Day 59: Cafeteria (noon)

[immortale]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning

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[human_sponge]

So it was as Peter had figured, and the voices were from people Firo knew, rather than being strange random whispers that were encouraging him to hurt others or himself. It wasn't as if Firo seemed like the sort of person who was mentally unstable enough for that to even bother him, so maybe hearing the voices of loved ones was more detrimental.

Peter had to admit that would have probably thrown him from a loop, too. Hearing Nathan's voice -- or even his mother's -- from out of nowhere like that would have definitely at least been a large distraction.

"I can't say I've heard of anything like that before," he admitted, "but with any luck it'll fade away pretty soon." Most of the things at Landel's didn't last forever. The idea of Firo having to hear that constantly from now on was a worrying one, since that would be a way to push someone over the edge.

"For now you've just got to try and bear it, all right? Ignoring what they say is probably the best method." Easier said than done, of course, but Peter was hoping that the fact that Firo was talking to someone -- someone who was really there -- was a help.

[immortale]

Firo felt surprisingly relieved at Peter's response. He would have thought that Peter not having heard of something like what he was currently experiencing would be more troubling, but instead, it felt as though a weight had been lifted. Hearing voices couldn't be any better than seeing things (and either one seemed like a symptom of insanity, if you asked him), so for a nurse to think it wasn't too much of a problem... Maybe it wasn't as serious a problem as he'd been thinking it was.

Still, the prospect of enduring the voices' ridicules without being able to do anything about it wasn't exactly cheering. At least Peter seemed to think there was a chance it would end on its own soon; since he knew more about both medicine and this place than Firo did, he was willing to take Peter's word unless something changed for the worse.

"I've been, er... trying not to respond to them," he said, a faint flush returning to his cheeks. He'd done a poor job of it thus far... He'd already said something in reply to Berga just before Peter had joined him; even if he kept his mouth shut from here on out, it would be difficult not to react at all. "But I'll ignore them entirely from here on out."

"That's impossible for you," Ennis commented.

[human_sponge]

It was weirdly nice for someone to just take his word for something like this. Granted, Peter was just a nurse, and mental health wasn't his area of expertise. Not even close. This wasn't exactly a health problem in the first place, anyway; it was more something that the institute had forced on Firo because that was how this place worked. Still, the fact that he was able to calm someone down because he was considered knowledgeable was comforting on its own.

"Yeah, I can see how it would be tough to not reply, but it's not going to do you any good." If anything, Firo would end up with fellow patients and the staff thinking he was out of his mind when that was hardly the case. "Don't give them the satisfaction." By "them," he meant the staff; Peter didn't realize that it might easily be interpreted as him talking about the voices themselves.

"Good luck with it, all right?" Peter frowned at the younger man, wishing that he could do more. Some reassurance was probably all he could manage, though, and he'd just have to remember to keep an eye out for Firo in the next few days to check and see if it really did go away on its own.

The intercom sounded soon after that, meaning that they were already being cut off. At least they hadn't been interrupted in the middle of that.