savetheearth | WHAT TIME IS IT?

Who: Phillip and Dr. Mort
Where: Dr. Mort's office!
When: November 8th
What: Phillip's parents are concerned about his recent behavior... especially the fact that he no longer seems even remotely bothered by the idea of death. To the psychiatrist! Surely this'll be an easy fix, right?

Phillip wasn't entirely clear what was going on. His parents had been acting kind of weird the past few days- since Halloween, really, which was understandable. But he was ok now, and Gloria was getting better, so he didn't see why they keep reacting weirdly to things he said. All he knew about today's outing was that they were taking him to a doctor. He was kind of worried about that, actually, since all the injuries he'd gotten were already healed. So he was to supposed to see that they didn't mean a physical doctor.

He perks up instantly when he sees the doctor in question, stopping himself from starting to chat away until his parents leave him in the room with the doctor from the network. "Hi!"

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Oh, dear. Mort knew he'd be seeing a young child, and he knew the child's name was Phillip, but he hadn't yet put two and two together. He was just glad the child's parents weren't still in the room; that made things easier even if he was afraid he'd have to lie to the parents on Phillip's behalf. Still, he was careful not to let any of that worry show, and he gave Phillip a reassuring smile. "Hello there, Phillip. How have things been?"

"I'm pretty good. How are you?" That might seem like a weird response, considering his parent's concern.

"Oh, I'm doing well enough. Won't you have a seat?" Mort gestured for the boy to make himself comfortable in one of the armchairs sitting in the office. "Do you know why your parents brought you here today, Phillip?"

Phillip hops up into one of the very comfortable looking armchairs, considerably happier now that he knows the person he's talking to, even if the question gets a little frown. "I guess they're worried about what happened on Halloween. Luke, Toushirou and I went trick-or-treating and we got attacked by the police dogs! I'm already healed though, so I'm glad they didn't take me to hospital doctor. I don't know how to explain that."

"Attacked by the--well, I'm glad you're all right..." Mort seemed understandably shaken by that, that the police would send their dogs out after children and on Halloween, no less. "How did you feel about that? About the dogs attacking?" He'd wanted to ask if Phillip was frightened, but he didn't want to inadvertently lead the boy into an answer. Best to phrase it like that.

"It was kind of scary. I mean, we weren't expecting it or anything... I didn't feel like I could do anything. I summoned... something, though. I think that was me." He still wasn't totally sure on that. "But I guess it gave Toushirou an actual excuse for coming."

"Summoned something?" Mort seemed rather interested. "What sort of thing was it?"

"Um..." Phillip tilts his head to the side, trying to think of how to explain. "They were kind of these dark blob things. With masks."

Mort nodded thoughtfully. "I hope that didn't frighten you too badly. I accidentally summoned something in my office a few weeks ago, and I must confess the experience shook me up a little." He was trying to decide how he wanted to introduce the subject of death into the conversation, seeing as how that was what Phillip's parents were really concerned about. "It was some sort of dinosaur creature, and I was afraid it might kill someone."

"A dinosaur?" That was so much cooler than a weird shadow blob he wants one.

And in an odd way, what happens here is exactly what the good doctor is looking for. Phillip doesn't have any negative reaction to the idea of something killing someone, or... much of a reaction at all, really. Just focusing on the dinosaur.

Maybe Mort should have expected that, because such was how it often was with children and dinosaurs. "That's right, it was about the size of a man, and it was very aggressive." He frowned. "It exploded when the others finally killed it." There, that was another way of bringing death into the situation. The dinosaur had died, too.

"Wow." Again, not at all paying attention to the mention of death. He has no real need to focus on such a simple fact, after all. "I guess you didn't make any more, huh."

"No, I'm afraid not. I don't know how I did it the first time, either." Mort wonders if it's because he's brought up magical dinosaur monsters, or if it's because of the concerns Phillip's parents were voicing that Phillip has completely failed to mention anything about death. "Phillip, would you mind telling me what you think of the chances people involved with this network have of dying suddenly?"

Mort felt like a horrible, horrible person for bringing that up around such a small child, but he had to do it.

Phillip gives the doctor a strange look at that- what a weird question. He isn't bothered by it, though. "I guess it's a little more likely than normal people. But that's something that can happen to anyone at anytime, really, so I don't think it's that different. Why?"

Okay, yes, that was an unexpected answer to Mort's admittedly weird question. "Ah, well..." Not like he wanted to tell the child his parents were concerned about his views about death. "I'm worried about things getting more dangerous with the network. I wanted to make sure you'd be able to cope if--God forbid--something terrible happened." He was still feeling this out, trying to decide how to handle the situation. The Network meant that his usual means of dealing with such things might not work as well as he'd hope.

Yeah, Phillip's still giving you a weird look. But this point isn't nearly as strange as the last one. "Why wouldn't I be able to cope?"

"Well, often, children your age have problems dealing with death." He was getting closer to the real reason Phillip was there now, tightening his focus. "It's something most people find upsetting."

Oh. This thing again. "Toushirou was saying that too." But Phillip very clearly doesn't think so.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

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