May we see the CRC's point of view on what happened here? And how they helped this poor young person and all the ones they saved?
@internutter/challenge-03873-j221-i-need-this-deal -- Anon Guest
CRC Case File: Deregger Taro, confessed criminal offence - Parenting Without a License. Medical intervention necessary: Standard Deregger Poverty Intervention, eye exam, suspected dyslexia. Psychological benefit from supervised visits with prior charges. Immediate intervention, parent license verbal exam.
Taro sat nervously on what should have been a very comfortable chair. Automatically uncomfortable because Alliance spaces were so clean. Hell, ze was still uncomfortable with hir chosen pronouns. That sort of thing still felt illegal. Ze had a stutter when ze chose it. Even now that ze was clean and had good clothes, ze still thought of hirself as a filthy outsider to this place. That, at any moment, someone would declare it illegal for hir to even be here, and that would be the last time ze saw any kind of light.
Therapist Idyma recognised that tension in a cold second and said, "Please, make yourself comfortable." They were not surprised at all when Taro chose to sit on the floor, and joined hir there. Taking their ease. Incidentally showing Taro where the shelf-stable finger foods were stored. Conveniently ignoring the fact that Taro filled hir pockets with them before eating one hirself.
There were a thousand stories in the way Taro nibbled. Not just in the caution due to food allergies, but also that ze was carefully tasting every morsel for potential trouble on behalf of others. Taro was already planning to hand out hir pilferings to any child who could have them.
"How are you settling in to your new home?" asked Idyma. Always a good icebreaker. It also gave a pretty good baseline as to what the patient's former baseline was like.
"It's too big, I can't believe it. A space like that would be all bunks and hanging pots and the safer fans and such. Hammocks and mats and at least three squabbling over who gets the facilities next." Ze chuckled at a memory. "Even the private space would be like that. I still can't get over how much garden there is. Air and food just... there. A short walk away from where I sleep. And the air's always circulating so nothing gets stuffy. And thanks to whoever pulled those strings so I could check on the kids. It's put a weight off my mind." Ze opened hir mouth to ask a question, but swallowed it down.
While it wasn't actually illegal to ask questions in Taro's former polity, it was definitely a mistake to ask the wrong kinds of questions around the wrong kinds of people. And the wrong kind of person could be literally anyone. The wrong kind of question was up to the whims of whoever heard it.
Idyma said, "We like questions, here," just to remind hir that they weren't in their old nightmare, any more. "You're safe."
It still took hir three deep breaths before ze said, "How much longer have I got until... I'm cut off?"
That had to have been a dread hanging over hir like the Sword of Damocles. How long had that one been eating holes in hir stomach? "We don't cut people off from their loved ones unless they're a clear and definite danger," said Idyma. "You can look up the files at any time. Visitations are essential for mutual mental health. On your side... and your children's side."
Taro hurried to don hir tinted reading glasses. One of the other wrinkles about hir home philosophy was not displaying weakness. Right down to needing glasses to see or read. Any weakness could be exploited by whichever enemy happened to be lurking in the corners. Ze did lower hir guard long enough for a lesson in finding the relevant information in hir datareader.
"Oh," ze sighed. "Oh that's... that's good news." Ze rallied and covered. "Some of the kids were a bit anxious about that. I can tell them it's going to be fine. We're not losing each other."
Idyma decided not to call attention to hir use of 'we'.
[Photo by Sarah Wolfe on Unsplash]
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