...i wasn't -serious-.

[.xander;;]

you did this to him. he supposed, in a way, and in others’ views, he had. but at the same time, it wasn’t him. really, he had no say in when the wolf desired release. sometimes he could fight it, yes, but sometimes, he just wasn’t there to fight it. so lynx’s state was both his fault and not his fault. mind, he blamed himself fully.

because of this blame, xander felt the emptiness tugging on him, but at the same time, the girl’s blatant proclamation of it angered him. partly he wanted to snap at her, and partly he wanted to ignore her. with a bit of effort, he chose the less violent path. the wolf grew slightly irritated at this choice and made his fists shake unsteadily. stan’s hand fell firmly on xander’s shoulder when the guard noticed the trembling, and almost instantly it stopped. it was not mere luck that stan’s touch did not set xander off--it bothered him just as much as anyone else’s--but rather that the wolf knew that it was only slightly stronger than the guard. not even it was foolish enough to start a fight with him in the state its host was in, and not normally, either. when the big guy had first been assigned to xander, the both of them had beaten each other senseless. that had left even the beast weak.

xander somewhat calmed down and decided to keep up his attempt at slightly better behavior. the guilt was still too fresh for him to comment on the girl’s first statement, but he felt the need to answer her in some way.

he’s a therapist, the brunet scrawled on the paper. usually his handwriting was better, but his head still throbbed painfully and made his vision blurred. he could hardly stand the sitting up any longer.

then a nurse came in with a tray of actually edible food for lynx and decided it would be really funny to trip and splash orange juice on him!!!

[lynx]

That woke Lynx up in an instant! The therapist's eyes opened and shuddered under the sticky mess, and whined softly. Ah--he hated being sticky and wet! Frowns, and is already escorded out by people to the place of cleaning in the infirmiry. When he was changed (five minutes later) and cleaned, then they returned the woozy man.

He was quite out of it, in all white, no shirt, as a nurse helped the man in bed. Another blood transfusion bag was leaking into his body now, along with nutrients and other supplements from another. The third bag/IV was the morphine to keep Lynx from screaming in pain.

He looked over at Xander, once more a smile on his face. One of the nurses thought it would be best if he had something familar. The plump woman carried in a very bitchy looking Mink, and a huge milkshake. Lynx happily accepted them, the cat purred there on his lap, turned towards Xander with a glare. He sat-partially upright and sipped at the drink with the ridiculously long straw.

"...Heya Minky, I'm sorry I locked you in there. It was awhile, wasn't it? Are you okay?" He talked to the kitty as he pet her, being gentle to that precious bundle of brownish fluff.

"Now, now, don't be mad at Xander... this was all my fault." Scratches said cat behind the ears.

Looks to the side at Gretchen. "Hello Miss, I'm Dr. Katze. Who are you?"

[&Gretchen]

Gretchen blinked her eyes slowly in a fashion that almost made her appear to be tired when the wolf-boy's hands started shaking. But that was actually just her way of showing 'surprise'. If you could call it that. Someone rips a sink out of the wall? Blink slowly. Someone snarls in your face? Blink slowly. Someone starts dancing to the Mexican Hat Dance in front of you? Blink slowly. That was just how it worked with this particular individual.

Her brow furrowed at Xander's obvious anger, but she did not retreat even a fraction from the thought that she could possibly come into harm's way. Even more than she 'liked' to mutilate herself, she especially 'liked' when others hurt her. Probably because in those situations she was able to put more of her concentration into the actual wounds. When it was her doing it, sometimes she could not even feel the pressure in her skin where she penetrated it. Which made the whole thing absolutely pointless. She was already convinced she would never feel pain. Pressure was another matter.

The brunette looked at his next reply, noticing the writing had gotten a bit sloppy with his contained anger. She wondered what it was like to be angry. She wanted to ask him. But she was afraid it might upset him even more. As much as she seemed to come off as cold and indifferent, she still had no wish to be the cause of another's discomfort. At least not intentionally.

"He is your therapist?" she asked, listlessly running her fingers through her greasy red-hued hair. "Eh… C'est intéressant. My therapist was fired." More points for good conversation. Good use of words. Remember what the therapists told you.

Unfortunately, her great conversation was interrupted by an unfortunate incident of spilled orange juice. She drifted off into silence, watching unblinkingly and unmoving as Mr. Happy was taken to change.

Then, magically, he gained himself a name. His sudden acknowledgement of her existence almost earned him a true look of surprise. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t happen, though, because it was impossible.

"Nice to meet you… Dr. Katze." What a weird name. She wondered if he was born with it. "Je m'appelle Gretchen… I am a patient here."

[lynx]

"It's nice to meet you, Miss." He said in reply to the female's words, he seemed quite kind even if she seemed to be quite the emotionless doll. And smelly. The freshly washed Katze's hair was for once not in some strange style, but hanging down and just... limply there. He smiled somewhat more and then shifted the cat so she wouldn't attack the were-man Xander (boy).

Dr. Katze turned to Xander for a moment. "Calm down." Is all he said, both to him and the hissing kitty, which he petted so she wouldn't try to rip the wolf's throat out.

Once more he turned to the girl. "Ah... I'm the new therapist, replacing the one that was fired I believe? I'm not positive if I'm just here because they wanted me or because I'm a replacement, I hope to see you recover in your stay at Quack Shack while I'm around, Miss Gretchen." What a nice and honest man he was, a smile to his lips still. He looked down at the kitty and gave her a smile. Yet Mink hissed again at Xander.

"Now now Mink, calm down... Please kitty? I'll let you hunt little bunnies later, I know they're your favorite to hunt!"

With that, thankfully, the evil kitty calmed down. She quite enjoyed biting the heads off of little bunnies rather than tearing the throats out of wolves. Scary thing, yes indeed, but it seemed the older kitty had a sick and twisted sort of pleasure in maiming cute things.

[.xander;;]

that cat was going to die. whether by tooth, nail, poison, fire, or sharp objects, that cat was going to die. one day, katze would have his back turned, and that furry little demon would be wolf chow.

i am calm, he wrote to lynx with a scowl. it’s that creature you need to put a leash on.

that katze had some problems. well, xander had problems too of course, but seriously. why would he call the city by its informal name? wasn’t he staff? really, how hard was it to say “quattrocchi?” okay, so it was rather difficult. and that was another thing. this place was in australia, right? so why were there no australians… there were french people, though! french people who only spoke in english half the time! he noted this of gretchen. he didn’t understand most of it, of course, but it was a kind of recognizable language.

recover?! ha! no one recovered in this hell hole. they got worse. xander knew that for a fact. who was katze trying to kid? he kind of hoped this gretchen character was not stupid enough to believe him. well, it didn’t really make a difference to the lycanthrope, but just someone that dumb existing was pitiable. hell, anyone who believed a word lynx said was pitiable. that man could not possibly be for real. no one was that happy or nice. one day, that therapist would pull their little encounter out of the dust and hit xander in the face with it. he knew it. why hadn’t stan let him take responsibility for the fight even though katze tried to take it? it was just giving the guy ammo against him. like he needed any more weapons trained on him.

rather annoyed but not really looking it, xander slid back down onto his pillow. his vision stopped spinning so violently, but he still felt like he was on a moving ship. okay, maybe dan had gone a little too far in how hard he’d hit him. and his side! fuck! it hurt to breathe. the brunet frowned up at stan with a deep exhale, half snort and half growl, silently ordering him to relay the message to dan.

[&Gretchen]

[MIDGET POST.]

If the Tim Burton girl gone crazy could have smiled, she would have then. He had replied to her! She couldn’t feel happiness, though. She just knew she had accomplished something. Also, when she tried to smile, it was like looking at Death. This chick just was not meant to smile. She could smile if she really wanted to. But she never meant it. And as I mentioned before. Deaaattthhhhhh.

"You are his replacement?" she echoed, peering at him with her soul-burning eyes. The bags added a lovely effect. "You are a lot more… full of smiles than he was." That was Gretchen handing out a compliment. In fact, she was burning with envy as she said it. "What makes you smile so much?" She wondered what his secret was. She worried that he would not share it with her. What if he was greedy and wanted all his happiness for himself? He should share some with her. Maybe she could take it from him.

"I have been here… pour three years. And have not yet been made better," she told him, not taking her gaze away from him. She didn’t even blink. She could go into the book of world records. "Do you think you could make me better?"

[lynx]

Lynx blinked for a moment, head snapping back to the Tim Burton Girl gone wrong. His head tilted for a moment. "I believe I am..." He said to confirm.

INTERRUPTION! INTERRUPTION! Tifferny wants to murder Lynx too. Mink? Naaah... that'd be like killing the actual Mink and that's a no-no. But.... Lynx needs to be hurt again. BACK TO OUR ORIGINAL POSTAGE:

Pauses once again... "Thank you for the compliment, Miss Gretchen." Pauses, he actually had to think about that question. "Well... I guess it's a combination of things. I... I've always been quite happy, it's in my nature. I like smiling, and usually when you smile it releases these chemicals in your brain that make you happier. That adds a lot to it, and thirdly... There's a lot of things, even simple things, to be happy about! Like the sun shining, it being a new day--being alive... Just taking pleasure in the simple things instead of dwelling on what is bad helps." Grins now.

Curious look to her. "Three years...? Hrm... I'm not sure what I could do for you, Miss Gretchen. I know nothing about you, nor if there's anything I could do to help. There's only so much _I_ can do. Most of the path to becoming better is taking up the will and path to be better. I had a case from this place transfered to me years ago... Right now he's out of here, jail, and married with a child. It's just... a right combination of things..." Ponders a moment.

"Like... a cake."

Mink, well, HISS SNARL I HATE YOU XANDER DIIIE. Yeah.

[&Gretchen]

Gretchen was aware of the fact that the wolf child had fallen asleep. She could tell by his breathing. She did not look in his direction. Her eyes were pinned to Dr. Katze. The man who had the secret to happiness. Which… from what he said was…

Her lips tugged into an upside down frown that was nothing like a smile. But it was also not a frown. It disfigured her and made her look utterly gruesome. As if she had just eaten a particularly nasty something or other and had frowned the wrong way. That's what it was. A flipped over frown. But not a smile. The redhead wannabe kept her face in that painful looking position for a few moments. Still staring at Dr. Katze. If she was doing this to me I think I would start crying. I don’t know about Dr. Katze. But this chick has some damn nasty issues.

She was not feeling any happier at all. In fact, she didn’t know what happiness felt like, but since she was not feeling ANYTHING out of the norm [which was essentially nothing] she knew that this was not working. Her mouth shaped itself back into its normal semi-frown state that compared to its previous contortion was like a wide happy-ass grin.

"It did not work," she let him know. As if it were not already very obvious. "Pourquoi pas?"

"I don’t know very much about myself either," she replied to his next words. "I don’t know my life before I was the age of 15."

[lynx]

He was smiling at her gruesome frown. "...You turned your lips more downward than they were before, m'dear." He said softly, to explain why she hadn't felt anything. Then, tilts his head in curiosity. "Ah... I see. Amnesia, I presume." Nods his head to his own words.

"Hrm... Well, you seem to not know how to smile, has anyone ever taught you how to? Or... much of anything? You can speak..." Looks at her drawed-on arm. Points to it. "What is that, Miss Gretchen?"

Oh, so she was a cutter too? Oh boy this girl was quite the mess that needed some sewing together it seemed... Poor deary, it seemed she needed a lot more help than was first thought of! He wondered a few things.

"So who is your current doctor, Miss Gretchen?" Pauses. "You were probably assigned to Doctor DeVrais, correct?" He seemed quite concerned over her already, ah that was Dr. Katze, he quite enjoyed taking care of people. Perhaps he should be a housewife next and have Izzy as the father. LOL.

Just imagine, just imagine! Yes Henri, I'm speaking to you about this one! Mwahaha I am so evil for even thinking about it!

[&Gretchen]

"I did?" she asked, feeling downcast. Her forecast was always downcast, although sometimes a touch of rain was added. Rain in the form of… blood. Not tears. I already mentioned her inability to cry. Boo-hoo for her. Tear ducts just aren't what they used to be anymore. Like fast food.

Don’t get me started on fast food.

"You can be… taught.. how to smile?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with a look of confusion. This man was awfully strange. "I can speak anglais et français…"

At the mention of her arm, the girl brought it up to give the man a better view. Most people who did stuff like this wanted to hide it. Gretchen had no shame. "It is un arbre.. a tree. I was unable to finish it. There are only the roots." She traced her fingers across the angry red design with a somber expression, seeming to be lost in thought. In fact, she wasn’t exactly lost. She was thinking about trees. Something about trees. While she'd been out, she'd even dreamed of trees. She didn’t normally dream. Trees… Her guard stared icily over her shoulder, frowning at the design and looking pissed that it had gotten there in the first place.

Dr. Katze's cheery voice interrupted her. The trees could wait.

"Oui," she answered. "Doctor DeVrais… Sometimes I see multiple therapists. He can be busy sometimes. "