<strong>[This is the initial meeting between Cynthia and Kelly, played between Bibliophile and me outside of Elliquiy and pasted here so that everyone got a chance to read it.  I hope you enjoy.]</strong><br/><br/>*Cynthia already had the room set up, looking out the window peacefully the first time Kelly got to come in.  A teddy bear sat on the bed, looking old and worn but dutifully repaired, one of the things that she'd been allowed to bring in from home.  She needed it if she was going to sleep.*<br/><br/>Kelly shifted slightly in bed, rolling over on her side and slowly opening her eyes to peer around the room with a bleary confusion.  A small frown touched her lips, but it had become a fairly common occurrance for her to awaken in strange places.  Her gaze landed on the girl across the room, and she wriggled backwards a touch, her arms curling around her chest.  "Where are we?  Who are you?"<br/><br/>She gave a soft smile in reply, her green eyes gentle and compassionate.  "This is Rosanam Sanitarium."  Her voice trembled just a little at the words.  It still felt so wrong to say that, to be here, but it was all true now.  She would adjust...somehow.  "My name's Cynthia Peregris.  It's nice to meet you."  She stood up from the bed, moving across the small room to offer the other girl a hand in greeting.<br/><br/>"Sanitarium?"  She whispered the word softly, her brow furrowing as she sat up and folded her legs up and hugged them, nibbling at her lower lip.  "You mean I'm crazy?"  When Cynthia stood she jerked slightly in nervousness, watching her walk across the room, then peering at her hand as if not knowing what is expected of her.  "Oh...I'm Kelly.  Are...are you crazy, too?"  She finally reached to touch the other girl's hand, her own cool and trembling.<br/><br/>"You seem nice to me."  Cynthia keeps her polite and happy smile, her hand hovering to wait very patiently.  She understood how nervous this would make the other girl.  She'd just been through it herself.  The question of her own sanity made her tremble just a bit, afraid that she might be.  "I...I don't think so," she said honestly.  "You see...I accidentally stole a car, so my lawyer suggested I could come here for a week rather than go to jail..."  She tried to explain it without it sounding ridiculous.<br/><br/>"I am nice...I think."  She chews at the stubby nail of her index finger after giving Cynthia's hand a quick shake, watching the girl curiously.  "You accidently stole a car?  And they were going to send you to jail?  That doesn't seem very fair."  She glances at the door and then back to her room mate, crinkling her nose.  "Are they going to make us take drugs?  I'm very particular about what goes into my body."<br/><br/><br/>"...Well..."  She pauses a bit, looking down.  "There was also, umm..."  She instead chose to take the chance to jump on the other subject.  "Yeah, some, but I'm not sure what."  She paused for a moment.  "You don't remember?  Did they drug you when you came in?"<br/><br/>Kelly blinked slowly, then shifted a bit, trying to think about how to answer that question.  She didn't know how to explain without sounding crazy, and the last thing she wanted to do was alienate her room mate on the first day.  Suddenly she realized she was taking too long to answer and it would seem suspicious.  "Oh, uhm....Well, I just don't remember what happened.  That sort of happens to me sometimes.  I wake up in strange places and don't know how I got there."<br/><br/>Cynthia nodded, listening slowly and looking concerned and sympathetic.  "That must be really scary," she said softly.  "Do you ever talk to people for the stuff you forget?  Maybe you have amnesia."<br/><br/>"Amnesia?"  She blinked at that and widened her eyes, staring at Cynthia.  Could it just be simple amnesia?  A light sparked within her eyes and she smiled fully for the first time, nodding to the other girl with excitement.  "Yes!  That must be what it is.  I just have amnesia, and the people here can fix me."<br/><br/>"I'm sure they'll be able to help."  She smiled happily.  "I'm a little worried for me too.  So at least we each have a friend now, right?"  She smiled brightly, bouncing ever so gently on the bed.  She was really starting to feel like this could go ok for her.<br/><br/>"It's always better to have an ally."  She murmured softly, giggling a bit as she watched Cynthia bounce.  Suddenly the sanitarium seemed like the best place for her, expecially if she could stop losing time and finding strange things on her body.  She finally crawled from her bed and wandered around the room slowly, stopping by the door to peep out through the window in the door.  "What are they like here, do you know?"<br/><br/>"Well, I'm not really sure."  She paused a moment to think.  "I only really just got here...everyone seems nice so far, though."  To Cynthia, pretty much everyone seemed nice at least to some degree.  Few people went out of their way to really be mean to her.<br/><br/>She nodded and rose onto her tiptoes to lean into the door, trying to peer up and down the hall within the limited scope provided about the tiny portal.  "I hope my brother's okay.  He worries about me, you know?  Do you have any siblings or anything?"  She turned back, sliding down to sit with her back against the door, her nails between her gnawing teeth again.<br/><br/>"A little brother..."  Her eyes slipped back thoughtfully in a rush of crimson hair as her head snapped to the window.  "I have a lot of friends, though."  Her voice had dropped an octave, suddenly notably lonelier.  "Still a bit sad that they didn't give me the OK for a cell phone.  I don't know why not..."<br/><br/>"Well, maybe they'll let you use a phone, like in prison?  Even prisoners get to have visitors, and we never killed anyone."  She cocks her head a touch, sounding a bit questioning on that last statement, since she couldn't be sure she -hadn't- killed someone.  However, she was pretty certain that she hadn't.  "I don't have many friends, but my little brother will probably miss me.  I'll miss him, too.  I hope they'll let us at least use the phone."<br/><br/>"I'm not really sure..."  She paused a while, her eyes out the window for several moments before looking back. She forced a smile of reassurance.  "If he knows you're here, though, he can always come to visit.  I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."<br/><br/>"Yeah, that would be nice.  He would be happy to know I'm going to get better."  She drew a knee up under her chin, gnawing at her middle fingernail.  "I'm sure you won't be here that long, though.  So, your friends and brother probably won't have to miss you for too long.  I hope my next room mate is as nice as you, though."<br/><br/>Cynthia paused a moment to notice the biting of the nails, how thick the bite marks were.  "You're really scared, huh?"  She stood up onto her feet, outstretching her arms to offer a hug.  "You don't have to be so scared.  It'll be ok."<br/><br/>Dawn Biblio: "Yeah, I'm a little scared...but, I bite my nails all the time.  I feel like I need something constantly, but...I don't know what it is..."  She shrugged a bit and then smiled, pushing to her feet and stepping forward to accept the embrace.  Her arms wound around Cynthia and she squeezed tight, mumbling softly.  "I'm so glad you are my room mate.  You're super sweet."<br/><br/><br/>She hugged the girl back, smiling and giving a light squeeze for comfort.  "Maybe we can get you some nail polish.  That's how I learned; my mom promised me that if I could stop biting my nails for one week straight, I could start using polish.  We'll see if we can get the OK on that."<br/><br/>She leaned back a touch and smiled at Cynthia, lifting a hand to peer at the ravaged nails, nodding a little.  "Maybe that would work.  I know sometimes I come back from the other place and I haven't bitten my nails.  Maybe when I have amnesia I am a better person."<br/><br/>"Not biting your nails doesn't make you a better person, Kelly."  She smiled.  "You're already a great person.  We just all have things we want to change; that's how we can become even better."<br/><br/>"Yeah, maybe.  I know I'm not a bad person, just sometimes people tell me that I'm a push-over.  I don't mean to be, but fighting is not fun.  It seems easier to just apologize."  She shrugged a touch and her fingers went back to her mouth, nibbling at her nail again.  "You should be a therapist.  You're so good at this stuff."<br/><br/>"Maybe."  She reached out gently for Kelly's hand at the biting, not to where Kelly couldn't easily pull away but a gentle hand over hers to let her know that she could stop biting if she wanted to.  "When I do get out, I'll think about it when I go back to college."