Denice is in speech therapy. Today is pretty much like any other day. She repeats random syllables back to the therapist, as usual.
She stays on the couch for a while - about fifteen minutes - in case this is a test, and then she gets up to check out the room's exits.
She doesn't try to open the drawers, or touch the books. She does take a closer look at the toys.
Nothing very interesting, and anyway she'll probably be introduced to them soon enough. (...probably. These adults are very strange.)
Does this room have any windows?
The TV coming to the end of one show and beginning another startles her out of her daze, after a while. She considers her situation: this isn't the kind of thing it'll be hard to refuse, if they try to use it to manipulate her, it's safe enough that way. But it is something she wants to keep being able to do - people, gosh, outside people, people who are probably not staff, and they're just right there somehow - and there's a chance they'll take it away just on general principle, if they see that she cares about it. On the other hand, there's not a huge risk of that, and if she limits herself to only watching out the window when they can't see her, that's almost as bad as not being able to do it at all, probably. (Surely they aren't going to leave her alone like this on a regular basis; it doesn't even occur to her to consider that they might.) So the answer is pretty straightforward.
She goes and gets the food bar, quickly finishes the rest of it, and finds somewhere comfortable to sit and people-watch.
Then she will see some more people.
People come in down the street and enter buildings, or exit buildings and walk away down the street. Some kids meet up outside and race around the street on wheeled contraptions. Two people appear out of nowhere outside of one of the buildings, have what looks like an argument, then go inside.
People appearing out of nowhere is. new. though she supposes it happened to her, too. It's still deeply weird that she hadn't heard of it before, if it's as commonplace as they're treating it.
She keeps watching.
Yeah. That's not surprising, really, but she still has feelings about it. She curls up a little - it's so weird being the only kid here. (She still wants a hug.)
After a little more time, there's a knock on the outside of the (open) living room doorway, and Heria is standing there.
She startles at the sound, and immediately forces herself to relax again before looking up.
"Hey, sorry to startle you.
It's absolutely alright if you don't want to look around the house, but I thought there were a few things you could want to know, still."
(Had the files Shen found said anything about whether she needed assistance in restroom use?)
(She has staff assigned to her for showers, a few times a week; no mention either way about anything else.)
She watches; it's obvious that she's a little nervous.
From her reaction it's clear that she doesn't want help, but also that she won't resist if they decide to accompany her. Whether she needs it is less clear.
What she wants is as important as it can be, here.
"Ok." And she explains how to reach the restroom from this room. "Do you think you'd be able to find it and go there, if you needed? It's alright if not, we won't be upset, and we'd see what we could do to help."
(She should have thought of this much earlier. Distracted by worry is a reason, but not excuse. She's taken on this work, she needs to do it well. But she is a human also, and in this way it is. Understand, and remember, and try better.)