The human over-ate on their favorite foods, and sequestered themselves in their habitat refusing to see anyone. When the companion comes in to see what's going on, their nose is assailed by the REASON the human asked to have a full day to themselves. -- BKF
Humans, amongst many other things, are prone to act unwisely when presented with a treat. They are also aware of this and have unique linguistics about them. Each Human has their own term for such things, though some are more common than others.
Companion Jik was unfamiliar with Human Zoos' exclamation of, "Oooh, this is my kryptonite..." It was an unusual thing to say, but since the Human was happy, Jik let Zoos indulge to contentment. And slight discomfort. But Human Zoos was so happy that the discomfort was relatively irrelevant.
Until the next day, when Zoos put a message into the team's text comms in the wee small hours of the morning.
Not well. Sealing my environment for safety. Taking health recovery day. Or two. Updates as needed.
The time of entry was concerning, so Jik responded with, Do you need the Medik?
Three hours passed before Zoos replied. No need. Sleeping it off. Do not disturb.
This was a worryingly uncharacteristic message from Zoos, the cogniscent of many words. Zoos famously put micro-essays into the text chat. So was the "Do not disturb". Zoos once claimed that ze would fail to function without social interaction.
So Jik printed a small serving of Zoos' favourite soup and went calling. Just to check up on hir.
The door was fully sealed with an atmosphere warning. Atmospheric contamination within, the screen warned. Air recycling on separate system for maximal crew safety. Do you still wish to enter the temporary airlock? Y/N?
The readouts said the contamination was non-toxic, but designated 'unpleasant'. Well. Jik was a Companion and going through unpleasant things for the sake of the Ship's Human was part of their work.
I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, they told themself, and pressed Y.
The air within was indeed unpleasant. Zoos was barely visible as a hunched silhouette in the ablution booth. Where there were unpleasant, wet noises alongside Zoos' soft groans.
"Zoos?"
"I said do not disturb--" splattering squelching, "--for a reason..."
"I came for a health check."
"Temporarily unwell. Kryptonite strikes back."
"The food you love?"
"Yeah." A grunt. "I love it. It hates me. Gets its revenge." The disturbing noises were the source of the unpleasant air. "I'm weak to it... like Superman is weak to--" Ze cried out during a particularly violent episode. "Like Superman is weak to kryptonite."
"Ah," Jik put the soup down somewhere obvious. "Next time, I shall stop you."
"Thanks. Now please flakk off."
[Photo by Julia Kadel on Unsplash]
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