Therapy in the gardens. (Needs any doctor)

[adellausername]

Adella was having a pretty nice day, at the moment. To be fair, she hadn't woken up in a nice day. But then she heard she was going to have her therapy in the gardens, and she was rather looking forward to that. Every so often over the years she'd get to go on field trips, or outside. The doctors said it was good for her not to be locked up inside all year round, and she always rather enjoyed these times out. They were on to something, she thought at least, because every time she was out around nature she could feel herself relax.

Nature spirits were almost always so gentle, she couldn't help but be at peace around the plants. Plants never judged you, they didn't know how. They simple were. They gave you food, or air, or shade, or pleasant pretty smells and sights, and they asked for nothing in return. Sometimes Adella wished she were a plant, or a great big tree, but she knew that was impossible.

Adella smiled at the orderly escorting her for the day and took a seat on the bench until the doctor would come. She wondered what they would talk about, it was a new doctor after all. They did have files and things on her. She often wondered what those files said, but they'd never let her read them. Then again, she'd probably have a hard time reading them anyways.
"You can sit too if you want." she offered idly to her escort. It was generally a bad idea for her to be alone, that was always when the demons and monsters would come out the most. No, she agreed with their keeping an eye on her, it was good, it helped keep her safe. Usually.

[Joan Leland]

Dr Leland had been working hard to catch up on the latest patient to be transferred into Arkham. The files had been read, old doctors had been spoken to and there was something that interested Joan about this case. Adella seemed to be innocent. Joan naturally did have concerns over exposing her to the high level criminals in Arkham but with the FBI threatening to change any number of things perhaps that wouldn't be a concern for long. She intended to keep a very close eye on things anyway.

It was a few minutes before she walked out into the gardens, Adella's file and a fresh pad to make notes on tucked under one arm. She softly smiled as she caught sight of Adella and the orderly and walked across the grass towards the bench where she'd chosen to sit, a polite nod goes to the orderly but the girl gets nearly all the attention "Good morning Adella, do you mind if I have a seat?" waiting patiently to be accepted onto the bench before she sits next to Adella.

There were a lot of things in Adella's file, everything from the official report from the investigation into her mother's death and Adella's story to accompany it to medical reports and indeed even the smaller details, like she enjoys being outside. After years stuck inside that was no surprised of course but Arkham had some excellent gardens and it was no coincidence that Joan had decided to make use of them today. Besides, they were far nicer than the inside of the building "My name is Dr Leland. How are you settling in so far?" she eased into the session as if it was just a nice little chat out in the gardens.

[adellausername]

Adella looked up and smiled. Her new doctor was nice looking, she liked that.
"Sure! Have a seat!" she smiled, and was rather glad not to be seeing anything strange. At least for the moment. Everything was clear, not cloudy or foggy, and everything seemed to be in order. She answered when asked how she was settling in.
"I like it here very much. The grown ups have all been very nice so far." she admitted. She spoke as if she were younger than she was, which could have been a combination of her inability to keep time and memory loss, or her lack of a proper education.

She paused then to think though.
"Although...if it's not too much trouble..." she paused and glanced around, as if searching for anyone listening in and leaned in to whisper,
"May I have some crayons? The cell walls...they keep...I'd really like if I could color them... she admitted, glancing around again a little nervously, but settling down once she was satisfied nothing was listening in. She tugged at the over sized shirt a bit, habitually smoothing it as if it were a dress.

[Joan Leland]

Joan remembered something about the walls in Adella's file too, one doctor had even taken pictures once for the hope of some insight from them. She smiled reassuringly at the question and the was the girl behaved was already reminding her of the children she worked with when she was just starting out with her career "Of course, I'll send someone out to get some and you can decorate your room this evening" more likely she'd just go out herself when she had a moment to spare, though she considered that on the grotty walls of Arkham perhaps paints would be better. She'd simply get both, a little colour in one cell wouldn't hurt the look of the place.

That would be later though, after she's evaluated the girl. Files and the opinions of other doctors were fine but she liked to form her own ideas on the status of a patient "I'm sure you know how we doctors like to talk by now, perhaps we could do that for a while? Why is it, do you think, that you're here at Arkham?" of course she knew why Adella was there but she wanted to hear the girl's view on it.

[adellausername]

((I love what you bring to the posts, stuff I never even would have thought of. You're awesome. Certainly the best person playing a therapist I've found so far! ))

Adella beamed at being allowed crayons. She did have one other request, but she figured she should wait on that one. One at a time, she didn't want to be too needy. Besides, she could dance fine in bare feet anyways.
"Well, some doctors like to talk, others don't like to say much of anything." she corrected without thinking, and then blushed, realizing the correction might have been rude.
"Erm...I mean...Um..." not knowing how to correct that, she decided to move on to answering the question instead. She didn't really need to think much to answer it anyways.

"I'm here because of the monsters. They follow me around, but the mean ones seem to like it here. Something about the energy, or the people or something. I don't mind because sometimes they'll go harass someone else sometimes, and that gives me a break." realizing what she said seemed selfish, she quickly panicked and tried to justify what she meant,
"I-I mean, not that that's a good thing! I don't want others unhappy, it's just nice sometimes to have a break myself! I mean....um...awe man..." she slumped, realizing she was probably making a horrible first impression.
"Let me try again." she decided, taking a deep breath and sitting up with a smile. She held out a hand to shake as if they were meeting for the first time just then.

"I'm Adella, and I'm here because the monsters like it here, and they don't attack me as much if I'm around people. Most of them, anyways. Usually. At least at first." Her eyes were quite serious, she believed full heartily every word she said. She knew they wouldn't believe her, not until they saw things for themselves, but that was okay. Even after, a lot of doctors in the past had insisted on labeling it as something else, explaining it with logic. It must have been comforting to them, she imagined.

[Joan Leland]

Joan's smile widened a little each time the girl tried to back track and correct her words "Don't worry Adella, I understand what you mean. Every doctor works in their own way, I'm one who talks, or listens. Whichever is needed more" she withdrew a pen from her pocket but didn't begin writing yet, listening carefully to the talk of monsters instead.

Again she feels the need to reassure after Adella corrects herself, she'll never get truthful answers if the girl is worrying about what she's saying and she does want Adella to relax "Don't worry, everyone needs a break and I'm sure the others will be fine" considering from the information in the files she believed the monsters where all in Adella's mind she was more concerned about the monsterous criminals Arkham housed than figments of imagination from a young woman's coping mechanism "Can you tell me more about the monsters and what they do, when they first appeared? Are they here now?"

[adellausername]

Adella fidgeted, looking around, but didn't see anything.
"N-no, they're not around right now. They're city monsters, they like buildings, not nature. And they've been around for always, ever since I was really little. Mommy tried to warn me, tried to tell me, but then..." her voice dropped to a whisper,
"She disappeared." she grew quiet for a moment, and then quickly continued on the subject, but away from that subject.
"They do different things, depends on the monster. There's also d-d-d...well, the things with the horns from the books with the fire and stuff. Those go around nature, if I say what they are they might come, so I'd better not." she decided, adjusting her shirt again.
"But you'll see, once they find me. They always find me in he new places, even if it takes a little bit. You'll see, but you might not believe it." she explained sadly. She rather disliked the trouble they caused, but she wasn't strong enough to stop it herself, not really. But she knew, eventually, they'd come here too. They'd flick the lights on and off, they'd make the walls bleed, they'd hide the guard's keys, they'd open and lock doors as they pleased...it was just generally trouble. She hopped they wouldn't be too much trouble, she liked it here after all.

[Joan Leland]

Joan's pen finally began to silently dance over the blank pad she balanced on her knee. She knew of the disappearance of Adella's mother in a lot more detail than the girl was straight away revealing but Joan expected that, there were very few people who liked to talk about that sort of thing and while she knew she would have to go into detail on the subject later for now Joan focused on the monsters.

Most don't like nature, that's interesting. Joan was still firmly of the belief that they didn't exist so the question was what was it about nature that made Adella's mind behave differently "Why is it you think they don't like it out here? Do any of them speak to you or communicate at all?" the word 'demons' was also jotted down with a question mark and the note she doesn't like to name them. Something else for investigation. It was an interesting case.

[adellausername]

Adella hadn't ever really thought about why the city monsters didn't like nature so much. She did, her face scrunching up in concentration, then easing as she shrugged.
"I guess they're just not used to it. I mean, Slender Men and stuff like the trees and the city, but most of the city things like pavement more I guess. The energy's a lot different in nature." she gave the answer her best try, though she didn't know if that was right or not. Luckily, the second was easier to answer.
"Well, usually I'm the only one that can see them. The monsters talk in sort of gurgles and stuff, a normal person wouldn't understand them. But they also do like the ghosts and spirits, where they give sort of feelings, or images or words in my head. Ghosts never ever talk, they don't make a sound. But they're really good at emotion, like feeling safe or afraid if they're bad or good. And images." she explained. it all seemed perfectly logical and reasonable to her, but usually other people didn't get it.

"Um...when they find me..." she didn't like the idea of them finding her at all, but she knew they would. She loved the nice ones, they were like family, it was the rest she was scared of, the mean ones.
"Some are nice, and some are bad. The bad ones make you scared, like the hair stands up on your neck and your skin gets prickly. I-I know a few things, for if it gets really bad. Salt lines and iron work as good barriers. Sometimes I can do protection circles, but sometimes I forget one of the parts of it and it won't work. Salt's a safer bet. I-I know you don't believe me now, some people don't even believe me after, b-but it can't hurt to be on the safe side, right? M-Maybe you should carry some salt with you. Just in case?" She winced, her nice new doctor lady probably wouldn't believe her. They never did. She had lost nice doctor ladies that way, the demons particularly liked to disappear ladies that were nice to Adella.
"I-I'd feel a lot better if you did. Carry some salt I mean. Then if anything unexplained or imaginary tries to hurt you, you can make it go poof." It wasn't much, but every little thing would help when the demons got their. And they always did.


((The next thing I'm going to post after this session is "It Begins", which will essentially be some of the things finding Adella and making things go haywire around the asylum. Little things like normally docile NPC patients start having night terrors, doors locking and unlocking at random, lights flickering and electronics getting static randomly, small stuff that can still be explained away by avid non-believers.

If you want to, you could post something messing with Joan. Think like the usual spooky stuff that happens in haunting movies, unless you want to have a more serious attack thing. Or just nightmares, things getting moved around the house, seeing things out of the corner of her eye, that stuff. Just if you want though. ))

[Joan Leland]

Dr. Leland kept to making her notes as Adella talked, mostly listening but interrupting at points she felt could be important, for instance there was a little flash of confusion "Slender Men?" many theories flashed through her head at that but she also made a mental note to do some research on demon mythology later and see how much could have come straight from a book.

She nodded slowly at the talk of different monsters, jotting down their lack of communication and her theories on that. Would not talking make them scarier? Did she simply not face the messages that her tragic history had left to lurk in her mind as these monsters or was it more a representation of something? Was there significance in the difference between monsters and ghosts? "And what are the ghosts like? Do you have specific ones that stay around or are they always different? Do you know anything about any of them like things about their lives?" the salt made barely a mention in the files, the protection circles had been far more interesting to study after all but in the end placed down to a strange fascination in demons and the various myths on them.

Now Joan had seen a lot of strange things living in Gotham so long but still she didn't believe in monsters, past some of the criminals they got. She briefly considered the possibility of Adella being subjected to some experiment, the result of which was this. With the various insane scientists running around it was a small possibility, though far more likely than actual demons and ghosts following about a child for years as far as she was concerned. She'd check the medical records more closely later and perhaps find an expert to get the opinion of. Still for now she nodded, humouring Adella's concerns with just a smile "I believe I have some at home already, I'll leave a box in my office just in case" she wouldn't but if it helped Adella she'd say she did.

((Sounds cool! Certainly would be happy to have weird things happen around Joan too, starting out small and spooky seems best too, it's more mysterious and a fun build up to perhaps something more serious happening sometime in the future))

[adellausername]

Adella was getting tired of this conversation, she knew the nice lady wouldn't believe her anyways. They didn't like to believe such things.
"They're not always the same. They don't talk. I don't know." she could tell Joan was lying when she mentioned keeping salt in her office, just trying to humor her. The others had done that sometimes too. Now they were missing.
"Your funeral..." she whispered very quietly, then spoke up again.
"I don't want to talk anymore, if that's all right with you." she decided, looking off and around at all the plants. She wasn't trying to be rude, but it was clear she was getting just a little bit irritated.
"You'll see, or they'll lock you up too. One or the other." she certainly didn't mean it as any kind of threat, more as something she had seen happen before. A warning of sorts, though she knew Joan wouldn't listen.

[Joan Leland]

The conversation seemed to be going south and Joan could see Adella's slight irritation. Given how many doctors she'd been through Joan could even guess the reason. She held up a hand to try and calm the girl before she ended the session entirely "Alright Adella, if you want to we can stop or I can change the subject but I'm sorry and I really will see to the salt. I'll place a box in one of the draws of my desk. Then if something happens it'll be there, alright?" whether the orderlies would happily hand over a large amount of salt to a mentally ill girl was another matter but at least Joan this time was being genuine. After all if it made Adella trust her then she saw no harm in leaving a box of salt in her desk, particularly since she expected no reason to need it except perhaps occasionally for lunch.

At the same time she jotted down Adella's warnings, with a note to have her in one of the rooms the security cameras could get a good view of. She'd either get proof nothing happened or, and she slightly worried over the thought, proof Adella wasn't quite as innocent as she hoped. Which was still more likely than demons.