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

[blindluck]

Nagito shrugs. "I think it depends on what's on all of your other monitors. But that doesn't seem like something we can see even here."

[toilet_bound]

“Hmmm… That’s true. At least, for us it is.”

Speculation, that, but still… Hanako had his own thoughts on the matter.

[blindluck]

"Ferryman-san may be able to see more, of course," Nagito says--he assumes that's what Hanako is referring to, at least.

[toilet_bound]

“Oh, of that I have no doubt. Whether they will be forthcoming with the information is another question~”

When Hanako had first asked, the Ferryman said this part of their duty always caused more confusion. It was an interesting note… but Hanako couldn’t say he would be forthcoming with such information either.

“They’ve traversed both ends of the River, or so they say, so the chances of them seeing things beyond our own reach isn’t unusual.”

[blindluck]

"You were a ghost for a while, right?" Nagito asks, though it's a rhetorical question since he already knows the answer. "Do you have any extra insight into spirit behavior?"

He's not sure if Hanako has anything useful to say, or if he has anything useful he will say, but it'll probably be interesting regardless.

[toilet_bound]

“Right~! Eeeeh… do you want to hear all of my dirty secrets? I don’t think that’s fair!”

He’s joking, obviously at least to himself, but he can’t help the verbal teasing in Nagito’s direction.

[blindluck]

"They can be some other spirit's dirty secrets, if you'd prefer!" Nagito chirps.

[toilet_bound]

That lights Hanako’s gaze up like holiday lights. “Really~? Really, really?!” The fact that he could say legitimately anything and no one would be here to contradict him is highly tempting!

[blindluck]

"As long as they're worthwhile," Nagito says; that's no guarantee of getting something useful out of Hanako, but he's hoping it will at least give Hanako something to consider for the sake of being interesting.

[toilet_bound]

“Hmmmm…” Hanako leaned close to Nagito, a smile in his face. “In that case…”

A pause as he situated at Nagito. “What fun would that be~?”

Seems like he was right - Hanako might not prove useful after all. “‘Usefulness’ solely depends on perspective, right? Or is governed by the rules set. So here… even my knowledge might not be applicable!” That’s something. “Still… you’re looking for more on our mysterious guide… or the Wraiths perhaps…?”

[blindluck]

Nothing much, then. Well, even if he's decades old, Hanako is still a child in the end. Nagito's smile doesn't so much as twitch, giving Hanako no particular reaction. "Of course. I think most of us are, after all!"

[toilet_bound]

“Naturally~” That excess excitement calms down again, leaving him almost sheepish. “Unfortunately, I know just about as much as you do. My own experiences from Before might not be as useful as you are hoping.”

He isn’t side-stepping the issue, but it is a fair warning.

[blindluck]

"If it turns out not to be useful, then we can just call it a bonding experience!" Nagito chirps. It's not clear if he's joking or not.

[toilet_bound]

[Nagito doesn’t seem deterred, so Hanako nods, frank for once.]

Well, then… where to start…

If this place is anything like the school, then there’s a hierarchy. Our good guide here has implied that they aren’t the only one involved, though we have yet to see anyone else, right? That just means we need to get them to tip their hand… eventually.

At first, I thought this might be a Boundary but… if it is, then the Ferryman doesn’t seem to be the one in charge of it. I’m certainly not either. But, if the rules are the same, then whoever’s in charge has power over us, and that’s whats trapping us here. Doesn’t mean they don’t have a weak point though~

[He pauses, making sure Nagito is following so far.]

[blindluck]

Nobody else except the wraiths, though I'm not sure they're capable of being in charge of anything. [Though Shepard did mention seeing one that seemed smarter than the rest.] If I were to think of who would be above a ferryman for the dead, it would be something like death itself. But maybe that's too fanciful?

[Or maybe it's not? Honestly, it's hard to know the boundaries here.]

[toilet_bound]

Or something that fancies itself an embodiment of Death.

[He isn’t denying the possibility. The Seven Wonders had powers beyond regular apparitions too, so it might just be a matter of what sort of one they were dealing with.]

[blindluck]

Do you think this is different from an afterlife, then? [Between the idea of someone trapping them here rather than them simply being here because they're dead and the idea of someone--or something, maybe--pretending to be Death, it all starts sounding like a conspiracy. Nagito won't dismiss the idea offhand, but he's not going to accept it offhand either.]

[toilet_bound]

[Nagito’s question is a valid one.]

No, I think this still is a afterlife. Boundaries are simply the places between this life and the next. In that case… it might be more apt to say, if theory holds, that we’re moving between those in an effort to get to the Far Shore. It’s still death, just a bit ambiguous.

[blindluck]

A liminal space, then. [You can have those in simulations, too--but his memories of death are too solid for him to doubt. Still, it's notable.] It could be exactly as Ferryman-san said. We can get out by traveling, whether we do it with or without them.

[Again, he intends this neutrally. It's always possible the information they were given is correct. It could be incorrect, as well, but both options have to be considered. That's even before getting into the idea of half truths and technicalities.]

[toilet_bound]

True. Question is though - where exactly will this journey spit us out, in the end?

[Hanako isn’t too committed one way or the other. Without solid evidence, he can’t say if the logic he knows is even relevant.

But… he can theorize. Would the place they are let out, if at all, be anywhere near where they started?]

[blindluck]

Whatever comes after death. Or after after death, in your case. Oblivion, maybe, or reincarnation. Ferryman-san mentioned said it was nice to see me again when we met, so I imagine if things are as they seem either we've made this journey multiple times or Ferryman-san is involved in births as well.

[toilet_bound]

They said that to me too. As if… we had met before or something.

[He pauses, weighing his next words. He hadn’t really talked about the fact before but…]

They said Yashiro is one instance of herself. The same can probably be said of us. The question is… how many other instances of ourselves have ended up here, and to what end?

[It really was a confusing concept, if he sat down to think about it too much.]

[blindluck]

They said that about Naegi-sama and myself as well, when we asked about the inconsistencies in our memories. [So that does match up.] If you think about all the potential times you might have died over the course of your life before the one you actually remember... Well, it could be a lot, actually! Probably even more than you can come up with!

[There are so many ways to die! Yay!]

[toilet_bound]

I think I would have only had the two… or three… [He mutters, uncharacteristically quiet. There was a time before his first death… so long ago… but it’s hazy in his mind.] Oh well! People are fragile, after all~

[blindluck]

They are. And maybe other versions of you could have died in ways you'd never be able to predict. A lightning strike, or a meteorite! [Nagito seems to consider these very legitimate things to take into account.]