I've seen the face of my affliction, of my reality

[cruelwonder]

Who: Dr. John Seward (doctor_seward) and Alice Liddell (cruelwonder)
When: February 18th, 2012
Where: St. Teresa's Sanitarium
Summary: Alice goes for a second session of therapy. Seward's powers make themselves known. Bad Stuff happens.
Warnings: Spoilers for Alice: Madness Returns, mentions of torture and gore.


It had been two months since Jack's torture at the hands of Black Mask and his release. He'd done very little beyond staying at home, going to work, and seeing a few friends, and it worried Alice. Worse, every time she saw him, she was reminded of that night in the hospital with him curled next to her, looking broken and haunted. Since then, she'd wanted to kill Black Mask for what he did to Jack, for what he put all of them through. She wanted revenge. And, just like that, he had died in his cell. He'd barely been in the asylum for two months.

She didn't want to see the cell they put him in. She didn't want to be inside the Sanitarium at all. She knew for certain that she'd see it warp and twist before her very eyes, her madness taking over, if she walked its halls now. She couldn't. She asked for Dr. Seward to walk with her in the gardens instead to give them privacy and space. She didn't want to feel trapped inside of a place she had no intentions of returning to.

Dr. Seward had done his best to make her feel comfortable (despite the awkward memory of the TV broadcast months before). She trusted him more than she trusted any other doctor in the city outside of Daedalus Yumeno as Jack's physician.

As they wandered the gardens, she pulled her dark pea coat tighter around herself. She didn't mind the cold too much; she'd had to go out in less back in London during their dreadful winters. "Do you think it's right, Doctor, to want someone dead for all the pain they've caused others?" she asked. "He was a cruel man. What he did to Jack was unthinkable. And yet I can't help but feel as though he deserved far worse than what he received."

She wondered if Bumby deserved worse than his own fate.

Comments

[doctor_seward]

The weather was moderate; Cool, and a soft breeze would roll past them as they walked, his hands in his pockets while he'd listen. He had heard of Black Mask, and what he'd done to Mister Kelly, but they oftentimes never managed to touch on the subject whenever they'd spoken. Not that he supposed Jack would want to. No; More, that their lives were separate from one another almost entirely. But Kelly was young, and Seward didn't fault him for such a petty thing. Making visits in Siren's Port was not the same as making visits in London.

Times had changed, and so men like Kelly and Seward were either to be swept away by them or molded. Honestly, neither alternative was to his liking. Things had become more...impersonal. It led to a little of that feeling of isolation, but this train of thought was neither here nor there.

Now that he'd established a bit of rapport with Miss Liddell however, he did come to wonder if Mister Kelly would consider being more than just a distant acquaintance. He rather hoped so, for it was never a good thing to be short of companionship.

"I...don't blame you", John says truthfully as he looks over at her now with a somber expression, his eyes somewhat more tired than usual. Months had added up to a year, and a year to a year and a half. These modern times were...tiresome, yes. But even so, he'd maintain some hope that he might at least serve to be able to help others. His discipline had at least taught him that, yes?

"There are men in this world who possess little thought or care for anyone but themselves, this much I have learned in my time here. But...If we seek to dwell on every hurt which befalls us then that is a world bereft of happiness, and besmirched with sorrow."

[cruelwonder]

"Would that I could tolerate what he's done," she remarked bitterly. Jack hadn't gone outside without her or Sirius in a long time. He stayed enclosed in the house, making excuses, avoiding people. His behavior was entirely understandable...but it just felt like she was losing him to his own inner demons. She couldn't take that sort of suffering onto herself, either, as much as she would like to. Her own mind might be a terror to behold, but to delve into Jack's innate fears and to destroy his nightmares might be simpler for her to cope with. Perhaps.

The ground crunched beneath her feet, still cold but not white. She was thankful; the snow reminded her of a much harder time in her life. She didn't want to remember it now, not when they were discussing harsher matters and things that didn't quite involve her. "I often wonder if I had time alone with him...what I might have done." She glanced at the man beside her and she seemed unruffled by her own confession.

"It's a terrible day when men like him can get away with all that they've done and still manage to ruin the lives of others in the meantime. Jack hasn't been the same." Her fiancee, the man she was betrothed to. It was still baffling...but that had been the only good piece of news for him since the incident. That was the inherent problem.

Alice tucked a stray piece of her long, dark hair behind her ear, pausing. She folded her arms across her chest and looked up at him. "Every person has a breaking point, Doctor. I fear that Jack is encroaching his." And should he lose himself, she was more afraid of losing herself with him.

I apologize profusely for this late orz

[doctor_seward]

A strange chill was carried on the wind with her words, his sky blue eyes muddled with the grey of the clouds which descended over the top of them. This, in turn, led to a kind of grimness in atmosphere between the two of them. He thought he might be able to detect the barest hint of a flicker in reality before his eyes, though it were simply his imagination, yes?

He dismissed this, of course, as nothing more than the occasional figment which plays tricks on the eyes, his unhappy mouth twisting, as never in all his time here did he feel the iciness of the weather penetrate his heart.

"...You would've bloodied your hands, Miss Liddell, had the situation called for it. It is natural to want to protect those we love. But think not how that may have hurt Jack? To know that the very lady he cares for might employ such brutal tactics and in turn deepen her own sorrows...To kill a man is no happy deed no matter their wrong, this much I can tell you!"

Oh, to think that once a happy thought had crossed the borders of his mind! Life was much simpler in London...A wistful sort of sadness shows itself on his face now as he reconsiders her from this distance, noting how pale and wane she seemed. How terribly wane in her vengeful nature.

"I do not know Jack as well as I'd like, but if this persists...I would like to pay a home visit. Would that be agreeable?"

It does not do to let a man succumb to nightmares.

[cruelwonder]

"And what woman in their sanest mind would ever touch such a foul and wretched creature like that man?" she nearly spat in turn. The idea of anyone wanting to pursue a man so scarred, so vicious and horrible in almost everything he did was enough to make her nearly ill. "Who would care for a man who has not one caring bone in his body? He tormented a boy to death and back multiple times! Jack's even told me that he's done it before to other people, to at least twenty others in this city alone. Who would ever condone such a damning thing? Who could love a man who does that?"

Perhaps she was being difficult. Perhaps she didn't understand. But in her mind, he was just as foul and corrupt as the people who preyed on children and other innocents, taking advantage of their weaknesses to horde profits and pain for themselves. She never wanted to see it happen again to anyone...least of all the man she came to care for.

"And the reason? It was all because he looked similar to that other man...Bruce Wayne. What sort of excuse can that possibly be?" She glanced away, balling her hands into fists under her arms where they were crossed. To kill a man is no happy deed no matter their wrong... Oh, if only he knew. Now, instead, she wondered if she had been kinder to Bumby with how he met his end. It was so quick, hardly any time to feel pain at all. Perhaps... No. No, she didn't wish or condone torment on anyone, least of all her enemies. Even if they deserved it.

After a considering pause, she finally nodded. "If he'll allow it. It's not my place to say. If he was visiting the Phantomhive Manor, perhaps, then I could ask you there and he could sit with me. That might be easier for you."

Almost done with finals! So steady tags from now on, I swear!

[doctor_seward]

The doctor is stunned unto silence, for he'd been unprepared for the rancor behind her words. He had been about to counter against the verbal attack but instead he made himself give pause, for he sensed she was very much upset about this, and rightly she should be. Seward does mean well, but perhaps he did not have a full grasp of the history behind Jack's condition. And what sort of physician would he be if he did not have knowledge in its entirety? For, as his Professor had once said, it was better to trust knowledge than one's own memory.

Seward did sympathize. His anger for Lucy's misfortune had had time to turn unto sorrow, but there was a marked difference in that Jack had come back to Alice alive. If but barely.

His gaze falters and he looks to the ground, trying in his own way to console her but in a way he knew from experience. Perhaps it was not altogether what she'd have wanted to hear...

"Miss Liddell: There is no denying how cruel a man he was. Nor how vile. And such a being is more monster than man...But even so, if he'd been rightfully punished would the sting to your words vanish? Would the hurt diminish? True, closure has power to make us aright again, but so does forgiveness...I cannot ask that of you, but if not doing so compromises your chances at happiness..."

"Bruce Wayne? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the name, but by mistake...Truly, it cannot be he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

An astounding coincidence, really. He'd not have considered that. Certainly, wouldn't Jack's mannerisms given him away that he was someone else altogether? And there was a matter of age...But maybe that hadn't mattered to a man like Black Mask.

"I'd be happy to," Seward nods compliantly, absently wringing his hands together. The tension in the air was beginning to get thick, this much he could tell. It was as if there was a shift in their surroundings as well as perspective.