Private Finished Returning Patient: Oluremi

Remi was always tense when talking about her family. It didn't necessarily indicate bad things--lots of people got tense when they thought about their family in a serious context for any number of reasons--but Remi's was... unique. She hadn't told him anything blatant, but Valli had his own suspicions. The issue was navigating those suspicions with a completely alien culture, which he only had a small view from.

"Remi," Valli started, which was generally a sign he was going to point something out that Remi might not like. "Many of your points--about being royalty, and about making your family look bad--are points that only apply in your homeland. No one here would bat an eye if you moved out. It would be considered perfectly normal. You've mentioned before that you feel like the island is a home as well, and I think that's something you'll have to consider - that you moving out would not reflect negatively on you at all in the island's culture... and that the culture of your home is very far away. Will the general population of your home know if you move out?"

There were a lot of cultural issues at play, and a part of Valli momentarily wondered if he shouldn't refer Remi back to an Oricenta therapist. Only that begged a more important question: Did the Oricenta even have therapists?

He suspected the answer would probably be no.

"It would be your choice, not your fault." Valli carefully corrected, taking a few moments to process it. The living situation was, by human standards, fairly unhealthy--but it was hard to say how unhealthy it was or wasn't for an Oricenta.

He tapped his fingers on his leg as he tried to process.

"I think what you have to decide is where you'll prioritize things. Your time. Your focus. But also your expectations. Right now you're caught between two sets of expectations, those of your home and original culture, and now the culture of the islands. In an ideal world, you wouldn't have to pick, and both sides would understand the other, but in this case it's not so ideal. I would recommend weighing things out. Look at the pros and cons of both. Make a list of the upsides and downsides of each choice, and help use that to compare."

There was still a lot of finger tapping, the most telltale sign that Valli was thinking. Like a computer whose indicator swirled to indicate it was loading, Valli tended to fidget as he thought about things. Sometimes answers came easy. Sometimes he could prompt without pause. And sometimes he needed to stop and digest.

"I can't speak about your culture. It's foreign to me, and not something I can directly relate to. But what I can relate to is the way you act, and the way you speak about it. You obviously want to move out. You've looked into places you can go and jobs you can take. You're making preparations, but you're hesitating before taking the final step."

Hesitating probably for good reasons, but hesitating just the same.

"I think it might be helpful, above and beyond a list, to think about the worst case scenario. What would happen if you left? What are the consequences, the side effects? If you left tomorrow, moved out, provided for yourself."

Working two jobs instead of allowances. It wasn't quite in his job description, but it was also not at all uncommon for controlling parents to neglect to mention very important things.

"If you haven't looked into it, the school does a great deal towards ensuring everyone can get an education. Dorming is effectively free, and they'll ensure you have all the essentials. It wouldn't be unusual to keep a side job for spending money, but you shouldn't need to work two jobs unless you have particularly expensive hobbies."

Which would hopefully be one less thing to worry about.

"But it sounds as if, even in the worst case scenario, you could always change your mind. I think when you make the list, you'll find that the pros are much larger than the cons."

It would be hard for Valli to miss that Remi was, to say the least, a bit out of it. Whether dissociating or just lost in thought was hard to tell, but it was fairly clear that Remi was not telling him everything. Her body language when it came to her parents--especially Beatrice--was fairly clear just the same.

"Take the leap. Manta Carlos has a thousand and one safety nets to catch you if something goes wrong."

Remi was already sliding into several unhealthy habits, and it wasn't hard for Valli to figure out why. She'd rolled over and done as she was told her whole life, and that dynamic didn't change just because she was pulling away from her mother's control. The dynamic still existed with friends, with extended family... really, with anyone she felt the need to impress.

"It's helpful to implement a... mandatory waiting period before major decisions. It helps with getting you away from the snap pressures of it, the idea of I need to say yes. The next time you have to make a major decision--moving in, or taking a job, or anything like that--rather than just saying yes or no, instead say 'Thank you for the offer, but I need time to think about things. Can I get back to you tomorrow?'. Something like that. Something that gives you space and time to yourself to process and think things through."

Valli didn't really answer her question about drug usage and child psychology, deciding it was of secondary importance. That was something she'd have to research in her own time, and truthfully Valli wasn't entirely clear either way. He almost never used any substances, so the exact rules had mostly been out of mind and out of sight.