Log - We Need to Talk (Open)

[graveyounglady]

Who: Mercy Graves & OTA
When: Early/mid-November
Where: Around the ADI HQ
Summary: Going to some counseling sessions and offering her own counseling services.
Warnings: Will add as they come up!

A. Attending Counseling
It might be the first time she's here or the third or fourth. Stepping through the doors to the counseling center in ADI never does get much easier. She'd feel better if it were some sort of temple, maybe, knowing there were clerics behind the doors or some other leader. At least she knows that some of the time, there is another cleric. Caduceus when he's in is someone she feels safe with.

And today, she has someone else with her. Maybe an old friend, maybe someone she's only just met. They might be there to meet with Caduceus to talk or it might be someone else working in this department.

"You feeling all right with this?"


B. Mealtime Wisdom
It's not just Mercy who needs help. She knows others do, and some of them don't seem keen to head to the counseling center. That doesn't mean she can't lend an ear for those that might want it. She notices someone sitting alone in the canteen when she steps in during lunch or dinner. Maybe they're new, maybe they've been here a while and just look lonely to her eyes. Either way, she steps close to the table.

"This here seat taken? Don't much like eating by myself. Makes it dull as hemming a skirt."

Comments

[graveyounglady]

Beauregard?

[That's not a name Mercy's familiar with, yet. But she does smile at Caduceus as she leads Aelwyn in and seats the pair of them on the sofa.]

Is that someone you met here or from home?

[thatsreallygreat]

Yeah! Beau and I know each other. She's in the Nein with me, [he adds, looking at Mercy as he answers that particular question. He'd been surprised to find her here, but also a little grateful. He isn't sure he'd wish this on anyone, but it's nice to have someone familiar around. Someone who remembers the same things he does.]

It's nice to meet you, Aelwyn. I'm Caduceus Clay.

[He reaches to take Aelwyn's hand, dwarfing it in his own. He's gentle, though, and lets go soon enough so he can sit down and get comfortable.]

[aelwyn_aberration]

She's cool. We've worked together a few times.

[Aelwyn will take a seat next to Mercy, and considers reaching for her hand again. This is a test. That's the only way she's managed to understand counseling. Would reaching out for comfort be the right or wrong answer...?

Hmm, she'll reach for it, but in a way that comes across like she's reassuring Mercy... Oh yeah, she's passing counselling, something that is both possible to achieve and normal to want.]

I'll admit, this practice is fairly new to me, so I'm not sure how we're supposed to... start.

[graveyounglady]

[Mercy casts a glance and a grateful smile at Aelwyn. Whether the hand is for her comfort or the other woman's she appreciates it.]

Um... right. Well, going off of things... I guess, I'm still looking to just-just talk about some of the things that've happened recently. I know you went through them, too, Caduceus. Everyone here did. It's just... All that dying and coming back and dying again and again- It was unnatural. I think that's what made it the worst thing I seen so far here. It's all scary, but that's just not right, you know? It felt like someone mocking the cycle, you know?

[thatsreallygreat]

Yeah, I know, [he says gently, immediately sympathizing with Mercy's reaction to the unnatural cycle. It bothered him deeply. It's not right.] I felt the same about it. What happened is a--an abomination against the proper order of things.

[It is one thing to spare someone who has not yet fulfilled their purpose, but in the end, death will always come. And it is not truly his place to push a life past its natural conclusion. It's no one's place.

Caduceus gets comfortable and focuses on Mercy for the time being, giving Aelwyn a chance to settle more and observe the proceedings.]

How are you doing, little sister? [he asks, voice still even and as soothing as he can make it.]

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Aelwyn stays quiet, mainly because she'd rather not be talked to, but also because she quite strongly disagrees with the idea of there being a natural order that can't be tampered with.

Death, like anything, is a force to be manipulated. She's a wizard, she doesn't hold it in any sort of sacred standard. But she supposes it's only natural that they'd both see it that way, given their respective faith.

To her, it's not that death was being circumvented... it's that her understanding of reality was being fucked with. She didn't know where she was, what was real, who she really knew, what she'd done, if she was even alive or not. It was horrible.]

[graveyounglady]

[Mercy's hand squeezes Aelwyn's again, more for herself this time than anyone else.]

I just feel lost, I guess. Guilty? Like what I did, how I became one of the things killing folk...

I ain't got a problem with putting someone in the ground by my own hand. That needs doing, now and again. [A glance at Aelwyn as she recalls the horrible fire, everything burning, as they'd taken down the Abbot in that nightmare.] I wasn't thinking about who deserved it, though. It was just... I just wanted them to be still, to be cold. Whoever it was, whether I knew them or not. I wanted them dead. I'm scared of feeling that way again somehow. Of doing harm for it.