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."