thecrossinglogs | Therapy Session Take #1

Entry tags:

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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It can hardly be called a speech, can it? I just wanted to acknowledge what the others did for me. It wasn't a given, you know? We really are lucky to be in such kind people's company.

[She's glad that he attended the meeting as well. For a ghost boy, he's very sociable, she finds.]

But it seems like it remains hard for everyone to share their deepest feelings in a group setting. It's no different for me, either.

I guess that depends on your definition of a speech? [Clearly, Frieda didn’t think her own attempt at sharing had been such.] You are right though… the people here do seem to be quite kindhearted. [He wondered, briefly, if it was circumstance. That certain kinds of people might be ‘called’ here… another factor to consider.]

Ah, is that really strange though? I imagine not a lot of people would want to share such personal aspects with people they hardly know~

[And even with people they did… secrets were a burden. Dark, nasty, guilt-ridden things.]

[Granted, if pressed, Frieda would be quick to exclude herself from her positive assessment of the group, and she knows several others who don't think so highly of themselves either... but from her perspective, all of the others have been good to each other, and clearly, the same applies to her as far as they are concerned.]

You're right. Perhaps this idea was doomed to fail from the start - after all, only a few of us witnessed each others' memories during the Crossing, and laying them bare in front of those who didn't just wouldn't feel right.

[She wonders... would she feel comfortable addressing the burdens she carried in life with a smaller group containing only Need, Thara, Sunny, Mari, Soo Won and Makoto? Even that would feel overwhelming. Besides, what is there to say? None of them could change anything. Their sympathy and, in several cases, assurance that she was given an impossible task already provided as much solace as she could possibly have asked for.]

[Hanako takes in her words, silent for a few moments.

When he speaks again, that joking tone that he’s used so often is gone.]

Just because people might be unwilling to talk doesn’t mean it’s ‘doomed.’ It’s a process - and from what I’ve been able to gather, you all haven’t known each other for long.

[He frowns slightly, averting his gaze.] Sorry if I made it seem otherwise.

Don't apologise! You said nothing wrong. I just feel, in hindsight...

[That Mari was too optimistic in her endeavour - but she doesn't want to say that, lest the other girl might overhear and feel discouraged.]

It's as you say: Such things take time.

...

How long have you been a ghost, again?

[His assessment showed an understanding of human nature well beyond his years, she thinks.]

[His gaze flicked briefly to the girl who had welcomed them. She put together this meeting; it was only right for her to come to her own conclusions about how it went.

Hanako could be blunt, but he tried to not be cruel.

Frieda’s inquiry draws him back into the conversation.]

Mmmm… for quite a while. Time’s a little weird but… [He does some mental math, then perks up.] Fifty years~? [At least. He doesn’t seem the surest about that.]

Edited (typo xd) 2025-03-17 14:30 (UTC)

[That's a long time - not in historical terms, perhaps, but it's half as long as the Walls have existed.]

And in all that time, you've stayed in the school and only interacted with the students there?

[It must have been odd, to remain among peers that entire while, never growing up... she wonders, has he really matured, or was he simply a mature boy to begin with?]

Hmmm… see, there were also teachers and other apparitions but… not everyone could interact with me. Only those with strong spiritual prowess or close to death were able to summon me.

[Which meant, if Frieda thought hard enough about that admission, Hanako hadn’t really had many people to talk to at all. It didn’t seem to bother him outwardly but…]

But yes! I couldn’t leave the school, since my rumors tied to there, but that didn’t mean I had to stay in the bathroom either. I could roam the entire grounds if I wanted!

[Upsides, right? Right??]

[Being confined to the school definitely beats being confined to the bathroom! A faint smile creeps back onto her face.]

Did you attend many classes, then?

[Did you further your interrupted education, Hanako? Or did you just play around?]

Ehehehe~ I still had a job to do, you know? It’s fun sitting in on Yashiro’s classes every once in a while.

[Not really a direct answer on if he had learned anything. And he mostly showed up to tease her, or check on her, or when he was bored ~~or lonely~~.]

You seem knowledgeable on the subject though. Did you attend a school too?

[She shakes her head.]

I had a private tutor.

[Nobility privileges! More importantly, though...]

Yashiro is from your world? From your school, even?

[She looks over at the (mostly) blonde girl. Did they die together, then..? Or did Yashiro die, and Hanako, who was already dead, got transported here along with her? The former scenario happened to Kel and Sunny, after all... at least in Kel's memory. She frowns a little. This whole "parallel timelines" matter is still troubling her in the back of her mind.]

Ooooh, fancy~!

[That’s exactly what it sounded like. A private tutor… those had been rare and expensive in Hanako’s time.

He seems to brighten at being able to talk about Yashiro, even if there was something fond in his gaze.]

Yep~! She’s a student at the modern day Kagome Academy. If she wasn’t, then I wouldn’t have been able to meet her!

[Nothing on the note of being from the same ‘world.’ The Ferryman’s words still rung in the back of his mind. It didn’t change anything; it wouldn’t.]

I'm glad that neither of you two is alone among strangers here.

[Even so, there's something wistful in her gaze... isn't it sad that two children died so early in life? Hanako and Yashiro seem to be the youngest in the group, now. She wonders what happened, but despite their shared situation, asking how people died still feels invasive, somehow. Instead, she asks:]

How did you get to know each other?

[Hanako hummed, not commenting but… it as a conflicting feeling. Yashiro being here made him happy, but the idea that Yashiro was dead… it was like ripping what had been left of his heart out.

She was the same. Even if she hadn’t come from the same place, the same time… he’d make sure she remained herself.

Hanako was used to being alone, but loneliness was harder to swallow when he had been shown what genuine friendship was like.]

Ah! She came to me for some help. See, she had a boy she thought she liked and wanted to win his affections. All that planning didn’t really work out, and one thing led to the next… Yashiro got herself in trouble, I got her out of it~ And I got an assistant out of her blunder too~!

[He totally skipped a few scenes and context there, but that was the short of it.]

That sounds like quite the story.

[He may have compressed it an awful lot, but her mind fills the gaps with school shenanigans. There's a hint of teasing in her voice as she remarks:]

I had no idea that assisting people with love troubles fell into the remit of school ghosts.

It was~!

[There is only so much he will say (seriously) on the subject, as there are some secrets that aren’t his to give. And that aren’t really relevant anymore - that much he has verified.]

Ehehehe~ well, normally it isn’t! That was a first for me too! But I grant wishes, and that’s what she wanted.

[Not that it had worked out for her. It worked out nicely for Hanako, in several ways.]

You grant wishes? Any kind?

[Of course, if he really possessed such powers, she has no doubt that they didn't persist through the journey here, but the prospect alone is quite amazing.]

“That’s right. In exchange for something precious, I grant one wish for the living…” He smiled, then shrugged half-heartedly. “Or at least that’s how it worked before I got here. No spiritual powers, no granting wishes.”

How did you attain such powers? Weren't you a normal human boy, once? It it just something that comes with being a ghost in your world?

[She half expects him to proudly explain that of course, only the seven wonders of Kagome Academy or only him alone, even! - can accomplish feats like that... but who knows?]

That’s right~! [Not that he’s offering the specifics of his time before becoming a ghost but…] Apparitions are influenced by their rumors, see? Mine was… ‘Hanako-San of the Toilet: in exchange for something precious to you, she will grant you whatever you desire’… so really the students were responsible for that!

[Were they though, really? He seems to think so. And yet there’s also evidence that suggests otherwise… but Hanako only knows what he knows. Other than that, nothing else had shaped his rumor in a long time.]

It's no wonder they thought you were a girl since you were bound to the girls' bathroom, but that must've been a surprise for anyone who visited you!

[Her amusement fades into wistfulness.]

It's a pity, though, that all our powers are gone. We might be able to accomplish much more her if we still had them.

Ahaha~ it really was! [He sounds happy about that - the surprise of being discovered as something ‘not expected.’ Yashiro’s reaction had been funny too!]

And it is, isn’t it~? It’s a pain but… I’m not in charge here, so I’ll have to make do. [It isn’t the first time he’s had to deal with not having his haku-joudai around.] Still… whoever’s running this place is seriously interrupting my business~ I’ll have to have a word with them eventually.

[That makes her recall her most recent conversation with their lantern-wielding guardian...]

The Ferryman confirmed that there's a hierarchy above, but didn't name any names. We haven't seen anybody else, either.

[In other words: Good luck getting that complaint in, Hanako! But then, perhaps the Ferryman can forward it.]

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…]

[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.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

When Frieda’s thoughts are 100% correct, but Hanako has reasons for not saying that XD

He loves his little secrets!

That he does~ Much to everyone’s chagrin XD

no subject

no subject

no subject