Posted by Ensign Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in side-sim Trenton/Fayth Quarters

Posted by Ensign Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in side-sim Trenton/Fayth Quarters

Posted by Ensign Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in side-sim Trenton/Fayth Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(snip)
“We can repurpose items here in the room, or reclaim them to reduce the amount of credits used up.” Sharah heard the thoughts and turned away. She thought back to Zarath ordering them to get extra exercise to help them both sleep. As Ashlyn’s doctor she could easily write up a medical need for it. “Yes it does take all kinds,” she sighs to herself. “If it’s a matter of taking too much time, if you could help us with the diagram and some instructions, we can do it ourselves.” The ensign’s thoughts were upsetting for Sharah. She hated hearing them, and although she was used to being seen as strange, weird, and a pariah it didn’t make it any easier. And she didn’t like this ensign thinking about her friend that way either. She glanced at Ashlyn, the hurt obvious, though Ashlyn wouldn’t know exactly what was wrong. When it came to being in sickbay and anything medical, Sharah was a force to be reckoned with, but outside of that arena she was shy and painfully unsure of herself. She turned back to NE Reese, “We can get everything moved out of the way that we would be keeping, to make it easier. We don’t want to bog you down with this.” Sharah desperately wanted to yell at the ensign to mind her own mind, that what they wanted may seem like a waste of time to her, but was necessary for them. She sits down in a chair, working hard to move above the noise around her, to surf above it, so that she doesn’t hear what the ensign is thinking anymore. The phrase don’t be afraid repeating like a mantra in her head. In this case: don’t be afraid of what others think of you.
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn picked up on the look and though she didn’t understand the why, she did understand what she needed to do. Drown everything out with positive thinking, so while she continued to deal with Ensign Reese, her Conference were having a shouting match over what traits Sharah had that they thought were greatest. Of course, some of them would make sailors blush, and a few of them sounded more carnivorous than flirtatious, they were all significantly louder than Reese. “We’ll get this done quick, the room next door is empty so you two can move in there temporarily so we can do the work unimpeded.” Ashlyn playfully slapped the young Ensign on the back who flinched expecting to be practically knocked over but was surprised by how physically weak Ashlyn was than she was expecting from a Security Officer. “Awesome, we’ll get packed and swap over one. Take care and see you soon.” The Ensign was promptly escorted out, still confused but speechless compared to the near obnoxiousness of the Conference.

Sharah was trying very hard to get on top of the waves away from the noise she was hearing, and Ashlyn’s conference wasn’t making that easy. At the same time, they were so loud the rest was just a buzz compared to the yelling and catcalling of the Trenton conference. Most of it was enough to make her crack a smile and almost laugh. The rest, well, it was inappropriate and made Sharah slightly uncomfortable. But she knew Ashlyn wasn’t going to act on it, and the point, she knew was to help her ignore the other ensign in the room, and it worked. Between the good natured and then the other, Sharah was too distracted by Ashlyn’s noise to ‘hear’ anything else that Reese was thinking. Sharah was immensely grateful to Ashlyn for that. It certainly wasn’t calm and quiet like how Joseph helped her, but Ashlyn did help, in her own unique way, in a very efficient way. Sharah was very lucky to have a good friend with her on board.

As soon as the Ensign was gone, Ashlyn was back beside Sharah. “Hey, you okay?”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Once Reese left, Sharah let out a very sad sigh. “I miss Challenger. Something about everyone being cadets or older officers trained to work with cadets makes it easier. They were hard on us, but no one judged unfairly.” She looked at Ashlyn, “I don’t like hearing what everyone thinks, even the things they don’t know they are thinking. It shouldn’t bother me, our request IS strange, but compared to people who need water pools, or swamps in their quarters, how out there is our request?” Sharah gets up and starts packing her personal things into a bag to move next door. “I’m tired of having to try and be something I’m not. Even on Betazed, I’m different.” She sighs throwing things randomly into her bag, “I’m just having a hard time, adjusting to the noise and … everything.” She missed Joseph the most, but she also missed the med staff and the other cadets. No one there ever looked at her differently. “I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here too.”
En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn moved to stop Sharah from packing to give her a hug. “Stop it, you’re spiraling. You shouldn’t care what other people think because honestly, you are more awesome than any of them. I’m here for you and as long as Starfleet will let me, I’ll continue to be here for you. I know I’m not Joseph and I could never hope to replace him, but I’m here for you. I will sing your praises over the intercom system if you need me to.” Ashlyn was planning it already, her Conference going over ship schematics and computer directories to allow for a rootkit that would give the Security Ensign full unlimited access to the ship’s intercom system with a second-team scribing the message to be read. It’s complete with romanticized descriptions and grievous over exaggerations that would make Shakespear facepalm with utter embarrassment over the butchery of words Ashlyn is attempting to string together in a not really love letter to her Betazoid best friend. “I estimate a week of extra duty after maybe four or five days in the brig. Totally worth it though.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah’s hands stilled and she closed her eyes. Ashlyn was right, she was spiraling, and a lot more than Ashlyn realized. Zarath had given her 48 hours off to get the sleep she needed. She had gotten some, but the chaos of noise that was Europa was a lot stronger than Challenger. It was a lot less than Academy and back home, but there was no escape here. Lt. Marsh had given her permission to design a potential layout for the arboretum. She was going to do that. She was going to go dig her hands in the dirt and listen to the plants, and then focus on designing a better layout. She hugged Ashlyn back and took a deep breath, and then laughed at the silliness and craziness of the Conference. “Okay let’s NOT do that. Nox would probably accuse me of using my condition to make you do that. She already isn’t happy about us sharing a room. Something about cadets being left together make cliques and don’t socialize with the rest of the crew and it’s bad for morale. She questioned me at length about how and why it happened. I assumed that Mika made the request. Maybe Cmdr Ballaris, my doctor from the academy, but I have no idea. A lot of cadets came on board when we did. Maybe there wasn’t a lot of choice?” Sharah stops, she’s rambling in her spiral again. “My appointment was very strange, Ashlyn. And in the end she told me to let her know if I needed to see her. No follow ups, no schedule. What about you?” They had both been seeing counselors for a long time, and often.
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn laughed and shook her head, she hadn’t been at Sharah’s meeting with the counselor but she wished she was. If she thought the offhanded remark was bad flirting, she should see the conversations that go on between the two of them together. More so if she listens in on what’s going on in Ashlyn’s head when she’s making the playful flirtations. “We’re not in School anymore, if adults choose not to socialize with certain people they’re allowed to. It’s not much of a clique if I’m flirting with everyone is it? You and I may be closest, but it’s not like we don’t try to hang out with other people. It’s more like other people are forming the cliques to exclude us because we’re strange to them. I mean, I TEACH Parkour to ANYONE that wants to learn. How is that you and I forming a clique? I mean, if anything is considered you and I in a clique it would be the Conference given you’re the only one that has ever had the guts to annouce that you were at the table.” Ashlyn considered the second question a bit then sighed. “I’m to work on shielding then see her in a week. She wants me able to keep you out of my head, but truth be told, I like you in my head. Most other telepathic people get in there and either freak out or back off because it’s too much noise for them.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah nodded with a huff. “I KNOW. And with all my extra work…well what will be extra work, in the arboretum, it’s not like I won’t be talking to other people. And then my work with Zarath and your duties in security. It’s not like we don’t talk to other officers. It just surprised me. We’ve been here less than 48 hours and that was the assumption.” She shrugs because she can’t do anything about it. “OH! Shielding. That would actually be really good for you to know since you are in security. I actually helped Joseph with it a little bit. He asked me a lot of questions about it. He actually found a Cardassian technique that was very effective in blocking me. I’ll be sure to ask him about it the next time I talk to him.” That didn’t give away his personal secrets. Being able to block a telepath did not make one telepathic. “And Zarath knows how to do it too. We could ask him! I only get from him what he wants me too. It might be an Andorian trait. I’m not sure, but I can ask him when I report for duty tomorrow. Let’s get settled next door and see if we can start with that.” Before Ashlyn can turn away Sharah touches her shoulder. “Just because you WILL be able to block me, doesn’t mean you have to. Your mind doesn’t scare me, it never has. Not even that first time in the gym during Mok’bara. I was startled, but not afraid. And think about it this way. If you can block me you can block any telepath. My condition,” she stops she has to stop thinking like that. “My gift makes me incredibly strong, so if you can block me, no telepath is going to get into your head without your permission or harming you.” Sharah goes back to packing, then she grabs her bonsai tree and the plant food by the sink and her bag. “Ready when you are.”
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn took a little longer to pack than she was used to, most of the stuff would usually be reclaimed with the room and refabricated with the next place she ended up. In this case, their departure was only temporary so she needed to clear more stuff out. Ashlyn’s packing habits were strangely structured and organized to take up as little space as possible. She could easily get twice what most people could into a smaller bag, it was an interesting if almost ritualistic technique. “So in other words, I’ll have a mind no telepath will want to be in. First I’m just a hard target, then when they think they’ve finally gotten in, I’m just too damned noisy. I like the idea, but I’m also sure my fantasies are far from the reality of how shielding will work or how well I’ll be able to do it.” With that, Ashlyn finishes closing up her pack and was ready to go. “We’ll be back here after my next session with Nox and it’ll be awesome, all full of tubes to climb through, it’ll be harder to sneak into your bed at night.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Shara was not surprised by how efficient Ashlyn was or how tightly she could pack everything down. “Actually I think with the conference, all working together, it would work just like that.” She headed for the door and then at Ashlyn’s last comment she picked up a pillow from the couch on her way past and threw it at her. “Stop that!”

Ashlyn took the pillow to the face, snapped her head back and jumped back to fall as if she had been hit with a pile of bricks instead of a pillow. The impact with the ground was controlled and didn’t cause any harm to Ashlyn as she raised a shaky hand into the air. “Alas, betrayed by my best friend!” Ashlyn went limp and let out a ‘bleh’ noise as she pretended to have died, which lasted all of five seconds before she burst into a fit of giggles and got back on her feet to follow her friend into the other room.

Sharah stepped out into the hallway and shook her head. She stepped across the hall to the extra room. It was empty, that was why no one ever came out, though she’d worked hard to not notice. She stepped inside and put her plant down in a window sill. She turned, the inside of the room was made for 2 and not 1, a mirror of theirs. It’d be okay. She closed her eyes…she had to get above it before it got worse. There were no other empty quarters on this deck. She could do it for a week. She fought with the sudden tears and went to put her bag down, blocking the memories. Then she came out and ordered two glasses of ice water and sat on the couch. She waited for Ashlyn. “Okay so the first way to block or shield would be misdirection. So if you don’t want a telepath to know what you are thinking about, you have to make some other thought REALLY loud in your mind. So…” Sharah thinks and then grins. “EVERYONE in your conference needs to think about a peanut butter sandwich! That thought always stands out loudly with just one of them. So let’s try that. You need to think of something else and you don’t want me to know what it is. And when I try to find the thought, everyone should shout Peanut Butter Sandwich over and over until I go away.”
En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn sat down at the other glass of ice water and watched Sharah attentively, stopping to go into deep thought about her comment on the Peanut Butter Sandwich. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure how well that will work. Peanut Butter Sandwich is sort of my derailing measure when I get stuck on a train loop.” So it began, Ashlyn was thinking about her first kiss which was innocent enough to not bother anyone but could still be considered mildly private and desperately tried to cover it up with the Conference calling out ‘Peanut Butter Sandwich’.

“This isn’t working, she’s still watching us make out with Roh. Peanut Butter is meant to be our derailing thought, we need a thought that will derail her instead.” There was some quiet discussion among the Conference when the one that usually derails the thoughts with peanut butter sandwiches mentions her idea. What came next was…not appropriate for a lack of better words. The thoughts involved Joseph, leopard print articles, and was equally distracting for Ashlyn given how much creative thought she was putting into this image for Sharah. The memories of the first kiss were promptly forgotten to make more room for this imaginative creation of Lieutenant Rainns. “Okay, first try…don’t think I did that right.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa