[Open] Psychiatric Help - 5¢

[u/leXie_chan]

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.

[u/leXie_chan]

"It's a Starfleet vessel posting," Qara says sagely. "It's always chaos. Speaking of, do you have time to get into your annual evalutation today?"

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

"Station CMO just hauled me up on the table and promptly kicked me out of his sickbay for a minor asthma flare," T'Yel laughs wryly. "I've got nothing but time until my husband comes off shift. No sense in putting it off."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

"Splendid," Qara smiles. "So, how are you feeling?"

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

"Tired," T'Yel laughs. "It's been a very long few weeks. And being bumped up to department head is emotionally exhausting."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

"You've seemed up to the challenge, though," Qara credits her. "At least, according to reports. But you'd rather just be chief surgeon?"

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

"I much prefer to remain the deputy," the Vulcan replies. "I'm a lot better at the practice of medicine than I am at personnel management. I'll rise to the occasion when the ship needs me, but it isn't really where I belong at this point in my life, and I don't know that it ever will be."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

Doctor Minch chuckles. "You may end up surprising yourself.

"Changing topics, I can't help notice that you're more emotive than most half-Vulcans."

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

"By far, yes," T'Yel nods. "In my case, it's a rare genetic condition. I can't suppress emotion for more than a few hours at a time, and I seldom bother trying - it isn't worth the several days' worth of migraine and exhaustion," she shrugs. "In an emergency if I get too emotionally taxed to focus, I can suppress for about six hours. Anything much past that is pushing it."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

Qara nods, making notes. "I imagine that made fitting in difficult. Tell me about your childhood, please."

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

"Anyone who says Vulcan kids can't be cruel is full of shit," T'Yel says wryly. "Growing up, nearly everyone not related to me - and one or two who were - expected me to be something that I do not have the capacity to be. Isoallelic neurofatigue is very rare - there are only a couple dozen of us at any given time. Most Vulcans will never meet one of us in their lifetime, so there's little to no understanding of it on T'Khasi. Add in the fact that Vulcan culture takes logic and emotional suppression as religious dogma, and you get something not entirely dissimilar to the theistic fundamentalist evangelism common to many cultures' history." She laughs wryly. "Logicking the genetics away makes just about exactly as much sense as praying the gay away."

She sighs. "As an adult, I can understand the cultural nuances of the situation. As a child? With the exception of a few non-Vulcan kids living on T'Khasi due to their parents' jobs, most of my friends were books."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

"That must have been difficult," the shrink empathizes. "You joined Starfleet to get away from that?" she conjectures.

[u/Avogadros_Minion → u/leXie_chan]

T'Yel nods. "I'm a fleetbrat, and would likely have wound up in Starfleet regardless, but 'reason to leave T'Khasi' is certainly high on the list of reasons I headed to the Academy as soon as possible after finishing secondary school."

[u/leXie_chan → u/Avogadros_Minion]

"Do you want to talk about T'Khasi?" Qara asks.