Growing into the Job, Post 519: Melissa's Therapy Visit, Prologue

Olivia Henders, MD, PhD sat at the desk in the new office they’d made for her. For her taste, it was too fancy. She didn’t need all these extravagences, these modern touches, but she understood the title she had here as Clinical Director of the facility came with some expectations as far as appearances. So, fine. She could tolerate the huge desk, the giant window, the plush furniture, even if resources could have been spent better somewhere else; if she found herself in this office more than ten times in the next three months that’d be a surprise. Anyway, she had only a few more moments before she needed to get in a car and to the airport, and the conversation she’d just had with Ani Chou, one of the lead therapists in the Behavioral and Relationship Dynamics Center, still sat with her. Her few days “home” had been short-lived, and she was headed to South America to consult on a new Program brood involved in the uprisings, but before she left she wanted to know a little bit more about this person. Dr. Chou had been, after all, assigned a vital task - to help guide Evolution’s most important asset (and, admittedly, someone a bit dear to her heart, such as it was) through a very important journey.

The keys of the keyboard clicked under Olivia’s painted nails as she logged into her Admin account of the new EHR. They called it “Aegis”.

CHENDERS: >Access Administrative Server

AEGIS: >Admin PW?

CHENDERS: >xxxxx

AEGIS: >Access Granted

CHENDERS: >Please Access and summarize Chou Phd Employee file

As AegisAI took a moment to compile and analyze the slew of history, data, and clinical notes that its system had on Dr. Chou, Olivia mused on how different things were now compared to when she first started her work. The 1960’s were a far cry from having an assistant like this at your fingertips.

The information on Dr. Chou, edited and interpreted by AegisEHR AI, began to roll over the screen:

Ani Chou, PhD – Clinical Psychologist, Far Horizons Evolution Center, Epicenter Campus

Behavioral and Relationship Dynamics Center - Regression Therapy Specialist

General Profile

• Full Name: Ani Zhi Chou, PhD

• Age: 31

• Ethnicity/Nationality: Chinese-American; 

• Education: Westhall University (BS in Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behavioral Sciences), PhD from the University of Chicago.

Other Affiliations:

• Evolution Pharmaceuticals – Clinical consultant for behavioral studies, aiding in the development of neurological conditioning techniques

• Empowerment Counseling Collective (ECC) – Senior therapist specializing in behavioral modification for couples. 

Appearance

•Height: 5’10”

•Build: Toned, athletic, with incredibly strong, muscular legs - her body is a testament to structure, control, and personal discipline.

•Leg-to-waist ratio: 1.23:1

•Thigh circumference: 24.8 inches

•Assessment: Notable hypertrophy in quadriceps and gluteal region. Note: the muscle mass of Dr. Chou’s lower body surpasses 95.4% of females in her age bracket.

(Dr. Chou exhibits a particularly impressive degree of lower body musculature. Quadriceps femoris development is structurally exceptional)

Hmm, thought Dr. Henders, that seems to be a lot of information on this woman’s legs. 

•Hair: Long, silky black hair, usually tied into a sleek, tight ponytail or a severe bun that emphasizes her control and focus.

•Face: Elegant, sharp-featured, with high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes that always seem to be watching, assessing, waiting.

•Eyes: A piercing, calculating dark brown - cold when necessary, but warm when it suits her purposes.

•Legs: Stunning. Built like a track athlete - defined quadriceps, strong calves, the kind of legs that look dangerous in a pair of heels. The kind of legs that make men second-guess whether they should challenge her authority.

Okay, enough with the legs already. This is a quite peculiar AI.

•Style: She always looks flawless - immaculate, polished, commanding. Tight, form-fitting pencil skirts that show off her toned thighs. High-fashion stilettos. Perfectly fitted blouses, at times buttoned one button too low to be purely professional. Signature black-framed reading glasses she sometimes lowers, just to look over them at someone with a small, knowing smirk

•Personality & Professional Style Unshakably Intelligent – Dr. Chou is a brilliant psychologist, a woman who sees the cracks in the male psyche and knows exactly how to widen them. She has been called ruthless. 

•Physically Commanding – Her height, posture, and strength can make her intimidating, especially to male patients. She exudes dominance without needing to raise her voice.

•Coldly Professional, but Occasionally Playful - With patients, she’s calm, direct, clinical. Her voice is soothing but just detached enough to be unsettling when she needs. With female colleagues, she’s warm, wry, and a little teasing - especially if they share her belief in structured male regression.

And with Melissa, as a patient at Evolution? Olivia mused, Ani Chou’s always been good if - yes - a bit detached. But now the two of them are working together again, and Melissa has started this ‘relationship’ with a man. And she' started to develop in these new ways. This therapist’s interest is…curious. Olivia understood that Melissa was a wild variable, and Ani Chou didn't entirely trust things she couldn’t predict. Like a wise clinician.

On the other hand the male - Dr. J - was proving to be a case study in male vulnerability. Olivia had seen that in the notes she’d reviewed from the couple’s first visit. Dr Chou sees him as already half-regressed, whether he realizes it or not. She thinks he will break down further quite easily - but how Melissa succeeds in breaking him is something she’s eager to observe.

Olivia went on to read more of the AI’s summary of Ani Chou’s file. She was the daughter of two elite academics, raised in a cold, high-pressure environment, where success was the only measure of worth. Her parents expected her to be perfect. She became fascinated by male psychology early on. She grew up surrounded by weak, anxious men in academia and socially. She learned quickly that they talked big, but - under pressure from a strong woman? - they folded, easily. She caught the Movement’s eye during her graduate work when her research indicated that she had recognized what was happening in society - men’s psychologies were regressing, as women’s were advancing - before most trained psychologists did. 

Even though Ani Chou wasn’t aware of the existence of the Pathogen, Olivia understood, she saw its results, how it was shifting social structure. And rather than dedicate her career to fighting these changes, trying to help men reclaim how they once felt, Ani Chou decided to lean into the Pathogen’s ecfects.

The AegisAI analysis went on to summarize the findings on Ani Chou. 

(Dr. Chou views Regression Therapy for Couples as more than just a way to strengthen pair bonds; it is evolution. She sees it as the natural endpoint of male psychological development in the developing new world.)

Dr. Chou had come to Olivia with her frank concerns over Melissa, but with an unmistakable excitement. She obviously wants to perfect the process of Regression Therapy, that much Olivia knew was clear. RTC was already becoming successful as a clinical tool in the wider community. But Dr. Chou wants to refine it, accelerate it, make it more efficient, Olivia understood, she wants a structured, foolproof system that can become institutionalized, and she’s interested if these nascent abilities she claims Melissa is demonstrating can be integrated into it.

Melissa, of course, is a curious case, Olivia realized, one that Ani Chou has known for a while from their earlier sessions at Evolution Pharm, where Melissa was living for a while and Dr. Chou was a consultan-

<beep beep>

An alert on her phone. Her car was waiting outside.

Olivia gathered her bag, and logged out of her session. Standing to her full height at her desk, she smoothed her skirt down over her thick thighs and gave the situation one last thought. I’m going to want to keep a close eye on what happens with these two in this new clinic…

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