Subject Is Restless, Stressed, And Begging For Neurotoxicant

20250411

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Yvonne sighed. Cross-species communication was a struggle at the best of times, and while she and the Containment Officers were trying their best there was a roadblock.
Specifically, it seemed Calkans didn’t experience boredom. Apparently when Calkans were being held they just… went to sleep! Or something similar. So the fact that humans sat there wide awake and became stressed was causing them bewilderment.
[Are the facilities not restful?] The Medical Officer asked again. Probably trying a slightly different phrasing which got spat out the same path by the translator.
The Chief CO was on a call with three other voices. According to the translator notes turning green was a sign of high stress.
Yvonne wished she knew what to tell them. It was all clearly well-meaning, which was a relief. When you were marched to insulated cells one step up from deprivation chambers you went straight to assuming the worst. But every member of staff she’d spoken to - which, over the past two hours or so, was a lot of people - had taken her complaints seriously and tried to help.
Sadly, with the translator reducing her complaints to something like “We are stressed”, all they could do to help was kick her up the chain of command.
And now here she was with the bigwigs, folks like six times out of her pay grade, trying to break down “we can’t just sleep for three days” in a way that could bridge this gulf.
All this because Gary hadn’t thought to check the local “illegal substances” list!
Oh cripes… that was a thought. She was going to have to explain caffeine withdrawal to a species for whom caffeine was a lethal neurotoxicant.
Without having access to coffee.
“Stressed and restless” was becoming a more accurate diagnosis by the minute.

Prompt was “write about the lost art of boredom”.
[Once again I bounce off crosswise from the prompt. Oops. If I ever expand this I’ll be sure to go into all the new art forms the bored humans invented in the poor Calkans’ containment nap rooms. 😂]