<snip>

After the antiseptic brightness of sickbay, the counsellor’s office was a wash of soothing blue with pops of colour to highlight the overall ambience of the room. Although Miya was still nervous, anticipating this interview with greater than usual concern, the lieutenant commander’s greeting made her feel more at ease. “Hello … Vanessa.” With an almost natural smile, she clasped the woman’s outstretched hand. “Thank you for the offer - could I have a glass of water, please?” Maybe the replicators here will have kava juice programmed into them. I’ll have to ask someone later.

She slipped the strap of the carryall off her shoulder as she subsided onto the shorter end of the sofa, letting her bag settle to the floor. Miya took advantage of the moment to look around the room, storing the memory away for revisiting later. One day, if the Prophets are willing, I’ll be doing this with new crew members! It was both a scary and an exciting thought; she smiled, more broadly this time. One day .....

[Cadet Ven Miya]

The counselor nodded and approached the food slot. “One water, chilled, and one hot chocolate.” A moment later, after he whine of the replication process had ended, she lifted the glass and mug on saucer and carried them to the couch. She handed Miya’s glass over and sipped her own chocolate, relishing the spreading warmth for just a moment.

“I noticed quite a few more psychology and mental health courses than normal in your transcript,” she began. “Are you going for a mental health certification?”

OOC: BTW, how is Miya pronounced? Like ‘Maya’, or is it ‘Meeya’, or some other way I’m not thinking of? lol

Lt. Cmdr. Lofton - CNS

(OOC: It’s ‘Meeya’ - thanks for asking! :D)

Miya reached up to take the chilled water, condensation already beginning to mist the outside of the glass. “Thank you, Coun - ah, Vanessa,” she corrected herself quickly and took advantage of the counsellor’s enjoyment of her hot chocolate to sip at her own drink.

The woman’s comment didn’t surprise her; after all, Lieutenant T’Saie had made a similar remark during their first meeting just a short time previously. “Yes - in time, I would like to undertake more mental health qualifications, but I have to finish my medical training first,” she added, to ensure the counsellor knew she was aware of the first steps she had to undertake. “The courses I took at the Academy built on my earlier role before I joined Starfleet; I wanted to learn more about psychology and associated areas so I could work towards my eventual goal, which is to become a counsellor.” She glanced quickly around the room before returning her gaze to Vanessa, a shy but proud smile touching her lips. “And fulfil the will of the Prophets, of course.” She didn’t feel any reluctance to share that information with the counsellor, unlike her earlier meeting with T’Saie.

[Cadet Ven Miya]

Vanessa’s face brightened with a smile. “Wonderful! I’m so glad to hear that. We need all the help we can get out here,” she laughed. “Now, this is a very informal session,” she continued, crossing her legs. “If Starfleet didn’t think you were ready, you wouldn’t be here; this is for me to get to know you, and how we can best help you succeed in your time aboard the Challenger.”

She folded her hands on the top knee and bounced the dangling leg a couple of times. “Tell me a little bit about growing up in a household with two vedeks,” she said, curiosity evident on her face. Vedeks were the second highest rank in the Bajoran church, so not precisely common, and to be raised by two of them… to say Vanessa was interested in Miya’s views on the experience was putting it lightly.

OOC: Let’s talk a little bit about snipping or trimming posts. When a thread starts to get long, we can trim some of the excess posts, as I did above. We want to be careful to leave enough in that context is still evident, but take out anything that isn’t necessarily needed for this post. For a two person conversation, I find that leaving in three posts is a good limit - I delete anything with four >>>> and higher. Once you get to that level, you’ll notice that the system stops displaying who the posts were by, anyway, and says

(X) Posts Suppressed by the Post Ghost (?)

or something like that. You’ll notice that’s what I did here - I left three posts, one by you, then me, then you again.

For conversations with more than two people, a good rule of thumb is to include at least the last post by every participant. It can be a little tricky trying to figure out when and where to trim, but it can really save on scrolling so much lol. That’s a big reason we sign our posts - it’s much easier to tell who write what in a trimmed post that way.

Lt. Cmdr. Lofton - CNS