“No such thing as bad publicity.”
Genghis Khan* #quote
Today I got a new game, hooray! Now then onto the flash fiction!
The Therapist Of The Superheroic
“I'm not really sure what I should do, you know my sidekick just
died. I mean, what can I do?” The superhero had asked me
this same question during our last several sessions. And I gave him a
different answer each time to help him along.
“Just keep fighting crime. Keep up his memory while doing what you
do best and helping the world. It'll keep you occupied and maybe even
another sidekick will come along and take his stead. It happens to a
lot of patients.”
Most of the ones that lose sidekicks actually. Same teary story.
Been doing this for years. My big white beard growing longer and
longer into a Santa Claus size as the superheroes dump their troubles
on me. The young therapists seem so interested in the heroes tales
and engaged in them. For me these heroes sound the same. I've made a
formula of handling their problems. One superpowered Captain often
has the same woes as the next. It doesn't matter whether they shoot
laser beams from their fists or control lizards. I've heard enough
tragic origin stories that nothing ever surprises me or seems bleak
anymore.
After more years pass and my reputation for dealing with the tragic
brings more and more anti-heroes to my door I stop caring about
tragedy and I only really care for laughing and smiling. Really I
could hear of all manners of sadness and not care for it. It has
become the mundane of my workplace as the heroes in costumes whine
the days away and I console them.
But one day a supervillain forces his way into my office when I
didn't have a session scheduled.
“I know you,” He says to me. “Mr. Gerrymore. They say you are
phased by anything in your therapy.” I recognized the villain
instantly. He wore a costume striped gray and black with a mask of
white. Unlike many villains he never gave himself a name. The nature
of his costume did make it easy for the media to settle on a name for
him. They settled on Fog as he would often create masses of fog to
disappear into as one of his powers. The villain then said, “You
will make me your patient as you would any other. You will not report
anything to anyone or I will kill you.”
I thought I couldn't be phased by anything in my therapies but what
I learned about what happened to him and what he did to other people
I became shocked. The origin stories of heroes being mutilated or
having their mind torn to pieces by villains didn't compare to what
happened to Fog. I kept a straight face so he thought I wasn't
surprised but I learned that whatever horrible things there may be in
the world, there is always something worse.
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