Posted May 10, 2022, 2:36 p.m. by Lieutenant Laural Corynn Witley, Ph.D., M.D. (Counselor) (Lori Miller)
Posted by Lieutenant Alan Dysart (Communications Officer) in CNS office: an officer from the past
Posted by Lieutenant Alan Dysart (Communications Officer) in CNS office: an officer from the past
Posted by Lieutenant Laural Corynn Witley, Ph.D., M.D. (Counselor) in CNS office: an officer from the past
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Alan had spent a while in medical, getting checked out. He still wasn’t quite sure what had happened, so he was referred to the Counselor. He wasn’t sure what a psychiatrist would be able to do, but he went where he was told. He walked down the halls feeling out of place. When he came to the door, he pressed the door chime. Even the door panels felt different under his fingers.-Alan Dysart
-bump-
“Come in,” Laural called out, the doors to her office opening as she had programmed. She turned her gravchair to face her visitor, grateful to get a break from her report reading and writing. That never seemed to change no matter where she served. “Hello, I’m Laurel Witley.”
~Dr. Laural Witley, Counselor
“Hi there.” Alan waved from inside the doorframe. “Um. I’m Alan. They told me to, uh, talk to you once I recovered from the whole time travel thing.” He smiled weakly. “I don’t know if it’s technically time travel or if it’s more… accidental wormhole travel. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
-Alan Dysart
Despite Alan’s obvious hesitation, Laural couldn’t help but smile at his attempt at humor. Of course, she understood humor could simply mask a deeper struggle, but she appreciated his forthrightness all the same. “Hi, Alan. Please, come in. I respect a man who not only follows orders, but who is willing to be so open about what brings him to my door.”
Witley maneuvered her grav chair backwards so that he could fully enter the room. “May I get you something from the replicator?”
~Doctor Laural Witley, Counselor
Alan walked in. “Following orders from officers is the one thing that may not have changed. Replicator… right. Someone in sickbay showed me how that works. Uh, lemonade if it can make that.” He seemed unsure about the replicator, it being just one more part of a strange future.
-Alan Dysart
“Sure,”. Laural replied, maneuvering her chair over to the replicator easily enough and making the request for lemonade. Turning to Allen she asked, “Regular, pink, or frosted?” She wondered whether having such choices would be overwhelming, but she also didn’t want to deny him the opportunity to make a choice if he had one. She recognized even though she didn’t fully know his story that having a sense of control would perhaps be especially important.
~Doctor Laural Whitley, Counselor
“Regular, I guess.” Alan really wasn’t sure how to feel about a machine that could summon food and drink from thin air, but it was just a part of the ordinary at that point in time. Ordinary had so far surpassed his notion of the exceptional, it all bordered on surreal.
-Alan Dysart
The order was easily placed and handed over in just a few short seconds, leaving the two in companionable silence before Laural offered, “I’m just sitting here trying to imagine how I would feel if I were in your shoes. Granted, I don’t know all of the particulars per se, but I’d like to start by saying there’s no right or wrong thing to say in here. If you like, you can take some time to decide whether you want to say anything at all.”
~Doctor Laural Witley, Counselor
“Thank you.” Alan wasn’t sure where to begin. “Things aren’t as different as they should be. I wear a uniform. Go where I’m told, follow orders, I’m sure someone will ask me to translate something obscure or patch someone through any time now. So I’m not sure why it all feels so… unfamiliar. The uniform is more comfortable, but that shouldn’t make so much of a difference, should it?”
-Alan Dysart
“I think all sorts of things keep us grounded as we go through life, big and small. Maybe the absence of the small things feel bigger in times when it’s especially important to find something to hold onto.” Laural paused, then added, “Have you been using that word ‘should’ a lot when it comes to sorting out your thoughts and feelings about all this stuff?”
~Doctor Laural Witley, Counselor
“I guess?” Alan answered her question, not quite sure. “Feels like a lot of things are ‘shoulds’. Maximum speed should be Warp 5. Half the officers should be terrified of the transporters. All these things we did have… but they were miracles. Now it’s just, the way things are.” He sipped his lemonade. “Damn if that doesn’t taste fresh squeezed.”
-Alan
-bump-
Laural was still getting to know Alan, but at this stage she couldn’t help but wonder if deflecting from deeper emotion was the norm for him or if it was something he had started to do recently to cope with his current circumstances. Either way, before she could help him cope with and adjust to his present, he had to be willing to face how he was feeling now.
She smiled at his lemonade comment, but otherwise did not allow it to derail her. “I’m wondering, what does that feel like? To go from a universe of miracles and having a sense of what to expect, to this?”
~Doctor Laural Witley, Counselor
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