Time Warp: It's Going to Work Right? [Sean]

[Abby Winchester]

September 12th 1998


She'd been dying to say something, anything, to anybody about the pent up feelings she was having that were directed to her best friend. Love was an easy emotion she could deal with. She knew she loved Vinod and she knew it was purely platonic. But why did she also feel this...niggling feeling down her...well, special parts whenever she was around him? And it only just happened around him.

Sure she has had useless crushes on boys before but it was never the same like with Vinod. She knew it had nothing to do with romantic love. She just knew it to be true.

The only person she could think of talking about this with was Dr. Neville. He always did the sex talk so Abby immediately assumed he knew everything else about sex.

With that thought, she basically barrelled through the doctor's office and flumped herself on the couch. "Doc. I have a problem." She announced with a heavy sigh. She laid her arm over her eyes and sighed once more.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Slowly but surely, Sean was approaching the decade mark in terms of his employment at Hammel. Already, he’d seen some of the other faculty come and leave in that time, which was understandable, even if he was sure he would die at this job. That was fine, since the students needed him, and he did everything in his ability to be an available resource to them.

The telepath also found that there were certain roles he could fill that others couldn’t. That might be due to the lecture he had to give every year on sexual education, but he didn’t mind. He would prefer that students hear from him than from someone less positive and informative.

Besides, while the students might be teenagers, they were still human beings, with valid thoughts, emotions, and opinions. Someone had to listen to them and take them seriously, particularly when nobody else would.

As such, he tried to maintain an open door policy with the students, allowing them to come in if his door was open and he was unoccupied. All different students abided by that policy, and even outside of formal sessions, the chairs in his office were often filled with students to discuss their problems.

Case in point, Abby Winchester.

The psychiatrist looked up from the file he’d been working on to greet her. “We can talk about it. Do you want to get the door?”

[Abby Winchester]

When he asked if she wanted the door closed, she used one hand to wave dismissively at the offer. "I'm not shy. Not hiding anything either. I'm sure whoever hears this would benefit from your wisdom." She sighed heavily once more before deciding to drop the antics.

"Just kidding. I'm actually fine." She giggled as she sat up, folding her hands on her lap. "Although I'm having trouble with my powers though. I accidentally sneezed something awful in front of this boy that I liked and now he hates me. I mean, it wears off eventually but like...I should be able to control them if I have those kinds of reactions again right?" She shrugged and looked up at the older meta.

"I have a point." She grinned sheepishly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "So...I'm having these...emotions. Well...more feelings than emotions. There's a difference...between them, right? So yeah anyway these feelings. I feel like...there's no way they could be love. Not the romantical sense anyway. But...they're directed to someone that I'm so familiar with. Again, it's not love. And I'm afraid to label it as lust because who woulld lust after their best friend, you know? Yeah sure he's hot I mean even I can see that but..." she ranted before sheepishly grinning at a pause. "I'm sorry doc. I ramble. You know how it is." She smiled.

"Well basically...I want to have sex with my best friend. But...I feel like it might jeopardise our friendship. I don't want that because he's such a great guy and if I lose his friendship then that's it. I don't actually have anybody else to call my best friend." She sighed. "You know?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had never been a pheromone manipulator, and he had also never been emotionally close to one such that he had to learn the particular ins and outs of the power. He was familiar with it because of students and faculty, but he couldn’t say for certain what she should be able to control and what she shouldn’t. By her age, he’d had excellent control over his abilities, but each was different. “Have you spoken to your trainer?” The psychiatrist asked, as that was what he would do in her situation.

If he had a problem now, he still sought out Robert’s advice.

He also had no comment about lusting after a best friend. He had plenty of advice about relationships between best friends, or friends at all, and how one could maintain a friendship after the more physically and emotionally intimate aspects of the relationship ended. In that way, it was good that she had come to him.

Although sex with his best friend also wasn’t something he discussed with anyone. The amorphous boundaries that he and Josh had occasionally were nobody else’s business but theirs, and they couldn’t even have an open discussion about it the morning after. It had been a while since the last time, which was another reason not to have a conversation.

“Sex between friends wouldn’t necessarily jeopardize your friendship,” he said, after she finished explaining the situation. “That isn’t an endorsement, but, in a practical sense, depending on the people involved, it isn’t always an either/or proposition.”

[Abby Winchester]

"Yes I have. She's doing her best, which I don't doubt is excellent but...I'm just impatient, I suppose." She placed a hand over her chest and nodded. "But it does truly suck when a simple twitch could make someone want to hump me like there's no tomorrow, you know what I'm saying?" She laughed, covering her mouth with one hand while doing so.

"Anyway," Abby's shoulders slumped forward. She looked up only when Sean continued to speak. Her eyes widened before narrowing and then she tilted her head and sighed. "I don't get it doc. So what you're saying is that this is a Schrodinger's cat hypothesis? I'm not following." Abby scratched her head in confusion. "Sorry doc, you're gonna have to go slow with me." She grinned sheepishly.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded sympathetically. “That is frustrating, but there’s still time to gain control over it. Powers are time-consuming to learn to control.” He was certainly living proof of that.

“What I’m saying is that this is the type of situation that you need to think over carefully. Think about how you feel, thinking about your friendship, and think about everything you know about your friend. Then, and only then, if you think he won’t be offended by broaching the topic, you should talk to him about it.”

The psychiatrist had never been in precisely this situation, as the telepathy had provided him with reassurance that non-psychics didn’t have. As such, he’d been comfortable enough to simply kiss Josh at a party before making his confession. He didn’t advise that other people behave in such a forward fashion.

“He might say no after you bring it up, but he could say yes.” Since Sean couldn’t speak for another person, he couldn’t tell her precisely what would happen if she had this conversation with her friend. He then folded his hands in front of him on his desk. “If he says yes, it’s possible to go from there to have a healthy friendship while also being sexually active. It isn’t for everyone.”

He wanted to make that plain. Many people couldn’t have sex with someone unless there were romantic feelings or a possibility of a romantic relationship. Other people couldn’t have casual sex with a friend, but could do so when it was truly casual. Abby and her friend would have to determine that for themselves.

[Abby Winchester]

"Yeah. I don't have to graduate in a few more months so I'm good." She shrugged. She wasn't surprised that he didn't even flinch at her phrasing. Oh well, Dr. Neville was just one of the strong ones. Had someone come up to her, if she were in his position, she would have dropped to the floor, slapping the table leg laughing.

Oh Vinod, the influence you have on such impressionable young ladies.

As Sean spoke, Abby listened intently, briefly wondering why she didn't bring her tape recorder. This was solid gold.

"Mm...mkay." Abby nodded. She snorted at a part of what Sean said that was coming back to her. "He probably won't say no to sex. He'd say no if I was attached to it though but...sex, not so much." Abby shook her head, chuckling.

"I'm...I don't feel that I'd ever like him that way. But...I don't want him to give me an excuse that if we ever slept together that he could run off and leave our friendship in the dust you know?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The remark about not minding sex was hardly surprising. They were discussing teenagers, particularly a teenage boy, and while all people were different and no particular individual would necessarily conform to set parameters, Sean was also quite familiar with the inner-workings of the mind of a typical teenage boy. But that wasn’t what they were discussing.

He then tilted his head slightly to the side at her statement, because that reached the heart of the matter. “If he’s truly your best friend, he wouldn’t do that.”

Granted, not everyone remained best friends with an ex-partner and then continued to be emotionally intimate and physically affectionate with that person. However, to be a friend was to provide emotional support for someone beyond sex. To be someone’s best friend was to provide far more emotionally than any other friend could. The designation wasn’t without significance.

“It’s impossible to be close to other people without some degree of emotional vulnerability,” the psychiatrist added before spreading his hands in front of him. “That’s the natural trade-off for being close to someone emotionally and caring about their opinions. So, if you want to do this, you’ll have to make yourself emotionally vulnerable to him, by initiating the conversation. If you have that conversation, you’re allowed to say anything you want, including the fact that you want to stay friends and that the sex is extra, not substitution.”

[Abby Winchester]

Abby looked at Sean when he said that and nodded slowly. "That's true." She said, also slowly. She looked away from the doctor before looking at him again with an awkward smile, still nodding. "You're right."

It struck her as odd that she was sort of self-conscious about her friendship with Vinod. She knew he wouldn't find anybody else to replace her as a best friend. She knew she wouldn't, for sure. What Dr. Neville said just cemented the fact that she did indeed have a lot of faith in Vinod and their friendship.

And as he continued, Abby nodded, believing that it was true about best friends. "Yeah. I do care about V - him. Terribly. He's an asswipe but he's my asswipe, you know?" She knew the doctor knew exactly who she was talking about, hello, telepathy. But it still felt like a session and sessions usually meant no names. At least that was what she learnt from the TV. "I'll keep that in mind for sure. Sex is extra, not a substitution. He'll sure get a kick outta this." Abby bounced on the couch before smiling at the doctor. "Anyone ever tell you, you make perfect sense?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded as well at her nod, while maintaining eye contact. Emotions had a way of clouding judgment and causing people to reassess and second-guess that which needed to be trusted. He was glad to see that she was parsing out the situation and was coming upon a course of action. That was for the best. Of course, he still advocated that she think about this for a while before she broached the subject. And then, if she broached the subject, that she communicate her needs and expectations.

He knew who her friend was. Aside from the telepathy, he was plugged into the school’s gossip channels. But if she didn’t want to mention Vinod by name, he was fine to pretend for her sake. They didn't have to use names.

The psychiatrist offered her a smile at her unorthodox compliment. “I’ve been told that on occasion, yes.” Sean didn’t suffer from low self-esteem or other difficulties with his self-perception. He was well-aware of how he came across to people, and he was also confident in the advice that he offered. He had to be, as part of his job. That confidence didn’t prevent self-deprecation as a form of humor, but he was confident in his abilities. “And you’re welcome,” he added.

“Tell me how it goes.”

[Abby Winchester]

Glad that she had plucked up the courage to meet with Dr. Neville, Abby stood up from the couch feeling lighter than before. She contemplated on giving the guy a hug but it would look way too weird so she just leaned over the desk to shake his hand.

"That's cool. Because it's true. You're a sense maker." She pointed to her temple before making her fingers into a gun and directed it at him. "Yeah." She grinned and shook his hand.

"I so will. You'll know." She tapped her forehead and walked out of the room but not before turning to him with a smile. "Thanks." She smiled before leaving properly.

[OOC: Wrappity wrapperoni!]