surprised it took this long

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe supposed she should be surprised that it took this long. True, she'd talked some with the Guidance Counselor who had apparently... stopped working there. Zoe didn't want to think too hard about that and what it meant, mostly because she had enough on her plate to deal with: her budding relationship with her first ever real girlfriend, which seemed to have become incredibly rocky in recent times; her survival of the attack in the cabin in the woods; the fallout from the whole SPECTRE thing just in general; the "preventative" having been developed by Dr. Campbell; her scars; prom; her broken camera; dealing with her second upcoming senior year...

So, yes, Zoe certainly hadn't protested when she'd heard that the doctor wanted to see her. The knowledge didn't make her any less nervous, however; didn't make it any easier for her to approach the offices, didn't slow her heart or anything along those lines. she'd still dressed to cover as much skin as possible, even adding a scarf again now. At least she wasn't wearing the scarf to cover any of Devyn's affectionate marks. This was going to be embarrassing enough without adding that little bit, thank you very much. The only part Zoe had left was her head, and that felt slightly odd. At least she wouldn't appear to be dressing too casually, mostly because, well, Zoe didn't really own casual clothes, at least, not in Kalispell.

Too much thinking; she kept doing that. Stay in the present, Zoe, she told herself. She sighed and fidgeted in the chair again, right outside the room. Of course she'd gotten there early, probably too early. She should probably get out her phone and text Devyn or something. When had she done that last? She padded the pocket of her skirt, wondering, fidgeting a little more. She shouldn't be this nervous, not really. the doctor was there to help, right?

[Asano Anri]

Looking over what medical files were present in the file, Anri was disappointed by the lack of material to work with. Hardly anything had been recorded except for official medical documents pertaining to Zoe, and a few related documents to a Devyn Solway. Incident of an attack in the woods, something about a "Lesbian Pikachu" and online harassment was noted but hardly any detailing to brief on the case. Rubbing at the holes where their piercings had been taken out from in slight irritation, Anri began writing in scratchy, spidery handwriting to work out how to approach relevant incidents.

Looking up from their desk, the only cedar wood looking furniture in the office since Anri had last made adjustments to it when they received it. Everything else in the room was planned accordingly. Despite the space, there were many seatings around the room. Several coaches, automans, stools, stationary and rolling chairs all comfortably placed in several key spots around the room. Coache by the windows letting in as much natural light as possible, coach up against a wall on the other side of the room, specific settings of painting or plants accompanied the chairs, whereas in the middle of the room, there was only a rug and pillows around it. Their desk, surrounded by two old cabinets and new ceiling high bookshelves, accompanied various objects of eccentric office supplies. The moving in of the office had been difficult, considering how they had to install the furniture themselves after seeing the previous office space. The air conditioning kept the room at a rather chilly temperature.

Looking out from the door's blurred window glass, they opened the door to see if Zoe had came by on time. Un plugging the earplugs residing in in their ears, and holding onto Zoe's folder as they opened the door, there she seemed to manifest. Anri considered momentarily if their mind was playing tricks on them but then realized that they hadn't met Zoe yet. "Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe?" The syllables disconnected slightly, but Anri remained stoic faced. A slight burst of color pushed around in their vision. A brief smile tugging their lips. "Dr. Anri. Come in. Feel free to sit wherever you deem comfortable."

Walking back into the room, tugging hair behind an ear where tiny studs were beset, Anri simply looked over the file again before picking up a pen to look back to the girl. "How are you?" Turning over to the recording tape, they looked back to Zoe, "For professional and scribing purposes, I'm going to be recording all the sessions we'll be together. I just need this to be recorded as well to ensure noted details and no misconceptions." Anri paused before stating the date and time, their name, and who they were meeting.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe entered the office uncertainly, looking around as if she expected something or someone to leap out and attack her. It didn't matter that she knew such ideas were completely silly; people were there to help, especially this person. In fact, Dr. Anri probably had a lot of people to help right now. So should Zoe even be there...? No, no, stop thinking that. Dr. Anri had welcomed her in, gesturing to take a seat. Zoe hesitated then, looking off at the various seats for several seconds, fidgeting. She finally opted to take a fairly comfortable looking seat across from dr. Anri.

Zoe settled in, adjusting as best she could, glancing over at the doctor nervously while she did so. Recording, get details, it all made sense to Zoe, wasn't even the first time she'd been recorded. She nodded. "That's fine with me," she said, before licking her lips and tugging at her skirt again, not that she really needed it. She looked around the room before focusing on the doctor. Her mouth opened, then shut, then she fidgeted again.

"Um, nice to meet you?" she tried, figuring that some sort of opening greeting was needed about now; felt like the polite thing to do, at any rate.

[Asano Anri]

Anri sat down at the desk, taking some notes already at Zoe's nervous and anxious behavior. "It's nice to meet you too." Looking up at the girl, who seemed rather small and scrunched up, slightly distracted by her environment, trying to keep herself together. It felt very familiar. The rolling of the tape recorder functioning let out sounds softly in the background as the air conditioning pushed air around.

Anri looked at their hands before putting their eyes back on the student in question. "So.. Zoe, if you're okay with me addressing you like that?" Anri put down their pen, kept their hands flat on the table. "I'd suppose that you're likely to be wondering as to why I've called you here. I'm new here. Recently hired. I had been looking over some of the files over the past couple of months. There had seemed to be a lot happening for you, particularly ones of the more concerning nature." A pause, a slight creased frowning. Anri watched Zoe, looking for something to focus on, to try to understand. "How have you been handling so far? I.. understand if I seem a bit intrusive, however, my concern for your well-being after these events.. Are you okay?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The doctor began, and Zoe soon found herself nodding. she didn't mind being called by her first name, though she doubted she'd be as willing to reciprocate. Wondering, well, not really. Zoe was tempted to say as much, but that felt rude, like interrupting or something. Plus, this felt like the sort of introduction speech that the doctor felt was necessary. Best to remain quiet and listen intently, nodding her acceptance of the terms and the situation as Dr. Anri lade it all out.

Files, lots happening, concerning, Zoe nearly laughed at that. Was there something in her file that wasn't concerning? Her power had blossomed at the extremely late age of eighteen when she'd kissed her step-sister for the first time, realizing that she just might be a lesbian. She'd then come here, where she'd met a girl that probably wasn't good for her, gotten a nasty label, been targeted, shot, and generally abused. That wasn't even touching the fact that Zoe had gotten drunk at prom or the antidote or preventatives she'd worked with Dr. Campbell to develop.

Handling it? "I've been... okay," she managed, knowing it sounded like a lie. She fidgeted again, looking toward the floor. What was she supposed to say? Surely there were people with more pressing issues than hers that needed to talk with Dr. Anri or something. Then again, Zoe really shouldn't waste the doctor's time by being evasive. She fidgeted some more, as if the slight movements could help work words out to be said.

[Asano Anri]

Watching and taking note, Anri scribbled some more shorthand in their notes, the fidgeting and the nervousness seemed to reflect to Anri more like a mirror that had someone else's face on it -- Zoe's face -- and it brings back more troubling years to mind. "If.. you wouldn't mind me pointing it out, Zoe," they drop their pen and cap it, placing it along the rest of its brethren in its specifically noted similar pens in its container, next to the other containers of pens in similar nature. Moving stacks quickly, pulling up forms of terms and policy to be brought up in conversation later to be kept in front of them before they forgot, "but you wouldn't happen to have had something to do beforehand today, before I had requested your presence here? Because you seem like.." Anri stops moving around things, looks directly at the girl in question, trying to find something to help understand this one more, ".. Like you're supposed to be somewhere else, or.. something along those lines."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The question caught Zoe by surprise. She jerked her head to look at Dr. Anri, blinking. "What? No, I don't, not really. Since I was wounded in the attacks, I didn't have to worry as much about finishing up my classes and I'm probably going to be repeating most of the subjects anyway..." she trailed off, biting her lip and again shifting nervously. Dr. Anri had probably just been wondering; she didn't need to know Zoe's entire itinerary. Stupid to say that.

"I guess... it's just odd, talking to someone," she said, shrugging. She moved her hands to her lap, her gloved fingers working against one another. "Though I am getting used to talking to doctors..." she trailed off again, looking over at the floor. That probably wasn't a good thing, and she wasn't entirely sure it was something Dr. Anri wanted to hear. How did all this work, exactly? Could someone maybe send Zoe a manual?

[Asano Anri]

Anri nods, eyes falling downcast at their notes, hands unmoving and collecting their thoughts as they process what Zoe was saying and doing. "I see. It's a good thing that you're talking to someone," they look back. "Be it another doctor or not." A sheepish smile tugs at their lips for a moment quickly, before hands reach for the documents.

"So how this works," Anri straightens the documents up, placing them on top of their notes and files. "Is that I'd hope that this session could be about anything that you'd wish to talk about. I'd suppose that you may feel a bit expected to talk about the incidents that has occurred in the time you've been here, but if you're fine with them, then we don't have to bring them up. I will asking questions about them though. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. Is that okay with you?" Anri waits a bit, and stands up slowly, moving over to a nearby seat that wasn't across from their desk, sitting down just as slowly. "And any questions so far that you've wondering but haven't asked yet before we may start?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Again, Zoe found herself listening intently while a doctor explained something. Talk it out, sheepish smile, and Zoe wondered if she'd missed something there. It did seem that most of the mutant doctors knew each other; Ceanna the ex-school doctor and Dr. Campbell had known one another, after all. Perhaps Dr. Anri was thinking about Dr. Campbell or something? She pushed the thought away for the moment.

This is how it worked. Talk about anything, and the recent incidents were mentioned, not that Zoe was all that surprised; that had likely been the reasoning behind this whole conference to begin with. Questions too, which was almost a relief. That would take some of the pressure off Zoe. she nearly sighed at the thought.

"Um," she said as Dr. Anri asked her question. She fidgeted and tapped her fingers. "I don't really think so? This is just, my talking to you, right? And we try to figure things out?" it all sounded pretty easy. Zoe looked toward the floor for a moment. "I talked to the guidance counselor after the whole Lesbian Pikachu thing, but, uh, that was a while ago," seeing as said counselor had been recently killed in an attack. Zoe definitely didn't want to think about that.

[Asano Anri]

Anri nodded as Zoe processed the information they gave. Scribbling some more shorthand down as Zoe spoke, Anri looked back up when she finished. "I see. We can start there if you'd like. I heard about what had happened to the previous guidance counselor. I'm sorry." They paused. Apologies for people's deaths never made any sense to them, but they could understand the intended sentiments. There's a moment of silence. "So.. the Lesbian Pikachu. My notes have phrases like online harassment and blogging in them," Anri couldn't help the confused expression that took hold of their face. Lips pressed together, brows pulled in. "Would you like to go over what had happened exactly? I'm afraid that I'm not very informed about what had happened. Everything is rather brief. How did you feel about what had happened?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Start from there... Zoe nodded, swallowing. Deaths, and some condolence, though it didn't feel very... right to Zoe. She still wasn't certain that she wasn't to blame for everything that happened. It almost felt like she was, that this whole thing might've just blown over if everything hadn't... but Dr. Anri was asking about just that, wasn't she? Zoe shifted, wondering where to begin.

Just at the incident; Dr. Anri probably didn't care about everything else, and they really just wanted some elaboration. "Well, um," Zoe began, fidgeting again, "what happened was that I was doing the wash, since I don't have many clothes on account of, well, essentially running away from my family after my powers developed. I have to do the wash quite frequently, actually," she fidgeted. That wasn't really related to what she had to say. She shouldn't have mentioned it. Best to just continue though: "As I was... doing the wash," a slight flush, feeling especially silly now, "my girlfriend, Devyn Solway, she arrived, and, well, we got..." a very deep flush now, and some squirming, "very wrapped up in... things, and, well, I... paralyzed her... very bad. But Dr. Riggs and Dr. Campbell showed up quite fast and fixed things, but people saw and--- I guess Dirty Laundry," she looked at Dr. Anri, "that's the name of a blog here that posts quite nasty things about students. Well, Dirty Laundry heard and, well, they put up something about me, calling me the Lesbian Pikachu and saying I was deadly and so forth. it got out to the public and I suppose it made me an easy target for everyone after the mutant panic..."

There, that was everything, right? Zoe swallowed, trying to remember. There was the shooting and the protecting, but that really wasn't connected, right? Dr. Anri probably didn't want to hear about all that...

[Asano Anri]

Anri watched, listened and processed the connection of thoughts and sentences, its comprehension and where Zoe's thoughts started and stopped and started again. Knowing that the tape was already recording everything and that they'd later type up an available transcript for later, all that was really on their mind right now was trying to process what was going through Zoe's mind. "I see." Another nod. There's many notes to theirself, things like Research: Dirty Laundry; Look into: Dr.Campbell, Dr. Riggs; Note: Running away, abilities development; Family, possible Freudian connection to fears and anxiety; and Bring up: Girlfriend, Devyn Solway; significant nervousness on the topic.

"I understand that shortly after, there was a shooting. Is that what you meant by becoming an easy target for the public?" Anri listened, took more notes to file away and write down. The mutant panic was.. needless to say, a chaotic mess. They hadn't realized that there were more sources that could've fanned the metaphorical flames off the entire mess. For weeks shortly after, they remembered not being able to leave the house due to Sasaki's concern. Realizing why, they could see how her fears could be the same for someone else's daughter. Like Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe.

Anri scribbled some more notes down. "So you ran away shortly after your powers had developed? Was there any other underlying reasons that would keep you away from your family?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe swallowed as Dr. Anri said those two words: "I see" and began writing things down. Zoe was tempted to ask what the notes were, but she supposed they were more for Dr. Anri's eyes anyway. The doctor continued, mentioning the shooting, which had Zoe paling a little. "Sort of," she said, biting her lip and squirming. "There was, um, there was... they set up a guard for me and-- isn't that in the file?" she nodded at the file. It should be. How she and Slade Konrad had more or less bonded, and together they'd decided to head to the woods, seeking out a cabin and a tree. How they'd been assaulted by SPECTRE agents who'd decided to bag the Lesbian Pikachu. How they'd shot at them. How Zoe had gotten the scar on her side. How she'd nearly killed someone, and how Mr. Konrad had killed several.

As if that weren't enough, Dr. Anri brought up her family. "Right, I ran away the moment they developed actually," Zoe said. She squirmed again, looking down. "Isn't the reason why in the file too?" Surely they'd made note of what she'd told the recruiters who'd managed to track her down. How she'd kissed her step-sister for the first time, and at that exact moment, the powers had kicked in, sending Ava, the step-sister, into a coma. Zoe licked her lips, wondering if she should just bring the conversation back to Devyn. That might be embarrassing, but at least there weren't any traumatic memories attached.

Well, there was sending her into a paralytic shock, but Zoe was more or less over that, though that could mostly be because of being shot.

[Asano Anri]

"Yes." Anri looked up from their notes, the files, the papers, to look at Zoe. They could see the recollection of memories come to mind as they're brought up registering minutely on her face, and clearly in her behavioral patterns, the increasing nervousness--the slight distress.. Anri's concern increased as they took more and more note of her increasing nervousness. Or perhaps that was only a perception due to exposure? Anxiety and nervousness is natural. The best that you can do is be able to understand it as best you can and to take steps towards not depending on those habits. Realize why that anxiety and nervousness appears, as their own therapist from so long ago had once told them. Anri supposed that to a point, this could also be applied to how they chose to approach Zoe's nervousness. They didn't understand it just yet. And they'd supposed that perhaps Zoe doesn't yet understand why she's a nervious person. If Zoe would let them, they could take baby steps.

Anri sniffed, and continued, ".. My apologies if my questions appear rather.. vague and uninformed. They are geared as a general proceeding to recall what has happened." Their voice, riding on the tones of a more carefully placed gentle handling, fuddling in the hints of concern and attempts at professional friendliness. "That would be my last question for now about your history in the file, if that helps." Another sheepish smile, a knowing understanding to a certain limit in a look, accompanies the added fragment.

Their handwriting was coloring themselves though they were sure that their ink was still blue because they had made sure to buy pens that said so on the packaging. It was becoming increasingly more distracting to their vision and they forced theirself to look away from their notes as they spoke or looked at Zoe. Anri placed the notes into Zoe's file once they had finished looking over them for a second more, before taking away their attention from their notes onto Zoe.

Concern and slight worry washed over their expression. "Any time that you're feeling uncomfortable with our proceedings, don't hesitate to speak up and stop the topic at hand to move onto something else instead." Anri tucked their hair behind their ears, both hands in synchronization before they came back to sit steady on their lap and over the file on said lap, hands tucked in without any thought of moving elsewhere as they balanced a pen in between their fingers. ".. So far, what topics have I brought up that you found yourself more comfortable to talk about than other topics? We can start conversing about it as the first thing on the agenda, if you'd like."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"It's okay," mumbled Zoe, still looking down, "you probably just want to see how I reacted to it all and tell it," Zoe hesitantly looked up at Dr. Anri. The British transplant wasn't stupid; that wasn't the reason she had to repeat a year. She'd also read a few psychology books at the urging of her friend Maelea, though she certainly didn't think herself qualified to second-guess Dr. Anri. Nonetheless, Zoe couldn't help but be relieved when the doctor said that there would be no more questions probing her history.

Even more relief came when Dr. Anri informed Zoe that she could swithc topics at any time, moving to something else instead. What topics worked? Zoe fidgeted, chewing her lip and thinking hard. "Um, I guess Devyn, maybe? Or the Lesbian Pikachu thing," she smiled and looked up at Dr. Anri. "Devyn actually won me this adorable little stuffed Pikachu on a date. It's quite adorable, and I think people are starting to get over that," she tried to be bright about that, and it was true. After she got shot, people seemed to think she'd been punished enough. "The date hadn't gone so well. That was when I had a chaperone because of what the rumors said, and she, the chaperone that is, didn't get on very well with Devyn."

Zoe sighed, frowning at that memory. the date had been great overall, exemplary, even, and quite memorable. Didn't wipe away the dark parts from the overall picture though.