#Councilor (Arknights)

[rex101111]

I keep thinking of an Arknights Side Story where RI hires a psychiatrist. Like on the one hand Amiya has shown some pretty good skill at managing mental health and dealing with trauma victims in Children Of Ursus, but on the other hand she already has to deal with So Much Shit so it would only be fair if they actually hire someone who’s actual job is to be support for any operator that feels like life is getting a bit too heavy lately.

So yeah I’m making an OC for AK because why not:

They get into work with the best intentions, they’re pro-infected and recognize how the recent events RI had gone through would be traumatic for just about everyone on board. They’ve suffered major casualties to their senior staff and new recruits alike, so they get into work ready to deal with some Real Heavy Shit.

They were not ready.

The psychiatrist, let’s call them Councilor, underestimated the sheer glut of disfunction even a landship this massive could contain. Between the Ursus’ Kids PTSD, Spector being functionally catatonic half the time, Nightingale’s nightmares, Nightmare’s DID, the many operators with anger issues, the whole medical wing’s odd habit of constantly depriving themselves of sleep to the functional biological limit, Warfarin being an entire thing onto herself, the entire Rhine Lab crew having a medical textbook’s worth of mental illness and disorders between them, Lappland...well being Lappland, and Rosmontis’...everything, they have their hands full to the brim on a daily basis.

Councilor is the highest paid non-combat employee on RI, but its still only barely enough to justify having to stick their head into the piranha tank that is the general state of mental health of Rhodes Island.

They’re here because everyone on this thrice damned ship needs their help, its a minor miracle, they think, that this crew of weirdos hasn’t torn itself apart before they showed up.

And that’s without getting into the senior and commanding staff of RI. All the Elite Operators are bad enough on their own. Each a heady cocktail of survivors’ guilt, PTSD,  and Gods know what else. But the three at the top are another kettle of fish altogether.

Amiya is the most well put together, but that’s speaking relatively. The girl spends half their sessions trying to council Councilor, suggesting that she take on some of their patients to lighten their load. Forgetting the fact that Amiya’s habit of absorbing other people’s trauma to help them was the whole reason Councilor was brought in to begin with, the fact that this child, and it doesn’t matter what crazy bullshit magic prophecy rumors going around say that’s what she is, is attempting to shovel more responsibility onto her already nearly spilling plate is very destressing.

Kal’tsit is....Councilor doesn’t think there exists a word suitable to describe Kal’tsit. Or, at least not any word that would make sense without an actual degree in psychology. Detached is the closest, and even that seems lacking. She scares them, honestly, but they’re here to help, help everyone, so as underqualified as they are to deal with the hot, immutable mess that is Chief Medical Director Kal’tsit, they’re gonna give it their all.

And Doctor? Oh hell. If Kal’tsit is a hot mess, Doctor is volcanic. The amnesia is the absolute least of it. The first few sessions went pretty much no where, since the Doctor just rambled on about random things that seemed to pop into their head without letting Councilor get a word in edgewise before the time ran out. But one day, they ask a question, “...ever felt like you weren’t...real?”

“...care to elaborate, Doctor?”

“...like, you’re just a big, empty cloak with a name someone came up with on the fly, that you’re only meant for the people around you to pour themselves into to see what shape they take?”

“...how long have you been feeling like that, Doctor?”

“....since I woke up, I think.”

“....you people don’t pay me enough, Doctor.”

“We really don’t, don’t worry though me and Amiya are gonna bring up a pay raise for you in the next budget meeting.”

“Joy.”