Posted by Lieutenant Commander Hilo (Counselor) in Counselor’ Check-In for Caelian Weir

Posted by Cadet Caelian Weir (Engineer) in Counselor’ Check-In for Caelian Weir
Caelian sighed inwardly as the turbolift doors opened. One more stop to make, he consoled himself, then a well-deserved dinner. Then a shower, then bed. Maybe… maybe not in that order.

His last stop would be the easiest on his first day aboard the Challenger: talking to the ship’s counselor. As one of the only children growing up aboard the Venture, he’d gotten used to the quaint chats with the various staff. At times he almost felt like a science project—a curiosity about the effects of extended space travel on the young—but he’d never been insulted by it. Understanding the universe was a science vessel’s goal, after all. This would probably be simple by comparison, an elementary battery of questions designed to clear him for duty.

And since I’m not rampaging around the halls like a Tarcassian razor beast during mating season, he chuckled to himself, I should be fine.

He paused outside the counselor’s office thoughtfully. Was it protocol to just walk in and announce himself? There hadn’t been a waiting area aboard the Venture and he hadn’t thought to check the Challenger’s specs before making his way down here. Shrugging, he pressed the call button on the panel beside the door and waited patiently.

The door to the counselor’s office slid open automatically, obviously expecting Weir’s arrival for his appointment. The room inside was of decent size by dimension, but was filled with an assortment of furniture, art, and lots and lots of plants. In the primary space, a high-backed armchair sat facing a loveseat couch, both adorned with a warm brown cloth fabric and designed for comfort when sitting for extended periods. The loveseat was flanked by two intricate end tables made of dark wood, each of which had an arrangement of little statues, candles, and a tissue box. A hemp rug bridged the space between the two seating options.

There was a desk pushed up against the far wall, but it was almost obscured by an indoor jungle’s worth of potted plants on that side of the room that hung from the ceiling, stood in large vases, or sat on shelves with dozens of other specimens. The plants, in combination with the earth tones of the furniture and the slightly yellowed lighting in the office gave the space a tropical atmosphere. Indeed, the plant life might even make the air feel be a bit more fresh, to those with keen senses.

Among the plants, a tall man with tanned skin and pushed-back brown hair turned to peer through the foliage as the door to his office opened. A small circular symbol sat on his forehead, indicating that he was from Risa. He grinned as he maneuvered through the organic maze. “Cadet Weir! Welcome! I’m counselor Hilo. Please, come in! In fact, come over here,” Hilo said as he motioned toward the jungle, leaving the seating area ignored for now. “I need your opinion on something.”

Hilo stopped in front of a shelf that had three plants sitting in plate-sized pots. One housed a Christmas cactus. Another, a hydrangea. And the last, a sage plant. Hilo put his hands on his knees as he considered them. “I saw that you have some knowledge of music, so surely you have a sense of artistic flow in sequencing… maybe that’s a stretch. In any case, I can’t decide how to present these plants, which order to put them in. I want them to look nice, of course.” He looked back at Caelian. “Any suggestions?”

(Lt. Cmdr. Hilo, Counselor)

For a moment, Caelian wondered if he’d taken yet another wrong turn and ended up in hydroponics. A verdant sea yawned away from him and wrapped around the periphery of the room, curtains of hanging plants partially obscuring the traditional therapist furniture arrangement at its heart. Short as he was, several of the pieces brushed his dark hair as he ventured inward. When the doors hushed closed he felt the tickle of a smile at the corner of his lips. The lighting of the room was softer than the rest of the ship, less harsh on his eyes. The scents of the room were an interesting and soothing mixture of tantalizing aromas and lingering hints. The decor reminded him of a short stint on Dinaar III during one of his mother’s digs—the natives actually grew their homes over centuries of cultivation.

He’d almost lost himself to the surrounding scents and memories when a verbose Risian pressed through the flora, smiling at him and waving him inward. Baffled yet intrigued, Caelin followed dutifully to the display in question. He’d expected a dry, casual conversation with a professional. The man’s demeanor was downright inviting, exuberant! He’d heard of the varied and playful people of Risa, but had never visited the world. Growing up, vacations had either been digging in the dirt of an excavation with his mother or restoring outdated weather control systems with his father. Plenty of good memories there, but nothing this… tranquil.

“I play a bit of piano, sir, but only as a hobby,” he offered as he considered the plants. He knuckled the stubble along his jaw as he thought. “I’ve got the hearing for it, I guess. It’s all math, really: harmonics, resonance, measures, and the like. I wrote a thesis on musical formulas commonly found amongst the Federation…”

He coughed a laugh, waved the idea away. “It was pretty dry, though. Like I said, it’s all math.”

Caelian considered the plants again for a moment, arranging them on the shelf in his mind. He didn’t know much about botany. That had always been Kendra’s passion, and whatever wisdom she had tried to impart on his younger self had gone in one ear and out the other. He placed his knuckles to his lips pensively, considering. Not to hide the saddened expression, no. They did not need to have that conversation. Not yet. Hopefully not ever, though he knew her death would come up.

It always does, he grumbled inwardly.

With a nod, he moved the cactus into the middle of the arrangement. “Perhaps a bit of diminuendo between the two paler, taller plants?”
—Caelian Weir, Cadet—

[Thanks for the welcome, Ben. Happy to be here. Still trying to find my footing here, so please bear with me. Been getting the impression that my style is a little too tl;dr for this site, so hopefully the pacing will improve as I work with everyone. Feel free to Discord with any suggestions, questions, comments, or concerns. Thanks!]