Posted by Civilian Jerrin Yeceb (Student) in Ready Room - Interstellar Day Care

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Ready Room - Interstellar Day Care

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Ready Room - Interstellar Day Care
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Grant,” Jerrin muttered slightly with clear disdain, though he nodded. “it’s not the first time I’ve been questioned about being somewhere and it was assumed that I was just some kid breaking rules or something.”

~Jerrin

“Yeah,” Johann said, affirming that they were all actually talking about the same topic. “I had a little idea on how we might fix that.”

“The thing about adults on this ship, Jerrin, is that we all have responsibilities. Europa isn’t a cruise ship; all the adults are here to do work. The times when we’ve had children, they’ve been… well… you know, actually ‘some kid.’” Dr. Jas’ rather large family came to mind, though they somehow were contained entirely within her quarters along with her husband. Or at least it had seemed that way because they never were a problem. I wonder how they’re doing, he thought.

“Anyway,” he said, cutting off his own digression. “You’re not a kid, and you don’t want to be treated like one, which I think is fair. But that means we’ll have to treat you like an adult. Adults on this ship do work. If you want to be treated like one, we’re going to have to give you a job, and you’re going to have to do it, like everyone else. Have you ever had a job before, Jerrin?”

— Johann Dvorak, CO

Jerrin quickly looked at him mom.

She simply shrugged a little. It was a basic question and he could answer it or not.

Focusing back on Dvorak, he shook his head. “No. I mean, unless you count chores. I had a foster mom who made me try to fix stuff around the house, but I was only guessing on how to do it sometimes. That doesn’t count, does it?”

~Jerrin

Vora took that in and read between the lines in the way that her experience with the care system and her son so far told her to. He hadn’t ever mentioned it before, so the fact that he was choosing to reveal something now was interesting.

Lt. (j.g) Zorell, Sciences

“No, that doesn’t count. I mean, like, an actual job where you show up at the same time on a regular basis and you have a boss who tells you what work to do, which you voluntarily do in exchange for compensation. We can negotiate the details, but the basic idea would be that you’d do useful work like the adults here do, and in exchange we treat you like an adult. That means you shouldn’t have to put up with any confusion about whether or not you’re breaking some rule someplace, because everyone will know what you’re doing for us. Plus, you’ll get to learn a few things and know you’re doing something useful.”

Jerrin’s expression shifted to one of interest, cautious interest, but interest nonetheless.

“That also means if for some reason you fail to live up to the minimum expectations of adults, say, by punching Ensign Grant in the face, we’ll put you in a big boring room we have called ‘the Brig’ for people who disappoint us in that way. Which, is different from what we do with children who don’t live up to their —much lower— expectations, which is drop them off somewhere where they don’t interfere with the work the adults have to do.”

He didn’t even have to look at his mother to know what she was likely thinking and would say on the matter.

“This is entirely voluntary, of course. The adults on this ship chose to be here, and the first part of treating you like an adult is to let you willingly, voluntarily choose to work here. If you don’t want to, it’s fine; you just need to stop punching ensigns in the face and… well… everything will kind of stay exactly the way it is now.”

— Johann Dvorak, CO

Jerrin nodded slowly. “So… I guess… I’m interested.”

~Jerrin

“It would mean continuing the work with Counsellor Nox too. Just like everyone here has to be cleared by her, she gets a say,” Vora said simply. That would help deal with the punching people issue i conjunction with getting him to be productive. This was her non-negotiable point.

Lt. (j.g) Zorell, Sciences