Summary:
A view into psyches
Camila watched as Lucci played with the rubber ball, bouncing it off the wall. "You were right, Gus. This is fun." The boy smiled. "I wonder if I can speed it up." It began bouncing faster and faster, until it started bouncing uncontrollably and flew through a window. "... Dang it."
"Maybe tone down using the super strength when you're inside a building." Luz suggested as she sat next to them, right beside the rest of her friends. As she said the day before, Camila had brought all of them to Dr. Waybright office, waiting outside the office.
"I thought it would just bounce off any damage." The kid shrugged. "So how are we doing this? Gus softens her up with Willow before the rest of us pull out hardcore interrogation tactics during our sessions?"
"What do you think happens in therapy?" Camila asked him.
"Therapy?" Lucci asked. "I thought we were just here to get the information on portal travel from her."
"If I said anything else, you wouldn't have come unless we drugged you, which we both know is impossible." Luz sighed. "Therapy is a complicated process that, supposedly, is about a professional talking to their patients in a 'comfortable' environment so that the patient spills all their emotional damage."
"Ah…" The child stood up. "Okay, so how are we turning this 'therapy' into an interrogation?"
"I'm pretty sure that's not going to be easy." Amity groaned. "I've seen her psychoanalyze Luz. She gets into your head and reads you like a book."
"Ahh, in that case I guess I'll just beat the information out of her. Gus, you mind making it quiet when it's my turn?"
"You will not be beating up your therapist." Camila put her foot down.
"If this is about last night, then I'm so sorry—"
"I appreciate you defending me and standing up for Vee, but what happened last night can't happen every time you get angry at someone." She said.
Lucci signed in response. "Ms. Noceda, I get that you're concerned, but I assure you I'm emotionally stable. Back in the Boiling Isles, I always learned to temper my powers against anyone I care about and take out the aggression on jerks. The healthy way to deal with life's problems."
"Be as that may…." She couldn't cast judgment, the boy was from a different world. "At least give this a chance. Dr. Waybright legitimately wants to help you, nothing more. If you don't find her helpful, then you don't have to come back."
"... Then fine." The boy sat back. "What about the rest of you guys?"
"I was brought here against my will." Hunter spoke, tied up to the chair.
"Chirp."
"I can deal with my own problems, Flapjack."
"Yeah…..I think the cardinal made the right call." Luz admitted. "Willow, you ran too. How did you get stuck here?"
"My plants betrayed me." The buff girl sighed. "I wanted to place myself in a cocoon of leaves, only for vines to tie me down and keep me stuck."
"Bzzz." The little bee on her head called out.
"I'm here to sit with Luz. Help her out." Amity held onto her miha tightly. "Because if that lady thinks about doing anything to Luz, then she has another thing coming."
"I'm here really for the human experience. Not sure if my problems are big enough for emotional distress." Gus spoke.
The door opened up. "Alright, people, I've had my coffee and we can get started. We'll do this alphabetically until we can get a better understanding of your issues." She said, flipping the paper. "First up, Augustus Porter."
"... Has anyone said my real name since we got here?" The boy in question asked with a bit of a nervous tone.
"I picked it up. Sometimes your…magic holograms form in your sleep." Camila noted.
"... Alright, clearly I have problems." The kid walked forward. "See you guys on the other side."
"Should I come and help?" Hunter asked.
"Solo sessions. Nobody is teaming up, that goes double for you Amity." Dr. Waybright spoke without looking.
"Damn it, then why are we here!?"
"Because you all agreed to have a session, and we will not leave until you all have a session." Camila reiterated to the group.
"Great, just what we needed." Boscha rolled her eyes as Gus went through the door. "Three bucks says he comes out crying."
"Ten says she breaks through that brick wall you have for a brain." Willow snickered.
"Oh you're on."
"This. Moments like this are why I brought you all here." Camila sighed. Hopefully Dr. Waybright was more equipped to handle the insanity than she was.
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Gus leaned back against the living room couch, looking at the Doctor. "So… how does this work?" He was curious about the human way of therapy.
"Just say whatever comes to mind, and I'll interject when I think something needs to be said." Ms. Waybright responded.
Gus thought about it for a moment "I guess the problem is that I'm content while everyone else has problems… is that a real problem?" He asked.
"Depends. There's being content in the 'I'm grateful for what I have', and content as in 'I'm too lazy or too unmotivated to do anything else and won't do anything with my life'." The doctor responded.
"Definitely not the latter." He shook his head. "It's… did you ever hear about fantastical stories as a kid? It's like that. I heard so much about the human world, became a fan of it… Now, here I am, living the dream." Gus smiled. "Everyday I learn something new and exciting about such a wonderful species."
"You're definitely one of the few people I've met that would instantly come to that conclusion." Dr. Waybright smirked. "So what about humanity draws you in so much? I know Amity is dating Luz, and Lucci for the most part seems largely disinterested, so why take such an interest?"
"Because they do so much without magic." Gus pulled out an object. "Look at this, a cube that changes color. Back in the Boiling Isles that was all magic, but this is made from parts and ingenuity. Something so amazing is just a game, and we're not even getting into Phoones."
"One of man's greatest inventions. Light one up and no one can keep their eyes away from it." Ms. Waybright laughed. "You mentioned being impressed by the lack of magic. Do you by any chance struggle with it?"
Wow, she was good. "A little…no…actually a lot really." He admitted. "The only thing I've ever managed to work well with is illusions. I can make them flashy, but they don't really help us out on most occasions, other than drawing people away in a fight or blinding them when the main force comes in."
"Hey, that's useful. Can't tell you how many times that would've saved me a few scars back in Amphibia." Dr. Waybright smiled. "Led an army of toads, so we were mostly a brute force. Stealth was the one area we severely lacked in a fight."
"Yeah, I can see that." Gus accepted. "Doesn't really matter when they don't have eyes and ears… or they can see through illusions… or can wipe out an entire area… but I learned time and time again that I have my uses, so I try to keep positive about that." He cheered. "My best skills aside from that is being the hype man, cheering everyone on when they need a pick-me-up, or injecting a little common sense for when things get too messy… although last night wasn't exactly the best example."
"I can tell. I passed by the restaurant this morning driving over here." The doctor wrote it down.
"It's not Lucci's fault, his dad's just a jerk." Gus tried to justify. "He was honestly doing very well, holding back for Vee's sake for as long as he did."
"You don't have to go up for his sake. My session with him will come soon enough, although it's great that you are willing to stand up for your friends."
"Why wouldn't I? Without friends, I don't know what I would be doing with myself." Gus admitted. "Willow picked me up when I moved up so many grades, Hunter helped me out of a mental lock, Luz has just been amazing all around, Lucci showed me a level to my illusions I can reach towards….haven't actually spent too much time with Amity now that I think about it." He rubbed his chin. "The point is we always have each others backs and… it helps, it's nice to spend time around each other."
She continued writing. "I noticed you didn't mention Boscha in that speech."
"Oh….ah…" He winced. "Don't tell anyone I said this… I mean Willow, Luz, and Amity are confident enough to say it to her face, but I'm not… but… she's kind of… you know…"
"Alpha Queen Witch with a B?"
"Yes, that." He sighed. "It's tough, we put up with her because of Lucci, but there are times it's… not enough?" Gus tried to say. "I'm not saying she doesn't have good qualities. She's helpful in fights, and she's toned down her murderous rage against Willow and Luz, but… sometimes I feel like she doesn't really belong in the group. I know that sounds terrible, like we're some exclusive clique, but she was a bully for a long time… and… it's hard to let go of that image of her."
Dr. Waybright looked at him. "It might be hard to believe, but I used to be a bit of a bully myself." She admitted. "I ruled the school, and I reveled in it. Didn't care if people got hurt either. As long as people did what I said, I didn't care what happened."
"Oooof." Gus winced. "..What happened then?"
"I got a wake-up call after getting my ass handed to me by one of my best friends." She responded. "Made me really introspective." She admitted. "Trust me, I know what it's like to have that friendship that doesn't look like it's going to work, or to be around someone who might not be worth it. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but I can assure you the longer she's around positive examples, then there's a chance for her to change significantly. In fact, I'm a better friend as an adult than as a teenager because I spent some time with myself."
"I see …" That sounded great.
"Anything else you want to bring up about yourself?" She asked.
"Not really, other than that I'm just kind of a nerd that misses his dad. Nothing too major there." He responded.
"Missing family is never a small issue, especially given your circumstances." She corrected him. "You don't have to downplay your issues."
"I'm not … I'm just … it's more homesickness I guess." He said. "When it comes to everyone else they're all desperately working on the portal but … I'm fine, if it takes a year or so. That's why I feel bad I guess." He said. "I like being in the human realm. It's…it's like living out my best fantasy." This must have been how Luz felt every day.
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Willow listened to the ticking clock, as nothing but silence reigned the room. "So … how did you open a portal to another world?" Maybe she could avoid the discussion if she went down this route.
"Cat god made some gems."
"..That doesn't even begin to make sense."
"You came here through the blood of some giant dead horned god thing, is it any less ridiculous than that?" Dr. Waybright countered.
"Touche." She nodded. "Can we use the gems or …"
"They got obliterated when we blew up the moon. As far as I'm aware, there's no way back." The woman answered. "Coming back to earth was a one way trip, and we knew it."
"So…there is no way to go back home, is there?" Willow sulked.
"Hey, I never said that. I'm talking about my experiences. Before I met you guys, I thought the Calamity Chest was the only way to open a portal to another world. If you guys came here another way, then there's probably a third option you haven't found yet."
"Maybe …" She nodded. "... Well it was great talking to you." Willow stood up.
"Hey, you're not going out yet. We still have a session to get through." The doctor spoke.
"I don't have any problems to talk about."
"That remains to be seen." She kept writing on her clipboard. "We're just here to talk, so let's start talking."
"... The weather is nice?" She tried.
"So it is. How would you compare it to the weather on the boiling isles?"
"...A lot colder." Willow answered. "Back home there's this constant humidity in the air with the boiling sea….the plants thrived so much in that environment." She thought wistfully. "The red grass shined like rubies in the morning dew.."
The woman paused. "... The grass was red, but you wear green?" She asked.
"Yeah, most plants are due to Chlorophyll, and it just matches me better." Willow shrugged.
"So the grass doesn't contain Cholorphyll, but every other plant does. How does that work?"
"Well Red grass is mostly an after effect of it growing on the titan. It's directly connected to the withered flesh of it, some even speculate that it links to a fallen artery."
"I see….would you say the plants there or here are better to look at?"
"There, obviously." Willow nodded. "I'm not discounting the beauty of the plants here, not at all, it's just….they feel so much less alive." She sighed. "They have so little sapience in this world, hardly any of them have the ability to defend themselves….and they're so easily torn apart."
"So you have a need to defend things that can't defend themselves?" She said.
"I checked up the definition of environmental activist. You tell me."
"Would you say that translates into you need to watch over your friends?" The doctor asked
"Wha-" That caught her off guard.
"From what I gathered from Gus, you were the one that picked him up when he was down when you first met him. Do you feel like you're obligated to protect your friends at any cost?" The doctor went on?"
"Well….yeah I got to be the supportive pillar that keeps their heads straight. Lucci practically blew up at the restaurant, someone has to be there for him."
"You know it's not on you when someone else falls, right?" She asked.
"But…But it's my fault…"
"No it isn't.."
"YES IT IS!" Willow shouted. "I let my anger over Amity take me over and closed myself off from Lucci! We spent ten years hating each other over a dumb misunderstanding! A misunderstanding I could've avoided if I had just gotten over myself!"
"Willow, people are allowed to have problems, that's what makes them human … or witches in your case." She said. "Tell me, have either Lucci or Amity told you they blame you? After the fact, because you're clearly friends now? Have they ever, EVER, held anything against you?"
"..No… in fact… they're always telling me they don't.."
"Then you have no reason to hold onto that guilt. It's in the past." She said. "Nobody's going to hold a mistake over you for the rest of your life."
"Try telling that to Luz." Willow grumbled. "Everyone knows she feels guilty about getting us stuck here, and I want to do more to tell her that she doesn't have to feel bad…but then I feel bad about not doing enough."
"Again, that's not on you Willow." The doctor reiterated. "It's on them. The best we can do is be there for them. If they're unresponsive, then the best thing you can do is be there for them. Because when they fall, it's up to them to ask you for help. If you can't help yourself, then you can't help anyone."
Willow silently leaned back, looking up against the ceiling. "Alright …" She still didn't feel like that would be enough in the end.
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"Earth sucks, that's pretty much all there is to it." Boscha rolled her eyes. "I don't see why I have to come to this thing."
"It's required for everyone to have at least one session. Whether they continue is up for debate." The woman wrote down in her clipboard. "So there's absolutely nothing you don't like about earth? No food? No people? Sights?"
Boscha grumbled, looking away. "Seafood's pretty good. Not a lot of people back home fish due to the boiling sea."
"Snap." Maya clicked from her spot.
"Aww don't worry, I'll make sure crabs are off limits." She rubbed her palsiman.
"And I take it you have a fondness for crabs?" The woman asked.
"Duh. Who wouldn love an adorable face like this?" She held maya to her face. "They're sturdy, resilient, and they can chop fingers off with enough gripping strength. What's not to love?" She placed her palisman down. "I suppose the Pizza family is pretty tolerable. Gave me and Willow jobs and Kiki's pretty chill to talk too."
"Ah yes. I believe there were two circumstances where that connection led to both you and Lucci confronting Kevin, is that right?"
"Oh yeah, that asshole." She groaned. "I hear he's giving money to help the manhunt for Cherry. Jokes on him, they'll never find us." Boscha snickered.
"You are aware you almost killed him, right?"
Boscha raised an eyebrow. "And?" She countered. "Are you going to tell me how it was wrong, or that I should have some sort of empathy towards the bastard?"
"No. I'm not. Frankly, in the same situation at your age, I probably would've done the same thing."
"Finally, some recognition." It was nice to have that after a long while.
"That's not justification, that's just me understanding the situation. I have friends I would do anything for. If I saw someone taking advantage of them, I would've gone ballistic and dropped them in a ditch.
"Exactly, that's justified retaliation." Boscha said. "If someone's trying to hurt your friends, you beat them into a pulp. If they're stronger, then you outsmart them into self destruction before wrecking them."
"I get that, I do, but do you understand that you've made things harder for a lot of people, including yourself, correct?" She countered.
"How was I making it harder?" She asked. "Cherry is a fusion, nobody can trace that to us."
"And do you love being Cherry?"
"Yes. I adore it! It's the closest I get to being with my boyfriend without having sex, which I'm still contemplating telling him about." Innocence was cute, but she had needs she wanted to fulfill.
"And you realize that by making Cherry a criminal on the run, you can't do that openly. You can't go out and party, you can't roam the streets. Cherry can't go out anymore."
Boscha paused at that one for a moment. That…that was a big shame…a…really… big shame. "Well … they were the one that brought it up." She countered. "And besides, worse comes to worse, we just take down the police. It's what Lucci did back on the Boiling Isles all the time when he was a criminal."
"And by doing that, you put the people you care about in a bind. Ms. Noceda, the one currently providing housing for you, and the Pizza family. When they can't go after you, they'll go after them, and they won't have a moment's peace."
That made Boscha pause again. Ms. Noceda was…respectable, much easier to tolerate than Luz, and the Pizza family….to put them in so much trouble when all they really wanted was for that bastard to back off Kiki. "Why do earth rules have to be so complicated?"
"It's culture shock. Back in Amphibia, I had to deal with it alot." The woman responded. "How you dealt with the situation back home might have been acceptable over there, but over here, you need to play it smarter."
"There is no smarter." She groaned. "My end goal is to stop that bastard forever, but he's too slimey to be reasoned with and too rich to use the law."
"Do you know what I would've done?" The woman smirked. "I would've cut the fuel gauge. His car break's down without it spinning out of control or crashing, so he spends more money trying to fix it rather than on anything else."
"Temporary solution." Boscha noted.
"Then I would've carried a phone on me at all times and catch him in the act of his next slimy actions, and posted it on social media. Have you ever heard of cancel culture?"
"No…tell me more." Boscha leaned in.
"It's a term people use when a group believes a person or organization or something of the like is so deplorable that they dedicate everything they can to tell the world how horrible the people are. And it trends…hard."
"Ooooh, the world punches him in the face." She grinned. "Now I'm interested."
"Soon it get's public, to the point where even people who don't have social media know about it, and they start heckling said person in the streets. The police can't do anything, because no law is being broken to begin with." She went on. "It's just people practicing freedom of speech."
"Nice…How effective is it?"
"Celebrities, ceo's, millionaires, they lose credibility overnight. They lose money trying to cover their own butts, and they have to go into hiding, sometimes for years…sometimes forever."
"This sounds awesome!" She shouted. "Can I go try it right now?"
"Only do it the next time you see him, and only when he's being a deplorable bastard."
"Understood sensei." She ran through the door. "Guys, I learned about cancel culture! It's awesome!"
"...Is that really a professional opinion you should've given her?" Luz asked the second best human Boscha's ever met.
"Social destruction is a much better alternative to physical and mental destruction." The awesome woman nodded. "Come on Amity, you're up."
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Amity groaned as she sat down. "No offense lady, I'm sure you're nice, but when I told Luz we'd do this together, I was jumping the gun a little, and didn't expect to do this alone."
"I don't do couples counseling. I tend to avoid messy fights that end up with knives inside my hair. Waaay too hard to keep my looks gorgeous like that." Exaggerating much. "So, what are we working with here?"
"Not sure there is anything to work on. I don't love or hate humans like Gus or Boscha do. Really the only ones I have strong feelings for are Luz and her mother." Amity admitted honestly. "And that last one is because she's important to my girlfriend…although she earned a lot of brownie points for supporting me and Luz."
"I see." She wrote down something. "And what about the humans you work with? I heard you took a job, even though I never got the details."
"Oh that, I took up underground wrestling. I get paid to beat up people twice my size…although it stinks that my pay is based on how many jokes I make over how many wins I have, seriously, that's just snoreshit."
"Meh, wrestling is a more mundane sport when you get rid of the flair you see in the ring. That's why they try to make a show out of it." They explained. "If you want real money for winning you'd be better off a boxer, although I don't think they'd allow magic."
"Do I have gloves that help me punch people?"
"That's pretty much half the sport there."
"Then I might give it some consideration." She muttered.
"So … you mentioned happiness that Ms Noceda supported you and Luz." She noted. "Does that apply for your own mother?"
"I have no mom." Not Oldalia, not Lilith, no one.
"Oh…are they gone-"
"I have no mom. Plain as that. I have a dad but he's … unreliable." At best he helped them fly to the castle and beat up Oldalia's army.
"I see. I take it you have an issue with adult authority then?"
"It's just..every time I open up to an adult, something bad happens. Did it with my womb donor, she said to stop being weak. Did it with Lilith, she manipulated me just to get at her nephew. Did it with dad, and now he's stuck back home suffering who knows what fate."
"That last one didn't quite sound like his fault."
"Point is that I opened up and then something bad happened."
"That's not a personal issue, that's just the universe being a dick. Happens whenever someone tries to change for the better."
"That … is surprisingly accurate given the memory incident."
"Incidents. From what I heard from Gus and Willow, you, her, and Lucci have a habit of running into trouble with each other.
"It's a miracle everyone but Lucci is alive." Amity admitted. "Seriously, between the plants and magical animals, it's all one crazy thing after another." She looked fondly at the sky. "It's sounds weird…but…I don't mind the trouble all that much. It's oddly comforting, knowing that, no matter what, the three of us are able to stick together."
"That young friendship is a precious thing to hold onto. Me and my friends Anne and Marcy have been thick as thieves since we were four." The woman smiled. "Of course there was a bit of a…for simplicity's sake…rough patch we had to get over. Spent a few years apart doing our own thing."
"That's kind of what happened between the three of us…except that rough patch came when we were five-sixish." Amity admitted. "I like to think we fixed it … barring Boscha."
"I see. It's not too presumptuous to say she's the black sheep of the group?" The woman said.
"The darkest of the dark, though to be fair, everyone's a little mixture of pretty much every shade of gray." Amity admitted. "What's different is that we're still not sure if she wouldn't be willing to kill most of us or not. She only tolerates us purely for Lucci's sake, and vice versa. It sucks; but we've let Hunter into the group, and he's arguably done worse."
"You guys really are committed to sticking together as a unit, aren't you?"
"Lady, we live in a world where according to a time travel adventure, anarchy functions better than our current government. When the entire world tries to murder you, it's best to cling to things you care about, you know?"
"Far too well, girl, far too well." The doctor laughed. "So … do you have a plan?" She asked. "For the future?"
"Graduate school; get married to Luz, and find a nice cave to live in to separate myself from the Blight legacy as much as demonly possible." Amity answered.
"Huh…a little…unambitious, don't you think?"
"Probably, but as I said earlier, our government is corrupt and every belief we've come to know is a lie, so it's best to cut off from the mess before it traps us into its horribleness." She responded. "After that it's just a matter of getting Ghost to like Luz."
"Mew."
"So yeah, that's my goal in life … just be with the person that makes everything right." Amity smiled. "Stop being a blight and be more of a light."
"A little cheesy, but a positive mentality to maintain." Dr. Waybright wrote down.
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"Earth sucks, that's pretty much all there is to it." Lucci shrugged. "So you really don't know of another method of universal travel besides magic stones from a cat god?"
"My friend once mentioned a scientist opening gateways once upon a time ago with a machine, but she and mr. X kind of went underground after a few years, so I couldn't tell you where they are for the life of me."
"Dang it …" He sighed. "Maybe Willow was right about using my gem as a power source." He looked at his stomach.
"Hhss."
"There's been worse ideas." He complained. "Literally nothing counts as a bad idea, we have to scrape every inch of the barrel if we want results."
"I noticed a lot of arguments with people's palismans." The doctor noted.
"It's normal. They're meant to act as helpers. Usually that means helping with walking and fighting, although lately; especially for me, they've been acting more like mental guides. My mom's helped her get over her gambling addiction by hiding her cards." Good old Owlbert…. hopefully he was doing well.
"So like therapy pets. They help keep you safe and in check."
"Pretty much. The only bad advice they give is constantly telling us to ditch and or burry Luz."
"Hssss." It wasn't bad advice if it genuinely would improve their lives.
"So … lets talk about your anger." She started.
"From what I know I think I keep it under wraps fairly well." He shrugged.
"You tore a restaurant to pieces."
"And I kept most of that destruction towards my sperm donor, and didn't hurt anyone else."
"That doesn't mean much when you break every law in the book." She sighed. "You need to avoid incidents that cause-"
"I float." Lucci interrupted bluntly.
"... Alright?" Doctor Waybright looked confused. "What does that have to do with the current-"
"I float when I'm happy, in love, or feeling positive." He continued. "When I'm angry, sad, or negative, I get heavier, fall faster, and create craters in the ground." Lucci explained. "When I had a nightmare I kicked in my sleep and broke my brother's rib by accident. When I scream it causes shockwaves. I spent my childhood learning to restrain my strength, and my adolescence learning to restrain my emotions cause they mess with my powers. I know a lot of people say I get angry easy, but that's because I choose to let off steam when I think it's necessary."
He moved over to the lamp. "When I was at the restaurant I knew I was gonna burst, which in the Boiling Isles I would have let it vent earlier before it went, as Luz would say, 'Nuclear' … but we have to keep the lie, so I bottled it up and let it build … and build … until she wanted the truth, and I let it all out." Lucci turned to the Doctor. "On the Boiling Isles I was free and happy, I could control myself and my powers because I had a system of outlets with jerks and I didn't need to constantly hide away myself … Here?" He gently poked the object, which instantly shattered. "… Not so much." He was very lucky he had enough money to pay for a new one. "I know how to restrain myself, but my buttons keep getting pressed. It has to go somewhere, and throwing a ball hard enough could destroy a small forest."
"Well…have you thought about healthy alternative outlets? Art? Music?"
"I had bard magic. That allowed me to express everything in a controlled manner somewhat.." He answered. "But since I don't have access to Boiling Isles magic here, when I play music now…it's like there's a piece missing, a note off, a melody out of sync." He sighed. "And my sperm donor doesn't make it better with all the 'you get your talent from me' talk."
"Okay then. Let's move on to that." She said. "I come from a divorced couple, I can understand what it means to prefer having one parent in your life over another. My question is why is that the case for you?"
"We'll first off, I'm adopted, so I grew up only knowing what it's like to have a mom." He explained. "The idea of a dad just…I don't know, never clicked for me. At first I just wanted to beat him up for leaving her because I thought I was biological, which died down after the reveal." Lucci went on. "After that there was Raine and … the idea of a genuine second parent who was cool and amazing opened up in my life."
"So in your mind, that potential second parent slot was already cemented."
"Yes, mom liked them, they led their own resistance against the emperor, and they were a bard user…but then..we came here." He groaned. "Stuck on a world where everyone adored my womb donor like some god to kiss up to while my sperm donor is a drunken asshole who ruins everything he touches and told Vee he wished they'd never been born."
"And a large part of your anger at your 'sperm donor' comes from being in defense of Vee?"
"Yeah. They risked everything to find a place that wouldn't kill them, and taking my place on earth was the only way for that to happen. I don't want anything else bad to happen to her." He sighed. "I had to take out what were essentially her brothers and sisters just because they tried to kill the Boiling Isles … and I feel regret for it because they weren't jerks like a lot of the other villains we go against who deserve it."
"Moral gray villains. As annoying as it can be, they do exist." Dr. Waybright nodded. "So it's more natural for you to develop empathy for them than it is for your 'sperm donor'."
"I lived in the boiling isles. It's always going to be more of a home than earth ever will be." He sighed. "Are you going to judge me on that?"
"Not at all. I'm just getting a clearer picture of who you are as a person. speaking of." She flipped over a couple of papers. "From what I've been able to gather, you were raised by a criminal, who, and I'm quoting what the others told me, 'a sassily proud kleptomaniac pathological liar'."
"Yep." Lucci smiled. "Made sure no matter what Vice she had or whatever problem came, that I was safe and never had to worry … and I wanna return that love she gave a random kid she found in a snowstorm, you know?"
"I actually do." The woman smiled fondly. "The best father figure I ever had locked me in cell for half a month before making me Second in command of his army."
"People always say criminals are bad guys. That's not how it works. Heartless bastards are the real criminals." It felt nice to talk it out like this. This lady wasn't half bad.
"Lucci, I understand what you're going through. I'm not even calling what you did necessarily wrong. But like I told your girlfriend, there are smarter ways to channel that frustration than the extreme actions you usually take."
"I know." He rolled his eyes. "The next time I'm frustrated I'll warp to some abandoned location and punch things till I'm calm. Like a mountain."
"That's one start. However, there's something else I want you to take up as well. I get the feeling your the type of person that likes to make what he's feeling well known." She handed him over a notebook. "A personal log. Only you write in it. Only you see it. But I want you to write in it at least once a day."
Lucci looked at the book. "... Okay, I'll try it." He muttered.
"Trust me, as someone with years of anger issues, it helps like you wouldn't believe." She responded. Lucci highly doubted that.
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Hunter sat in silence. He couldn't just say 'I'm the clone of a witch hunting brother' to this lady. But if he said nothing he'd never leave. Truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. Why couldn't Steve be here? He was good at getting him to talk about awkward conversations that were deeply rooted conversations about life in general.
"So, you work at the Big Donut, right?" They asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" He blinked at that. "Oh, yeah, it's nice. Sadie and Lars are really friendly people." He responded. "Sadie's pretty friendly and Lars is easy going. A little lazy, but he knows when to take things seriously."
"And it's not too stressful? You haven't had any other panic attacks since then?" Right….he first met this woman when that giant donut sign almost crushed him and Sadie.
"No mam, nothing like that." He shook his head. At least, in front of people. There was the hair at the library, but Willow helped him with that. "I actually like to think I've improved. Captain and Clawthorne fused and their plant powers went completely out of control, so I helped them defuse and stopped the whole situation."
"Uh huh, and by Captain you're referring too…?" The lady inquired.
"Oh, uh, that's just…I guess maybe my nickname for Willow. When I was the golden guard and charged with killing Clawthorne, I went undercover to recruit more scouts. Willow was assembling a flier derby team, so she roped me in so she could win a bet and I could find more capable fodder." There was a brief silence. "I changed my mind in the end, so…it's good."
"This is new." The doctor wrote down. "I was told that you did things in the past … what was this 'Golden Guard' position?"
"I was the right hand man for Emperor Belos. He gave me a staff that allowed me to be more powerful than any witch on the isles, and all I had to do was carry out every order he gave me without question or delay or else…" He paused again, rubbing his arms. "But that never happened, so it was fine.
"At the time, did you ever feel regret for … darker actions?" She asked.
"It …" He tried to figure out how to word it. "It was easier on the job. I wasn't Hunter the half a witch, I was the Golden Guard. I could hide everything behind a mask." The Golden Guard needed to be ruthless, so he was. Hunter could process the things he did in his bed. "And…at the time….I thought what I was doing was for the betterment of the Isles…so…when Belos told me to kill someone….I thought that was that. It was how life needed to be."
"And…how does it make you feel now?" Ms. Waybright asked.
"Guilty and stupid for ever listening to that psychopath." He sighed. "Ever since I've met Clawthorne and Luz, I've been told over and over again how evil Belos was, and I just laughed in their faces. I could've quit at any time, I could've ran away, I could've prevented Belos from getting that portal key and quicking his plans to kill every witch. Heck, if I didn't snatch it, the key wouldn't have broken and Luz would've probably been able to have enough titan's blood to make another portal door."
"You know now and are making betterments for that, it's a good step and the best one you can take." The Doctor stated. "I mean, if you're friends with them now, then you obviously took the right steps towards being better."
"Maybe…but sometimes I wake up and think I'm back at the castle. It's like an instinct for me to get up at six am every morning and make myself useful. If I don't, I'm just going to be tossed aside and left for dead like all the others. Maybe that's just something Belos did, but I've only had friends for about two months now, so I don't want to know what happens when people stop being friends."
"They stop being friends when you want to stop being friends … sometimes not even then." Ms. Waybright smirked. "Friendship takes a lot of effort, but it's a multi-edged sword. As long as everyone is doing their part, you don't have anything to worry about. My friends and I took a few years apart from each other, and I thought we would have drifted away forever, but then we came back, and were better than ever."
"Does that work even when you've almost killed them?"
"Of course. I was on the wrong side myself, did things I thought could never be forgiven, but…they did." She gave a soft smile. "In fact, I kinda … waged war across the entire kingdom and took them prisoner."
"...Wow…"
"Though I did find out later that the king was secretly evil, but I had no idea about that, so for all intents and purposes I was still the bad guy." She smirked. "Being a villain doesn't mean you can't change for the better, or that people will never accept you for trying." She said, "I mean, from what the other's told me, the fact that you and Lucci haven't killed each other counts for a lot."
"Trust me, that takes considerable restraint on my part." Hunter didn't know what he was worried about, therapy was lovely so far.
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Luz groaned. "Seriously, how many more sessions do I need to take before we can just end this?" She asked.
"This is literally just your second session." The doctor laughed. "You're probably just impatient because we've been going through all your friends today. Normally I don't take in so many clients all at once, but we aren't exactly in normal circumstances, are we?"
"Understatement of the freaking year." She rolled her eyes. "You somehow got BOSCHA of all people to like you, that's on par with her developing feelings for Lucci."
"Meh, I used to be her, it's easy to understand." The girl shrugged. "The real hard problem is trying to link culture clashes together. The Boiling Isles encourages a lot of violence, doesn't it?"
"Eating people is legal I think." She recalled. "There was this cannibal kid from a rival school and they did nothing to discourage it. And there were a lot of fairies craving live flesh."
"That was basically over half the creatures in Amphibia." Her doctor laughed. "Overrun by giant birds and bugs that ate everyone, and people treated it like normal."
"Not to mention when a … time pool was involved … we saw what it was like before Belos or the government … and it was beautiful." Luz smiled. "Magic was free, people were free …they were actually less intolerant and nicer to each other without the need for violence…. could you imagine an entire civilization that runs better with anarchy?"
"Actually I can. Amphibia seemed peaceful on the surface, but that was all a lie. The three races, Frogs, Newts, and Toads all hated each other. When the government fell apart, all those problems that existed from those lies came crashing to the surface, and we nearly lost our army because none of them could get along." The doctor rolled her eyes. "Not sure what kind of government they're using nowadays, but I know for a fact it's not a monarchy."
"Hmm … so-"
"For the last time, I do not know of a way for you guys to travel to another world." She responded. "I wish I could help you guys with that, but I can't."
"So everyone's just been wasting their time." Of course they wouldn't be getting answers.
"I wouldn't say that. Your friends have been pretty amicable to their sessions. I have expected someone to break down a wall or blast open the door out of some angry outburst."
"I'm surprised Lucci didn't go ballistic." She noted in surprise. "Then again this is my Mom's house, he'd probably do his best to not wreck it … barring the lamp." She stared at the broken object.
"It helps when I can genuinely be emphatic to the situation. Part of being a therapist is knowing the times to be professional and the times to be personal." Dr. Waybright looked over her notes. "And through that I've been able to note several similarities between each session that everyone brought up at least once."
"That they miss home?" She asked.
"No, that they, all but excluding Boscha, don't want you to feel guilty." The lady stared at her.
"There's a difference between feeling and being." Luz responded. "I messed up. I made my mom miserable. I trapped my friends here. But I'm fixing the problem now. I'm looking into everything I can to bring them home. So there's nothing to talk about." Luz said. "As long as I'm fixing the problem, then everything should be okay."
"Then what? The moment you do, are you going to 'redeem' yourself? You get them home, and then what do you plan to do?" She asked.
"I get them home….and I stay here, like I should've from the start."
The woman looked her over. "Is that what you want?"
"It's what mom wants."
"But is that what you want?"
"Whenever I do what I want, it just causes problems for everyone else. We're in this whole mess because I want to do whatever I want! This whole mess started because I wanted to go to a fantasy world instead of reality camp!" She slammed her head on her hands. "At least when Lucci did it on the boiling isles, he was causing Belos and his stupid plans trouble! All I ever did was help the bastard! I gave him the portal door, I let him use me like a puppet and I didn't even know it until it was too late!"
"If he was manipulating you, then it's not on YOU. That's on him." The doctor told her. "Tell me, is this Belos a control freak?"
"Emphasis on freak." Luz muttered bitterly.
"Then if it wasn't you, then he would've manipulated someone else. That's how they work. That's how I worked."
"People were catching on, even if that was the case it could have bought time so his plans failed sooner than expected." She groaned out. "Because of me, the entire Isles had to be given to a cosmic toddler and my friends are trapped."
"Luz, I'm trying to say this isn't on you."
"If that's all you're going to say, then we're done here." Luz stood up. This was just a waste of time on a list of things she needed to do.
"The more unresponsive you are, the longer we're going to have these sessions."
"...Then I hope you have nothing better planned for the next year." She walked out the door. "We're done, let's go home."
"Thank you Dr. Waybright for your time." Her mom thanked the woman.
"No problem. You have good kids living with ya." Said doctor nodded. "I'll call back within a few days and we can put in a set schedule for sessions." Just more problems for everyone.
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Sasha quietly sat down in her chair, cracked her knuckles, and opened up the folder. She flipped open her notepad as she looked over her own notes, ready to compile them into complete files to work with.
Agustus Porter didn't seem too problematic to deal with. Mainly a minor confidence issue and worry for his friends, coupled with a minor sense of homesickness. He really did seem like he enjoyed earth compared to the other witches. Out of all of them, he seemed, he was probably the most well adjusted to everything. She'd probably only need one or two more sessions with him to clear out any lingering issues.
Amity Blight was a strange case. She seemed well adjusted, but openly admitted to not trusting any adult figure in her life, which meant that most of the sessions they just had might have been a lie. She seemed to be very attached to her girlfriend and close friends, which wasn't at all a bad thing, but if her issues with adults lingers, then she was going to have trouble when she herself, as well as her friends and girlfriend, became adults themselves.
Boscha … never got her last name actually. Someone who solely cares for those in a very close circle with a surprising amount of thought and feeling, with absolutely zero remorse or hesitation in the annihilation of anything she deems a threat. There was a severe lack of empathy inside of her, probably only remedied recently by both her boyfriend and her coworkers at fish stew pizza. Hopefully the use of social media being an alternative weapon would alleviate the destructive impulses the girl had, but Sasha would have to work on helping the girl open up more, mostly within her own friend group.
Hunter … also no last name. There was a load of problems she hadn't even scratched the surface of, but he was very open and willing to discuss them, a decent trade off to a therapist. The obvious sign was the ptsd, and his grooming from a young age as what she could infer as a child soldier. There were several nervous ticks the boy had, notably when he would rub his arms whenever he was uncomfortable. The best she could do was subtly and slowly ease him out of the mindset. Any extreme changes would probably set him off internally, likely worse than what happened at the big donut.
Lucifer Clawthorne … originally she was going to try to make him aware that his actions have consequences and that his emotional state could improve with a calming activity … only for the boy to admit he has a very acute sense of his own emotional state along with a system in place to restrain himself. The problem lies in said system being adapted to the Boiling Isles and not so much Earth. By witch standards, he probably WAS restrained. She'd give him props for his patience and willingness to talk out his issues, but she'll have to adapt her own plans for him. The personal diary would only be step one of his recovery process.
Luz Noceda, once more, was an iron safe that refused to divulge any information or take any advice. Her guilt complex was completely deep…severely deep on a psychological level. The bags under her eyes also noted a lack of sleep and stress. It seemed no matter what happened, or who told her, she refused to accept that everything wasn't her fault. And there laid the problem of her self imposed 'help' by not going back to the Boiling Isles with the rest of her friends, and given the context she had, the kids were going to need all the help they could get once they arrived. Her staying behind wouldn't just be detrimental to her, but to all her friends in the long run. Plus they'd probably force her to come back against her will.
Willow Park was the last child, someone who felt the need to support everyone from a less severe guilt complex than Luz's. This caused the girl to focus on their problems instead of her own. Great friend, but not so great it ran them into the ground, and maybe just a mild temperament if the grass growing in the corner of the house was any indication.
"And save … and lock." She closed the folder, before ripping apart her paper notes and shredding them. "Can't keep physical evidence of witches in a town famous for witch hunting." She noted. Surprisingly that hadn't been an issue that came up in the sessions.
Sasha was fairly confident that she could help them out emotionally at the very least…but Luz….she was so unresponsive and cagey it would take a miracle to get her to open up. Even to her own experiences, the girl closed up. Maybe it wasn't Sasha she needed to talk to.
"But there's too many problems with the mother …" Pressured by the entire town being constantly tired of Luz's destructive habits. "And her friends …" Who either knew and didn't think it ran this deep when they offered their support, or were oblivious to the problem entirely.
The obvious solution would be to get Luz and Camila to open up to each other, but if it was that easy, then Sasha probably wouldn't be here in the first place. No, they needed to work up to that. What Luz needed right now was someone she could more directly relate to. Someone that had been in her position before and knew what it felt like, from the social pressures, to the guilt of having friends trapped in another world, to issues with their mother about expectations.
"..." She dialed a number on her phone. "... Hey Anne … I could use some help."