Novel Full Chapter 2244 Mental Health is Important Part 2
--- Kat ---
Deciding that there was no great way to do this... and the argument had been going on for a while, Lily reached over with her shadow and plucked Appoline up from the ground and Kat walked away with them both. Scar looked over to her and raised an eyebrow, so Kat shot back a ’let me handle it’ with wide mouth movements, hoping that translation would allow it to carry over.
Based on Scar’s confused look, it probably didn’t, but the nod she sent their way seemed to imply she was at least willing to go along with things as they currently stood. So, Kat and Lily made their way down into the basement so it would be harder to overhear them and then let Appoline go. She’d been pretty chill about it. Kat had... honestly expected her to freak out a bit more after the implications hit her... but Appoline seemed fine.
"I take it you had a reason for dragging me away? I get that the conversation wasn’t truly going anywhere, but simply carrying me away was a bit extreme. Especially when we’ve ended up in the basement. There was a LOT of stairs to get here," queried Appoline.
Kat sighed, "Hmmm... do you want us to just come out and explain things or do you want us to be gentler about it?"
"Ah... so it’s an issue with me then? Hmmm... I suppose I simply want you to be upfront about it then. The fact that you’ve taken me aside so abruptly implies it’s a major thing," pondered Appoline.
"Indeed... and if you just want to hear it?" Kat tried to confirm. Appoline’s quick nod was enough. "Alright, it seems, to me and Lily, that you’re getting pretty stressed. We’ve also noticed that your stress response seems to be at least somewhat tied to the number, and perhaps variety, of potions you have available to you."
Appoline didn’t change her expression upon being brought this information. She still looked vaguely curious. Her words though. "I... hmm... I’m not sure that makes all that much sense. I have quite a few healing potions right now. Though you did also say type. I suppose it’s possible but surely it would’ve come up before?"
Kat glanced at Lily who made a pair of shadow hands just to shrug back. Kat sighed and said, "Well, we suspect that because you had your stockpile of potions in your base it never came up before. Maybe when you were a kid, maybe not."
"Hmmm... I can say I’m unsettled and I certainly do want more potions, but that’s simply because it’s my most effective way of fighting. I can make a potion to do just about anything so I see no reason for me to rely on something else. Perhaps I am a bit stressed but it could just be lack of sleep," offered Appoline.
Kat nodded, "Right... we’re not certain of this, it just feels likely. At the same time, I wasn’t sure if I should bring it to attention, either yours or Scars, because if Steel doesn’t know he will afterwards... and I’m not certain you’d want that?"
"I definitely wouldn’t want that. If I had this problem. Which I don’t," grumbled Appoline. Kat leaned on her truth sense to try to tell if this WAS true. Especially the part about her not having the issue... but it was pretty vague about it. Seemed Appoline didn’t know for sure one way or another, or at least, that’s the feeling Kat was getting from her ability the best she could decipher.
Which made things a bit harder. Appoline DID have reasonable excuses for everything... and she didn’t mind the fact that they’d literally dragged her down into a dark hole. They’d been worried about how being underground was affecting her but apparently the answer was less then they thought? Or perhaps she simply trusted the pair of them?
This made it hard to work out what exactly to do or say. Appoline didn’t think it was an issue at all, and assuming that was true, Kat would just... not do anything. On the other hand, if it was an issue it did need to be addressed and perhaps Appoline should see that? Dammit. *This has become confusing and I’m not sure what to do about it.*
[Well she certainly smells stressed to me.]
*You can smell stress?*
[Not directly, and not without a baseline... but people smell different when they’re stressed. Or at last, I’d assume that’s what it is. Appoline smells more like when we first picked her up right now then she did say, two days ago. So I’m ASSUMING it’s stress. Could be that she’s not showering properly.]
*Oh yeah. How are people getting clean here? I don’t really need to worry about it but...*
[There’s an enchanted shower people can unpack and use.]
*Good. Or well... no it is good. Has Appoline been using it?*
[I don’t really know? I wasn’t paying that much attention to things.]
*Hmmm... could that be why she smells off instead of the stress?*
[I mean it’s possible but it’s not like she smells dirty.]
*Ok let’s just move past this. We can investigate how good your nose is at smelling stress later. Are we just wrong? I mean, we assumed, and I felt pretty good about my assumption not even five minutes ago... but now I’m wondering if it wasn’t just the fact she was attacked and hasn’t slept. So... what do we do about it?*
[Certainly don’t mention that the reason we were going to ask was to get permission to head out to avoid a mental breakdown. Not at this point. She’d just admit to having it as a way to get more ingredients. Clearly she doesn’t believe us. I’m... not sure how I feel about that? I still feel like we were on to something but maybe she’s right and that this isn’t an issue. It’s not something that’s easy to test for.]
*Well what do we do then?*
[I don’t know Kat. I really don’t know. I mean, the cheesy answer is ’Be there for her’ but it’s not the sort of answer you were looking for.]
461
Kat sighed and refocused on the present... only to see that Appoline had moved off to the side and taken out a notebook. Apparently the sigh was enough warning because Appoline looked up, "Oh? Done with your conversation?"
"Oh... did..." *Did we not speed our minds up for that? I guess not.* "sorry. I guess we’re just not sure what to do. I mean... we had a solid theory... and it feels wrong to press on it? If you’d agreed that would be one thing, or if you said no while clearly lying but..." Kat shrugged without finishing the sentence.
Appoline nodded, putting away her notebook. "Well, lucky for you I was doing my own introspection. Writing down what information I could on the topic to see how valid it is."
Kat raised an eyebrow after Appoline paused. "And? How correct were we?"
Appoline shrugged, "Truthfully I have no idea. Your point about my stockpile is a good one. I was never too stressed when I had it... but on the other hand, my life’s work has been destroyed in large parts, I got kidnapped by my family, and just recently I got attacked and am acting on low sleep."
"Sorry," apologised Kat.
Appoline waved her off. "You weren’t pushy about it, nor did you insist on being correct. You still might be. I just don’t know how I’d test it... and I’m not sure I’d want to even if it was correct. Part of me wants to sleep to see how I’d feel afterwards... but even though I’m tired I really don’t want to sleep."
"I mean... Lily and I could promise to watch over you?" Kat offered with a shrug.
Appoline shook her head. "You were already doing that, and it didn’t stop me being attacked. Sure it stopped me getting hurt, and I don’t hold the attack against you... but it’s simply hard to sleep at the moment. I don’t want to be sleeping when the next attack happens, and I have so many things I feel like I should be doing."
Kat sighed but nodded along. "Well... alright. What were you thinking of doing? You said your healing potion stocks are good. What about other stuff?"
"Well, poisons of some kind, probably sleeping potions. Though... considering what happened to those guys that attacked us before..." Appoline began.
"They were WAY too stupid. Though actually... where did the rest of them go?" asked Kat after a moment. "I know Brook’s still under the table... and hasn’t turned back yet..." Appoline drew a line across her neck. "Ah... yeah guess I’m glad I wasn’t around to see that happen." *Or did Thyme just teleport them away? I guess it’s the same thing really in this sort of situation.* "What else could you make?"
Appoline was happy to answer "Well, there’s slime traps, water traps, oxygen traps, lack of oxygen traps..."