"Cécile…? Are you hearing me?"
"Nuh-no," King replied as she abruptly sat up. "And stop fucking calling me that!"
"I'll try my best, but sometimes it can be hard to really get through to you when you have that particular wall up."
"What wall?!"
"Your name."
"We — we've talked about that before," King stammered. "I didn't like it before I was attacked and I sure as hell don't like it now!"
"Yes, but the continued use of your alias has nothing to do with whether or not you like your name — and certainly not with pretending to be a man anymore. 'King' is a wall that you've built around yourself as a means of protection. The only people who know your real name — aside from doctors or professionals — are people with whom you feel like you can truly be yourself around; whom you feel safe around. It's when you don't feel entirely comfortable or, in some cases, safe, that you start hiding — like right now. We've broached some very upsetting subjects today, so you've gone from allowing me to call you by your actual name to just 'King.' You feel vulnerable, so you're putting that wall right back into place even though you don't need to."
"Yeah, no shit," King spat, agitated, but also amazed by Doctor Shelley's accuracy.
"This is a safe space, Cé —"
"Don't!"
Idk, sometimes I just like to psychoanalyze my favs.
(Insert obligatory disclaimer about King's name not being canon even though it totally should be because of all of the boxes that it checks off here)
#KOF #KingofFighters #ArtofFighting #illyverse #writing