2010-02-13, 14:46
Tom Boone had been a psychologist for the last 28 years. When the implant and cloning technology were introduced, he was one of the first to study the effects. He was one of the first to publish research papers, paving the paths and setting the groundwork for others to build upon. In short, he was one of the best heads in the field.
About three years ago, he had left the Republic University and started his own very specialized psychotherapy center. Accepting only capsuleers. One of those capsuleers was sitting on the other end of the comfy couch in the warmly-lit "talking room" with him. There was tea on the table as well. This particular capsuleer had been his client for the last two and a half years, though the visits were rather sporadic. While his own studies recommend at least biweekly sessions during active duty, his computer had informed him that the last visit of this client had been over three months ago.
"Hello, Arkady", said Tom, using the first name primarily to give a warm and welcoming feeling. "How are you doing?"
"Better, I guess. I had hoped the paranoia was gone by now, but I have reasons to believe that it's not."
Tom put up a worried look and nodded slowly. Sadik did not suffer from real paranoia. He was overworked and burned out, which leads to a much more sensitive personality. And in the world of thieving, griefing and scamming that the capsuleers live in, that makes you afraid, and you see more of those dangers than you'd usually would. Sadik liked to give things a name, though. It made him feel having power over them. So Tom had decided to not correct him.
"There have been a few incidents recently", Sadik went on, "but I got over them quickly. Except the recent drama in my corp, which has been absolutely incredible. Either I'm starting to lose my grip on reality completely, or we have half a dozen spies in our corp."
Tom thought for a moment. "Can you tell me about it?"
With capsuleers, one of the most difficult problems was that they wanted your help, but ideally not tell you anything. They saw you as a threat. Probably rightly so, as knowledge is power, but it did not make the job any easier. Sadik's reply surprised Tom.
"I guess so. Ok. Let's see." Sadik took a few moments to collect himself. "There are four main characters in this play. We have the Wife and her Husband, we have the Friend of the Husband, and we have the Lover. The Lover sleeps with the Wife, and so the Husband wants to kill the Lover. So far, so cheesy."
Tom had raised both eyebrows. "That is quite a plot for that play."
"It's by far not all", Sadik went on. "So we have this show-down. The Lover and the Wife are in a bar. The Husband and the Friend enter. The Husband says he just wants to talk. The Friend is dressed in a full Blood Raider Body Armor."
Tom blinked, "Pardon?"
"A full Blood Raider Body Armor. You know, the nice guys who like to bleed out humans."
"... I thought I had misheard."
"Well, ok. So the Husband says he wants to talk. Then the Friend, in full body armor, draws his sword and steps towards the Lover, and says 'I want to kill you.' But because he's not a spoilsport, he throws the Lover the sword. The Lover concludes quickly: He wants to beat me up so the Husband does not kill me."
Tom looked up from his notes. "Er. What?"
"What I said. It turned out to be true, too. The Friend was there in Blood Raider outfit to beat up the Lover so the Husband wouldn't beat him up worse."
Tom stared blankly at Sadik.
"I'm not kidding! They didn't discuss this beforehand, just from the scene I described above, the Lover concludes quickly that this was the case. And indeed, the Friend did not kill the Lover, only beat him up badly. In the course of which, the Husband kills security guards which try to stop the Friend from beating up the Lover."
Sadik took a deep breath. "Ok. So, investigations turn out that the Friend is under the control of Evil Blood Raider Mind Control Implants, which he can not get rid off by cloning or medical help. He also feels it not particularly necessary to get himself taken into security custody because of this slight problem."
Tom had dropped his notebook to his knees and was looking at Sadik with curious eyes for the last part of the story.
"For added humor", continued Sadik, "the Husband flees from Republic space, and the Wife, a Caldari Militia member, at war with the Republic, contacts us to help her locate the Husband who just had killed one of our guys. But now, to the point where I'm actually having problems."
Even after all these years, capsuleers did not cease to amaze Tom. After a story like this, a normal human would already be close to breaking and in heavy need of support. Capsuleers live with thousandfold death every day. Their sense of scale was totally skewed.
"Now, we have a number of corp members who look at this story and say that all is fine with the Friend. He didn't do anything bad, as he didn't kill anyone himself. He was even nice and wanted to protect the Lover, obviously. And anything bad he might have done was caused by the Mind Control Implants, so not really his fault at all. Now my question to you: Am I going off totally if this sounds so fishy, so incredible contrieved and made up that I don't believe a single word of it? That this is just something to hide the actual thing, whatever it is? And that the people in my corp who try to defend these actions are actively helping in this hidden agenda?"
Ah. That was the problem. The "paranoia", as he called it. Tom had no idea. The whole story sounded fantastic, but so did most stories of capsuleers. They lived in a different world.
"I'm not sure", Tom remarked. "The play in which a group of half a dozen people implement a grand scheme which they hide with another grand scheme is not less contrieved than the one you told me about. Is the Friend known to the people who try to defend him?"
"Oh, yes", Sadik nodded. "He's a corp member for a long time, and many know him from before, too."
"As I thought, then." Tom tried to put up an encouraging smile. "From what it sounds to me, the others, the ones not involved, are in a serious shock. They do not want to accept that an old friend of theirs would behave like this. So they try to assert their reality ontop of what happened, trying to make things undone in their mind. This is quite a normal reaction. It can go clinical if they overdo it."
Tom used a few pseudo-scientific words in his explanations. Sadik liked this - he feels taken serious if someone does not hide behind "simplified words". But it's easy to misstep here. If he got the impression that someone was trying to impress him with big words, he could get seriously nasty. In the beginning, Tom had overstepped the line a few times, but by now, he knew Sadik well enough to hit the spot.
"So", Sadik looked at Tom. "What should I do now? I'm totally at a loss."
"Aren't you rather busy with this Fleet work?"
"Yes, quite so."
"Does this issue need your input? Or are there others who are handling it?"
"Hm. We have other directors and the CEO working on it."
"Well, take a step back and see how it goes. Being less involved often helps getting perspective on an issue, if it's still necessary then. It might not sound particularly satisfying, but you need to think of yourself from time to time."
Sadik leaned back against the couch, sipped on his tea, and thought for a while. "I guess I could do that."
Some discussion about other corp members and other headaches followed, but Tom didn't pay particular attention anymore. The main problem Sadik had come for was settled, the rest was just routine. A few pleasantries later, and Sadik was gone.
Capsuleers.
They're all insane.
About three years ago, he had left the Republic University and started his own very specialized psychotherapy center. Accepting only capsuleers. One of those capsuleers was sitting on the other end of the comfy couch in the warmly-lit "talking room" with him. There was tea on the table as well. This particular capsuleer had been his client for the last two and a half years, though the visits were rather sporadic. While his own studies recommend at least biweekly sessions during active duty, his computer had informed him that the last visit of this client had been over three months ago.
"Hello, Arkady", said Tom, using the first name primarily to give a warm and welcoming feeling. "How are you doing?"
"Better, I guess. I had hoped the paranoia was gone by now, but I have reasons to believe that it's not."
Tom put up a worried look and nodded slowly. Sadik did not suffer from real paranoia. He was overworked and burned out, which leads to a much more sensitive personality. And in the world of thieving, griefing and scamming that the capsuleers live in, that makes you afraid, and you see more of those dangers than you'd usually would. Sadik liked to give things a name, though. It made him feel having power over them. So Tom had decided to not correct him.
"There have been a few incidents recently", Sadik went on, "but I got over them quickly. Except the recent drama in my corp, which has been absolutely incredible. Either I'm starting to lose my grip on reality completely, or we have half a dozen spies in our corp."
Tom thought for a moment. "Can you tell me about it?"
With capsuleers, one of the most difficult problems was that they wanted your help, but ideally not tell you anything. They saw you as a threat. Probably rightly so, as knowledge is power, but it did not make the job any easier. Sadik's reply surprised Tom.
"I guess so. Ok. Let's see." Sadik took a few moments to collect himself. "There are four main characters in this play. We have the Wife and her Husband, we have the Friend of the Husband, and we have the Lover. The Lover sleeps with the Wife, and so the Husband wants to kill the Lover. So far, so cheesy."
Tom had raised both eyebrows. "That is quite a plot for that play."
"It's by far not all", Sadik went on. "So we have this show-down. The Lover and the Wife are in a bar. The Husband and the Friend enter. The Husband says he just wants to talk. The Friend is dressed in a full Blood Raider Body Armor."
Tom blinked, "Pardon?"
"A full Blood Raider Body Armor. You know, the nice guys who like to bleed out humans."
"... I thought I had misheard."
"Well, ok. So the Husband says he wants to talk. Then the Friend, in full body armor, draws his sword and steps towards the Lover, and says 'I want to kill you.' But because he's not a spoilsport, he throws the Lover the sword. The Lover concludes quickly: He wants to beat me up so the Husband does not kill me."
Tom looked up from his notes. "Er. What?"
"What I said. It turned out to be true, too. The Friend was there in Blood Raider outfit to beat up the Lover so the Husband wouldn't beat him up worse."
Tom stared blankly at Sadik.
"I'm not kidding! They didn't discuss this beforehand, just from the scene I described above, the Lover concludes quickly that this was the case. And indeed, the Friend did not kill the Lover, only beat him up badly. In the course of which, the Husband kills security guards which try to stop the Friend from beating up the Lover."
Sadik took a deep breath. "Ok. So, investigations turn out that the Friend is under the control of Evil Blood Raider Mind Control Implants, which he can not get rid off by cloning or medical help. He also feels it not particularly necessary to get himself taken into security custody because of this slight problem."
Tom had dropped his notebook to his knees and was looking at Sadik with curious eyes for the last part of the story.
"For added humor", continued Sadik, "the Husband flees from Republic space, and the Wife, a Caldari Militia member, at war with the Republic, contacts us to help her locate the Husband who just had killed one of our guys. But now, to the point where I'm actually having problems."
Even after all these years, capsuleers did not cease to amaze Tom. After a story like this, a normal human would already be close to breaking and in heavy need of support. Capsuleers live with thousandfold death every day. Their sense of scale was totally skewed.
"Now, we have a number of corp members who look at this story and say that all is fine with the Friend. He didn't do anything bad, as he didn't kill anyone himself. He was even nice and wanted to protect the Lover, obviously. And anything bad he might have done was caused by the Mind Control Implants, so not really his fault at all. Now my question to you: Am I going off totally if this sounds so fishy, so incredible contrieved and made up that I don't believe a single word of it? That this is just something to hide the actual thing, whatever it is? And that the people in my corp who try to defend these actions are actively helping in this hidden agenda?"
Ah. That was the problem. The "paranoia", as he called it. Tom had no idea. The whole story sounded fantastic, but so did most stories of capsuleers. They lived in a different world.
"I'm not sure", Tom remarked. "The play in which a group of half a dozen people implement a grand scheme which they hide with another grand scheme is not less contrieved than the one you told me about. Is the Friend known to the people who try to defend him?"
"Oh, yes", Sadik nodded. "He's a corp member for a long time, and many know him from before, too."
"As I thought, then." Tom tried to put up an encouraging smile. "From what it sounds to me, the others, the ones not involved, are in a serious shock. They do not want to accept that an old friend of theirs would behave like this. So they try to assert their reality ontop of what happened, trying to make things undone in their mind. This is quite a normal reaction. It can go clinical if they overdo it."
Tom used a few pseudo-scientific words in his explanations. Sadik liked this - he feels taken serious if someone does not hide behind "simplified words". But it's easy to misstep here. If he got the impression that someone was trying to impress him with big words, he could get seriously nasty. In the beginning, Tom had overstepped the line a few times, but by now, he knew Sadik well enough to hit the spot.
"So", Sadik looked at Tom. "What should I do now? I'm totally at a loss."
"Aren't you rather busy with this Fleet work?"
"Yes, quite so."
"Does this issue need your input? Or are there others who are handling it?"
"Hm. We have other directors and the CEO working on it."
"Well, take a step back and see how it goes. Being less involved often helps getting perspective on an issue, if it's still necessary then. It might not sound particularly satisfying, but you need to think of yourself from time to time."
Sadik leaned back against the couch, sipped on his tea, and thought for a while. "I guess I could do that."
Some discussion about other corp members and other headaches followed, but Tom didn't pay particular attention anymore. The main problem Sadik had come for was settled, the rest was just routine. A few pleasantries later, and Sadik was gone.
Capsuleers.
They're all insane.