Chapter Text
Patient Name: William Wisp
Patient Email: [email protected]
Patient Phone: (909) XXX - XXXX
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11-25-2077
While I am happy Mr. Wisp decided to show up, I could tell rather immediately I had my work cut out for me. He clearly did not want to be here.
*****
William did not want to be here.
Don’t get him wrong, therapy was a good thing. A healthy thing! A perfectly normal, fine thing. But he didn’t want to be doing it. He was only really here because Tide told him if he did it then it would help convince Vyncent and Dakota to do it, and they definitely needed it. So here he was, sitting in a comfortable armchair in a therapist's office, trying to avoid eye contact with the woman who sat across from him. Her legs were crossed over each other, and she balanced a laptop on her lap as she sank back into the armchair, brown eyes observing him from behind a thick pair of glasses. Her shoes, the only part of her William was willing to make eye contact with, were a rather comfy looking pair of slippers. She was maybe fifty or sixty, though it was a little hard to tell given how fervently he was avoiding glancing in her direction.
Her name was Ms. Nona, and he’d chosen her off the list of names at the superhero-specialized clinic because it sounded the least intimidating. Now, sitting in front of her, he was beginning to think he should’ve asked to meet all the options first.
“So Mr. Wisp-”
“Just William. Please.” He corrected, trying not to flinch. This was mortifying. Humiliating. He couldn’t even say why exactly, but jesus fuck. Social interaction was not his strong suit.
“Alright William,” she said, typing something into her laptop. Her voice was warm, with a faint accent he couldn’t quite place. “Would you like a cup of tea? Hot cocoa?”
He shook his head. Hot cocoa sounded nice, but he wasn’t going to waste their time here by making Ms. Nona get some for him.
“Okay. Biscuit? No? That’s okay. What do you think of my fish?”
William blinked “Huh?”
“You’ve been staring at my fish tank since you came in.” She pointed out. “So whatcha think? I just got that swordtail last week- I’m thinking of naming him Bongo but I just don’t know yet.”
“I- uh…” William hesitated, trying to think of an answer that wasn’t well I’ve been staring at it because looking at you is kind of freaking me out. “It’s nice?”
She chuckled. “Well I’m certainly glad you think so. Now William, was there anything in particular you wanted to talk to me about? There’s no stress here. Most people don’t go into the heavy stuff in their first session, though if you want to, that’s perfectly fine.”
“Can I be honest for a second? I didn’t think this far ahead.” He said, resisting the urge to turn himself invisible. “I kinda just booked the appointment and didn’t think about it until I got here.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So you decided to go to therapy for fun?”
William shrugged. “Sorta?”
“Well alright then.” She laughed. “Let’s just get to know each other a bit better then, yes? You first, tell me some things you like. Anything.”
“Mario Kart.” It escaped his mouth before he could think of anything more intelligent to say. “And uh. I like poetry.”
“I like Mario Kart too.” Ms. Nona said, like it was a perfectly normal thing for a sixty-something woman to know about. “Who do you main?”
“King Bones.”
“Feels on theme. Do you have people you play with? I only play with my grandson and he always goes for Donkey Kong.”
William snorted. “Yeah, my buddy Dakota plays Baby Mario and Vyncent mains Luigi. I mean, he also plays as Walugi sometimes, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because he’s purple.”
“Mmm, is he not into video games?”
“No, he likes them- I think they remind him of his home world- but he sucks at technology.” William snorted. “He’s decent at Mario Kart, but other games are kinda hit or miss. First time he played Zelda he broke the controller attempting to make Link go forward via throwing it at a wall.”
“Right, and Vyncent’s your friend?”
William nodded, firmly ignoring the slight pang in his chest. It was never going to happen anyways, it’s not like his stupid crush really mattered. “Yeah, my best friend. Well him and Dakota.”
“Are they… the same?” Ms. Nona raised an eyebrow. “I could hear there was another sentence there you didn’t quite get to saying.”
William laughed nervously. “Yes! Right! Uh- they’re not the same. I mean they’re both my best friends, obviously, but y'know you don’t really feel the same about any two people let alone two people who are that close to you, and like, I feel positively towards both of them! It’s not like Vyncent or Dakota feels the same about me and the other one too probably hahaha...” his voice trailed off as Ms. Nona continued to look at him, in a way that made him think maybe rambling wasn’t the right move here.
“Talk a little more,” she suggested, leaning back into her armchair and grabbing her tea off the side table. “They’re obviously important to you. What are they like? What do you like about them?”
Well that was easy. William Wisp may not have been the most talkative son of a bitch, but damn if he couldn’t brag about his two closest partners in crime.
“Dakota’s stupid.”
Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best start-
“Not stupid stupid, I mean, just- okay let me start over. Dakota’s actually one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Not academically or plan wise or even judgment wise most of the time, but he knows how to make someone feel cared for. Or not- not like manipulation or anything, he just very genuinely cares. He’s gentle, really. Which is cool because if he wasn’t gentle I think he’d probably end up crushing literally everything and everyone around him because he’s jacked as fuck- wait sorry can I swear in here?”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“Good. Anyways he’s ripped as shit, and at first I was pretty intimidated, but he just wears his heart on his sleeve y'know? Like sure, he could totally kill me again just by playing tether ball, but he’d feel bad about it. He’s just the human embodiment of one of those warm fuzzies my elementary school teachers were always talking about.”
Ms. Nona smiled. “He sounds delightful.”
“Yeah, pretty much. And Vyncent…” Oh Jesus Christ, where to even start with Vyncent. “He’s a dumbass. Kind of overthinks things except the things that need to be thought through, and then he just dives in head first without looking at all. And he’s all heart. He always has the right reasons for everything he does, and he’s always trying. Even when he doesn’t understand something all the way, or doesn’t know what the right thing is, he’s always there .”
“For everybody, or you in particular?”
William hesitated. “I mean Dakota and I are his best friends, I think it would be a little weird if he wasn’t there for us in particular.”
She took a sip of her tea, staring straight at William. “Right. Is there a particular time he was there for you that stood out in some way?”
The battlefield in Deadwood. Hugging me when I couldn’t feel anything else. Holding my hand when I was falling off a tightrope. Those ten months of limbo when I had no one else. Bell Tech-
He shut that train down before he could go off the rails with it. He didn’t need to over analyze simple acts of kindness; it was just Vyncent. It didn’t take a genius to realize his oblivious companion didn’t feel the same way he did. Which was fine. It was enough for him, to have Vyncent in his life as his best friend, and he wouldn’t ever want to ruin that for the small chance of something romantic.
“How could I ever choose?” He said flatly, looking back down at his hands.
“Not one time?”
“… I was feeling really down one time and he bought me some dark chocolate because he knows I like it and rented out Revenge of The Wasps Five to watch.” William said slowly, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. For the love of God, just kill him now, because somehow literally dying again was seeming more preferable than this conversation.
At least his face didn’t flush red anymore.
Well actually it might, because he was like eighty percent sure he had blood flow now, and his face was feeling awfully hot. Oh God, was he blushing? Fuck. Shit. Why was he blushing oh Jesus Christ-
“That sounds sweet of him.” Ms. Nona said with a knowing smile. “It sounds like you must be a decent person, to keep as good of friends as that.”
William nearly choked. “Ha,” he wheezed out. “Flattered you think so.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh even if you don’t agree, William. Pleasant people don’t generally get on well with unpleasant people. That doesn’t relate much to good and bad the way WATCH has it laid out- I get the sense you’ve learned enough to think better of that- but a bit deeper. People who want to make the world better avoid people who want to make it worse.”
“Nobody wants to make the world worse.” William mumbled.
“Of course not. But some people don’t care about whether or not the world getting worse happens as a result of their actions, right? I’ll tell you right now William, some of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever met weren’t supervillains. No- they were the people who could only talk about the things they hated . Oh I hate this, I hate that- these people should be arrested because of this and these idiots keep leaving these opinions I disagree with on my tic-tac-toe comments- it’s exhausting. And half the time they don’t even care that much either! Just people hating because it’s the only thing they know how to do. You came into this office, and you’ve talked about the things you like. Games, friends- even my fish. You’re not one of those people.”
“But-”
“I didn’t say anything about good or bad.” She continued quietly. “So don’t go correcting me quite yet. I just said you’re not unpleasant to be around.”
“You don’t know that though.” William protested, though he couldn’t say why . Maybe he was just incapable of taking a compliment and leaving it. “You prompted the questions.”
She shrugged. “Okay then, what’s something you hate?”
William’s brain blanked. “Uh-”
“No naming super villains.” She added. “Or something generic like animal abuse. Everybody hates animal abuse.”
“I hate people that- uh- go to Rusteez. I worked there for a little bit. It's just kind of a requirement of the job to hate everyone that goes there because we all want to be left alone.”
“And?”
“The ghost of Party City?”
“Well that was oddly specific.”
“I hate that feeling you get in your nose when you’re about to sneeze but you don’t sneeze so now your nose is just tingly.” William blurted.
“Boring.”
“What do you want?” William demanded. “Do you want me to hate things?”
“Do you want yourself to hate things?” She retorted. “I said you didn’t hate, and I don’t like being proven wrong.”
“I…” he really didn’t have a good response to that. “So I don’t hate things?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“I don’t hate things.” William said more firmly.
“Good to know.” She said dryly, typing something into her computer. “Go on.”
“What do you mean go on? I have nothing to say. I don’t know what we’re talking about.”
“We’re talking about whatever you want to talk about.”
“But… but I don’t want to talk about anything.”
“Not a single thing?”
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“Hm.” She said, setting her laptop to the side, and leaning forward to prop her chin up on her hands. “Where did you go to school?”
“Deadwood Elementary. Deadwood Middle School. Deadwood High School.” he recited in a monotone. “I transferred to Centurion High after the whole dying thing.” He didn’t mention that after the thing with Overlord, he’d dropped out. He’d finished the online classes, but with Bs and Cs. God, fifth grade William would hate him.
“Hmm. Did those schools have a gifted program?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t awesome though. They just kind of put us in classes with the older kids and took away some of our electives for ‘higher opportunity learning seminars’. Not fun.” He hesitated. “How did you know I was part of that?”
“I didn’t really. I made a guess, you seem quite intelligent.”
William shrugged unenthusiastically. She wasn’t wrong, exactly. He was smart, just not in the right places.
She seemed to consider him for a moment.
“Why are you really here William? Don’t give me impulse decision bullshit either- no one, and I mean not a single person does things for no reason at all. Sometimes the reason is as simple as sleep deprivation, or an advertisement on Facebook, but it’s always something. So what was it for you?”
William pursed his lips. He was a good liar, so he probably didn’t have to tell Ms. Nona anything. On the other hand, he was trying to be honest. “My… mentor- father figure- it’s complicated- this dude Tide, asked me to.”
“And why’s that?”
“If I do it, Vyncent and Dakota will be easier to convince.”
“Ah. I see- and do you think they need therapy?”
William snorted. “Yes.”
“And do you think you need therapy?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have any problems I’m not uncomfortably aware of.”
“So you don’t think you need this.”
Annnnnd he was back to staring at the fish tank. Couldn’t they have just kept talking about Mario Kart? “Not really.”
Ms. Nona sighed, “Well how about this then. Let’s schedule you out for let’s say… the next two months, so eight sessions including this one. That should be enough time to convince your friends to give therapy a try, yes?” She waited for him to nod before she went on. “If at the end of that you still think you don’t need this, or you feel like you haven’t made any progress, we won’t schedule another one. How does that sound?”
“Sounds fine to me.” William said. “Can I go back to talking about Mario Kart now?”
Ms. Nona’s smile was knowing. “Please, feel free.”