B3C3: Should I Be Finding You Someone?

“Good! Not dead. Would be a shame if we put all that effort into you to have you dead already.” The joke felt a touch strained, falling flatter than his usual barbs tended to.

Gee. Love you too, gramps. Although, I happened to agree on this one: Not being dead was pretty good.

“What happened? Wasn’t I in the park?” The last skill shard I’d used had been nearly instantaneous. Sure, this one had obviously been a little different, but had I been comatose for the entire skill integration process?

Suds shut his book, evidently needing his hands to rub at his temples instead. “What happened is that you were out with your friends having a nice lil picnic when suddenly you started thrashing around on the ground screaming bloody murder. Your friend Verin managed to get you all the way back to the Noble District so she could have her family doctors look at you. Thankfully they contacted me quickly enough for me to yank you out before they started poking and prodding too hard.”

Hell, they really brought me kicking and screaming all the way from the Diplomacy District to the Noble District? I’d have to… I don’t know, bake them all a cake or something. I would have been more embarrassed by the idea of them lugging me around, but I was already unfortunately used to Alara handling me like a bag of luggage by this point. Mostly I just felt mortified that they’d seen me in such a state, and I hoped not too many other people had seen me like that either.

“In any case,” Suds continued gesturing towards the bed, “got you back here. Got you a healer to check you out. She said it was something purely mental, so I got a mind healer. He said he could barely even find your mind, and when he did, it was sealed tighter than a royal treasury. Wasn’t much I could do after that, so I set you up there hoping you’d snap out of it if we gave you enough time.”

Huh. My mind must have been shut off somehow during the integration process. “Well, I guess you were right. So, good job on that one.”

Suds chose that moment to get up from his seat, opening his mouth and then closing it just as quickly. He looked over at me with a set of expressions I had trouble parsing, for the sole reason that I’d never seen them on the man. In a move fit far more for Emin than Suds, he nervously scratched at the back of his head.

“So. Look. You’re 27. And you have all this… you know, Protagonist nonsense. I’m not gonna… I’m not gonna force you to tell me whatever the hell all that was. But is- Is it over? Or is this some sort of recurring thing? Do we need to figure out how to handle this somehow?”

I blinked, unable to process the sincere, unsure man standing over me. Who was this, and what had he done with Suds?

Thankfully, though, the answer was fairly straightforward.

“Sorry. One time deal. I did something maybe kind of stupid, but I should be totally back to normal now.” At least, I was pretty sure it was a one time deal. Unless the trauma dungeon door was going to open on its own and suck me in, I imagined I’d be fine.

As if Suds had switched his class from a cleaning mage to an air mage, a great billowing sigh of relief escaped him. “Fine. Good. Are you- You’re okay? It was a mental thing. Do we need… Should I be finding you someone, to, you know… talk to?”

Unable to help myself, I laughed at the earnest uncertainty. Was Suds offering to get me a therapist? For all his power and levels, right then he struck me as nothing so much as a regular old parental figure. I wondered if any of my own clients had ever had talks like this with their families, imagining at least one or two must have.

“No, I don’t need a therapist,” I responded immediately. “Wait, yes. Wait. No.”

For all that the man’s Constitution kept him younger than he should have been, Suds seemed to visibly age before me. “That somehow failed to inspire much confidence. Is it yes, or is it no?”

My initial reaction was to deny him out of hand. The mental issue was over, and Trauma Suppression was back in action. Especially with its newfound levels, I was feeling great. The point of therapy was ultimately to help someone. If I didn’t need any help, why the hell bother?

Then I thought back to the time I’d spent in the trauma dungeon.

I could barely remember any of the pain or the trauma that I’d experienced, but I could remember how I’d felt at the end. Melodramatically ready to end it all. Messily sobbing over a single evil blood ritual. Sheesh!

If all those feelings were bundled up somewhere deep inside of me, though, perhaps there was some merit in seeing someone. Talking things over. If for no other reason, if my skills ever got disabled again, it would be nice to not immediately break down like that.

But one more time, I waffled. It was possible I did need someone to talk to. It might be good for me. With Trauma Suppression running at full steam, though, I wasn’t sure I could really talk with someone. I thought over everything that had happened to me, but I felt detached. Almost robotic, in a way. If I brought it up now, it would be like gossiping about things that had happened to someone else.

“I think I might need one eventually, but I need to figure some things out first,” I ultimately decided. Perhaps I’d play around with my mental space a bit more and figure out if there was a happy medium between “robot” and “screaming on the ground.”

Suds took this in stride, accepting my refusal without pushing. “Fine. Good. Let me know if you change your mind and all that.” He looked exhausted, and I found myself wondering if his class granted him any Endurance, as he seemed to need it right about then.

“So, have you just been sitting here the entire time waiting for me to wake up?” I supposed it was just as easy to read a book here as it was in his office, but it was still somewhat touching.

“Hmm? Oh, gods, hells no. I had a ward set up to let me know when you were about to wake up. It went off maybe twenty minutes back, so I came down.”

Okay, a little less touching. “You can do that? How did it know I was about to wake up?” My knowledge on wards was pretty much nonexistent.

Suds ran a hand over his face, momentarily kneading at the dark circles under his eyes. “Got it set up to go off whenever the screaming stopped.”

I blinked, the information bouncing off my skull a few times before managing to settle in.

Had I been… Had I been screaming the entire time?

“Um. Sorry about that. Hope it wasn’t too distracting or anything.” Hell, that was mortifying. I was glad this wasn’t a society where everyone had cell phones on them, or I imagined I’d be doomed to have to watch some sort of video of me kicking and screaming like that.

He waved the apology away. “Eh. ‘Sfine. Got a muffling spell set up around your room after the first day.”

Much like the last revelation, this new piece of info refused to compute.

“Sorry. The first day? Suds. How long have I been out for?”

“Hmm?” The question seemed to momentarily puzzle him, as if he’d forgotten that he’d yet to tell me. “Oh. About three days you’ve been screaming for now. Had Markus come in and apply some balm to your throat now and then, but not sure we even needed to bother. You’d be amazed at how long you can keep going with the kinds of Constitution and Endurance you’re working with now.”

Three days. Three days? I’d been lying in a bed -- and not only that, but screaming non-stop the entire time -- for a full three days? No wonder Suds looked like shit. In fact, putting him aside for a second, what were my friends thinking about all of this? One moment we were all just hanging out for my-

Wait.

There were a bunch of reactions that information should have inspired within me, but one question bubbled up past the rest.

“You mean it’s not my birthday anymore?”

Suds froze as if caught in some sort of stasis spell. All at once, he threw his hands up in the air in exasperation before shouting out. “That’s your reaction to that information? Bah! Idiot girl doing idiot things asking idiot questions. It’s like the boy all over again. Hells.” Not deigning to answer my question, he made a beeline for the door.

“Glad you’re awake. Welcome back,” he offhandedly added. “Send a letter to your friends. I left you some stuff on the table. I’m going to bed.”

With that final disjointed summary, he exited my room, leaving me to my own devices.

Whelp. All right. Maybe that wasn’t the most important question. At least he’s going to bed, though?

But still! What a rip-off! I’d spent the bulk of my birthday mentally burning alive and worrying everyone around me? I demanded a do-over!

I wasn’t entirely certain if my friends would want a do-over considering how badly the first one had ended, but hopefully once they learned I was no longer screaming my head off, they’d be amenable to some drinks.

Curious at the rest of Suds’ words, I looked to my nightstand to find the items he’d left for me. The first was a simple book, while the second was less clear: Suds had summoned up one of his soap-bubble-like privacy shields around it, obscuring it from sight.

Opting to start with the book, I picked it up and read over the obnoxiously lengthy title.

Sylum Academy for the Advancement and Improvement of Society and Humanity

Second Semester Course Guide

A loose leaf of paper hung out from one of the corners, and I snatched it up.

Classes start in one month. I have a few things I’d like you to take listed below. The rest is up to you.

- Suds

Wow. Suds actually letting me choose my own classes? Maybe he really had been worried about me.

I was fairly interested in opening the book up immediately and figuring out what I was going to take, but I decided to examine the second item on the table instead.

Cautiously, I extended a finger outwards to the privacy bubble. The moment I poked it, it popped, letting off a thick and heady aroma.

There, sitting on the table beside some utensils, was a decadent chocolate cake. The desert looked so impossibly rich and dense that even a single slice probably had enough calories to fuel a jet engine. Amidst shockingly lifelike chocolate flowers and regal filigrees, three words had been elegantly piped across its top.

Happy Birthday, Brat!

Recalling that I likely hadn’t eaten anything but throat balm and possibly force-fed broth in three days, I cut myself a slice, obviously for no other reason than to nourish myself. Similarly feeling a bit parched, I opted to activate my Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant, which not only made me feel far cleaner, but also fully rehydrated me.

I bit down, and-

Bliss.

Consumed Royal Gardens Chocolate Torte

+1 to all stats

Health and stamina regeneration doubled

Duration: 1 hour

The sudden uptick in all of my stats felt almost as nice as the taste of the cake itself. Almost.

You know. Maybe Suds isn’t always so bad.

Intent on occupying myself so as not to finish the cake too quickly, I pulled over the course guide.

All right then. Weird couple of days, but I guess it’s time to figure out what classes to take.