"The local plant life had an interesting capability of exuding serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin at varying levels whenever they were touched."
The therapists and other mental health care workers of the Alliance were over the moon with joy. An entire world of plants that worked perfectly for treating chronically depressed, traumatized, deregger rescues.
@internutter/challenge-03768-j115-dont-pet-the-plants -- Anon Guest
Welcome to Happyworld. Your livesuit must be inspected before exiting this sealed environment.
Though this is a Havenworld, it is a statistical outlier amongst all known Havenworlds. The plants and animals alike exude neurochemicals associated with positive emotions. As such, excessive exposure to the native life can result in catastrophic bliss. This is a state of unique delight in which all other activities become no longer worth participation. The victim perishes in delirious self-neglect.
Your livesuit must be fitted with integrity detection systems for your own safety.
With these warnings in place and thoroughly understood, it was no surprise that vistitors preferred to remain in the tightly regulated and sealed habitats. They could observe the native life, they could even study it. And only a very rare few were permitted to interact with it under extremely careful supervision.
Some arrived in stasis. Some arrived in cryostasis. Each patient gained a personal habitat that was meticulously constructed with their needs in mind.
This was where the pharmaceutical industry indulged in intense study of every living thing.
This was where the truly wounded came to heal.
Therapist Bex gently guided hir newest patient to the exposure room. Hir livesuit was deliberately soft, but also the most bulletproof thing ever made. Hir patient, Dwi, wore offensensitivity glasses that replaced all ceilings and walls with artificial sky and vistas of nature. There was even the image of a path that replaced the corridors of the facility.
"Five more steps," cooed Bex, "There will be a comfortable chair and a very special plant waiting for you. It's okay to touch, but I do advise that you begin very gently." It was the script for this sort of thing. Most patients who had to be here were the sort who would not do anything other than touch gently.
It was in this room, with a nature vista on the solid wall and battle-rated steelplex on all other sides, that the offensensitivity goggles could come off.
There was a semi-medicinal tea on a little table, and the kind of seating that a patient could fall asleep on if need be[1].
Dwi perched nervously on the enormous pillow as Bex sealed the room for the therapy session. "What do I do?"
"There's several ways to approach this session. You can sit and let the plant do what it does. You can touch a leaf. Or you can try some of the tea. You may even do any combination of those. It's your choice, and there are no wrong choices."
Therapy had begun.
[1] And if you see what I did there, you're either as old as my Mum or a fellow holder of esoteric medical knowledge from the days before television. If you want to know, there's several ways to ask.
[Photo by Matthew Smith on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [69 remaining prompts!]