This post has the following content warnings:
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
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
This does not make it look very probable that the problem can be improved by reporting.
('Inherently inhumane' is certainly important, but it seems fairly negligent to entirely leave out details such as 'starving their charges').
She says the brief form of the prayer for the dead.
She squeezes Shen's hand again. I think that's enough hard scrying for now.
darkshen
Yeah.
She feeds the alphabet into the datahook, looking for what language this is, and some available books.
the light inside
She's still curled up, and watching the TV again.
The datahook continues not to be able to find anything.
darkshen
That's rather bizarre. And not even something she can guess L might have done. Maybe it's some kind of technological difficulty. She'll try again from the information center, later.
And, less high-intensity but important scrying:
...it's a long shot, but if she ended up considered some kind of second class citizen, maybe they weren't protecting her records properly. Anything about the arrival? Public records, identify documents...
...birth announcement.
Proud parents Chris and Teresa Dimas are happy to announce the birth of their daughter, Denice June Dimas, born May 10, 2005 at Grandview General Hospital. She weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was 21 inches in length. She is their first child.
darkshen
...well, she's not impressed with the relevant government, but it isn't as though she was before.
The date format is not familiar. She feeds that into the datahook, looking for where uses those dates.
darkshen
This is really bizarre.
Somewhere isolated that refused network-connection? (She sends Marchess some updated information and questions.)
And, not the most immediate concern, however. ...they've shown themselves to not always be good about public warding; any medical records that might show her? (She's not optimistic, again. It's obviously not good if anyone sufficiently good at scrying can find someone's birth announcement just from being near said person, but medical records are quite a step up in seriousness. But she'll make the attempt.)
She can absolutely get Denice's medical records.
(There's kind of a lot of them, too. Apparently whatever 'treatment' they were doing to her counts.)
They seem to be under the impression that training her like a dog is the only way to get anything done. And not even the sort of dog training that starts with the assumption that dogs are smart enough to figure things out; the kind that assumes that they have to be rewarded or punished every step of the way.
They weren't shy with the punishments, either; a few years ago it became illegal for them to use some of the methods they had been - playing loud noises at her when she misbehaved, or spraying unpleasant-tasting chemicals in her mouth, or slapping her hands - and they used them right up to the very last day it was legal.
They don't know that she can read. They aren't entirely sure whether she understands when they talk. Apparently it's been ambiguous.
darkshen
...
...what where they trying to 'train' her to do, anyway?
(Trying not to let their body language show any of their feelings so as not to scare Denice stopped being a very good solution at some point. She's been fading it instead - magic to make it unnoticed).
Act normal. Act happy. Not flap her hands, or fidget. Stay in her seat. Be quiet. Make eye contact. Talk - not 'talk about what she wants to', but 'give the correct scripted responses to questions'. Follow instructions, including very arbitrary instructions.
They got some actual education in there, too, but the records say she's at least five years behind compared to what they'd expect of a normal child her age.
darkshen
...
(Her self thinks she needs to help anyone and everyone this is happening to, right now.
This is of course not very practical. That of course doesn't make it less anything else.)
...anything else in the records?
They have in fact been keeping track of her nutrition and weight - they want her hungry enough that food is a compelling reward, but not malnourished enough to be in danger.
She has ever seen a doctor - it seems like she gets a fairly perfunctory and entirely nonmagical yearly checkup, which hasn't picked up on the heart problem or joint issues.
There are records of her having been drugged, restrained, and/or sent to seclusion for 'agitation' and 'noncompliance'. (Again, no mention of magic being used in any way.)
She was admitted to White Willow when she was five, with a diagnosis of... some word she's not familiar with... with intellectual disability.
darkshen
Oh, is that why they're doing it wonderful.
And didn't care to pick up on anything else looks like. And yes they seem all around unwilling to pay mages to bother with their charges, here. Though at the least doesn't look like they were using any magic against the kids either. That's - nowhere near enough, but. Better than the alternative.
She pushes on her self to continue to do practical things rather than less useful things-in-the-genre-of-screaming.
And - if they don't even ward their medical records can she get any more less general-public-facing materials?
darkshen
Well, it's not like she has any good opinion of them to lose but she can think poorly of them in this area as well as think - horribly - of them in others.
Scrying, scrying. Anything more about Denice? About the 'Asylum' in general?
Admission records, financial records relating to her care, general notes about her behavior, logs of recreational activities (she watches a lot of TV, and is read to by one of the other children fairly often; she occasionally plays games or makes art, but not regularly; she doesn't seem to get much physical activity, or ever go outside), a few random notes about room changes and staff interactions and such; a detailed report of an incident some months ago where she successfully hid part of her lunch a few times, got staff to replace it, and passed the food along to another resident later. (She was, of course, punished when she was caught, and separated from the kid she'd helped.)
The asylum doesn't ward its own records, either, and keeps plenty of them. Anything Shen wants to look for is available; not just things relating to the children kept there, but staff records, payroll, administrative notes...