[IC] Nobody Will Believe It [SporkoBug and Calle]

[SporkoBug]

Ari nodded to Benjamins words, "Yeah, maybe if I don't focus on it." She repeated before she looked around, trying to see if she could spot Dia somewhere. Her smile slowly disappeared as she couldn't see her soul friend, before she turned her attention back to Benjamin. "I can't talk to you when we're in the mess hall." She said, mainly reminding herself rather than Benjamin.

---

Ray gave a small smile towards the nurse, bowing a thank you before slipping out of the medical bed and headed off to her room.
She was focused on the floor before she ran into Dia. Ray looked up and blinked, "D...Dia??" She asked with a tilt of her head, "You're... Alive?!"
Dia moved to cover Rays' mouth and slowly headed off towards Rays' bedroom. "Shh." She shushed quietly, "Its' a long story."

[Loksfjoer]

"You can talk all you want," Benjamin said with bitterness in his voice. "They will just look at me like I'm crazy for talking back to you."
While he liked have Ari around, he hoped Ray would be there. She was a friend after all, and one he could actually talk with in public.
"I really appreciate you're hanging out with me," he said as he looked at Ari, again after making sure no-one was around to notice it - how he hated having to do that. "I'm not doing well mentally today, but it helps to have someone with me."

[SporkoBug]

Ari gave Benjamin a smile as he said she could speak, she looked to him before she heard footsteps behind them and her eyes widened.
"Dia! Ray!" She gasped before she floated over to their friends, embracing Dia quickly, not going through her.
Dia gave a small smile towards Ari and looked to Benjamin.

"You should really get to the mess hall." She said, looking to Ray after a moment, "Both of you."
Ray looked to Dia, hesitating as she wanted to say something before she headed over to Benjamin with a weak smile.
"Its good to see you again." She said with a slightly croaky, raspy voice. She hadn't properly spoken to anyone other than the nurse and Dia over the last day.

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin nodded and continued to the mess hall with Ray. He flashed a smile as he looked at her. "It's good to see you too, I'm glad you're up again." He examined her for a moment. "You're in better shape than last night. Do you remember what happened after you took your medication?"

It was good to see Ray again; he enjoyed her company and he could freely talk with her about what he saw, because she was the only one who believed him. And she was company he could talk to without anyone bringing up medication.

[SporkoBug]

"I... remember taking the meds." Ray started hesitantly, "I remember... Pain and then I woke up in the med bay. I couldn't hear or see Ari or Dia." She continued as she looked up to the mess hall and scrunched her nose. "I hate this place." She managed to mumble to herself.

Ari floated around Dia happily, babbling happily to her, just out of earshot of Benjamin and Ray. Dia gave a laugh at something her friend had said and started to speak slowly, Ari stopping and listening carefully.
Ari's face seemed to scrunch before she gave a small nod and suddenly floated away. Dia watched her leave before she tucked her hands behind her back and headed off towards the mess hall as well, keeping close to Benjamin and Ray.

[Loksfjoer]

"Me too," Benjamin said as he pondered whether or not he should tell her. He decided he should. "After you took your meds Ari was a wisp, not able to hold her form, and you were just staring at the wall. Then she took control of your body and you were in your mind back to your childhood; you didn't recognise me or Dia. Those meds really messed you up." He looked at her. "I don't know what they're giving you, but that wasn't a side-effect. My pills do nothing to me, except give me a headache."

[SporkoBug]

Ray listened to Benjamin carefully and gave a small frown at his words.
"That's..." She started as she looked around, noticing that no nurses seemed to be around them, she lowered her voice just in case. "That's terrible. I've... never had that before." She looked at her hands and her lips trembled. "That.... bitch." She uttered out loud angrily.

Dia looked up as she heard Ray swear out loud, she looked to Ari and moved to stand beside her quickly, gripping her arm with her hand.
"Stay calm." She whispered to Ray as they were now in the messhall, "We don't need them thinking you're lashing out now do we?"

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin moved to take Ray's arm so he could walk her to one of the tables. Baskets with bread and baskets with cups filled with butter, jelly, peanutbutter, chees spread, honey and chocolate spread were on all tables. On the tables were plates and dull butter knives - sharp knives were out of the question because some of the patients were known to self-harm, and if someone got in a sudden aggressive mood sharp knives could be dangerous.

One of the staff walked around to give people coffee or tea, or porridge if they desired. A nurse stood at the medicin cart to fill the cups for all the patients.

Benjamin gestured to one of the tables in the corner, it was a place they could at least keep an eye on who was within hearing-range if they wanted to talk about things the staff could better not hear.

[SporkoBug]

Ray followed Benjamin as he lead her along, she didn't argue about it. Not that she could, her body was still rather weak.
Her eyes watched everyone before she moved to sit down. She looked towards the bread and spreads as she felt her mouth start to water.
"The food is.. safe yeah?" She asked after a moment, looking over to Benjamin with a tilt of her head.

[Loksfjoer]

"Yeah," Benjamin said, but he paused. "Well, the bread and the pre-packaged foodstuff can't be spiked, because they don't know what will end up with who and who will eat it. The porridge in the kettle won't be spiked, because everyone will eat from it. But they can spike food if they feel it's needed." He sighed as he rubbed his face. "Last night the spiked my pudding and through that way forced me to take my medicine. But... they tend to serve the porridge at the table, so they have no chance to spike it. I'd say breakfast is safe."

He took some bread and peanutbutter and started to prepare his first sandwich.

"Tea, coffee, porridge?" someone from the staff asked as she rolled the cart to their table.

"Tea, please," Benjamin said, glancing at the woman as she poured some tea in a cup.

[SporkoBug]

Ray nodded as she listened to him, freezing up as the nurse came over with the porridge and hot drinks. She watched her carefully, not replying and avoiding eye contact.
She moved to grab a couple pieces of bread before she started to make her own sandwich, starting with butter before moving to the chocolate spread.

Ari and Dia entered the mess hall together, Dia straightened herself up as she readied herself to be asked to do things. She looked around, she couldn't see Sara, and she couldn't see Josh. At least one of those things were good for her.

[Loksfjoer]

"Nothing for you then?" the woman asked impatiently as she looked at Ray. "You can at least say 'no thank you' if you don't want anything instead of ignoring me." She gave Benjamin his tea and lingered a moment longer to wait for Ray's answer.

Benjamin took the tea and thanked her for it, smiling as he did.

The next cart started its round: the medicine cart. Benjamin kept an eye on it as the nurse placed cups with pills on the tables. That was certainly his least favourite moment of the meal. Not only did he not need them, but they also gave him a headache. He decided to report it, maybe they would stop giving these pills if he did.

[SporkoBug]

_{"N..No thank you."} Ray replied, her voice raspy again. She felt her hands quiver over her own food, waiting for the nurse to leave. She kept her head down until she left and moved to take a small bite of her now made sandwich.

She watched as the pills were placed on their table, looking towards them with narrowed eyes before she continued to eat her sandwich silently.
"We... could stick them under the table." She whispered to Benjamin, "We have sticky spreads, although it might be a bit... messy."

Sara opened her eyes groggily, her body ached from her tossing from her bad dreams. She cursed herself as she sat up, hearing a heavy laugh inside her head as she moved to slam her pillow into her head.
"Shut it." She hissed before she moved to stand up, her small spider plush falling onto her lap.
Sara paused and looked at it, moving to pick it up and hug it close to her chest.
"You're nothing." She heard a voice, looking down to her plush as it seemed to stare up at her evilly, "He will never love you." The spider plush said.
Sara grabbed the plush and slammed it into the wall across the room before she shuddered. "Shut up, you're not real. Shut up, you're not in control. Fuck you." She mumbled, "Stop ruining everything I love."

[Loksfjoer]

"I think they will notice," Benjamin said. "And I don't think the spread is sticky enough to keep a pill from falling."
He looked at his cup. "We can pretend to put them in our mouths, but keep them in our hand and hide them in our clothes."

He sipped from the tea and made a second sandwich. Sara still wasn't here and some other patients were just now entering for breakfast. A few patients were seated at the same table and stared in the distance. Staff had to help them with their breakfast, as they were not taking any initiative to eat or drink.

"Hey," Benjamin said, "wasn't that girl with the long, black hair very vocal yesterday? She's rather docile now..."

[SporkoBug]

Ray furrowed her brow at the logic to why her idea wouldn't work. She looked up as Benjamin asked about the other female.
"I... Don't really remember." She admitted, "A lot of yesterday was... woozy." She glanced over towards Dia as she walked over to them.
"Dia!" Ray said happily, moving to grab her arm as Dia stepped back with a shake of her head.

"Not now." She started, "It'll be suspicious." She continued as she looked over the room. "But you're right Benjamin." She said quietly, watching the staff closely.

Sara lied in bed with the pillow over her head, she could still hear the voice. It still whispered evil and bad thoughts into her head.
She hated it, she hated all of it.

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin watched the female patient and the others at that table for a while as he chewed on bread. It reminded him of that catatonic woman he had seen the previous days, but she hadn't been brought in for breakfast yet.
"I don't like this..." he muttered. "I don't like this at all."

[SporkoBug]

"Neither." Dia replied, narrowing her eyes as she could feel Josh's energy around but she couldn't see him. Where was he? She thought to herself as she looked to Ray, who had made a sandwich but hadn't started eating yet.
"You need to eat Ray." Dia said, Ray flinched as her name was spoken, she had zoned out before she looked to Dia. She looked over Dia's body, noticing the uniform before she pulled herself away from Dia a little bit, shuffling her chair to Benjamin.

Josh hid in the darkness of a hallway, he felt his stomach sink as hunger suddenly started to shake his body. He opened his mouth as rows of sharp teeth slowly slinking from his gums.
"Why now?" He groaned as he leaned against the room, he watched the patients and Nurses walk past him. His stomach rumbled, he wanted to slink forward and grab one of them and just pull them silently into the shadows to feast, but he knew it was too risky to do it here.

[Loksfjoer]

"Are you okay?" Benjamin asked as he looked at Ray; he had seen her back away from Dia. "That's Dia and she's right: you should eat. If they see you're zoning out and not eating, they will add it to your file as one of your symptoms and you'll be called in for another meeting with the psychiatrist, and you just had one yesterday."
He actually had no idea if he was scheduled for one. The only appointment he knew he had was the group session at ten, for all other things staff just arranged it and came to collect him when it was time to go.

[SporkoBug]

Ray shuddered at the idea of talking to that witch again. She looked to her sandwich she made and started to eat in silence. She looked to Benjamin as he mentioned it was Dia. "But she's in a staff uniform?" She asked quietly, she looked around to find Ari as if she suddenly remembered her lack of voice. "Where is Ari? What did you do to her?" Ray asked Dia, her voice raising a bit in volume before Dia lifted her fingers to her lips.
"Ari is okay, she's watching the door. Please don't raise your voice at me. I'm in a staff uniform to keep you two safe." Dia said quietly, "I don't want you to look like you're violent towards Staff."

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin frowned slightly as he examined Ray. Why was her first assumption Dia had done something to Ari? He decided he could ask about it, but not now. He reminded himself that Ray hadn't been herself yesterday and missed much of the development.
An in-depth conversation about her spirits getting tangible was not suitable for this place. It was the kind of crazy-talk that could get either of them on a harsher treatment.

"We're going to have to bring you up to speed with a few things," he said, not wanting to stay completely silent on the matter. "But we'll do so in a more private setting."
They only had their rooms for that; this place had no other quiet places without any members of the staff around.