Half-fictive, skill-free self-therapy.

A curved line. Circle. One stroke here, one there. A small but lively eye slowly appeared out of the graphite marks, and soon its partner came into existence as well. Several whimsical movements framed a freshly-drawn face with windblown hair, and a body started forming below a brand new smile.

And there she was: Thumper. Rae sighed, adding on a pair of floppy rabbit ears and preening the simple outfit. Finished, Thumper blinked up at her expectantly.

"What's up, buttercup?" The miniature image flashed a toothy smile. She lacked the two pointed canines that Rae was somewhat fond of in her own mouth, so she touched up the smile, prompting an indignant nose-scrunch from her two-dimensional likeness. "Hey!" Thumper huffed, "At least warn me before getting out the eraser..." Rae gave a half-hearted smile in return.

"Things aren't really so awesome here." The bunny-girl blinked, waiting for elaboration. "Boys, friends, family... the works. What do you do when life gets... hard?"

"Well..." Thumper twitched her left ear for a moment in thought. "You see, it's like this. We superheroes are always getting in trouble. We lose people a lot - sometimes in fights or whatever, and sometimes... from more permanant stuff. We fight monsters and villains and get hurt in lots of ways. We go through hell. You know why?" Rae shifted in her seat, quirking one eyebrow.

"Mm?"

"Because we exist. Yeah, sure, there are some grudges and sometimes a bad guy is like 'Grr, I'll get you for destroying my super atom smashing weapon of doom!' but I could throw away my costume, become a total pacifist, and lounge in front of the tv nightly. Stuff'll still show up, stuf will still come after me, and life will still be a harrowing rollercoaster ride with the most undependable safety bar ever. So you know what I do?"

"Save the world?" Thumper gave her biggest smile and bounced a little.

"Mhmm! Cause it's all there is to do!" Rae smiled back - Thumper was the real her in a lot of ways and seeing it played out was a good reminder that she wasn't one to spend so long feeling down and out. A good reminder of who she really was.

"You forget - I'm not exactly a vigilante world-saver. Kind of lacking." She drew hairclips at the base of each of Thumper's ears. "Maybe they should be clip-ons..." The mini superheroine's face flashed with horror as she unsuccessfully tried to twitch one of her ears, and Rae giggled, turning them back into a legitimate part of her anatomy. She let out a little "hmph" sound and tested one to make sure before moving forward.

"You're missing the point! My point here is that stuff'll go wrong. Lotsa stuff. But most things are either fixable or heal with time. So stop worrying. Breathe, let things relax, and learn to give it time. If your friend won't talk to you, give them some space and it'll probably work out in the end. If you're feeling down, find a good book to read or go out. If life feels hard, just stop and let it go on around you, silly. You've got all the tools, you're just not using them. It's easy to get scared, 'specially after some of the stuff you've been through. But since Jay left you you've been a wreck constantly and -"

"And it's not me." Rae concluded, sketching on some hairclips.

"No. It's not. And now all these great new people you're friends with now think it is you! And you're unhappy. So... Smile, sillyface!" And she did, because it was true. And that smile was refreshing in too many ways to count.

Because there are ways of dealing with oneself, and therapy is found in a lot of places. She was reaching closure with the entire underlying problem now, and maybe the rest would follow naturally.

She sketched Thumper a cape, then got rid of it again. Attached some earrings.
"How about we get you a story, dear?"