A fairly direct continuation to FFM 2026 26: Tears, this time switching to QWERTY POV. Comes with minimal editing and fairly low effort put in because my fucks became Very Occupied before I was done with even the first draft and I want to go do escapism. Might rework this for the Full Collection release. Maybe. We’ll see.
QWERTY checked the security camera footage to see what exactly had happened. After such a long time spent doing relief missions, hunting and being at war, Beyari rarely responded that strongly to others’ distress, with or without blocking out her Mind-sense. The Afterglow‘s security cameras only showed the common areas of the ship and the immediate surroundings, but it turned out that just the loungeroom camera sufficed; the conversation that had sent Beyari into the state ae had found her in had occurred entirely there.
QWERTY recalled what aers databanks said about Mind-sense. The close proximity amplified it, which explained things; their relief missions rarely included particularly close proximity with those who were suffering, and hunting and war did not afford close proximity unless they were in a safe area, and even then the distress was usually from injuries rather than anything psychological. Add to that the fact that Urrang was extremely likely to be dealing with a lot a lot of things in his headspace both from his IRS career and his current living situation and Beyari’s strong response made sense. Just seeing Urrang cry via the security camera footage was enough to activate QWERTY’s empathy programming, so it made perfect sense for Beyari, who had received a lot more emotional input and who was overall far more empathetic than aer, to have a strong response.
No need for alarm then. Good.
QWERTY sent a message to aers fellow Mechs to postpone dealing with their project’s next target. It was for the best not to cause havoc for a while, what with both of the people who had to deal with the gossiping being off-kilter. The comeuppance could wait.
Next, ae contacted Hergon.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Heard you might be working on finding Commander Urrang a suitable therapist. Any chance you’ve heard about someone having a Beyari-sized opening?
It was early into the Gheiah rest period, so an answer would not come for at least the next three Standard Hours. QWERTY moved on to the ship’s maintenance checklist. That would keep aer occupied for some time.
~~~
QWERTY found a response from Hergon when ae had finished recharging.
Hergon_gion_Öulg: Yes, I dealt with that. Aetherforl and Kohodold have openings. One of them will take Commander Urrang. I believe the other can take Ket.
Hergon_gion_Öulg: How bad is Ket doing? You would not ask if it wasn’t urgent.
QWERTY assigned a few processor cores to doing the post-recharge check while ae focused most of aers processing power to writing a response.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Thank you. Less urgent and more making use of a potential opportunity. An easy opening might convince her to finally see someone again. She does not seem to be alarmingly bad (yet) but has exhibited strong reactions to Commander Urrang’s unwellness due to close proximity amplifying Mind-sense input.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Will wait until Commander Urrang’s transfer has gone through so Aetherforl and Kohodold don’t duel over who has to deal with the more difficult case.
Ae had gotten started with aers shift when Hergon responded. Ae reassigned some processor cores from processing the newest intelligence data to reading the message.
Hergon_gion_Öulg: Understood. Appreciating the discretion.
QWERTY’s processor cores reading the message calculated that there was no need to respond and reassigned themselves back to the data processing task.
~~~
Hergon_gion_Öulg: You should check with Kohodold to see if she has an opening for Ket.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Thank you. Will do that.
QWERTY started a new conversation.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Any chance you have an opening that fits into a Pryzis’s circadian rhythm?
Kohodold_Med: I won’t ask who told you. How is Ket doing?
QWERTY_Afterglow: Most acutely, she is interacting with Commander Urrang (who has recently been unwell) in close Mind-sense proximity, and she could use someone more qualified than I am to unpack some recent events. I was hoping an easy opening might convince her to finally see someone.
Kohodold_Med: Ket and Urrang, eh? Might those two need shared therapy sessions?
QWERTY_Afterglow: I will leave that to the discretion of yourself and whoever Commander Urrang is seeing, but my estimation is “not right away at least”.
Kohodold_Med: Can/will you ensure she arrives to my sessions without issues if you send the request and I approve it right away?
QWERTY_Afterglow: Yes.
Kohodold_Med: I’ll take her then. Send the request ASAP. I’ll keep an eye on my inbox.
QWERTY_Afterglow: Thank you very much.
Kohodold_Med: Just doing my duty.
QWERTY_Afterglow: An immensely important duty.
Kohodold_Med: Just doing it nevertheless.
~~~
/~/~DisasterHunter/~/~: Am I being strong-armed into therapy?
QWERTY_Liberated: Would appreciate if it did not need to go that far.
/~/~DisasterHunter/~/~: Selection criteria?
QWERTY_Liberated: Hergon’s recommendation.
/~/~DisasterHunter/~/~: Fine. I’ll go.
QWERTY_Liberated: Much appreciated.
Had QWERTY had lungs to breathe with, ae would have let out a sigh of relief at not having to argue with Beyari. For once, she actually let aer get her into therapy before she would mess herself up bad enough to realize herself that she absolutely needed it. If only that had happened in all the previous years too.
No use lamenting the past. At least Beyari was easily cooperating this time. It was a lot more than ae had expected, after all.
It also helped that the rest of this mess would be Kohodold’s problem, not aers. QWERTY was very glad for that.
WindySilver 