hearnospeakno: (worrystone.)
nick andros ([personal profile] hearnospeakno) wrote in [community profile] all_inclusive2013-08-16 05:58 pm

support group one: no one left behind

When: Friday 6:00 p.m.
Where: Attic Observatory
What: Community Support Group


As Nick promised on his open advertisements, there are chairs and coffee in the Attic Observatory. There's even a table laden with what food products Nick and co could round up.

The process of setting up for a group meeting felt enough like Boulder that Nick took a short break to lean, palms first, against a wall. It was a short, easily displaced moment, and he has no intention of lingering on it.

This is about everyone, one way or another. For all the people stuck here, and everyone new, and all those in-between. Nick left the purpose of the group intentionally vague. In the future, he assumes it'll have to be narrowed down and split up for the sake of different needs, but for this first coming together of the displaced in any non-official capacity he wants it to be open for everyone. It wouldn't be right, otherwise.

So all newcomers will find Nick by the attic observatory door, nursing a cup of black coffee next to a clearly printed sign:

Hi, I'm Nick. Welcome to the first Nexus Hotel Support Group. Whatever your problem, we'll listen. Help yourself to coffee and food.

Underneath the words, Nick has drawn and crossed out a mouth and ear, leaving an arrow pointed at himself. His pad of paper and pen are obvious on his lap.
scaleshavefallen: (Default)

[personal profile] scaleshavefallen 2013-08-17 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I consider my attendance here a favor to Nick, who has gone out of his way to help me acclimate to this place and who has been nothing but kind to me, a man who by all rights likely appears to actually be losing his mind. I am here under duress, but even I have enough manners to keep my mouth shut and my misgivings mostly to myself.

I take a cup of coffee and sit down. I don't drink from the cup, just feel its warmth between my hands. It's another way to feel alive, to remind myself that this is real. Everything else is surreal, down to the fact that the only clothes I've been able to procure are a pair of pajamas. While a step up from the clothing I arrived in, they're covered in illustrations of monkeys eating bananas. Not exactly my preferred style.

I don't intend to speak; I don't trust my own words, first off, and I'd much rather observe everyone else's contributions. Everyone here seems so friendly, though, so it's only a matter of time until someone tries to engage me in conversation.
scaleshavefallen: (looking sassy)

[personal profile] scaleshavefallen 2013-08-18 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I am secretly pleased with myself that I can manage to hold the cup of coffee without worrying that the tremble in my hands is going to spill it everywhere. It's progress, and I suppose I have to see the positive in something, given how dire the rest of the situation is.

"I've been better," I say after reading Nick's note and turning to face him. "I've also been worse, much worse," I add after considering things. All told, I think being framed for murders and incarcerated is much higher on some sort of scale of awful than just being stuck in a mysterious hotel and/or an extended delusion.

I smile wryly and cast a glance down to my clothing. "The monkeys, I could do without, but they don't sell much other than pajamas here, and I can't seem to leave." That's something that makes this place more fascinating, that some of us appear to be stuck here while others can come and go at will, and it's a fatal flaw in my grand plan to prove my innocence back home.
legendthatwas: Martha looking upwards with utter disdain (the thin red line)

[personal profile] legendthatwas 2013-08-18 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
The guy was wearing monkey pajamas, though by Martha's guess from his body language, he would have preferred something else, rather than turning up in public in sleepwear. (This was a look you saw quite a bit of in the hospital.) The monkeys were cute, though, adorable, and she knew far better than to judge people on what they were wearing.

She was a little short on talking points, admittedly, besides 'nice pajamas', so she tried something else. "The doughnuts are pretty good," she said, which was not her most eloquent idea, but whatever. "At least twelve-step meeting quality."
scaleshavefallen: (looking exhausted)

[personal profile] scaleshavefallen 2013-08-19 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Hm." I look down at the coffee in my hands, then over in the woman's direction. I try hard, so hard, to not look too close, to not determine what makes her tick before she shares it. But still. Not afraid to start conversation, but good enough to not start it out with something truthful and pointed, like you look like you've been run over by a truck. An acquired skill.

"As long as I'm not going to have to stand before everyone and admit my wrongs," I say, words punctuated with a bitter laugh.

My reaction isn't appropriate, but it's too late to take it back. I sincerely hope everyone here just blames me on the stress of being here, rather than anything else more sinister.
legendthatwas: Freema looking downwards very intently (why am I always so intense)

[personal profile] legendthatwas 2013-08-19 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Martha was used to people looking at her like they were trying not to be too curious. It was sort of part and parcel with the kind of travel she'd been up to, not all that long ago, and she'd had far worse leveled at her. (Particularly, to be honest, in the places and times where the locals didn't either anticipate seeing a human or were humans backwards enough that a black woman with a medical degree was like a goddamn unicorn. Those particular memories still stung.)

This man's expression wasn't like that, though, and Martha smiled a little more, noting in response, "If that's what we're doing here then I'm going to be running for the door. We'd be here all night." His laugh was just a little too bitter. Clearly there were layers under the monkey pajamas, and she was not quite able to talk herself out of her own curiosity.
scaleshavefallen: (Default)

[personal profile] scaleshavefallen 2013-09-03 02:53 am (UTC)(link)

"Oh, good," I say, feeling actually, honestly relieved that the first new person I've met at this meeting isn't automatically expecting me to want to share my feelings. "I was a little worried that this was going to turn into group therapy, so we can talk about how being at the Nexus makes us feel." It's a little hard to keep my disdain for the process out of my voice. For someone as steeped in the psychoanalytic process as I have wound up being, I hate every second of it -- and now, with better reason than most, thanks to my recent experiences. "I don't want to talk about my feelings; I just want to find out where I can get pants that aren't covered in monkeys."

legendthatwas: Freema looking downwards very intently (why am I always so intense)

[personal profile] legendthatwas 2013-09-03 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"If I'm being honest with you, that doesn't strike me as Nick's sort of thing," said Martha. "Not to mention that, being English, I don't really do the talking about my feelings with strangers bit. Ever." She grinned wryly at Monkey Pajama Man to indicate that it was indeed a self-deprecating joke. Odd, though, that he was so against the feelings bit; Americans tended to splodge theirs all over the place, in her experience.

"But unfortunately, I can't really provide you with intel regarding your--" she nearly echoed pants, felt her cheeks heat, and instead gestured towards the clothing in question. "The only reason I've got anything is because I'd been on my way home from Oxford Circus."