Posted by Civilian Thyr Th’arialat (Resident) in Promises

Posted by Lieutenant Séan Iven (Counselor) in Promises

Posted by Civilian Thyr Th’arialat (Resident) in Promises
Posted by… suppressed (26) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The morning after his meeting with Séan, Shivan woke on the floor next to Jezem’s sofa. Leaving quietly, he headed back to his own place and plopped himself into his bed. He lay there quietly for a while and then he reached for his comm device and dialed in a signal he’d never thought he’d call.

=/\= Lieutenant Iven? Can… Can we meet again today? =/\= he sounded upset, not at all like the usual flippant tone he took with Séan.

~ Thyr

Séan was surprised at the call from Thyr. He wasn’t sure he was going to hear back from him anytime soon to be honest. =/\=This is Iven. Yeah I’ve got some time free after work. Why don’t I come by the shop?=/\=

Counselor Iven

That was exactly what he was going to suggest. =/\= Yeah. Whenever you have time.=/\= then the comm disconnected. It wasn’t a productive day for Shivan. He stayed in bed most of the day. When it came around the time Séan usually scheduled their meetings, Shivan moved down into the shop and moped about behind the counter instead.

~ Thyr

Séan arrived at Thyr’s weapon shop at the designated time. He was out of uniform and in casual clothing. The door closed behind him as he looked and saw the Andorian behind the counter. “Hey.” He called out as he moved closer.

Counselor Iven

Shivan waved Séan back and gestured to a seat. Then paced behind the counter. He was bruised, not too badly, but he’d definitely been in a fight, and there were long, deep scratches down his arms, not from a weapon, more likely fingernails. Just long, tough fingernails. They were on his chest, too, but his shirt covered those ones. His hair was a mess. “I’m uh, sorry… about yesterday…” UGH. He hated these kinds of things. No! He had to try. He promised Jezem. “I… Storming off like that. It was stupid.”

~ Thyr

Séan took a seat at the offered chair and listened to Thyr’s apology. He nodded slowly. “Okay. I accept your apology. So what happened?” He noted the additional injuries but did not bring it up, yet.

Counselor Iven

Shivan rested his hands on the counter, leaning over it. His knuckles were bruised and bloodied, likely from punching something. A lot. And hard. “I can’t talk about it unless we want a repeat of yesterday. I… It would’ve been worse if Jezem hadn’t done what he did.”

~ Thyr

“Okay…” Séan said and then sighed. “I saw Jezem yesterday and he bore some injuries. His were mostly healed but I suspect they could have been fully healed. You on the other hand are more injured. I have my suspicions about why these two things happen to coincide. Do you want to talk about that? What was it that Jezem did?”

Counselor Iven

“They were mostly healed? Good.” Shivan sat down at last. “He stopped me from doing something dumber than getting in a fight with him. Like getting in a fight with a stranger, while drunk at a bar. Which was what I wanted to do.”

~ Thyr

“Huh.” Séan said with some surprise. He wasn’t surprised that they got into a fight but he was surprised that Jezem tried to stop him. It seemed more likely that he would have tagged along and then backed him up in a bar brawl. Curious. “So if we can’t talk about what made you angry how do you expect for us to work on it?”

Counselor Iven

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Shivan wrung his hands. “I promised Jezem I’d try. So this is me, trying.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.” Jezem had done it to make a point. Let him beat him near to unconsciousness just to prove he needed to work on anger management.

~ Thyr

Séan tapped his knee in thought for a moment. “Alright, then let’s switch tracks. Instead of going over why you’re getting angry, for now, let’s work on how to handle it when you do have it. Are bar brawls your go-to anger relief coping mechanism?”

Counselor Iven

“I have to punch something. Bar brawls provide a convenient excuse. On the ship Jezem and I worked together on, I kept a dummy punching bag.” That didn’t work as well as a brawl with Jezem or a bar fight though.

~ Thyr

“How about setting up something like that here?” Séan offered. “I had something wooden to strike against and practice the various forms of my martial art.”

Counselor Iven

“I’m willing to try it, but I don’t think it’ll work.” This was definitely the most up front he’d been. Shivan wasn’t avoiding questions or giving smart answers. “We were going to spar, were we not? Once I was healed.” That was just taking longer than expected.

~ Thyr

“Yes… I did offer if you were up for it. Do you feel a sparring session would help vent some of your anger?” Séan asked with a curious tone. Sparring didn’t work well for him when he was angry. He always had his ass handed to him by his mentor. The difference in this case is that his mentor was skilled enough to not hurt him, but Séan wasn’t sure if he could take on a raging Thyr and not hurt him if it became nasty. And he suspected that Thyr would fight nasty and dirty when he got angry to a certain point.

Counselor Iven

Shivan nodded. “If I’m honest, it wouldn’t be the healthiest way to mitigate an angry fit.” He would fight dirty. He was trained in hand to hand and he was strong. Taking him on raging wouldn’t be easy. Taking him on raging and not hurting him would be difficult for just about anyone. Jezem didn’t care whether he hurt him, so it worked for them. But with Séan… At least one of them would likely get hurt. “Jezem and I… We fight. Always have. Yesterday he… He didn’t fight back. He just… let me rage on him till he collapsed.”

~ Thyr

Séan blinked in surprise. He had to reassess his profile of Jezem. Clearly he wasn’t just a rich, high profile socialite. His association with the Syndicate was already evidence of that. He could take a beating and seem unbothered by it the next day. Strong mental fortitude and tolerance to pain then. But why would he…? Wait a minute. Séan scrutinized Thyr a bit more closely. “While I do appreciate your reaching out and scheduling another session so soon, I’ve got to ask what compelled you to do so. I wasn’t sure I’d see you again or if I did it’d be at a significantly later date.”

Counselor Iven

Shivan gave Séan a look. Did it matter why? He was still here, wasn’t he? “Jezem made me promise to give your counseling an honest try.” Why was he being so forthright? Guilt, he supposed. Sure, Jezem was fine, but Jezem was also right, Shivan could’ve easily beaten him to death. And Shivan’s word meant something. He didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.

~ Thyr

Séan nodded slowly. It was pretty much as he expected. Jezem had manipulated Thyr by letting himself get beaten and then utilized that guilt to extract a promise. Was it in Thyr’s best interest? Kind of. This was not a healthy approach to getting someone to follow through with counseling. His approach wasn’t exactly the best either but best not to think about it now. “Okay, thank you for telling me. Is sparring the only physical activity that you do? What about running or weight lifting?”

Counselor Iven

Jezem and Shivan lacked the skills for healthy approaches to pretty much anything. “No, it’s the only one.” Shivan shrugged, “Why does it matter why I called you?”

~ Thyr

“I was curious about your motivation. With how quickly you reached out, it made me think that something had happened. Which something did but not quite what I expected.” Séan explained.

Counselor Iven

Shivan nodded. “I wasn’t going to come back.” He looked at Séan, “You aren’t going to do anything even if I had quit showing up. But Jezem… Knocked sense into my stupid head. Like he always does.”

~ Thyr

Séan grinned at Thyr’s confident declaration. “How can you be so sure I wouldn’t do anything?”

Counselor Iven

“Another Jezem lesson I needed to be reminded of,” Shivan replied. “Your personal code of morals won’t allow you to.” It was clear despite his fear of Jezem growing bored and ditching him, he trusted the Orion. Trusted and respected him. He was aware the display yesterday had been a manipulative gesture which, infuriatingly, had worked. But it didn’t make Jezem less right. He was going to end up killing someone else, or getting killed, if he couldn’t get his anger in check. Maybe that was what he wanted.

~ Thyr

Séan lightly shrugged. He didn’t think Thyr or Jezem fully understood what his moral code was but there wasn’t any point in clarifying. Would he turn in Thyr if he ghosted a meeting? No. He would track him down and find out what was going on. Now if Thyr murdered someone you can bet your ass Séan would turn him in. He was a mandatory reporter afterall and that crossed a serious line. “So what do you want to get out of these talks? I may have dragged you into them unwillingly but now you’ve reached out to me.”

Counselor Iven

Which was exactly why if he did murder someone Séan was the last person he’d tell. Preferably that wouldn’t be necessary. “You said I could.” Shivan said, almost defensively. Then there was a lengthy silence while Shivan seemed to contemplate his answer. “To control my anger.”

~ Thyr

“Controlling anger can indeed be a challenging endeavor. It’s a powerful emotion that, if left unchecked, can lead to impulsive actions and negative consequences. Acknowledging that you want to work on controlling your anger is an essential step in the right direction.” Séan said in acknowledgement.

“If you’re willing, I can help you explore and develop strategies to manage your anger more effectively. It might involve techniques like mindfulness, deep breathing, or finding healthier ways to express and process your emotions. Learning to recognize triggers and patterns in your anger can also be helpful in preventing it from escalating.” He laid out the initial plan.

“Remember, it’s a gradual process, and change won’t happen overnight. But with consistent effort and support, you can make progress in managing your anger and finding healthier ways to cope with challenging emotions. I’m here to assist you along the way, should you choose to embark on this journey.” He set what should be a reasonable expectation.

Counselor Iven

Shivan nodded numbly. “Whatever you think will work.” All that shrink crap made him angry. His guilt over Jezem kept it in check. But that wouldn’t stay that way forever. “What do I have to do?”

~ Thyr

“Well until we can get to the point where we can address what makes you angry, we’ll need to work towards changing how you respond to that anger. Right now your response is to go hit someone. Let try to change it into hitting something instead. It’s not a huge difference but we’ve got to take this a step at a time.” Séan said in a well-practiced manner. His mentor had said the exact same thing to him.

Counselor Iven