Tell him all, but the truth
is a crossover fanfic between The Secret Show and Psychonauts written by Little_Goat_Opal. It revolves around Victor suffering a severe injury during a training exercise that leads to him uncovering multiple deceptions told to him throughout his life, alongside discovering a very dangerous side of himself...
The story was first published on March 5th, 2022 and was completed on November 30th, 2023.
This page contains spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Alien Blood: While Victor is bleeding out, he discovers that his real blood color is neon blue.
- Ballroom Blitz: After being humiliated at the Spring Ball Victor's psychic powers awaken and destroy the the ballroom, causing many U.Z.Z. agents to be injured.
- Blessed with Suck: Victor thinks this of his psychic powers, given how destructive they are.
- Break the Cutie: Victor is left nearly mentally broken by the end of Chapter 10, given that he realizes that he was being drugged for most of his life and had his psychic abilities kept a secret from him. Alongside his destructive psychic breakdown at the ball causing his reputation at U.Z.Z. to be demolished and he's left with no other choice than to flee with the Psychonauts elsewhere.
- Cute Kitten: Victor owns a calico kitten named Bella. She gives him comfort whenever Victor is stressed.
- Darker and Edgier: The fanfic is much darker than the show it was based off, as dark topics like gore and the mention of lobotomy pop up.
- Deconstruction Crossover:
- The fic explores how Victor's Butt-Monkey status affects him mentally, as he's shown to be suffering from signs of depression and emotional outbursts due to his lack of respect and finding out that he was drugged for most of his life in order to repress his psychic powers. Eventually the stress gets to him so badly that he ends up demolishing the U.Z.Z. ballroom and leaving many injured in the process. Leaving him no other choice but to go on the run from U.Z.Z.
- The fic also deconstructs Victor being Locked Out of the Loop via U.Z.Z and Mildred hiding and his true origins, in fear of how he would react to them. As it's not the reveal of having psychic powers and a Wobble Man for a father that cause Victor to have a mental breakdown, but the fact that they had been lying to him for so long about them. So much that it causes him to have a mental outburst and he loses most of his trust in them.
- Drives Like Crazy: Sam Boole's flight skills are so crazy that she manages to make Lili and Oleander vomit.
- For Your Own Good: Changed Daily insists this to Victor that taking a pill that will help with removing his psychic powers. Victor is disbelieving of it though.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Victor is one, since his dad is a Wobble Man and his mother is a human.
- Hard Truth Aesop:
- Even if you mean well, don't keep a life-altering revelation from the people you love, as it could damage your relationship and their trust in you. As its shown that if Mildred came clean sooner or was completely truthful regarding Victor being a Hybrid All Along and hiding his psychic powers from him, a lot of the conflict could've been avoided. Especially if U.Z.Z. didn't drug him in order to conceal his powers. Instead, the revelation causes Victor to lash out at everyone and he loses his trust in nearly all of his co-workers.
- While expressing your emotions may be therapeutic, it's important to keep your emotions in check for everyone's wellbeing. Even though Victor has every right to be upset, its displayed that his emotional outbursts end up doing more harm than good. Especially during the U.Z.Z. Spring Ball, where Victor ends up leaving many U.Z.Z. agents injured for being unable to handle his emotions in a healthy manner.
- Hybrid All Along: Victor grew up thinking he was fully human. It wasn't until he was injured during that training exercise that he found out that he's actually half-human, with his father Lionel being an alien.
- Give Him a Normal Life: Mildred lied to Victor about his father and being a hybrid, as she wanted him to have a somewhat normal life.
- Mama Bear: Mildred becomes this once she hears that Changed Daily and Professor Professor plan to lobotomize Victor and get rid of his psychic powers once and for all.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Victor has this reaction anytime his powers harm someone.
- Mildred also has this after she realizes how terribly she's treated Victor.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's revealed in Chapter 19 that Alphonse stole the psitanium that was originally meant for the Psychonauts (and also set off Victor's powers at the spring ball) to make his sculpture. Anita wastes no time calling him out for this.
- Parents as People: While Mildred certainly meant well in keeping Victor's alien heritage from him while he was growing up, it ultimately did more harm than good. She eventually atones for this by apologizing for keeping him in the dark for so long.
- Power Nullifier: The pills Changed Daily and Professor Professor make Victor take are meant to remove (or, at the very least, suppress) his psychic powers.
- Prolonged Prologue: An author's note at the beginning of Chapter 21 reveals that the entire fanfic is a prologue for an even bigger story.
- Psychoactive Powers: Victor's powers go off whenever he is overwhelmed, which is why Changed Daily persuades him to take a pill to get rid of them.
- Shout-Out: After slime is dumped on Victor during the Spring Ball, he goes on a psychic rampage much like another character with psychic abilities.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mildred gives one to Professor Professor and Changed Daily as they plan to lobotomize Victor to rid him of his powers once and for all.Mildred: Why are you treating him this way? He's done so much for U.Z.Z. and the rest of the world, and you all throw that out the window just because he's psychic?!Changed Daily: He's dangerous, we can't just let him run around with those powers!Mildred: You know what? I'm done. One minute, you all can be friendly to a potentially harmful alien race. And the next you plan on lobotomizing Victor over something he can't help. When Lionel came out about being an alien, you didn't plan on dissecting him, you accepted him as one of us. And when he returned to Dimension 10, you still treated him like family, how come you can't do the same for Victor? His son! My son!
- Trauma Conga Line: Victor goes through one upon discovering he is a Half-Human Hybrid alongside finding out he was being drugged throughout his life. Plus, when things just seem to be getting better, he ends up humiliated at the U.Z.Z. Spring Ball and winds up hurting nearly everyone.
- Un-person: It's revealed that this occurred to The World Leader (and presumably her husband), given that Raz and Lili have no idea who she is. This revelation is used to imply that something isn't quite right in the universe.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Raz reacts to Professor Professor's name and Changed Daily's name of the day (Peppa Papayakins) like this.
