Dr. Calvini's stylus was flying. Her eyes were on the tablet, Buster's eyes were on her. A part of him had hoped for some sort of affirmation, acknowledgment that he had made the right choice or even thanks for defecting. Instead her expression was unreadable, she was simply Working.

After a few moments she noticed he had stopped talking and looked up to meet his gaze. "I'm very sorry you had to go through that. Have you received counseling?"

"No. Nakunan institutions have strict screening for risk factors, which in practice means that anyone who sees a therapist or takes medication gets disqualified. So this is when I started making drugs to cope."

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More notes. "Well, I'll be sure to add a request for trauma counseling to your file." She smiled a friendly yet practiced smile.

She was charming me earlier to get my guard down and make me trust her. Now that I'm where she wants me, she doesn't have to waste time and energy on that. She's good! Buster realized through the haze of exhaustion.

"Upside of that last part, I got real good at brewing tranquilizers out of whatever was available. So if you need some of those, I'm your guy!" he smiled back.