22 Phoenix place, Wednesday afternoon

[sharp_as_knives]

So, the group therapy sessions were to begin today. There hadn't been much terrible island trauma in some time, but there had been the minor ones, and surely some people had issues of their own. Hannibal was curious to see how many would show. The chairs and sofas in his office had been arranged into a loose and seemingly haphazard grouping designed to eliminate pressure from any one position.

After some deliberation, he'd decided that the food shouldn't overpower the discussion, and had gone with an assortment of very good cheeses, a few homemade sausages, fresh-baked bread and crackers, and a few types of jam. Plus, naturally, coffee, tea, and water.

When the time came to start, he nodded at the people there. "Before we begin, I must insist on a few things. First, there is to be no judgement. You may question each other, you may say you would do things differently, but this is to be a supportive environment for all. Also, anything said here remains here. Unless you are explicitly told otherwise, whatever you hear is not to be repeated." He waved toward the rear of the house. "The squirrels are currently working on a ridiculously good bottle of rum. The rest of you will simply have to be trustworthy."

He looked them over. "I thought to begin, we might start with stories. What is something you have had happen to you on the island - good or bad - that you would never have conceived of where you came from? And also, if you will, what is it you hope to get from this group, if anything?"

Hannibal smiled. "I can say from my own perspective that there are many things I never would have conceived of. Meeting aliens, being possessed, being a woman, being a child. It's fascinating, but it was quite an adjustment. And what I'm hoping for is to help people to make that adjustment." He looked expectant and waited for the next person to speak up.


[OOC: Open post! Other than who came and what Hannibal set up the office for, the rest is NFB due to therapy and squirrel bribes.]

Comments

Arrive and mingle!

[sharp_as_knives]

Enjoy the food, talk to Hannibal, or talk amongst yourselves!

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa had noticed the advertisements for this last week, and had been given a week to attempt (and fail) to talk herself out of this. The truth of the matter was, while she was doing better than she used to be, she still had a long way to go, and a kingdom to rule in what was quickly becoming no time at all.

So, here she was, looking a bit nervous. And trying desperately to shoo the little snow cloud that had followed her here back out the door before stepping inside.

"You'll get snow on the floor," she admonished. "You need to wait outside."

It had been a weird week.

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal opened the door and smiled. "Elsa. Please come in."

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Doctor Lecter," Elsa replied, nodding her head politely as she stepped inside, attempting to shoo Nimbus back out the door. The cloud... didn't seem so big on that idea. But really, it had been a miracle that she'd managed to leave the dog back in her room. She kind of had to pick her battles, here. "Thank you. And how are you today?"

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[sharp_as_knives]

"I'm well, thank you. And you? And your..." cloud "friend?"

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka was... not here for the meeting. She did not even know there was a meeting. Please rope her into the meeting.

Rather, she was looking for Jono.

And since this was where she'd painted pillows with him, she'd actually braved the town all by herself (okay, with her giraffe in her arms) to come here to see him.

That it wasn't actually his house was something she didn't know. She peeked inside hopefully, then sidled further into the house, looking for Jono.

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[furnaceface]

Well, it wasn't his house in the same way that Fandom wasn't his island. Just because his name wasn't on the paperwork didn't mean he didn't more or less consider it home, these days.

... He sometimes went to his own apartment! Mostly to grab boxes of music. Which just mysteriously never made it back that way.

And he was hanging around in the front room as people arrived, mostly so that the cats wouldn't make a beeline for the great outdoors. One of them was deaf and the other was Joni. Neither would end terribly well, really.

//Alluka, luv!// He gave her a little nod as she peered in. //Good to see you, Sunshine.//

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[that_oldsaying]

The way she brightened at his greeting, and the way she beamed as she homed in on his location, really should have lit up a room with her joy.

"Jono, Jono, Jono!" she said, and bounced over for a hug. "Hi!"

Re: Arrive and mingle!

[furnaceface]

A hug! Jono was braced and ready for that as Alluka bounded up to him, holding his arms open and picking her up for a little (careful, as they were indoors) twirl.

//Hello there! And how're you today?//

Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

Talk to Hannibal or amongst yourselves with intent.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

So, there was Elsa, still looking fairly nervous.

"A few months ago, I was one of the people who fell under Leland Gaunt's thrall," she said, her voice soft. "And that was bad enough, but there was something that I did that I can't completely shake."

She bit her lip, and then shook her head a little.

"I have ice powers, and I traded my mother's tiara for a charm that would give me complete control over them. I know that it's a shortcut, I'm not going to try to justify it. I can't, beyond that I was afraid, and the easy way is much more appealing when you're scared. And most of what I could do didn't really surprise me. But when I made animals - wolves, mostly - they weren't... weren't just puppeted ice. They seemed intelligent. Alive."

A bit like the teenytiny snow cloud. Please don't ask about the snow cloud.

"I'm here because I need to stop being afraid of myself the way that I am, especially given the amount of responsibility that I'll have back home. And that will involve a lot of accepting what I can do, and the gravity of all of it. I... I have to stop hiding from the world, but even more than that, I have to stop hiding from myself."

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded at her. "It's a good goal to have. And you're doing very well by admitting it; that already means you've stopped hiding to some extent, doesn't it?"

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"To some extent, yes," Elsa agreed, smiling just faintly. "Although, it did take me quite some time to be able to admit that I even had powers. Papa always taught me, 'conceal, don't feel,' since I was very small."

And she'd kind of embraced it. A lot.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal frowned faintly. "And why was that?"

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[furnaceface]

Jono was here mostly for Alluka's sake, but it seemed in poor taste, somehow, for him to be in the room listening to people speak without sharing, himself. And besides, him talking might even encourage Alluka to do so. He couldn't see anything wrong about that.

//Honestly, there isn't much that the island can throw at me that I can't imagine happening back in my own world,// he admitted. //My particular flavour of Earth is... the dangerous side of insane on a good day, mostly. But what I did find here that I never really had back there and couldn't have fathomed having? Was a place to belong. A family, of sorts. I never really was that good at fitting in.//

He shrugged his shoulders. Even now, he didn't generally go out of his way to meet new people and make new friends. He was happy enough for it, really.

//Maybe I'll get better at that? Seems like something worth striving for, at least. I seem to burn bridges faster than I can build them, some days.//

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled at him. "Consider this a course in architecture, then. Or, perhaps, maintenance."

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//A course in perhaps starting fewer fires?// Jono allowed himself a moment of amusement. //Absolutely, then. I look forward to it.//

At the very least, maybe he'd be more selective about his fires.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka was perched on a chair, her legs drawn up under her chin, and her giraffe clutched tightly in her hands as she listened with big eyes. Most of the conversation went over her head, admittedly, but she listened and she'd remember.

She was pretty good at remembering.

Before she said anything herself, she snuck a couple of glances at Jono to make sure he was still there. His presence was pretty reassuring. Even moreso when he talked too, though she still played with her giraffe for a bit before venturing any of her own comments.

"I never had friends before coming here," she said, her big blue eyes troubled. "And, and I love having friends, and it's a lot of fun, but I know that having them means I'm being bad too. I'm not supposed to leave my room and now I'm out and going places and when," not if, when, "my parents find me, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble."

Fiddling with her giraffe, she continued with, "And I'm going to go home and, and that's okay, because I love my toys and my room, and even though I'm going to miss my friends, I don't want to cause problems for my parents, so… so I won't complain."

She was a good girl! She was. But she was being bad by being here and she knew that.

"But… but I don't understand why I can't stay here, when my brothers get to leave their rooms. I don't want to be bad, but I don't want to miss my friends either. And, and I wonder if maybe I'm like one of my toys."

Maybe she was supposed to be left on a shelf and only taken down when someone wanted to play. Alluka loved her toys, but she didn't love all of them equally. But she fell silent and just hugged her giraffe rather than try and explain that.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled at Alluka, using his most soothing and reassuring tones. "You certainly may stay here for the time being." And he was fairly certain that her friends - to say nothing of Jono - would have something to say to her parents trying to take her back. "Have you ever asked your parents why you're not supposed to leave your room?"

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[that_oldsaying]

She looked at him carefully, from over the top of her giraffe. It was both a shield and comfort.

Alluka hadn't known she'd need one today. She might have brought her bunny instead, had she known. After all, it knew her the best.

"Killua, one of my brothers, said that Mom and Dad said it was for safety reasons," she said, after a pause. "Mom and Dad never told me anything."

They... didn't really talk to her. At all.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Maybe there is some other way for you to be safe?" Hannibal suggested. Not that he believed it was for her safety she was kept locked away. "Do you know what the danger is?"

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa's heart was breaking. Elsa's heart was breaking, and she was looking down at her lap because otherwise it might be clear that there were the beginnings of tears in her eyes, and with somebody so young as this girl, who was trying so hard to understand why she had been locked away, crying now didn't seem like it would help anybody.

"My first friends in the world were here too," she offered, softly. "And... if there's one thing I've learned about friends from Fandom, it's that they'll do everything in their power to make certain that you have memories to cherish, whatever happens once you leave."

She couldn't speak of the girl's parents, not without really knowing the situation. But she did have that.

It was worth so much more than it seemed, at a glance.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[that_oldsaying]

It was probably worth a lot, but it was also one of those things that Alluka had a hard time picturing. Having both her room and her friends in her memories seemed awfully confusing, but not in a bad way.

"I have the best friends," she shared, since the other girl seemed kinda down. Alluka wasn't feeling that great either--this meeting wasn't fun at all--but she tried to think of something that might make both of them feel better. "And, and we can both make more, can't we? So there's going to be a lot of memories."

Her head was going to be terribly crowded.

Re: Therapy! Discuss!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"There will be, absolutely," Elsa agreed, smiling just slightly. "You and I could be friends, if you'd like. I'm a bit shy, and I don't usually like touching people, but if you'd like somebody to talk to about anything..."

She could relate to the girl herself, yes. But even more than that, she could see shades of Anna there; shades of a child who didn't understand why suddenly the entire world had been taken away from her, and nobody would explain what had happened.

At least with Elsa, a lot of her seclusion had been self-imposed. Anna had never been given the choice. Or so much as an explanation.

OOC!

[sharp_as_knives]

The idea of having OCD on a therapy post amuses me.

LJ's repeated refusal to do anything this morning does not.