thecrossinglogs | Therapy Session Take #1

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Therapy Session Take #1

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."

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Need feels that an issue with being so visibly older than everyone else, and being visibly confident and self-assured, is that someone might look to her as a leader. She doesn't want that. The injunction against the dead ruling the living might not apply at this point but it still weighs too heavy on her to ignore. She's not a leader, and if she tried she'd trample someone. So it's an impulse decision for her to come at all.

A ways into the gathering, probably after some have already left, Need enters and strides unsmiling to stand behind one of the empty chairs in the circle, surveying whoever's there, and clears her throat. Her low gravelly voice is brusque and sure.

"These aren't circumstances any of you thought you'd face, but we're all going through it together. Try to remember that, when you're suffering alone. Some things are halved when shared. Now, I've been dead for longer than any of you, even if it hasn't all quite been like this. And I know sometimes it's easier to unburden yourself to a stranger than to someone closer who can be hurt by it. I'm no kestra'chern, but I'm hard to hurt and I don't spread certain things around. You children can confess to me on your own time, if you're ever called to do so, and I'll withhold judgement."

She looks into any eyes directed at hers, nods curtly, and... turns to leave? without giving a name or explaining what a 'kestra'chern' is? Need!

Hanako had opted to give Yashiro some breathing space once the therapy session had started, taking his own seat… except the boy had flipped his chair around backwards and was leaning his arms rather comfortably against the back of the chair (now facing forwards).

He perked up when Need turned around to leave…

“What’s a ‘kestra-chern’?” Probably the question that might be on everyone’s mind.

His legs kick back and forth merrily as he smiles, but there’s a deeper layer to it. One that Need could probably deduce - she wasn’t getting away that easily if he could help it.

Need turns her head to look back at Hanako and now she does smile, toothily. "Roll the first 'r' a little more. Kes-trrachern. They're nice people whose job is to make their clients feel better in every way they can, by any means necessary. A lot of those clients are disinclined to confess their deepest fears on demand, so they come in for a massage, or a nice meal, or physical therapy."

Or for sex, but some of these kids seem like they'd be shocked and outraged if she brought that up at all. Need's opinion is that kestra'chern having sex with their clients causes so much trouble and endless misconceptions that it can't possibly be worth it, but it's not up to her.

"Anything else?" She's paused, giving Hanako an arch I know what game you're playing look, with her feet still pointed towards the door.

Hanako attempts that rolling of the r… and fails miserably. It’s something that his native tongue hasn’t taught him all that well (as well as the difference between ‘l’ and ‘r’… Modern Japan had that better figured out.

“‘In any way they can’…?” At this, his smile broadens again, as if he can tell that there is a layer Need is purposefully leaving out.

Edited (Wow, I switched between prose and brackets oops XD) 2025-03-26 18:36 (UTC)

"Including in ways beyond my experience, and I'd hope yours as well, boy," she retorts. That's all he's getting out of her in this setting with however many people watching. Need walks out and if Hanako says anything else, she'll gesture for him to follow. If he really wants to continue the conversation it can happen outside.

She likes the outside. When they leave the Desert, Need will miss it. She'd all but forgotten how good sky is, and weather, even if it makes the more freshly-dead uncomfortable.

Hanako does follow - Yashiro seems like she’s pretty well settled for the moment, and she couldn’t get up to too much trouble if he was gone for a short period of time… - so the boy gladly skips out the door, all smiles.

He has about -5 experience when it comes to anything about love (especially personal experience) but… Need doesn’t know that!

“It’s good weather, isn’t it~?”

He says, following.

Outside, it's midday. After the relatively dim light within, stepping into the sun is like a slap to the face. It stings on the skin and seems to press down on the body like a weight. In all directions, heat reflecting from sand and stone makes the air ripple, creating mirages of flat silvery water on the ground. There isn't so much as a breath of wind.

"Spectacularly so," Need says easily, refastening her headcloth. She doesn't burn - none of them do - but it keeps back the sense that she might, and shades her eyes enough that she doesn't feel the impulse to keep them squinted almost shut. With that done, and having set aside the layers she died in in late fall, she's good. "Something for you?"

Meaning, something can I do for you.

After being dead for so long (and having light filter through him for just as long), the sun’s rays really are like a smack to the face. He blinks, willing his eyes to adjust faster.

“I’m simply surprised to see you showed up at all. It doesn’t seem like your sort of gathering.” Though people have made the comment of Hanako too, but that doesn’t mean he can’t use the same turn of phrase.

Need may admit to a certain degree of wisdom, but that doesn't mean she can't find it funny to see someone struck a blow by the sun. She folds her arms over her chest and smirks.

"It's not. I was considering spending this time riding Thistle." Which she's been doing a lot, ever since she got the not-horse to accept her weight more placidly. "Why, is it yours?"

“‘Thistle’? Ah, you mean those creatures we were observing earlier! I assume you’ve made some progress then, have you?” Last time he’d seen her, she’d gotten thrown off, which had been amusing but… good for Need if so.

At her own inquiry, he smiles broadly. “Of course not! But there’s a lot to be learned from something like this~”

"I think so. They're basically just horses, and I know horses," she says with an easy shrug. Need doesn't have a lot of false modesty but also doesn't generally care to brag. "It's all in the attitude. They're fearful animals, so they're drawn to calm and confidence."

Which she all but radiates. Few things seem to rattle or fluster Need. Anything that does, she's pretty good at keeping it concealed.

She raises her eyebrows. "Uh huh. So what have you learned?"

Hanako took her information in. He had never rode a horse before (there weren’t many of those around in the crowded streets of Japan, especially back when he had been alive), but he could take her word for it.

Seemed like it had worked so far.

To her inquiry…

“People don’t like chairs~!” Was the teasing, excited answer. The more serious one followed. “Truthfully, they’re an optimistic group. Yashiro fits right in. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. Humans are so fragile, you know?”

Even if they were all already dead, he couldn’t just get rid of that notion. He was sure Need understood it too - there was something inherent that separated the living from the dead, or in this case, those who were recently departed versus those who had been so for a while.

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Soo will admit that the thought did cross his mind. Need had the experience and confidence needed for a leader, although it was clear from their speech and the way they tried to leave immediately afterwards they didn't want to role. It was unfortunate but Soo Won could respect that. His time as king had been short compared to the life she must have lived, but he knew how heavy that burden could be.

He waited until after the meeting was over to seek her out. Not because he had anything to confess, his own troubles weren't important, but because she was a valuable ally. He approached her with a warm smile that hid his weary soul.

"Thank you for your kind words earlier. If you don't mind me asking, what do you mean you have been dead for longer than any of us? Were you talking about a different realm of the dead than this?"

"Think nothing of it," she says, and looks Soo Won up and down, and directly in the eyes. Quite young, she thinks, but secure in himself and not impetuous or awkward in his body as most children around that age are. Watchful enough to notice her paying attention and definitely the sort who doesn't want to tell her anything.

"I knew a way to keep my mind and soul pinned to the world of the living when I died. Unfortunately I had to use it. Now and then I'd dip a little ways into the world of spirits - which did seem different from this place - but I couldn't get all that far. When my tether was destroyed I went deeper, and then I reached the Cavern at the same time as all the rest of the first wave of us did," she says without preamble.

As for herself, some of Need's history is clear. She was a fighter of some sort once. Old scars mark exposed skin, many of them the straight cuts of blades, and she still tends to stand in a balanced way. At some point she took up a less hazardous job that still leaves her with heavy, muscular arms. Her skin is weathered and lined and loose in places, there's a large faded tattoo on her chest just peeking out of the collar of her linen shirt, and while she does stand tall and straight she's clearly past her prime.

Unfortunately being without powers means she doesn't radiate a palpable feminine aura and so it is possible not to read her as a woman, especially just now, when she's not wearing her undertunic, a garment strategically padded to suggest curves. A hole in her linen shirt continues right through her lower chest and out of her back, but the fabric isn't form-fittingly tight, so the bloodless wound is rarely visible at all.

Soo Won confidently met Need's scrutiny with a curious smile. She was quite perceptive, although that wasn't surprising given the history written in their old scars. Soo Won wasn't sure if they were a man or woman but that didn't matter much to him. Some of the strongest people he knew were women.

He was more curious about her tale and he listened with avid attention. A part of him wondered what it would be like if could have tethered his mind and soul to the world of the living like she did. He would be able to see the kingdom Hak and Yona would make in his absence, yet the thought of only being able to watch them made his soul ache and some of his loneliness slipped out. "You must have been lonely."

The comment surprises her enough to blink. She doesn't recall anyone saying anything of the sort to her before.

"I..." Need catches herself and the tiny lapse in composure ends. "It was difficult and most people can't take it, but I was rarely alone. I was something we used to call a kalyke, a spirit-sword." There's universal translation here and 'spirit-sword' is the best fit for kalic-key, but there's connotations of corpse-sword and god's sword too. "When I was alive I bore an older kalyke for a few years. He remembered me of course and advised me. I also had a connection to my bearers, and I learned to see beyond them."

Soo Won wasn't sure what compelled him to say that either and he shared a momentary lapse in composure that hopefully went unnoticed. His surprise was quickly overshadowed by curiosity and his eyes widened. "A spirit sword?" As a warrior himself the idea was intriguing. He wondered what it would be like to live on as Hak's weapon. It was a pointless thought though and he quickly pushed it aside, although it lingered at the edge of his mind.

"I see. It's fortunate that your kalyke," Soo Won carefully pronounced the foreign word as respectfully as he could," was there to advise you. How did you communicate in that form?"

"That's the shape of it. A blessed artifact - usually a weapon, almost always a sword - with a human mind and soul voluntarily trapped inside. This preserves their skills, their knowledge, and their judgement after death," she says easily. Need would prefer to share a memory to explain for her, but of course she can't here.

There are a lot of things she doesn't remember directly about the kalyke. There were more of them when she was alive, and when she was new to the sword, but she thinks they were just about unique to her people, whoever those had been. Others might stumble upon the method but those were one-offs, basically. To exist in that form is not something easily borne.

"But a sword isn't a living thing. It doesn't have eyes, or ears, or the ability to sense the world at all. So a kalyke needs a form of mind-magic that lets them touch the thoughts and emotions of other people, and use their senses. Their bodies too, just not all the time. Two people with this magic can speak to each other over great distances."

[Mari can't say that she wasn't surprised that the woman had showed up. After all they didn't know each other that well but to Mari, she radiated a steady warmth. So when the older woman went to leave, Mari naturally followed after her.]

Are you sure you don't want to stay?

[The girl had questions after all, but making sure Need knew that she was welcome here would come first.]

[Need pauses at the exit, looking back at the girl.]

I've spent a long time in the cold and the dark, kiddo. While there's light and warmth I don't want to shut myself away from it.

[While there's sky and horizon too, since she's out in the night as well.]

[Mari thought for a moment before glancing back at the gathering, making up her mind. The others seemed like they could take care of things for the moment.]

That's true.

[She gently closed the door behind her, stepping out to stand next to the woman. Surely she too had come here for a reason and Mari wasn't one to let a physical space limit her helping people.]

Was there anything specific you wanted to talk about? Maybe what a 'kestra'chern' is?

[The word sounded foreign on her lips, and she was rather curious about Need's world, which seemed so different from her own.]

[The sky is brilliant outside, the heat like a tangible weight pressing on the skin. It's all the brighter and hotter for how within had been cooler and darker. Need adjusts her headcloth, shading her eyes so she doesn't feel the urge to squint, and looks back down at Mari.

It's easy to assume, as she wants people to assume, that this easy confidence and steady affect is all of her. Need comes across as a little cranky maybe but well-adjusted.]

I just wanted to offer a service, but people don't tend to be ready to open up when pressed or around their peers. [She hasn't spied but would be surprised if someone had voluntarily vulnerable today.] Kestra'chern are kind, patient people who understand how peoples' minds work. Their job is to make their clients feel better, including psychologically - but as I said, people are often reluctant to just talk about their emotions and problems. If "feel better" is broadened, they become a bit more open.

That's true... and thank you for being willing to listen to people. It's not always something that people are willing to do... kind of like talking to strangers I guess?

[She smiled, thinking over what Need had said about what a Kestra'chern was.]

That makes sense... so its like your world's version of a therapist... but on a wider scale... Are you a Kestra-chern by chance?

[Mari could easily see Need being one, what with her steady nature.]

Eh. I'm old. Not much bothers me anymore, so I'm hard to shock.

[She shakes her head.]

I already said I'm not, back in there.

They're masseurs, physical therapists, personal chefs, makeup artists, bedmates, tea masters, perfumiers - anything and everything they think will help their patients. I don't have the nature for that.

[there's gentleness and kindness in her, yes, but also great rage and impatience she keeps carefully controlled.]

Well that's a bright side at least...

[Mari hoped that someday she could get to that point. Where little details didn't bother her as much and she could just have fun with those she loved...]

Hmm... I think you don't give yourself enough credit... but I can understand the feeling...

[Was she being slightly vulnerable with that admittance... true but here what did it matter? It was just her and Need. She didn't have to worry about Kel or Sunny overhearing. Didn't have to worry about what they would think if they figured out that she wasn't the perfect big sis they knew her as...]

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