Let's Talk Then - (Steven Universe, Counselor!MC)
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Beach City, the jewel of the State of Delmarva. It's the US East Coast, and it is quite the lovely place to live in.
The pearly beaches, the pleasant water, the lively streets and the well-regulared school that was proud of hosting so many bright minds each year. I am proud to say that I am part of that last bit, the Beach City School which bound all years up to the last one of High School due to its limited population.
That being said, my role there is not of a proper teacher. No, I am the School Counselor, and my name is Andre Cross. My parents live up north in New England, and I had decided to move here during a time where I was still looking for a path in life and where I stumbled upon this place. It was lovely enough and it had a proper opening for me to settle with the school.
I had to study hard to get to my current position and wage, with the overall tame need for a Counselor tempered by my role of assisting teachers beyond the students, making sure that no mistakes were made in regard to fitting textbooks' codes and other pricing. I had a great reputation in town as I kept mostly to myself but always behaved with a degree of utter politeness.
With all of the students sent to me typically helped with the utmost care and attention, I hardly had any issues in tinkering with my schedule and present an 'open door policy' for anyone that needed to talk with me during school hours. With an impeccable career and a few praises along the years by the principal, I was someone without much of a worry over any 'shocking' issues that could endanger my work.
So, it kind of feels a bit surprising for many (if any) to learn that I am also a bit of a therapist for someone that isn't exactly a student. Or a proper human.
I don't recall precisely how it came to be, just that one day this individual asked me a simple question as she morphed from a familiar student into a short young woman. Luscious white hair, light-purple skin and black eyes- oh and a bright violet gem sticking above her breasts.
"Are you the guy that knows how to fix complicated emotional stuff?"
That was... a bit on the blunt side, but I was unsure on how to react back then. I just nodded and welcomed her to sit to talk. She asked a few questions I was familiar with.
How private is this?
Are you going to blackmail me then?
That's neat, but do I have to pay this stuff?
As a Counselor, that wasn't needed as the school was the institute that paid me. And while this woman, this 'Amethyst' was clearly not a student, that didn't mean I would disregard the notion she had something to let go of on an emotional level.
She was skittish the first few times, cutting the usual time I would give for a session due to either her having 'stuff to do' or because 'I said something too much'. I never tried to force her to stay, merely reminding Amethyst that: "If you still wish to discuss things, then my door will be open within the schedule in front of it."
And, as I was glad to notice, she complied with that offer several times.
It was a weekly ordeal at first, then she would visit twice a week. It wasn't always something important, with most of her visits being more about Amethyst unwinding over her days, being a bit of a daredevil, getting 'egged on' by those at home for being irresponsible, but also bringing up some interesting tidbits about her own self.
Such as this very fine day as I finished reordering a few books in the shelves of my office. I heard the door open and then slam shut. I barely heard Amethyst taking a seat that I found her by the chair, and she looked a bit nervous for some reasons. Guilty, actually.
"Ms. Amethyst, good day."
"It's just Amethyst," She mumbled, not adding her usual 'dude' with that reply. "And I made a mess."
I blinked, then moved to sit back on my chair, taking a moment to study her for a moment. She really looked guilty, yet it felt like she was exaggerating her features a bit with the way she was building up to this story. And turns out that... she wasn't exactly exaggerating.
All that extra fidgeting was somewhat justified within her narration: Amethyst had cracked her gem, something akin to 'bruising' an organ as it could be quite dangerous in the long run. The idea was for her to rely on Steven (the kid was mentioned a few times, and I could tell he was the son of Greg Universe, a former rocker that I had seen in the past when I first visited Beach City) and his 'healing tears'. This didn't work well because 1) Steven couldn't cry on command and 2) his tears proved to be ineffective in healing her gem.
Which in turn meant that all her efforts to get him to cry because she wanted to be 'over with the cracks' had done nothing more than stress the boy. And while Amethyst had not taken notice of this early on, Garnet and Pearl (Gems like her that acted as mothers for Steven) scolded her on the situation and pushed on her the heavy burden that was how Steven got in harm's way because of her selfishness.
To them, she had shown a lack of care on the matter but-
"But I didn't mean it!" She was bawling her eyes out as she stood in front of me. "Steven is- is a good kid and I- I got him hurt and upset. L-Like, he is a tough kid but still- still-"
"You still know you were too careless and things could have gotten way worse because of your impatience," I rapidly guessed, which left her nodding while shying away from looking at me. "I think that just talking is not going to fix that, which is why, I assume, you want to know how to fix that?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Well, it's actually very simple, but it involves you doing something very 'unusual' about your habits."
She frowned. "That- that is?"
"Are you and Steven free tomorrow?"
"...Yeah?"
"Well, tomorrow you will take Steven out for a walk and you will do those things he wishes to do to spend time with you. You can refuse absurd requests, but if you truly are sorry and you want to show him that you mean it, then you will give him that degree of maturity you were unwilling to show him today."
...
"And that is all for now," I added, noticing that Amethyst was giving me the look of 'and then?'.
"R-Really? That's all?" She sounded skeptical.
I blinked. "Hm?"
"L-Like, I am not an expert but... shouldn't there be more to that?"
"Well, obviously," I confirmed with a nod. "But you see, Amethyst, that's not a kind of business that you can solve in a single day. You can show him that you care for him, but trust-related issues need to be handled in situation where trust is needed- And this doesn't mean creating them."
This last bit was met with a flinch from the Gem as I was well too aware of Amethyst's habit of creating 'situations' to solve any issues she needed to see fixed ASAP.
"Got it, but... It feels bad to let it stew like that!"
"That's the point. You should be more mindful of messing with people's feelings because what injury you may inflict upon them can be lasting. And I am sure we had similar conversations in your regard," I lamented quietly then sighed. "Don't do anything to others you don't wish to suffer yourself."
Amethyst was quiet at this, but nodded and then left. There were times where conversations of this kind could not be handled with the finest touch, not because there is not a perfect way to approach them, but with how sudden those can be.
The way Amethyst dropped this story felt quite rushed, immediate, and clearly carrying through a really rough flaw of hers that she has yet to accept: she doesn't like being judged. She doesn't like being put in a single place for long.
She doesn't like being treated as a lesser thing.
Yet, the way she addressed this sort of widespread problem was through a rather self-sheltering method: she would seek to hide her issues within her shell, waiting out for the 'judgment' to come and go before 'resuming her life'.
This just wasn't fine. I had yet to get why she was like this, even a month had barely yielded any result in that regard but... I could tell there was a lot of work for me to deal with around this unusual individual. And I could tell that, eventually, I would have to speak with those friends and family of hers.
I had been hearing her side of the story for long enough to know she was keen to omit some truths, so I needed to hear more of this from more reliable sources.
AN
So, I pitched the idea of 'Therapist MC in SU' in the Discord and... here we are! Andre Cross will do his best to help those gals and... some may take this as clues to get into befriending him and more!