Home Sweet Asylum

Steffi was bored. Which wasn't unusual for the woman, really. It didn't take more than a month or two for her get bored of the Asylum. The same room, same clothes, pretty much the same food day after day after day...

It was monotonous and dull, and Steffi really didn't like being shut in. Dragging herself up from where she'd been seated on the floor, she went to the door of her room (or perhaps, 'cell' would have been more accurate), pounding against it with her open palm. Her room was warded against pretty much everything, from what she had heard - everything except sound. They had tried that for a while. Not even a day passed before they removed the sound warding from her room, again.

"Miiiiriiiii!" Steffi called through the slat in her door to the room opposite. Her tone was distinctly petulant. "Miri, I'm boooored! I wanna go outside. Miri? How long do we hafta stay here? I don't like it here - it's booooriiinng!"

Kas' murmurs had been frequent now for hours. He'd been pacing up and down his cell none stop, thinking over some plans for a cure for Spattergroit. He nearly had it, he knew he did. It was just on the edge of his mind now. But he needed to test it, he needed to test his theories on someone with the disease. His mind was only so good without actual proof.

His name broke his concentration just as he thought he'd got the answer. "No!" He moaned and dropped to his knees. But it didn't take long to recover, his sister needed him. He pulled off his glasses and placed them into his pocket for safe keeping before pulling himself along towards the door.

"I was so close Fifi! I nearly had a cure for spattergroit." He moaned sitting back against the door and using their mind link to talk instead. It was much easier than shouting across the corridor. "I know, i'll get us out of here soon. I promise."

Steffi peered out through the slot at her brother's door. She didn't see him, of course, but she hadn't really expected to, either. The woman canted her head, a small frown pulling at her lips. Her mind picked up the thread of her brother's musing, which was ever at the back of her own mind, gathering the scattered thoughts and ideas. Though, she did not have the mind for coming up with such ideas, it didn't mean they were beyond her comprehension.

She presented the thoughts back to the man, a sheepish apology coloring the ideas. Steffi's was truly a beautiful mind. Each idea and thought was bright and vivid, colored and shaded with feelings and emotions in a manner that painted imagery more effectively than any painting.

::Not lost,:: Steffi assured him, also using their bond, now. ::Not when you have me.:: She sat on the floor, again, leaning against her door.

::I miss the breeze. And sunshine. Why are we still here? Is it hard getting out of here, Miri?::

The smiled appeared back on his face as the images appeared back in his mind. "Thank you Fifi." He thought back as he dived back to his feet. But then his pupils were getting more and more dilated by the minute.

He shook his head as if she could see him. "No, not so hard. It's leaving without being followed that's the problem." He thought as he slide open the slide on his door to peek into the corridor beyond.

"Oma Netta!" He called, hoping she'd hear and come.

Etta was humming a sweet little tune as she made her way into the maximum security cells deep within Furmage. She was wearing her usual ensemble, a nice floral motherly dress and apron, and in her hands was a tray of cookies. If one were to look closer, they'd notice the complete absence of anything that could be used as a weapon, and that there was a perculiar absence of loose threads on her dress. Though it wasn't skin tight, it wasn't loose anywhere other than the skirt, and it had no sleeves. There would be no using Etta's outfit to take advantage of her. She'd made sure every day before work.

"What is it, dear?" She asked kindly, stopping at Kasimir's cell. "Have you figured out the cure yet? I was very interested in your last lecture, and I was hoping we could continue."

She moved across the hallway to Steffi's cell, sliding the small slot on her door open. "I made you cookies, dearest. And look, Steffi! They're your favorite."

Steffi gave an inelegant snort. "Let them follow!" she declared in their native German, then concluded through their bond, complete with violent imagery, ::They'll be sorry.::

She rose to her feet, once more, glittering hazel eyes peering out through the slot. A smile spread across the woman's face as she accepted a cookie. "Danke, Oma Netta," she said politely. She continued, not really paying attention to just which language she was speaking. There were several of them: German (of course), English, French, Russian. Steffi had a tendency to lose track of which she was using, at times.

"You are my favorite, Oma. I will visit you even when we don't live here, anymore." It was not the first time Steffi had mentioned their leaving. She had spoken of it almost since their arrival. Initially, it had been a matter of grave concern, but now it had come to be one of the young woman's peculiarities.

Steffi prattled on for a few minutes, switching flawlessly (and unconsciously) from one language to another as she spoke of how she wanted to see 'her lake' again. In her mind, visible only to Kasimir, she was envisioning Lazarus Lake.

"And it is pretty alllll year long!" Steffi concluded. She crouched down to look out through the slot, again.

"Have you seen my lake, Oma?"

Charming; that was how one healer had assessed the Knauss sister. Her friendly and child-like nature was disarming, he had opined, which made her every bit as dangerous as her brother's genius made him. Like many children, her mood could change at the smallest upset - only, when Steffi Knauss was upset, people dropped dead.

"I will send you a picture the next time I go. It is the nicest lake anywhere."

"Fifi, just a little longer okay?" He said scratching his head in thought. The violent images meant nothing to him, just normal images flashing through his mind like nothing. Violence didn't bother him in the slightest, death was just something that came and went to the twins.

"I need a subject." He said looking at his equipment with a frown. "And a lab. I can't work in these environments. Can you get me what i need Oma?" He asked turning his head over his shoulder to looked at her through the slot but her attention was on his sister. Typical.

Etta nodded to Steffi, moving across the corridor to see to her brother, offering him the tray of cookies as she nodded along to his sisters speech.

"I could get you a dummy, charmed to act human." She murmured to Kasimir, glancing down the corridor toward the guards. "No live subjects, my dear. They won't let me. I've tried." She frowned, thinking back. "I can get you more lab supplies, but you know how the warden is." She made a face. "He'll smell it and have it confiscated within the day, so you'd have to work fast."

She turned back to his sister, nodding along. "I can bring you pictures, if you wish, Steffi."

"No." Steffi's tone had gone abruptly sharp; a warning. "I will get my own pictures. Why would I need you to get pictures of my lake, oma? I will go myself and send you pictures."

The young woman's demeanor had completely changed, as though someone had flipped a switch. She had practically been told that she was not allowed to go somewhere. People didn't tell Steffi no. Her teeth ground together, hands clenching into fists as her temper began to flare...

Kas waved his hands at the cookies, he didn't have time for snacks. "A dummy?" He asked. Something seemed to click in his mind and all rational thoughts just seemed to go out the window.

"Brains like mine and you expect me to work with a dummy charmed to act like a human?" He asked, his back still to the door.

"Of course you will dear, I was simply saying that we could both take pictures and compare them. I'm sorry if I've made you angry." Etta's hands clasped together after she set down the tray of cookies, her eyes going to the red blinking light over Steffi's cell. She had moments left now.

"I've tried to get you live subjects, dearie, but the warden stops them on thier way through." The light above Kasimir's cell had started to blink green. They were going to cut down on her time with them, now. Etta could feel it in her bones.

With a sad sigh, she bent and picked back up her cookie tray, balancing it between her hands. "It has been nice chatting with you today, my loves. If you need me, don't hesitate to call out." The guards swarmed her, forming a protective barrier around her and marching her out of the cellblock.

Etta sighed again. They hadn't even enjoyed the cookies.

Steffi leaned against the door of her cell, fingers scrabbling against its barren surface as she belatedly remembered why she tried so hard to be good, to remain calm. "Miri!" she choked out, tone terrified. ::It's happening.::

Anyone who could see would have witnessed the woman's eyes steadily growing a solid black before brimming over with inky tears.

"It's happening!" she shouted. Two years. It had been two years since this had happened. She couldn't control it - she'd never been able to. It terrified. ::I can't make it stop!:: Steffi slapped her palm against the door. "Miri, make it go away," she begged.

Kasimir couldn't, of course, not locked in the room across from her. Patients in the next ward began to pay, eyes filling with blackness as death claimed them, one after another, as Steffi's tears continued to fall, unchecked.