[IC] Act One: Savannah

When the doctor introduces him as a detective, Samuel opts not to say anything at all and let the Doc sell it.

Samuel recognises the receptionist as someone out for herself - fluttering her eyelashes at him, smiling and so on - and may be susceptible to some sort of approach if you wanted to follow up, get her on your side, or have her do something that might be unethical in her position. With Lillian, however, she's all business.

She has you all fill in forms - indemnity in case anything happens to you within the hospital "in case the patients act out" in which you retract the right to sue if anything should happen to you within the walls of the place. Dr Walker recognises this as a standard waiver - his own place of work has something remarkably similar, and he wonders idly if it's perhaps a boilerplate legal document that many such institutions use. Before he leaves with Dr Walker, Dr Keaton also requests that anything that could be used as a weapon should be left with the nurse at reception - if any patients got their hands on anything, it could all go terribly wrong, and you would be liable for the results. Again, this is something standard to the industry.

Dr Keaton then takes Dr Walker into his office, leaving Lillian and Samuel with the receptionist. It's quite spacious, all dark wood panelling and a large dark oak desk, cabinets alongside the walls containing books, antique apparatus, certificates and the like. It appears that records are kept elsewhere.

"Such a remarkable case, I'm sure you'll agree," Dr Keaton begins. "It's so rare to see an example of shared psychosis, of course, and both Henslowe and Job have been pretty adamant at times of their certainty. I don’t know exactly what happened to these men out in Los Angeles, but whatever it was, involving gunplay and murder and a fire, it was too much for them to internalize, so they’ve concocted elaborate stories that externalize their fear into some kind of terrible monster."

Job... a new name is added to this intricate story... he thinks. We must ask our employer if she has ever heard the name...
"oh... How fascinating, and most rare indeed. Tell me, Doctor, do you have both patients here? What a unique opportunity for a case study... Perhaps one day you could present your findings in our New England centres of Academic excellence... Brown, Miskatonic... Boston... Tell me, Doctor. Have they been here long? I would consider it an incredible privilege to briefly observe your patients."

"Douglas Henslowe corresponded with a man called Walter Winston, in Aylesbury, MA, who himself suffered a drastic mental breakdown following circumstances we are trying to clarify, in or around August 1924. It is Winston's own mental decline that I am specifically interested in. These Los Angeles incidents you mention... did they occur around that year, in the accounts of your patients? And do they ever mention Walter Winston?"

Dr Walker, after a few minutes of talking with the man, realises that flattery would probably be the better way to approach him if he wants to appeal to his baser instincts, or to use his professional clout and abilities if he wants to get the doctor talking comprehensively about Henslowe's case (and Job's).

"Ah, you know Mr Winston? You should have said! How is he?" His eyes light up at the mention of Walter's name.

"I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Mr. Winston passed away at the beginning of this year. It is his family that asked us to learn more about any circumstances that may have contributed to precipitate his mental decline... how did you know Mr. Winston?"

"So, tell me... this Henslowe-Job shared psychosis seems to present some similarities with cases of Folie à deux, as described by the French theoreticians..."

When Sam catches the woman making eyes, he offers her a smile while trying to pay attention to the medical back and forth. When he has to hand over his sidearm, he clears it and hands it to the receptionist. "It's big, but I'm sure you can handle it just fine," he says quietly and smiles again. Nothing wrong with a little flirting.

He follows the doctors into the facility, and observes everything while saying nothing. This isn't his arena, and he knows enough to let the subject matter expert take the lead.

The nurse (Nurse Hampton according to a name badge) giggles as Samuel offers her his gun and flirts at her, pretending to blush.

- -

In the office, Dr Keaton replies to Dr Walker's questions.

"I don't actually know Mr Winston, I just recognised the name from Douglas' letters to him over the years. Such a shame, please pass on my condolences to his family. I should probably write to them myself - do you have a name and address of whoever has taken over his business interests or family investments?"Dr Keaton talks for a good 10 minurtes more on the case of Henslowe (and Job), in generally clinical terms. The important parts for your investigation are as follows:

"Henslowe arrived here in 1924, though he was released several times over the intervening years but kept coming back of his own accord. He was last released in 1932-33, but became obsessive and violent to others and himself, and was committed at that time. He's currently under a court order that does not allow him to leave other than on temporary leave to his mother, Virginia Henslowe, though that hasn't occurred since he was committed. I requested that Edgar be transferred here from Los Angeles so that I could treat the two of them together. He arrived later that same year. Of course, given the nature of his crimes, and the dangers to himself and others that he poses, he's here in lieu of being incarcerated in prison for robbery and the downgraded manslaughter charges from the events of August 13, 1924. While both have made considerable progress, I doubt either of them will ever recover or be released from here."

Dr Keaton then suggests that Dr Walker meet Henslowe himself; he offers a tour of the institution to Dr Walker and his employees first.

"I can mention you to my employers for sure, I am not at liberty to disclose their details for confidentiality, as I am sure you will understand, being in the profession..."
Hmm... that was very unsubtle of him...

Edgar Job... good, we have a full name

"A tour of your facilities with my colleagues would be wonderful, Doctor. You have my thanks. Perhaps during the tour you could refresh our memory on the Los Angeles incidents, they seem to have been very serious in nature... And I have heard great things about the work of Dr Teake, will we have the honor of meeting the man himself?"

Lillian looks around, a tad nervous at first. Walking around a place such as this is not an aspiration of hers, but for the moment she settles down in to a period of quiet observation.

Lillian notices that one of the doors leading off of this room isn't locked and barred like most of the others - and it's ajar. Looks like filing cabinets in there. Now, if someone were to keep distracting the receptionist, someone else could probably sneak in there.

"So tell me, how do you deal with this humidity my dear? It is simply oppressive. If I wasn't out with the good Doctor, I'd likely be far less dressed," he chuckles, keeping Nurse Hampton engaged.

Lillian sees the door ajar and goes for a softly footed, in plain sight move towards it. She pulls a handkerchief out of her handbag, so as to plausibly wipe her face.

Lillian looks embarrassed and drops her handkerchief.

"Sorry, is there anywhere and I can freshen up? I'm a little flushed," she says awkwardly.

Nurse Hampton looks over at Lillian, then looks to the door that's ajar. She smirks a little, then turns to Samuel and says "You know, what I really like to do is embrace the humidity. I like going dancing, really working up a sweat. Perhaps you could take me out dancing tonight? Maybe after dinner? Then I might be too busy gazing into your baby blues to see what your..." she pauses and looks over at Lillian "...friend... there might be up to."

Samuel looks up at Lillian with a shocked look.

"Now I'm curious... but not so curious as to pass on dinner and dancing with an attractive nurse. So tell me, when do you get off?"

Gabriel leaves Dr. Keaton's office to regroup with the others, informing them of the doctor's offer of a tour of the facilities.

He catches them in what seems an awkward moment. What's going on here? he thinks, trying to read the room.

Lillian snatches up her handkerchief, "Oh, that'll be splendid, I'm sure," her eagerness to be out of the room overtaking her misgivings about being close to the patients.

Lillian scoots into the file room - unsurprisingly filled with filing cabinets - to the sound of Nurse Hampton saying "You get caught in there, you're on your own."

She quickly finds the cabinet for H - and soon finds Henslowe's file. Reading through quickly, she discovers several things:

* Henslowe has been here for quite some time, in some form or another, and is under medication. * Henslowe has undergone "confrontation therapy" with another patient here, Edgar Job, which consists of putting them both in a room together as if by chance, and allowed to interact. Keaton's notes suggest that this has occurred several times - each time, when both men were medicated, they have treated each other with wary suspicion and Keaton characterises the pair as "wanting to end the encounter quickly" and without much real interaction. When he introduces the pair together when both were unmedicated, however, his notes reveal that "they eyed each other angrily" before "EJ rushed DH screaming 'you tried to kill me but I'm still here' over and over until they were seperated again."

* There are notes which suggest Keaton is writing a book on the two, describing their "richly intertwined delusions and psychoses. Could be my Glimpse of Madness." This is all Lillian gleans from Henslowe's file. Does she want to search for Edgar Job's file too? Or does she think that would be pushing her luck?

A flustered Lillian grabs at the opportunity to have a look in the room, as the Nurse Hampton seems not to care. She reads quickly, taking it in.

At the moment Lillian passes on searching for Edgar Job's file, as she's too flustered. She almost drops the Henslowe file on the floor as she puts it back.