Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-sim Second Chance Dinner

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Joseph Rainns (Incoming Chief of Security) in Side-sim Second Chance Dinner

Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-sim Second Chance Dinner
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Sharah let out a full body laugh, “I HATE small talk. It’s inane. I’ve always got deep thoughts but we’ve already discussed those.” She got up and walked over to the view screen by her desk. “See this, it’s a map of Betazed. I’ve been maping stories, current and historical, of people with my condition. I’ve been trying to find a cause or a cure, or something.” She turns to you, “Or you could teach me to play chess. Mentally, I’m tired enough I can’t cheat.” She raised a brow.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Rainns leaned back, “I’m always happy to learn about new things.” He looked over at the chess set, “besides I’m too tired to focus on that kind of game. Do you have any theories about a possible cure yet?” He asked turning back to Fayth.

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS
“Yes and no. So I’ve been mapping where we all have come from, for as far back as I find references.” She pointed at the map to the view screen. It had purple dots on it to indicate locations, “Some of them are not super accurate. The oldest stories are hard to select an exact location and with the change and movement of the crust layer of the planet it’s hard. That kind of thing is beyond me, so I’ve been doing my best.” She adds another set of blue lines to it. “These show where those people traveled. I haven’t found one spot that they all traveled to.” She stopped, “Sorry I got ahead of myself. Many of the stories talk about the individual traveling far away and then returning and claiming to either be healed or much improved. That’s the blue lines. There is no one place where they all actually meet. I was hoping to find a place with a wild flower or something that would, or maybe a cave with some kind of chemical or mineral effect that would help.” She picks up the PaDD containing her research. After handing it to you she sits down in her chair and rubs her temples. “It’s all coming back in waves, each higher than the last. When I first woke up I couldn’t hear anything. It was so quiet. It was a little disturbing.” She nods to the PaDD, “All the stories have one single thing in common. The ones that managed to get better all use the word, ‘home.’ They found home, they were home, they had returned home. A few over lap in places, but not all of them. And I thought that was the answer. A place somewhere on Betazed. Then Tam Elbrum came along and messed that up. When he decided to stay with Tin Man the report reads that he said, “I’m finally home.” Well I know this species, Tin Man, didn’t come take all of the sick Betazoids away to help them because until Elbrum none of them had left Betazed. So now I don’t know.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Rainns just sat on the couch and watched Fayth with Interest and gratitude. He was happy to see her lively again and to see her passionately talking the way she was. “If you found a cure, would you take it?” He asked after she was done talking.

She sat back down on the couch, stretched her legs out and stared at her hands deep in thought. “Honestly, I…I don’t know. 3, no 5 weeks ago, I would have said yes without a thought. It’s painful, in a very unique way. It’s overwhelming and can be hard to focus. Betazoid telepathy requires extreme control under normal circumstances. Normally we develop our talents at adolesence, I was born with mine already fully developed. It’s scary and frightening to be that young and not understand that what you feel isn’t you, but thousands, millions of other minds. It creates a curiosity or a monster to others. Who wouldn’t want to get rid of it? But then…I woke up in sickbay and it was gone. Not one thought, not one feeling. Nothing. It was unnerving. One doctor from Betazed questioned if the parasite could be used to help people like me, but when he saw how deadly it was, what it had done to me, he squashed that idea. It would mean giving up,” she looked at you and reached out again, ‘this. I walked into that security office and you were there, but you were…gone. And it was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.’

“So to answer your question. I don’t think it would be worth it. But does cure mean totally gone or like typical Betazoids? The word has many meanings.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Rainns nodded, “ I understand that. It’s all you’ve known and it’s taught you a lot about yourself.” He paused for moment. “I don’t think I would make it, I have to have quality alone time or I can’t function.”

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS

Sharah shrugged, “It is all I’ve known. I don’t know how to be alone. I’m not saying I hated it. After Lt. Mika explained to me what was going on I as okay with it. 3 days with nothing. I enjoyed it. After 3 days I didn’t think it would come back, and that would have been okay. It was blissful and peace and it is a memory I will remember for a long time, but now it’s a decision I can’t make in haste. I think Joseph that you have the strength of mind that if it had been you you would have done just fine, but you wouldn’t be who you are now. You’d be a different version of Joseph Rainns. Instead of being alone but never lonely, you’d be a little more like and those who came before, never alone, but always lonely.” She glanced back at her research PaDD, “Well not all of us.”

She squeezed his hand. He looked tired and he had taken in a lot of information the last few days. “I get the hint. You need some of that now. As much as I would love to not end the night.” She was tired too, she’d maybe stretched that mental muscle a little too much for the first stretch, but she should be okay.

Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Joseph maintained his hold on Sharah’s hand looking at her. “Actually I’ve had quite a bit of alone time the last 24 hours, but I’m sure you are tired, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable right now.” He paused, “For what it’s worth, if you didn’t have your abilities I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS

Well I read that one wrong. That’s a first “Actually I’m not tired, maybe stretched that mental muscle a little too far for the first time. Until the last few days I was kept semi sedated a slept a lot. Now I’m back here and so bored it puts me to sleep.” She laced her fingers through his. “I’m not uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. I haven’t been this relaxed in a long time.”
She pondered his words and nodded in agreement, “I know, and it has really made me rethink my…opinion of my ability. Growing up it was always talked about in a negative way. Now, well, I’m really glad I have it so that you can be here.” She paused considering again the events that led them to this point. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Joseph smiled. “If you aren’t careful cadet I might just take you up on that.” He laid back relaxed. His earlier troubles seemed so distant now and he was in a state of happy bliss, a feeling which did not befall him often. He looked around her quarters for moment. “Where did that wine bottle go?” He asked, “ I wouldn’t mind a drink right now.”

LT JG Joseph Rainns-COS
Sharah looked around and spotted the wine bottle across the room. She gently tugged her hand away and got up to get. “Well, lieutenant,” she drawled out, “you should know unless I’m in a lab I tend to be anything but careful. I get too busy and too distracted. You might have to do it for me, if you’re up to the task,” she teased. She poured him a glass and brought her water as well and handed him his glass. “And Joseph, I never say something I don’t mean,” she said putting her hand back in his.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Joseph smiled and took the glass from Fayth, “Than you darling,” he said in a relaxed manner. He took a drink and stared out the window. “If you weren’t in starfleet,” he pondered, “What other occupation would you want?”

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS
“Oh that’s easy. I would love to be part of a new colonization group. The potential for medical research, is astounding. To be able to develop and come up with medicines native to the planet. I mean disease identification would be part of that. That would need to be done prior to settling though or the potential for many of the colonist to die would be huge, but then developing vaccines. Identifying native foods that are safe to eat. That falls under science department more than medical but sometimes medical needs to be consulted because certain enzymes or metabolisms don’t react the same.” She paused, “And what about you? What would you do?”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

“Colonization?” Rainns repeated, “No thank you, I don’t want some unknown bug or parasite killing me in my sleep.” He took a sip of his glass of wine. “I would be a writer, fiction of course, there is very little non-fiction I enjoy.” He looked at Fayth, “I find the idea of crafting a story to be a fascinating craft. Literature is a format where a writer can do anything, persuade, entertain, inform, satirize, and so much more.” He took another drink, “But very few people make an impact with a manuscript.”

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS

She had tried writing a few times, but she was never sure if the stories were her own or were from thoughts she had picked up. “I don’t know. Huge impacts have been made through books. If you check the memoirs of many of the most well known people of history they often mention the writings of a particular author or maybe just a specific book. And they are not nonfiction. Not to say that people aren’t inspired by true events as well. Fictional stories allow our imaginations to stretch from what we know to what is possible. That’s a big deal. Tolkien, Asimov, Bradley, (OOC: assume she lists off a bunch, human and otherwise), some are ancient and they are still relevant. I would say that they have the most lasting legacies of all. Their writings survived being made of paper and maybe degrading into the ages, but instead were deemed worthy of saving and then added to our digital tombs.” She walked into her bedroom and back out holding a stack of books, “I don’t read non-fiction, I get enough of that on my own. Some are authors I love and read over and over, and some I have never heard of. Each has allowed me an escape to characters and places that I can’t predict. I can see how society works for those without my gifts. They give me solace, friendship of a sorts, peace, and mystery. No, writing is an important profession that should be respected for the insight and pleasure they give us.”
Sharah stopped, “Sorry, I really love books.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Rainns’s smile beamed as Fayth began sharing her perspective on literature. It made her all the more attractive to him. He watched her come in and out of bedroom with books. He grinned, “You really are quite the bookworm.” He turned to the stack of books and then back to Sharah. “You aren’t wrong, I guess I just don’t have quite the intensity you do.” He finished his glass of wine. “Ya know in high school I actually wrote a very long rough draft novel. You should’ve seen it, must have been 300 pages or so, most I’ve ever written.”

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS

“I’d love to read it! Oh…I mean, if you wanted to share. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.” She stopped and tilted her head to the side, “Not the intensity I do? Really? I doubt that. Your mind says so much more. Discipline, calm, organized is not a lack of intensity but a great amount put to usefulness. There is a deep well of passion inside you that shows in everything you do. From your work as a security officer to details you observe and your, despite being the biggest introvert ever, compassion for others. Just because it doesn’t explode out of you doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” She sipped her water thinking about her thoughts moments ago, “Take me, I have an intensity for books, yes, but I can’t write. I can devour a book, but I can’t put words to page. I have found that the stories are never mine, they come from all the thoughts I pick up around me, and I never know if the ideas for the story are mine or from somewhere else,” she gestures to the air around her. “The ability to write, I think, is more than intensity and a passion for books.” She leaned against the back of the couch and closed her eyes enjoying the peacefulness she felt.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

“I have no idea where that copy is now,” Rainns sighed, “ Id have to find it.” He listened to what Fayth said and nodded, “ very well, let me put it this way. I don’t have the same external excitement that you do.” He paused as he watched Sharah lean back on the couch with a smile on her face. “ I’m really glad I can help you relax,” he said.

LT JG Joseph Rainns- COS