Cuddle Therapy II

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As the lunch break bell rang and Christie showed no signs of emerging from hiding against his chest, John decided that he needed to figure out if she needed some sort of additional help, like the school counselor or something. To that end, he started with Observe.

First off, her relationship and emotions readout looked like she was back to being okay so that was definitely a good start. He was a little surprised to see ‘horny’ listed in her emotions, but with her LIB stat it made sense. John had been at least a little horny 90% of the time even before the Developer started showering him in boosts to it.

Seeing Christie have a POW stat rather surprised him, as Lord Chastain-Wessel had been clear that she was to have no awareness of the Abyss until he said otherwise. Then again, he had also said that she did not have the protection of the Veil of Vulgar Magic that mundanes had. Perhaps the answer was that she possessed a latent power, but one that it was dangerous for her to awaken too suddenly or in the wrong way…

The last surprise in her Observe sheet, which really shouldn’t have been one, was her guild rank. Lord Chastain-Wessel’s rank had been the heir of the noble house, so obviously that was going to put his daughter, adoptive or otherwise, high in the line of succession. Christie was simply so far removed from the archetypes of powerful fantasy nobility that thinking of her as such felt very unintuitive. If anything, she felt like the girl that was shipped off to a monastery in a hurry to make sure she wouldn’t end up on the throne.

Regardless, they really should get to class, especially considering that their next class was Wentworth’s. Slackening his embrace slightly, he said, “We should get to class. Wentworth is going to be pissed if we’re late.”

Christie nodded, her face still hidden in his chest, but didn’t otherwise move. John did not have the heart to end the embrace unilaterally. If he were to be honest with himself, he wouldn’t have had the willpower to end it unilaterally even if Christie hadn’t clearly wanted him not to.

Hugging her just felt so profoundly, irresistibly nice. Like a warm blanket or hot shower on a cold morning, except far more potent, he felt like the world would be a little bit lessened for letting go. So instead, he considered what might make Christie willing to risk Wentworth’s ire in favor of a hug.

The answer, it occurred to him, might be in Observe referring to a daydream. His own primary coping mechanism was to push feelings or thoughts he wasn’t ready to deal with aside, using some other distraction. In those cases, he tended to cling to that distraction for a while, even when it wasn’t reasonable to do so. If she was doing the same thing, there were probably bad feelings lurking below the ones listed on the sheet, and the only way to get her to class other than waiting was to help her deal with those.

“Are you okay?” He spoke the question as barely more than a whisper.

A long moment passed before she nodded weakly. “I- I think so… They… brought up… bad memories.”

John gave her a small, hopefully comforting squeeze but didn’t really know what to say to that otherwise. After a short while, she decided to elaborate, “Before Mr. We- Father took me in, I… For two years, I lived at a state facility for teenagers who couldn’t live… at home. Some had been kicked out by their parents, some had been removed by CPS, some were… orphans, who had never been adopted or fostered… or whose foster homes hadn’t worked out.

“One of the older boys, Milos, was… a bully. E- everyone was afraid of him, even some of the staff. I- I was D- developing… back then, and he would make… comments about my b- body. Sometimes, when no… no staff was around, he w- he would touch me…”

John was already seething with rage at this point and struggling not to show it in any way Christie was likely to notice. Logically, he was aware that his anger would be completely useless right now and intuitively he understood that what she needed from him right now was empathy and support, not a wrathful guardian. He also had a feeling that she wasn’t done.

A slight tremor went through Christie’s body, and she was quiet for a bit before continuing, her voice now barely audible through the muffling of his shirt. “O- one night I… I woke up from s- someone being in my room… It was him… I- I begged him to- to leave but…”

She trembled slightly again. “T- the next thing I remember, I w- was trying to hold together my torn p- pajamas. The janitor was pinning M-Milos to the floor, and the overnight caretaker was calling the police…”

To say that John was seeing red would be a massive understatement. Despite trying to keep the rage down, he was aware that he had tightened his embrace protectively around the blind girl, and his jaw was clenched hard enough that he actually got a notification of a single point of damage.

There was a small measure of comfort in the sexual experience section of her Observe sheet revealing that the scumbag had been stopped before he could complete the violation. There was another such measure in the knowledge that Lord Chastain-Wessel had likely punished the culprit severely.

With those two things in mind, he managed to wrestle down the wrath enough not to snarl as he responded, “I… honestly don’t know what to say. I promise, something like that won’t happen to you ever again. I will protect you, and L- your father will too. If there is one thing I’m certain of about him, it’s that he would rather set the whole world on fire than let something like that happen to you.”

She nodded as another tremor went through her, and John added, “Besides that, if you need anything, I’m here. Someone to talk to about it, or just someone to listen. A shoulder to cry on. Someone to geek out with about Tolkien or fairy tales or something to take your mind off it. Whatever you need, it doesn’t matter, I’m here.”

She nodded and slid her arms free from being folded in front of her chest and put them around John’s midsection instead. More small tremors passed through her, and the spot on his shirt where her face was buried grew damp, causing him to realize that the tremors were partially suppressed sobs.

They stood like that for several minutes, John softly stroking her back. The hallway that had already been sparsely populated moments after the bell rang cleared out completely. Which made it very conspicuous when a solitary set of footsteps came marching in their direction.

The footsteps belonged to one frowning Lisa Winchester, the teaching aide that had been assigned to help Christie with notes. Since the aide was frowning and heading straight towards them, John decided to pre-empt the probable line of questions as soon as Lisa was within what could charitably be considered conversation distance. “Derek and Calvin from the football team decided to act like sex pests and ended up hitting a very sore spot. I think we need to take her to the school counselor…”

Lisa sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her frown didn’t exactly go away, but it didn’t feel like it was directed at Christie and him anymore. “We should probably get moving then. Wentworth is…”

“Yeah…” The history and civics teacher’s intolerance towards tardiness and anything she perceived as laziness was legendary.

Reluctantly, John and Christie stepped apart, though since he wanted to provide some comforting presence still, he took her hand. She responded by intertwining her fingers with his and holding on tight, which would have had him absolutely over the moon under better circumstances. With the circumstances they had, however, it felt more like she was seeking as much assurance as possible of his presence.

The school counselor turned out to be two people, a guidance counselor for matters of academic and professional development and a school psychologist. The latter was a short, rotund man in his 40s with sideburns and a friendly expression. Visually, Mr. Brehm would fit better tending a cozy fantasy inn than in a modern school in a business casual outfit. Still, he was a Level 16 Psychologist so he was probably good at his job.

“Hello, Miss Winchester, Miss Turner, and…” He looked at John with the expression of someone racking their memory for a long moment. “Mr. Newman?”

“Yes, err, have we met?” John was surprised to have been recognized, given that he had no recollection of ever seeing the man before.

“We have not, but your mom called a few times during your freshman year to ask if you had been by, so I thought it would be best to take a look at your file in case you did. I’m Anthony Brehm, pleased to meet you.”

The handshake was a moderately awkward affair, since Christie was still holding John’s right hand. While shaking Mr. Brehm’s hand, John briefly pondered if the psychologist was downplaying how much he had talked to Brenda or if his memory was just good enough to remember a name and face from a picture he looked at four years ago.

Pleasantries over with, Mr. Brehm looked between the three of them and asked, “So, what brings you here?”

Lisa took point, possibly due to being the relative authority figure among them. “There was an incident in the hallway between Christie and two members of the football team. I suspect they triggered traumatic memories, but I only arrived after the fact. In any case, it left her distraught enough that we decided to bring her here.”

“I see. That sounds very unfortunate.” He stepped to the side and gestured towards the door leading from the counselors’ shared waiting room and into his office, looking squarely at Christie. “If you step inside, we can have a little talk about it.”

Instead of doing as requested, Christie stood still as a statue, gaze nailed to the floor, while her grip on John’s hand tightened. Scratching the back of his neck, the Gamer commented, “Uh, I think she wants me to come along, Mr. Brehm.”

John had barely finished speaking when Christie nodded. Mr. Brehm looked from her to John and their clasped hands with an evaluating look in his eyes, though the friendly smile never left. Meanwhile, John wasn’t sure if Lisa was looking a little miffed, or just surprised.

“Allright.” Mr. Brehm nodded. “That’s a little unorthodox, but if it’s what Miss Turner wants, then that’s what we’ll do.”

On his way into the office, Mr. Brehm grabbed one of the chairs from the waiting room and put it next to the chair already placed in front of his desk. Once the three of them were seated, he took out a notepad and cleared his throat. “Now, you were here with your father a few weeks before you began your classes at Ashcroft, but I understand that there were a lot of things to adjust to at the time. So I’m going to start with establishing a few things that you may already know and remember. If so, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Okay?”

Christie nodded, prompting him to continue, “Now, your father had a mental health plan already established for you when you came here, which does not include supplemental therapy with me. Being of age, you naturally have the option to contest that, but to be frank I don’t recommend doing so unless there is an issue with your current therapist.”

After a moment of quiet, Christie shook her head. “N- no issues.”

“Good. That means what we’re doing right now is that I am getting the basics of what happened so that on one hand your teacher can be certain that you are skipping class for legitimate health reasons, and on the other hand we can be sure that your therapist is informed and can take it into account.”

She nodded, prompting the psychologist to proceed, “Now, in your own words, what happened?”

“I… I was putting textbooks away in m- my locker. T- two men stopped n- nearby and… t- they started m- making comments… about… about my c- clothes and… and m- my b- body. I- I asked them to… to leave me alone b- but they didn’t… T- they r- reminded me of… of Milos…” Through her explanation of events, her already fairly quiet volume had steadily dropped, until the last two words came out as a barely audible whisper.

“Hmm.” The empathetic hum and concerned, if still somewhat distanced, light frown on Mr. Brehm’s face was probably exactly what a counselor or therapist was supposed to look like in this situation. Still, John couldn’t help but feel like there was something insincere about it. “I understand how that would be a very unpleasant experience. Can you tell me what happened next? Did the school bell make them leave?”

“No.” She shook her head in what was probably the most vigorous movement she had made since arriving at the therapist’s office. “J- John did. He saved me.”

Hearing her say that put a flutter in John’s stomach, despite the bad situation that had led to it. Mr. Brehm giving him an approving look and nod didn’t hurt either.

“I see.” The psychologist made a note on his notepad. “Would you be able to tell me more precisely what they said?”

After a long moment of silence, she shook her head.

“Would it be okay if John did?”

She nodded hesitantly. John squeezed her hand gently before giving what details he could, “To begin with I couldn’t make out the words, but it was clear from their tone and body language that they were acting like belligerent cavemen. The part near the end that I did hear clearly was Calvin suggesting they should take her to the locker rooms after the next game for a ‘victory train’...”

It was only a slight flaring of the nostrils and a small inward and downward twitch of the eyebrows, but that momentary shift in Mr. Brehm’s expression told John why the man’s expression before had felt insincere. Beneath the facade of empathic professionalism, the school psychologist was furious at the jocks.

“I see. Your father has asked that any improper behavior around you is to be reported to the school leadership for consideration of disciplinary action. If that is okay with you, I will do so in this case?”

Christie nodded and he made another note on his pad. “One last question, though feel free not to answer if you’d prefer. As I recall, you have a dispensation to wear a variation of the uniform for psychological reasons. Is today the first time you are wearing the standard one?”

The blind girl hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“In that case, I hope their behavior wasn’t too dissuading. You deserve to feel proud of your progress, as I’m sure your father is proud of you as well.”

“He is.” She nodded. “He postponed a meeting to drive me to school himself…”

’Considering that the man is Abyssal nobility, that is probably even a bigger deal than she realizes…’

While John thought that, Mr. Brehm wrote something on a pair of fresh sheets on his pad, tore off the sheets and handed them to John. “Please pass the first one to Miss Winchester and the second to whichever teacher you were supposed to have classes with at the moment, if any.”

He looked at Christie. “I have excused you from the remaining classes today, as well as your classes tomorrow should you need it. If you do, I recommend that you also contact your therapist.”

They thanked Mr. Brehm for his time and left. After passing the note to Lisa and making sure that the teaching aide would see Christie safely to the car her father was sending, John could sadly not justify lingering any longer. And he knew that if he did anyway, Wentworth would know it and make him pay for it. So he turned to leave, but not without a closing remark to the blind beauty, “Talk to you later then. And, about the whole standard uniform thing, I’m proud of you too.”

She didn’t hide her face behind her hands and hair quick enough to conceal the bright blush and brighter smile that put on her face, so he set off towards what remained of his civics class with a smile of his own.

He didn’t just smile his way to class though. He had gotten a few notifications during all of this, that he had decided were less important than being 100% mentally present for Christie’s sake. That no longer applied, so it was time to check them out.

Achievement Unlocked: Cuddle Therapy II
Have Christie tell you about some of her trauma and cuddle it better.
Yes, hugging is standing cuddles and anyone who disagrees is a filthy heretic.
Reward: Party Synergy (Christie) unlocked, Cuddle Therapy: The Shy Heiress Quest.

Party Synergy - Christie
x1.41% (1+RS/200) non-vision sensory acuity for party members whose reflection is currently visible in a mirror or similar surface.

That was more or less what he had expected. The Quest was a direct mirror of the Qhila one, and the commentary on the Achievement was amusing. The Synergy itself was odd though. Improving non-vision senses seemed highly situational at best, though if it was good enough to allow fighting unhindered without sight, it was at least extremely valuable when it was useful.

The mirror conditional on something that was already situational was also odd, both from the game design aspect of making something both situational and conditional and also because he had no idea what mirrors had to do with anything. It also seemed weird that Christie’s Synergy option wasn’t as good as Qhila’s, though as long as he couldn’t add Christie to his Party without getting skinned by Lord Chastain-Wessel, it didn’t really matter. And he didn’t have time to ponder it much anyways, as the walk to Wentworth’s classroom was a short one.