JP: Doctor Renaie Shortrith & Doctor Thessolonia Samantha De La Croix - Things Lost and Found Again (PT2)
Karrod Niac
((Sickbay, Deck 10, USS Ronin))
She pursed her lips and considered the bigger question and found herself surprised to not have a ready answer. Her time talking to Roxanne and reflecting on quite why she’d found her time here so vexing had opened some unexpected pathways in her thinking…and in her feelings.
De La Croix: To be perfectly honest I’m…not entirely sure. My Division 14 duties are fulfilling and far more expansive than what’s expected of me aboard this…so called ship…but I must admit to finding the…rugged nature of the challenge engaging. Loathe as I am to admit it.
A wry smirk crossed Renaie's face.
Shortrith: We all need a good challenge now and again.
Thess laughed a bit but found the words had more truth than she had expected. Something in the way the young Dr. Shortrith had phrased it took hold in her mind and she rolled it over a few times, speaking it out loud as she tried to puzzle it out.
De La Croix: Hmm…I’ve had challenges aplenty in my career…but I’m not certain I’ve had quite so many I’d call a “good challenge.” Hmm…
She found herself biting on her lower lip in thought, a habit she thought she’d kicked any number of years ago.
Tilting their head quizzically, they glanced at her.
Shortrith: How did you think you did? Will you look at Division 14 the same way now? ::a pause:: Do you want to stay?
De La Croix: As a physician I think I did quite well, of course…the patients who I could treat recovered and those I could not passed without undue agonies…which is sometimes the best one can hope for. As for Division 14…the unique nature of the cases that came my way were always the most stimulating of puzzles…of…intellectual exercises. But compared to a hastily cobbled together triage ward, filling with patients from a dozen different species, exposed to conditions I didn’t know existed a few hours before? That was…well, frankly, I don’t quite have the word for it. But…to your final and, perhaps, most pressing question…I am not certain I wish to stay…but I am also far less certain that I wish to go. There is something ephemeral here…and that interests me.
Shortrith: I'll be honest, I've found these ship to be home. I don't want to leave. I hope you may find a similar experience somewhere, if not here.
Home. The word seemed so blasé. So prosaic. So simplistic and sentimental and altogether dull. Yet it spoke to something within Thess, something which she’d buried away with childish things and immature yearnings long ago. Something she’d always thought she had moved on from, or grown far beyond.
Something which she may have been missing terribly for as long as she could remember without the words to say it. Her lips pressed together in a line and she spoke quietly, as if afraid to scare away whatever it was she had wandered near.
De La Croix: Is that…isn’t that the sort of thing you tell children? The sort of…false platitude you say to encourage someone you hope to briefly distract? Is it…Is it real for you? Here? With these people?
Renaie was quiet for a second before exhaling, reflecting on the past year.
Shortrith: When I was on the Astraeus, I had found snippets of places that I semi-associated with home. My childhood best friend, who was an engineer there for a month or two. A welcoming face to sickbay on my first day. A friend or two that I’d made off duty. But then, the Astraeus was sent back to Earth for repairs, and the crew was dispersed throughout the fleet. I felt quite lost when I heard the reassignment news, but when I received orders for the Ronin… After a month or two… I felt like I was in the right place. Finding my way through the chaos that I ended up getting used to. Socializing with people who I could speak casually with and not make it feel awkward. Somewhere I felt I belonged. Where I don’t want to leave. ::They paused for a few seconds, addressing the question.:: I don’t think it’s a false platitude to encourage if it’s true. If it’s real. Which it is for me.
Thess found herself leaning in and listening to this young officer and perhaps truly hearing them for the first time. There was genuine emotion behind their words but there was nothing dishonest in it. The only emotion Thess could truly think to apply was as simple and cliche as they came but, for once, it didn’t seem like some cheap platitude. It didn’t seem like some contrivance or artful turn of phrase. It seemed…real.
De La Croix: Love. You have felt…loved, here. By these people. Aboard this…rough and tumble starship.
It wasn’t really a question for Thess…it was more of a realization. An acknowledgement of a reality that had always been more of an intellectual exercise for her. Something she’d known about, had heard of, and had dismissed as facile and lowly just as quickly.
Renaie thought about it, but nodded. She was right, they did feel loved. They felt the sense of community that was obviously worked hard for and well achieved. Truth be told, before coming to the Ronin, before graduating the Academy, Renaie had known snippets of unconditional love.
But this wasn’t snippets. This was a blanket.
A blanket of unconditional love.
Shortrith: … Yeah.
Thess bit on her lip again and stood, pressing a hand to the young Doctor’s shoulder.
De La Croix: I think I’m starting to see why someone of your age is capable of wearing quite so many hats, Doctor Lieutenant Counselor. You have my thanks…you’ve given me a great deal to think about…something the people aboard this ship seem to have an annoying knack at. I need to consider the matter…perhaps in a different light. You’ll have my answer before this vessel needs to depart for whatever next misadventure befalls it.
Shortrith: ::smiling:: I’m looking forward to it.
Thess found herself smiling as she turned away and headed back towards the small office, no longer seeing the dreary walls or the dated tech. In its place she saw something larger…something vast and complex and so terribly, wonderfully interesting. She saw a future she hadn’t expected. And felt an excitement she could not remember ever knowing before.
Beckie would be downright insufferable.
[End]
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Lieutenant JG Renaie Shortrith, MD
Counsellor/Medical Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
They/Them (Player and character)
A240204RS3
&
Doctor Thessolonia Samantha de la Croix, MD, PHD, FASFS
Duchess of Saint-Malo
Chief Surgeon of a not entirely intolerable rowboat
V239509GT0