Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Side-sim: Time well spent?

Posted by Lieutenant Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side-sim: Time well spent?

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Side-sim: Time well spent?
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Dira chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before taking another sip “You can only do so much. At least in the Federation, we believe that a patient is a key part of the process of their own healing and mental health. You can remand someone to therapy but if they are unwilling to be there it rarely does anything useful. The same thing with medication. Just like in medicine, you can prescribe medication but compliance with the regimen is up to the patient. If they decide they don’t want to take something we can’t force them. The patient still has to consent to treatment. And even in a penal setting there are the same limitations. Unless they are remanded to a psych facility where treatment is forced upon them to a degree we are limited. And still yet, if we force treatment, do we actually improve their mental health or just induce another trauma on top of whatever else they are experiencing.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“I’m glad that science is not nearly as nuanced as medicine or psychology.” Achilleas laughed before he tried to take another drink of his wine but found the glass empty. With a huff he set the glass on the table and checked to see if the bottle had anything left, which it did not. He got to his feet a little unsteady at first but was sure footed after a couple of sways. All of that sailing made him more sure footed then most. “I’ll be back in juuuust a moment.” He said with a giggle and headed to the kitchen area. After a minute of rummaging around, a soft expletive, and a gentle popping noise, he returned to the couch with a new bottle of red wine.

CSO Petrakos

Dira watched him with slight amusement and maybe a touch of concern. Then again she had nearly finished her second glass and she hadn’t been there all that long. A series of comments or questions floated through her brain but her own thoughts were muddied enough that she wasn’t sure she had a right to say anything. Still, she was conscientious enough to care about his well being. “You okay there?”

Captain Myqian, CO

“Oh fine, just fine. Stupid corkscrew bottle opener was fighting me but I won in the end!” Achilleas said jubilantly as he sat back down and refilled his glass. “Would you like a top off?” He offered.

CSO Petrakos

She shouldn’t. And yet… Dira held out her glass. Some days you just needed to get rather tipsy and she had had a compounding of those days recently that were ow catching up with her. “Sure. I’m on duty tomorrow, after this I might be done. You working tomorrow?”

Captain Myqian, CO

Achilleas shook his head as he topped off Dira’s glass. “No, I kind of planned my alcohol imbibement around a day off. You know, in case my Captain showed up and I decided to drink a bunch.” That thought set him into a giggling fit and it took a real concerted effort to set the wine bottle on the table without spilling any of it.

CSO Petrakos

She smirked at his giggle. “Lucky you. I have no such luck myself. And it’ll be a bit longer before I can take any time off, but to be honest I’m glad to be busy.” She could be idle, but even in her downtime Dira leaned towards more active pursuits. She drank from her glass and tipped her head up towards the ceiling for a moment. Being busy was good, even if all the changes had been a lot. It kept her present in the here and now and that helped immensely.

Captain Myqian, CO

“Why Captain, a wise-ish woman told me that it’s important to do self-care everyday even if it’s just for a half hour. I don’t rightly remember which wise-ish woman told me that but I think it’s excellent advice. Perhaps it’s something you should consider implementing. Just moments for your own self-care.” Achilleas said with a wide, crap eating grin on his face.

CSO Petrakos

She laughed. “That presumes I don’t,” Dira said with a wink. “Just because I’m not able to take proper time off yet, doesn’t mean I don’t take time for myself. Especially as a captain, you are always on call, so you have to steal moments when you can.” Her expression softened. “I have things I do, some of which I have been doing for years. Don’t worry, I practice what I preach.” Dira drank more form her glass.

Captain Myqian, CO

“As long as you’re not one of those doctors who try to heal themselves.” Achilleas likewise took a drink of his wine. “I rarely have a day to lounge and drink wine, especially when I want to check in on Solal but he was emphatic on my taking a full day for myself. That he ‘was fine and didn’t need a mother’. He is stubborn as hell about the oddest things.” He took a larger drink of wine to seemingly was the dissatisfaction away.

CSO Petrakos

She nodded slowly. “Sometimes people just need space to figure things out for themselves. As much as we want to help them get better and be better, or cope, or whatever, in the end it is up to them. The line is knowing when you need to intervene and when to back off, and I know from experience that that line can be hard to find and sometimes exceedingly thin when you do.” She eyed the glass of wine, momentarily lost in thought.

Captain Myqian, CO

Achilleas shrugged as he struggled to find the words to convey his frustration. “It’s not like he and I are married so I get the idea that he wants to be independent and self-sufficient but isn’t the premise of friendship to help cover for what your friend doesn’t have the energy to do? Why we just did a scientific experiment on whether hugs can affect a Vulcan’s autonomic nervous system similarly to a humans.” He would not be sharing this were he not deeply drunk. “Now admittedly he’s also half Human but the results proved positive in lower his resting heartrate after a minute long hug and significantly lowered it at two and a half minutes. I don’t know if a longer hug would have decreased it further because the test subject fell asleep.”

CSO Petrakos