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

[hasapoint]

"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.

[protectorofkouka]

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."

[hasapoint]

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."

[protectorofkouka]

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?"

[hasapoint]

"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."