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On paper, they all seemed quite different. Sure, they'd all ended up at the same facility and escaped it at the same time (together), but their problems ranged quite a bit, as did their personalities.
Vincent's tics were less of an issue because of the tics themselves but more because of the shame they brought him. Sure, it wasn't ideal that he uncontrollably blurted out profanities and threw up obscene gestures, but those who got to know him properly hardly noticed them after a while. No, the real issue was that he felt so much shame and self-hatred due to his condition that his personality was almost a bit repressed, anger taking hold when things got particularly bad.
Alex's OCD was a constant drain on his psyche, his life consumed by tiny rituals. When he failed to perform these rituals, that mental real estate was instead replaced with crippling anxiety. His actual personality, underneath all the anxiety and subsequent frustration, was a sentimental man. One who found himself smiling whenever he found himself being understood by others or understanding them.
Marie was the most carefree, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. She knew she was putting her life at risk with the starving and the purging but the fear of appearing overweight kept her at it. Her heart had given out several times due to it, and yet she couldn't stop. It wasn't until that day in the hospital, with Vincent by her side that she realized just how much she could miss if she killed herself in this way.
So yes, in this sense, they were quite different people. But they were also pretty similar or at least found those similarities in each other for some sense of comfort.
Their conditions hid their true personalities underneath, that was the most obvious parallel. But, it was on that road trip that they began to find some solace in each other. Vincent had been ticcing less around them, Alex had taken off his gloves for the first time in years, Marie had willingly eaten a bit of a sandwich. Of course, it wasn't an end-all to their issues. Vincent had assaulted Alex in a fit of rage. Alex still put his gloves on after. Marie was hospitalized. But it was the most free any of them had felt in a while.
They'd all ended up back at the facility, though this time Vincent and Alex went more willingly and open to the idea of help. Marie was opening her mind to the thought, but it hadn't been her choice to go back regardless.
Vincent and Alex were roommates again and Marie still visited them regularly. Arguments still came up for numerous reasons, it's not like they were perfect.
But, Vincent found himself getting mad less often, and his ticcing was far more reduced around the other two because he was comfortable with them. They were still there, of course, but they were much less frequent. Alex found the rituals consuming his life less and less, and he got gradually less upset whenever someone acted in an uncalculated way or accidentally bumped into him. Marie ate more and more (still in small amounts, but it was far more than she'd allowed in the past) and stopped purging after a while.
All the while, they hung out in their free time. Grew closer. Feelings between the three of them grew more and more prominent until they couldn't be ignored, and they even wound up establishing a more romantic dynamic between the three of them.
They were recovering, and they were doing it together.