, but capable of quiet. A bit of co-existence...Just to make sure that she wouldn't create any problems that require another few rounds of tranquilizers like last time.

Lets see...Hungry! Hungry, hungry, what was there to eat around here today? Scouring around for food could always be made into a funny little game. Time could only tell as to what she would be doing with her day.

Marvin sat in his cell, pressed against the wall thinking. Deep in thought. His white straggly hair hung over his eyes, hopefully hiding the look in his eyes. How long had he been there? It hadn't been long, he knew that much, about...a few days? He didn't care. He was stuck here now. A common theme in the paintings he used to visit was freedom, a fight for freedom. And now..he was stuck in a cell with many people around him a like him. Maybe this was his true home? Yes...that must be it. His old home was like hell, this didn't seem like hell at all. This was like...a luxury hotel for him. It was great! A nice place for him to rest and think,

The boy lifted his head. It seemed the door was already open. He stood up quietly, it seemed he was being delivered freedom, confined freedom, but freedom nontheless. A small nervous smirk creeped onto his face as he approached his doorway. He had to admit, this place was an example of architecture, but he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad one. He slipped out of his door into the halls that he loved. This hall was pure mayhem unleashed when everyone left their cells. He began to walk down the halls slowly, brushing his small plastic brush against the walls. He was quite annoyed that the doctors wouldn't let him bring his wooden brush, but of course there was the chance he shanked them with it. He giggled a bit as he looked down at his stomach that had nearly disappeared. That';s right, he had to eat. He began wandering around in small little steps, scared of anything blowing up in his face or something.

Katarina changed her dress again. Now it was a frilly princess dress, which would have definitely caused the person who wore it to fall down if she was not careful, were it to be real. There were new people coming up, which was a bit like a ball, and people needed to dress up beautifully for it. Or something like that, it’s not like it really mattered. But she had already created the dress and didn’t bother to change it. Katarina took few steps, adjusting her frills movements a bit, and then sailed out of her room. She left the door open as always. After all, there was no reason to close it. There was nothing that mattered there.

Katarina met Rose in the hallway. “Good Morning, Mr. Clock”, she answered to his greeting and continued then her walk. The tune Rose was whistling made her take few jumpy steps. She started to whistle it herself as well, even if she wasn’t too good whistler. “That tune would fit well a movie scene where the main character’s love interest kills herself, don’t you think?” she asked the next person she met and continued then onwards.

Katarina arrived at the recreation are. The weather didn’t really impress her. She didn’t even bother adjust her illusion to fit the wind and just let it lay down like the air didn’t move at all.

Zero

"Quaint."

A word finally escaped the porcelain skinned doll. Not that she was normally one for conversation but the lack of her saying anything since her incarceration had many considering her being in shock. Despite this she was moved to a area that could handle any more of her...chilling...out burst. Not that you could tell she had been living in the room, she sat in one spot only moving when absolutely needed...This facility had left her a tad perplexed, was it supposed to be punishment? It hardly seemed such with the lack of bloodshed. She had considered her punishment to be a little bit more quick, but it seems due to the method that presented itself during the time she was now considered a special case? The justice system of the outside seems skewed....

How much time had passed since she had gotten lost in thought? She could not tell if she irritated or if relived. "What is next?" The satisfaction of killing the source of the woes in her life was more or less empty. As she looked down at her hands she tried to remember the feeling that she had when she completed her goal, the one that she had been working her way up too for years......But nothing. All she felt was empty. A light mist had begun pooling around her.....The best she can muster by will. Just like everything its out of control. If she can not control herself....how could she control her fate.

"Whatever.' With the word she silenced her thoughts and filled them with a checklist of things to do. She stepped out of the room and counted the steps between her room and the next. Repeating the process to establish the size of the hall in order to determine the probability of people stationed versus the number of...patrons...If anything the problem would take some time to solve in her head, though there is a small delight in converting the measurements about, It makes the equation take longer...What if there are special patrons with larger rooms on upper floors? A variable like that one can only be determined with a more complex problem of probability! A slight smirk had appeared as she had the thought. Consuming time as she saw fit, she could grow used to it.

Sebastian sat cross-legged on his bed, eyes closed. An orange flame, about the size of a ping-pong ball, hung in the centre of the room. A second later, it split in two.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Another split. In his mind's eye, two pinpricks of light pinched off from the two points of light, creating four points in total.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. The flames divided again.

He restoreth my soul. The fires turned blue. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. They split yet again, and grew bigger–

A jovial whistling reached his ears. Rose, though whether it was actually him or one of his duplicates he wasn't sure. They weren't solid, so if Rose was carrying something it was a good bet that that was him in the flesh. He wondered if they would pass through the floor. Rose had never tried that; at least, he'd never seen it before.

Rose reached his door, greeting him cheerily. Sebastian nodded in reply, glancing at his feet as an afterthought. If that was a duplicate, it was too close to the ground to tell if it was floating. He returned to his meditations, doubling the flames one more time and getting them to burn white for a few seconds. A year ago they would have winked out as soon as he was interrupted. A reward from God to a faithful servant, he was sure.

He dialled down the temperature of the flames and began shaping them. His meditation was between him and God; this was for himself alone. Seraphs and pheonixes formed first, before giving way to other things. Rose, splitting in half much like the flames in his contemplative ritual. An old rambling castle with several towers, surrounded by a lake. Unbidden, a memory intruded into his thoughts, and the fires molded themselves in response. Three figures, surrounding a fourth-

Sebastian dismissed the flames with a thought. He needed some fresh air.

He walked out of his cell and down the hallway, passing a tunelessly whistling girl in a frilly dress. Kat or RNG, something along those lines. She said something, but he'd stopped paying attention to what she said a long time ago. She never seemed to, anyway.

The sky was overcast when he stepped outside. Too dark for his comfort. He summoned a small flame at each of his fingertips and began walking around.

On the road, distant from the normal life of the city, was a bus. On it, fresh meat for the asylum. Nice, deliciously estranged fresh meat. On it lie the Howlers, the Mutterers, the Intelligent Madmen, the Twitchers, and the Hallucinators. Crazy people on a bus to their happy new lives as prisoners of mind and society. Some will be eager to play with their abilities, others would simply want to continue their day, not bothered by anyone else. Oh, and there was one other prisoner, one of Hallucinaters, talkinh to someone who was never there. It was a woman with silver hair, tied down onto some sort of board. She spoke the entire wa on the ride, smiling gently to the nothingness that all but she could see.

Her name is Erica McDaniels, and she is currently having a conversation with her younger brother, Joey McDaniels. He sat, kicking his legs in the space between his seat and the bus floor, talking to Erica about his excitement towards their new apartment. Erica told him about how they would meet new people, see new things, and play fun games. They conversed about their parents and family members coming to visit every now and then. Apparently rheir mother promised to send Joey a new toy soon, so Erica would have to make sure he gets it.

As the bus nears Smile Asylum, her new home, Erica turns her head to see what she could of its outside walls. In her mind, it was wondrous apartment building. In reality it was rather dark and ominous. She turns back to her hallucination, only to find it gone. Her mind was already a wreck when she was put on that bus, images simply vanish from time to time. Erica becomes worried. She starts asking aloud where her brother had gone. She never did accept the fact that he was dead. Soon she started yellomg out his name, struggling on her binds to find him. As the bus stops, and she is rolled out of the bus, she hallucinates again and begins to laugh in relief that her little brother is safe and sound. The guards shrug to one another and move to free her of her binds.

Erica laughs and laughs and laughs. Oh what a cruel joke for a mischevious little brother to play on his older sister. To make her worry like that! After finally being able to move, she shoves a security man out of the way and hugs Joey. Calming herself down, Erica stops laughing and tells Joey never to worry her like that again, to which he agrees. The security man walks up to them and gives Erica a pair of new gloves. Erica tells Joey about how nice people must be around here to give their new neighbor such a gift. Noey smiles and agrees with her.

Off she goes, clutching nothing in one hand, and a trinket in the other. Off goes Erica, wearing gloves that seal her ability to absorb electricity. Off she goes to find her cell and explore her new prison, created from society's fear and hatred. All the while talking to her hallucination with wonder and happiness...

Katarina turned around when she saw Sebastian. There was something unsettling in the man, but Katarina didn't let it to bother her. She curtsied happily as a greeting, though her illusion dress didn’t follow her movements. Katarina had stopped caring about it, there was really no reason to focus on it. Without thinking about it too much she went ahead and copied the outfit Jack, who was standing next to the fence, was wearing. It looked way too warm for the current weather but Katarina wasn’t bothered by it.

“The weather is really nice today”, she said to Sebastian. “A perfect one for new salamanders to come.”
Her words were almost normal this time. Both phrases were so standard that she had no need to think about the needed word, thus she didn’t throw anything random in their places. Well, aside from salamanders, of course. But that was little when compared to most things she sometimes said.

Katarina moved closer to the fence to see the arrival of the buss as well.

I wonder what kind of greeting would be suitable. “Välkommen*?” Yeah, that’s great, let’s use it. “Welcome to the hell” is used a lot as well, but njah. “In sale only for a limited time” is a phrase or something like that as well. It’s not really a greeting, but what it matters? I guess that I’ll stick with “Välkommen” though. They won’t understand it if they don’t speak Swedish. But what does it matter? People tend to make big deals out of nothing. Isn’t it stressful to take everything so seriously?

Katarina started to whistle Rose’s tune again.

"Salamanders?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow. He'd heard something about new arrivals today too, but for once something that girl said actually rang a bell: ninth grade English, reading about firemen who burned books... He smiled at the thought. "That remains to be seen, doesn't it?" He followed her as she walked to the fence, where a bus was pulling up. That had given him an idea. Hadn't his mother taught him to welcome guests?

The flames leapt off his fingertips and coalesced, growing larger by the second while he tried to remember what those creatures looked like. Eventually he settled on a picture he'd seen once in an encyclopaedia. The fire-salamander, nearly a metre long now, scurried through the fence.

A brief glance to his right and he remembered. Jack was photophobic, wasn't he? Oh well. Anyone approaching from that direction would have to settle for a slightly worse view.

Twin streams of blue and orange fire erupted in midair, entwining to spell out simply, "Welcome to Smile Asylum!" At the same time, the fire-salamander exploded into several dozen smaller ones, each of them speeding towards a different person getting off the bus. Some were at the limit of his range, dissipating a couple of feet away from them or as soon as he averted his eyes. Others were closer, and those could go within an inch of their skin before dying out. He didn't send any in Jack's direction. Anyone there would have to be left out too.

The words hung in the air for a moment longer, then twisted and dissolved. Sebastian watched the new patients intently, wondering what they'd thought of it.

Barry with food in hand made his way to the outside area to eat. Plain ole bread for today. Most would call this bland, but Barry hardly even acknowledged the taste. After spending so long eating the same things day in and day out to survive flavor you either learned to ignore the flavors or you starved. He sat in his usual eating spot with a nice view of the sky.It was a quiet corner most inmates didn't frequent. At the corner of his eye he spotted a bus. Did this day come around again already? A few years ago it seemed uncommon for new people to arrive, but lately it's been happening more and more. Some would begin to wonder if this meant that the world was shifting, and more and more people were loosing their sanity. But not to Barry. The prison was his world, and as far as he could be concerned the outside didn't exist. He sat on the ground and continued eating his bread, enjoying the breeze and the blueness of the sky.

That was until a fiery display interrupted his peaceful meal. He looked over to where several other inmates were stood, and as expected it was Sebastion who was behind this. Sebastion wasn't too bad of an inmate to interact with on most occasions, but Barry found his powers obnoxious. They were bright and distracting. Often the child would toy around with his flames and do very silly things. Barry wasn't impressed by the display and did his best to ignore. Another thing caught Barry's attention, but this time through his ears. He glanced back at the bus once again to notice a girl. Followed by maniacal laughter, though in the asylum's case maniacal laughter is the only laughter. Many asylum inmates hallucinated, but she hallucinated and she was loud. Barry didn't think they would get along if she was like this all of the time. Just another of the many inmates he would avoid. Barry continued munching on his loaf, oblivious to the commotion by the buses.

Katarina just stared Sebastian’s show. The salamanders were extremely adorable and if she had been a bit closer, there would have been a danger that she would have tried to pet one. For her luck, she wasn’t. The newcomers, on the other hand, might have been quite amused if that had happened. You don’t see a person trying to pet a fire salamander like it was some sort of an adorable dog and then burning their hand every day. Though Katarina might have hidden the burn so it would have hampered the show a bit. ”Wow, that’s philosophical”, Katarina said to nobody. By the word philosophical she actually meant flashy, but she didn’t bother to correct herself.

“Pretty cool feathers!” she shouted to Sebastian. It was rather ironical that she, who was the first one to talk about salamanders, didn’t even use their right name when they were actually there. Ironical, but not unusual. Katarina understood that Sebastian had gotten his idea from her words and laughed a bit on a tune which resembled completely normal young woman’s laugh.

The text “Welcome to Smile Asylum” made her realise that she had to smile when she was greeting people. Katarina didn’t feel like trying to focus on a natural smile. Instead she created an illusion. The woman walked towards the bus literally smiling from ear to ear.

With the problem placed in the storage closet, Eika sighed softly as she leaned against the closed door behind her for a moment prior to picking up her smile once again and laughing a bit. It seemed that there would be more inmates arriving soon! ...Ah, but she wasn't allowed to go up to the front in the event that one of the new people proved too much for her fragile little heart. As a result, she couldn't do much else but wander the halls of the asylum in hopes of finding something to give her attention span an object -- or person, perhaps? -- to distract her for the time being. ...Ah, there weren't many people that she knew...or could talk to...or do anything in terms of conversation, to be honest...

...So she opted to begin traversing her way down, humming to herself in the softest manner. There was a person here or there, but...hmm...Oh! There was someone! Someone...she hadn't seen. A girl with gloves, a girl that looked pretty for what she was. ....Huh...Should she speak to her? Or should she slip away? Perhaps, perhaps...Or no...Ah, she eventually gave a loud whistle through the hallway before that quiet voice of hers bounced between the confines of the walls around them to try and get her attention.

"Hello, hello? Are you new? You seem a bit lost. Is what I said true?"

Lost, but not alone. Erica walks around her and her brother's new home. Joey keeps asking his sister "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Not in a typical annoying younger brother turn, but rather a joking one. He and Erica were playing around and making fun of the version of brother and sister that sometimes shows up in movies. Erica was acting out the part of responsible, annoyed older sister pretty badly, seeing as she giggled every time she tried to say something to fit the role.

Oh, Erica. Laughing away in her high-pitched cackle, as if her hallucination of a brother said something funny. She speaks to nothingness beside her while laughing, trying to speak some words. All the laughs and attempts to speak suddenly stop, at least from Erica. A rather loud whistle rung through the hall, followed by a small voice.

"Hello, hello? Are you new? You seem a bit lost? Is what I said true?"

Erica looked around for the voice, trying to find the person it belonged to. She replied with

"Hello? Do you live here? We're trying to find our apartment, but we got lost!"

As she wandered about Zero took note of many strange occurrences, things that shouldn't be feasible for a human in captivity to preform. Taking that into account she thought of her own abilities it would make sense that the facility is a marvel of engineering. The staff, or lack there of made her feel rather unsure of any thing she saw. Perhaps the facility was a dual layered design with a cleansing protocol? She continued to log her steps until she stumbled upon something peculiar, or in a place like this, all to ordinary.

The pair merited a close inspection.One reminded her of a text book example of normalcy but her abstract speech and delusional idea that this place was a boarding home of some sort. But to call it a prison was also a bit of a stretch. The other was just....Unsettling. Everything about her was sending signals of uncertainty, likely due to her unnatural air of friendliness. A trap.

"Hello, hello? Are you new? You seem a bit lost? Is what I said true?"

Erica looked around for the voice, trying to find the person it belonged to. She replied with

"Hello? Do you live here? We're trying to find our apartment, but we got lost!"

Zero contemplated interjecting herself but their strange movement and patterns of speech unnerved her. She did choose to move closer despite her desire to ignore the pair of variables. But if they had information that could aid her in the understanding the processes of the facility, or at least provide something to think about.

Here she is, waiting for her answer. Erica waits and waits, with brother in hand, but no one answers. It hasn't been long, but if she asks a question a question to someone, she expects an answer of sorts. Was the owner ofthat voice mute? Of course not. If the voice's owner was mute, how could she hear her? Maybe it was because Erica didn't answer the question! Yes, yes. That mist be the reason. The owner of that voice must be waiting for an answer to her own question! How rude of Erica, she should have answered that question beforing asking her own.

"I'm sorry, I never answered your question! How rude of me. Yes, your words are true. My brother, Joey, and I are new and a bit lost. Would you mind helping us?"

Erica stands twitching and looking around, gripping tightly to her delusion. Though the voice she heard was real, she still lived In her fantasy of a normal life. Jail cells are apartments, and voices of mad people were voices of neighbors. She grew impatient for a reply to her own question, blaming herself for not answering the voice's own question before asking hers, even though only a few moments have passed since she replied to the voice. As she answered, soneone else appeared. Erica's eyes bolted to that person for a long moment, straining, twitching, and questionijg if this person was the voice's owner, before jolting back to the spot it focused on previously.