Tricks.

Also a factor.

Are all the comatose patients up and about?

That they are, Lucas, that they are.

From the few responses Ive gathered, yes that is the general consensus.

I'm also assuming it wouldn't be hard to be better than the previous mood and condition of most of the patients. So that's a no brainer.

"How is everyone?"

Better, I would assume.

Go be social, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. You have to leave your room eventually, they said. What a load of crap. [Alexis muttered the words quietly under her breath as she trudged down the halls and back to her room, shivering slightly and soaking wet. Some patient had thought it would be funny to knock her into the pond, but unlike the time with Kieran, Alexis was not amused and, after finally managing to get away from the obnoxious patient, just desperately wanted to get out of the freezing wet clothing.]

I still think they need to fence that pond off.

"Everyone seems to be perking up with the upcoming holiday. I think its helping them."

You mean...Halloween?

infinityandmadness

Aww, thank you. You taste like …Nothing.

How creative.

infinityandmadness

Oh! Hi Seth!~ Yeah, I don’t care to share. Have a kiss as my way of saying sorry~!

[after pulling away] Oh, you're such a try-hard. You taste of desperation, Doctor Elian.

The rate at which everyone recovers always astounds me. That being said, is everyone alright?

#KWIstarter

sick like me. | seth + lacey

lacey-laced-with-poison

Lacey, in frustration, pulled against the restraints and let out an irritated sigh when it did her no good. She didn’t honestly think protesting would get her anywhere. If anything, it would just encourage Seth. At least, that’s what begging and protesting and fighting back did for Lacey. It just showed her that whatever she was doing was clearly working in terms of making whoever her victim was suffer. So rather than giving him any sort of satisfaction, Lacey just rolled her eyes once he entered, and waited for his first move.

Her eyes flickered over to the knives he held, and she snorted once. Jesus…so that was what this whole deal was about. Naturally, though, Lacey shrugged, as best as she could. “I’m not an idiot. I know what knives are.” She responded, smirking. “If you’re asking if I have any personal connections, then no.”

Seth waited for her to answer his question. With any answer Lacey would have provided him with, the outcome would have been the same. He listened, nonetheless, and nodded a couple of times. And then, Seth stepped forward and, with the boning knife in his hand, stabbed it straight through Lacey's shoulder. In his action, he made sure to stab her in the exact spot she had stabbed Aidan during the blackout. He also made sure it went straight through, so he could jam it into the wooden top to the table she lay on to keep it in place. If Lacey moved, she would just be doing more damage.

He took a step back after doing so. The cleaver still remained held in his hand but then he set it off to the side. "Are you having fun yet, Lacey?"

sick like me. | seth + lacey

lacey-laced-with-poison

Lacey stumbled back when Seth pushed her away. She was still cackling, and she was pretty sure she was going to bust a lung if she laughed any harder. This was too good. Poor wrinkle dick. But that was fun, Lacey decided while she watched him react to the pain shooting to his groin. It only made her grin spread wider and she hoped for more of a show from him. Maybe he’d cry. Then she’d draw the white flag and surrender because that would be way too good for her to handle. It’d be so funny, it’d be dangerous. Bad for her health even. Though, when he ordered the guards to grab her, she was sure that whatever he had in store for her wasn’t going to be good for her health.

So naturally when the first guard approached her, she kicked him right in the stomach and watched him double over, trying not to vomit anything he had eaten. The next guard got his face clawed at while Lacey continued to laugh. And then she felt the syringe hit her in the neck. Damn it to hell. Always. Every time. She was just having fun, for Satan’s sake, it wasn’t like it was hurting anyone. Oh wait. No. That was exactly how she was having fun. Oops. Luckily, it was only a light sedative, so it didn’t completely zone her out. It just made her submissive as they dragged her off to the area Seth had obviously told them about prior to arriving at her cozy little icebox. She was almost instantly strapped onto a table, and through sedative, she slurred out several profanities and then cackled lazily. “You gonna fuck me?” She asked one of the guards, unable to focus on any of their faces without her head panging from the pain. She felt one of the guards slap her across the face, and after wincing from the impact, Lacey laughed, and she kept laughing.

Pain was easy enough to ignore after the initial feeling of it. So it took Seth a minute or so to be able to recuperate, and then he waited to see that the guards understood his order, but then he was out the door and headed for the asylum kitchens. The cafeteria workers greeted him politely and allowed him into the cooking area. Seth knew what he was looking for and asked before grabbing the boning knife and the cleaver from their designated spaces in the knife rack.

By the time Seth was done gathering the things he needed, he was certain that Lacey would have been in the room down below in the service tunnels. If the guards had used the light sedative he specified, it would have been very close to wearing off by that point as well. Nonetheless, he took his time on his journey to the room. But once he was there, he opened the door, dismissed the guards, and stood off to the side of the table Lacey lay upon. The thick door closed behind the guards, leaving just the two of them there in that room.

"Are these familiar to you, Lacey?" Seth asked with a smirk on his face as he held up the two knives.

Handle With Care//Alexis & Seth

Alexis felt her heart sink at the words, but it was close to what she was expecting. And she’d rather hear the truth than some bullshitted lie to make people feel better about something. Even still, her smile faltered and she nodded slowly as her throat tightened, biting back any tears that threatened to surface. Crying wouldn’t wake them up, wouldn’t make them better and she absolutely refused to again. “It’s fine. They’ll be fine. You, Barker and Lewis are the only doctors I’ve met or seen around here. I think out of all of them, you’re the one who’d be able to help them. They’re not going to die. They’ll be fine.” Though the final words were more to convince herself then anything, she still said them with as much assurance as she could.

Watching Seth move over to look at her IV, she frowned slightly, forcing herself to change the topic from those still comatose. “Do I have to keep this thing in?” She asked, gesturing towards the tubes. “It’s annoying.” And nothing would be able to stop her from continuously ripping them out when she felt like getting up and moving, as she had the previous night, but it seemed more polite to ask first. “And cold. It makes my arm cold.”

Alexis' words were flattering, though they were words he already knew to be true. Victoria was a highly capable woman, but she lacked the genuine desire to help the patients and that in itself was what would have prevented her from being able to do so. Though he was very aware of her interest in one of his patients, Nathan Fox, and so he knew that Nathan would have been the one she applied every ounce of knowledge towards. Seth had no idea why Victoria was so fascinated with him, but if Nathan were to die, Seth knew he was entirely too fucked in a way he did not want. When Alexis said that himself, the head doctor, and Barker were the only three she'd met, he arched an eyebrow and spoke with extreme amusement. "You haven't met Osric? Doctor Elian? Pity. I've heard he's quite the professional."

Seth noted each of Alexis' levels since she'd woken from her coma, and he had written down which tubes could have been removed, but obviously the nurses didn't want to do it, so they'd left it for him to do. He didn't mind. "I'll remove some of them, as well as the ones that were assisting the life support. But unfortunately a few of them have to stay to regulate blood flow and sugar levels, as well as certain medications for you. Just until we can pinpoint your stage of recovery." With that explanation, Seth began to carefully remove some of the tubes from her.

Handle With Care//Alexis & Seth

Rubbing her eyes again, she paused before reaching out to take the notebook, relief washing over her as he spoke of her two friends. As long as they were okay, and the others were going to be okay, she could care less about what had happened in the therapy room. No doubt people were infuriated, wanted revenge and some would probably go as far as to obsess over the event, but it wasn’t in Alexis’ nature to do so. The past was the past and some things couldn’t be changed. Flicking the notebook open, her eyes scanned the words. She’d have to re-read it to actually grab every word, but the message was clear enough to being a smile to her face as she hugged it to her chest. “Have you ever met someone and you just know that they’re really different, really special. Like…the kind of person who could do anything and everything they wanted to. I think he’s one of those special people.” She murmured, nodding twice before blinking in surprise.

What? Wiping it clean? Rather than the incessant paranoia building up again or rejecting his words, Alexis beamed. It was weak, but as honest as could be. “Ah, you don’t…I mean…thank you.” She said softly, stretching her legs out before pulling them up to her chest and resting her head on her knees. “They’re going to be okay, right? Nathan and Zack and Dae.” Pausing, she glanced up at Seth and held the notebook even tighter. “Even if it takes a while…they shouldn’t die, right?” Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she spoke, trying desperately to remember what she knew about comas and brain damage though the pounding of her head.

Her words about Vladimir were oddly endearing and made Seth's smirk twitch a bit into a smile as she spoke them. Hardly knowing Vladimir, he couldn't say much about the teen, but what Alexis said sounded pretty accurate from what he knew and what else he had heard people say about him. Happiness and positivity were difficult to come by in asylums, but it sounded a lot like Vlad had plenty to spare, save for his own personal issues, even if he wouldn't allow those to hinder him.

Once Alexis reacted to his words, he chuckled some more and moved to her bedside where the I.V. was. His eyes scanned it and he followed each cord to their place on her arm. Then his gaze flitted over to Zack, Nathan, and Damian, especially pausing on Damian. "Nathan will most likely recover, I'm guessing within the week, hopefully. Zachary and Damian..." Seth trailed off and then picked up seconds later. "...patients in their level of the GCS have much less of a chance of survival. But I'm doing everything I've ever heard of doing. That's why I made sure to personally care for each of you. Because I'm going to make sure everyone is fine."

Handle With Care//Alexis & Seth

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Alexis glanced up as Seth approached, slowly sliding into a more vertical position. Almost immediately as she did around doctors, or staff members in general, she started chewing on her bottom lip as he spoke, shaking her head twice before nodding twice as well in response to each word. “Sebastian. And Vlad.” Her voice cracked as she spoke and she furrowed her eyebrows, glaring down at her lap. It was frustrating, to feel so completely helpless even to something as simple as being able to speak. Of course, feeling helpless or pathetic wasn’t exactly foreign to the blonde.

Clearing her throat, she glanced back up at Seth. He seemed genuine enough. There was no annoyed groans or sneer on his face that most of the staff seemed to take to like it was their second nature. Then again, Alexis had never been the best judge of character either. And he was the one who had given her matches, which she hadn’t suddenly been caught for having. Sucking in a breath between her teeth, she pressed herself back towards the head of the bed as once again, her panic began to grow. She had a match on her. That wasn’t in the room. And just like that the cold was gripping at her again and she practically bundled herself in the blankets, staring wide-eyed up at Seth. “‘M I going to iso again?” She stammered out, ignoring how hoarse her voice sounded.

The two names were the ones he expected to hear from her. Sebastian Hills and Vladimir Koszmar. Seth hadn't been sure what to do with Vladimir when he had run into the dreadlocked teen. He was...something else. He definitely hadn't been all there. But not in a purely negative way. Just...different. Really different. But he had proven that he was concerned about his friends, even if he didn't seem to wholly understand what was going on. Seth made a mental note to tell Vlad that Alexis had awoken. "Sebastian was discharged after we made sure he was alright and all his wounds were tended to. Vladimir spent about ten minutes in here and then was released. He left you this," Seth approached the bedside table and held up the notebook. After Vladimir had put it there, Seth made sure the nurses wouldn't touch it, since sometimes they had a habit of just throwing things away.

Seth had a peculiar fondness for Alexis. She wasn't all over the place like the others he had met, but he knew very well that most of her issues were bottled up by her own doing. And she was relaxed in her ways of doing things but not to the point of carelessness. It was something Seth could agree with. Her question made him chuckle quietly. "Absolutely not. I'm wiping your slate clean. Because I can, and I feel like doing it."

Handle With Care//Alexis & Open

Warm. The world was warm and golden while she slept, almost as if someone had draped Alexis in cashmere. At least, she thought she was sleeping. The thought was far more pleasant than knowing she had been laying in comatose. Sleep was comfortable. It was safe. But the complete and utter feeling of terror that had completely consumed the blonde just days before still lingered. Her fingers still unintentionally twisted the fabric of the heavy blankets she was bundled in, clutching them tighter to her. As if she would wake up and the cold that left an ache in her bones would return. As if the moments her eyes opened she would be locked in that horrible room again.

She had only woken the night before to a nurse by her side who immediately drilled the confused patient with questions. What was her name? What year was it? Where was she? What was the last thing she remembered? Though she had managed to answer them with jerks of her head, her mouth wouldn’t seem to open when she wanted it to, it was the last question that brought her pause and a sharp pain in her temples. She remembered the cold, the freezing cold. Remembered cursing everyone who ever said you went numb to it after a while for being liars. And she remembered the dark that closed in like a vice, ever taunting her for having such a silly and irrational fear. Then there was that sickening feeling of worry that only grew as her eyes frantically sought out familiar faces in the beds next to her, ignoring the nurse’s attempts to calm her down. Kieran was there. Damian. Nathan. Zack. And at some point the tears had started to fall, rolling down pale cheeks and she staggered from the cot, ripping the IV from her arm as she did so. Vladimir and Sebastian. They had been in the therapy room too, she had fallen asleep in the former’s arms last she remembered. But they weren’t in any of the cots she could see.

Gasping desperately for breath, several sharp shakes of her head were given in response to the nurse and she held up her trembling hands. When did she end up on the ground? The tile was cold, pressed against bare legs while her hands moved to clutch at her head. She just needed a second, needed to think, needed to get a grip. Two more nurses hurried over, one with a syringe in hand and she scrambled back away from them, unable to swallow her growing panic and yet still unable to muster up her voice with her friend’s names stuck in her throat. Then, with a prick to the side of her neck, she was falling into that horrible darkness again and a single sob was ripped from her and she caught several words about how someone…Seth? Seth would be informed while she was lifted back onto the cot.

The next day she woke with a dry throat and a familiar sting on her cheeks. Crying. She had been crying. Pathetic. However, despite being awake, Alexis didn’t want to open her eyes. Maybe it would just be better to stay asleep, to stay unconscious and oblivious to the world and herself. After all, the world was such a cruel place where the wicked ruled and the good were snuffed out beneath her feet. The quiet chatter of the infirmary filled her ears, catching parts of the conversations patients and doctors alike held. A name here, a laugh there, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the questions she drove herself mad with. She should have just stayed asleep, she should never have woken up. But she wanted - no she needed answers. She needed to be sure everyone was okay. And if they weren’t…she didn’t know what she would do. So ever so slowly the gunmetal of her eyes peeked out from under dark lashes and she shifted, raising a hand to rub at her face and then blink down at her hands several times before looking around.

Seth, admittedly, had slept in one of the infirmary prep room chairs, just in anticipation of anyone else waking up. He didn't expect Zack or Damian, especially Damian, to wake any time soon, so he was just waiting for Alexis and Nathan. Nathan...he was harder to tell, since he hadn't immediately fallen into a TBI induced coma. He had been conscious, then fallen asleep, and that was when he had fallen into the comatose state. So it was tricky. But he was going to do whatever he could do for the boy. For all of his patients. Seth had experience with the comatose, and that was why he had specifically told everyone that the five were his patients until they were dismissed from the infirmary. And even after that...their check-ups were for him to do. Him, and him alone.

Making his rounds, he stopped at Zack's bed, did a few stimulus tests, then moved to do the same for Nathan, and Damian. The results were just as they had been every other time he performed them. The nurses had run in to inform him that Alexis Grey had woken from her comatose state, and Seth had been up in a heartbeat. Of course, he wasn't going to swarm her bed and freak her out, so gradually, he approached her bed, just as her eyes flickered open. A friendly smile lined his lips and he nodded once. "Confused? Worried?" He asked, glancing down at a clipboard on the table at the end of her bed.

kieran-grainger

No, I’m fine. I’m just… going to go back to sleep, if that’s alright.

That's perfectly fine. [adjusts some of kieran's levels and medicines one last time before turning away and taking a few steps} Oh, and Kieran. Don't feel it necessary to speak to any of the other doctors if they choose to talk to you. You're my patient, after all. I'll be around to check on you every so often. Rest easy. {walks away}

kieran-grainger

Scotland. Knollwood Institute. My memory’s fine.

Just a precaution. Do you need anything right now?

kieran-grainger

…2014.