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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jan 21, 2022 11:50:09 GMT -5
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Post by R. on Jan 24, 2022 13:02:47 GMT -5
There was no walk the next night, although forbidden footsteps could be heard in the hallways. Anka slipped out as stealthily as she always did, only making one stop this time, at the door to Mr M’s room. She knocked quietly and exactly six times, a code they had worked out between them long ago, before pushing open the door. For such a long-time inmate, his room was surprisingly barren, having refused his wife’s attempts to smuggle him books. Not even the desire to read ASOUE again could overcome his terror at the things he saw lurking within the ink with which every word was printed. At that moment, Mr M himself was sitting sulkily on the bed, gazing up at the peeling grey paint on the ceiling, but his face lit up as soon as he saw Anka arrive. “What are you doing here?” He asked. “It’s too dangerous to be out of your room now. You saw what happened to Glittery.” “That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. I’ve told you before, we need to do something! All around us we see nothing but misery, and once we get here none of us ever leave. You saw what happened to Roxy yesterday, and you were there when they gagged Jean and kept him in solitary confinement for three days simply for trying to talk to Zortegus. I can’t deal with it any longer!” “Then why don’t you leave? You’re perfectly sane, you don’t need to keep on suffering because of me. Go out there and live your life, I won’t let you do this to yourself. Forget about me!” Tears were cascading down his face as he gazed into the deep blue eyes of his sweetheart. Without saying a word, Anka put an arm around him. They stayed there for a while in a close embrace, and she leaned in and whispered in his ear. “I’ll never forget you, darling.” He looked up at her with a nervous smile, and suddenly her face lit up with a mischievous smile. “I’m not going anywhere.” She said. “Not unless you come with me.”
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jan 24, 2022 16:44:35 GMT -5
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jan 24, 2022 18:54:31 GMT -5
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Post by R. on Feb 6, 2022 11:36:35 GMT -5
Weeks passed, and although the inmates wrote frantic messages to one another every single day, they had yet to come up with anything resembling an escape plan. However much Semblance paced the hallways looking for windows that were occasionally left open, and however much Twiggy stayed awake at night keeping watch for anyone who might chance to discover their conspiracy, it seemed that security in the asylum was far too strong. One day, however, Semblance got a very peculiar note indeed. He had just walked out of a counselling session with the only staff member in the asylum he could even stand to look at, a Ms Sherry Ann. As he walked away, his sense of hope restored, he became conscious of something in his pocket. He drew it out, and it was a folded slip of paper on which was written “I can help you get out of here. Meet me at midnight in the first floor corridor with Roxy tonight, and we can leave this awful place.” Semblance frowned uncertainly. On the one hand, he trusted Sherry, but on the other, he didn’t think Roxy would just go along with anything a staff member said. Eventually he decided it was at least worth a try, after all, who knew when they would get another opportunity? Roxy was surprisingly accepting of the plan, and they talked for hours about VFD until midnight finally came around. Anka had taught him how to untie his straitjacket, and so he was quickly outside in the corridor, where Sherry Ann was waiting just as she said she would be. “What’s the plan?” Roxy asked. “I know of a secret tunnel which leads out of here, it was here long before this was an asylum. I don’t think even Dr Comedie himself knows about it, otherwise he would have bricked it up long ago. Come with me, I’ll lead the way.” The two inmates set off behind her, through a labyrinth of identical grey rooms. Soon enough, they came to a section of the building that was even more run-down than the rest. Paint was peeling off the wall, and the floor was covered with unidentifiable black stains. Mr M would have a fit, Semblance thought. Suddenly, Sherry shot out her hand and pressed down on an exposed section of brick. With a loud creak, the wall sound open, leading into the darkest room they had ever seen. Sherry took the inmates’ hands in hers, calming any fears they might have had as she led them into the unknown. They walked for a while, and it wasn’t long before Roxy noticed how strangely silent it was. Normally, Semblance was very talkative when he was nervous, and this was a very nerve-wracking situation. “Are you alright, Semblance?” She called, but there was no response. Her heart began pounding in her chest, and Sherry’s grip tightened. She was about to call out for Semblance again, when she heard a muffled shout in the distance. A bright light flickered on, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a tall, middle-aged man in a lab coat with a beard like a tangle of yarn stood in front of her with a broad smile. “Good evening!” He said enthusiastically, moving closer. “I’m so glad you managed to come! My name is Dr Comedie.” He reached out his hand for her to shake, but when she took it he roughly pushed her up against the wall, and the last thing she remembered before she blacked out were the shackles closing around her wrists.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 6, 2022 12:49:28 GMT -5
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Post by B. on Feb 6, 2022 13:04:31 GMT -5
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Post by R. on Feb 15, 2022 12:57:47 GMT -5
“Panicky!” Roxy shouted, racing towards the young woman of about 18 lying sprawled out on a nest of peculiar clothing. “What? Who are you?” She asked, brushing a lock of dark hair out of her grey-green eyes. “You don’t recognise me? It’s me, Roxy! I thought you ran away!” “I tried, believe me I did. But they grabbed me and took me here, and now I don’t remember who I am. It’s good to see you though, I’m presuming you’re an old associate of mine.” Roxy thought back to the last day she had seen Panicky. She was a kind young woman, but as time went on she had become convinced she was Esmé Gigi Genevieve Squalor, and started to act accordingly. One day, Dr Comedie announced he had devised a cure, but Panicky refused to accept it and decided to escape. It seemed that they had tried out this “cure” on her after all, and it had erased not only Esmè identity but also her own. Meanwhile, Semblance ran excitedly towards Glittery, who was looking uncharacteristically gloomy. “What’s wrong?” Semblance asked, which was in hindsight a rather stupid question. “They took away my positive side,” Glittery replied sadly. “Now I’m all misery and no glitter.” Semblance gazed mournfully at what was left of his associate, and eventually scooped her up into a hug, undoing her shackles as he did so. Misery, as she would hereby forever be known, thanked him softly before she was interrupted by a loud sob. “Why is no one having a touching reunion with me?” bawled Tragedie. “We’ll get round to that later,” declared Semblance assertively. “Right now, I think Roxy has a plan.” Indeed, Roxy had run towards the laboratory in the next room, and was now busy mixing things with a look of intense concentration in her eyes. “What are you doing?” Asked Panicky, looking over her shoulder. “Trying to create something flammable we can use to torch this place. Misery, you fetch all the fellow inmates and Sherry and get them down here. Everyone else, stay here.” Once Misery had assembled everyone, they all got to work preparing for the arson, while Bear guarded Dr. Comedie and Nurse Wein. Soon enough they had created a trail of the flammable substance around the ground floor, up the stairs and through all of the cells. Roxy had discovered a library next to the Doctor’s office, and she was sad to have to burn it down, but Ellington had appeared in her mind to remind her that she had tried to destroy a library herself once before, and she’d get over it soon enough. They gathered in the entrance hall, and B, who was in fact currently P for pyromaniac, withdrew a box of matches from her pocket and handed them to Semblance. “Would you like be the one to burn it all to the ground?” She asked with a smile, and of course he enthusiastically agreed.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 7, 2023 9:50:39 GMT -5
It's good that it was a joint project with R., and it has the illustrations... That way you can at least remember part of what's missing...
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Post by HAL 10,000 on Jun 7, 2023 13:01:08 GMT -5
At least part of this story has been preserved.
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Post by Bootleg Stephano on Feb 14, 2024 2:11:08 GMT -5
Somehow, this is the second asylum thread I've come across in a forum. Which isn't much, but it is rather weird that it happened twice.
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