Chapter Text
It is one of those kitchen timers, ticking lowly yet restlessly onto the desk. One of the cute ones, shaped like an egg, but not too cute, it's a metallic silver.
The Counselor's eyes open before the countdown is over, staring somewhat mournfully at the little numbers. Not even the time for the device to say a full 'ding!' that he deactivates it, puts it back into the drawer where it belongs.
Five full minutes of rest, time to freshen up and resume work.
The light of the restroom is unflattering and so is the uniform. Not a single wrinkle to be spotted on his face, though. It means he's doing well. Status report, active, back to the desk.
The papers are a colourful mosaic of nonsense. Greyscale, to be exact. The wildest listed experiences and behaviours all tie back to patterns that tie back to patterns that tie back to patterns.
He's aware that technically this applies to him too, but it doesn't feel like it. People's motives are so disappointingly easy to understand and comprehend. The complications arrive when he is to entangle them with his own, but the good and only slightly sad thing of the workplace is that this doesn't have to occur at all.
So he examines them, stinging cold air prompting focus. Atop a metaphorical glacier, he watches those chunks of ice float aimlessly in their freezing blood.
They could flip and break at any time, but it's fine: he is not really there to suffer from that.