Therapy Session Take #1

[perfecttune]

WHO: Mari and you (OTA, characters are free to interact with others as well)
WHAT: Mari is hosting a therapy session! Come if you would like, or if you want to argue against it feel free to show up as well! This is more informal than it seems although she did invite some guest speakers.
WHERE: One of the large buildings that was most likely a common area for everyone, or just a super large bedroom.
WHEN: After First Crossing
WARNINGS Talk about death and violence, specific CWs will be in the text.

A message goes out on the server from Mari: Sorry for the delay everyone! I thought it best to wait a bit till after the meeting Kel thoughtfully put together for all of us! If you would like to come for the Therapy Session, please come to building X. If you would like to bring anyone or anything along please do! Special guest speakers/appearances include Makoto Naegi, Daniil Dankovsky, and Soo Won.

Mari put her tablet down and went back to straightening the chairs she was able to gather in a circle. Surely this would be welcoming? This way they could all see each other and seek comfort if needed... but just in case, she had set up private areas using curtains as a makeshift divider in case others felt the need for a one on one talk...

It still felt strange to her to not have refreshments so she had cups filled with water just in case, surely even if they didn't need to drink it still helped to make the session feel welcoming?

As people filtered in she would call out a greeting. "Welcome and thank you for coming! If you feel comfortable taking a seat please do so! There are also refreshments over there."

Comments

[toilet_bound]

Ehehehe~ I still had a job to do, you know? It’s fun sitting in on Yashiro’s classes every once in a while.

[Not really a direct answer on if he had learned anything. And he mostly showed up to tease her, or check on her, or when he was bored or lonely.]

You seem knowledgeable on the subject though. Did you attend a school too?

[urtitan]

[She shakes her head.]

I had a private tutor.

[Nobility privileges! More importantly, though...]

Yashiro is from your world? From your school, even?

[She looks over at the (mostly) blonde girl. Did they die together, then..? Or did Yashiro die, and Hanako, who was already dead, got transported here along with her? The former scenario happened to Kel and Sunny, after all... at least in Kel's memory. She frowns a little. This whole "parallel timelines" matter is still troubling her in the back of her mind.]

[toilet_bound]

Ooooh, fancy~!

[That’s exactly what it sounded like. A private tutor… those had been rare and expensive in Hanako’s time.

He seems to brighten at being able to talk about Yashiro, even if there was something fond in his gaze.]

Yep~! She’s a student at the modern day Kagome Academy. If she wasn’t, then I wouldn’t have been able to meet her!

[Nothing on the note of being from the same ‘world.’ The Ferryman’s words still rung in the back of his mind. It didn’t change anything; it wouldn’t.]

[urtitan]

I'm glad that neither of you two is alone among strangers here.

[Even so, there's something wistful in her gaze... isn't it sad that two children died so early in life? Hanako and Yashiro seem to be the youngest in the group, now. She wonders what happened, but despite their shared situation, asking how people died still feels invasive, somehow. Instead, she asks:]

How did you get to know each other?

[toilet_bound]

[Hanako hummed, not commenting but… it as a conflicting feeling. Yashiro being here made him happy, but the idea that Yashiro was dead… it was like ripping what had been left of his heart out.

She was the same. Even if she hadn’t come from the same place, the same time… he’d make sure she remained herself.

Hanako was used to being alone, but loneliness was harder to swallow when he had been shown what genuine friendship was like.]

Ah! She came to me for some help. See, she had a boy she thought she liked and wanted to win his affections. All that planning didn’t really work out, and one thing led to the next… Yashiro got herself in trouble, I got her out of it~ And I got an assistant out of her blunder too~!

[He totally skipped a few scenes and context there, but that was the short of it.]

[urtitan]

That sounds like quite the story.

[He may have compressed it an awful lot, but her mind fills the gaps with school shenanigans. There's a hint of teasing in her voice as she remarks:]

I had no idea that assisting people with love troubles fell into the remit of school ghosts.

[toilet_bound]

It was~!

[There is only so much he will say (seriously) on the subject, as there are some secrets that aren’t his to give. And that aren’t really relevant anymore - that much he has verified.]

Ehehehe~ well, normally it isn’t! That was a first for me too! But I grant wishes, and that’s what she wanted.

[Not that it had worked out for her. It worked out nicely for Hanako, in several ways.]

[urtitan]

You grant wishes? Any kind?

[Of course, if he really possessed such powers, she has no doubt that they didn't persist through the journey here, but the prospect alone is quite amazing.]

[toilet_bound]

“That’s right. In exchange for something precious, I grant one wish for the living…” He smiled, then shrugged half-heartedly. “Or at least that’s how it worked before I got here. No spiritual powers, no granting wishes.”

[urtitan]

How did you attain such powers? Weren't you a normal human boy, once? It it just something that comes with being a ghost in your world?

[She half expects him to proudly explain that of course, only the seven wonders of Kagome Academy or only him alone, even! - can accomplish feats like that... but who knows?]

When Frieda’s thoughts are 100% correct, but Hanako has reasons for not saying that XD

[toilet_bound]

That’s right~! [Not that he’s offering the specifics of his time before becoming a ghost but…] Apparitions are influenced by their rumors, see? Mine was… ‘Hanako-San of the Toilet: in exchange for something precious to you, she will grant you whatever you desire’… so really the students were responsible for that!

[Were they though, really? He seems to think so. And yet there’s also evidence that suggests otherwise… but Hanako only knows what he knows. Other than that, nothing else had shaped his rumor in a long time.]

He loves his little secrets!

[urtitan]

It's no wonder they thought you were a girl since you were bound to the girls' bathroom, but that must've been a surprise for anyone who visited you!

[Her amusement fades into wistfulness.]

It's a pity, though, that all our powers are gone. We might be able to accomplish much more her if we still had them.

That he does~ Much to everyone’s chagrin XD

[toilet_bound]

Ahaha~ it really was! [He sounds happy about that - the surprise of being discovered as something ‘not expected.’ Yashiro’s reaction had been funny too!]

And it is, isn’t it~? It’s a pain but… I’m not in charge here, so I’ll have to make do. [It isn’t the first time he’s had to deal with not having his haku-joudai around.] Still… whoever’s running this place is seriously interrupting my business~ I’ll have to have a word with them eventually.

[urtitan]

[That makes her recall her most recent conversation with their lantern-wielding guardian...]

The Ferryman confirmed that there's a hierarchy above, but didn't name any names. We haven't seen anybody else, either.

[In other words: Good luck getting that complaint in, Hanako! But then, perhaps the Ferryman can forward it.]

[toilet_bound]

Right. They certainly seemed to sidestep that they were doing this ‘alone’ too. [Or at least, the Ferryman had told him not to worry about them being ‘lonely,’ which could mean several things.

Hanako wasn’t ruling out the possibility that someone higher was really pulling the strings. He’d just have to be patient…]

[urtitan]

[Frieda got a similar response when she inquired about the Ferryman's desire for company. With that train of thought being a dead end for now, she gently sighs.]

Who knows, maybe we'll meet whatever higher powers are behind all of this at the end of our journey.

[toilet_bound]

“Who knows?” Hanako wouldn’t put that possibility past them but… he also had to wonder what would be left - in anything - of the people here by that point. “Or… It’s a matter of bait-and-switching. Though I don’t know enough about them yet.”

The latter is said in a whisper, even if he isn’t too concerned about someone overhearing.

[urtitan]

[He smiles fades again.]

In the end, I wonder if we aren't just following the plan that's been laid out for us, without a chance of attaining a deeper understanding of the greater whole... but no amount of puzzling over these things will helps us. We can only keep paying attention to what we see and experience on our journey.

[And keep needling the Ferryman, of course, cryptic as the answers usually are.]

[toilet_bound]

[He let her muse out loud, silent for a few moments after.]

I won’t deny that possibility. But… stay attentive. The longer something goes on, the more cracks begin to show. That’s where the answers will lie.

[Another beat, then…] You’re smart.

[urtitan]

[That first statement makes her eyes widen slightly. It doesn't sound like something a young boy like him should say, and even though she knows that he's been a ghost for much longer than she's been alive, it feels almost eerie to hear from a child - perhaps also because it reminds her of the enormous secret she and her ancestors guarded back home.

It's been a century since the Walls were erected, and it's only a matter of time until the outside world makes it move, isn't it? But even then, her people may not learn of the truth that was hidden from them. They may simply die in ignorance.]

...

You flatter me, but I'm not smart.

[If she were, wouldn't she have found a way to break her forefather's vow of non-retaliation and free her people, without letting the world fall prey to their powers once more? But she knows all too well how quickly power corrupts even strong and noble minds.]

[toilet_bound]

Hmm… would you prefer I used a different word? ‘Wise’? ‘Experienced’? An ‘old soul’?

[He listed them off on his fingertips.] Either way, it isn’t something one would naturally possess. You have knowledge, but there’s… something else too. Deeper than that.

[For all Frieda might blame herself, Hanako saw it too - that same sense they shared of having seen and experienced far too much for their years.]

[urtitan]

[She smiles again, albeit feebly.]

It still shows, then..? All those memories I inherited and passed on?

[Half the people who made it through the Crossing with her learned of her secrets; what's one more? There's no point in safeguarding them any longer. It's not like any of them could still exert any influence on the living.]

Back home, I guarded the history of the world - two-thousand years worth of recollections.

[toilet_bound]

[His own smile is a knowing one, even as he listens.]

Even if you no longer have the full memory, a soul still remembers its weight.

[That’s probably disconcerting, coming from someone who looks as young as him, but it’s the truth. Still…]

Two thousand years… that’s a heavy burden. I’m surprised you’ve remained as kind as you are.

[It is both a compliment and an observation. Hanako has met plenty of apparitions much older than himself, all twisted by rumor and remembrance. While Frieda herself might not(?) be as old as the memories she safeguarded, that sort of knowledge did take a toll on anyone.]

[urtitan]

[His understanding, the sense of an old soul that doesn't match a young face, makes her feel a sense of kinship with him, and she's grateful for his sympathy and understanding. She really didn't expect it... but how could he not relate at least a little, having stayed young despite accruing decades worth of memories?]

It's you who is kind - and everyone else here who sees good in me.

[She lowers her eyes, and her voice wavers a little.]

I've tried to stay kind, but... until the end and beyond, I didn't feel like I succeeded.

[It was hard to feel like a good person when she was keeping her people in a cage - but enlightening them and endangering the outside world simply wasn't an option.]

Accidentally wrote ‘somber’ as ‘sober’ the first time, that would have been really different

[toilet_bound]

[He hums happily.] That honestly might be a first! Someone calling me ‘kind.’ But fair warning - the dead, or at least, those outside of the group here, aren’t. We simply are too detached from anything to be considered such.

[He settles a bit at her own somber admission.]

Well… I can’t speak for your Before, but ‘beyond’… I’m sure there are countless here who would argue for your character. Aside from that… humans are fickle, bent to the whims of their momentary emotions. Even if you did have a time when you weren’t kind, it seems - to me - that it might be just that.