itsjustabaddream

A whisp of red magical light and energy twirls around the door handle, and the door opens itself. A bell like one might find on the door of a business jingles merrily to welcome Ruby inside.

"Come in!" The chipper and upbeat voice of a man calls from inside.

She jumps, just a little—she's not even sure if it's more at the energy, the door's movement, or the bell, but it doesn't really matter. It's now or never. If she really wanted, she could disappear in a cloud of petals, but— no. Ruby breathes and walks inside to find the guy.

The girl that's just turned up at Neil's practice is on the shorter side of average, with one eye hidden behind an eyepatch, dressed in a simple red dress and a black cloak. There's a sword on her hip. She can't be older than 19.

"Um. Hi? This is, um—" Gods, just... ask, "—this is the place for uh, therapy, and dreams stuff, right?"

"Indeed it is! I'm Dr. West." Neil smiles brightly, standing to greet her. He comes around from behind his desk, which is sidled up against another in front of the archway to the rest of his home. Neil himself is of average height with a soft middle and early aging signs, with coke-bottle glasses that amplify the wideness of his already large eyes. His appearance is well kept--- his office space, less so. There's a lot of clutter.

"Would you care for a pastry? Tea or coffee?"

The shift in Ruby's expression that accompanies the strange nausea twisting in her stomach at even the mention of tea is subtle, but not completely imperceptible. She swallows and shakes her head, "Oh, um, no, I-I'm alright. I'm not really..."

Her stomach growls at her, despite it all. Right. In the struggle of even forcing herself out here, she hasn't eaten. So, she laughs awkwardly and corrects, "...maybe just a pastry? Thanks. I'm, uh— my name's Ruby. Ruby Rose."

No matter how many times she introduces herself around here, the strange feeling of disconnect from her own name never quite goes away.

"That's a very beautiful name! I'm quite fond of red myself, as I'm sure you can tell." He gestures to his walls, which are a sort of soft beige that features red flowers growing on green vines. It's notable that many of his little knickknacks are also red. "But yes, do help yourself to anything you like. Would you like some water?"

He gets up to fetch some for her without waiting for an answer, but the pastries are clearly visible in a little display case on a table near the window. There are also some little enchanted objects there--- namely a teapot and a coffee carafe, both enchanted to look like fat little doggies and serve their respective beverages on request. They trundle about on the table, goofy and harmless, but will perk up excitedly to offer their services if Ruby approaches.

There's an almost silent little 'ooh' as she glances around all the little touches of red, and she's distractable enough that it's a solid few seconds after he stands before she does reply, "Oh, uh, sure, water's fine!"

She drifts towards the pastries, only fully registering the excited little pots when she's right upon them. Oh, that's cute. It wasn't that long ago she met an actual living teapot, however briefly, though that's not exactly a... happy, memory, so Ruby tries not to dwell on that connection. Or on the tea.

"Thank you, but, um, Dr. West is just getting water, I-I think."

The enchanted pots seem to understand, and go back to waddling around, making puffs of delicious-smelling steam. Neil returns with two glasses of water. "Ah, my enchanted drink servers. They're funny, aren't they? I created them for a festival and my partner Jon was terribly fond of them, so I decided to keep two around. Clients seem to like them as well."

He passes Ruby her glass. "So! Were you looking to set up a consultation today?"

"They're very cute," she says as she accepts the water, after which she ends up taking a long drink to buy herself a moment and stop her mouth feeling so horribly dry.

But eventually she knows she has to answer and so she clutches the glass in front of her, occupying both hands. "Yeah, yeah I-I guess so? I've never really— I've never really done this before? This kind of thing isn't really... it's not common, back home, and even if it was, things have— there wouldn't be time. There's never time and— Gods I'm just rambling, I'm sorry. I just— yeah. I think I need— I think I need help. I'm just not used to... this being an option."

"You're perfectly fine, Miss Rose. You'd be surprised how often I'm told similar things." Neil's cordial smile never wavers. "Let me tell you a bit about what I do."

"As the name of my business implies, I specialize in dream therapy and the analysis of troubling dreams. However, this is not my only method. I offer regular talk therapy as well, and I specialize in dealing with emotional and mental trauma. We can get to the bottom of things that happened to you that changed your behavior or mental state in a way that's detrimental to your day to day life, and I can help you learn more about why you might have some of these struggles and create a plan for how to take control of negative behavior or thought patterns. You can also just vent at me, if you need someone to listen to your problems, and I can offer advice or just be a sounding board. However, if dream therapy does interest you, I can use my Dreamwalk ability to enter your dreams and help you dispel recurring nightmares and sleep better, and that can be used in tandem with regular therapy. All that make sense so far?"

Ruby listens and nods, trying her hardest not to start fidgeting too much. "Yeah, it— it does. The dream stuff's actually... my sister did that with me, for a while? Over a year ago now. And it helped. It did help. It's just not something I can ask of her, right now, and... and I-I don't think the nightmares are the biggest issue anymore."

They're still there. Still something that she knows she'd benefit from having help with. But they're not new. They're not the thing that finally pushed her to try this.

"There's— there's something that happened, right before I got here, that I haven't told anyone about. And I feel— I feel like it's eating away at me like— like a rot, like I'm rotten, but I can't— I can't. Tell them. Not right now."

She's not sure that she could bear the way they'd look at her, when they hear. When they realise how broken she really is. When they find out it's her own fault she's here.

Neil nods slowly, patiently listening to her work through the words. "You need someone who you can talk to about things that feel like burdens to your friends. Things you think would hurt them. You want to get it off your chest without causing those you love any pain, is that right?" He offers a reassuring smile. "You're in the right place. Why don't we go in my therapy office for a bit more privacy?"

"Yeah. Yeah that's right." Even that feels like just another symptom of the things that led her here, how impossible or forbidden it seemed to ask her team for help, but... it's still a step, isn't it? A step somewhere she hopes is the right direction. So she nods, as he talks about his office. "Okay. Thank you."

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cw: suicidal themes from here on probably

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