The Moon is Down

***The Moon is Down*** is a *Fae Tales Verse AU*, and part 3 of *Spoils*. It is set ~2.5 years before the events of *Falling Falling Stars.*

## Summary

Dr Gary Konowalous has just discovered that one of his less worrisome patients at Hillview - an institution for juvenile sex offenders and criminals - has been targeted by one of his trusted staff members and friend for months. Desperate to talk to someone about the fallout who isn't his supervisor or his therapist, he turns to an acquaintance to discuss what he needs to do next.

## Character Bios

### Efnisien ap Wledig

A patient at Hillview. He sees Michael 2-3 times a week by the time the other staff at Hillview discover that Michael has been sexually abusing him for months, with the ultimate intent of completely destroying Efnisien's psyche. Efnisien becomes nonverbal as a result, 'regressed', and won't connect with anyone, save Dr Gary. Efnisien refuses to press charges.

### Dr Gary Konowalous ("Dr Gary"/"Gary")

#### Appearance

When he met with Mika, he carried 'his black briefcase' and wore 'his customary suit, his well-shone shoes.'

#### Personality

Dr Gary notes that he tends to toy with patients during sessions, in a helpful way, oscillating ''between being a very compassionate clinician, and a bit of a manipulative spider.’

#### Life

Dr Gary owns Hillview, 'regularly consulted at the university [Mika worked at] and taught special lectures on criminal psychology, aberrant psychology when he wasn’t working at Hillview, or even flying to different countries to run highly sought after seminars on effective techniques for managing repeat juvenile sex offenders.' He also dealt 'with special cases, [drafted] curriculums, [consulted] with law enforcement, professors, doctors, hospitals, prisons', etc. Dr 'Gary took all the hardest clients. The ones that any regular psychologist looked at and said: ‘I’m not qualified to handle that.’ Prior to turfing Efnisien onto Michael, Dr Gary does Efnisien's intake, meets with Efnisien's parents once, and Gwyn ap Nudd, then has little else to do with Efnisien, since Dr Gary considers him an easier patient. Dr Gary takes Michael's crimes personally, and seeks out Mika's help for commiseration, in part to vent his fury at Michael's actions. Dr Gary plans to take on Efnisien's therapy sessions himself, although he is unsure he is the best for the job, but doesn't trust anyone else. He cuts back on his overly busy schedule to spend more time at Hillview and to see Efnisien regularly.

### Henry

Henry is a bartender at the Chasington Jazz and Wine Bar on Mendary Boulevard. He seems familiar with Dr Gary, and a bit playful.

### Dr Michael Henton ("Michael")

#### Appearance/Personality

Mika described Michael as kind 'of handsome, a bit round about the face and the gut as he got older, lively eyes, quick to laugh, reassuring and firm. He’d seemed like a great fit for Hillview.'

#### Life

Michael is a full-time psychologist at Hillview for many years. Dr Gary believes Michael truly believed in the work in the beginning, but 'somewhere along the way, he stopped being honest in his six-monthly screening sessions, and…became bitter, or resentful.' Seemingly in the later years, he sexually abuses his patients, including Efnisien, until he is finally discovered when other staff check session tapes. He avoids detection by feigning illness to his supervisor, and a lack of rigorous oversight in the past for the recordings. Dr Gary notes that Michael has 'compassion fatigue, and [was] traumatised in the long-term from treating these clients, and that the debriefings and meetings with his supervisor [weren't] enough.' Although Dr Gary acknowledges that Michael also needs compassionate treatment for his issues, Dr Gary is also furious with him, and is arranging to have his license pulled, and to pursue legal action against him.

### Dr Mika Ferguson ("Mika")

#### Appearance

Mika wears pink nail polish at the meeting with Dr Gary.

#### Life

Mika is an acquaintance of Dr Gary's for some time, and Dr Gary regularly consults at Mika's university. Mika is typically busy with 'surveys and statistics and supervisors and running projects and courses of his own', while working through his PhDs and hoping to finalise them. 'They talked to each other on occasion, friendly and maybe even a little flirtatious – though it was hard to tell with Gary if that was just mirroring – but they weren’t close. They weren’t friends.' After the discovery of Michael's actions, Dr Gary contacts Mika to consult with someone in the field, who would understand Dr Gary venting. Mika wants a closer relationship with Dr Gary, and is supportive of Dr Gary's venting.

## Locations

### The Chasington Jazz and Wine Bar on Mendary Boulevard

One of Dr Gary's preferred haunts. Mika notes he is one of the only visibly queer people there, though he hopes he isn't the only *actually* queer person. Mika notes that the 'place reeked of cis-het patriarchy in a way that left him wondering what Gary found so relaxing about the place. A complex relating to his father? His grandfather? Something else?'

## Quotations

* ‘I’m trying to find a circuitous way to explain this, and I think I’ll have to start at the nadir and move backwards,’ Gary said, sounding frustrated.
* About Efnisien: ‘The only voluntary eye contact he’s made with anyone is me,’ Gary said. ‘He won’t even acknowledge anyone else, except to cringe away if they get too close.'
* ‘Every year it gets a little harder,’ Gary said, his voice made thicker from the wine. ‘I can bring the recidivism rates down in our Hillview graduates, but it’s still hard. Every year, patients who make progress at Hillview backslide when they fall back into addiction, or they meet a friend who goads them, or they just decide it’ll be fun to rape their baby sister again. Every year there’s the ones who make it, and the ones who don’t. Every year there’s hospitals telling me which ones died, because they were shot, or knifed, or killed themselves, or overdosed. And it’s not that many, really, compared to how it can be in other institutions. And yet…it’s so many.’
* ‘I mean it’s a job,’ Gary said. ‘But why wouldn’t it get to me? I get so tired of the assumption that I must be heartless, because of the people I choose to work with. If you ask me, I think it takes more heart than the average person has to work with those people. To work with the ones everyone else wants to leave behind and abandon.'
* Dr Gary: ‘Revenge. It had nothing to do with attraction. As far as I can tell, he just wanted to destroy them. It’s infuriating that he picked one of the least dangerous… It’s…’ ‘That’s what predators do, most of the time,’ Mika said blandly. ‘They pick on the weak.’
* ‘You could do it again if you wanted,’ Mika said. ‘It’s been interesting watching you fall apart while you’ve got a hundred-dollar bottle of red sitting next to you.’
* 'Mika wanted to flirt with him *so* badly. He seemed like he’d be fun.'
* ‘You have confused gender feelings?’ Gary said, surprised. [Mika]: ‘What, I’m not allowed? You know it wasn’t an accident that I ended up in this career, don’t you? I was secretly seeking validation. It didn’t help. I actually think my gender is just confused. Not nonbinary, not trans, just…genderconfusion. Gender-salad with a side of fuckery. I kind of like it that way though.’

## Trivia

* Mika didn't like wine, unless it had fruit juice in it, or was Moscato.
* The parts of *Spoils AU* refer to current listing order on Archive of Our Own, and publication order. *The Moon is Down* is chronologically before *Falling Falling Stars*, but was published during the publication of *Falling Falling Stars*. Part 4, *Let it Happen*, does take place *after* part 2, but it does not immediately follow *The Moon is Down*, as it takes place during *Falling Falling Stars*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 not\_poignant. "The Moon is Down." *Spoils. Archive of Our Own,* 9 August 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/works/33136927.