Visitation Catch-all: November Edition

[godcards]

WHO: Malik + Visitors
WHERE: Psych ward
WHEN: Saturday, November 11th, 18th, and 25th
WHAT: Visiting hours for inpatients at the psychiatric hospital. Talking with and getting answers from Malik, a convicted felon and split-personality-haver.
WARNINGS: None as of now.


The facility is sterile, secure. Locked doors upon locked doors, nurses and security guards roaming the floor, acting as personal checkpoints. Even visitors are subject to a basic search for contraband: No phones, no strings, nothing sharp. Personal items are checked into the nurses station. No personal items or gifts for inpatients, with the sole exception being food that can be consumed during visiting hours, under the watchful eye of the staff to make sure nothing gets smuggled back to the rooms. It’s strict, but it’s for everyone’s safety, they say.

Visitors will be led to a cafeteria. Most of the other boys on the ward are spread around the area, though they stay clustered near their family members. Regardless of who is here, and regardless for what reason, Malik doesn’t look very enthusiastic.

Comments

11th!!!

[parodeity]

[ as promised, dave shows up on the 11th sans (obvious) objects, though he probably has multiple things in his sylladex. still, he looks casual if...cold? like, temperature cold. he's wearing literally two sweaters and a scarf, his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets. he is a pathetic child who prefers temperatures way higher than winter has been known to bring, save him.

he'll slide into a seat across the table from malik, giving him a nod; dave's expression is as neutral as ever, and his shades make it hard to tell what he thinks about anything, but he seems...calm. ]

Hey. Got many other visitors so far?

[godcards]

You're the first.

[ The interaction does get him to perk up a little, but mostly he still remains worn out and grouchy. He's cold too, having only the patient scrubs to wear - blue, now, instead of the concrete gray they had been before. He's used to the chilly feeling following him, and ignoring it is only adding to his whole emotional deadening. The rest comes from the past few weeks of a rigid routine and medication changes, and now here we are. ]

Since you're here for a reason, might as well go ahead and start asking.

[parodeity]

Well. The obvious question is what happened? [ like he saw the aftermath but dave still can’t see the trigger for the life of him. he thinks of theoretically evil puppets and whether or not that even mattered, but while he’d never known bro before the shit that went down, he has known to some degree malik. he remembers letting malik borrow a mirror, after he’d clapped him on the shoulder. laser tag, ages ago. dozens of pleasant conversations, teasing and calm.

and he’d like to know why. ]

Did you get somethin’ back, or what?

[godcards]

I believe I did. [ He drums his fingers on the table. It's hard to explain, even though this whole mess was caused directly by him. But between the amnesia and general nature of the event, it's just... difficult. ]

This other me... [ This is also hard, he's never really talked about his memories before ] ...Had another personality. I've seen him in those visions. I never wanted to consider them memories, but after what happened, it's harder to deny. I presume the whole disaster was caused by the other personality, since I don't remember any of it. I've only learned details through some of the people who accused me.

[ And the fact that he did get beat into a pulp and ended up in the hospital, so something must have happened. In fact, he still has some bruises on his face from Bucky's onslaught, but they've started to fade into a soft green. The most telling injury is the burn scar on his neck from Rosalind, but he hasn't really addressed that yet. It's just something that exists in disparity to how he saw himself a month ago. ]

[hauhra]

[ Despite his teasing the morning before, Bakhura's own feelings about the prospect of seeing Malik for the first time since the warehouse incident were a bit of a jumble themselves. On the one hand, they should have been bitter and wary. After all, some of their most vulnerable points had been attacked by Malik at the time; points that he had been foolish enough to share with Malik of all people in confidence.

Yet, despite that, they've been more lonely than anything else. Certainly, Bakhura could easily have found someone else on the network to antagonize — but could he have talked to them about the card that he had just regained? (Yes, the collection they belonged to had just recently been released in stores, but unlike the rest of the city, Malik and Bakhura had received theirs through the mail, implying that they had some connection to the lives Retrospec wants them to believe they had). What about the ancient Egyptian artifacts that their memories have been suggesting have mysterious powers? Maybe if they were an archaeologist or something, but...

With one hand in a pocket and a small box of baklava in the other, Bakhura frowns as he looms over the table, though whether it's because of all the thoughts racing through his mind right now or Malik's lack of enthusiasm even after he had gone out of his way to invite him remains to be seen. ]

...hey.

I brought you something.

[ He braces himself for the teasing, ready to claim the sweets for himself if Malik gives him shit for it. ]

[godcards]

[ Malik tries to match the expression, frowning back up at the visitor. It lacks any real emotion behind it, however, and it softens quickly enough when he matches the box with Bakhura's words.

Despite that, he sees something more pressing that needs to be addressed: ]

What the hell did you do to your hair?

[hauhra]

[ Although Bakhura had been preparing himself for being teased about doing something nice, he had completely forgotten about the possibility of being heckled over his hair color, having long since given up on dyeing it.

Shit. ]

Me? I think you mean more like what did Retrospec do to my hair... I turn one year older and they decide that making me look five times my age would make a great gift.

Hilarious, I know.

Speaking of Retrospec... looking older isn't the only thing I've gotten from them since last month. I've gotten more items, and more memories... one of which included you.

[godcards]

It is pretty funny. [ He has to find humor where he can in this bleak environment somewhere, okay. ] Don't worry, you'll get used to it in time... Or maybe they'll send you some wrinkles to match.

[ Finally, a smile. It's small, sterile, and doesn't last very long, but it's something. He can't sustain it, however, when Bakhura mentions the memory. He doesn't want to explore that now, instead propping his head up on his hand and keeping the facade of boredom. ]

So, did they send you another cursed artifact?

18th

[parodeity]

[ while dave is less early this particular saturday (he didn't sleep in but he refused to leave bed right off because Snow Occurred) he does show up, sliding into a seat across from malik. ]

So, hey, do you like apple tarts? I didn't, like. Ask what snacks you like last time.

[godcards]

[ Malik is doing better this week, though he's still pretty neutral upon any first impressions. ]

I'll eat just about anything that isn't overly greasy... or meat. I won't eat any sort of meat.

[parodeity]

I didn't know you were vegetarian. [ BUT OKAY. dave was apparently asking because he has some apple tarts. he takes the tin out and will open it up, offering them over. HE...TAKES ONE FOR HIMSELF BECAUSE APPLES ]

[godcards]

It's not something I advertise. [ But he is totally down for sweets, and he perks up at being able to get a tart of his own. Hospital food is garbage, so being able to eat "real" food has him scarfing this down with the gusto only a teenage boy can muster. ]

So... anything new?

25th

[prometheanflame]

[Mohammed knew many of the victims in the hospital. He visited those that would recognize him, offered gifts and condolences. But there was one other side of the story that he was desperate to understand. He was upset with Malik and disapproved of everything, of course, but he needed to know why he acted out like this. A delinquent doesn't go from stuffing mailboxes with small firecrackers to kidnapping and torturing a large group of people without some sort of push.

It wasn't like Mohammed would be in any danger visiting him in the hospital. He picked the last Saturday of the month, giving himself enough time to check on the others.

He arrives on the morning of the 25th without a gift of food and waits for Malik to be brought out.]

It's been a while.

[godcards]

[ Malik had come to expect at least one visitor, if Dave was to be believed about his promise, so when he's pulled from the day room and led his visitor, well. He's surprised. Cagey, and uncertain, but he's not quite sure what to do with Mohammed here. This is the first adult to visit him, and it's different since he isn't a peer. After several weeks of therapy, his open hostility towards authoritative figures is more or less subdued, but he's still very much on edge.

He barely is about to grunt out a response. ] Yeah.

[prometheanflame]

[He sits opposite of the window with his hands folded and eyes trained on the teen. His eyes are relaxed, betraying no anger, but his face is still stern.]

I think you've had enough adults tell you what you did was wrong, so I won't go over those topics. [He waits, gauging Malik's reaction.] More importantly, how have you been doing this past month?

[godcards]

[ He's regarding Mohammed with some wariness. Just because Malik isn't aggressive doesn't mean he suddenly trusts the other man. Even with the acknowledgement of other lectures and reprimands, he's still guarded. He still expects another lecture. ]

Shitty, how else do you think I've been doing?

11/25

[hauhra]

[ The second he had stopped receiving replies to the string of texts where Malik had initially invited him the morning of the 11th, Bakhura had resolved to visit Malik at the psych ward every weekend. For one thing, Bakhura had genuinely come to miss Malik despite the horrendous events that had led to his partner-in-crime's detainment in the first place. For another, what with how stubborn and defiant Malik could be, Bakhura had been afraid that that feeling of loneliness was well on its way to becoming permanent; far be it from him to try his hand at this friendship thing again (if he could even call it that) after having already been burned like this once, after all. Fool him once...

After that first Saturday, however, Bakhura had changed his mind just as quickly as he had made it up, deciding instead that both Malik and his therapist alike were idiots cut from the same cloth of stupidity and he had been wasting time that could have been better spent elsewhere on the two of them all along. He had skipped coming to see Malik the following Saturday without so much as a second thought as to how it might make either Malik or his therapist feel, breaking his promises not only to them but also to himself.

Yet, despite the frustrations and the trail of broken promises behind him, Bakhura had been compelled by a flurry of memories to return to his original resolve once again. He would, of course, refrain from bringing them up before Malik was ready, but nevertheless plops a box of Turkish delights on the table in front of Malik on the Saturday of the 25th. He's unusually early, too, for a change. ]

It's rose-flavored, in case you were wondering.

[ The labels on the box are entirely in Turkish as well, suggesting that he had picked them up from the same international grocery store as the baklava from the other week and had gone out of his way to ask someone for a specific flavor, or at least, to translate some of the finer details on the packaging for him. It isn't like he knows much Turkish beyond the loanwords that had been imported into Arabic, after all. ]

[godcards]

[ When visitors show up, the nurses never tell him who it is. So it's left to Malik to do guess work. The first week was a surprise in that two people visited at all, when he was expecting none. And after that first week, when Bakhura's visit had devolved into a fight, Malik certainly hadn't expected to see him again. Certainty not so soon, and certainly not bearing a gift.

Needless to say, Malik was thrown. He takes his seat but can't help but looking torn; torn between looking like a starving dog, eyeing the box of treats on the table, and absolutely dumbfounded that Bakhura came back at all. ]

I wasn't wondering. [ He blurts out, ever eloquent. ]

...The white hair is really weird. Are you going to dye it?

[ He had been trying to work through his avoidance issues in the past couple weeks, and, well. It's still tough. Hence the non sequitur. ]

[hauhra]

[ Bakhura's expression is just as uncomfortable and uncertain as Malik's. If Malik had been expecting Bakhura to stay away, then Bakhura had been expecting Malik to have one of the nurses throw him out the second he had stepped foot into the room. But instead he was being treated fairly amicably, at least for the time being. ]

I was just throwing that out there before you opened the box and complained... though I guess any flavor is better than the crap they serve you here.

[ Noticing Malik's hesitation, he opens the box. ]

And no. Believe me, I've already tried. But keeping up with it is too much effort. I don't know how you do it.

18th?

[kagepuro]

[She spent about an hour pacing around outside, wondering whether or not this was a good idea. Because honestly is facing down the object of your traumas ever a good idea? And she doesn't know much about trauma, all she knows about trauma is malik and all she knows about malik is that whatever she's gonna do he's gonna just brush it all off like her feelings don't matter.

Do they matter? Malik is what actually matters, here, and she made a promise to herself to not give up on him––they were bound together, and getting past this means returning to him.

Awkwardly shuffling over to him, she sets a cup of Starbucks down in front of him. PSL, of course. Ayano doesn't make eye contact––not at first. She just sort of asserts herself by settling down in front of him, tightening the scarf around her neck a bit and brushing her fingers through her hair. Is it better to start, or should she let him?

Hum...]

T...Told you I'd come.

18th!!

[godcards]

[ Malik regards the latte and Ayano with an equal amount of wariness. He's doing better - at least emotionally - due to medication, so he doesn't glower or present any sort of openly aggressive behavior.

That doesn't mean he still isn't an asshole, though. ]

Good for you, it's not like I can go anywhere.

[kagepuro]

[It's certainly an energy of his that she's not used to, that's for sure.]

If you asked nicely, they'd probably make me leave.

[Slides the coffee closer to him.]

I brought this for you.

25th

[parodeity]

[ dave's a little less early than usual again, and the reason are the promised freshly baked sugar cookies he's bringing with him...they may not be the Prettiest cookies in the world but john helped so they should taste good. he? probably? showed up before bakura? or after whichever is easiest but yeah hi malik how do u greet dave this fine morning ]

[godcards]

[ well bakhura got here Early so i guess dave is second this time.

anyway, malik is pretty groggy as he shuffles over to the table to sit down. he plops his head on the table. but also reaches for a cookie. ]

[parodeity]

[ NEXT TIME, BAKHURA. the cookies are warm and fresh and should taste good so. ]

You look sleepy?