Ensign Kettick: Reverse sabotaging
Darwin Awkward
((Counselling Ward, Anchorage Tower))
He entered as invited, and nodded politely in a crisp civilian-appropriate salute.
Kettick : Ensign Kettick, reporting for my counselling session, ma’am.
Thorne : ::gesturing to the empty chair:: Welcome, please take a seat.
Without hesitation, he sat in the chair in front of the counsellor’s desk and relaxed by a fraction as the Human browsed his file.
Thorne: ::without looking up from the file:: So, what brings you down to the counselling suite?
Kettick : I believe your human insight will be precious, ma’am.
He was rather satisfied with his progress, as far as he was concerned. It had been weeks since he tried to eat something that would have been toxic for him, and the disorientation episodes when his brain tried to process input from senses he didn’t have were a thing of the past.
Also, on the social skills front, his instinctual response to “What brings you down to the counselling suite?” was no longer “The turbolift”, but that was another topic.
The counsellor laughed and placed his file (presumably) back on the desk, making contact with him once more. The cause for her mirth was not immediately apparent to Kettick.
Thorne : It’s been a long time since I was an officer… Please call me Lilly. Or Doctor Thorne if you would prefer to be more formal.
Ah. That was… a first hurdle. But something he would need to address eventually. He knew that excessive formality could raise a barrier between him and the others during social interactions. And he had just been given the order by a female in a position of authority, didn’t he? He just had to convince himself that he hadn’t heard the second part of the statement. Informal greeting, here we come.
Kettick: Gladly. Please call me Kettick.
Well, Magna Roma wasn’t built in a day.
The smile the woman gave him was probably of the kind variety. He hoped. There might have been a hint of mischief in there, based on what experience he had with pranksters, and that might be bad news.
Thorne: So, you think my human insights will be precious? Given the context I assume you’re referring to the integration of your new human personality?
Kettick repressed a nervous twitch of his feelers.
Kettick: I am. Although I still experience significant unease referring to it as a “new personality” of mine.
Thorne: It must have been an… intense… experience.
Kettick’s feelers twitched for good this time, but his voice did not flinch as he remembered his days after waking up.
Kettick: The initial event, not so much, given I was out of it almost immediately. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, was rather harrowing.
Thorne: ::nodding:: Okay. Well, I’d certainly characterise what you went through as both a psychological and a physiological trauma. If it’s okay with you I’d like to start with the physiological aspect first.
The Remmilian nodded. She was the professional, after all.
Kettick: Please do.
Thorne: Your file mentions bouts of disorientation, along with intrusive, non-Remillian, thoughts? Are they still as occurring as frequently as before?
The Engineer took a moment to collect his thoughts, trying to remember the minutest details of the Golbergesque contraption in his quarters. As he did so, his posture re-adjusted automatically as he recentered his mind.
Kettick: No more bouts of disorientation. The intrusive thoughts… probably.
Thorne: Response
If he could, the Remmilian would have frowned. Alas, his experimentations with painted eyebrows had been abandoned after having been described by his colleagues as terribly disturbing.
Kettick: Sometimes I have… insights? Micro-expressions or colloquialisms that I manage to understand without having read or learned about them in any manner I can remember. I wonder if this is just me getting used to working around humans, or if this comes from… the other Kettick.
Thorne: Response
Kettick exhaled – something that could have passed for a rather un-Remmilian sigh.
Kettick: Hard to tell. I suppose I should also report an increased tendency to aggressive innovation, in case it is relevant.
Thorne: Response
Kettick: You know the joke about soldiers finding medics terrifying because they have an intimate knowledge of all the ways you can get hurt or die? My main speciality is Maintenance and Safety.
Tags/TBC
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Ensign Kettick
G239107LR0