There is lead in crystal, that's why it sparkles

Wong Ha Jung

Ah. Truthfully, I think I might envy you a little. More selfishness and more wistfulness, he didn't understand how it was all slipping out of his control. At least, Wong Ha Jung thought anxiously, a lot of it remained only in his head instead of out there where everybody else could witness it. Still, it would have been nice to have kept at least one friend up until this point. But he had his parents, too, and that could be enough. It was already luckier than most so he really had no reason to complain.

He smiled. "You were probably stronger than you think," the counselor said. "Protecting others is hardly an indication of weakness. It's quite noble actually. I think you don't give yourself enough credit sometimes."

And oh, there was so much more he could say on that particular subject but all it would have done was made things unbelievably awkward. Since he didn't really feel like having a downward spiral, he finished his sandwich and dumped another packet of sugar into his drink. This is really unhealthy, the man conceded, after a few sips. He couldn't really bring himself to care, even though it sort of felt like he might be sick.

"Was it much of a surprise?" Wong Ha Jung asked. "Finding out about your powers?" How did your family take it? the man wondered. From what he had seen, it didn't seem like William came from a family where such abilities were hereditary.

Wong Ha Jung

"William, what are your parents like?" Even though he could already sort of see what the answer would be, the counselor still felt obliged to ask. It was clear, though, that he was doing well enough without them. On the surface, anyways. It wasn't so obvious how deeply that went.

I wonder if he's okay with how things are? The process of cutting off bonds wasn't always so clean, after all. More often than not, it was very messy. (That was how it went with his grandfather, but nobody spoke about it so Wong Ha Jung certainly didn't. In fact, he didn't even think about it, no.)

Actually, thinking about kids who weren't on the best terms with their parents, the counselor had to wonder. William might have been legally an adult -even though Wong Ha Jung himself kept to the traditional idea of twenty being the age of majority- but there were still plenty of students below that age who seemed to be left without guardians or people to regularly check on them. Was that really the best thing to do? Just to leave them be like that? It seemed to be asking for trouble. Or am I worrying too much?

But once the thought got into his head, it just wouldn't leave. That doesn't make too much sense. Why are things like that...?

Wong Ha Jung

He sighed. "That does seem to be the pattern these days," the counselor muttered to himself. Then more loudly, he asked, "What happened?"

At the Academy, things always seemed to begin -or end- with going to a doctor. Wong Ha Jung couldn't understand why it never was a good thing. With psychologists in particular, it was never a case of Oh, I have no idea what this is but it seems like there's a reasonable explanation for it outside my field, instead always having to be something like I'm sorry, but you're clearly crazy so take this medication and maybe come back to me later. Granted, it was pretty hard for normal people to grasp the existence of powers. There was a lot of potential for world shattering, after all. But as all of the other options crossed themselves out, surely it didn't take so much to jump to this conclusion? For example, telepathy. There was only so much arguing a professional could do before all of the facts started hitting them in the face.

Although, maybe I'm being too hard on those people? Personally, he had lived in knowledge of his powers for all of his life, even if he had kind of confused them for something else at first. That experience probably colored his perspective a lot. And, well, he supposed that it didn't help that up until college, he hadn't had a very high opinion of psychologists either. Probably the biggest irony of his life was that he had majored in that field.

Wong Ha Jung

It's a terrible story, he thought immediately. It wasn't the worst that the man had heard -although it was terrible of him to be even judging the situations like that when they were all awful in their own ways- but it still upset him. To him, it just seemed like a contradiction of nature for parental and filial bonds to be severed like that. Families were meant to stay together, not crumble away. Then again, his wasn't exactly solid either.

"I don't know why he did that," the counselor said, staring at the table a little. "That other man your parents took you to." He smiled in bemusement. "You're obviously not crazy." He hated using that word because there was so much it tried to cover and so much it didn't explain. But going through everything for a more proper term seemed like it would be too much of a distraction from the topic. "I don't understand how he reached that conclusion. It doesn't make any sense."

And Wong Ha Jung didn't understand the reaction of William's father, either, but he didn't feel like it was his place to call out that man as well. If things had been going so well before, why had everything gone so sour so easily? Human misunderstandings? Or something that had always been hiding there, waiting for a line to be crossed? In any case, it was sad thing. If he said anything like that out loud, though, he had this feeling that it wouldn't be taken well. Which was fine. He could be quiet on it.

He pressed his lips together as a different thought came to him. "Have you made any friends since coming to the Academy?" So far, William hadn't mentioned anything but enemies and the conclusion that Wong Ha Jung drew from that were clearly... He hoped he was wrong. People shouldn't be alone. And even though the boy sort of wasn't because of his spirits... It still was pretty solitary.

Wong Ha Jung

Being troubled isn't the same as being crazy. The counselor looked at William for a few moments before shaking his head. "Are you experiencing hallucinations or catatonia?" he asked, equally seriously. "The legal definition of insanity, in the States anyways, really only includes major mental illnesses, usually in the realm of psychosis. So that takes out all of the personality disorders, too, because no court will accept them as the basis for an insanity plea."

"I don't think that you have a thought disorder right now since your speech is organized pretty normally. That's only half of it, though, so you can prove me wrong there if you've been having delusions of any sort. Granted," he continued in a thoughtful tone, "it's kind of hard to identify those in yourself but yes, you're quite right. You're not really alone all the time."

"Mood disorders sometimes fall under psychosis but only when they're at their most extremes so I don't think we can really include those right now." The counselor sighed. "This really is just generalizing a bunch of things and even if you answer yes to any of this, that still won't mean anything because psychosis is mainly diagnosed by process of elimination. Conclusions like schizophrenia are reserved for those situations when there honestly seems to be no other explanation because the same symptoms for schizophrenia also show up in bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, and God knows how many other things."

"And in any case, even if you have some kind of psychosis, that still doesn't make you crazy. Insanity means that you can't distinguish right from wrong, which I'm sure you're capable of. You've already demonstrated it."

"So there are two points to this," Wong Ha Jung said, smiling a little since he didn't like frowning. "The first one is that I have lots of reasons for thinking that you're not insane. I could be wrong but you're going to have to give me more time to work on that. The second point is that crazy is a terrible word that nobody should use, especially in the medical sense. Insane is a much better word but if you're going to call somebody that, there's actually a lot of work that goes into getting that label. Or at least, there should be. And you had better be very well certain that you haven't missed a more accurate diagnosis in getting to that."