Reprogrammed (Hunter Angst)

Puppet's Apathy

Hunter skipped school the next day, instead having gone to a few hastily scheduled appointments in the Human Realm. The first was to his therapist, the second to his psychiatrist, and the third to spend dinner with his friends back at Eda's.

They upped the dose on his Sertraline, adjusted the dose on his Alprazolam, and submitted the changes to the Human Realm pharmacist to be rushed through. By the end of the day, he was having a home cooked meal with his friends. They laughed, played with their food, talked and joked like normal teenagers do.

Eda sat with Raine on the couch, listening to her kids enjoy the simplicities of being young. Darius had also come along, and had dragged Eberwolf with him. They too, sat in the living room with the other adults, listening to the chatter in the other room. The atmosphere should have been much more relaxed than it actually was.

Eberwolf sat on Darius's lap, letting out little purrs in an attempt to soothe away the man's stress. Darius refused to admit that it was working, if only a little. He was listening for Hunter's voice, attempting to use Hunter's tone and vocal contributions to gauge how the boy was doing. So far, from what he could tell, Hunter was not doing so well.

He was so quiet, only speaking when spoken to. The others would explode into occasional laughter, and Hunter's laugh would be so quiet that it was mostly drowned out. It wasn't really like he could blame the boy, but it made his heart sag anyways.

When Belos had first died, and the news joyously traveled its way through the Isles, it seemed like everything would be okay... For a brief, brief moment, it was. But then more news was spread around; the death of loved ones, hundreds of missing witches and demons, widespread destruction, and Belos's eternally loyal supporters advocating to maintain the coven system and the election of a new Emperor. In other words, the consequences and the politics squashed out the good stuff.

This was also certainly the case for Hunter and Darius's personal lives. Hunter's freedom from the Emperor's Coven and his Uncle was far overshadowed by the mental and physical scars of the tyrant's unforgivable actions. The teenager living in his spare bedroom was struggling terribly, and everybody that knew him could see that.

The only thing that Darius could hope for now was for the therapy and medication to work, and work hard .

By the end of the night when everyone was excusing themselves back to their own houses, Hunter did look much happier than he had earlier in the night. They'd gone out to play Flyer Derby (With Hunter using Willow's staff), hung out in Luz's room, ate dinner, and enjoyed each other's company. More than anything, this was what Darius's boy needed.

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A few days later, he started on his new dosage of medication, attended school as normal, and helped Darius around the house. On the outside, the kid appeared to be just fine, or as fine as the Emperor's nephew could be. Darius also knew that he had to be smarter than the average person, and to look closely beyond Hunter's initial behaviors.

The boy slept a lot, stuck heavily to his routines, tried his best to complete his homework, and... mostly kept to himself at home. Darius was inviting Eberwolf over quite a lot, relishing in their quiet but reassuring presence.

Internally, Hunter was busily waging a war on himself. Deep shame ran in rivers through him. He'd embarrassed himself at school in front of his friends, made Darius worry astronomically , and had wasted everyone's time, energy, and money. If his caretaker wasn't so worried about him, then maybe Darius would be able to help with the rebuilding efforts around the Boiling Isles a lot more.