[IC] Powerless

[FaithfulMuse]

Veleno sat at the table quietly, staring at the white wall in front of her, lost in her thoughts. Ever since she had been put in the asylum, the thing she was doing most was thinking. Thinking about what had happened. It had all just happened so suddenly, one moment she and her father had been yelling at each other and the other her father got an accidental scratch and was dying. It had went so much faster than before, too. As a disease, the venom would last at least a day or two, but her father and mother had been dead within an hour. Her mother had tried to conform her, hugged her, but when she had tried to push her away Veleno's nail scratched onto her mother's skin and not much later, she was put in her grandma's house.

She looked down at the table, where a white sheet of paper was lying in front her. On the paper was an unfinished drawing, of a woman peacefully sitting between the flowers, smiling. Next to the drawing was an eraser and a pencil. Veleno sighed and picked up the pencil, continuing with the drawing. While she was busy, one of the things on her mind was how she could only wish she was she was as peaceful as the woman she was drawing. She had never liked her power, but after what happened to her parents, she hadn't felt good again anymore at all.

[Kidd]

Dear Mom and Daddy,

Please, please come get me. I can really fly, I promise! I'd prove it
here, but they have something that doesn't let me use my powers.
I don't know what it is yet, but if you just let me come home, you'll
see.

I miss being able to fly on the wind. I'm so clumsy again, having to
walk on two feet. And

Lacey stopped and read what she had written so far. She bit her lip nervously, her white eyebrows furrowing together. Maybe she sounded too desperate--too crazy, but she didn't want to stay in the asylum for a moment longer. People spoke to her in ways that she hadn't heard since she was a toddler. When she mustered up the courage to speak, her thoughts were dismissed. Why would the letter be any different? Well, it'd stress out her parents...

With a sigh, the girl crumpled up the paper and tossed it at the trash. She missed, of course, and suddenly felt self conscious. Her pale eyes scanned the room to see who saw her failure. Another girl was involved in her art, and the nurses seemed to have other problems to attend to. Carefully, Lacey stood up from her seat at an empty table and walked over to pick up the note and toss it away. When she sat down again, she started another letter--one that followed the same formula as the letters she had been sending:

Greeting. Inquiry about your well being? An optimistic lie about my own well being. A plead for help disguised as a casual I miss you.
With love, Lacey.

[CaptBoobgrab]

It was Mikael's first day in the asylum. He was sure there were others that came with him, and he should be getting to know the other insane people, but he didn't feel like it. He wasn't really insane, and he wasn't really up to it. He stayed in his room, wondering how his miserable life came to this.

The whiteness of the surroundings reminded him that he killed his father with a blast of unseen force. And no one believed him. They thought he was mad, and now he was here.

Soon, he got so bored that he went out of his room and went to the leisure room, where there were lots of things to do. There were many people, too, most of them crazy. He didn't care about them. He wasn't crazy. So he picked a book, picked a quiet spot and started reading. He saw the title of the book he picked up, and chuckled. "Visitor in Lunacy. It doesn't get any crazier than this." he said to no one in particular.

[paigesweetheart]

I hate him so much! Why did my mother left me with that idiot?! If she was here none of this would've had happened.

There sat Melissa looking up at the cieling. She needed to find somekind of way in order for her to get out of this place! And the worse thing is, her powers didn't work! It wasn't like jail, it was worse. There wasn't really nothing to do in her room, all she did was sit down and think about away to get out of this place, other words, hell. Melissa stood up, she was still in her room.

She walked towards her bed, laying her back on it while looking at the ceiling. Melissa grabbed a paper and pencil, which they provided them with. The girl dosen't know why they would have done that, she isn't insane! She is not one of those special people who slam their hands on the wall, or laugh for anything.

Yes, she was the other special kind. She had a very special gift and she thinks that most of these people in this place, weren't insane aswell. There had to be someway to get out of this place...this place is not perfectly build! There has to be something. Something!

[Captain Ahab]

The sun shone brightly through the leisure room window, the blinds had been twisted to the point where someone could look out at the distance if they truly wanted to. Jerry sat impatiently next to the window staring out, longing to get back outside it seemed so beautiful compared to his current drab environment, his usual joking demeanor had been all but snuffed out by his total sobriety, he figured on the bright side being in here would help him get clean, but that was an extremely thin silver lining to this situation.

Jerry pressed his hand to the cold wall of the room underneath the window and gave it a sturdy push, "If I could just..." He spoke softly concentrating on the wall. "Ngh!" he gave a growl as his all his concentration did nothing, he raised both his hands and stared at his palms "Why is it not working?" he gave a sharp frown, on the outside he could melt through a door handle just by coughing on it, but here... nothing.

"No point in sulking..." he spoke, shoving his hands into the pockets of his surprisingly comfortable asylum garb. Jerry stood up from the bench next to window and looked around for some time, there were a few people in the room, some of them were dribbling and talking to themselves while others just rocked back and forth, but there were a few who just didn't seem all that...crazy. Jerry began to walk around the room, hands still in his pockets, he would occasionally stop and talk to a few of his fellow inmates, the ones that could still speak that is.

Jerry walked over to the medicine counter, a nurse was quietly putting pills into small paper cups to hand out at some point, and she hadn't noticed Jerry approaching. He tried to lift himself on his tip-toes to get a good look around the back room with all the pills. "You got any tequila back there?" he spoke abruptly to the nurse, who looked up slightly startled, and then just annoyed. "No, Gerald, we don't keep alcohol here, how many times have I told you this?" she spoke going back to her work. Jerry bit his upper lip slightly and nodded "It's Jerry, not Gerald, I don't care what your stupid file says." he turned around indignantly and began to walk back towards the middle of the room.

He noticed there were a few people who definitely seemed out of place, people who sat quietly and just drew pictures, or wrote, or read books, they stuck out from the rest of the clearly insane crowd. "They must be like me..." Jerry spoke to himself quietly "...I wonder what they can do?". With that thought Jerry took a seat back in the middle of the room, continuing to assess everyone in the room he deemed different from the crowd.

[ramblingbard]

The change of scenery was a welcomed thing to Alex. Since coming here, all those voices had left him alone. He felt better, but they weren't about to listen to him about that. Not when the other facility couldn't seem to do anything to help except keep him drugged out of his mind. Every time he let them know all those voices were gone, they'd just wave him off. It didn't seem very productive, weren't people in charge of places like that supposed to be trying to help people like him find a way to exist with the rest of society?

At least in here he had his sister. The last few years sucked not getting to see her. Maybe that was the key to all of it? She was around in here, not that they did talk much, but just that knowledge made it a little more bearable that the staff wasn't listening to him. He debated on finding her, since she hadn't come into the leisure room. His gaze roved over the others though, trying to figure out something to do. There was no one for him to write to, drawing wasn't his thing, and he had done enough puzzles in the last decade to be completely sick of it. He supposed he could poke through the books, and moved off to look through the pathetic collection there was to read.

---

Jennifer sat, curled into a tight ball on her bed, tucked as far back into the corner of her room as she could get. The sleeves of her sweatshirt balled over her hands, and yet she still felt cold even in the layers. It wasn't one of those topical chills, but a core numbing freeze that she hadn't been able to shake since she was thirteen. And now she was here. Just like her brother. Fitting and gut wrenching all at the same time, she couldn't help but wish they'd just let something end it. Years of disappearing from one place to end up somewhere else and she just wanted it to end. It hadn't happened in the month she had been here, the first reprieve for whatever was happening she had had since it started, but that didn't mean it wouldn't. They said it was all in her head, but not everything could be in her head. She disappeared from one place and reappeared someplace else, and horrible things happened when that happened. Horrible things happened when she actually stayed at the group homes. Horrible things happened all the time.

She curled up tighter, staring at the blankets under her feet. They wouldn't let her just be done with it all, and they wouldn't leave her alone. That latter thought came when a nurse knocked on her door and gave her that same faked sympathetic smile. "Come on, you should socialize." That wasn't a suggestion. She knew that after the month here. When they said you should socialize - you either did it on your own or they got some orderlies to drag you out to the leisure and stood watch to make sure you stayed.

A heavy sigh escaped her. Unfurling from her position hurt a little, probably because she had been sitting there in her thoughts since the last time they made her go socialize. Her knees ached as she stood, but it was a welcomed pain since they wouldn't even give her a fork to eat with; spoons weren't made for eating most foods after all. Hugging the over sized sweatshirt around her, she shuffled out of her room and down the hall.

She stopped just inside the door, looking around at the others before shuffling off to a corner. Just because they said socialize didn't mean they actually made her talk to anyone. The others seemed busy, or at least that's what she told herself as she curled up on a chair in much the same manner as she had sat on her bed. There was nothing she wanted to do less than socialize with anyone in here. Even with her brother poking around at the books and magazines, she didn't want to ruin his good mental health he seemed to be in since he arrived by talking with him. He'd just think she was crazy for thinking something was pulling her places instead of what they all kept telling her - she was just wandering into those situations looking for attention. Why the hell would anyone want to do that? Now that was crazy.

[ShadowRaeper]

He didn't remember when he got inside of this place... But he could remember the day that they brought him here, it was like being in hell, his powers didn't worked anymore. Just like always John was sitting in one of the corners, writing inside a book. Everything he saw, everything he knew about the asylum. Aldo it was inmpossible to escape this place, he just tought that it was handy to keep a notebook about this place. Somehow it felt like there was more to it that it really showed from the inside and outside.
As he wrote down everything he saw, he glanced trough the hall, everybody that was truelly insane and wasn't able to be among the 'normal' people was inside the asylum, and yet something felt odd. Something that made sure that his eyes kept looking into the crowd of people that were sitting, standing or laying down. Somehow he felt a certain appeal that there were more like him inside of this place, and yet everybody seemed the same.

As he stood up, he closed his notebook and shoved it inside of his shirt, stuck between his pants and body so that no body would truelly see it or would be able to steal it. His pencil was kept behind his ear, almost like a teacher. But the look on his face was as always empty, he didn't felt sorry for no one and certainly woudn't start to feel sorry for anyone inside of this place. As he tucked his hands inside of his pockets he started to walk across the room, not to think, but to observe everyone who just came in and those who were already inside of this place for a longer period. Somehow he knew that there was more to it than they showed, and yet he could't put his finger on it.
Once he walked towards the other end of the room he turned around en started leaning against the wall, supporting himself by putting his foot against it, the same question kept going trough his mind "There is more to this place than it keeps showing... But what?!" as the question keeps rolling inside of his head, he keeps staring into the crowd. "Why can't I use my power inside of this place?" he wondered for decades about that question, but still it lurked within the back of his mind.

As he shaked his head he stared into the crowd again, different humanbeings inside of a tiny little castle built to keep them inside, and yet they don't even try to break out. Because in each castle there is a king, who rules with a strong hand, tells his knights what to do and even makes them kill in his name. And yet these guards barelly care about the humans inside the asylum, they just glance at their screens like there won't be a thing that will happen....

[Pathfinder]

Virgil wasn't having a nice time. After the altercation with the doctor during his physical exam the personnel had issued him a "biting aversion mask", yeah right. They just didn't want me to take another bite out of that doctor. It served him right, no man should have fingers were that man put them. Since then he has been in solitary confinement along with the other "Violent individuals".

Its been about a month since then and since Virgil hasn't shown any outward signs of violence, so the doctors think that he should get some social time. However the kept the mask on. Virgil hated the clothes they had given him, they were long, warm, and fuzzy. Nothing how he liked his clothes. So in his spare time he ripped the pants into shorts and took the sleeves off the shirt. As the handlers escorted him down to the leisure room Virgil noticed that the mask was a little too tight, bastards probably did it on purpose.

As Virgil entered the leisure room he noticed that something was off, while he couldn't change in these walls whatever was dampening them couldn't change his instincts and something was setting off the lizard side of his brain. He couldn't smell it per say, but it felt like it. "Some of these crazies aren't like the others" he thought with an ominous chuckle that made the handlers back off a bit. Even if there was more of them he was still bigger and much, much stronger than either of them. Instead of trying to make a dash for something Virgil just lifted up his hands and motioned for the cuffs, "These cuffs ain't gonna unlock themselves boys." Seeing the orderlies not move an inch, Vigil added with some black humor "Oh come now, I can't bite ya. Well, not yet anyway." as he clicked his wrists to the mask on his head.

The orderlies had a short argument over who should do it, when they finished one of them sheepishly unlocked the cuffs and the two hurried away. Twisting his wrists, Virgil let out an appreciated sigh and decided to sit in one of the more comfortable chairs and propped his feet on a foot table. Placing his hands behind his head, Vigil thought "It ain't easy being green.", concluding it with another ominous chuckle.

[Beebee2121]

Hiro jumped up from sitting in the leisure room and started to pace restlessly around the area. He took deep breaths to calm himself down, but it didn't feel like it was working. Ever since he was sent here, he felt so weak and useless and restless. It was infuriating having to go day by day with all of these people and freaks- actual freaks that didn't do anything but sit and stare at walls or cry or whatever. There had to be a way out. Good behavior didn't do shit for anyone. Violence didn't either, but without his power he felt a nagging emptiness in the back of his mind.

On an impulse, he snapped his fingers, hoping for a spark, a light- something, but nothing came. He grunted, kept pacing, and snapped his fingers harder. Nothing. "Is anyone else sick of this shit?" He said aloud, looking around at everyone in the room, "Like, I can't-" Snap. "Everything is so-" Snap. Snap. He threw his hands up. "Forget it." He threw himself down in the nearest chair which happened to be near a guy, a new face. "Did you say something? Who are you?" His tone implied a small measure of hostility, but it was purely misdirected. He looked the guy up and down and narrowed his eyes at the book in his hands.

[kiya]

Her head pounded and her eyes couldn't focus, all too aware that the washed up feeling of tiredness and pain had meant the events of yesterday... or if you can call it yesterday, were all too true. A new thought of despair rushed at her forcing her to stand with a stumble she was on her feet, the room for a moment leaned and moved causing her to rebalance. Her eyes focused and her heart raced like the chase that she could still remember freshly. "No..no.no.no.no.no" she touched the wall in front of her, the cell was thick concrete cold to her touch and perfectly filled to leave no obvious symbol of freedom... a crack, a window thats all she needed. However the door not without its flaws to her power, it's seams yet dark weren't filled or how else could she breath.

She focused her energy and thought of smoke and the leaking through the door, yet nothing. A strange vertigo washed through her like a chill on the spine and she knew as quickly as they came they could leave, her curse and savior mixed into one.

It took only a couple of minutes for her to start feeling as though the power never existed and this special asylum was truly where her and whom ever else was here belonged. The home for insane perhaps... or perhaps not, a revelation grasped her thoughts of sanity and attempted to pull them together, the thought was of the wall. She examined it again and perhaps it was a leap of faith but why did they feel the need to perfectly seal it as if they knew what she could do and had a worry that it may still remain within her. She sat pondering alone in her cell lovingly dragging her right fingers over the smooth wall.

[CaptBoobgrab]

Beebee2121 said
He threw himself down in the nearest chair which happened to be near a guy, a new face. "Did you say something? Who are you?" His tone implied a small measure of hostility, but it was purely misdirected. He looked the guy up and down and narrowed his eyes at the book in his hands.

Mikael noticed the brown-haired guy sit near him. He seemed to have heard him when he read the book's title aloud. "Oh, I was just reading. I'm Mikael. Who are you? Are you 'crazy' too?" he said, doing the whole air quotes gesture. He took the time his sight was away from the book as an opportunity to observe the other patients. He saw a seemingly shy girl, and then the guy near the books, and noticed the similarity in their image. "Twins, huh. They look pretty normal. Compared to this guy, anyway." he thought. He decided he should talk to the guy near him more, so he asked him a question. "Have you been here long? Maybe you can give me tips, show me the ropes? Where are the hot nurses?" he said.

Mikael looked at the man, gauging him. He noticed the man's burn scars on his arms, and seen from his side, there seemed to be a patch under his ear, too. This only took Mikael's curiosity. Granted, anything can grab his curiosity in the asylum. "So, you've got a lot of burns. You mind if I ask?" he said.

[paigesweetheart]

Melissa stood up from her bed, seeing that there was nothing that she could do in her room. Besides, she wanted to go out of her room and socialize or whatever. All she wanted to do was to find out a way to get out of here. Melissa walked out of her room and to the other room, where everyone was at. She noticed an empty chair sitting down, scanning around the room. They all seemed to be very normal. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil beginning to draw. Melissa could even noticed twins, and a guy with burns and some more people, they all looked fine and not insane pepple, but why were they here?

[kiya]

The wall was cold, dry and solid and nothing more would be found by closer inspection. Jessics knew this and was frustrated by her tries to rationalise her surroundings, the fact of the matter was that she was stuck here and no matter if she's sane or not it made no difference. "I'm already fed up" she sighed knowing that an hour into her sentence she was already bored and unwilling to fight. If this is her coffin she felt as though she should at least have the decency to lie in it and die.

However modern thoughts of ideology and fairness in the world made her feel the need to carry on. "It was only fair" she commented into the wind and braced herself to charge the door down, her foot kicked up dirt as she once again ran towards a closed door, this time knowing full well she was going to make impact, her hands were out in front ready for the pain. But as they touched the rusted orange centre mass of the door it fell open. "Not locked" she felt stupid for a moment before she realised she hadn't prepared herself for if the door didn't stop her. A loud wallop echod down the hall as she ran chest first into the wall opposite her door and clattered to the ground with a bloody nose and a bit lip. "Stupid" she coughed and spat some blood that had leaked into her mouth from her split lip.

After regaining composure she followed the sound of voices, for she had no reason to believe guards would want her to stick around in cell if she wasn't locked in. She reached the entrance where the voices came from and before entering she wiped the fresh warm blood from her nose and lip with her scarf and discarded it on the floor. The room was filled with people of many ages, it looked calm and not entirely how ahe pictured a prison, however distrust of the situation caused her to freeze in the doorway and merely watch events unfold. She tasted the warm metallic taste of blood as it continued to leak, she feared at the pace it leaked that she wouldn't be standing too much longer.

[Captain Ahab]

"...like me." Jerry sat by himself on the big empty bench in the middle of the room, a conversation or two broke out but it was still fairly quiet, he let out a small sigh and let his head touch the table, his long partially knotted up and dirty hair splayed out on the table like the head of a mop that had been stained with mud. He twisted his neck one way *crack* and then the other *crack*, lifting his head up again he began to run his tongue in where his missing tooth used to be, some loud squeaks let out.

Jerry rested his head on one of his hands and tapped his fingers on the table with the other, he had never been this stagnant before, he always had somewhere to go or something to steal, this was torture for him, all he could do was observe. Scanning around the room he took note of everyone he assumed was like him. From left to right he watched looking for any outstanding features on any one of his fellow captives. One of them had some burn marks, Jerry assumed he must dabble with fire, another one was a real tall guy wearing a mask over his mouth. "God damned Hannibal Lecter over here." he joked to himself under his breath, he continued scanning until his vision came to the entrance to the leisure room, there was a girl standing there, she must have been in her early twenties or late teens, she had blood leaking from her face. Jerry's eyes widened as he saw the sight, black hair and black eyes, his thoughts immediately turned towards something out of a Japanese horror movie, but he pulled himself back into reality.
He got up from the bench tentatively, "uh.."he muttered as he slowly walked towards the girl, his hands were now out of his pockets, he put them up in a gesture of safety "You okay, lady?" he spoke slightly nervously.

[ShadowRaeper]

As John was still observing from the wall, he noticed the few new things happening, a few started talking, the guy had burns on his body... And there even was a twin now... What was quite fascinating, for there never has been a twin here for the past few months... As he started to observe further, he noticed the guy with the mask, probably placed his teeth in the guards... A grin left my lips as he continued to observe, as he just wanted to get out his notebook a girl started to walk into the room, the smell of blood surrounded her, wich was new in the asylum... A boy walked towards her, as it seemed he was quite nervous, for he probably got a bit scared because of her appearance...
A grin left his lips again as he got out his notebook, three months of information was writen inside of it, only the inmportant items were writen down and so they were of great inmportance to John...
As these new things accured, he wrote them down aswell, each of them gaining a new page in the notebook, for each of them had more hidden than they showed and if John loved one thing, it was having information about the persons who interests them.
As he writes down the items of inmportance, he keeps glancing into the room, keeping an eye on every single thing that happens around here...

[Pathfinder]

Blood. Oh how he had missed that smell, the sickly sweet taste as he gulped it down from some dumb animal that tried to drink form his swamp, exquisite. The source however, didn't look as appetizing. She was in a large hoody with tight jeans. Virgil never did understand peoples obsession with clothes, back in the swamps people usually wore shorts if anything at all. With a languid stretch, Virgil popped his spine a bit and decided to get up. One of the other "not so crazies" got up and tried to check on the girl who just came in. Virgil didn't really care, nor did he care about anybody else in this room either. All he wanted right now was a steak, nice and rare. His mouth watered a bit and his stomach growled.

Seeing as feeding time wasn't going to happen anytime soon, Vigil wandered over and started to look around. Grabbing a book he wasn't planning on reading, Virgil started to walk towards the other not so crazies. Slowly but surely dedicating their smells to memory. He felt like he would get real....acquainted with these people fairly soon and he wasn't always allowed to go out without a blind fold. If its one thing that he hated about his croc side, is that blindfolds make him mellow, too mellow. He wasn't planning on knowing names, not yet. But he was sure, that one way or another, they were going to help him get out of here.

[FaithfulMuse]

After not too long Veleno put down her pencil again and looked at what she had drawn. For now, the result of the time and effort she had put into the drawing was good enough to her. Looking up from the drawing, she watched the others that were in the room. A girl with blood on her face and a guy with some kind of mask. Except from those two, everyone in there looked pretty... normal, like they didn't belong in a place like this.

Veleno knew from herself that she wasn't insane. She certainly didn't belong here. No matter if her grandma would believe her or not, Veleno's power was real and she knew it. She had seen what it was capable of and used it, even if she didn't mean to. She was a murderer yes, but not insane. Maybe she should be in prison for what she had done, but not in an asylum.

Sighing again, Veleno tried to push the thoughts aside. She was stuck in here, whether she liked it or not, so she might as well get used to the place and the label they had given her. Pushing the thoughts aside, she quickly got bored of watching people and for a moment thought about starting a conversation with someone, but she quickly dismissed the thought.

[Beebee2121]

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."

[kiya]

Scruffy. That was the first thought that came to Jessica's mind as a homeless looking man approached her. She sighed as he reached her "I couldn't get the handsome one" she whispered to herself jokingly and decided he was harmless enough and met his pleasant concern with a smile and silent nod.

The room was beginning to start bustling and becoming alive like her old school dances her mother would force her to go to, the one where boys and girls dared not to talk till some brave kid crosses the dance floor like a freed prisoner of war cautiously testing his surroundings. "Yes I'm fine" she said after much hesitation and she took a second to delicately rub more red blood from her lip. "You.. fine?" She assumed he knew his appearance was a little rough, however how could she complain when she knew how creepy hers could be.

[ramblingbard]

Read that one, and that one... Alex thought to himself as he pushed one book after another aside with his finger. That one was too weird to read. Skimmed that one - not interesting... Books in these places were always so - random. It was the best word for it anyways. There were some interesting ones, but for the most part - there were magazines that were at least a month behind or books no one else wanted so they were donated to charities and asylums got whatever the prisons didn't take. At least that was what it seemed like to him.

He let out a hard sigh and finally looked up from his browsing. Gaze passing over those in the room, he spotted his sister curled up in the corner and smiled at her. It quickly fell away when he realized her focus was on her feet. Another sigh escaped him. His gaze passed on, looking for something to do. Maybe someone to talk to. "It's too damn quiet in here," he mumbled mostly to himself. At least, for him it was quiet. No more voices constantly yammering in his ear, a room full of people barely talking to one another was close to maddening.

That was when he spotted the moody girl looking around. The one that thought she could kill someone just from a scratch. She wasn't doing anything at the moment, so he figured what harm could come from talking to her? Maybe she'd be more of a conversation than Jennifer since he already knew his sister didn't exactly like talking. Without even giving it a second thought, he walked over to the black haired girl. "What were you drawing?" He asked without really trying to see it; it seemed nicer to do it that way, asking instead of just looking.