A New Inmate

Nicholas sat on his bed, playing his violin beautifully with eyes blissfully shut. The orderlies that had brought him in left his door open- since none of them had ventured near his violin, he had been quite calm- and he liked the idea that his music was flooding the hallway beyond.

Lulenic was waltzing through the halls as usual, in a rather good mood. She was wondering if maybe she should go torment one of the orderlies. She thought she might have some rope stashed in her bed; that would certainly be fun, da? She hadn't gotten to tie anyone up in at least a week. Lulenic smiled wider thinking of what fun that would be to do so, and ran back to her room. She fished around in her mattress until she pulled out a sizable length of nylon rope she had stolen from the property room.

~"This will do the trick, da?"

As she left her room, Lulenic heard some extremely beautiful music pouring into the hall from a few cells down. Without thinking, she followed the sound until she found herself standing in the doorway of cell #0165, and looking at a rather dashing new inmate while he played the violin with what could only be described as expert skill. Lulenic clutched the nylon rope to her chest. She hoped she didn't disturb this new person, it would be rather sad to hear the beautiful music stop.

Nicholas noticed a girl clutching a nylon rope to her chest stop in his doorway, but the music was pulling him onward; he couldn't have stopped if he tried. He did manage to bow to her while playing, watching with slight dismay as his hat fell off. Reaching the end of his piece, he scooped it up and smiled at the girl.

"Hello there. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

She smiled and hid the rope behind her back, not wanting to scare him unecessarily. But if her laced skin didn't deter him, why would a loop of rope? Lulenic was through questioning herself, so she answered,

~"Ah, pryvet. Menya zavut- oh, I mean, my name is Lulenic, Mistress of Laces. It's a pleasure to make your aquaintance."

She gave a small curtsy and then continued,

~"I must apologize, I have a bad habit of speaking in Russian without realizing it; it was my first language. And who might you be?"

He bowed once more, this time keeping a hold on his hat.


"I am Nicholas," he said. He noticed as he came out of his music-induced trance that her skin had an odd pattern of scars. He himself had done much worse to people, and so it didn't faze him. He stepped forward and kissed her hand formally.

"I am very new here, I hope you will excuse me. I know nothing of this place or the people in it."

Lulenic smiled as he kissed her hand, then said,

~"It's very nice to meet you Nicholas! And as far as the people here go, they are all quite pleasant to be around...other than the staff, that is. They tend to...annoy most inmates, which is why holding a job here seems to have a high mortality rate, if you know what I mean. But I suppose they do deserve some credit, da? They take care of us and put up with us."

Lulenic felt as though she had rambled a bit, but she tended to do that when meeting new people.

As usual Willow went to go find her good friend Lulenic whom has dissapeared out of no where. She wasn't in her room or anywhere else she could think of. She ventured down into a new hall way that lovely violin music was being played but it abruptly stopped. When she got closer to the room where the music was coming from she could hear her dear friend and another person.

It seems she's found another friend. That just so happens to be a boy. I wonder....

She crept up close behind Lulenic.

"So this is where you have wandered off to."

She paused a took a look at the new comer. He was interesting looking that's for sure but was he interesting to talk to? There's only one way to find out.

"You've made a new friend I see. He must be the one that was playing the violin."
She paused to think.
"I'm Willow. It's a pleasure to meet you and your violin skills are wonderous might I add"

Nicholas bowed towards the new girl in the doorway.

"Why thank you, mistress. My name is Nicholas and I'm quite new here. Who are you, may I ask?" He stepped forward to kiss her hand as well, holding his violin tightly in her other hand.

What fine young gentleman......I wonder what he's doing in a place like this for? She wondered.

"I'm Willow. I'm head of the Dark Arts Department in the Asylum here. If you don't mind me asking but.....what ist es that has gotten locked up in such a...lovely.....place such as this?

She didn't want to be rude, she just wanted to know a bit about this stranger..

Nicholas glanced down with an embarrassed smile.

"She did have it coming, you know. I told her not to touch my violin. I told her..." he sighed. "Well, let's just say her skin is even more prettily patterned than yours or your friend's." A small smile darted across his face as he caressed something that shown brightly silver in his free hand. A closer examination revealed an old-fashioned straight razor.

Lulenic smiled and gave a soft laugh. Then she spotted the razor and remembered that she was in possession of a weapon as well. Actually, it was two. She thought of the chef's knife she hid in her skirts and debated taking it out, but decided to leave it there. She then glanced down at her rope, trying to remember why she had brought it with her...Lulenic was so forgetful these days. Then she said,

~"Ah, that is a beautiful razor. I myself am in possession of dangerous artifacts, but I'm rather sneaky, they haven't caught me yet..."

She looked over at Willow, wondering what she was carrying today.

Nicholas quickly slid the razor back into his pocket and raised the violin up, playing a soft gypsy melody.

"She did have it coming," he said over the music, almost to himself. "Don't fear for yourself, love, not unless you touch my violin."

With everyone else talking about their special items she thought she should too. What did she have with her? Let's see the safety pens,hollow needles,a biscuit(guessing she was hungry?), 6 syringes filled with poisons and different hormones(No idea why they have hormone filled syringes in the Asylum? Maybe for the infertile?) and her favorite pair of scissors.

"I have a few handy items with me. My favorites of course are with me as well."

She took out one of the syringes to check and see if they were still in good condition.

Nicholas laughed softly as the two girls began to compare weapons with him and themselves.

"Il semble que je serai en bonne compagnie..." he murmured in his native French.

(**It seems I'll be in good company here)

Lulenic swayed to the melody. Then looked over at Willow's syringe and laughed.

~"Ah, you still have those, dorogoy? I'm rather impressed that the staff has yet to find them. But then again, the staff here are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, da? I probably have miles of rope stored in my mattress and they never even bother to check! Still, syringes are rather usefull. What's in that one?"

Lulenic had always been terribly interested in different poisons and diseases, although she prefered much more violent tactics when it came to killing.

Willow was reluctant to answer Lulenics question but did anyway.

"...hormones..."

Why did she have hormones in one of the syringes? Well that's for her to know and others to find out in the future.

Lulenic laughed softly at Willow's answer. She should have known! But that was how Willow was.

~"Hormones, da? And where might one acquire such a beautiful syringe? I myself haven't had the pleasure of poisoning someone in quite a while."

Although she was in conversation with Willow, she was still very aware of Nicholas's beautiful playing and heard him say something in French, although she couldn't be 100% sure of what it was.

Nicholas laughed softly.

"Do you poison people often, mademoiselle?"

Lulenic looked over at Nicholas and answered,

~"Occasionally, but I usually prefer more...violent methods, if you will. It's much more fun that way, da?"

She looked back down at her rope and smiled, this time not attempting to mask the frightening look of her grin.

Nicholas bobbed his head in agreement.

"My preferred method is my razor, however... but as I said, I am not violent at random. Only when people tocuh my violin. I"ve told them not to many times..."

Lulenic sighed,

~"It is rather bothersome when you repeatedly tell someone to do or not do something, yet they continue to ignore you, da? But I don't think many people are violent at random; they're usually set off by one thing or another. For you it's you violin, for some it's an insult, and for some it's a memory trigger. Then there are those who kill for entertainment as well...but I digress. The point is that everyone is different, but we all end up at the Asylum in the end. At least I think that was my point..."

Lulenic could get very sidetracked, especially when she began to think in a philosophic manner.

~"But not to worry, Nicholas; I would never touch the belongings of another inmate without their explicit permission. And you will come to find that most all of the other inmates hold the same value as well. You really only have to worry about the staff."

"That is very good, because I would hate to dirty my razor again after I just got it clean..." Nicholas took down his violin, never taking his fingers off the neck. "Do the staff come around often?"

Lulenic thought for a moment,

~"Well, not too often. Only once or twice a day to remind us about meals. Unless a new inmate has arrived, in which case they will be a rather constant presence for the first 24 hours. Which can be quite a bother, as you may have guessed. But other than new inmates or other problems, the staff is virtually nonexistant."

She didn't feel the need to say that problems (by the standards of the staff) arose quite often.

Nicholas frowned.

"Shouldn't there be some around me, then? I did do a bit of damage on my way in..." There was the flash of silver in his hand again.

Lulenic smiled

~"Ah, you did? Well, perhaps the staff hasn't noticed yet. They aren't the smartest bunch, and if they only found a body they usually don't bother trying to figure out who did it. They just finger the nearest inmate and throw them in quarantine. But sometimes they cut the newest inmates a break; if you killed someone as you arrived here, they may not take the time to reprimand you right now. They have enough to worry about when it comes to settling you into your new home as it is. A dead staff member is hardly worth the trouble right away."