Friendly neighborhood Counselor

Posted on Sun Dec 9th, 2018 @ 7:08pm by Lieutenant Commander Dessa McCallum & Lieutenant Ulle Kesas

Mission: Getting underway
Location: Chief Counselor's office.

Ulle had been on the ship a few days now and had finally decided to start making her rounds of introducing herself to the required department heads. Some of this was just for professional courtesy. Some of it like this however was both that and required. While she prided herself on being rather sensible if not a bit eccentric she also knew that the Trill more or less expected her to see a mental health specialist every so often. Which she thought was simultaneously reasonable and annoying. There where a hand full of issues that normally had to be addressed with joined trills. But even more so for Joined Trill who where the Symbiots first host.

She stopped at the door to the Counselor's office and have the pad a touch, 'ringing the doorbell' as it where. She would have hoped that the counselro was not busy, She knew for a fact she didn't have a appointment, but she still might be doning some kind of work.

Dessa had been laying pillows and throws around the office. People didn't like talking about their feelings, they didn't like counselors but they liked feeling as if they were home. Soft comfortable fluffy things were as close as she could get to any resemblance of home for most people. "Come in," she called, placing the last item on the couch across from her chair. She turned her head to see the new person enter. "Welcome Lieutenant. Can I get you anything to drink?"

Ulle would show herself in and actually seamed confused by the question for a second. "Oh, Umm Lida Juice, Thank you. I think I already programmed that into the replicators." She took a look around the room quickly thinking to herself that the place was actually pretty homie looking, but that it seamed to her to be trying a bit to hard. but then again that might be her natural cynicism.

"Interesting." That was one Dessa hadn't heard of before. "What's in Lida juice?" She pulled a glass and a cup out of the replicator, set the glass down in front of her visitor and placed the cup in front of herself, adding a little bit of milk and honey before sitting down.

She smiled at the question. Getting up and moving over to the replicator. "Computer replicate a single Lida fruit." She came back to her seat with a small plate with a dark purple fruit with red stripes on it. "You should try it. It's a fruit from a flowering tree on Trill. The Juice kind of has a kind of sweet lemonade flavor to it." She seamed pleased with her description but then seamed to remember something. "Oh right, I forgot what I was here for. I was suppose to check in with you and drop this off." She laid a PADD on the desk. "It's a whole.. thing from the Symbiosis Commission, I figured I should drop it off in person, I mean I had intentions on stopping by anyways."

Dessa was never afraid of trying new things. She picked up the fruit and took a bite, turning her head slightly and savoring the flavors before swallowing, "Yes, that's very good, unique and delicious. Thanks," Dessa said taking the PADD from her and glancing at the first page. "Do you want to reschedule another appointment or discuss it right now? I'm free," she said making herself clear.

She shrugged taking another drink more of less instinctively pulling her legs up and under her in her chair. "Oh sure I'm free now also. The short of the document is that the um... Symbiosis Commission doesn't trust me behind the wheel. Not me as in Ulle Kesas, me as in Kesas." She would kind of awkwardly motion to her abdomen. "I'm the first host. And that comes with a more or less slew of mental and medical issues that can go.. Umm what's the expression? Pear shaped?"

It wasn't an expression Dessa had heard before she but shrugged it off in the back of her mind. "Not that's something I'd not heard, that first hosts have more difficulty than those that follow. Carrying a symbiont would of course offer any number of medical issues regardless of which number the host falls in. Forgive me, I haven't gotten very far into this. Was this an approved joining? That is, not an emergency?"

She shook her head. "No, it was approved, the first host often experiences a issues like deja vu... There can also be issues with the Symbiote rejecting being joined at all. Though that normally happens pretty soon after. I at least think I'm more or less well adjusted. But the Commission is always interested and concerned."

"Ah, I see. Fascinating. Well I'll help in anyway I can." Dessa picked up her teacup after stirring in a bit of milk and some honey. The warm liquid washed down her throat, warming her entire body. "Tell me about yourself, what part of Trill do you come from?"

She likewise took a drink, getting a rather odd look on her face. "Oh Trill? Well I was actually thirteen before I ever set foot on the home world. I grew up on the USS Albion my mother was the 2nd officer. Then I lived with my father in The Capital Leran Manev." She was at least to anyone paying attention almost comically transparent with her emotions at the answer. Seaming rather pleased with the comment about the Albion and her mother, and then turning rather sour at the mention of the Capital and her father.

"That must have been hard to adjust to, from a starship to a planet. Your parents were separated?" She asked delicately noting the facial expression in the change of subject. Technically it was her job to be nosy, sometimes that was a good thing and sometimes it was difficult to ask.

She shrugged. "Not technically, but effectively. And Trill was nice enough. But Leran Manev was kind of.. Confining? And It was more shock from going from School on a Starfleet ship... To going into the selection process for being joined. I mean no one remembers that fondly, I had two friends who had nervous breakdowns." She actually seamed to shudder while thinking about it.

"I can imagine . . . well no I can't. I'm sure it's not something I would have made it through. I know my limits and I've reached them before." Dessa leaned back in her chair. "How did you move from the selection process to Starfleet?"

She gave a rather relaxed shrug. "Honestly there is a thing we all like to call selection burnout. Where when your selected or wash out, nothing seams like it can possibly be as bad as what you just put yourself through. So you go do what you always wanted to... I figured I would flunk out of the selection process and surprisingly passed. Though with some of the lowest scores out of the year." She smiled. "I wanted to join star fleet since I was maybe ten, So I joined, never actually tried all that hard and graduated the academy about middle of my class. Though I'll admit, I actually wanted to be a Doctor, but that lasted one year before I transferred."

"So now two of your dreams have come through. That must make you extremely happy?" Dessa couldn't help but possess a natural jealousy upon listening to this woman's story. She'd tried so hard in her life to always do the right thing, to be kind to people all the while believing that she would someday be bestowed with what she wanted and it hadn't happened yet.

She gave a nod "Ya I can't complain anyways. I'm happy parents are happy. I mean my father was overjoyed that I got joined, my mother.. well she would have been happy for me regardless of what I did, but I can tell she was pleased with Star Fleet... I actually really wanted to serve on the USS Uroboros. But you really have to convince Star Fleet to let you serve on a ship where your mother is the Captain. and I'm not that persuasive." She took another drink seaming to have more or less emptied the cup in two goes. "But I think Operations was a better fit in the long run, I'm honestly a bit hyper for medical school I think. Multi-Tasking works better."

"Glad you found something that makes everyone happy, as long as it fits in with your goals." Dessa smiled. "Would you like some more juice?"

She shook her head ever so slightly, "no thank you. But yes, overall I'm pretty pleased, And pretty content to just do what I'm doing for the next few years"

"Easiest patient I've seen all day," Dessa grinned at her. "Well if you do have an issue, feel free to stop by my office to talk about it. I don't even mind being woken up in the middle of the night if there's something you'd like to get off your mind.

She gave a smile. "Oh, just wait until I start dating on the ship... You'll get sick of me at that point. But thank you for the drink and the conversation. I think the console want's me to stop by every six months or so at the very least. But as for now, I have a appointment to keep." She would get up and get ready to show herself out with no other objections.

"Enjoy your day," Dessa gave a final nod and watched her leave. She considered her a very interesting woman and was pleased her job on this ship just got more interesting.

Lieutenant Commander Dessa McCallum
Chief Counselor
USS Axca

Lieutenant Ulle Kesas
Chief Operations Officer
USS Axca