4495/Persona:WTWM - The Doctor Is In

Persona:WTWM - The Doctor Is In
Date of Scene:	01 September 2016
Location:	Alberichstadt <P:WTWM>
Synopsis:	August visits the school nurse, and is in turn brought to the school therapist. Obviously these are inconsequential characters!
Cast of Characters:	1040, 1039, August Kohler
Tinyplot:	Persona: Were the World Mine-1

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Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    The nurse's office got a little bit of a makeover when the newest one got hired. Not too much - after all, the school has an /image/ to maintain. But slowly, over the course of the months since she began working here, Ran Itoh has been bringing in /cute things/. Not too many. Just a few new posters to replace the 'Hang In There, Baby!' kitten, like a bright and cheerful example of the human body's internal systems and a picture of a beautiful park setting.

    The curtains got traded out for something a little less clinical, a bit less depressing. The glass jars meant to hold tongue depressors and cotton balls got traded out for /cuter ones/.

    But there's really only so much Ran is allowed to do, because something something Germany something fancy rich kid school. Thank goodness her office is so close to Hikaru's, because not only does she get to spend time with the only other sane person at this school, but when two cheerful rooms are put next to each other, they look a bit more 'normal' comparatively.

    Ran Itoh isn't above using things like this to her advantage.

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    The sign says 'Hikaru Kurosawa, School Counselor'. He's still new enough that some students are surprised by the strange name - not every kid accesses school counselling services regularly! - but it's getting closer to six months now, so more and more people are getting used to him.

    The hall door opens up into a roomy area, deliberately arranged to maximise space to move around, with visual aesthetics which seem just a bit cheerier than the rooms around it, though they match the nurse's room perfectly. There's a couch (with a stuffed ferret toy amongst the cheery cushions!) and a couple of chairs around a round table, and a desk tucked away to the side with a flat-screen monitor resting on it, alongside a lot of paper print-outs. The window opens out into a view of the grounds, shielded by sunny curtains, with some manner of fern resting on a pot-plant beside it. On the opposite wall to the desk, there's a bookcase; alongside books, it hosts a collection of board games and other diversions. It's a good place to hide out for a bit.

August Kohler has posed:
August Kohler has been down this hallway quite a few times. He still stops to glance at the strange nametag for a second, but the redheaded German's goal isn't therapy. He knocks on the door to the nurse's office, waiting for approval to come in, before sliding it open. His school bag is over his shoulder, lopsided, as he moves in, takes a seat, and /then/ looks to see if the nurse is in. If she is, he speaks up. "Guten tag, Nurse...Itoh, right?" August hasn't actually been in the nurse's office more than once or twice since Ran came around, for whatever reason, but beforehand, he was quite the frequent visitor: bruises, scrapes, burns. For some reason, late last year, he stopped coming in. Maybe he stopped getting injured?

"I fell and got a bruise. Ice and some wrapping, please?" August glances at the foreign nurse, staring for a minute before he realizes it's rude. He speaks about his bruise quickly and almost with rehearsal, as if he's said it before. He presents his left wrist, which is swollen and bruised on the top, and there also seems to be some minor swelling on the bottom and on top of his right wrist. It's an odd mark for falling, as the boy smiles politely. "So, how is your day today, miss?"

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    "Guten tag," Ran replies easily, smiling. She doesn't have much of an accent at all, despite being from overseas. "That's right! You can call me Ran if you'd like, though." There are so many kids in this school, but Ran remembers most of them - at least, the frequent flyers. August hasn't been in very often, so... she /thinks/ she knows his name, but she'd better make sure. "Sorry, but... I'm not sure I remember your name. That's a good thing though, it means you don't get sick or injured very often~"

    Or that he just doesn't come here when he does.

    She takes a look at August's wrist, notes the way the swelling wraps all the way around. "Ara, that looks like it smarts. Don't worry, we'll get you fixed up in no time." The blonde smiles at August again, as easily as breathing, and retrieves an ice pack from the tiny refrigerator in one corner of her office. Folding it up in a clean hand towel, Ran wraps it gently around the boy's wrist. "My day's going pretty well! It's been slow in here, but that's good. --Leave that on it for a minute or two, I need to go get something."

    Oh man, don't let Hikaru know that she called him a thing!

    Ran leaves the door open as she steps out, and comes back a few moments later with two rolls of self-adhesive bandages and the school counselor. "Ne, do you mind if Hikky sits with us for a bit?"

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    It's okay, Hikaru can't hear what's going on in another room, your secret is safe.

    The school counselor's in a darker magneta shirt today, with a white tie with cute yellow flowers printed on it. Hikaru's still got the olive hair - he seems to like that colour! - and it settles around his shoulders as he waves to August. "I won't be much bother at all," he assures him.

August Kohler has posed:
"August Kohler." The redhead answers quietly, as he doesn't respond to her following statement. Instead he waits patiently for her to grab the icepack and towel, nodding to her as he speaks. "Thank you, Nurse Itoh." Guess he's not gonna call her Ran! He doesn't suspect anything as she leaves for a minute, as he begins tending to his bruise with the ice.

When Ran and Hikaru return, however, August glances for a minute. He's very obviously thinking, though he's trying his hardest to mask his thoughts right now, as he responds, calmly and clearly. "No, that's fine. Hello. Is it Mr. or Dr. Kurosawa? How are you?" The boyhas trouble making eye contact with either of them, as he continues to press the ice to his bruises. They're in a pretty specific pattern, as if he held up his arms in an X when they got bruised. "Is everything alright?"

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    She kind of didn't expect him to take her up on it. Most Germans are so stiff! Then again, casual people like herself and Hikaru aren't considered 'typical' Japanese either... "You're welcome~" she tells him, setting out a pair of short-bladed blunt tipped scissors next to the bandages. "Let's see, the new colors haven't gotten here yet so all I have right now is beige. Sorry, I guess that's probably pretty boring..."

    "You're not in trouble or anything," she hastens to assure August, nudging her rolling seat over to the boy's side and sitting down. "Just a few more minutes for the swelling to go down, and then I can wrap your wrist up." Ran glances over to make sure that she'd only left the door cracked when she returned with Hikaru. Good, less chance of anybody else overhearing... she may not be an intensely private individual, but she knows how important it is for people to have confidentiality. ...At the same time, she doesn't want to make August feel trapped with them by shutting the door entirely. It's a delicate balance!!

    She'll just... let Hikaru explain why he's here, because saying 'you're fibbing about your injuries!!' isn't something she's good at.

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    "Mister Kurosawa works," the school counselor says, "but Hikaru works just fine too!" Unlike Ran, Hikaru /does/ have a bit of an accent, but he's still reasonably easy to understand. Perhaps he just started speaking German later in his life. He takes a seat, one leg hitched up beneath the chair and the other splayed out in front, deliberately casual. He gestures with an open palm. "I'm doing pretty good, thanks. I just heard your wrist got hurt and I wanted to come in and see what was up. Sometimes things happen between students, but they don't want to talk about it because they feel like they'd be /telling/, you know? And hey, that's okay, I get it, no worries, there were things I didn't want to talk about when I was in school too."

    It's so vaguely-stated that it could have been a pleasant lie to get on August's side, even though it's the truth.

    He folds his hands in his lap, smiling. "I just wanted to check and see if anything was going on, just in case. No judgments here, August, we're not going to yell at you for something happening." He must've gotten the name from Ran when she dragged him in! He doesn't phrase his statement as 'were you hurt?' or 'are you being bullied?', not yet. Sometimes admitting something like /that/ is too much to start a conversation with. He just wants to open up the conversation.

August Kohler has posed:
"Mister Kurosawa." August repeats after him, as he listens to the man speak. He shifts a bit uncomfortably in his chair, though partway through it he reaches a hand into a pocket and sends a text message very quietly, sneakylike. He looks back up a second later, very noticably thinking of what to say. "I don't know what you're implying, sir. I got these bruises when I fell off my bed. I was an idiot, but I shoved my hands out to block the fall." Not that this explains why he put his hands facing inwards, not outwards. August speaks as if he's said this all before, though, in the past, as his eyes shift uncomfortably. It'd just seem that whatever nurse he told it to before didn't bring in a therapist.

And then, he decides to deflect. "You two seem very familiar with each other. Nicknames and such. Did you know each other outside the school? I'd hope it's nothing like fraternizing, I believe the school has policies on that." August bites his lip as he speaks, as his eyes turn up to the clock. Minutes are passing. This is going on longer than he had hoped.

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    Hikaru has always been better at knowing what to say. It's something Ran has always admired about him, even though she knows just why he's so practiced. "Auguuuuust," she sighs, apparently just as casual with students as she is with other members of staff. "We just said you weren't in trouble and we meant it. I brought Hikky in so that you could talk to him if you wanted to, not because I wanted to give you the fifth degree on how you got hurt."

    Ran checks his wrist, lifting the ice pack off of it and testing his range of motion with gentle hands. "Feeling better now? Tell me if it starts to hurt while I'm wrapping it. It'd be bad if your wrist was permanently injured from this." A layer of gauze goes on first with practiced motions. "And is that casual racism or sexism~~? It's rude to just assume stuff like that about people, ne?" She looks up at August with a smile, and winks one whiskey-colored eye. "But it's okay. I understand."

    "Hikky, do you want to tell August how we know each other? You're better at the story than I am." And there are things are aren't Ran's to tell.

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Hikaru notably does /not/ say anything about August sneakily sending text messages. He also doesn't say anything about how August's gaze shifts as he talks. "Hey, hey, it's okay. If it was just falling down, it's just falling down. Just, you know, if anything happens I wanted you to know I'm around, yeah? That's my job, after all."

    Then August deflects, and Hikaru smiles, shaking his head. He doesn't seem to take it too seriously. Ran explains out the first bit, and then taps him in for the explanation, and Hikaru gestures with a curled hand as he talks. "Well, see, it's like this..." A pause, as he considers how to tell the story. In the end, he settles on something not unlike the truth, told casually. "I was in a rough spot as a kid, and Ran helped me out of it. She and her family gave me a lot of support, and she ended up being my best friend! She was the reason I got into psychology, you know?"

    Hikaru grins. "I'm pretty sure we both just enabled each other's aesthetics, though. Not sure who to blame for that one."

August Kohler has posed:
"Alright." This is August's only reply, as he waits impatiently for Ran to finish wrapping his wrists. He nods when asked if it's starting to feel better, and then gets a bit flustered as Ran replies to his inquiry. "Th-that's not what I meant, that's why I asked, I wasn't assuming! I didn't mean it like that!" His face grows red as he turns and nods to Hikaru and his story. He looks like he's going to reply...before he looks past him at the clock. And the mirror. After staring at the mirror for a minute, he bites his lip tighter, before turning to Ran. "This is alright now, right? I can go?" August lifts his wrist up, before beginning to stand up. He doesn't stop. "Thank you, but I'm fine. If anything does happen, I'll let you know immediately, Mr. Kurosawa. Thank you." August tips his head out of respect, and then hurriedly heads out the door.

Ran and Hikaru would notice something in the mirror, if they looked at it now: it's starting to darken in color, as faces appear inside it. Anguished, unhappy faces. Something's going on inside that Forest.

Ran Itoh (1040) has posed:
    Even so, the end result's about what she expected. Of course, August won't open up so quickly. She just makes sure that his wrist is wrapped properly. "Come back in a couple of days so I can check up on it-- bye!!" This is called out the door after him.

    "Hikky, you actually told the real story this time," she remarks, glancing over at her oldest friend. "I wonder how he got hurt, anyway--"

    The mirror over the sink.

    "Hikky, look," she points, sotto voce. "You don't think August saw that...?"

Hikaru Kurosawa (1039) has posed:
    Hikaru lets him go; it wouldn't do any good for him to try and stop August, at this point. Better for him to know he can leave if he has to. Once he's gone, and Ran asks he question, Hikaru shrugs -

    He probably would have said something about the truth sometimes being useful, but instead, Ran points out the mirror. Hikaru turns to look at it, and frowns, glancing from the clock back to the mirror. "I thought he was looking at the time, but... maybe he did see that. You don't think he's going in there, do you?"

    Of /course/ he's going in there. It's tinted red, there are weird shadows, it just /screams/ trouble.

    Hikaru looks back at Ran. He feels bad saying this, knowing how scared she is of some of the things in there, but... "We should go after him, Ran. If he's getting hurt in there, we've got a duty to help. I mean, maybe he just got nervous and bolted for the normal reasons, but... I don't feel good just leaving this alone, not this time."