𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 22

It ought to have been distressing how quickly he came to terms with Amber's passing and found peace. His friends were still worried about him, though he had suffered a heart attack at seventeen so maybe they had good reason to. Oobleck's private tutoring was helping to teach him the dangerous of aura and semblance he'd just never known – which was a lot, seeing as how he'd come to Beacon without a proper education.

The short of it came down to the fact his semblance would work unconsciously, so he needed to make sure he either went to sleep with aura reserves, or he didn't expend any at night. As long as he kept that in mind, he'd be fine. Outside of those lessons about aura, they also talked about psychology, grief, loss, and coping.

It was thinly veiled therapy but Jaune didn't mind it. Oobleck was a good listener and just as good a talker, which was strange because his lessons in class always seemed so boring. Maybe psychology was interesting because it was relevant to him now, or maybe it was just more interesting than history full-stop. Learning how people thought and how the human mind worked made for good reading no matter what reason he was doing it for.

And, of course, it did help. There was no denying that. Learning about grief helped him compartmentalise the feelings he experienced and avoid some of the dangerous pitfalls like blaming others or even himself. Amber wouldn't have wanted that anyway. He'd even had a private meeting with Ozpin to discuss Amber and make sure he was okay, which seemed to end well. Ozpin had even said General Ironwood was easing up on him after his help, recognising that trying to charge a young man who'd just had to be there when someone died was a cruel move.

It was in one of his lesson-slash-therapy sessions with Oobleck that he said, "Why is therapy not mandatory for huntsmen? It feels like it would be useful."

"Preaching to the choir," replied Oobleck. "And it is a choir. Ozpin, Glynda, Peter, myself, I don't think there's anyone here who doesn't see the merit in such, but it can be hard to convince people to accept therapy. Huntsmen and huntresses, especially. Our career is focused on the idea of people being strong enough to defend themselves and their team, and that often doesn't lend well to the idea of people accepting help from outside. It doesn't help that budgets from Vale are tight as well. They like to see it as an unnecessary cost and suggest that anyone suffering should seek help privately."

"That's a shame..."

"It is. I do my best privately and I know that Glynda also has an open-door policy to a few female students. They tend to find it easier to talk to her, especially if their issues are related to men in some way." Oobleck didn't expand further on the problems of other people. "Why bring it up?"

"I'm just thinking that a lot of the people I've been in the dreams of could use it."

"Hmmm. Keep in mind you're seeing their nightmares; you're seeing them at their worst, which might not be representative of how they really are."

"I know. But even so I know some of them have issues that probably seem really small to them but keep dominating their dreams. It makes me wonder if I shouldn't do something about it."

"Do so if you wish."

Jaune was surprised. "Really? I expected more of a respect their privacy angle from you."

"You should respect their private thoughts around me, certainly, but you are their friend, and there's no reason you can't offer them comfort and your time if you want to. Either in the waking world or beyond it. Just remember one important aspect of therapy, Mr Arc. A therapist is not there to fix their problems for them. They are there to help lead the individual in understanding and fixing their problems themselves."