the asylum meme

[alkali]

 Meme, Interrupted


"People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can't answer the real question. All I can tell them is, It's easy."


Well, you've really done it now. You're in a mental institution. Maybe it's a modern facility with a therapy garden, compassionate staff members, and a warm environment meant to help nurse people back to health, or maybe it's a glorified dungeon where the government shoves people they don't want to deal with and patients are abused by staff. Regardless of what it is, you're there, and it doesn't look like they're planning on letting you out any time soon.

Maybe you're actually not supposed to be there and you're trying to arrange for your release. Maybe you actually are meant to be there and you're struggling with your illness. Maybe you're not a patient at all and you're just there to visit or earn your paycheck. It's up to you.

Rules:

1. Post with your character's name, canon, and your preferences on the subject bar, and set up the situation.
2. Tag other people. Are you a visitor? A staff member? A fellow patient? A hallucination? It's your choice.
3. Have fun!

Comments

[carryon_crow]

[would u liek a fellow patient?]

[dustless]

//sure /o/! deal with the sad small child disaster

[carryon_crow]

[Being in the facility would be really hard for Henry. The one on one times with a therapist isn't so bad, there's never any pressure to share and the therapist isn't horrified when Henry blurts out things. But being monitored all the time would just. Suffocate them. So Henry's living nearby instead, and going to the facility like some people would go to word. A good compromise.

Right now nothing's scheduled so Henry is just relaxing, fiddle toy in hand.]

Hey Frisk, how's it shaking?

[dustless]

[Frisk is always there.]

[Often, they refuse to acknowledge anyone who talks to them. They shouldn't be wasting time with that, they have real lives to be working on, not trying to make conversation with a figment of their imaginations. The staff chatter among themselves over whether having the child living there was really a good thing after all. But there's nowhere to go back to.]

[Henry is lucky today; they actually look up.] Oh. Henry, hi. 'M just waiting.

[carryon_crow]

[Score for Henry! Frisk is a fixture but since they're so withdrawn Henry doesn't talk to them too often.]

Cool, cool. Seems like it'd be boring to wait around here.

[Flick-flick, flick-flick goes the toy. Amazing how much keeping one's hands busy can help.]

[dustless]

[Frisk glances at the toy. It's nothing interesting to them, but if Henry likes it, they're not going to complain.]

Yeah. Been waiting a long time. Can't get out too easy, they always lock the doors and stuff. 'M good at finding things, but I guess they're better at hiding the keys.

[carryon_crow]

That's a good skill to have! Some people would lose their heads if they weren't tied with bones and ligaments!

[Flick-flick. Henry wants to kill something, explosively, but that would be a huge no-no. Their therapist told Henry straight off that killing was forbidden, but then conceded to hunting after some brainstorming.

Henry didn't like the part that followed about why Henry liked to kill.]

How long have you been waiting?

[dustless]

[That surprises a laugh out of them.] Ew.

[They go blank again. What did it matter? The story only matters once they're gone. So all Henry gets is a shrug. Frisk genuinely isn't sure, anyway.]

...Days go missing, sometimes. Those get lost, and I can't find them either. Maybe 'm not as good at it as I thought.

[carryon_crow]

[Henry chuckles along with Frisk. It's nice to see the kid laugh.]

That happens sometimes, even to me! The doc said it can help recording moments with the date? Like with a camera or a diary or something.

[dustless]

...but then somebody else might find them after I leave.

[They stare out the window again, in the direction they know the mountains are. There are just too many buildings in the way for them to see.]

Doesn't seem like the best plan.

[carryon_crow]

Is that bad? I guess you're kind of a private person, huh?

[Henry looks out the window with Frisk. Buildings of the facility, then the city, and not visible is the mountain ridge beyond. Nice place to go hunting.]

[dustless]

[They sigh. Should they explain to Henry? Nobody else listens to them. Staff isn't allowed to talk about it, but they do anyway sometimes.]

Kind of. Mostly it's that I don't exist.

The story's outside of here, outside of all...this...[they wave their hands around.] real stuff. Probably shouldn't leave stuff behind once I make it.

[carryon_crow]

[Huh, that's a new one! But Henry knows firsthand how boring and tiresome it is to be disbelieved.]

So you're supposed to exist in the story, but not here? Hehehe, maybe it's a side story!

[dustless]

...maybe.

...

[Nah, Henry deserves more, just because they weren't laughed at or immediately besieged by yes you ares.]

Don't think so. Too many people that are...people. You're too real. Need to find the monsters.

[carryon_crow]

[Henry's grin widens, because they understand, how rankling humans can be, how strange and difficult.]

What makes you think I'm not a monster?

[dustless]

'Cause. You're real. [Their tone implies a duh.]

And you don't live under the mountain.

[carryon_crow]

I lived in the woods when I was young. I was raised by animals so I figured that's similar.

[Flick-flick.]

And I've been called a monster before.

[dustless]

[Frisk turns fully to face them, surprise written across their face.]

...You're...not the kind I was looking for.

...

Are you real?

[carryon_crow]

I think so? I mean, I'm human, I'm just really weird so I don't get along with most of 'em. Like I can talk to anything living: animals, plants, you name it.

[Although in the sessions with the therapist, apparently there's more to it than just the raised-by-wolves things, which is. Actually kind of a relief. Like it's okay, they're not broken or anything, they're not supposed to find most human interaction easy.]

But I like you! Maybe because you're looking for monsters?

[dustless]

Really.

[That sounds even more unreal. They actually rock forward a little, a flare of excitement racing through their chest.]

Still don't know if that's good. Once I leave, if you remember me.

You leave a lot.

[carryon_crow]

Yep! You wouldn't believe how many spiders there are around here.

[Always more than people suspect, and Henry helps them choose fruitful, discrete web locations so the cleaning staff won't kill them all.]

Me? Haha, usually I'm the one that's left behind.

[dustless]

Can too. Gotta let them out a lot, everybody else squishes them.

[Oh. They kick their feet.]

...me too.

That's how I figured out I wasn't real.

[carryon_crow]

Yep! Me, if I squish em at least I do them the dignity of eating them after, so it's not a waste.

[But apparently that's "gross" or whatever. Sheesh!]

Ouch, that sucks. Did your family not want you too, or does everyone die, or what?

[That was another thing, apparently Henry was prone to "oversharing" and "inappropriate conversation topics", but whatever. They were never really normal, why bother now?]

[dustless]

...why would you eat them? They're too small to be food. Unless you got a bunch and mixed it with other stuff.

[Frisk will roll with just about anything.]

Dunno. Dad died a long time ago. Mom was just gone. Mighta not wanted me, mighta died.

Maybe they weren't real in the first place, either, but even less than me.

...

Sorry you were left alone.

[Even if their family probably would've been pretty garbage even if they stayed, leaving a kid in the woods or whatever.]

[carryon_crow]

Might as make their deaths mean something. Eating is the most common reason for murder so I think it's suitable, even for a tiny spider.

[And dying so someone else can live seems sweet. Pointless deaths are just... dreary.]

Thanks! My parents just straight up didn't want me, left me like an abandoned puppy on a roadside, just ignored me when I made my way back home. It's like a fairy tale, isn't it?

Same goes for you.

[Henry's smile broadens more at Frisk. They were easy to talk to, because they didn't immediately start scolding them for stupid things.]