The Doctor is In

[thecounselor]

[Dr. Price's office is just about exactly what you'd expect from a psychologist's office in the year 6972. There's a large chair next to an equally large and comfortable couch, and a coffee table within reach of both. On the other side of the room, there's large desk with some kind of a computer screen made of glowing light. The metal walls in here have been covered with dark wood paneling, and the lighting is warm and comforting.

There is one of those shitty brass-handled green plastic-shaded lamps on the desk. Why is it there? Aesthetic, apparently.

The desk is flanked by bookshelves filled with nonfiction. There's of course the DSM-40, right next to the DSM-238. Both editions look about the same age, curiously enough. There are also various other books on psychology, psychiatry, and... Artificial Intelligence?

Huh. Everyone's gotta have some hobbies.

There's a long counter with various kinds of tea and a kettle that sits on the counter next to a button, as well as a small sink expressly for washing dishes. There's also a door in the back of the room that probably leads to Dr. Price's personal quarters (good fucking luck).]

((OOC: This is where you can tag if you want to chat with Dr. Price one on one. Y'all know how office hours work by now.))

Comments

[tuskenlancer]

[ The minute the Counselor's "office hours" begin, CT is there. She slips quickly into the room, shutting the door firmly behind her, and then just...stops, back against the wall, taking in every inch of the place. Plush furniture. Wood paneling. Shelves crowded with old-timey paper books, just like the ones that apparently fill the library here.

Nothing like the Mother of Invention. The worried furrow to her brow, momentarily smoothed away when he met her eyes in the lobby, now returns. Finally, she looks at the Counselor himself, and waits for him to speak, not saying a word. ]

[thecounselor]

[The room is warm with the rich smell of fresh coffee, and when she comes in she catches him in the rare human act of taking a sip from a mug. He corrects that error quickly, setting down the mug on the desk and closing out his hard light computer screen with a couple taps against the blue-glowing touch keyboard built into the glass-covered surface of his desk.]

Hello, Agent Connecticut.

[Really now, when has he ever been the first to show his hand?]

Just kind of slides this here; backdated to Wednesday

[thecounselor]

[Price makes himself somewhat scarce outside of his normal office hours.

But a message comes up on her PIP on Wednesday, right after the end of Blaze Dudely's office hours but before his own.

An "appointment reminder" to see Dr. Price.

>Go?]

[tenimuho]

[Tuesday morning, relatively early into office hours (and presumably before group therapy), Oda knocks on the counselor's door politely. Knock, knock.]

Dr. Price, it's Oda.

[thecounselor]

[Group Therapy is going to take the place of his afternoon office hours so that the mod can justify running it when he gets home from work, so he has his whole morning free.]

Come in.

[The office is warm with the smell of coffee, and there's a steaming mug on his desk that he picks up and carries with him as he gets up from his chair to come around to the front of the desk.]

Good morning, Mr. Oda.

[tokencanadian]

[It's sometime after the first therapy session, not too long but not too quickly after it, that there's a knocking at the door. When she's unsure if he's going to answer, she tries the door... and it opens.

This is either a good thing or a bad thing, but she swallows her worries and steps in.]

Hello?

[thecounselor]

[He's in his office with a book that he sets aside when the door opens.]

Good afternoon, Miss Nikos.

monday

[chides]

[ mako's going to be as calm and reasonable as he can when he approaches the counselor's office, giving his door a knock. he's guessing that the counselor can probably see that mako's wanting to chat, if he has access to the security cameras.

either way, this isn't going to be a therapy session. ]

[thecounselor]

Come in.

[Apparently, Mako is right that Dr. Price saw him coming, if the way that he's come around his desk to meet him before Mako even enters the room is an indication.]

8/16

[nightcure]

[ knock knock jerkoff here's the king wanting to have a word with you ]

[thecounselor]

Come in.

[Hello, Your Majesty.]

[goldrighthand]

[Knock knock, Dr. Price. Guess who'd like a little one on one time. He'll wait until the door opens or he's invited in, whichever happens first.]

Dr. Price. I'd like to discuss our situation and our place in it, if you have the time.

[thecounselor]

[Dr. Price opens the door to let him in, standing aside for the enormous man to enter the room.]

Of course, Mr. Ogundimu. Please, come in. Make yourself comfortable.

[andneversaydie]

[...look. Mozu is used to having a lot of work to do, and here, she's... well, she's starting to go stir crazy.

She's not entirely sure how she feels about the doctor, exactly. Of the employees, she's definitely most interested in talking to Fourtinbras, but... well. Maybe she could ask the doctor for a little advice? If this is some kind of "rehabilitation," he'll probably listen to her problems, right?

So she'll knock before entering, then.]

Uh, is this a good time?

[thecounselor]

[When she enters, he's already set his book down and stood to meet her.]

Of course, Miss Mozu. Come in.

[tenimuho]

[Tuesday during office hours, Oda knocks on Price's doors.]

Dr. Price, it's Oda. May I come in?

[He doesn't sound any less polite than he did the last time he stopped by Price's office, before everything happened so much.]

[thecounselor]

Of course.

[Dr. Price looks about the same level of put together as he did during the invasion.

Which is to say, like a theater costume his facade is holding up to the thirty-foot test but despite his remaining poise, he's no longer as in his element as he was when he reigned supreme over the penitentiary.]

week two, thursday

[chides]

[ LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN: ROUND TWO.

knock knock, counselor. ]

...Good afternoon, Dr. Price.

[thecounselor]

Good afternoon, Mr. Mako. Come in.

[He's been making himself scarce since the invasion, except for his office hours. But at first glance he seems like he's had the chance to compose himself much closer to his normal self, despite the disaster that was Tuesday.]

monday afternoon, week 3

[goldrighthand]

[so guess who would like to check on The Boy.

go on, guess.]

I trust you are being taken care of, Doctor Price?

[thecounselor]

I've dealt with worse.

Good afternoon, Mr. Ogundimu.

[Would you like to have a seat?]

[tokencanadian]

[It's Thursday, week 3. Thursday isn't looking so great.

That's why she's here this time, looking... quite a bit more steamed then the last time she was in here.]

Hello? Doctor Price, are you here?

[thecounselor]

[He's here.

He doesn't exactly look like he's been doing any kind of lying about the state of rations, either.]

Ah, hello Miss Nikos.

[neverheardofhim]

[Until now, there'd been nothing to say to Price that hadn't been grumbled about in the halls, to other people or to doctor's face. But the week prior had upped the ante. He'd lost friends both in the past and present, and now, something had to give.

Varric didn't mince words when he entered the office. The door was opened and slammed, and immediately Varric was upon the desk, fists pounding against it.]

You and I are going to talk about how to end this shit show.

[thecounselor]

[Price jolts when the door slams closed, in the way that it sounds like a gunshot, like the creak of a ship being grabbed with a tractor beam and the heat of atmospheric entry and the helplessness of a crash that never comes but the light does and--

The corners of his mouth tighten.]

I'm. Working on it.

[tokencanadian]

[Wednesday, the fifth week, sometime in the evening. Pyrrha doesn't make much of a commotion this time, she just knocks politely and pokes her head in.]

Excuse me? Mister Price?

[thecounselor]

[Depending on how late in the evening, Price may be just getting ready to leave his office for the night. But a voice stops him, either way.]

Yes, Miss Nikos?

[tuskenlancer]

[ Her heart hasn't stopped pounding since the minute she set foot on Blaze's ship. Even after she'd successfully downloaded the files, even after she'd returned "safely" (for some value of "safe") back on board the prison ship, she still hadn't been able to calm her nerves, just waiting for Blaze to jump out and strike her down.

It doesn't happen.

Her memories had helped, oddly enough. Remembering the intel she'd gathered from Project Freelancer, the way she'd found a contact, transmitted it, and finally escaped the whole Project entirely...it helps. You've done this once, you can do it again.

Good thing she hadn't remembered, when Price first asked if she'd be willing to do this, that she'd died in the process the first time around.

She checks the hallway outside the Counselor's office once she gets back to the ship, but no one's around; not surprising, given how few of them are left. It's a lot easier to avoid running into people now. None of Blaze's robots are there either - no evidence of being watched - so she takes a breath, knocks on the door, and when the Counselor answers, enters the room.

She gets right to business this time. As soon as the door is shut and she confirms they're alone, she steps forward, laying the dogtags on the desk in front of him and meeting his eyes. A part of her is watching him, still wondering - will he recognize them? Does he know what she'd done? A larger part is still all but vibrating in mingled apprehension and triumph, leftover adrenaline still coursing through her veins. ]

I got it.

[ She doesn't even remember to call him "sir." ]

[thecounselor]

[He looks at the dog tags that she lays out on his desk, then looks up to meet her eyes.]

Very good, Agent Connecticut.

[He opens up his computer's holographic screen, takes the dog tags and prepares to load them in as he boots up his computer in safe mode.]

Did you have the opportunity to examine what you found?

[It's an implied invitation - if she did, she can brief him on what it is while he loads it safely. If she didn't, then she's welcome to stay and discover with him.]

[neverheardofhim]

[Hey there, Doc. It's Varric again. He doesn't care if you're sleeping or not (really, where does this guy sleep), he's going to pound on this asshole's office door until you answer.]

[thecounselor]

Come in.

[He is at his desk, with his computer screen pulled up and his hands folded behind the keyboard. He closes out the windows that he's using, putting the holographic screen to sleep.

He doesn't look like he's gotten any sleep tonight.]