Posted by Lieutenant Icarus Remington (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Pre-sim Psych eval with the Counselor

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Pre-sim Psych eval with the Counselor

Posted by Lieutenant Icarus Remington (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Pre-sim Psych eval with the Counselor
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Icarus stepped into the reception area of the counseling suites and was surprised to see no one about, not even a receptionist at the front desk.

He tapped his comm badge after a few minutes of waiting for someone. =^= Lt. Synthi-er, this is Lt. Remington. I’m on the counseling deck for our 0800 appointment. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around currently.=^=

Remington (CIO)

Crewman Dean came down a corridor hearing a voice. She heard his statement that no one was around and pointed to a sign that said, “Down corridor B, Just call out.” Having heard him state his name Dean checked him in.

Casela walked out of her office. Another intelligence agent on the ship. Just wonderful. How many more would there be. She’d have to check the records again after her appointments. “Lt. Remington. Come on in. I’ve been expecting you. Have a seat.” Upon entering her office it was very sterile, not really any different than any other office on a star ship. No pictures. Her educational credentials went up on the wall. She may lack rank, but not the training, and not the experience. There was a small shelf next to her desk, that was away from prying fingers. Several small items went onto that shelf that had significant meaning to her, but the wise would never ask her about them. Next were her weapons. So. Many. Weapons. Unless you knew what you were looking for, you’d never see them, but Casela was Never comfortable unless she had a weapon within hands reach. Most were bladed, some were blunt, and some were unique.

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

Icarus stepped into the room and before taking a seat, studied every detail. He smiled and said, “Nice to meet you, counselor. Though, I must admit your office is not quite what I was expecting. Most counselors are all about the happy, fuzzy decor in their offices. To get people to be comfortable and relax. I’m guessing you take a different approach to counseling?” He meant no disrespect to her, just making a point it was different. . . .

“Would you prefer something, more comforting? A little more coddling? We certainly have rooms for that. We have a whole deck. This room is my office. Evaluations conducted here, are not about solving your problems, they are about determining if you are fit for the job you’ve been placed into.” Her tone was simply netural, there was no evidence of disrespect of flipancy. “And on this boat, you’d better be ready for the job placed before you. There is no room for hand holding.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoooooooa. . . . whoa. Hold on there a sec, Counselor. I don’t need any coddling, and I’m sure as hell not looking for any. I was just making an observation. And by the way. . . I was born for this.”

“Before we start my eval, can I ask you a question, Casela? Do you mind if I call you Casela?”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Let’s pause there Icarus, may I call you Icarus?” she copied his tone and technique.

“You most certainly can. In fact in a situation like this, I prefer it.”

“We’ve both had the training so let’s not start with the false trust and the posturing. And let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking that we’ve convinced each other to trust us simply because we think we played the game better.” Whether he was being sincere in his request or not, she was interested to see how he responded.

“I’ve read your personnel file, and I have to wonder how someone with your personality profile and military experience ends up being a counselor? In all honesty, you being a counselor seems very contradictory to other aspects of your training.”

Remington (CIO)

Once again reminiscent of her teacher, Casela raised one delicate brow. “And I’ve read your file, and I’m to believe your capable of being the head of our intel officers? You’ve crunched numbers, read and filed reports and sat behind a desk. In all honestly, you being head of intel seems a stretch for someone whose never been in the field and is now going to issue some of the hardest orders of any of the departments on this ship.” (OOC I’m basing this off of the thread with the admiral, bare with me if I make a mistake, I apologize in advance) Casela let that sink in for a moment. “So do you actually believe everything you read in a personnel file, Icarus Remington?”

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

OOC: Perfectly fine. You’re spot on, in a sense.

IC: “You are absolutely, 100% correct. I’ve been a crypto-analyst since graduating the Academy, sitting behind a desk and crunching numbers. I have no Intel field experience, but you know what I do have, counselor? I have the skills to survive. I learned them myself. I HAD to!! What were you doing when you were 10 years old, Casela?”

He leaned in starring directly into her eyes. “My parents, both of them, disappeared when I was 10 years old. I was a human/Romulan half-breed, all alone on Dessica II, trying to survive, by whatever means necessary. I’m not proud of some of the things I had to do, and working for 31, I’m sure you can pretty much say the same thing. Hell, you’ve probably done worse. I also know you were part of the Betazed Resistance during the Dominion War while just teenager. But, I’m not going to get into a pissing match with you about who’s more of a bad-ass. The fact of the matter is, I got very good at what I had to do, I lived it. No amount of training can prepare you for that. That made me very good at my job as an intel officer.”

“I watched, I observed, I learned, I studied, and I investigated when things didn’t make sense. Through that investigation I found out everything about the Leviathan, and the ARU, and RTF, and that secret star base. So you know what I did?? I blackmailed my way onto this ship!!! This is where I want to be!!! I NEED to be here to see these anomalies for myself so maybe, just maybe, I can find out what happened to my parents 20 years ago! Like I said, I was born for this.”

Icarus took a deep breath, slowly exhaled and sat back in the chair.

Remington (CIO)

Casela sat back in her seat and waited for the young man to realize that the questions that got him SO riled were the EXACT same as he had asked her. She waited to see if he would recognize that although they all had a reason for what they did, control was important, and more than that thinking things through was essential. She waited for him to regain his composure.

After several moments she spoke, “So I ask you again, do you actually believe everything you read in a personnel file, Icarus Remington?”

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“I’d like to, honestly. But people who lie about what’s in are hiding something. Something their ashamed of? Something they don’t want the brass to find out? Trust me, Counselor, it all gets out there, sooner or later. So, why lie about it? Everything in my file is truthful and accurate as I know it to be. I’m guessing yours isn’t?”

Casela chuckles, “Oh it’s truthful. Not one single lie in it, but each thing is only the truth from a certain point of view. You see, Mr Remington, the problem with personnel files is that the personnel they are about, don’t write them. They are the truth from a different point of view. So I asked you, do you believe everything in a personnel file? And do you know why?” She didn’t give him time to answer. The man was simply quick to draw rather than to contemplate his answers. “I need to know that you can carry out your job. And the job of an intelligence officer is to get at the truth. All. Of. It. not just what is put in a file. Not just one point of view. To take 20 seemingly non-related pieces of information and create the bigger picture (OOC:wink). And each of those 20 pieces are all from different points of view. So do you believe everything in a personnel file, or do you recognize that there is more to the person, more to the story than what is there? Are you willing to go after the truth, Mr. Remington? Because if not, you aren’t ready for this job.”

He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable. “I know you’ve served in 31. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why there is so much redacted in your file. And, I can see that you’re still angry about you had to do. Hell, I’ve been just as angry about some of the things I’ve done as well, but that’s the difference between you and, Casela-I let go of the anger. You’re still holding on to it and that is what is driving you, BUT, it’s also making you paranoid. You show classic signs of paranoid personality disorder: Your weapons-you feel naked without them, not in control when you don’t have them. You think you need them because someone is waiting just to jump out of the shadows and take you out. You’ve got that violent streak where you feel the need to mete out punishment and get punished in return.”

Casela tapped her chin with a finger and then picked up a PaDD and started scrolling through it. “Reckless, Undisciplined, Volatile, Psycho, Hot-Headed, but no paranoid. I’ll add that one to my personnel file.” Her eyes laughed, at him, or at herself, he couldn’t be sure. Now in full counselor mode Casela looked at him. “I think you need to reevaluate yourself, Mr. Remington. You have not let the anger go. You have come into my office with pre-determined speeches, because you’ve read my file and made a hasty judgement. I asked no more than the question you asked me, and again another rehearsed speech, that did not come out as calm as you would have wished, nor did it answer the question. You have a need to prove yourself and to justify your presence here. I care for neither. We all need our reasons, and we all have a need to prove ourselves. My only concern is if you are up to the task given you. I pointed out that you’ve worked a desk, and might I add you are very good at what you did, but I questioned if you are qualified to lead the intelligence department on Leviathan. I never said that being an annalist made you unqualified, but you assumed as much. See Mr. Remington there is more to you than your file, and I don’t judge so quickly. I asked a question. That’s my job, to ask questions and determine the health of your mind and personality.”

His voice remained calm and relaxed as he continued. “You tell me I have a lack of field experience working as part of a team. You’re right, I do. But you, counselor, are a liability to yourself and your team, because no one knows when your anger and paranoia are gonna push you over the edge.”

Remington (Counseling the counselor :))

“Am I? Am I really? Are you sure? Or is that just one side of the truth because you believed the file and didn’t look deeper? Are you ready to put the jigsaw puzzle together and hunt for the missing pieces, or is the file enough for you?” The question was obviously important and demanded the Icarus actually think through his answer. He had promise, but he was brash and rushed his answers and she couldn’t recommend him for duty if he couldn’t think with a calm head. She was hot-headed and she liked her weapons. She’d also given them all to the XO at his request. And she knew what lurked in the shadows, and fortunately for Icarus he had no clue yet.

Icarus Remington reminded her too much of herself before, before intelligence, before section 31, before the compound. To be that young and naive again. “Everyone is a liability, Icarus, the trick is to counter balance it with the right people, the right skills, and the right knowledge. And so I ask you again, are you ready to make the hard decisions? Are you ready to make ones that are the right decisions, but are hard and make you question yourself till the day you die? Are you ready to send people on orders they may never come back from? Are you ready to make those life and death decisions and advise the senior staff on such serious matters. You want to be here, you want to find out what happened to your parents. Good.” She stared into his eyes, “You need a reason, because it only gets harder.”

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS (Not falling for his games)