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Denice is in speech therapy. Today is pretty much like any other day. She repeats random syllables back to the therapist, as usual.
Denice gets et by a magic
the light inside
She curls in on herself, flopping sideways onto the arm of the couch, when Heria starts talking.
It takes a few minutes for her words to register, and longer for them to have any real effect, but eventually the girl calms. She doesn't uncurl, makes no attempt to wipe away the tears drying on her cheeks, but opens her eyes to peer confusedly at her - there's no hope in her face, but there is a little less fear.
No one is going to attempt to make her uncurl or try to obligate her to do something about tears.
"...We're not going to hurt you. If someone tries to come hurt you we're not going to let them..."
the light inside
She closes her eyes again and tries to relax.
(She very much wants a hug, right now, but no matter how nice they're being, these adults are staff, and you don't hug staff, not voluntarily. It'd destroy her, in the end, to let them in like that, even for a moment. The thought doesn't even cross her mind.)
darkshen
She has some amount of emotion-and-such senses which she could turn on the arrival if she wanted to, but she isn't doing that - not an uncommon thing to have very bad experiences with, that, and they're definitely not at a point where she might ask and get an answer she could rely on to use. Outside of that, neither of them are mind-readers.
(And may be somewhat miscalibrated, on this - of the trauma they've been closest to and seen most, touch being very fraught at best is disproportionally common. Not something they'd be looking into as an immediate.)
They continue their best not to do anything threatening.
the light inside
Well. She'll move when they tell her to, open her eyes when they seem to want her attention again. For now, this is... 'nice' would be a stretch. Fine. It's fine.
They're not going to tell her to move or demand attention.
If she seems calmer, or else if continuing the murmured lines seems counterproductive, Heria will fall silent.
the light inside
She's as calm as she seems to get, anyway. (It's not entirely obvious whether she's even still awake.)
darkshen
They consider about trying to leave her alone a bit, and if so whether or not to explicitly say she can call them.
No, not for now.
Consult on schedules and arranging things. (Could one person be less overwhelming?) Yes, trying that. Shen slips out.
the light inside
She goes back to watching the TV, after a while. She doesn't uncurl, though, or make a sound.
Well it certainly wouldn't be good to require it.
She'll stay sitting and in the room, sew or set up her datahook so she can work a little.
the light inside
It seems like the girl intends to stay curled up on the couch indefinitely. (The half-eaten food bar is on the table, where she put it down to take the remote; it's within easy reach, but she's not even looking at it, much less making a move to take it again.)
She is not in danger of actual acute starvation and could have reason to not like the bar. Laeres will bring back more selection, and then they can try to ask.
If nothing else has happened after a few hours, she'll reach out for Shen to come back.
"Hey," she tries, pitched for least-startling-possible (Shen tells her words again). "Do you think you might be able to try to answer a few questions for us?"
the light inside
She doesn't startle, but she does tense up a little, and then sits up.
"Eh." It's pretty noncommittal, but she's not disagreeing or arguing.
"Ok." They don't want to push her, but it matter, to know something.
"We think you were in some kind of bad place before you came here. Is that true?"
