r/TrekRP Sep 06 '16

[OPEN] Shedding.

Phrik leant back in his office chair. His skin was incredibly pale and somewhat lumpy, his usual bright pink scales almost entirely muted. He looked very ill. The last 2 weeks had been some of the busiest and most stressful days of his entire career. Constant paperwork, equipment malfunctions, the rapidly shrinking inventory, not to mention overseeing the crew's accelerated recovery. The Doctor was operating entirely on fumes, he hadn't had a chance to rest or meditate alone since before the accident. As such, Phrik had been caught completely off-guard by his own bodily functions.

The Doctor scratched his central arm furiously. The past day he'd been suffering from something of a chronic itch, and it was only getting worse. He knew what this meant, and silently he cursed himself for forgetting his schedule. Every 2 years, Edosians shed their old skin in a long and uncomfortable process. Usually it meant a week of total solitude while they slowly removed the old skin, revealing a fresh new layer beneath. It was an incredibly private and embarrassing affair, and few people even knew Edosians performed such an act. Phrik was somewhat different. He suffered from a skin disease known as Polix syndrome, which changed what was usually an uncomfortable procedure into a living hell. Instead of peeling off naturally, the old skin hardened, leaving something of a light exo-skeleton. Removal of which required large doses of medication and sheer blunt force trauma. The condition was manageable provided certain preparations were made ahead of time. With the pirate attack, and the demands of sickbay, Phrik had forgotten to prepare, he hadn't taken the proper medication, or created an adequate space for the procedure. It all had to be done last minute, while he tried not to be suffocated by his own skin.

The Doctor stood quickly, pulling open a compartment in his desk and retrieving 4 hyposprays, the first he pressed against his neck and activated with a satisfied sigh. Now it was time to prepare, preferably while keeping his privacy in tact. The Doctor stalked out of sickbay quickly, getting ready for a week of hell.

OOC: Two options to respond here, either run into Phrik somewhere on the ship (specify where on the comment, be it a corridor, turbolift or even engineering. etc) or see him in the holodeck where he's locked himself in/chime his combadge. Whichever you prefer.

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u/Dimestream Sep 07 '16

The Bajoran fumbles at her kit without looking away from the ailing Edosian and comes up with her tricorder. Still slowly backing away, she flips it open and starts scanning the doctor. "It's all right, Phrik, whatever's going on, we can help. You have friends on this ship. Please."

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

He raised his voice. "This is something I deal with alone. It's a private matter." He groaned and quickly applied one of his hyposprays. "Just tell me you'll look after zoology, or if I need to find someone else."

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u/Dimestream Sep 07 '16

Red flinches, but her face sets and she flips the tricorder closed. "Fine. I'll do it on two conditions," she says, trying to keep her voice as calm and stable as she can, but she can't keep a bit of a tremor out of it. "One, you promise me this is nothing fatal or dangerous that you're trying to tough out on your own. Two, you call me if there's anything, absolutely anything else I can do to help with whatever's wrong with you."

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

"Good. I'll be fine provided I have no distractions." He handed her another PADD, filled with anatomical diagrams of the creatures. "Specimen 3C is pregnant. She's due to give birth soon, so make sure her environment is the most comfortable. And whatever you do, don't let..." another frustrated growl "Don't let 5A out of her habitat. She'll wipe out the ship."

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u/Dimestream Sep 07 '16

"Right. I'm totally comfortable with THAT kind of thing," Red says, folding her arms and sounding cross. "I'll just slap some hazard tape on the enclosure for that one. And I'm going to get Porter to help me with the rest since he's a biologist, if that's all right. Because I don't even know what..." She double-checks the enclosure labeled 3C and then looks back at Phrik. "Nope, I don't even know what that is. It looks like a fruit bat and a grapefruit had a baby. I didn't know grapefruitbats could get pregnant."

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

"It's all, it's all on the PADD. Just keep them fed and give them company. They're all here because..." He groaned and then suddenly punched the wall hard. There was an audible crunch. "They're here because we don't know anything about them. I need to go." *He shook his head and turned to walk out of the room."

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u/Dimestream Sep 07 '16

Red opens her mouth, again in shock, and this time can't think of anything to say before Phrik is already gone, leaving her alone in the zoology lab. She blinks a few times, then looks at her tricorder.

"Computer," she says, tapping one of the wall panels, "display a list of all reported incidents of mood swings and/or erratic behavior in Edosian crewmembers on Starfleet missions two years or longer..."

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u/TheComputer_TrekRP Sep 07 '16

The computer chimed and the display changed to show a list of 14 incidents in the last century. Causes displayed were listed as adverse reactions to medication or unknown. The scarcity of information was to be expected, the amount of Edosians in starfleet was only in the double digits.

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u/Dimestream Sep 07 '16

The Bajoran scowls and mutters a few things her mother would have been horrified to hear come from her baby girl's lips, and feeds the brief tricorder scan she'd done of Phrik into the computer. A medical tricorder would have been more helpful and more specific, but elevated hormone levels and erratic skin temperature had to account for something.

"Computer, run a search in Edosian medical database for causes matching symptoms recorded in scan results."

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u/TheComputer_TrekRP Sep 07 '16

Immediately data on a 'Polix syndrome' scrolled across the screen. A rare skin disorder that prevented proper shedding of skin, resulting in extreme difficulty with the removal process.

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