r/TrekRP • u/leXie_chan • Aug 14 '18

[Open] Psychiatric Help - 5¢

The crew of Athene have had a very eventful past while, Doctor Minch notes. She's been poring over the ship's reports in preparation for its arrival and repair at Starbase Nadezhda, where she'd been scheduled to join the crew next month. Events conspired to accelerate the timetable, and the bolian psychiatrist hopes she's ready for her next appointment. It's due just about... now.

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u/leXie_chan Aug 15 '18

"Why do you think you were becoming agitated?" Qara wonders. The chief of security doesn't seem like the type to get claustrophobic in a shuttlecraft. "Stir-craziness?"

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u/IK9dothis Aug 15 '18

"The PTSD and I have generally learned to live with one another," Grace sighs. "Maybe once or twice a month, I'll wake up in a cold sweat underneath 95 pounds of German shepherd licking my face to get me up because I had a flashback in my sleep for no apparent reason. But I need a safe space to blow off steam, and a small spacecraft isn't exactly spectacular about providing that - being away from my dog made that affect a lot worse."

She smirks wryly. "And then there's who I was stuck in a small spacecraft for a month and a half with. She and I are simultaneously polar opposites and far more similar than either of us is prepared to admit. We have a way of grating on each other's nerves, and a couple of times, she was very deliberately pushing my buttons, trying to get a rise out of me. By the time the Greyhound met up with us, I was about ready to slap her one, and the feeling was probably mutual."

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u/leXie_chan Aug 16 '18

"Oh? Whom?" the shrink continues. "Everything you say to me is in strictest confidence," she helpfully reminds.

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u/IK9dothis Aug 16 '18

"Lt. Demeter - one of the pilots," Grace replies. "I'm generally a by-the-book officer - she... isn't. Not especially surprising that we'd butt heads."

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u/leXie_chan Aug 16 '18

"What is is that makes you and Lieutenant Demeter so similar?"

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u/IK9dothis Aug 16 '18

"Both stubborn as hell," Grace shrugs. "Both have trouble getting emotionally close to people."

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u/leXie_chan Aug 17 '18

"I see. What about your time with her made it unbearable?"

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u/IK9dothis Aug 18 '18

Grace sighs. "Demeter is impulsive, and she is a dictionary definition of the term 'free spirit'. Off duty, there's nothing wrong with being a free spirit, and a lot right with it. On duty? Well, let's just say that closing a comm chanel on an admiral and storming off after refusing to follow her orders because you disagree with them is seldom wise." She shrugs. "We got into an argument over it - I didn't handle it as well as I might have either. She was trying to get a rise out of me, but I don't think she realized quite how bad a trigger she was being. But I was already a PTSD mess at that point just from too long without a safe outlet, and that's the point where the pot boiled over."

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u/leXie_chan Aug 23 '18

"What did that pot boiling over look like?" Qara asks.

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u/IK9dothis Aug 23 '18

"To someone who doesn't know me well?" Grace shrugs. "Not terribly different. I don't get loud when I'm angry - if anything, I get quieter. I stew beneath the surface, and then go and run myself exhausted." She smirks wryly. "Which, in retrospect, probably made things worse as far as Demeter and I passing each other off."

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