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]

"Is that what you do? I... try not to talk about some of the bad things that've happened, but that don't mean I don't spend time ruminating on them when it's quiet. Think that's part of why I like being around folk. Harder to get trapped in your own thoughts that way."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm breathes a laugh out down at his coffee, then looks at her.

"That's absolutely what I do and back home I work as much as possible to avoid living inside my own head. Unfortunately, the work here is less... absorbing. But, I guess, fortunately I have good roommates, so there are always other people around. This is the first time I've ever lived with anyone outside of my family, and that was only while I was growing up."

[graveyounglady]

"What would make it more absorbing?" Mercy tilts her head. "Maybe they ain't got you doing the right kinds of work." He might be here for her benefit, but she's going to try to help him, in turn.

[abrightboy]

“I hunt murderers at home. Human monsters with motivations I don’t agree with but do understand,” he explains to her. “They’re puzzles I take apart to protect people. I can’t do much to protect people here, where my nightmares murder my friends and actual monsters overpower me to do whatever they want.”

[graveyounglady]

She falls quiet for a moment because those concerns aren't unfamiliar, certainly. "We got a bigger puzzle here, that's for sure. One I ain't got much in the way of experience with. Truth be told, I never seen magic like they got here in my world. It's all... natural stuff. The way the plants grow and you feed the soil and healing arts.

"All of this has got the cast of something wicked, the like you hear about in stories, but never see. Like one of the evilest gods is ruling over this place, pulling it apart. Have you got magic back in your world, at all?"

[abrightboy]

“No,” he tells her. “No, not at all. But we do have evil and I’ve seen a lot of it.”

[graveyounglady]

"Suppose you don't need gods for evil, aye." Mercy sighs, glancing off to the side. "It'd be nice if folk didn't pick at each other while we got bigger problems."

[abrightboy]

“I think you’ve summed up every problem with the human race,” Malcolm points out.

[graveyounglady]

Mercy huffs. "There's the occasional picking that needs doing when someone's making a problem they shouldn't be, at least. Taking more than their fair share and the like."

[abrightboy]

"Well, they become the bigger problem, don't they?" Malcolm says with a light laugh.

[graveyounglady]

"Suppose, but don't that bring at least some of this down to the sort of thing you're used to? Avatar's, they're... they were people, right? Maybe some of them still are, after a fashion, just god-touched." With all the blessings and curses that come of such things, if the old stories are to be believed.

"Reckon you could still figure out the people part of it, even if some of the cursed things isn't part of your trade."

[abrightboy]

"I suppose so," he admits. "It just... feels so different. It feels weird and wrong."

[graveyounglady]

"Because it's magic? Or because it's all evil?"

[abrightboy]

"Must be the magic," he concedes. "I'm used to the evil."

[graveyounglady]

Mercy thinks on that for a long moment. "Thinking maybe magic's got different meanings to different folk. What's magic to you?"

[abrightboy]

"What do you mean, it's different to different people? I'm not sure I understand what kinds there even are," he admits.

[graveyounglady]

"I mean... there're things here I'd think of as magic. The way that plants grow and thrive, how birds know when the spring is coming and set out their nests, or how the seasons turn. But most people here don't seem to think that's anything much. It's... amazing, though, ain't it? That's magic to me. And learning to read the patterns or cultivate things to grow better, that's a form or practicing magic for my people."

[abrightboy]

"Oh, that's like.... Clarke's Third Law stuff. No, I mean... mystical... magic. I guess. We don't have magic where I'm from, so... yeah, I don't think I even have the magical education level required to go into it," he admits.

[graveyounglady]

Mercy blinks a few times. "Can't rightly say I ever heard of Clark or his laws. Is that god?"

[abrightboy]

"Uh... no. No, he's more like.... a philosopher," he settles on. Then moves on quickly. "Anyway, the point is that the whole... mystical element adds a layer I don't really know anything about. Is there somewhere here to learn about it?"

[graveyounglady]

"Talking to folk, maybe? Or reading up on the lore they got in books here. Or on the Internet. That's got all kinds of things to tell. I know the magic from my own world. This one? Well, it's the folk that're from here who'd have the best idea, ain't it?"

[abrightboy]

"I guess so," he concedes. "I'll have to give that a try." He studies her for a moment. "I have to get back to work but... thanks. Food for thought."

[graveyounglady]

"'Course! Thanks for coming to talk to me, sir. Much obliged." She offers him a gentle smile and a nod.