Autism and Asperger's (Private: Arcen and Lucy)

The courtyard.
Quiet, peaceful, and devoid of people Arcen may or may not have to interact with.

Arcen leaned back against the wall she had placed herself in front of, and stared blankly at absolutely nothing.
'It was either this, or having to be near people.... And we both know how much you love being near people, Arcen....'
She let out a small hiss through gritted teeth as she was sassed by her own thoughts.

It had only been a few days since her 'incident' with that man, so you would have assumed Arcen would have some form of emotion kicking around inside her, and you'd be right. Does she have it? Yes. Can she express it? No.

'I know a fun thing to do! Let's list off all of the things wrong with you!
Let's see here....
PTSD, depression, missing limbs, half blind, technically half deaf, practically emotionless, sadist, masochist, psychopath, mentally unstable, you basically have multiple personalities.... What was the last thing...?'
Atypical Autism. That was the last thing.
At quite a young age, Arcen had been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, (PDD-NOS.), or, more commonly referred to as, Atypical Autism, in which a person exhibits most traits of Autism or Asperger's, but does not show all of them. Arcen, for example, lacks repetitive or restricted behaviour, but retains trouble with social interaction, speaks in a bland or monotoned voice, and struggles in daily life.

Before the PTSD and depression had overtaken her life, Arcen hadn't been very 'mild' in her Atypical Autism, and the signs were very clear.
After the.... 'Incident'.... Her symptoms had only gotten worse, being reinforced by the lack of emotion she expressed in response to the event from there on out.

Arcen tossed her head to the side, allowing a small 'Tch' to escape her lips in response, once again, to herself.
'How 'bout we shut up and stop reminding me? It's bad enough that you're still around, and I don't need anything else.'

Becoming impatient, irritated, and annoyed, Arcen began walking around, seemingly doing slow paced 'laps' around the space, as well as hissing to herself quietly.
'I come here to avoid people, and just end up getting mocked by myself....'
She slowly shook her head, letting out a distorted, gurgly sigh, all without breaking stride.

Arcen slowed herself down, coming up near one of the entryways into the courtyard, completely oblivious to what would come next.

In a hustle as per her usual, Lucy was running very fast towards the courtyard of Syne Academy. She had finished her class for today, and went home very briefly to make Professor Davis lunch and groom Silvana, but she had to be back for her second bake sale this month: As it turned out, everyone loved the baked goodies and animals so much that people kept asking about it, so her and Ms. White decided it was only proper to hold another bake sale to help Ms. Petunia and her Pet Palace!

Imagining all the animals being taken care of and happy as well as more people adopting them to give them happy homes made Lucy so happy she couldn't help herself and she scrunched up her face in glee...which meant she closed her eyes, and didn't see where she was going.

As she came into contact with a picnic table, the first thing to go was her bag of supplies to make the flyers and signs for the bake sale. Fortunately, Professor Davis had bought her a bag with a zipper on it, so none off the supplies flew out, but it unfortunately went of in the direction of another student that Lucy didn't even notice. She had her own issues, however.

Lucy had to follow the laws of inertia just like everyone else, and this caused her to fly over the picnic tables and tumble on the brick walkway until her face met with the outer walls of the academy, then landing on her bottom dazed and bewildered. It took her a moment to realize where she was, and she shook her head a bit before trying to gain her composure.

Arcen felt a dull, soft *thump* on her leg, followed by a rush of air as a small girl flew past her, tumbled on the ground, and slammed into a wall.
Welllllllll thennnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

She looked down at the bag, bringing her slow march to a halt.
A cold, heartless gaze followed the path the girl had took, before fixating itself on her body, sat down and looking confused.
The girl instictively picked up the bag, casually strolling over to the wall where the small girl had hit, dropping it by her side, taking a step back, and tilting her head 'curiously'.
"H.h.h.h.h..h..H-i...?"
Her throat gurgled before she could speak, as usual, and she cupped her right hand around it, rubbing it back and forth before dropping her arm back down to her side.

Arcen reoriented her head, feeling as though she should sit down, and so she did.
She crouched a few feet away from the small girl, curling up into a ball and pressing her legs against her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees, twitching her ears around frantically, and flicking her tail off to the left side.

The reason Arcen even considered being 'nice' is because this girl, did in fact, look like a child; One of the few things she still liked in this world.
"A.a.a.a.re yo-u o... O-kaa-yy...?"
Despite her disturbingly generous actions, she kept a dead look on her face, but that couldn't be helped, she supposed....

Arcen scooted closer to the girl, genuinely concerned; On the inside, anyways.

Lucy had started to come out of her daze, but she was still on the ground, be instead of being bewildered by the string of events that just happened she was piecing together the situation. That was when her bag dropped next to her. Eagerly, she picked up Mr. Floppsies and her bag, dusting both herself and both items off.

"Relief: Thank goodness you're okay, Mr. Bag! Observation: It's a good thing whoever made you gave you a zipper!" she said, hugging the bag and swiveling back and forth, completely ignoring the cracks in the wall and the couple of bricks that fell out from where she made contact...and also not noticing the other person there until she heard a strange sound that made her jump.

She slowly turned around to see something that looked kind of like the monster in that one movie Ms. Frost forced her to watch with her. This person had arms and legs that didn't match, even an ear that was different...and their face...showed no emotion, just like the monster! Lucy didn't move a muscle except for shivering in fear, Mr. Floppsies's wondrous hat being pitch-black in color as Lucy was scrambling her brain for what she should do in case of a monster attack, something she had never encountered before.

That was when the person spoke, and they spoke really slowly and broken...JUST LIKE THE MONSTER! Lucy shivered even harder now, but only for a few moments as she realized what they said: this person was asking if she was okay. Well the truth was no, as she was terrified, but maybe this person was talking about when she tripped?

"Response: I-I-I'm o-okay, n-n-n-not even a scr-scratch! Observation: It seems like maybe you aren't okay though, not to be mean or anything, but I mean your arms and legs seem a bit wrong because they don't match and your voice seems to not work so well but maybe your fine and I'm mistake I really didn't mean to be mean to anything please don't hate me..." Lucy was thinking about running away as she shifted awkwardly, but then she saw this person's tail and her eyes lit up.

"Exclamation: Oh my goodness! Observation: Your tail is so beautiful and fluffy!" Lucy was reaching out to touch it, but stopped abruptly and made a fist with one hand and placed it into the palm of her other hand. "Reprimand: No, bad Lucy, what did Mr. Davis tell you? Recollection: Faunus persons don't like having their tails and ears touched without permission, they are sensitive and it makes them uncomfortable, like how you feel when someone touches you without permission!" Lucy's face seemed really intense, but in a cute way, determined to follow the rule she just recited from memory. It was then that she look into the eye...well, more like the chin...of the faunus person in front of her.

"Inquiry: Umm, Mr. or Ms. Faunus person, is it okay if I touch your very pretty tail?" she asked very sweetly with puppy-dog eyes.

Arcen listened to the girl's strange speech.
Like she was one to talk.
She could barely even talk.

The girl's tail brushed acrossed the ground from side to side in a sweeping fashion as the stranger seemingly got extremely nervous just looking at her, trailing off into what was practically an inaudible mumble.

It was still easier to understand than Arcen's speech.

Arcen twitched at the mention of her tail being 'beautiful and fluffy', flicking it back and forth as the small girl reached her arm out, stopped, and then asked to pat it instead.
She asked in the nicest, cutest way imaginable, with big eyes, sounding so sweet and innocent.

Arcen didn't give a crap.

"O.oo.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o-k.k.a-y..."

She didn't think very carefully about her answer, the thought of a 'child' patting her was overly exciting for the emotionless faunus.
Arcen slowly, and very cautiously moved her white, fluffy tail towards the small child, putting a forced, and very false, smile on her face, contorting it into some form of 'happy' look.

"I-I'll A.a.a.a.a-llow- it.t.t.t.t.t...."

The faunus slowly tilted her head to the left side at the girl, flicking her ears to the right as she uttered a monotoned question.

"N-n.n.n.n.n-a.a-m-e?

She knew you should tell someone yours before you ask for theirs, but Arcen wasn't really one for speaking right now.
Or ever, really.

Lucy was again scared by the person in front of her, as she was very scaring-looking with her spooky smile and broken voice. However, it seemed like the person was okay with her touching her very pretty tail, as she gave her permission and brought her tail toward her. Lucy mustered up her courage (which wasn't much) and slowly walked over to touch the faunus-person's tail. She did so very gently, as it seemed like the person she was talking to was possibly hurt somehow, and although Lucy wasn't sure why she thought that or what could be hurting them, she still didn't like the idea of hurting someone. She gently ran her fingers across the faunus-person's tail, and her eyes grew wider and her shivers stopped.

"Exclamation: Oh my goodness! Description: Your tail is so soft and fluffy and cozy, as well as a very pretty shade of white! Imagining: If I had a blanket like this, I would be so happy to be wrapped up in it that I would never get our of bed!" she spoke excitedly, with a warm smile on her face as she thought of such a cozy blanket being her own, wrapped up in it like a caterpillar in it's cocoon. She even hummed a little tune of her own that wasn't really from anything, as she lightly and gently stroked the beautiful tail her held now, Mr. Floppsies enjoying the scene from behind Lucy's arm with his blue-ish green hat and rather proper gentlerabbit behavior and etiquette.

Snapped from her daydream by the person who's tail she was touching, she realized the faunus-person was asking for her name, and then Lucy panicked a bit because she had failed to introduce herself before touching another person. It was such a rude thing that she did, and Lucy was only really good at being polite and nice to others, so the shock of being so rude sent her into a tiny little frenzy of waving arms and uncollected thoughts as the beautiful tail she just held fell from her grasp and was but now a distant memory.

"Interjection: Oh no! Apology: Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to be rude and touch your tail before introducing myself, please forgive me! Panic: Ihonestlydidn'tmeantoberudeit'sjustthatyourtailwassoprettyandIgotdistractedsoIforgottointroducemyself
whichIshouldhavestoppedanddonefirstbutIcompletelyforgotsopleasedon'thatemeIunderstandifyoudobutI
promiseI'mnotabadandrudepersonjustforgetfulsometimessopleasedon'thatemeIreallydidn'tmeananythingI
promiseIreallyreallypromisesopleasedon'tbemadpleasedon'tbemadplease!"

She spat it all out in what seemed like nano-seconds, and poor Mr.Floppsies was having his head shift from left to right and back again, yet he kept his composure and managed to look quite dapper with his yellow hat, despite the current situation at hand.

Finally, Lucy took in a breath, and let it out. There was silence for a moment, then she spoke up again in a manner that was more coherent, but the panic in her voice was still clear.

"Introduction: M-My name is Lucille Annabelle Klug, b-but you c-can call me Lucy if you pr-prefer." she pushed out as she bowed over and over again very rapidly. When she stopped, she looked at the faunus-person's chin again.

"Inquiry: Umm...if you d-don't mind me a-asking, what is your n-name Mr. or M-Ms. Vulpes lagopus-err, I m-mean, M-Mr. or Ms. Acrtic Fox person?" she asked sweetly, yet nervously as she had the shivers again, yet this time it was from her being worried that this new person would hate her for being rude rather than being scared of the person's appearance.

If Arcen had emotions she might have laughed.
She doesn't have emotions.
Although she had to admit, the girl's self fueled rant was quite entertaining....

The touch of her hands made Arcen twitch, her dead, emotionless expression fluxuated, contorting into some form of smile, while at the same time twisting itself into a frown. As for her eyes, they had dilated; Tiny dots in a substantially greater expanse of white.
She tried to say something, but she kept cutting herself off, or being cut off by the typical gurgling she always emitted.

While the girl was having her own ordeal, Arcen's tail as well as her ears... Well... Ear, were twitching violently, and she moved her arms to her sides as she felt a slight bit of forward movement, her back keeping straight as she fell onto her knees.

Her face reverted back to it's regular blankness, eyes filling out as the girl answered her question.
"L-u.u.u.u.u.u.u-cy-..-?"
Long, drawn out, and distorted, her answer was.
A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-arc.c.cen- Ano.o.o.o.o.o-oka.d.e.s..."
Her half-hearted smile returned, yet this time it was thruthful. She was genuinely smiling.

Arcen extended her human arm out, stopping about half way between her head and Lucy's.
"P.p.p-pat-....-?"
She tilted her head with an innocent like charm,
awfully unfitting for a girl like Arcen...

Lucy looked so tiny and cute and innocent, leading Arcen to begin to question why someone of her presumed age was here. Then again, there were some.... 'Different'.... People here, shall we say.
Like she was one to 'talk'....

More voice jokes....

It took a few more moments than normal for the person in front of her to register her name...or maybe it just took her a bit longer to show she understood, Lucy wasn't sure. As her eyes darted around this new person's figure nervously, Lucy picked up a few bits of information: first off, this faunus person was clearly female, so she SHOULD have said 'Ms. Arctic Fox person', and the fact that she messed up the proper addressing fueled her already nervous state. She also noted that this faunus person had an ear that matched her other arm and leg that didn't match her body...maybe she was born like that? Lucy wasn't sure, but she was sure that her eyes were hurt or something because they acted funny, although she didn't know what was wrong.

When the faunus female person in front of her began speaking again, it seemed like she answering her question about her name, but she had a really bad stutter...worse than Lucy herself! Maybe...maybe she was as nervous to meet someone knew as she was? Regardless, Lucy paid heavy attention to her as she spoke, and she was able to understand her: her name was Arcen Anokades. She had never heard someone with that kind of first name before, it seemed a bit weird and different to her, but to be honest she hadn't heard someone with that kind of last name before either...and Lucy's last name wasn't very common either. Maybe her full first name was actually rare too!

Looking at Ms. Anokades face, she seemed be be rather happy, albeit not able to show it clearly...Lucy would assume she was happy though, as who wouldn't be happy to meet someone new? It was then that Lucy bowed with a response.

"Greetings: P-Pleased to meet you, M-Ms. Anokades. Introduction: Oh, and this is Mr. Floppsies, my guardian and friend!" she said, holding out the gentlerabbit (who's hat was a rather dashing light green shade) just enough to bring attention to him but not far enough that he could get taken from her, something that had happened to her in the past and she trembled slightly at the thought.

It was then that Ms. Anokades asked to...pat Lucy's head? Lucy never understood why people wanted to do that to her because she wasn't a puppy or a kitten, she was a human, and people only patted animals...but people did that to her a lot. Now Lucy REALLY didn't want to be patted on the head: frankly, she hated to be touched at all, even some days hating to have clothes on. However, she had already touched the lovely tail of Ms. Anokades, so it would be a bit unfair for her to say no, no matter how much she didn't want to be patted.

"Consent: Uhh...umm...if you would really like to, you may, thank you for asking I guess..." she pushed out a bit quietly as she squinted her eyes in preparation of the patting.

Commence the breakdown.

Arcen looked over this 'Lucy' character. A pretty blonde, and her eyes were either a shade of yellow or orange... Small form, much less resistant than her own, impossibly innocent looking for somebody at this school.

Cute.

She even carried around a little toy rabbit, with an eye catching light green hat. It's like she was made to be unbearably adorable.

Tilting her head back to it's original position, Arcen's smile faded as she studied Lucy's face after she was given permission to pat her head, whilst she was still curled up in a little ball of fluff.
Once again, Arcen rotated her head, to the other side this time, as well as pulling her hand back to wrap it around her knees along with her prosthetic one.

The girls face was all squished up, as if she didn't want to be touched.
A strange feeling shot through her body as she stared, eyes wide, at Lucy, memories of that night with that man flooding into her mind.

Eyes now filled out, the Faunus let out a monotoned, gurgling sigh as she tried to look 'normal'.
"If- If y---y--y--i-if-f-y-i-f--y--f-if--I.i.i.i.i.i.i.f...f.f....f.y..o..u..-"
She held her throat, gritting her teeth and lifting her chin up, closing her eyes for a few seconds, before making some attempt at a coherent sentence.
"I. W.w-I. If you........ I.... Won't i-i-i-f....... you do-n-d-ifyoudon't-want.... me...... to.........."
Eh, good enough.

She lowered her head back down, opening her eyes to give the girl her best 'questioning' gaze.
"D-d-o you-d-y-want- pat.... to-pat-do you... pat- me-my-pat my h-my- pat-my-head..-inste-a-d...?"

After whatever the girl decided she would do, Arcen fixated her heterochromatic eyes on Lucy's face.
"Tell.... Me... Luuuuu-c...yyyyyyyy....
Do you... Pity me...
Like everyody else...?"

First that man, and now this 'Lucy' girl. Neither of them were like the others. There was no pitiful gaze being cast upon her distorted and pathetic form, there was no look of fear or disgust in their eyes.

Was it just another masquerade of pretend,
or was it...
Could it...
Is it possible that not everybody was like that...?

Lucy waited for her head to be pat. She was prepared, she was waiting...and waiting...still waiting. She kept her eyes closed and her self prepared, maybe Ms. Anokades was just a little slow or maybe was thinking about changing her mind.

That was when Ms. Anokades tried to say something, but it sounded like her stutter was stopping her, but she eventually broke through it and managed to say that if Lucy didn't want her to touch her, she wouldn't...but Lucy couldn't allow that.

"Assurance: No no, it's okay, you d-don't have to worry about that! Reasoning: I already touched your tail, so it w-would be r-rude not to let you pat my head if you really wish to." she said plainly, her eyes still squinted and her body still in a slight bow, although her arms were waving again for a brief moment.

That was when Ms. Anokades asked if she...had pity for her? This made Lucy open her eyes and look at Ms. Anokades's chin again. "Unsure: Umm...m-maybe, I'm not sure what that is... Assurance: Give me just a moment to think, and I'll answer your question, I promise!" she promised intently, then closed her eyes again, because she was always better at thinking when she closed her eyes.

What did Ms. Anokades mean? What was pity? Lucy thought really hard, and the definition of the word came into her mind.

Pity: the feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by the suffering and misfortunes of others.

Well, that didn't seem like a bad thing, so Lucy was a bit confused on why Ms. Anokades seemed so upset about being pitied by other people. Lucy continued to think, and then she remembered a quote.

'Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear.' from a Mr. Ram Dass.

Another quote. 'Pity is cruel. Pity destroys.' This one was from a Mr. Graham Greene. She also saw pictures of people not helping homeless people...just walking by people like Mr. Bob, not even bothering to look at them. People 'feeling bad' for hungry children, but doing nothing to help them. Helping less fortunate people not because they cared about them and wanted to, but because they felt like they had to, or out of a fear of being in the same position...but not because they loved them.

When Lucy opened her eyes they were rather blank, but welling up all the same, and Mr. Floppsies was barely hanging in her left hand that had drooped very low as his hat changed to the darkest of blacks. "Fear: Do...do I...p-pity...you?"

Well, did she? Did she care about Ms. Anokades being hurt? Did she want to help her? Lucy felt like she did, but was that because she genuinely cared about her? Was it because she was afraid of being hurt herself? Was her desire to help her...selfish?

For that matter, what about all the other times she helped someone? Ms. White? Did she really care about her being hurt, or was she worried about how she would have looked if she didn't help her? Ms. Petunia and her pet shop? Did she help out because she actually loved the animals? Did she just feel bad about them and wanted them happy homes because she wanted a happy home herself? Was it all an effort to quell her own fear?

And...Mr. Davis? The man was so kind to her, so tolerate of her...did she take care of the house and make him nice things because she cared about him? Was it just so that he would continue to take care of her?

Was she living a selfish lie her entire life?

"Self-Loathing: Oh no...I...I'm...such a...t-terrible...person..."

That was when the waterworks triggered, and Mr. Flopssies hat became completely see-through. Lucy slumped over and turned around.

"Apology: ...I...I'm...so...so sorry..." she managed to push out before slowly walking over to a corner of the school entry way that was farthest from Ms. Anokades, then she sat there and clung onto Mr. Floppsies as she rocked back and forth without saying a single word.

Commence the breakdown 2:
Return of the Electric Boogaloo.

Arcen waited patiently with a blank expression. -As if you would be able to tell she was getting impatient in the first place...-.
Lucy closed her eyes, squishing her face up and thinking really hard. She didn't know the definition right away...
This was promising...
Arcen had closed her eyes as well, as if trying to hide the expression Lucy might have given the Faunus if she did pity her....

'Maybe she doesn't! Maybe there really are people who don't pity me on this wretched rock!
Maybe-'

'FEAR'

Regardless of the emotion expressed before the sentence, The Fox could still hear the fear in her voice.
The word hit Arcen like a truck, and any form of hope or good thoughts swiftly perished...
Until she opened her eyes...
Arcen's expression was best described as dead, as she saw Lucy's face, her eyes wet with tears.
She kept on with this blank face until Lucy uttered another few words.

'SELF LOATHING'

Arcen's cold expression faded, leaving one of nothingness, devoid of all emotion. She had made the small girl cry with a simple question. What kind of person was she...?
To make things even worse, she just stared at Lucy with that face as she began full on crying.
"L-Lu-c......Lucy.......?"
She reached her human hand out slowly to the girl, but it soon came to a sudden, twitchy stop.

'APOLOGY: ...I...I'm...so...so SORRY...'

Arcen let her hand drop limply back to it's side as Lucy walked away to go sit in a corner and rock herself back and forth, feeling her tail droop lifelessly to the ground and her ears flatten out sideways against her head.
"Lu.....cy...?"
'She apologized!? APOLOGIZED!? Somebody APOLOGIZED to me!?
What!?
Nobody apologizes to me! Nobody! I don't, so why would she!?
Is it even pity anymore?'

A very confused Arcen raised herself to her feet, incoherently stumbling over to Lucy's saddening position.
She crouched down, getting onto her knees and keeping her back straight as she attempted to utter a few words.
"Y-You s- So. You apologi-so-orry-said-no- No... Body..."
Arcen got onto her arms and knees, propping herself up with her left arm, clenching her right hand into a fist, lifting it up off of the ground, and proceeding on to rather violently slam it into the floor, ignoring the dull pain.

"You apologized! You said you were- you were sorry! N-Nobody has ever said sorry to me before!
You don't pity me Lucy, you don't! You don't pity me, I can tell! I can te-"

Something as coherent as this caused Arcen to essentially vomit up a surprisingly small puddle of red fluid onto the ground. Tears began streaming from her closed eyes as she gritted her teeth, slowly slumping down until she was barely off of the ground, as well as emitting some form of quiet, distorted wail.

Arcen grinded her teeth together harder as she began to push herself up, half opening her eyes to stare at Lucy with a mixed expression of pain, sadness, and quite surprisingly, joy.
"You.... Don't.... Pity..... Me......"
For once, Arcen gave the small girl a full fledged grin, and although her words were spoken weak, the will behind them was strong.

"Thank.... You..... Lucy.....
Thank.. You............."
She sniffled as her eyes curved into an overjoyed expression, fixing itself directly on Lucy's, before she limply set her face back into her arms, arching her back up off of the ground and essentially curling into a ball, ever so slightly shaking as she kept making a sound that I suppose you could call...

'Crying'....

Lucy shivered as she rocked, pondering so many things. Was she really that horrible of a person? Was everyone like that? Was she just like everyone else, not caring about others, but only how things affected herself? How could she have thought that she really cared about everyone? Clearly, that was too much of a task for anyone, let alone her. Lucy started shaking profusely, the idea of all the nice things people had done for her, and she didn't deserve a single one. They were nice to her under the pretense that she was such a sweet and caring girl, but she was anything but that...she was an extremely selfish girl, and the idea that she wasn't genuine with all those people hurt so much inside that she wanted to burst.

What if there were other people like that? People who thought that they were genuine and nice, not knowing that they were just being selfish? How horrible that must be, yet how much more horrible it was for her that she was opened to the truth of her nature. Lucy wished she had never known about how terrible she was, rocking back and forth to the pace of her thoughts about everyone she let down.

She didn't even notice Ms. Anokades move next to her, and didn't notice her speaking either. It was taking everything she had to cope with what she had discovered about herself, and she was stuck in her own self-depreciating thoughts until she heard a voice that was very clear. It was Ms. Anokades, and she said that Lucy didn't pity her. Now Lucy wasn't so sure about that, but she figured that Ms. Anokades knew more about pity than she did, as she knew what it was before she did...but Lucy wasn't to sure. She was going to doubtingly ask her when she saw her cough up some sort of red liquid.

Now Lucy had never seen something like this before, and it caused her to become stiff in shock as she sat there, but for some reason something in her told her that it wasn't good and that she had been right: she was hurting! The hat on Mr. Floppsies head immediately became a bright yellow in shade, and Lucy bolted up from her spot.

"Interjection: Oh...oh no! Observation: You...you really are hurt. Urgent: We...we need to get you...get you to Ms. Dove right...away!" there was urgency in her voice, but she sounded a bit tired. Lucy shifted a bit, mulling how to do it before she bent over and slid her hands under Ms. Anokades and picked her up in her arms.

"Request: Please...don't move too much. Oath: I'll get you to Ms. Dove as quick as I can...I...I promise." Lucy pushed out with a tired smile, then proceeded to enter the academy building.

It took them a few extra minutes to get there, as Lucy was a bit slow with her pace, but she managed to get all the way to the Nurse's Office and give the door a small knock. Ms. Dove answered it rather promptly.

"What's going on?"

"Pleading: Pl...please, Ms. Dove, help Ms. Anokades...she's really...hurt." This placed Ms. Dove's attention on Arcen, who Lucy was holding. She seemed a bit shaken up and in some amount of pain.

"Oh boy. Quickly, bring her in and place her on the bed." Lucy did as she was instructed, slowly and carefully placing Ms. Anokades on the doctor's bed. Ms. Dove let the door shut and had gotten a cold compress ready by the time Arcen was lying down. Ms. Dove situated her and placed the compress on her head.

"Arcen...I need you to try and regulate your breathing. Don't struggle with anything else, that means no moving or talking: just rest. After a few minutes, if you still feel like you are in a lot of pain, let me know and I'll get you something, okay?" Ms. Dove had a soft spot for Arcen, as the things she had gone through were just...horrible. She had seen a lot of Arcen since she came to the academy, but she was never bothered by her presence.

Ms. Dove turned to look at Lucy. "Lucy, I want to thank you for bringing her here. I'm sure that whatever happened must have been quite frightening, but you brought here all the way here by yourself. That was very brave of you, and very kind."

Lucy's face was a combination of shocked and empty, and she just shook her whole body as she replied. "Rejection: N...No...I'm n-not...kind. Self-Loathing: I'm...a horrible...selfish person..." the waterworks started up again, and Lucy was about to sulk out the door when Ms. Dove stopped her.

"W-What? What in the world are you going on about?"

Little girl.
Big muscles.

Arcen shuddered violently on the ground, faintly hearing the girl's speech followed by a short pause. All that came out when the fox opened her mouth was a raspy and horrible sounding exhalation.
Now, what Arcen had not "expected" was for the short, tiny girl to literally pick her up and start moving into the building. The huntress was dazed and confused to the best of her ability, but she still followed Lucy's orders and refrained from moving herself besides the shifting caused by her 'savior's' movements.

In a few minutes time, the girl could hear a knock on a door, followed by a prompt and semi familiar sounding voice; the school nurse. The white haired fox felt herself placed on a bed and had a compress placed to her forehead, giving off small and minimal shifts of movement. Once told to hold still and not talk, she briefly heard her rebellious voice speak out in her head and make a short quip about how she could barely talk in the first place.

After their conversation had finished and a few minutes had passed, Arcen 'spoke' out.
"I-I F-f-fe-I feel f-f-feel.... Fine........."
And it was the truth. Whatever small episode she had just experienced was now done; being linked with her proper speech and loud tone of voice from earlier, the fox, after keeping silent for so long, felt mediocre once more.
She did not, however, continue talking, as normal speech still did hurt her throat like always; the pain was significantly less than before, of course.

Her right eye continuously twitched around, the blood red iris constantly shifting to different objects in the room but still incapable of fixing itself on one thing. Her snow white tail swished from side to side on the bed, emitting a small brushing sound with each switch of direction. Her one ear twisted itself in multiple directions, occasionally having a short spasm like set of motions where it would shake around with no apparent purpose.

She didn't look fine, of course...
But this was normal Arcen...