Day 38 -- Doctor's Office 8 [Dr Disraeli] [4th shift]

[damned_doctors]

Lunch had been pleasant enough, although Jizabel had learned of some absences in the staff this time as well. Both patients and staff were hard to keep on here, it seemed. But really, Jizabel wasn't one to talk. He'd be back in Delilah the moment they called for him, and then he too would be missing from the facility. That was just how things went

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[damned_doctors]

The person who entered first was certainly not Arnold Brandt unless the young lady he saw instead had been unlucky enough to have some terrible parents. He allowed the girl to take her seat while he rose to have a word with the nurse. She had the patient's file file for him, along with an updated list showing the name of the girl, Jehna Walker. One of Dr. Stegman's patients had fallen through on accident when he'd left, so the reassignment of the girl had been very last minute.

So he would be having two patients this afternoon, and what's more, one of them was a woman? He hadn't had time to prepare for that.

"You'll have to forgive me, Ms. Walker," Dr. Disraeli apologized as he returned to the desk, file in hand and apologetic expression on his face, "There seems to have been a mix-up, and I was unaware that you would be with me today. If you'll allow me a moment to glance your file over, then I'd be happy to begin your session." A shorter session thanks to this double-booking.

Placing the file atop his desk, he took his moment to look over the key points while giving the girl only a few glances to assess her as well. She was fairly young, but not in the least bit attractive. Her eyes were discolored and one looked to have received some trauma. Not to mention she'd messed up her arm somehow. Nothing about the girl held any interest for Jizabel, and he hoped that this session would be over and done with soon.

"All right," Dr. Disraeli nodded when he was finished and quickly put the folder into a drawer in case Ms. Walker decided to take her chances. Her history did not leave him the option of keeping the file out for the rest of the session. "It may be last minute, but regardless I will be your therapist for at least this week Ms. Walker. My name is Dr. Jizabel Disraeli, and it is a pleasure to meet you. Are you ready to begin?"

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo originally intended to ignore the conversation between the doctor and the nurse, but she ended up catching parts of it. It was hard to ignore something when a woman knew she was being talked about. She looked up when the doctor spoke to her, introducing himself.

Momo was automatically wary of the doctors, given what had happened to Renji when he had his therapy sessions. The shinigami wasn't sure how much she'd resist, to be honest, and a part of her wasn't sure if she cared enough to. She was already broken - maybe this man would get cut on the pieces.

"Alright..."

[damned_doctors]

The girl seemed very calm despite what he'd read, and Jizabel had to wonder for that. It could have something to do with the eye and arm injuries she wore, but he could not be certain of either. It hadn't been in the file or else he'd not seen it as important on his glance through, and the nurse had said nothing. Regardless, Jizabel believed at the moment the session would be just as calm as the girl.

"As this is our first session, how about we start with getting to know each other? Is there anything you would like to discuss with me? Hobbies, likes and dislikes, or something else? I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have of myself as well, to be fair," he offered first. The girl could trust as she would, but that did not mean Jizabel would not continue as he'd been.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo was indeed very calm, her voice quiet and slightly monotone.

"Very well, doctor. Answer a question for me, please. Do you and the other doctors simply not know about the truth of this place - the things we're told are delusions, though we know they aren't - or are you part of it, trying to make us all believe we're as crazy as you say we are?"

[damned_doctors]

A direct question, but not at all fair.

Dr. Disraeli's expression fell away from the gentle smile over to confusion. "I'm afraid I do not understand. I should tell you that this is only my second week as a doctor here and my fourth day on the job. I have not heard all that much from my patients in regards to this facility as the focus of these sessions is supposed to be on each patient."

He had heard about some things, differences between the evening and daylight hours, but those had come from some very different patients. The "droid" and the young man who thought he was a prince, being some, and neither one was still at the institute. They had been released and would no more say that there had been monsters in their mental facility than they would claim the sky to be purple.

"As that is what you seem most concerned with, however, then I would welcome an explanation concerning it, Ms. Walker. What truth would you tell me?" he asked, ready to listen. Each patient would have some story to tell, and as his first female patient, Jizabel would be delighted to hear how well this little fox could twist her world.

[hajike_tobiume]

She hadn't been expecting an honest answer, so she wasn't surprised when she didn't receive one. She opted to humor this doctor for a moment.

"I doubt you'll believe my words to be truth, even though they are. But I will speak," Momo said, her tone of voice not changing. "Upon the fall of night, all across the institute, the doors to the patient rooms unlock and we're allowed to run the halls of this place without escort or supervision. Creatures, things some would call monsters, roam the halls as well, hunting and attacking the patients. In the morning, we're told by the nurses that our injuries are a result of either us attempting to hurt ourselves, accidents with our dinners or fights with our roommates."

[damned_doctors]

The girl was smart not to expect anything of her Doctor, though the feeling was not a shared one. Jizabel expected plenty from his patient, nothing of which he could rightly share with her however. Too many questions could come up and then where would he be? Killing everyone in the place for being exposed, more than likely. It wasn't that Jizabel would have a problem should he need to dispose of this place, but he was vaguely enjoying himself for the moment, so he wished to make things last a little while longer. No girl would be the one to make him mess up, that was for sure.

"Your arm then?" he motioned a hand towards it, "Was that caused during the evening, by one of these monsters you've mentioned?" He focused his eyes on hers, "Your eye as well?"

If nothing else, Jizabel could at least let her see that he was indeed a doctor and not merely the lunatic she had implied her was.

[hajike_tobiume]

A wry smile touched Momo's lips briefly. The wrist had been caused by Signum while she was under the mind control implied for Special Counseling. In a way, that would have made Signum a monster for the night.

"My wrist, yes," she answered. "My eye was caused by another patient here, though that also occurred at night while outside the Sun Room."

"Tell me, doctor - have you ever been within these walls after dark?"

[damned_doctors]

Despite her attempts at convincing him, the girl had really just contradicted herself by admitting that she'd had an attacker. Patients may not have been hurting themselves, as she said, but that did not stop patients from managing to harm their fellow inmates.

"I have not," he admitted, another truth he saw no reason in hiding, "There is a different staff here for the evening hours." Jizabel had other things to see to when the night came.

[hajike_tobiume]

"I suggest you take the time to spend a night, to understand what we go through each night, before attempting to analyze me or find a way to cure me of my so-called delusions and supposed obsession with death," Momo stated, folding her hands in her lap.

"You give me no valid reason to talk to you."

[damned_doctors]

Honestly? She'd yet to give him a valid reason for him to talk with her. She was uninteresting, ugly, and had terrible conversational skills.

"I'm afraid reason has nothing to do with these sessions. You will be in this room with me for the duration of this session regardless of whatever problems you seem to have with me." And, if the girl continued to prove difficult, Jizabel would simply have to make her comply. His other patients had at least been given to speak, but her... well, she certainly was the woman she appeared to be at least. So difficult.

"Now, what obsession with death might you be speaking of?" he asked, giving one last chance for conversation before he'd take matters into his own, skilled hands.

[hajike_tobiume]

"It is not you, personally, I have a problem with, but this place as a whole," Momo replied, her voice never changing once during this whole conversation. "You are insignificant to me - nothing more than another face, another front, of something I have come to hate."

She slowly blinked her eyes, keeping her temper barely under control. "I never knew hatred until I came here. There's so much of it now, tucked away in every corner of this place."

That wry smile touched her lips again as she decided to answer the doctor bluntly. "I do not have a fascination with death, doctor; I am death. Shinigami is the proper term, but if you understand Japanese at all, you'll know that shinigami are Death Gods."

[damned_doctors]

Being told that he was nothing had never bothered Jizabel before. He'd heard it time and time again, from that Father who only had so much use for him. That a girl was saying such things did not bother him either, as he cared not for her opinion of him. That left them relatively on equal terms, actually, so far as one viewed the other.

There were some words though that Jizabel took issue with, those referencing her relation with Death. Her luck was likely just poor, or perhaps irony was playing some twisted little game, but announcing to the Major Arcana possessing the title of Death that she, a mere child and female, was Death? Now, that was going too far.

Jizabel had to keep himself from letting Dr. Disraeli smirk. Young Sean may have earned some joking towards the subject of Death due to their conversational material, but not this girl. If anything, she'd just earned a small bit of contempt from her therapist, for thinking so highly of herself to claim such a title. Jizabel had not taken the title willingly, but he took it seriously now that he possessed it, and the girl would be made to see her mistake when the time was right.

"I am not Japanese, nor would I care to be," he explained simply, "And that is the second time you've contradicted yourself during our time, Ms. Walker. I will be hard pressed to find your word anymore truthful than another patient's should your contradictions continue." He was still being the doctor he should, but the girl had earned the darker side of his role, the stern professional who would not be allowing her attitude to continue for much longer.

[hajike_tobiume]

"I am speaking simple truths," Momo stated. "You are the one interpreting them as contradictions. Contradiction or not, I sincerely doubt you will find my word any more truthful than your other patients."

She actually chuckled a little, humorless as it was. "I believe, doctor, you will find I don't care if you believe me or not. You're just another layer of this place and what it represents."

[damned_doctors]

"Then do tell me how my interpretations are incorrect, Ms. Walker," he suggested. As she knew nothing of him or his motives, she had no idea just how he thought or interpreted things. "First you tell me that your injuries are not caused by yourselves as the nurses tell you, however you only answered that another patient injured you, not a monster. Secondly, you claim not to have an obsession with death, a truth perhaps but only so far as you not considering it an actual obsession. After all, to be Death and also obsess over it would be Narcissism, would it not?"

Dr. Disraeli tapped his index finger atop his desk. He'd expected a slight difficulty with a woman, but now he wondered if he should simply do things his way instead of allowing the child to argue further. It would save her the humiliation of losing, and him the energy of a pointless battle. And yet, the part of Dr. Disraeli was still in play. He had to play things out as long as the therapist would.

At his next assignment, he'd be sure to choose a much sterner personality.

"My job here is not to believe you; it is to assess you. So far, you've provided me with a total of three contradictions, and yes, there was indeed another on your part just now, so once again I see no reason to hold whatever you say with a grain of salt." He drew his hand back and acted as though he were folding it with the other on his lap. "We've still half the session to go, Ms. Walker, so the choice is yours on what comes next. The floor is yours."

His momentary annoyance at her announcement had kept him from following through with his earlier intents on silencing her rebellion. Now, as she had managed a level of conversation, she could have one final chance to watch her mouth. One only.

[hajike_tobiume]

"I said the nurses claimed our injuries are caused by either ourselves, accidents or fights with our roommates," Momo restated. "I have two current injuries, doctor. The wrist was caused by a monster. And, whereas the eye was cause by another patient, she was not my roommate. Therefore, my injuries were not caused by the reasons the nurses tell us they are."

A hint of anger slipped into her next words for a brief moment, the first sign of real emotion out of her. "I never said it wasn't possible for other patients to be monsters as well, set loose upon us just like the creatures I spoke of."

Her tone returned to as it had been previously. "If by obsession you are referring to an unhealthy compulsive preoccupation with something, that something in my case being death, then I am correct in my belief that I am not obsessed with it. It is a fact of my existence. From an outsider's perspective, I will concede that it may be interpreted as such."

She blinked slowly. "You continue to call my Ms. Walker. Do you want to know what I call myself?"