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☆One of Alex's favorite things to do when upset is take all the blankets he possibly owns and pile them on top of himself. They make him feel soft and warm from the cold and. He loves sleeping with comforters for the duality and size of them. It's similar to when you see a cat bury itself into your laundry.
☆Alex often has only three positions he sleeps in, and they very rarely cycle through. Something he'll sleep with his hands gripping his jacket tightly at the chest and his legs straight, similar to how you would see someone in a coffin. Otherwise he'll curl into a miniature ball as tight as he can. Occasionally, he's end up with his arms up, or his hip curved out to the side. Although, even more rare is when Rhodey ends up somehow over Alex in his never ending shifting, and Alex ends up clinging to him instead of his jacket or pillow.
☆Alex wears a lot just to go to bed. He often wear scar tissue tape to stop his skin from getting irritated and wears braces to keep his compression sleeves to stop his joints from slipping out of place. When Alex sleeps with his arms up, his wrists curled, or crooked legs, he wakes up with whichever limb he put out, completely numb. He then, has to move them so they'll get the lost blood flow back to them.
☆Alex loves laying on Rhodey. It makes him feel regulated inside. Rhodey's heart is much more slower than his, and so is his breathing. They're so steady. He's incredibly warm too. He's really the best person to lay on. He fits perfectly into Rhodey's frame.
☆Alex sleeps a lot and not at all at the same time. He's very fatigued majority of the day, and after he stays up for extended periods of time, he often takes takes to recover. He likes to daydream about sleeping when he really gets tired.
☆Alex was mute for the whole beginning fifteen years of his life. He doesn't know what it is, sometimes it's fear. Sometimes he's just not intrested in speaking out loud, and wants to be left alone, or have conversations in Amerian Sign Language instead of talking.
Alex has had rare episodes of psychosis, and while not involving some of the impulsive behaviors of other people, they are still concerning. He used to grow up in a hoarder's house, and sometimes he still think bugs will be in his bed or the floorboards. He'll also clean his house obsessively to the point his hands get irritated. He'll have extreme paranoia and delusions that someone is watching him. These brief episodes only last three days to a week however, and aren't nearly as severe as they could be. They happen on average every three, maybe four months. After he snaps out of it, he'll admit he was acting strange.
☆The only thing that is still torturing Alex is his brain and body. It will not let go of the terrible things that happend to him and combines all of those thoughts into his nightmares. Sometimes he has nightmares about his family, and those are the ones he hates the most. He can't stand them. His family is the one thing that has never gone wrong. He feels sick at the thought of them being tainted. That something could happen to them. It feel forbidden, like a main character or children dying in a story.
☆Alex's pupils shake and constrict even further than average when scared. It almost looks like he has no pupils at all.
☆Alex is highly suspected and aware that he has Borderline Personality Disorder. It, however, doesn't show the most common symptoms. He has quiet borderline personality disorder. He internalizes it deeply. It all get shoved down into a boz until it explodes on him. He just doesn't take it out on other people. All of his feeling are towards himself, and himself only. He really does try to be quiet about it.
☆Alex has tried several therapists, physchologists, and psychiatrists. The reason while several of them haven't worked out, is that Alex is all too aware of the issues he has. He knows all of their patterns, where they started, what they're from, how they affect him, other people. He knows all of it.
☆When Alex cries, his eyes get very irritated, and surrounding skin of them turn a deep red compared to Alex's pale skin. He has the ability to cry very silently and quickly. His crying spells take place during the night, usually triggered by something. He tries to keep them discreet but Rhodey ends up waking up to him somehow. It must be fate, because Alex know it's not any noise he could have possible made. He doesn't make any at all.
☆Rhodey comforts Alex from his horrible nightmares. There's nothing that feels safer to Alex than Rhodey. As long as Rhodey is there, there is light. Rhdoey is like the sun. Bright in every way, to drown out the darkness.
☆Alex can not kiss his husband. He does not know why, except for the fact he knows it botth weirds and grosses him out. While he is sexually and platonically attracted to Rhodey, it's most platonically than anything else. It's not platonically like the love he has for his friends though, it's the strongest love bond he's ever formed with someone. Rhodey is Alex's soul mate.
☆Rhodey is very important to Alex. If Alex was asked to give up his job or give up Rhodey, he would never work a day in his life again. He would not trade him for anything else. He'll do and has done a lot of things for Rhodey he would never do for any other person.
☆Through the time Alex was in highschool to medschool, he did not particularly eat a lot, if anything at all. While there was food always available at someone's house (and they were more than glad to offer it to Alex first and foremost) after he moved to college, he wasn't quite friends with anybody is Massachusetts where his college was. He mostly ate small deli sandwiches, granola bars and maybe occasionally the protein breakfast milkshakes so he would be able to take medication. It was really only after he started living with Rhodey in his 20's that he actually started eating anything.
☆It's not that Alex feels like he doesn't deserve to eat. It's just not programmed into him to know when and how. Sometimes even looking at or smelling food can make him nauseous.
☆Alex has a few journals and sketchbooks, but they are very rarely shown to anyone. Not even Rhodey has seen all of them. Alex draws a lot of cherubs and angels, as well as people he knows. He's drawn cathedrals as well. Other times they contain more serious topics. They help him remember things though. Alex also has one just for Isabelle when she turns eighteen that he's been writing in since the day she was born.
☆Alex has kept every letter, photo and drawing he's been given or has taken. They're all hung up in his study. He thinks that keeping them are really important, and would be devastated if even just one of them got ruined. They're one of his most prized possessions.
☆Alex has a photo album! Given to his friends years ago when they found out he didn't have any photos of himself, he's just been adding onto it since. There's different sections of it, all in chronological order. One section includes his and Rhodey's wedding. He's taken photos and almost every event he's attended.
☆Alex loves to walk in the middle of the night. However, he very quickly had to stop this habit because people started getting concerned when he would leave in the middle of the night. Alex didn't know it would be such a big deal at first, he used to leave his foster parents house all the time without telling anyone at all and nobidy cared.
☆Alex often wakes up from sleep with panic attacks, rather than having one while already awake. On the other hand, his anxiety attacks happen during the day, especially surrounding something important he's suppose to attend and or is the topic of.
☆Alex's foster parents used to feed him disgusting food that was often past expiration date and or just made with disgusting ingredients due to the struggling financial of those foster parents. As a result, Alex often had severe food poisoning many times that would cause fever and even worse symptoms of his already failing body. As a long lasting effect, Alex never eats certain groups of food given by people he doesn't know or at all, foods without an expiration date, and foods that have been eaten off or left out even only by a little.
☆Alex has a compromised immune system. What may be just the flu for another person can leave Alex with weeks long pneumonia. He gets sick more often, is more prone to get sick if someone coughs or sneezes near him, has more severe symptoms, and it lasts longer.
☆Alex washes and uses handsanitizer on his hands so much that his hands break open with eczema. They are often red and cracked at the knuckles. They are rough to the touch and hurt extremely.
☆Alex's knuckles are red and curved, showing the early beginnings of arthritis and the effects of his extensive hypermobility.
☆Alex also picks and bites his nails like there's actually no tomorrow. He often accidentally goes to far, making the skin surrounding bleed or in the case of actual nail, rips too far into the nail bed, resulting a sting whenever touched.
☆Alex pulls his hair too. While a less common habit, he sometimes twirls it anxiously or pulls on it roughly. He's also combs and brushes it when anxious.
☆Alex used to have absent seizures through out the first twenty years in his life. He wasn't aware of them however, until a fellow med student informed him when they noticed themselves. They don't happen anymore though. Not as often as they used to, anyway.
☆Alex's brain is like a massive star. It thinks two weeks ahead and behind, as well as the current day. It can think about multiple tabs and topics all at once. It's also a massive star in the fact that it will collapse in on itself. It's extremely complicated, and all of his brain being lit up all the time will cause it to burn out occasionally.
☆Alex has nerve damage around his ribs and back, as well as certain areas of his knees from reapeated trauma. It can make it hard to feel on the surface of his skin, and it's likely he can barely feel touch contact in those places. It flares up worse with the cold a lot. It can be extremely painful occasionally.
☆Alex has physical therapy because of his joint issues and repeated trauma. It's usually just him learning how to stand as a normal person does and not making his joints dislocate...or his physical therapist has to reset certain things that are wrong.
☆Alex performs as much of his medical check-ups as he can by himself. He doesn't feel comfortable letting other people preform them at all.
☆Alex feels really uncomfortable with people touching him. It's extremely rare that anyone is allowed to besides his own family.
☆Alex likes to be called by "Dr. Alexander" more than anything else in his public life. He thinks his last name can sound too frightening, especially to new interns or people with medical trauma. He's not a fan of anyone he's not close to calling him just Alex though. Besides, Alexander can sound more professional at times. He's called "Si" but some of friends though. It's short for his last name, Silas.
☆Alex keeps in contact with his more long term patients after they recover.
☆Alex covers his eyebags with concealer. They can create a creepy look, and they often lead to looks of concern from other people when he goes for a quick run to the store and is too tired to wear the concealer.
☆Alex loves hot water. If it's not 110°F, it's not for him. He likes the burning on his skin. He likes how it hurts a little. It's also due to contamination fear. Loves to scrub his skin clean. Sometimes he accidentally scratches too hard though and causes blood vessels to break under his skin. This sounds more of a big deal than it is, it just leaves tiny red spots under his skin. They don't hurt. Sometimes he breaks skin though and has to get Rhodey to bandage it, since it's usually on his back.