Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

[furnaceface]

//Well, then...// Jono was leaning back against his desk as per usual this week, arms crossed, eyes on the students in the room, //last class. And I suppose the thing to do is to give you a final, but in the end… this isn't really something I can grade you on based on a few answers on a sheet of paper. Besides, I'd much rather teach you all one

Comments

Discuss!

[furnaceface]

Talk about anything. Hopes and fears, places you've grown or where the semester might have dragged you backwards. Ask for help if you want or need it. Offer help you can give if anyone asks. Bring up something you wish the class had covered, or talk about something that the class did right. The floor is yours today.

Re: Discuss!

[nobloodymessiah]

It wasn't her place to say anything, but ... she couldn't let everyone traipse off to group therapy like lambs to the slaughter. Not without at least warning them.

"The point of group therapy," she said, very slowly, "isn't ... isn't it to share very personal things? With strangers, and ... and with someone who is very highly trained in how the mind works."

And thus, a master at manipulation. That was how Sofia's cult had begun: in group therapy sessions, in Rapture.

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//Generally,// Jono replied, nodding faintly, //though Sam has stated that there's no obligation to share anything at all. In fact, in his last group there were several who would show up just to sit and listen, to learn. Much like we've been doing here in class, actually.//

Some food for thought?

//The man in charge of the sessions at the clinic is military... less a psychiatrist, more a person who has looked into the mouth of hell and who has some idea as to what people need in order to climb back out again. Nobody is being forced to go, and if you attend one meeting and decide that it isn't for you, you're just as welcome to never go back.//

Re: Discuss!

[nobloodymessiah]

Tempting, then, to sit and watch for signs of indoctrination.

"I'm ... not planning on going," she said, unless she went as a preventative measure for other people. "I just ... don't want anyone else to get hurt."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded, and was silent for a moment while he mulled over what to say next.

//I wouldn't have suggested people attend if I thought for an instant that it was dangerous,// he offered, gently. //I've had my own mind broken into and rewritten too many times, it's a sensitive topic for me, as well. It took me years to get to this point again, where I'm willing to open up and talk to somebody whose purpose is to help.//

He shrugged his shoulders.

//And if nothing else,// he added, //I'll be there as well, to make certain he is what he says he is. I'm almost positive that he is... but nobody messes with my students while I'm around. I intend to make certain of that.//

That... went a little grim, near the end, there.

Re: Discuss!

[fly_so_serious]

Joker edged closer to Eleanor. "You all right?" he asked, a little worried by the topic. "Not all psychiatrists are creepy psychopaths, just FYI -- in fact, like 99% of them are there to help people."

Re: Discuss!

[nobloodymessiah]

Was it inappropriate to reach over and take one of Joker's hands with her own? She hoped it wasn't.

"You can't know that for sure," she said. "It's letting someone peek into your mind and trusting they won't rearrange what they find. Knowing full well that the person is an expert at doing exactly that."

Re: Discuss!

[fly_so_serious]

"Well, no," Joker admitted. "But you can't know for sure that the chef at a restaurant isn't going to poison your food, either. Same sort of thing. If they're hurting people, they're doing their job wrong."

Re: Discuss!

[fly_so_serious]

"Thanks for this class," Joker told him. "It's helped. And we all sure as hell need some coping strategies for this place."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//Do we ever,// Jono agreed. //Truth be told, I think I learned a fair bit while teaching this, as well. I'm glad somebody else found it helpful, too.//

He had half expected it was going to just be a waste of time. It was good to hear otherwise.

Re: Discuss!

[justbeingbay]

"What Joker said," Bay said with a little smile. "Thanks for this class. Even weeks when I didn't have a whole lot to say -- or when, y'know, I wasn't actually me -- just listening helped."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

//Hopefully I managed to still be helpful even when I wasn't me,// Jono replied. //Is there anything you wish we had covered this semester that I missed?//

Re: Discuss!

[justbeingbay]

Bay shrugged, twisting her hair as she considered an answer. "It was really philosophical," she said finally. "Which, I mean, I liked, but sometimes it might have been nice to talk about more solid stuff. Like ... how to do yoga or who to call for help when things are bad."

Re: Discuss!

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded a little, making a mental note of that one.

//Both excellent ideas,// he replied. //I was going to go more in depth with certain topics, but more than a few classes were lost in that month where I wasn't exactly me. Still, that's little excuse for me not digging up emergency numbers, at least.//

A beat.

//I could put together a list, if you'd like one. Forward it to the class, even if it is a little after the fact.//