driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Billy Kaplan / OTA
Broadcast: Yes
Action: On the Iskaulit
When: After all the chaos is settled!

So… all of that was horrible? I think that goes without saying. The less we have of that kind of thing going forward, the better.

Tangentially, but the personnel augment is kind of useless, isn't it? We get an office but not much in the way of marketable skills, we can't do anything with the ships in the middle of a crisis, we're not here for any big damn hero moments. It’s great if we’ve got other skills for that, but we can’t fix stuff, we can’t pilot people out of danger, we can’t arm those who don’t have powers...

...okay, sorry, I'm rambling. Getting to the point! Truth is, personnel - counselling - is meant for the aftermath. Therapy, in other words. If it doesn't exist where you're from, it pretty much means someone whose job it is to listen to you, no judgments, and offer advice if they can. Sometimes it's enough to just have somebody hear you out.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I'm tired of, like… not contributing much. So I'm gonna have an open door policy. Doesn't matter if you're not on my ship, doesn't matter if I don't even know you. You can even use the comm anonymously if you don't like the idea of coming in person. You make the rules.

If you're wondering about my qualifications… well, I've got ears. That's the most important part. But I did also grow up with this stuff- Mom’s a psychologist, I've seen her work, I’ve read some of her books. And I’ve gone to therapy. Kind of a lot. It's not a substitute for the real thing, but it's what I can offer.

Oh, and for the record, this isn't meant to call out anyone with the personnel augment, or steal your shipmates, or anything! This is more of a call to action. If you want in on this we can set up some kind of network.

I’m setting up shop on the Iskaulit and I’m gonna post active hours there. Stop by if you want to talk more one-on-one about it.

[True to his word, Billy’s in a spare room in the Iskaulit - sign on the door - and is decorating the place, though it’s kind of barebones for the moment. He can magic it pretty, but the last few months have been exhausting, so he’s taking it slow.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There are none on my world, as I understand it. [And Justice is pretty sure he'd have heard about these before. He can think of some mortals who could really use the help.

And Justice remains confused about why the heck Atroma brought them here and how the heck television ratings are supposed to work. No matter how people try to explain it to him, he still doesn't quite get it.] How much training is required to be a professional? Perhaps others can learn here.

[Not him. He is definitely not qualified to help people with feelings on any level. But maybe someone else?]

Back home it can take years to go through school for it. Here... well, the augment helps, I think. But someone who cares enough to put the time in and research - once I get some material for that, anyway - I could see it happening. It's not like I can boast a whole education for it, but here I am, offering...

Do mortals really need that much schooling to manage each other's emotions? [No wonder all his friends have so much trouble with it. Maybe Justice isn't the odd one out for once.] It is admirable that you are offering your services despite your relative lack of education. [An uneducated therapist is better than nothing. He thinks.]

Admirable is a nice way to put it.

[it's also kind of egotistical, but we're trying to be optimistic here.

also: "mortals", huh? filing that one away.]

Psychology's... complicated. Humans - mortals - are too. Some people have spent their whole lives studying why we do this or that, where illnesses or disorders come from... I dunno, humans love to learn about everything. Nosy like that.

It is a virtue, curiosity. It is good that mortals enjoy learning.

[His brow furrows and he cocks his head. While he admires the curiosity, and he appreciates the virtue of knowledge, he’s still confused.]

I was under the impression that mortal behavior was largely intuitive to you. How much is there to learn?

Intuition's a part of it. You have to know how to read people if you're going to do it for a living. But humans can give you little cues about what they're thinking or feeling- called "tells", usually. Dunno about the technical term.

Anyway, a lot of the schooling is more about how to deal with that behaviour in healthy ways, instead of the behaviour itself. Does that make sense?

I suppose it does. Many mortals I have met seem to default to destructive behavior. [Like drinking so damn much that they piss themselves in the middle of battle. But that's just Oghren, and Justice isn't sure that Oghren isn't in a category of his own.]

Although I am still curious about why healthy behavior would be so complicated.

For some people, it isn't. But a lot of the time, when something difficult or traumatic happens, people don't always know how to cope with how they feel after the fact. And some people have their brains wired in a way that they can't control their emotions, or it's difficult to focus- there's all kinds of reasons.

Therapists are basically head doctors. If you break a leg you find someone to help you heal. But if it's thoughts and feelings that are a problem for you, that's what this stuff is for.