RP:A visit to Doktor Heinrich Von Gestalt

Background

After a traumatic experience, a disturbed Trinsa is sent by the Temple to seek the assistance of one Doktor Heinrich Von Gestalt.

A house somewhere in Larket

It is an unremarkable house that the temple escort accompanies Trinsa to: a white-painted and picket-fenced tribute to seemingly straight-forward design sensibilities. The house itself is set back in acreage, a narrow gravel footpath set in neatly manicured lawns leading in a straight line to the distant front door. Each step Trinsa takes brings her, it seems, much closer to the front door than expected, and by the time the front door is reached, the footpath will appear much broader than at its starting point by the gate. The dwarven escort may blink at this, giving a slight shake of his head and beard, before using the door-knocker for its avowed purpose in life. One cannot tell if the doorknocker receives a sense of comfort from fulfilling its purpose, but the door is soon answered by a woman with a narrow face and hair tied up in a severe bun. "Please escort the patient to the waiting rooms." The secretary brings them to a room with several large, comfortable leather chairs. Facing across from those edifices of relaxation is a wall with a strange design - square bricks of marble and obsidian have been installed in a staggered pattern, the lines of the bricks seeming to slope strangely from the view afforded by the chairs. The secretary nods to them "He will not be long." For now, Trinsa must wait upon the doctor for now, with the guard as her company.

Trinsa 's mind hesitated while her escort guided her shoulder through the portal marked by a knocker that was answered by a mistress too official for her to be the one Zocgk informed her of, or too feminine. "Must we?" she whined softly. Earlier in the day, the elf had been forcibly returned back to the Temple, wherever that may be, for it's front door is kept in secret. "If fer gunna akt leik that Miss, ye moust." Trinsa frowned, watching the efficient woman stoically move to her duties. Per the request, the two clients move on to the waiting room, taking in the wall immediately. It turned her stomach to look at it or perhaps it was the anguish of hunger that threatened tipping the elf over. She looked away, adopting a chair that resembled a box with it's lines. It seemed the only thing stable in that room, aside from Zocgk who joined her. Only when she sat, did he release the plump woman's shoulder. For the sake of the Guild, they had to get the elf straightened out. Trinsa's eyes focused on the long beard decorated with braids and beads while keeping to herself. She had no idea what they were for and pondered this until the dwarf broke, "This un." lifting a twist holding a wooden bead at the end, "Fer a dragon's head." Grinning widely with pride. This is how the two spent the time, the over weight elf wearing a peasant's dress with chemise, and the guard decorated in his version of 'casual attire' as he is off duty.

There is the sound of a door opening and closing in the distance. Soon after that 'Ms Sekretary', as regular patients tend to think of her, enters the room "The doktor will see you now. Herr Zocgk, a servant shall escort you to the dining room, where you may dine while awaiting the completion of this session. We shall alert you via bell when the time comes." The secretary looks at Trinsa "Miss Duncan, please follow me." There is no room in that statement for questions or disobedience. 'Ms Sekretary' has the icy self-assuredness and steely gaze which could cause a dragon to apologise for breaking the crockery during a rampage. Trinsa is led down a narrow corridor, which, like the footpath, seems longer than it is, causes the Sekretary two steps ahead of her to seem slightly taller than before entering the hallway. Closer inspection of the wall panels at the end of the corridor may show them to be narrower, and the ceiling closer than at the beginning of the hallway. A stout door of an unusual alloy greets secretary and patient, and opens at a wave of the secretary's hand. Discovered therein is a room designed for comfort, containing a mahogany writing table, leather recliner, large cushioned divan, and blue velvet wall-hangings to conceal the more functional walls. And standing by the desk is "Doktor Heinrich Von Gestalt, fraulein Duncan. A pleasure ja? Be seated, be comfortable, the divan iz your home away from home. Sit, sit, and tell me of yourself". A short elderly man, he beams at Trinsa under a mop of white hair, garbed in a comfortable tweed jacket and knitted scarf. When/if Trinsa sits or lays upon the divan, the doktor will take a seat across from her in his leather recliner, steeple his fingers, and listen to her while his piercing crystal blue eyes take in every detail of her body language and micro-expressions of the elf's facial muscles.

The secretary ushers Trinsa in, and leaves, closing the door behind her.

Trinsa did not care for being torn away, so to speak, from her acquaintance and longingly watched for him until she was unable to see him any longer. Nothing more to concentrate on except for that hall that seemed too short, for the length of it, she targeted her eyes for the Sekretary's shoes. Pumps, she always found pumps too difficult but my did this woman know how to wear them. Those shoes, on their own had confidence and the way they glided across this deceptive floor, well, they seemed to demand that the very pattern hold still just to be graced by their pointed splendour. The two paused while the door opened and Trinsa gave her thank you during the revealing within the aforementioned description and what a relief it was to see a normal seeming surrounding. Trinsa gave a curtsy, pulling her gown slightly out, for propriety sake while her nervousness settled. "A pleasure, to be sure Doctor." her voice put out softly. It's clear by her avoidance of looking at the man that she is not comfortable with this situation, however, for the sake of her friends and for the clan, she is a willing participant. Via prompting, she settles in a seated position on the divan, hands folded neatly within her lap and her fingers weaving within one another, fidgeting. Slowly, only after everything else is taken into account in the room, she ventures her hunter green eyes at the other occupant. Still, she lets her vision wander over his clothing, eventually fixating on the knitwear. "I... am an elf." she starts, slipping her deep crimson hair behind her shaped ear unconsciously. "A seamstress here in town." This is so strange for her, to be discussing such things, she knew he wanted the point and not the general. "I... grew up in Cenril, at the theatre as a stage hand and filled other non-acting rolls...." A deep breath as she finally matches her eyes to Doktor Von Gestalt's "And I've just arrived home from an ordeal, which is what brings me here." That breath let out heavily, revealing her thoughts on the matter such as finding this conversation a tad ridiculous, paired with doubt as to the Doctor's ability to assist.

Doktor Heinrich taps his fingers together lightly when Trinsa finishes the awkward introduction. "You are being uncomfortable with this. I understand, fraulein, I do. A strange house, a glacial sekretary, an old man with unusual akzent. Of these things are minor disturbances made." He directs a warm smile her way "But I am also thinking, hmm? Thinking perhaps the ordeal was... wie sag ich? ..ah, ja... I am thinking the ordeal you speak of was substantially more upsetting than any unfamiliar room." He lets his hands fan out, palms up, in the traditional fashion to show them empty of weapons "But the mind, fraulein Duncan, the mind is both garden and house, castle and prison, and I am thinking perhaps your mind is developing something of the latter?" He directs that blue gaze Trinsa's way as he lets the pause develop into a silent space begging to be filled.

Trinsa returned her hands back in her lap to perform her constant weaving of fingers. Her palms were dormant save for the minute muscle flexes performed by moving her fingers in such a way, however her forearms are too plump to see those small movements reflecting on them. "A prison, perhaps." she agreed. "I have learned much of my self as a result and these things confuse me." Her voice becomes a bit more sure of the doctor's abilities as she continues. She did promise to give this a try, realizing that giving the one helping her grief would serve no purpose toward that result. Trinsa's shoulders were slumped, curling around her centre as if the weight of the world was worn on her shoulders instead of the lacy shawl that she wore when travelling. "I know it could have been worse, I could have been hurt or made mangled, but here I am... in one piece, yet shattered so that I cannot return it back to the picture." Back to the scarf, the elf needed a distraction. She stares at it, dissecting the pattern of being a cord of six in a ban of purls. Probably three on each side before it went into a smaller cable of four plus boarder. Back to the situation at hand, Trinsa shifted in her seat, leaning to her right side slightly, a bit more comfortable. "I'm lost." These last few words came out small and timid. "Everything has a reaction with me anymore and while a month ago I was happy, today... nothing can I find pleasure in." Back her optics met up with the doctors, silently pleading for something to work. Violence, while briefly relieving stress, had it's consequences. Placid acceptance of existence is no way to live. "And the others.... they have their own duties to be concerned over." When the truth of it is, the others are more unstable then she is, though she knows not why.

The doktor nods once "You have been taken from comfort, ja? Deposited in a place of confused thinking, and seek the old way of being." He makes a slight, musing noise, and stares at Trinsa. "Your analogie of breaking is not quite apropos, fraulein. A broken person does not care about the craftsmanship of someone's scarf to examine it with critical eye - yes, I knitted it myself - yet I sense your heart is hoping for a different outlook on the present reality, ja? A reappraisal of how these discomforts have come about. Here, let me show you something." The doktor potters to his feet, and wanders over to a shelf, talking over his shoulder as he pulls out a glass chessboard with too many squares, a velvet bag, and black silk cloth "I am about to show you the fallacy of thinking about these things in the hopes of fixing them, fraulein." He sets the cloth down on the chessboard, and opens the velvet bag "In our heart of hearts, we hope for simple lives, and simple solutions" He waves his wrinkled hand at the board "We seek the schwarz und weiss - ah, apologies - the black and white solutions. We ask for life to be like this board here. Clearly defined boundaries, and ourselves placed squarely within them" He reaches a hand into the velvet bag to a clicking of glass, and removes a handful of small black and white hemispherical beads. "And then, life complicates things, adds confusions" He starts placing the small beads in a strange but deliberate pattern, white beads in some of the corners of the black squares, black beads in similar fashion on the white squares "See, a handful of beads, and already our nice, easy to understand board is a mess, ja?" Bead after bead is placed as Doktor Heinrich speaks "Every little event we experience is being like a bead, shaping our view of life, the world, und ourselves" He places the final handful of beads down, and lets Trinsa take a closer look. With the placement of the beads, it is as if the board is warped, the centre of it rising up into a hemisphere like one of the glass beads which had caused the illusion. "See, fraulein. See how life shapes our perceptions." He lets her look at the board a moment more. "You are hoping that you can simply clear away all of these little things, these memories and experiences, until things are pristine." He smiles sadly at her "You cannot, fraulein. Memories and experiences will forever shape the playing board of your life." His smile brightens up a little "However, all is not lost! With time and understanding, you can learn to move your pieces in accordance with the new shape of your life. New interests! New hobbies! New friends! New experiences. You need to think about these things. Think about the new shape of your life, knowing that there is no going back." He settles back into the leather chair. "We live one breath at a time, Fraulein Duncan. We cannot take back a breath that has already happened. We can only seek cleaner, sweeter air for future breaths." He looks at Trinsa once again "You have unaired thoughts, unasked questions, perhaps? If it is of no discomfort to you, I would gladly hear them"

Trinsa rises from her place to observe the lesson and the board to which the lesson takes place upon. One bead falls off from what she sees as a pattern and she itches to nudge it just a tiny bit to be back in place, she does not, however. Why did this matter anyway, it is just a bead. Perhaps that was the point, it dawns, to take things as they are and deal with them as one would deal with something which they cannot control. For a brief moment, her thoughts wander to grasp this concept. Back to the thick voice of the elder gentleman who mumbled of 'new experiences', the elf carries on back to her seat, this time more stiffly, properly. "If I understand what you are saying, then what is done is done... The question that yearns is how to handle what is done so to prevent the negativity from the experience to happen again?" Trinsa exhaled, "How can I not expect a hug from a stranger to not feel like an abductors arms? How do I know that by entering a strange house, that I will not be tied down to be kept? How many doses of salve will it take to find escape. Doctor, how do I live with these experiences, which I do not desire?"

Doktor Heinrich patiently waits as the elf lets out some of her frustration, blue eyes resting on Trinsa's. "You live, Trinsa, one breath at a time. No more, no less." He places the bead back in its spot to once more complete the illusory effect and waves at it "You are the chessboard. The chessboard is in one piece. These distortions of perception, such as feeling an embrace to be an abductor's arms, are created by the current confluence of experiences. But watch!" He takes up again the velvet bag, and upends the remaining contents on the board in a cascade of beads. The illusion is broken, and the board is flat once more, messy with 'experiences' and 'memories'. "With time, you shall add new beads to your board, Trinsa. The more rapidly you add them, the sooner the current distortions shall disappear, and your perceptions shall become more akin to what you want them to be." His piercing gaze sharpens, and Trinsa may feel a tingling of skin, a sense of vast mountain ranges and echoing valleys in the words next spoken "Do not stay imprisoned in the current illusion you dwell on, and in, Trinsa Duncan. Break your gaze free of its distortion of your reality, and look at the world beyond your own playing board. Then you shall find the peace you seek" The sense of overwhelming presence would then vanish utterly, leaving in its place a small seed of an idea, which only Trinsa herself could nurture over time. Doktor Heinrich Von Gestalt rises from his chair, and walks to one of the wall hangings, drawing it aside to reveal a door. "It is best perhaps, fraulein, if you now go partake of some food with your companion in the dining room. One cannot enjoy life on an empty stomach, ja?" The door opens into a corridor from which a slight hint of cooked food can be discerned. "Go in peace, fraulein Duncan."

Trinsa wiped away a tear of, exactly what the therapist knew, frustration. She had been hiding it when asking her questions, feeling stuck in replay of her capture. Lords how she had made a fool of herself in Kelay and, as the Doctor said, the pieces were in a scrambled, distorted mess. This is why she came to see him. To get those pieces in order but they did not need in order, just understood to be part of if the board; her. The welling of tears had ceased, hiding back as she tries to be strong about this conversation. How embarrassing it is to be weeping in front of a stranger, even if he did understand more then most would. That's when the illusion took hold of her senses; the sent of the trees, the feel of the wind, all of it caressing her, urging her to progress past those mountains to see what lays beyond. As she does with her perception, so did she with her own physical form. Trinsa moved toward the door, taking one step and one breath to move on. She paused at the door, "Thank you Doctor." choosing to curtsy deeply, thankful for the perspective he gave her. She will remember this, when things become frantic and if she ever loses sight of her board? No doubt she will be back. "I am a little peckish." Trinsa's lightly pink lips pulled against her teeth, revealing them as her smile split. "Will you be joining?" Turning her head to see her escort satisfied and wielding a dagger as one does a toothpick. His fingers gave a lazy wave to greet his charge.

Doktor Heinrich smiles warmly "Alas I cannot, fraulein. I must prepare for my next appointment - but remain of good cheer! Herr Zocgk is waiting in the room beyond, and will be of gladness, I am sure, to see a repeat of that smile. The cook has some pastries readied for you, to tide you over until the main course can be prepared." He gently accompanies Trinsa to the exit, where the scent of home-cooked food grows stronger "And now I must let you take your leave, and your repast. Be well, Fraulein Duncan." The door opens into the dining room where the dwarven guard is tucking into a large container of broth, mashed potatoes, and a tureen of mint peas. A portly lady brings out a tray of pastries, and sets them on the table, drawing Zocgk's attention to Trinsa

Trinsa returns the departing notes with her own blessing of well wishes before spotting Zocgk down further, perhaps it is the illusions that affect the opposite direction in this area because she could have swore he was right there. Idly, she is feeling rather deep in thought most likely due to the conversation they had. Now, instead of the rooms being wobbly, they are rooms with lessons. Things are closer then they appear is just the surface thought, but what she mulls over is how they interact with one another. Warped and distorted, just like the beads. The elf just sort of shakes her head a little, trusting her feet more then her eyes. "This all looks very lovely." dying for a bite or two in the aura of fragrances which draw her nostrils like a beckoning finger. "Mmm. Potatoes..." she says, eyeing the spread. "Have you eaten?" Which is replied to with a hefty grunt from the dwarf. Trinsa seats herself across from her companion, earnest to try a little of everything. My is she eager, for her stomach has made complaints as to why she has not already started to fill her plate. In due time it is filled with a little roast, a roll, gravied biscuits and other divines that she enjoys immensely. At some point during the meal Zocgk slips off to find the Mistress, er Secretary, to square up the bill and only when Trinsa announces her self done to him, does he escort her home. This doesn't take too long mind you, she may be a large elf but without eating for as long as she has, her stomach has shrunken out of spite.