|
Post by Shadaras on Feb 17, 2009 21:57:17 GMT -5
((KitCrystal's right, Cyb. Don't assume everyone uses the default skin. White goes with most colors, yes, but on another light one it's really quite irritating to read. And there are skins with red post-backgrounds, too. Since nobody's complained, I assume nobody here uses them, but it's just something to be aware of.))
Ender couldn’t help but think the kid was cute. Up until the kid said that he snored. At that point, Ender revised his opinion of the kid to ‘irritating’. Not that he’d really expected anything else. Ender narrowed his eyes slightly, taking a step back. He would’ve begun talking again, except for the kid quickly trying to wipe oatmeal off his hands (why had that been there?) and then grabbing Ender’s free hand. At least he introduced himself then. Ender pulled his hand out of Harry’s oatmeal-covered grasp, looking at his hand in distaste. He didn’t even bother trying to clean it off. It wouldn’t work very well.
Dropping his hand back to his side, Ender sighed slightly. “I am Ender,” he said, doing his best to ignore the kid’s comment about snoring. “And I suggest you do your best to avoid--” he cut himself off, seeing one of the people he was about to tell the kid to avoid coming over. Canable, as Ender tended to call him. The more annoying of the two multiples. Ender set his half-finished bowl of oatmeal down on the table, now glaring at the irritant. As bothersome as the kids were likely to be, Canable and Empeg were Ender’s least favorite people at the asylum. Especially Cable, because it was so difficult to actually talk to him without getting a strange reaction from at least one of his personalities.
The kid didn’t seem to mind the duality, though. Ender supposed he could be grateful for that. He even cracked a smile at the kid’s last comment. “He’s two people in one body,” Ender said absently to the kid. “I can’t remember ever hearing them agree on something.” Tilting his head, he considered Canable. “I’d tell him to avoid you, except that’d probably annoy you and he probably wouldn’t listen. So I won’t bother and he can find out on his own why being around you can be a bad idea.” Of course, being around pretty much anyone at the asylum was a bad idea, one way or another. Ender didn’t mention that. The kid could find out on his own.
|
|
|
Post by Elcie on Feb 17, 2009 22:09:42 GMT -5
((Cyborg, if you can't make your posts work at all without coloring, then you should probably think about revising your character, or at least your way of playing him/them. Having both personalities speak in the same breath (and to each other) is sorta stretching it in the first place.))
Having been asked these questions just as he was stepping away, Zander's irritation increased a little, but he hid it behind a still-forced smile. "Witches, huh?" he said. "Now that could be. No one ever knows where they go when they leave the asylum... and when they take you away, you don't remember a single thing about what happened once you get back. If you get back." He laughed. "But it's probably nothing, of course. Witches probably don't exist, and if they did they almost certainly don't eat people." He leaned closer to the boy and winked, smiling broadly. His eyes glittered. "Unless I'm the witch, of course. You'll never know in this place until it's too late..." With that unsettling remark he spun around and strode toward the door, determined to leave things as ambiguous as possible. And to get away from the staff in the dining hall, of course.
Admittedly, most of the terrifying tales about the staff and the Asylum had been concocted and embellished by Zander himself, who enjoyed terrifying people when he wasn't being terrifying. It was easy to make the more paranoid ones jump, but the fact that some of his tales had worked their way into general asylum lore rather pleased him. It was the closest he could come to making his mark on this horrifyingly dull place.
|
|
|
Post by Lizzie on Feb 18, 2009 21:10:40 GMT -5
(( Um, lets pretend they were toilet papering the courtyard to get Fallon and Hope mad??))
|
|
|
Post by ♥ Rain on Feb 18, 2009 22:13:03 GMT -5
Nour watched the boys bounce around. Harry and Harry. This would be interesting. They would be easier than most names. Except the ex-vee parts. I'll call them Harry One and Harry Two, she decided. After a moment of watching them some more, she frowned. That is, if I can tell them apart.
Tiring of sitting around moping, Nour pushed her bowl forward and got to her feet, putting her hands on her hips. "Of course they're witches," she said. Harry Two had spilled oatmeal on Zander and now the purple-haired man was trying to scare the kid. She gave a grin and then stretched. "I think they're cannibals, too. They're fattening us up to kill us. That's why they feed us oatmeal." The oatmeal jab made her feel a little bit better about having no midmorning snack. Nour gave a quick glance at the oatmeal all over the floor. "You're probably lucky you spilled your second bowl. It can't be good for you."
The nurse behind the counter seemed unimpressed at her spiel, and Nour was faintly irritated. Getting under people's skin was one of her only joys. Besides, time was catching up on her and she was feeling ready to leave the room. Nour guessed it had been at least twenty minutes since she entered the dining hall--much longer than she normally spent. Perhaps it was because there was something interesting to watch for once. Like Zander with oatmeal all over him. That was much better than anything she could read in one of her books.
Nour felt a shiver of nervousness go through her. Enjoying herself. What was she doing? She glanced over at the nurse again. The woman seemed to have, worse than not being interested, zoned out. It was this being brash and cutting through the nurses' thoughts that almost always got her sent away for treatment. "Speaking of oatmeal being bad... I should... go," she said under her breath. She was definitely clamming up again. She'd have to work on that.
|
|
|
Post by Crystal on Feb 18, 2009 23:31:04 GMT -5
((Cyborg, if you can't make your posts work at all without coloring, then you should probably think about revising your character, or at least your way of playing him/them. Having both personalities speak in the same breath (and to each other) is sorta stretching it in the first place.)) ((Perhaps you could not colour them, but simply have them talk to each other in normal sentence quotes, with paragraph breaks in between? I believe Cain and Abel are distinct enough that people should be able to tell them apart even without colouring.))
|
|
|
Post by KitClairvoyance on Feb 20, 2009 9:42:34 GMT -5
Ender's words, along with the rest of the bare chatter in the cafeteria, faded into a dull buzz that mulled around Henry as he regarded the even newer person, the man with green eyes. It was the sort of green that reminded Harry of- he tilted his head quizzically, trying to dislodge the memory from wherever it had gone to, unable to remember what he was supposed to be reminded of.
"Don't it get crowded in there, mister?" he asked while squinting, trying to see if he could spot all three different people in that man's body simultaneously. If he had another two people living in his body, Harry thought that it would be terribly uncomfortable, especially when one had to go to the toilet, but the other two didn't want to. And then there would be the problem of sharing everything. It was bad enough with an identical twin as it was. He couldn't fathom why anyone would share their body with another person. Thinking as hard as he could, he tried his best to understand the two people in front of him. And then it hit him, as plain as day. Beaming, he turned to Ender;
"Is that what happens to homeless people?" he asked, pointing towards both the spiky haired man, and the green eyed man. "I read somewhere that people lose their houses, is this what they mean by moving in?"
Meanwhile, the other Harry stood dumbfounded, bowl of oatmeal in one hand, mouth agape at the purple man who was striding away.
"Hey mister!" he shouted, "are you a cannibal? Hey mister, wait up!" he scrambled, carrying his still-precious bowl of oatmeal (which now had considerably less oatmeal), and dashed after the man as quickly as he could, only to step into a wad of oatmeal that sent him skidding all the way across the floor and crashing into the back of the purple haired man.
He sat up, all dazed and noticed that his bowl of oatmeal had flown and landed the wrong way round in the lap of a small man. He stammered, first at the purple haired man, and then turned to flail out some sort of apology with his arms to the brown haired, brown eyed man that had oatmeal all over his lap now. Personally though, he thought it was a horrid waste of oatmeal, and hoped that after this entire fiasco had been settled, he would be able to ask the kind lady for more.
"I'm most terribly sorry, mister," he said to the purple haired man whom he had crashed into twice today.
|
|
|
Post by Elcie on Feb 20, 2009 14:50:24 GMT -5
Zander's eyes flashed. He grabbed the boy by the collar, moving surprisingly swiftly. "Get away from me!" he shouted, the shift in emotion sudden and alarming. The mild, cynical amusement on his face had given way to a feral rage. "You stupid child - leave me alone - why won't you just--" Zander's entire body tensed until he was shaking, and then he bodily flung Harry away, stepping back slowly. His eyes began to clear. "Just watch your step," he said slowly, the volume of his voice decreasing. "You don't know if somebody might..."
He left the rest of his sentence unspoken, not even sure what he was going to say. His mind always felt fuzzy after he lost control. Clumsily, not sure where he was going, he left the dining hall, shoving aside the nurse who stood beside the exit and slamming the door loudly behind him. Outside in the hallway he leaned against the wall briefly, his heart pounding. He sighed in relief, glad to be alone - groups made him nervous and children made him even more so.
|
|
|
Post by OG Loc on Feb 21, 2009 19:06:21 GMT -5
"Don't it get crowded in there, mister?"
M sighed. "I suppose one might say that. Cain, Able and I suffer from a unique type of sickness, one for your mind rather than your body. It's called multiple personality disorder."
M tried to think of further ways he could explain the syndrome to the young child, but he was not used to talking with children, and had a hard time thinking of a way to explain it that was simple enough that the boy would understand. "In any case, the people at the asylum call me 'M.P.G,' or 'Multiple Personality Guy.' Eventually, each of the letters that make up my name came to stand for each of the three aspects of my personality. I myself am called M."
Before he could get much more out, the small child was chasing the inmate known as Zander, which led to an unfortunate accident involving oatmeal and collapsing. M shook his head, indifferent, and returned to his meal.
|
|
|
Post by Cyborg on Feb 21, 2009 22:39:56 GMT -5
( Okay, just because I want to stop the disagreements over my posting style, I will get rid of the colours, but I will try a new technique. Is itallics for Cain okay?)
|
|
|
Post by Shadaras on Feb 21, 2009 23:06:17 GMT -5
((Cyb, I think it's quite possible for you to not use any font effects and still keep them obviously different. But if you're going to do something, not using different colors is nicer, yes.))
“Homeless people,” Ender repeated, looking down at the blond kid. He almost thought Harry was kidding, but from the expression on the kid’s face, he doubted that. “No. It’s not what happens to them. Bodies—” he broke off, hearing the other kid’s shout. Snapping his head around, Ender watched, half horrified, half amused, as the other kid crashed right into Zander. “Not a good idea,” he muttered, moving towards the crash. He didn’t hurry, exactly, but at least he was moving, unlike the rest of the people here. Mostly you were left alone, so long as you left others alone. The kids hadn’t learned that yet.
And why was he bothering to protect them? Ender shook his head, irritated. Watching Zander toss the kid, he sighed. Typical. He hadn’t seen Zander do that before, but that was likely only because there weren’t many people both small enough and stupid enough for him to do that to. Pausing next to the flung kid, Ender grinned down at him. “Don’t annoy that one,” he said cheerfully, as if it weren’t the most obvious thing in the world right then. “It tends to go badly for the person annoying him.” Before the kid could reply, Ender followed Zander’s path out of the dining hall.
Slipping through the door, Ender glanced back down at his oatmealy hand. Sighing, he leaned against the wall opposite Zander. “What did you tell that kid?” he asked, fingers tapping against the wall. It wasn’t so much a matter of knowing that Zander had scared the kid as figuring out what horror story he’d used. Ender had heard most of them. They’d been in the asylum about the same amount of time, as far as Ender could remember. Not that it was all that easy to track time. After a while, years faded together, with the only events being the comings and goings of inmates.
|
|
|
Post by Elcie on Feb 22, 2009 8:04:20 GMT -5
( Okay, just because I want to stop the disagreements over my posting style, I will get rid of the colours, but I will try a new technique. Is itallics for Cain okay?) ((I would prefer if you went with Crystal's idea, doing Cain and Abel's lines in separate quotations like normal dialogue. I can't say I'm happy with the fact that you seem to have gotten away with using two characters, even if they are in a single body, but if you're going to do it then that would be the best way.))
|
|
|
Post by Cyborg on Feb 22, 2009 9:31:11 GMT -5
( Elcy, it is one character, but they are different parts of the same character, like MPG! I do not want to change my character, because it is my character, and it is plausible that they talk like that. Smeagle, and Gollum argued with eachother in the same "breath", and so did Nikki and Jessica from Heroes at points.)
|
|
|
Post by Elcie on Feb 22, 2009 15:11:03 GMT -5
Zander glanced up at Ender, looking completely indifferent. "Something about cannibalism... actually, didn't have to say much. Kid came up with the witch business entirely on his own." He took another deep breath. His heart rate still hadn't completely returned to normal, although at least he was thinking clearly now and his head wasn't aching, as it sometimes did after his worst bouts of fury. In any case, it was good to be outside, out from under the careful gaze of the nurses. They always watched him closely during mealtimes and it made him jumpy, though, admittedly, they were rather nervous around him too. He tried not to attack them, though. Not unless he absolutely couldn't help it. It usually resulted in being taken off for treatment, or placed in isolation for a few days with a nice tight straitjacket to wear. Not something he relished.
He shrugged, a bit of a wry smile on his face. "I'd say it's better if they're terrified of the nurses... less likely to get into serious trouble that way... but those two don't seem afraid of anything. Telling 'em scary stories about cannibal witches probably only increased their curiosity." Zander's manner was nonchalant again, apparently bearing absolutely no grudge against the boy he'd shouted at only moments before. It was like that with Zander. He felt almost calm now, in good humor and not minding Ender's presence. "Ah, well, they're bound to figure it out eventually. Whatever is really going on here, the staff isn't to be taken lightly." He grinned, aware that he himself had probably never learned this lesson satisfactorily. The occasional startling harshness of the asylum staff had only made him more curious and more determined to figure out what was really going on.
|
|
|
Post by ♥ Rain on Feb 22, 2009 16:09:24 GMT -5
Nour had passed outside into the hallway. She had never understood why the non-residential hallway existed. It was nice that it did, though, she had always thought. Rooms to explore, a place to be alone, and secret passages. The staff were so negligent about dusting. Perhaps that was why they never reached the furthest rooms and found the doors she had. Or perhaps they had. The girl shook her head. "No, no. They can't. Can't start thinking that way." She pounded her chest a couple times with her fist. Yes, she was still alive. She hadn't been taken away recently. Her thoughts were still intact. Couldn't start being crazy. Certainly not.
She walked down the hallway, weaving back and forth as if a woman in a dream. The sounds from the dining hall had died down. All she could hear now was the faint hum of the lights and the locks down the hallway. They had always made an irritating buzzing sound. That was what had driven her into the spare rooms in the first place.
As she reached the last door in the hall, she sighed and put her right hand on the frame, leaning heavily on it. The silence was helping her to calm down. But now that she was down here, she didn't particularly want to go back to all the hustle and bustle of the dining room. Particularly, Nour didn't want to go back to that nurse. She took a glance into the spare room. "Hello," she said softly. "Sorry I haven't come recently. I've had so many people to deal with."
And though there was no reply, she felt the room understood. It always did.
|
|
|
Post by Lizzie on Feb 23, 2009 15:41:29 GMT -5
Fallon noticed that her friend did not answer, and sped up.
"See you at the courtyard! I have a surprise!" She called back to Hope, still running.
Fallon burst through the steel doors to the courtyard and ran to where she and Hope had planted dandilions, and where Fallon had planted a rosebush as a surprise, which she found under her bed in a pot. Flashback-Two days ago! Fallon slid on her floor, reaching for a sock. Hope had already left for breakfast.
Fallon whimpered in pain. There was something stuck to her finger!
She realized it was a rose thorn, and said quietly,"Perfect surprise for Hope when we visit our garden!"
Fallon ran down to the dining hall happily.
She couldn't wait until Hope saw the rosebush!!
Fallon stroked a leaf of the rosebush contentedly.
|
|