Comment:

Sometimes, in my call center job, a customer will launch into a longwinded description of the problem they're having, and I'll know within the first few seconds that the issue they're describing is actually one handled by a different department from mine. When that happens, I usually interrupt them as quickly (and politely) as I can, and inform them that I have to transfer their call.

Some people take this well. Some people do not. But I know that, if I can't help someone with their issue, the best thing for them is to send them to whoever can. It is not unkind to refuse them help and send them away, it is the best thing for all concerned.

Orb may have been unsympathetic to Lee in the beginning, when they thought Lee was some sort of weird con artist. They are sympathetic to Lee now, because they recognize that Lee has a problem, but they are not yet sure who best can help them. Certainly, if Lee had had a human psychologist instead of the Austrian-accented equivalent of an alarm clock they can keep hitting snooze on, they might be in a better position now. I have no doubt that if there were some worker whose job Lee is, Orb would have already passed them along.

But Orb isn't sending Lee away yet. It remains to be seen if having rambling conversations about Socrates with a bipedal Fleshlight will be of any help. Certainly can't hurt.

Transcript:

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0104 - 2167/07/06/12:38 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
Zoa [data connection]: So, we did have a few questions, if you don't mind.
OT [data connection]: I've got a few minutes. Shoot.
Zoa [data connection]: The baby cartoon philosophers all mentioned some version of "being a good person will make you happy".
OT [data connection]: Yeah, a lot of philosophers in the ancient world were focused on what the ideal human lifestyle is, how people should best live their lives. We're going to be getting into that tomorrow.
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[Rosenthal College, Orb Twofeather's office]
Zoa [data connection]: So Lee wanted to know if that means that being unhappy all the time necessarily indicates that they are therefore a morally bad person, and, if they are a bad person, it follows that the world would be better without them in it. OT: Jesus H.
OT [data connection]: I would like to reiterate that what Lee needs is a psychologist. I'm teaching European history, here, not handholding depressed people through their personal existential crises.
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[Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room]
LC: Doc says I'm not depressed.
Zoa: You're not?
LC: Yeah, apparently "depression" is a solved problem. I'm just either bored, scared, or sad all the time because the entire world is bullshit, and that's somehow something different.
Zoa: Got it.
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[Rosenthal College, Orb Twofeather's office]
Zoa [data connection]: Yeah, Lee says they're not depressed, and they don't want to self-harm, they just want to know whether or not Socrates would say they're evil or not.
OT [data connection]: I think it's safe to say the parent of Western philosophy would be blown away by Lee's purple hair and ability to summon automatons to do their will and would therefore reserve judgement.
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