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]

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.

Alas, she's been straight-edging this hard-knock life!

[urtitan]

[The dead aren't kind..? Her eyes rest on him with unspoken questions. He's an odd boy, that's for certain - blunt and cheerful and perceptive, and hard to read. She can't tell if his chipper attitude is genuine or merely a facade, and she doesn't feel like she has the right to try and peel it back, so for now, she accepts it at face value.

As for his assessment of her... well, how could he possibly know? She wants to shake her head, explain that it was more than just momentary shows of anger - but then, wasn't that how it manifested? At times, when someone close to her unwittingly evoked her ancestor's wrath, she'd channel him without being able to control herself, left to regret her words afterwards and unable to explain herself, her lips sealed by the vow.]

...

The dead, too, were once alive. I'm now part of the former group, but I still feel a great deal of attachment to the land of the living. However, that's why we're here, isn't it?

[toilet_bound]

That’s right. If the same logic holds true here. [For as chipper as he normally is, Hanako is being fairly calm and patient. Waiting for Frieda to come to her own conclusions on the matter.]

[urtitan]

[Her expression remains subtly saddened - the conclusion is clear: They, the newly dead, will become detached from the worlds of the living, too.]

There's only one way to find out - and we have no choice but to do so.

[She exhales. In a way, there's bitter irony in her path in death being as narrow and preordained as the one she walked in life, but she doesn't want to spread that sentiment and infect the others with her moroseness.]

[toilet_bound]

[Hanako is silent again, letting Frieda’s words sink in, then…

If he could float, he would have been petting her hair gently.]

There, there. I can’t promise that everything will work out, but keep striving and you will find answers. We aren’t alone in this, after all.

[He’s… trying to comfort her. Maybe it comes off more like he’s comforting a younger sibling (because, aside from Yashiro, that’s all he has experience doing…).]

[urtitan]

[It must seem easy to uplift her, what with the faint smile returning to her face at his words. Despite her sense of responsibility for those younger than herself, she's not above letting them cheer her up - and between her and Hanako, the age situation is a mess, anyway.]

That's true. We do have each other, and I'll try to keep my chin up until the end.

[She doesn't feel like she needs to tell him to do the same - besides his upbeat attitude, he likely has more experience with being dead than anyone else in their group.]

[toilet_bound]

“Good girl~” It’s praise, an apt reminder that, yes the age gap was a strange thing between them. Still, the fact that she’s willing to keep moving forward despite everything seems to relax him.

“Now… I’m sure there’s plenty of other people you’d like to catch up with. I’ll be around, don’t you worry!”

[urtitan]

[Now he's going too far, praising her like an adult would a child rather than a peer would a peer - but before she can get mildly huffy at him, he quite elegantly excuses himself, and she lets the matter go with a soft exhale.]

See you, Hanako.

[What an odd boy he is.]