Chapter Text
The stupid notebook was glowing again, beckoning her to write down her latest fantasy before the sparring match that was family counseling. The book had started its ominous glow yesterday when she had ripped out a page to write a letter to her online friend, Red (whose address she had yet to discover, but details, details). They usually played Minecraft on Thursdays, but today her stellar aunt had decided to do counseling instead. In her opinion, those Minecraft sessions were better for her mental health than the hypocritical counseling.
“I guess you’re not eating dinner! You won’t have time since we have to be there at seven!” Her aunt had made a habit of yelling up the stairs, five minutes before they needed to go; making them late if she wanted to do anything at the last minute, which Seyn had also made a habit of doing. Needless to say, the household was very chaotic with the two headstrong women and the absent husband.
After the stoic ride to the mental health compound, they were met with an awfully cheerful receptionist. Like, didn’t she realize that the only reason she had a job was because people had died or were considering it? Gosh. Was the counselor’s warnings of her tick-off-able-ness skyrocketing coming true? She hoped not. If so, a lot of things would go downhill. Like grades (as if that wasn’t happening already).
They entered the room with palatable dread. She could feel her aunt mentally telling her to behave and not annoy the stupid, chearful, annoying, hypocritical, briti-
“Today we are going to try something different. Instead of our normal group sessions, we are going to split you up to get a more accurate sense of where you’re at in the natural grieving process. Of course, you will not be charged extra for these new sessions,” the counselor, Sam Manifold today, explained after seeing the look on her aunt’s face at the original statement. “Seyn, right this way.”
As she went into the other, less apprehensive therapy room, the female therapist introduced herself as Kara Neimki. Still cheerful, but you could see that she wasn’t having a great time sleeping. Or eating for that matter. But neither was Seyn so she shouldn't judge.
The first questions were the standard “when was the last time you ate, slept, or exercised for more than 30 minutes?” or “How are your grades? Is school easy or difficult for you right now?” Since these were pretty much the same questions she got asked normally, she had instant one word responses. She was not ready for when Kara asked “So . . . Do you like living with your Aunt and Uncle? Sorry if I’m prying, but you looked a little stiff coming in with her. If you need a minute to think, that’s okay.”
“My Aunt is a little . . . insensitive sometimes. I never really liked her even before the crash, and those feelings have kind of been amplified since I’ve been living with her. My uncle, on the other hand, is definitely better. He is always working, so I haven’t seen a whole lot of him, but I love reading in his office when it’s raining. He has all these cool” -she stopped a second to remember that they weren’t pictures- “paintings with, like, old techniques and styles and they are just so interesting and they make the room feel really calm. Here,” -she took out her phone- “I have a picture of my favorite one. I named her Naomi,” she finished, pointing at the flax-colored cat.
“Aww! She’s so cute! I’d assume since you were talking about the varying techniques, you like to paint. What medium do you use?” the kind psychologist asked, wanting only to hear Seyn talk about something she so obviously enjoyed.
“I use a lot of mediums, but watercolor on 300 pound paper is probably the one I use the most often. I like the heavier paper because it can’t get mistaken for printer paper and it won’t fly away so fast in the wind. I like to experiment with cellophane and calligraphy markers. It makes for a very interesting, abate limited, color palette,” replied the young artist.
Time went by so fast, filled with conversations on various topics between the two women. It was the most interesting and the best therapy appointment Seyn had ever been to. Not that there were many to choose from, but it definitely helped that she didn’t have to have her overbearing aunt lording over her, preventing her from expressing her true opinions on any topic or her habits that the employes asked her so much about. She had found her coping mechanisms but couldn’t receive any feedback on if they were beneficial or not.
And the book was not helping. After the copy-paste ride home, night routine, and the subsequent reading of Ivanhoe ‘till eleven, all the book had been doing was disturbing her sleep by freaking glowing . And vibrating. All night . Her already dismal sleep schedule had definitely taken a hit. And the yelling of her Aunt just as she fell to sleep did not help.
It was nine in the morning, of the last week she would have to suffer her Aunt’s house. Or, the last week she (might) have a completely stable living situation if she didn’t ask Red if she could live with her.
As she went through her normal morning routine of skipping breakfast, spilling orange juice on a project, stubbing her toe and hitting her elbow on the coffee table, she thought about the next life changing conversation she would have. That she was putting off. Still.
After she went through the motions of signing in to her Minecraft account, she sent a DM to Red (after misspelling her user name three times. Why did she have to make her name freaking ‘redrideinghood’ in all lowercase?), asking if she could play some Hypixel for an hour or two. Knowing the slight difference in time zones, she was not expecting the quick reply she got.
Quickly, Seyn alt-tabbed and got on their private call (appropriately named ‘chaos on hypixel at three in the morning and twelve at night’).
“Heyo, you streaming any time soon?” resounded the cheerful voice in her headset, prompting her to change the volume.
“Um, I might. I just need to talk to you about something. You know that I can’t stay with my Aunt for very long. She can only get so much time off from work and she thinks I’m so irresponsible and suicidal that I can’t stay home by myself. Soo. . . I guess I’m asking if I can stay with you ‘till I can get my own place. I’m sure I can whip something up if you can’t, but I just really need to have someone I can trust and who understands,”
“I understand. I have a room, it’s just not painted yet, nor does it have a bed. If you want to, we can paint it together,”
“I would only be there ‘till I could get a place of my own.”
“It’s fine! I was planning on making it a guest room anyway. Hypixel?”
So then, it was settled. The two girls jumped on Hypixel bedwars, teamed and got a total of 23 wins (and 5 losses, but we don’t count those). Seyn knew the day was getting along, when she logged off 4 hours later, by the bright sunlight coming through her west-facing window. She would only have the crappy curtains that block approximately 1% of the blazing sunlight shining on that side of the house for a few more days. She was grateful for the view, when she wanted it but if she was trying to stream or record, it was the worst angle for camera lighting.