Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton/SARAH (Ships AI/Avatar) in Counselor’s Office - A New Kind of Interview (Tag SARAH)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Royal Sinclair (Counselor) in Counselor’s Office - A New Kind of Interview (Tag SARAH)

Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton/SARAH (Ships AI/Avatar) in Counselor’s Office - A New Kind of Interview (Tag SARAH)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Words could hurt, they could lift and buoy and they could enamour a person. But it was the greatest irony sometimes that the intensity of words that lifted could make a person crumble to pieces. But there was the space that Corinne Dalton now found herself, moving precariously on a tightrope through her heart. It took her a moment to realize that there was a sensation moving down her face. Reaching up to touch it , she examined her fingers to see the moisture that had appeared unbidden and it truly shocked her. If she were on the holodeck, she could simply disappear on a whim and hide, not letting anyone see her like this. But as subjectively immortal as she was, she was not unbreakable. Her fingers did dig into her palms, and yet they would leave no true mark. All that was there were those same cues had had spoken off, those same tiny markers of her consciousness and life.

Cori looked up at him, her face contorted with the wash of emotions she couldn’t fully identify in this moment. She had no words, but she also knew, and hoped that all this had spoken volumes.

~Corinne Dalton

Sinclair looked at her and smiled, closing his eyes and nodding in understanding. “And that is perfectly normal, too.” Opening his eys again, he said “If you will excuse me a moment, I need to see a man about a horse. Take a moment or three. I’ll be back.” and he stood and walked to the door, passing by a perfectly serviceable restroom and walking out and into the hallway, leaving her alone to process.

Dalton exhaled, letting out the tension that filled her holographic body. Folding herself forward, she folded her arms across her legs and rested her head. While his remark made no sense to her, she did appreciate the chance to just get her thoughts in order. Mentally, she actually pretended she was doing barre exercises and it was surprisingly calming. After a minute, she sat up straight in the chair again and kept her eyes closed as she mentally went through the sequence of motions.

After a few minutes, he entered the office and took a seat. “Sorry about that. Now… where were we? Ah yes. You. How are you feeling?”

Cochrane, CNS

She gazed at him her normally vivid gaze strangely subdued. “Tired. Like not physically, obviously. If I could sleep though, I’d crawl into bed and bury myself under the covers for several hours.” Such a simple thing, but not one she did anymore, because… what was the point?

~Corinne Dalton

“So why don’t you? Nothing wrong with taking a break.” he asked. “Everyone gets tired, especially when they try and process so many emotions.” and he smiled at her in a friendly and understanding way. “Very normal, indeed.”

Sinclair, CNS

She frowned slightly and shook her head. “I… I don’t understand. How… do I do that? I mean, I can only use the personal emitter so long before it needs to recharge, and when that happens, I just take it back to Sickbay where it lives and became part of the system again. Aside from when I pop onto the holodeck, that’s pretty much it.”

~Corinne Dalton

Sinclair said “Well… can you partition off parts of ship operations? Just for a while? Long enough to let the you that isn’t the ship take a break? Just a while where you experience… nothing. Quiet. Self-defined solitude, as opposed to the isolation you typically feel. See, if you can take charge of when you are ‘alone’, you can take back a feeling of control over your isolation. That is the first step. Convincing yourself that you are not helpless, not trapped. You have a say in how you live your life… ship or no ship, you are still a sentient being with free will.”

Sinclair, CNS