DECK 10; SECTION 1: TEN FORWARD

[ships_counselor]

The look of Deanna Troi's table is worrying.

Maybe not to the untrained eye, of course. There is no screaming. There is no bleeding. There is no fighting, or crying, or deep distress. In fact, Deanna Troi, herself, is currently sitting at a table, one forearm resting on the table, the other balanced on an elbow, so her chin can rest in the palm of her hand, while she studies a PADD flat on the table in front of her.

Next to it, though, is a small bowl of chocolate ice cream.

That looks to have melted a while ago without her noticing.

Comments

[agathaheterodyne]

Permissions post

Agatha hadn't noticed the woman, or the ice cream, until a spring she had been tightening escaped from the device she was building, sailed over her shoulder and... splashed messily into the ice cream.

Blinking, Agatha turned around, trying to figure out where it had gone.

[primeverdeen]

Sorrow. Despair. Pain. These were the emotions rolling off of Prim as she wandered in. She wasn't even sure why she was leaving her room, other than the fact that she told Killian she'd try to not just vanish, and had no clue where else to find him.

She made her way over to the seats near the star-field, to just stare out at the nothingness.

[kaylinneya]

Kaylin's permission post/trigger warning

Kaylin headed in for more food. She was happy to be fully grown again, the whole inch or two really mattered, it seemed. She walked right past Deanna's table with a tray full of food... but...

The familiar didn't.

The small translucent dragon looking thing would feel like a mass of chaos, emotionally. Quick fluxes from one to another to another. It landed right in front of Deanna and chirruped at her.

Kaylin had been about to sit at another table when she heard that and turned. "Don't you dare!" she warned. She sounded angry, the emotion rolling off her was a mix of anger...and fear.

[makesbettermouth]

"Oh my gosh, I had no idea they have chocolate ice cream here."

Amy is transfixed. Amy Loooooves Ice Cream, and aside from the sundae she bummed off of Goofy the other day she hasn't had any in weeks.

[knight_2000]

"I know I don't." He smiled down at her as he picked it up. "But it gives me the opportunity to ask you for a penny for your thoughts."

[ships_counselor]

If Deanna looks stunned by this sudden announcement and interruption -- both without the slightest of requests or apologies. Only the assumption that neither is needed and his needs are foremost her concern, as though her own will play second fiddle. Demanding.

"Counselor Troi." Who sounds surprised, as well as actually inconvenced by his arrogance. Especially during a time that is set aside as her own, and not anything relative to her duty. "My apologies for your removal from your home, but I believe you have me mistaken. I don't have any part in the present situation of granting jobs to those who are newly arriving." A small pause, before to be clear. "Star Fleet officers, included."

She hasn't in the slightest yet. She'd barely pushed through the idea for Tasha, herself.

And, given this, she had to admit it was a good example of exactly what she didn't think she was looking for if she did.

[ships_counselor]

The request isn't an entirely unwelcome one. "Yes, do."

Maybe what she does need most is the chance to get out of her own thoughts, and to think of something entirely otherwise before she makes any decision. "I think I could use the distraction tonight, and I don't believe we've met yet?"

[ships_counselor]

Deanna snapped back into the present. To her table, and her body, and the chocolate ice cream as it suddenly splashed at her, cold and wet, on her clothes, her skin and her hair. There was a sound of surprise, before she was looking around confused, from the bowl to wherever it might have come from.

[ships_counselor]

Deanna's gaze rose, following the child who crossed not far from her. She remember this one. Because some of them were deeply unfair. But, especially, the times where Q brought children, and then sundered them even further. The girl who was without her older sister now. She was a roil of sadness and pain, unsurprisingly for her circumstances.

But. It was good to see her out of her room.

Making that choice to be in a more social location. and taking the steps to back it up.

[ships_counselor]

Deanna's only reaction is really surprise. Blinking herself out of her fuge of thinking.

To the girl suddenly yelling and the small silver looking creature on her table.

[ships_counselor]

"Hmm?" Deanna looked up surprised at the interruption, back into the present.

"Oh." And then there was another oh in her expression as her eyes found hers. Which was no longer ice cream, but a small swimming pool or melted chocolate and milk, held in the delicate circle of her bowl. Oh, well. She looked back up. "Yes, you can get it from the replicator. Along with several other flavors." This one simply happened to be her favorite.

[ships_counselor]

Deanna nods, letting him say that which he wishes. It's not a need she has to correct. "That doesn't sound too bad."

There's a faintly amused smile. "So long as she manages to stay out from under our Security Chief's feet."

[ships_counselor]

Deanna considers it for a second, and even that consideration, that second, is heavier once more.

Important did not even begin to classify how much she wanted to see every side before she placed it under her name.




"Yes."

[ships_counselor]

"Of course," Deanna raises a hand, and her a delicate turn of her wrist and move of her arms, she gestured to the chairs on either side of her square table. "Please do."

[empathic_pathfinder]

"Anything I can help with?"

Because a worry shared is a worry halved, right?

[ships_counselor]

Deanna's brow wrinkled. In surprise at the question, and then even more surprise as she realized how honestly it was inquired. Peerless in its request and to the point. But still not right. Not a normal request, under any circumstances.

"You could get your own ice cream, that isn't melted, from the replicator?"

There's a nod in the direction of where she's referencing.

[ships_counselor]

Deanna grimaced, even though it came straight through her smile without taking her smile away. "The obvious?"

But she didn't look troubled by Beverly pointing it out. In fact, her heart swelled to have someone familiar there. Someone who would understand the decision she was wrestling with, as she was already one part of the first situation embracing what Deanna had already argued for expanding once, and perhaps twice over, again, as per her own her needs as well now.

Plus, it was nice to see Beverly, again. Deanna agreed that it was nice to see her settling in, as well as that it was just nice to see her. A friend. A friendly face. Someone who knew just how to interrupt her, without actually causing her any annoyance or insult, but simply slipped in gently and without any pressure for her to even explain it. Just the quiet confidence, concern, and affection.

[the_blood]

"I do not believe we have. I am Ailyshia," she said with a smile that was as close as she came to warm. She held out her hands in greeting, palms down.

Theiorn kept an eye on everyone and everything, wishing there were more males in the court, wishing that this were close enough to home ground that he could relax some. But he was the only male protecting a Queen, the only Warlord Prince. He had to stay alert. No matter how much he'd rather be resting than watching her socialize.

[ships_counselor]

"Yes, please do." Deanna gesture to one of the seats nearby her, while shifting the bowl to the other side of the table without nothing but a faintly wistful expression at it. It was sad to have let it go to waste, but she was not interested in ordering another, especially if she'd been too distracted to even notice this one melting until it was nothing but this. "Is it true you used to work in counseling?"

[ships_counselor]

Deanna smiled a little, at the strange phrasing but the well meaning that was behind it.

"I am attempting to make an important decision," she clarified for him.

[ships_counselor]

"Thank you for that," Deanna smiled, quiet but affectionate gratitude, at the small girl. Even though she knew that. It was nice to see people around here trying to help other, even if it was already known. "And not too badly. I am simply working over an important decision to make sure that it is made in the best way and for the best reasons."

I will not say her device sprung a leak. I will not say Spring has sprung.

[agathaheterodyne]

"Has anyone seen a spring?" Agatha asked, looking around. "It kind of fell out of the project I'm working on...."

She frowned as she tried to figure out where it went, holding the shell casing of an empty dingbot that she was building.

[primeverdeen]

She chose a seat and curled up in it, staring out at the nothingness as tears ran down her face.

[kaylinneya]

The translucent creature almost seemed smug as it flew back to Kaylin's shoulder.

The relief was plain on Kaylin's face as she mumbled an apology.

[chaotica]

A part of Cambridge is quietly, shamefully relieved by her negative reaction to him. (This is, in fact, one of the purposes his brusque demeanor has always served, for him.) Of course he wants to fulfill what has, for thirty years, been his general purpose and role; of course he does want to assist in the treatment of the mental health of the crew. But, ye gods, he isn't really looking forward to the process of giving advice and counsel to people who have no idea what's going to happen to them.

Cambridge's demeanor remains annoying and casual, sprawled, relaxed, and there's not even a twitch to betray it on his face, but at this point, he feels a swell of ice-cold fear, sharp and overwhelming, the kind that might have sent him into a gibbering mess a few decades and a far cry less emotional control ago. It's one thing to live through the Borg invasion once. To have to do it a second time... and Wolf 359 is so close.

His desire not to be here, here in particular, honestly doesn't have nearly as much to do with homesickness as it does with terror.

"Undoubtedly the counseling sector of the ship isn't populated without your word," he remarks. "Unless you're admitting you have a great deal less control over your department than is standard, among Starfleet vessels."