[rp] [locked] [backdated to the 26th] I am the only patient in this house.

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden hasn't slept for three days. He might not have considered this weird, except it's barely been a week since his birthday. A week and a half. The past three days feel like a blur. The past month kind of feels like a blur, between his family and the Calling -- he held out too long. That must have been it; he held out until his birthday,

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[sophicsulphur]

Her first response to awakening is to roll over onto her side, groping for the blankets to cover her head. Her mind isn't ready for more of this, ergo she has to be dreaming. If I pretend it's a dream, it'll go away. To her blurred and bleary brain, it makes perfect logical sense.

Except she can't roll over. She can't move at all; her body's so weak, and it feels like she's tangled in something. She can feel the drugged blood pumping through her limbs, making her dull and sluggish, but she does her best to ignore it. Just go back to sleep. It'll be all right. Where are her blankets? This room is far too cold. And open. And large. And the closet floor feels like a hospital bed. She shivers, and forces her eyes to close.

It'll go away. It'll go away.

[doyoulikecake]

The machines steady beeps change rhythm slightly, so he looks up at it from where he's standing, his wings once again stretching out--out--and snapping back in. She's waking up.

Then she stirs behind him, and he just turns and watches her for a moment, the Calling zeroing in on every little movement. He wants to write it all down, but he's recording this all anyway. He doesn't need to. It will only get in the way.

So he moves around the bed, away from the table, and sits at the chair on the other side. Where she can see him if she opens her eyes again.

"How are you feeling?" he asks, his voice deadpan, utterly devoid of emotion. She's heard snippets of it before, when he's accidentally dropped into it -- or possibly in a low drone in his study as he makes his tapes for work -- but this is the first time he's ever used it in full force on her. He sounds dead, or like some sort of automaton. Too neutral to really be human, or angel.

[sophicsulphur]

She swallows, squeezing her eyes shut tighter. She doesn't want to listen to this. She doesn't want to deal. But her sense of conscience brings her back around. No. This is your ward, and your responsibility. You can't avoid this.

"Kaden," she says, ignoring his question. Her voice is quavering, small and strained; her tongue keeps running over lips gone dry. The inside of her mouth feels stuffed with cotton. It tastes disgusting. It's making her feel sick. "Listen to me, Kaden. I know you're in there. I know you can snap out of this."

She doesn't, but she has to try.

[doyoulikecake]

He smiles. It's quick, full of dark humor -- almost glee, really, and completely cold. She's still so wrapped up in the possession theory. Well, he can't blame her, as she did just come up with it. Either way, it'll work in his favor, and he knows that.

He almost wants to say 'Of course I'm in here. We're the only two in the room.' But that would be breaking her delusion a little, would be admitting that this is real. It is real, but he needs her to not believe that in the morning.

So he just tilts his head at her, ignoring the statement as she ignored his question. "Answer my question. How are you feeling?" he repeats. "Sometimes the paralytics don't mesh well with Wanderer body chemistry, so we want to be sure you're as comfortable as possible before we begin the procedure."