Sincerely, Jennifer x

Personal Log – Staff Nurse Terry Thomas – 23rd January 2079 

Another boring shift today. Nothing going on, as usual, but still, money is money and every hour I’m here puts twenty quid in my bank account. 

Will this diary ease the boredom? Probably not, but it’s better for my mind than scrolling through social media brain rot. Right? 

It sounds exciting to people, when I tell them that I work in an asylum, but it isn’t like the films. There are no spooky serial killers or shadows in the dark, just sick people who need support. 

They got rid of all the asylums over a century ago, but you know governments… everything that was old will become new again, and so, here I am, in the newly opened Ribbonvale Asylum for the Insane and Unfortunate. I think the name could do with some work, but I’m not high enough up to argue. 

It’s all about incarceration with this government. One of my cousins works at HMP Celestia, and it blows my mind a little… I mean… a prison on the moon. Mental. I suppose these things are good for voters. They like to see action being taken, so here we are, taking action. 

It’s all about saving money too, of course. I’m one of only two human nurses in the whole place. The rest of the nursing staff is nursebots, of course. Nursing is a dying profession, especially for us male nurses, and sometimes, I think about reskilling, but I’ve been doing it all my life. What else could I do?

This place is on the same site as another Asylum, actually, which is quite interesting. Apparently it was closed down after a sickness bug went through the place and killed most of the staff and residents. Must have been some bug, huh! St Michael’s or something, I think. Horrible stuff. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen here, because I’d really rather not die. 

It’s got a spooky history, but this place isn’t so bad–well, not normally, but lately, there’s been a weird vibe. I don’t know. I’m probably overthinking it. Nothing has actually happened, but… there is this new patient, and I don’t know, she just gives me the creeps. 

She’s no different to our other patients, I suppose. With a little work, we can figure out how best to support her, and everything will be fine, but… she’s just strange. 

Violence in patients is hardly new or surprising, but she’s a bit of a different case. She’s very pleasant to talk to, and spend time with, but the mere mention of seagulls sets her right off. I don’t know what it is about them, but they send her into a frenzy. 

That’s why she’s here, actually. She went on a rampage through the town, slapping every seagull she saw, and I don’t just mean light taps or anything, she was full on wallopping them. It was awful to witness, and she was arrested, and swiftly sent over to us. 

It isn’t a new thing, like I said. We get violent patients all the time, but there’s something freaky about her that I can’t quite put my finger on. 

It’s probably nothing, because like I said, I’m overthinking it. She’ll be just like every other patient in this place, and we’ll help her get the support she needs. She’ll be on her way soon, and I’ll feel like an idiot for worrying. 

Better go though, because while the shift is boring, there are still a few bits to get done before it’s over!