Epidemic (Valan)

“Takayama can you please go wake up your nephew we gotta go in like ten minutes!!!” I yell down the hallway and get a grumble in reply as he walks down the hall towards the living quarters. “5.4.3.2.1” I count down on my fingers. “YUURI!!!!!” Takayama shouts and there's a thump that resonates through the ground. I sit down on one of the wooden benches and wait until a mostly dressed and still sleepy Yuuri walks up to me. “Iki Masho u.” He says rubbing his eyes. Let's go. Now where'd Sammie go? “I'm guessing you haven't seen Sam?” I ask as we search through the headquarters, Yuuri shakes his head. Thought so. We wander around until we get to the entrance, only to find Sammie waiting for us, “what took you two so long we have an epidemic to help!” She sighs “what am I gonna do with you two?” We shrug with stupid grins on our faces.

We open the door and step out into the alleyway carrying our bags over our shoulders. It's rather dreary today, the mountain must be acting up, this making thick smog roll down into the city. We cover our mouths to avoid ingesting the ash, a common practice in this part of the world, as Morrowind is home to the largest and most active volcano in tamriel: the Red Mountain. I see a purple glowing light coming from the outskirts, near the docks and begin to walk toward it to get a better view, it's precisely what I thought it was, a portal, to minecraft. One by one we step in and there is a flash of light.

The three of us step out into a snowy forest, it seems about midday, judging by the sun no later than one o'clock. Now to find that school, mindcrack. “Steve briefed me on the situation, ever since Caitlin's death the already large suicide problem grew massive, reports from Alex say she finds students bodies piled up in the bathrooms. And yet the school administrators do nothing.” I say as we trudge through the snow. Sammie pulls out a file “I have the invoices from Lillian and Rebecca, and then another note from Phillip, he has a bit of control over the enchanting branch of administration being the head researcher. And included some of his notes. Yuuri do you have any research or anything that'd be relevant?” I look at him as he rifles through his satchel and pulls out a stack of papers “Suicide, Depression, and the effects on the teenage brain. Fully sourced, I obtained it from some colleagues in the neurology department. This should help at least a bit.” Aside from being an Assassin Yuuri also has a degree in neuropsychology, a rather interesting field of study if you ask me. “Yuuri my friend, I think that will help more than just ‘a bit’.” I say with a smile and pat him on the shoulder. “Now what do you two say we get out of this snow?” I ask my two companions who bid eagerly, Dunmer weren't made for the cold.

After trudging through snow for gods know how long the cold, white, power begins to turn to slush, quickly disappearing until we come to a large, open plain. “Look there's a village or town of some sort!” Sammie points out the smoke coming from some chimneys of a cluster of nearby buildings. “I think I know where we are, follow me!” I set off towards the town. “Valan Velothi, have a sense of direction? Never thought that'd happen.” Sam muses to no one in particular. “I'm blind not deaf ya know!” I yell back in reply. “Oh trust me, by the amount of times you've fallen down the stairs and annoyed Vivec by reading in Braille, we all know that.” She gives me a faux smile. “Hahaha very funny.” I say rather unamused. We walk along the edge of the plain until we find a dusty road that leads into the village.

Villagers bustle through the streets, characterized by their plain dress, long noses, and rather simple professions, though since last I've visited here they’ve added a few shops and things. Yuuri moves out of the way awkwardly, narrowly avoiding them, “Uh Valan? What are they?” He asks. “Their villagers Yuuri. Their people just like you and me. They just look and act a bit different. Nothing to be afraid of they won't hurt you.” He swallows and looks around then runs to catch up with us. I point up to a flat, box like building “I think that's the school.” Sammie looks at the map and nods. “Yep, mindcrack middle and high school. That's our place.” She checks her watch, we have around 20 minutes.

The three of us walk up to the school's entrance and open the door, it's rather dimly lit inside. I guess it reflects the current status of such a place. I knock on the door of the main office and a brown haired young woman who I guess is the secretary opens the door. “Yes?” She asks looking us over, “who are you?”  She steps away from the doorway and allows us into the office. “My name is Valan Velothi, and this is my friend Samantha Arryn. We are friends of the band and orchestra teacher here, Mr. Stephen Lowell.” I say to the secretary who writes our names on a slip of paper. “And who is this?” She points her pen to Yuuri who is standing on my left. “Konnichiha watashino namae ha watashiha shinkei shinri gakusha Seki Yuuri kun.” He says with a slight bow. The secretary blinks and appears confused. “What?” She says giving him a look. Yuuri looks down at his shoes, I feel bad for him sometimes, it's hard when you're not used to speaking English all the time. “I'm sorry, English isn't his first language he reverts to Japanese when he's tired.” I say to the brown haired secretary. I tap Yuuri on the shoulder and he looks up at me, I sign a series of words to him and tell him to try again. “H-hello. My name is Yuuri Seki...I- I am a Neuro. A-a-a neuropsychologist.” He says slowly with an occasional stutter and stops every so often to check what he's saying. The lady nods and writes his name down and hands him a name tag. “Nice to meet you Mr. Seki I didn't mean to be rude by the way. If you need a translator I can try to acquire one.” Yuuri scrunches up his nose and shakes his head when she mentions a translator. “No thank you.” He says “I can manage.” She chuckles. “Mr. Lowell is down the hall and take two lefts. He should be in his office.” We thank her and then open the door and head down the hall. I peak in Steve's office window and tap the glass slightly, he looks up from his desk and gets up to open the door. I push the door handle and open the light wooden door. “How's it going Steve, any luck with Administrators?” Sammie asks closing the door. He shrugs “No luck with them, and it's like hazmat team is clearing or shutting down the bathrooms every five damn minutes!” He scoffs “more like twenty but you get the point. Way too often. As for the school board I've had every email and voicemail deleted, hoped you guys could talk some sense into them. And hopefully the guidance department gets back to me soon, these kids need someone to talk to.” He leans against his desk with an elongated sigh. “We’ll talk to them don't worry about that. And as for your guidance problem we have a solution for that too. My friend here is a neuropsychologist and has a series of notes on depression and the effects on the teenage brain.” Yuuri shows him the stack of notes “MRI studies, clinical evaluations, antidepressant notes, and resource lists.” He flips through them stopping every so often to show him a sample. “That's very interesting, and I don't think I got your name? Are you Yuuri?” He nods and extends his hand “Seki Yuuri nice to meet you.” Steve shakes his hand. “I can get you meeting with the students if you want. I have a class in a couple of minutes but I can introduce you and have you start meeting with them one by one. How's that sound?” Yuuri gathers his things and looks at Steve “that sounds perfectly fine.” Steve smiles slightly and leads him to a small room that's used for practice and sets him up, then pops his head in the door and signals one second. He bustles away towards his classroom and walks by with a red haired student, must be Alex.

“Now where were we?” Steve sits down at his desk and pulls out a file from a drawer. “This is some evidence I got of what's been going on. Just warning you they are rather graphic.” He slides us the file and Sam takes it lifting it slightly and glances at the images before taking the file quickly off the desk and opens it fully, then clamps a hand over her mouth and looks up at Steve in horror. “Told you they were graphic.” He replies with a monotone voice. “Can I see?” I ask her and she pulls the file away “You don't want to see them Valan. You really don't want to see them” I withdrawal my hand. “Is it worse than Corpus?” I ask her and she nods. Well shite Corpus photos are incredibly graphic and extremely disturbing. I turn to Steve “Man we gotta go down to the superintendent and smack some sense into him.” Steve nods “That's why you two are here. Did you talk to your lawyer friend? What's her name, Liv or something?” I pull out my computer “Olivia Curtin, Liv for short, she sent me some of her notes on the matter. I have a printed copy in my bag. But you can read it off here.” I show him the document and he scrolls through it. “Think this is enough to make our case?” He asks and hands me back my laptop. I nod “most certainly, I think. At least in court it would.” Steve nods and stands up “Well let's go make our case then.”

We stand outside the superintendent's office and Steve opens the door and we walk inside, the rest of the administration sit at a long table. Now let's get to the bottom of this epidemic.

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the school administration, this meeting has been called to bring to light the severe Suicide Epidemic that that has been going on at this school, and yet we do nothing!” Steve stands at the end of the table and Sammie and I on either side of him. “Half the student body is dead. Hazmat teams close restrooms every other day due to needing to clean out the bodies, this doesn't have to be the case! Give these kids help for god's sake, they need help!” He continues and pushes as one of the staff raises their hand “Yes?” Steve asks. “And just what are we going to do about it Mr. Lowell?” Steve points at her “I'll tell you what we're going to do about it Helen. We get the psych staff from the hospital to let the kids talk, help the suicidal ones by whatever means necessary and don't let this damn tragedy go on. How's that sound?” The staff member gives a stunned nod and Steve regains his composure, to be fair I would have done the same thing possibly with different words, but similar standpoint. “I now introduce my friend and former friend of Caitlin, Valan Velothi.” Wait what? I put my notes on the podium and angle the microphone down to my level, as Steve is much taller than me. “Hello, my name as you probably already know, is Valan Velothi. And you're likely wondering ‘what's with his eyes,hair,skin, ext?’ To put it simply, I'm not from here. Neither is my colleague. Now why exactly am I here? And the answer is I know of the situation here and I'm here to say that it is neither right, just, or for the matter, legal.” I pause and flip through my notes, running my hands over the Braille quickly refreshing my memory. “Yes you heard me correctly, the state and situation of this school is illegal. And the terminology for the current situation is in fact, an Epidemic. The definition of the word epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease or other event, habit, or behavior in a community at a particular time. In this case it is Suicide, Overdose, and Major Depressive Disorder.” Another staff member interrupts, an older man in a dark suit. “And do you, a stranger, suppose we do about it?” I swallow “Well, for one point I agree with Steve, as does another person I work with who has a ph.d in neuropsych and particularly studies Adolescent Depression and its effects.” I say in reply to the man “and where is this person you work with eh?” He asks. “He's actually meeting with the students now.” Sammie interjects standing remarkably still, like a statue, and staring straight ahead. “I never said you could do that!” He roars as he stands up slamming his fist on the table. “We didn't ask you, but we did ask that rather nice secretary in the office, she said that he could go right ahead.” Sam says rather unfazed by the outburst. “Where is this man, I'd like to see his credentials.” Sammie scoffs slightly and gives me a look out. “Then I'll go get him for you.” I say and walk towards the door. “You can tell them your plan and the details of things Steve, I'll be back.” Steve nods and steps back to the podium. I close the door behind me as I walk out.

Walking down the hallway to where Yuuri's conducting testing I see a line of kids standing against the wall “what are you doing out here?” I ask one boy. “Waiting for the other psychologist.” Well I guess Yuuri found the SpED department and used it to his advantage. I find the practice room in which the testing is going on and knock on the door “Yuuri? It's me. Can you take a break from that for a bit? We need you friend. And bring your stuff.” He opens the door. “I'll follow you.” He says looking at me. “Cmon, it's this way.” I lead him down the hall “I'm telling you Valan, a lot of these kids are pretty screwed up, like a couple of them if this were home I'd send them straight to Franciscans.” My eyes widen “really?” I ask and he nods “And I probably don't know the worst of it. But this school needs some serious work. And what's this about my stuff and needing to be seen?” He follows me down the main hallway as we walk side by side “One of the staff asked for your credentials. Grumpy old guy, not very nice.” He bites his lip “well fuck I already have a grumpy oldish guy in my life.” Yuuri says referring to his maternal uncle, Takayama. “It's in here.” I open the door and we walk in “you said you wanted to see him, so here he is.” Yuuri unclips his ID card from his belt “Yuuri Seki, Neuropsychologist.” He hands the man the card who looks it over and hands it back with a grumble. “Did you have any findings?” Steve asks him quietly. “Oh many, many findings, to sum it up: these kids need intervention, many of them severe intervention, as in mental hospital or inpatient unit and suicide watch. Alex seems to be mostly fine but could possibly develop an anxiety disorder in the future.” He whispers back. Steve nods slowly and steps back to the podium. “Happy now? Can we make a plan maybe?” There is murmurs of agreement through the group of teachers and staff. “Are we still needed?” Sammie asks Steve and he shrugs “not really, you can go home if you want.” We nod and wave “well it seems we are not needed for the time being but should you need us Steve has our contact.” They nod and we dismiss ourselves, quietly closing the door behind us as Steve outlines his plan. The three of us check out at the office and walk out into the twilight. I really hope that Steve's plan works, God do I hope it works.

This was a lot longer than I expected it to be.

Until next time,
Max