Deanna Troi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ships_counselor) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ten_fwd2015-06-27 04:14 pm
ships_counselor) wrote in ten_fwd2015-06-27 04:14 pm
Entry tags:
DECK 10; SECTION 1: TEN FORWARD
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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."
no subject
"That is very presumptive of you, Mister Cambridge." The deference to address over rank is entirely purposeful, as is the archness of her expression. Cool, but not unmoved or uneffected by the blatant use of manipulation in both obvious insult and insinuation went underlacing his words, in the emotions behind it as well as the brazenly specific allusion made in the words themselves.
"At current, The Enterprise does not offer employment to all temporally moved members, even officers of Starfleet. Especially not those who are newly arrived." There was some differences in The Doctors, and even in certain people who had been here for months, who had shown their worth in unplanned events.
There even were wheels turning in Security. Things she'd suggested for them.
But she had not brought up her own recent consideration to Will or The Captain yet.
"Why is it that you presume this would change in your favor?" When his behavior did not lend itself to any defense or request, but an order to do something for a person who seemed to have no respect for the system, for the request, or yet an understanding of their own new current circumstances.
Nothing more than a willingness to display they were a problem racing for a place.
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"First," he says, "I'm obviously not in the same exact category as the others." This isn't an empty boast; Cambridge states it as a fact. He is different, for several important reasons: "I'm a Starfleet officer, and one who lived through the 2360s; furthermore, those facts can be confirmed, along with my qualifications, given that my record until the current year is available from Starfleet headquarters.
"In addition, there is plenty of precedent for displaced Starfleet officers given service. Yes, almost always, that displacement occurs the other direction: officers have been trapped, frozen, stuck in repeating temporal anomalies and molecularly altered, not nearly as often transferred to the past, but this sort of thing occurs often enough that there are possible procedures for qualifying an officer who has been away from Starfleet. And I haven't been away, so it should be much easier.
"Third, what you see with me is almost pure time travel. My memory is nearly eidetic, and an extensive review of recent historical events in my recall has proven to consist of exact matches. The only variation, as I can see, comes in the last few months, with Q's interference."
He leans forward, bracing on his elbows.
"Finally, I know full well that the Enterprise functions under the command of Captain Picard, and Picard has control of his ship, to be damned with the letter of regulations. He is known for unorthodox crew assignments, and for making full use of his resources, up to and including placing non-Starfleet personnel on the bridge."
He takes a breath.
"Last, for your own information, I am a bloody Starfleet officer, and even before that, I am a healer. I can only study and solve archaeological mysteries for so long before I'll go mad. This ship is not my first choice. In fact, it wouldn't even be on the list; I prefer small crews, and little public exposure. But if you are half the counselor your reputation will say you are - and I sincerely doubt that general Starfleet esteem for your methods will be exaggerated or undeserved," this last genuinely not added in to flatter, but because he can appreciate a colleague who knows what she's doing - "then you will understand the benefit I can provide a team."
This last is stated as fact, too. He's not trying to manipulate her now, as he was in insulting her control over her team. He is answering her question. While he may bristle with self-hatred on occasion, he knows he is very, very good at what he does, and he believes those who are able to understand the people around them should be able to tell that.
no subject
Yet he does. With nearly every word out of his mouth.
There is so cent or sense of benevolence or request to the entreaty still, only arrogance and a strong will to make what he feels is right fit, regardless of whatever status might be in place on the Enterprise around the situation already. Loopholes to make it so that he might skirt under rules or around situations that others could not or, as of yet, have not. But she lets him go, maybe more out of the shock he's still doing it than out of any kindness or choice.
Especially when he goes on to impugn the Enterprise, the Captain, and to add slanted comments about her own standing.
The self-hatred is a surprise, and is the self-flagellation. But in spite of those, and the most aggressive first conversation she's had with a Q arrival in a good while, there are some things that she can't avoid feeling as he goes. Ones that stick out in at least the favor of not dismissing him entirely, outright, already. He might have a horrible way of going about it, but what shines loudest is that it is all driven by his passion for the position.
That he is desperate, angry, a volatile mix of emotions that could be problematic -- but what he wants most is to help people.
She isn't pleased, but she doesn't run herself, her staff, or her duty to the over a thousand crew complement by her emotions alone, and it from there that she draws her response to him without even considering rising from her seat. "I will take your request-" And is it a requested. A strong armed one.. Because he can't force her or demand it, unless she lets him and she won't. "-under advisement."
Very specifically. "Tomorrow." Still very specifically. "When I am back on duty."
"If I were to consider this being an avenue worth pursuing for the Enterprise, or those newly arrived, it will be my decision." She was beholden to herself for her decision in this area, and then the Captain. "How I run it, what rules it would follow, how short or long the capacity of those duties would be, and who would be considered for those positions, would be solely at my discretion and under my direction."
Her expression doesn't waver, "And if you intend to be of any consideration therein, you will not address me like this again."
no subject
It actually hadn't occurred to him that she would make a distinction like that. He hadn't given any thought to it. He doesn't really go off-duty often; he considers himself on call at any moment, and he rarely relaxes his own professional barriers to allow for personal connection.
But, his habits aside, he can respect a method that allows for the opposite. He recognizes that as, also, a very valid way of approaching the profession.
"Fair enough," he says. He gives her a nod, and then he gets up to leave. He won't bother her further.
no subject
The turnabout is actually surprising, given how aggressively he'd pushed himself in with little requested and sued his point with alarming directness and disrespect. But then he was gone, leaving Deanna to watch him go. He hadn't been offended by her response, no part of the information or a carefully worded dismissal. There was actually surprise there, then understanding, even if faint repugnance, before a wash of respect.
If anything sticks with her for long minutes, being returned to as she turns it over, that definitely is one of them.