Insanity would be bliss (Open)

[Richard Romain]

Richard didn't even know where he was going anymore. He'd started walking from the hospital, intent on walking to a place where he could catch a portkey home. Instead he'd just... walked. And he hadn't stopped. He'd walked past all of the people in the street, not responding when he jostled some and out-right knocked over others. He was just... walking. He wasn't thinking. To think was to dwell on what was lost. To dwell on his sweet little Raven, who was by now testing her wings out in heaven.

Reaching a set of large wooden doors, Richard growled a little bit. He had walked through other road blocks in his way and this would be no exception he decided. Waving his wand, the doors threw themselves open as he wandered into the insane asylum. He had to disapparate three times to get here and he had no idea when he had disapparated. He had been in too much of a daze.

A broken scream echo'd down the corridors and Richard pulled up a leather chair from the office of a doctor. It was battered and it was worn but it was still the most comfortable chair in the entire building. Sitting down in it, in the centre of the main entrance hall, he waited and he listened to the sounds of insanity echoing through the halls. And as he did so he felt so envious of those who had simply lost their minds. When you were insane, he doubted you had to worry about feeling this way. However, it didn't seem to be an option to just be insane. So here he was, listening to the anguished screams of doctors, patients and experiments alike and feeling so very envious.

If ignorance was bliss then so was insanity. In that case then, insanity was the only sane choice.

[Raven 'The Sweeney' Drake]

Raven had been in the asylum, after all it was still her home in some respects, and she had been brewing some potions in one of the basement rooms, it was dark and damp, just the way that she liked it, it was also quiet, the walls and doors were thick, meaning that nothing could be heard through them, nothing to disturb her.

While the potion was brewing on it's own, it would take some days to finish, Raven wandered upstairs, she could hear the echoing screams and they gave her that pleasant chill of before, they always did, they were almost never ending in her mind, they replayed from her subconcious.

Wandering through the corridors she saw some of the dust had been disturbed, and it hadn't been disturbed by herself, frowning Raven followed the footsteps, approaching an abandoned office. Pushing the door, she saw someone she hadn't expected to see inside and she paused a moment.

"Hello Richard." she stated, in a quiet voice "I didn't expect to see you here."

[Richard Romain]

Richard was staring into space as he sat in the chair. He was trying to lose himself in the haunting screams. If he did that then maybe he'd always hear them. Maybe he would make the same kind of screams by going as mad as those who had originally made them.

Hearing Raven, the older one he reminded himself to spare his own feelings, he spun the chain. Thankfully it was a leather wheel-bound chair. As he was spinning he felt the air rushing against twin trails of wetness down both of his cheeks. It was only when he touched them that he realised he had been crying. He was probably still crying, the sobs were just remarkably absent,

"Hello R-r... Raven." he replied, stuttering and choking on the name. He swallowed thickly and smiled weakly at her even as he felt warm beads of tears rolling down his cheeks, "I didn't expect to be here. I... followed my feet. Tried to make myself forget and... well I disapparated a few times I guess. Sorry to intrude... should I leave?"

[Raven 'The Sweeney' Drake]

Raven looked at Richard and she felt something she would not have felt a few years ago, even a few months ago, she probably would have laughed and mocked the man for crying especially given how she had felt about him in the past. But now, given her change, she would never think of doing something so...sadistic.

"You don't have to call me that you know." she stated in that same quiet voice "Sweeney is perfectly fine, I imagine it would be easier for you at the moment."

Giving the man the chance to wipe his tears away, Raven looked out of the cracked window not too far from her, moving over to it she traced the lines on the glass, her reflection looking back at her, she was much fuller, much warmer than before, like she had new life injected into her. The madness was gone, and she was doing her best to make sure it stayed that way.

"No, you do not have to leave, although I don't think this is really the place you should be at the moment." she stated factually before turning to face him "I am deeply sorry about what happened, I am even more regretful I could not have done more to help."

Of course she had brewed many potions herself to give little Raven, but, obviously, they had ultimately all failed.

[Richard Romain]

Richard smiled a little bit, a strained and fake little expression. But he was wearing it. It was taking all of his courage but he was wearing it, pretending that everything was alright even though his world was crumbling between his fingers even as he attempted to clutch at it. To desperately hold it all together, to keep something of his old life together,

"Thank you for the offer R-raven." he answered her, his stutter becoming less, "But I don't think of you as The Sweeney anymore... The Sweeney would currently be dancing for happiness in my mind. You're R-raven to me now... I hope that's okay."

Taking the time granted to him, Richard wiped his tears away gratefully. For some reason he never wanted Raven to see him as weak as he actually was. Maybe it was a pride thing. Or maybe he just wanted to be presentable if she decided to relapse and try to kill him. He couldn't meet his daughter in heaven with tears permanently on his face,

"Perhaps you are right." he conceeded, picking at the broken leather of the chair as he looked down, "But where should I go? Briony and I... well. We need to talk but neither of us is quite ready just yet it's too fresh, too raw."

He smiled a little bit, a fragile but genuine smile,

"You tried your best Raven." he told her quietly, "I worked my hardest... Patrick worked night and day with me. I'm sure you lost days of sleep too. We... we did all we could."

He closed his eyes tightly and bunched his hands in his hair, trying to hold in the tears. It was true. They'd done everything they could and... and they'd failed. It had all been for nothing.

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