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]

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.

[toilet_bound]

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.

[hasapoint]

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?"

[toilet_bound]

“‘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~”

[hasapoint]

"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?"

[toilet_bound]

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.

[hasapoint]

Need laughs. She'd only been in there briefly, her eyes slow to adjust to the darkness of the enclosed space, but she'd been able to see that more people were lurking at the edges of the room than sitting down. "You weren't in a chair either, were you?"

"I'm human, or I was," she points out. She hasn't been, exactly, in a very long time, but feels that being adjacent is important. Yes, she has gone and set herself apart from them and that distance has become quite large by now. No, that doesn't make them unimportant. "The living are fragile. Few of them understand, especially the young, what a knife's edge they walk on. But that's part of being young, to be optimistic and oblivious. Sometimes it works out spectacularly."

[toilet_bound]

“Nope~!” To be fair, Hanako is still getting used to having his feet firmly on the ground. Sure, he had the choice of walking around when he was a ghost, but floating was just so much more convenient, you know?

Need’s observation did peak his interest. “Oh, really? In my experience, mostly it just ends up in them being haunted or cursed or…” He shrugs. Well, dead like them. Not that it was his problem. Really, Kamome Academy had a strange surge of students turning into supernaturals.