(Untitled)

[no_afterword]

Day: 88
Characters: Allen Walker (penetratingevil) and Chase (no_afterword)
Summary: Therapy for Allen! Such a nice, pleasant chat it'll be, too ...
When: Evening, after dinner lock-up
Where: Therapy room
Status: Closed, Incomplete.

Comments

[penetratingevil]

He didn't know what to expect as he was lead down the hall. That was a dirty lie. Allen was no stranger to being considered a danger to everything around him. Whatever the Fourteenth thought on the matter was blissfully not spoken aloud as the boy walked at a measured pace to study his surroundings. Is the man he'd spoken to before's tone and voice were any indicator, he had to be on guard and prepare for possible questioning.

Or something. He thought about it the whole way and resolved to be as polite as he could be. Reason should always come before violence and he wouldn't try to kick a doctor in the face unless he had no other choice. He rubbed at his left hand and wished he could feel the reassuring power he was used to. Allen sighed softly as he was stopped by a door and it was held open. He took one last glance around the hall, stalling the inevitable before he stepped inside.

And immediately had to remind himself just because someone was small, didn't mean they couldn't kick his ass. Rhode had rammed a candle through his cursed eye long ago and the level four had handed him back his pride in a paper sack. Size wasn't everything. Being small just made someone frustratingly harder to hit. Allen listened to the door shut behind him as he broke the silence. "You wanted to talk with me, sir?"

[no_afterword]

Chase was idly writing in the margins of the paper on his clipboard (Chinese, of course, and nothing very interesting, in the extremely rare off-chance that Dr. Elliot could actually read it) when Allen came in. He glanced up and then back down, seeing nothing out of the ordinary - just a small teenager with a bad arm and a wary expression. Not much of a challenge, he imagined, but nonetheless reminded himself not to be too abrasive or condescending right off the bat. Size was hardly an indicator of strength.

"You make it sound like I called you here to reprimand you." Chase set down the clipboard and gave Allen a half-smile, indicating the chair across from him. "Sit down. This shouldn't take particularly long if you're agreeable, but it'll be too long for standing to be comfortable."

[penetratingevil]

Allen hadn't thought he had sounded timid. Still, he let it slide with a polite smile of his own and took a seat. Being agreeable for now was a recourse he'd take. It could change depending on what the man said. That aside he hadn't lived this long as he had without a strong supply of paranoia. Running from debt collectors for fear of his skin being ripped off, being sold to pay for things, etc had prepared Allen for the life of an Exorcist.

It probably would save his hide here too. "What about my diagnosis did you want to talk about?" He wasn't being rude, merely polite cautious behavior. Cross Marian had been alright here for the most part. Tyki hadn't and neither had Lavi. He knew his master didn't show things outwardly. Cross had lived far longer than he had with more of that paranoia than Allen could hope to collect in his life.

It bothered him Lavi and Tyki were showing such heavy signs of wear. He wanted to help them somehow, even if it meant later on he could get his head chopped off by Link for aiding the enemy. Somethings were just more important.

[no_afterword]

Chase's smile barely moved as Allen sat down. So far the boy didn't seem ready to attack, or even particularly contrary, but he was sure that would change in relatively short order. Past experience had proven that they usually did when faced with the idea that they were insane. From friendly and cheerful and even outgoing straight into violent and denying everything ... time would tell, he supposed.

"Much of it. Just to see how you're doing ... how things have changed." A fraction of teeth showed for a moment in the grin. "If anything has changed." He flipped a few of the papers up to glance at the dossier underneath. "It's been stated that you tend to speak with yourself on occasion, as if holding a conversation, and yet you're definitely one person." Chase raised an eyebrow and looked back up at Allen, noting the tattoo, the scars, the way the arm looked so strange. "We have some details, but what exactly is it that makes you do this? In your own words."

[penetratingevil]

Allen's smile didn't falter despite his sudden thoughts that this hadn't been a good idea. He didn't want to talk about what caused his conversations. He would be happy to never talk about it. Except he needed answers. Answers Cross could give and that was the only time he'd voice it freely. Besides possibly bargaining with Tyki to find out what he knew because Lavi had no clue beyond what was said before. Peachy.

He shifted in his seat, mulling over the question and how to dodge answering it. He was listed as insane and dangerous. Allen didn't want to give the man ammo. He might as well shoot himself in the head. If he pulled a Cross he was likely to be in for some hell. So he did what he could to test the doctor, shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know."

[no_afterword]

My, how straightforward.

"I see." At least it hadn't been an outright denial of it ever happening, which seemed to be the standard here, or some half-deluded reason that seemed typical of the patients. "You haven't the slightest idea of why you suddenly start arguing with yourself? Even though you're quite clearly coherent for all of it." Unless he was struck with amnesia after every conversation, which seemed incredibly unlikely.

Chase tapped his pencil on the edge of the clipboard and hummed tunelessly, making a few notes (in English, of course) about Allen before looking back up at the boy.

"You're sure it isn't someone else in your mind? Someone you find yourself conversing with?" Occasions where the two sides actually interacted were rare, but there were quite a lot of rarities in this building.

[penetratingevil]

Oh he had more than a clue why it started. Before he got here the fourteenth had been mostly silent. Until the Earl directly called the git out into the open. He didn't understand him nor did he want to. Allen wasn't even aware of his posture, expression and entire demeanor shifting into someone else entirely. The Noah within him snorted derisively.

"Before, he was not aware of it. It was far easier that way." Even his tone of voice and mannerism shifted as the man folded their body's arms over his chest. "Why bother with it? I thought this body was written off as insane and delusional. Normally, that is the end, or so it always seemed to be."

Allen felt his anger rise when he wrestled control back. "You never know when to keep yourself silent do you?!" He growled something that was insulting under his breath and shook his head. "Dragging me into your business again, you annoying-"

"You were not providing anything useful to the conversation." The other answered as he tapped a finger to the scar around the left eye. "As always."

[no_afterword]

Chase was silent, eyebrows raising, as the boy suddenly shifted into an entirely new stance, careless and aristocratic and generally not the young man he had just been talking to. And the voice - it was basically the same, but there was a difference in it that rivaled that of actors. He tilted his head slightly as an argument, previously denied, unfolded right in front of him, fingers scrawling notes in swift and somewhat messy English.

"I'm afraid he is delusional," Chase said, making a note of the tattoo, the tapping of it, and the way this 'other half' moved and spoke. "And you appear to be part of his delusions." He lowered his eyebrows enough to quirk one. "So, why not tell me a little about yourself, now that you've ruined his chances of being deemed sane without severe and clearly necessary treatment?"

[penetratingevil]

The fourteenth laughed arrogantly in reply while he rested his chin in his palm. "Why should I? I have no obligation to help either of you." His plans would go as he wanted them to, insane asylum or not. He didn't see anything truly standing in the way of his desires. " His lips twisted into a cold smile and he shook his head slowly. "Let him be seen as mad. I don't particularly care." As long as the body was alive he could find a way to take it over.

Allen gritted his teeth, forcing his control back over himself. He was an Exorcist! Not a maddened Noah who dragged others into his problems! The boy almost sent a scathing look Chase's way for encouraging the Fourteenth to speak. He barely managed to hold back his anger. Allen's voice took a sharper tone, as his brows drew down in a disapproving and frustrated expression. "If this is all you wanted, are we done here? I doubt you'll get much out of him and I don't trust you. I don't trust this whole bloody place!"

Allen had severe trust issues as of late and he didn't feel that was relevant to the conversation. It wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss and he was putting his proverbial foot down. The Fourteenth snorted but only rolled his eyes at the true owner of their shared body.

[no_afterword]

"Trust is slightly less of an issue here. I'm sure that in time, you'll see things properly." Chase tapped the eraser of the pencil on the clipboard and smiled beatifically at Allen. "You know, if he is deemed insane," he said, directing his words to that other half that fought Allen for control of his very body, "then you're going to be considered something to be removed. You are, after all, not normal."

Chase leaned back a little to wait for a response. What would happen? Would Allen get furious for being spoken through, like some sort of medium, and attack? Would that other side of him get angry, or ignore his words? So many possibilities ...

"We're done when we're done, Allen. Either you can answer my questions and be out of here sooner rather than later, or you can get angry and refuse to comply and I'll have to keep you here as long as I feel is necessary."

[penetratingevil]

"I won't bend or break, for you." Allen kept his gaze on Chase, despite the promise of violence in his tone. If it were necessary he'd fight, for now talking wasn't doing too much harm. If attention were focused on him and not the other people in the asylum, he was fine with the consequences. Could this place really remove the Fourteenth from his body? He didn't want to trust it and hadn't his master specifically requested he listen to the Noah?

The Noah frowned through Allen seconds later and laughed. "Whether you can remove me..." He paused for effect, a smirk twisting Allen's features into a sinister, arrogant sneer. "remains to be seen." The boy flexed his fingers to be sure he was in control before he picked up where he left off. "You're as annoying as he is, dragging me into your conversation with him. How many people here are wrongfully diagnosed and kept here for whatever purposes the staff have in mind?"

[no_afterword]

Oh won't you, thought Chase as Allen arrogantly declared his intentions to remain strong in the face of such critical misdiagnoses as multiple personality disorder. It was all he could do to fight back a wide, evil grin, turning it into a slightly more sinister look than the friendly smile from before. He'd broken far stronger than some scrawny little boy who argued with himself. He may not have had all his powers at work for him here, but time was on his side. Time and so many other things.

"The tree that does not bend with the wind will be broken by it," Chase said idly, scribbling a few more notes on the paper, his eyes no longer locked on Allen. "Perhaps it remains to be seen, but you are committed here, and until we deem it the right time, here you will stay." He finally looked up again, his smirk from before faded into a thin grin. "Nobody here is wrongfully diagnosed. Our only purpose is to ensure that when you leave, you go back to the families you left behind remembering exactly who you are and without causing them so much pain." He raised an eyebrow again. "Or would you rather hurt them even more by staying here and insisting on your sanity?"