Chapter Text
"Welcome, Molly." The poindexter greeted as he pushes his glasses up, waving his hand to gesture the young girl to take a seat as he sits on his chair as well.
"Heya Sylvie," She tiredly replies, bags under her eyes but a soft glow on her face as she smiles anyway, grabbing the seat and crossing her legs as she does so. "Glad to see you out of the hospital, how are your, uh... ribs?" She fiddles her hands as she eyes her concerns at the peach boy.
Sylvie waves it off as he tries to not recall his wreckless encounter back at the Sweet Jazz City Museum, "This session is about you, not me." He reminds the other, Molly sitting up as she nods though not pleased with the answer, "but, uh, I'm doing much better now so thanks for asking." He shoves his hands in his pocket, fidgeting with the yo-yo that's kept there.
Molly, in turn, was pleased, her green eyes closed as she fills her face with a warm smile, "I'm glad! If you need any more toys though I will be happy to give you some- as gifts of course!" She rushes the last part as she flails her hands a bit in a wave of panic, "You know since the toys is still a part of my family's store, I pay for the toys from my paycheck though, even if my dad doesn't notice they're missing... haha!" She dryly laughs, though it not being a proper joke at all.
'Gosh, she really is a pushover...' Sylvie frowned at the thought as he waved his hand, "You really shouldn't be doing that since you're an employee," though pausing as he tries to best fit the situation, "An employee who is a young daughter of the manager, you know the spiel." he felt off wording it as such but left it at that as it was true. He rolled his seat over to his desk as he tries to write down how the session is going so far, tapping the pen on his lip but fights the urge to mindlessly chew on it. "I'm going to return the toys though," he adds, Molly looking back as her brows furrowed, "there is no need for a psychologist to have any on hand anyway!" he assured to his patient, though seeming smug to how grown up he is for not owning any childish things.
Marshmallow hair sproing out as she tilted her head oddly confused, lifting a finger as if to counter what the other said, "Not to start anything but I think it would be better if you keep them," she says as she shrugs, glancing around the barren office of what is Dr Sylvie's, "as like, stress relievers for your patients, you know? Because these kinds of confrontation can make someone uncomfortable and having something to hold would be nice..." she looked at the floor, almost shaken up to how much she has spoken up. “I mean, I certainly would like to have something to hold especially if I’m going to talk about me of all things, haha,” she adds a self deprecating joke as she swings her arm, but fails to amuse herself.
Sylvie took note of Molly's reaction, along with her suggestion, nodding as he tries to perfectly collect what the young girl is trying to say. "So, having something to ease the patient would make it easier to open up, right?" he points the pen at the bear girl, not letting go of his teal eyes on her.
She managed to hold onto the eye contact, though clearly still shaking up, stammers as her face twists unsure with what to say, "I think so, but it's your office so I think it's whatever your choice is though!" She folds her legs tighter, though relaxing when she notices that Sylvie isn't going to yell at her for anything of the sort, coughing as she tries to add on "... but, in all honesty, it would just be neat if you have toys, whether it is dolls, stuffs, or- oh! oh! brain teasers! Those would be good to have here, you can even use them yourself," adding softly, Sylvie nodding as he adds onto his list. Unsure if what he’s writing down is good or bad if a different matter, "I can always donate the toys instead if it's for a good cause, we have a lot of toys in the warehouse anyway."
Tapping on his lip again, he finally gave in to chewing on the pen and began to think, "So, something like this?" Sylvie danced his finger around as a counting sheep appears from existence, frolicking onto Molly's lap as it softly baas and cuddles her.
"Y-Yes! Something like this," she smiles as her hand caresses the epithet conjuring sheep, feeling a lot calmer now, especially now that the sheep aren't sharply nibbling onto her.
Leaning against his chair, Sylvie examines his patient relaxing with his dream sheep. He felt as if he is beginning to understand Molly, as the sake of being her friend, better. "You know, you weren't this scared of speaking up when we met at the museum." He pointed out, snapping Molly from her thoughts but this time having a proper expression to respond as her hand holds onto the sheep’s soft wool.
"Well, Giovanni was there and he really motivated me to speak up more, but it takes a while to get used to..." She shrugged, nervously chuckling recalling the whole museum ordeal just a few days prior.
Sylvie sighed as he recalls the dumb thief, "Of course he did."
~~~
”So yeah, that’s the whole thing with me and my family, well, what’s left of it anyway...” her eyes become dull as a lull in the air helps keep her calm, keeping her awake enough to respond to Sylvie’s question, “though it’s not much different from what I’ve told you back in the museum, it’s just... two years doesn’t seem like a lot, right?” She waves her hand, tilting her head to look over, seeing a nod from Sylvie as she looks back at the ceiling, holding onto three dream sheep now. “Well, two years felt the longest and shortest time for me anyway, because I was just kind of, poof! Existing in between those times.”
”It sounds pretty long for a ten year old though,” The pale boy noted, though recalling when he was that age he forced himself to compete with academically draining people as well, “Is he even... aware of what he is doing to you?” Waving the pen in his hand, trying to keep his expressions as monotone as possible but genuinely unsure what he can give as advice for his patient now.
”My dad? Nah,” Molly hums as she thinks about her guardian figure, “if he did he would be doing the taxes himself! Ugh,” she twists her body in her seat to properly maintain eye contact, “I have good friends though, promise, but even these things bum them out which I can understand and I wish I could change... but all I can do is mute everything and myself, literally, walking through life as quiet and obsolete as possible hoping that I don’t get into more trouble, and that in a blink of an eye I’ll be 18 and just leave, you know?” Light reflects off her eyes as she looks at the psychologist, as if this is her one silver lining.
”A lot of thoughts for a 12 year old who works at a toy store,” Sylvie half jokes, though in a sad sense he gets what Molly is trying to explain, but instead he muted the world by sleeping and dreaming of a tomorrow that hasn’t came yet, “you should open up more though,” giving his genuine thoughts to the Blyndeff girl, “Not just your dad, of course, but maybe others, because help is always around the corner, who knows. Maybe you’ll develop a stronger bond with your friends and people around you, or to be able to better acquaint yourself to the world around you.” He lifts his glasses, not due to it sliding off but because it seems like a cool moment to do so. “And if you allow yourself to open up more you begin to figure who you are more, of course. This can also help with the loss of your mother, but that’s a touchy subject. What I mean is, allowing yourself to genuinely heal and grow is always, and I mean it, going to allow you to heal faster and it will show.”
Molly takes the given advice to heart but doesn’t help she has a funny smile as she eyes the peach boy strangely, “For someone who doesn’t have many friends, you seem to know a lot about what someone should do,” she tries to make it into a compliment.
He shrugged and also smiled, “These are things they tell you in psychology books, inscribed or mundie, so it’s pretty basic knowledge to pick up on,” glad to be able to put his learnt socialising skills in a real life situation.
The freckled bear sat there dumbfounded, unsure how to respond before giving a chuckle, “You only have book smarts for these kind of things, huh Sylvie?” Stretching as she speaks as her legs are beginning to fall asleep from sitting still for so long, “Well I don’t think that’s weird at all, it’s kind of like reading a manual before actually talking to people, which is also pretty neat.”
”Trust me, between the two of us and the rest of Sweet Jazz City,” Sylvie stood up as well realising that the session is coming close to an end, seeming slightly bothered he didn’t get to delve deeper into Molly’s story, “we are just as strange as everyone else, as to say we are just as normal.”
”You know, that’s worded so strangely and yet it’s almost uplifting,” Molly sits up from her seat, the sheep around her finally fading off from her dumbness, regaining her energy as she bounces a bit to get her body going again, “thanks for the session Dr Ashling, I’ll be sure to come back with my next paycheck so we can continue.”
Sylvie paused before he put a hand behind his back, hesitant of what he is gonna say next, “It’s not necessary. After all, we’re friends, I wouldn’t want to play patient and doctor like how you play employee and manager with your father.” He waves his hand, though Molly acknowledges it and nods, a genuine grin plastered on her face hearing the fact that Sylvie considers her his friend, “We can just schedule a time to properly hang out to talk about this if you really want to, but it seems our schedule is booked for quite a while.”
”Seems like it, but now that you say it like that guess it’s gonna take my in-between my night shifts and school to lose more sleep because then I’ll be worrying about what to do if we do end up hanging out,” she laughs, this time clearly a joke allowing the drowsy epithet holder to join in on the humor as well.
”Also, Molly?” He asks.
”Yeah?”
”When do you think you can donate your toys?”