WARNING: This chapter contains the same bad joke repeated several times. :P

Games

Ch 14: Therapists

I lay Ty down carefully on his bed and then stand up straight. After we finally located the Living Quarters (it was, like, eight-million-bajillion blocks away from the round room -.-), we decided to have a therapy session for Quentin. So while Ty rests, I'm going to be the official therapist person. At first, I insisted Ian be therapist, but he didn't want to be (lolol, notice I left out the extra 'the.' #Badjokes I'm sorry okbaii).

I quietly close Ty's bedroom door before stepping across the hallway to the Ssunkipz room. As soon as I enter, Mitch and Jerome jump away from each other suspiciously and Jason glares at them. Um... I don't even wanna know.

"Alright, the therapist session... is... uh... in session," I announce awkwardly as I drag Quentin's bed over to the middle of the room next to a black spinney chair. I plop myself down in the chair and pat the middle of the bed, signaling for Quentin to put his fishy butt down there. "So," I begin as he sits down. "What seems to be the problem?"

Ian facepalms, and Quentin gives me a weird look. "Uh, without going into much detail, I'm terrified of all of you."

I nod, pressing my lips together and humming understandably. "I see. And how does this make you feel?"

"Uh, terrified of all of you."

"Mmhmm. And how do you feel about this?"

"That's it, you're fired, Sky," Ian declares, standing up from where he was sitting on his bed. He marches across the room and shoves me out of my chair before dragging Jason over to take my place. "Congratulations, Jason, you're the new therapist. Try to do a better job than Sky did."

Jason is trying not to laugh as he sits down in the chair, stroking his non-existent beard. "So, Quentin... What are your feelings toward this situation?"

Ian huffs and pushes Jason off the chair. "Mitch- No. Too irresponsible. Jerome- Darn it. Uh, I can't do it, Quentin downright hates me. What about-"

"I'll do it!" Seto offers, strolling into the room.

We all shout variations of "Seto, you're back!" as we tackle him to the ground.

"Are your powers gone?" Jerome asks.

"For now," Seto answers as he shoves us away. "Is Ty okay?"

"For now," I reply. "I think he'll be alright, but I'm honestly not sure."

"Ah. I'll take a look at him later." He pauses, standing up and glancing at our little therapist set-up in the middle of the room. "So, what's this about needing a therapist?"

"Quentin's mini-challenge traumatized him, and now he hates us all. Or at least, he's convinced that we hate him."

"Oh. Well, then. Can I apply for the therapist job?"

I nod, barely resisting the urge to correct that extra 'the.' "We're all too immature for this jazz, according to Ian."

Seto walks across the room and sits down in the spinney chair, directing his attention to Quentin. "So-" He stop abruptly, glancing back at us. "Um, I'm gonna need you guys to leave the room now."

We sigh. "Mkay, fine."

But all our ears are pressed against the door as Seto continues, and some of us are actually peeking through the door's windows.

"This may be tough for you – in fact, I'm absolutely positive you'll break down at least once if your mini-challenge was as bad as the guys were making it out to be. But I need you to spill everything. Tell me what happened, when, how, and exactly how each part of your challenge made you feel. Specifics, too. Not just 'Oh, that hurt my feelings,' or 'Man, I was scared.' I want really specific feelings, basically your exact thoughts, like 'I thought I could trust him, and then he betrayed me!' or 'The tone of his voice had me trembling in fear.' I need you to go full-on storyteller mode. Understand?" Seto asks. Oh, wow, he's a lot better at that than we are.

Fifteen minutes, Quentin is bawling his eyes out on the floor while Seto looks on approvingly. "I'm proud of you, Quentin. I know that was hard to do, but it's going to help you a lot."

After Quentin has calmed down, Seto helps him back onto the bed. "Now, Quentin. In your mini-challenge, all of your friends insulted you over and over, said they hated you, wanted you dead," Seto says. Quentin nods. "But can you think of one time before your challenge when they did any of these things?"

Quentin hesitates. "Uh... Well, actually, they insult me a lot-"

Seto sighs. "Seriously. Have they ever hurt you like that and meant it, have they ever been entirely serious?"

The fish – erm, amphibian – closes his eyes, trying to remember a time when we legitimately hated him and wanted him dead. "N-No. I don't think I can name a time when they actually meant the things they were saying." He pauses. "But in the mirror room they meant it-"

Seto cuts him off. "The mirror room was your mini-challenge, Quentin. The GameMaster wanted to put you through emotional pain and see how you handled it. Those weren't really your friends. Those were copies created by the GameMaster. You saw how powerful he was today. The mirror-image spell really isn't that hard to cast. The GameMaster could have fifty versions of Ian created in as little as ten seconds."

Quentin sighs. "Yeah... That makes sense. But, I mean-"

"I know, you won't be able to get over it just like that. Real or not, the images in the mirrors hurt you emotionally. But could you try to start trusting us again?"

Quentin doesn't move for a moment, but then he nods. "Yeah. I can try."

Seto smiles, then glances at the door. "You can come in now, you sneaky idiots."

We smile sheepishly as we swing open the door and pile into the room. "Heh, sorry. Does this make us bad friends?"

"You're already a bad friend, Sky. Quentin needed emotional help and you chose to ask him the same generic question over and over. What kind of therapist does that?" Seto asks, glaring at me disapprovingly.

"Uh, the, uh... the kind that's preoccupied by stupid jokes," I reply, snorting after just thinking about the therapist thingy.

Seto rolls his eyes before turning back to face Quentin. "They're idiots, but they're still your friends," he says. Quentin smiles slightly.

"Uh, Q-Quentin?" Ian asks, stepping out from behind Mitch and Jerome. "I'm, uh, really sorry you had to go through that stupid mini-challenge."

"How did you even know about it in the first place?" Quentin asks. "The second I came out of the room, you were trying to comfort me."

"I was sort of watching the whole thing through your ceiling."

"But it was just another mirror-"

"It was a two-way mirror." Ian lowers his voice slightly. "My challenge was to watch you get hurt by copies of Team Crafted."

"Is that why your copy hated me the most?"

"Yeah. I had to watch a copy of myself hurt you, and there was nothing I could do about it."

I start gently pushing Mitch, Jerome, and Jason towards the door. Seto immediately understands what I'm doing, and he starts to help me push them all out. Once we're outside the Ssunkipz room, Jerome speaks up. "Hey, why'd we have to leave?"

"Ian and Quentin are having a moment," I say, smiling. "And we can't interrupt the Ssunkipz."

lololol, Ssunkipz and therapists, idek what I'm doing, asdljgaslghsdf