• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 3b: Space Therapy

Acewing13

GM
Wiki Moderator
Antioch System, AUS Walpole, in orbit over Tancred

The counseling office on board Statesmen-class spaceships were the definition of low key. With the two constraints of patient privacy and the small amount of pressurized space available, the office was shoved in between the medical bay and the bunks for the enlisted crew. With a tiny reception area just outside the closet that was the counselor's office, it was a testament to how much stock ISOC put into their soldier's mental health.

"I'm sorry for the wait," a harried clerk said, flying in the zero g towards the waiting crew, handling out datapads to do last minute paperwork. "The ship's counselor got sick from the flu bug going around. The substitute is on their way, so just fill out the paperwork and she'll be here by the time you're done."

"Ahh, here she is," the clerk said, nodding to the officer that was coming down the hallway.

The tall, lanky woman floated her way down the hall towards the waiting group. She had a clipboard under her arm- and a datapad in her hand. She tapped furiously away at the datapad without bothering to look away from whatever task she was working on. The closer she got the more annoyed she appeared to be. When she was just close enough to the group she dragged one foot on the ground to stop herself.

"Hello. Yes. For the remainder of the counselor's recovery I will be handling all of your mental and emotional needs. My door is always open," Her voice was dull, like she didn't mean everything she was saying, "Welcome to your very first group therapy session."

Besides the cursory "are you crazy and a threat to the operation?" exam Maksim underwent before joining the crew, he had never set foot in any sort of therapy environment. At first, the idea of group therapy made him sweat, but he relaxed as he realized this would mean all he had to do was keep his mouth shut and let the more talkative team members take up the time. His grey eyes glanced at the others for their reactions.

Eliza had, unknown to her, had the exact same thought as Maksim. Sit here, and let other people talk. Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten that she only needed a topic before she'd have too much to talk about. To her surprise, Archie floated down the corridor to be their therapist. And as such Eliza had like 10 less things she would be able to rant about for a couple reasons. "Archie? Didn't know you did this too. You got the Ph.d for this along with the half dozen others, or were you just the most level headed egghead they could find at short notice?"

Arachne shrugged, "You don't have to have a PsyD to be a counselor.. I have a degree in psychology and I'm certified. Apparently the American Union does not care enough about the mental health of their personnel to get someone with a higher level of training. Don't worry too much, I am trained to handle your mental health- but if it's medication you want you'll have to go to medbay. I know how much you Americans enjoy your medications." She paused for a moment, before briefly smiling, "Veronica."

Eliza gave a grin, familiar jabs settling her nerves at the entire process. "There's my girl. Also fuck you, I don't have medication, except for how awesome I am. And like, the usual shots for space diseases."

Apparently, the counselor and Eliza knew each other. This made Maksim feel a little better -- Eliza seemed to have good instincts in his eyes, so any friend of hers could be trusted. Not completely, of course, but more than Maksim was originally planning on.

"Um," he softly spoke up. "Can I ask a question? About how long will this take?"

There was a short silence between Maksim's question and any sort of response. Arachne looked from him, and then down at her datapad, "An hour. Give or take. I assure you that I will not take up any more of your time that what I am required to. Based on this initial meeting I will schedule more group sessions- or private sessions based on need- or request. Of course, in the future it is more likely that you'll be scheduled with the ship's primary counselor."

"But you're way cuter tho," Eliza said from her relaxed, arms crossed stance. "Way more personable." Now, granted, she didn't know the person that was supposed to do this, but she had it on good authority, her own.

Arachne shrugged, "If you say so."

Benny arrived dashingly late, bundling his way into the room. "H-Hello," he awkwardly waved, removing his satchel and coat. He was no longer lanky, having gained a little more muscle from working out. He did, however, look a little worse for wear since the last mission.

Maksim moved his own stuff off the chair next to his to make room for Benny. He smiled in greeting, happy to see another familiar face and feeling less like a third-wheel now.

"Damn we're just racking up cuties today," Eliza declared, being entirely unhelpful as Ben took his seat. "Did you get more muscly since I last looked you over? Nice," she finished, nodding approvingly.

"Right. Now that you're all here, we can get started." Arachne started back up, barely giving Maksim time to set down. She tap, tapped on her datapad with her stylus, "We'll start with formalities- Especially since I've only interacted with... one of you in any sort of meaningful way. " She cleared her throat and motioned in the air towards herself with a quick, short flick of her wrist, "I am Stabskapitän Arachne Panagiotopoulou. If that is too much of a mouthful for you Americans, you may call me Stabskapitän- or Doctor. Either or, I do not mind either way." Her tone was brisk and clinical as she spoke, "Because this is a group session, please introduce yourselves."

"Uh hi, I'm Elizabeth Bakarra," Eliza started "and I've been sober for 12 minutes." She chuckled at her own joke, mimicking an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Of course making fun of people that we're trying to work through their problems was low hanging fruit, it would still distract her from actually working on herself. "Kidding. I'm Eliza, Liz if you're feeling saucy, and Veronica if you're Archie. I'm a Captain with the Americans, and I earned my place through deed and action. " She crossed her arms. "Also, fuck you Archie, I'm the only American here and you know it. Not my fault you were named after every geological landmass at once."

"A-Actually-" Benny began. Oh dear. "The S-S-Stabskapitän is named f-for a.... a m-mythological s-s-story about a w-woman who is..... is transformed into.... a... a s-spider. A-And the sur-surname-" he was on a roll by this point "d-denotes that, a-a-at some point, some-someone in her f-f-family was called.... g-give me a... second... if I r-rem-remember my G-Greek... Panagiotis?" He looks exceptionally proud of himself.

Arachne tilted her head at Benny, before jotting something down on her pad, "Yes, something like that, but I believe the Captain was attempting to be funny- let us not begin correcting one another. It isn't particularly condusive to a theraputic enviroment."

Deed and action, how very American. Safaa mused to herself as she rounded the corner and floated into the room before catching herself on the opposite wall and magnetizing her boots to the floor. She sat down on an empty chair and briefly eyeballed the room, figuring she probably didn't much of the conversation and nothing particularly useful so far.
"Yes Captain, you see us Germans are of course the galaxy's ranking experts on humour and are thus the only people allowed to determine if anynone else is being funny or not." she quipped with a grin as she took a moment to tie her hair back as it drifted in front of her face. "Oberstabsgefreiter Safaa El Fassi, or Corporal if you want an equivalent for the linguistically uninclined, though I suppose I'm just repeating myself since we've met before."

Camelia was late, sure, but she felt she didn't need to be here anyways. What was the point? Stupid requirements her mother gave her? She rolled her eyes as she walked in, and... Uncomfortably sat on the floor, considering these chairs were not meant for spider butts. Once it came around though, she hesitated. "Camelia. I'm only here because I'm required to.... My mother sent me here because of one too many lab accidents and now I'm a 'danger to myself' and 'need help'" She said those parts sarcastically, but she was clearly annoyed.

Maksim shifted uncomfortably in his chair before speaking up. "Um, hi everyone. I'm Maksim Sanova, archaeologist -- well, studying to be an archaeologist -- and I'm a researcher here." He wasn't sure if he was supposed to add anything else. This felt like the start of a new semester when the teachers would do the awkward "turn to your neighbors and break the ice" activities.

"I was gonna say another cutie had joined us," Eliza rumbled, looking at Safaa with a frown. "But then you called several people in here linguistically challenged." A purposeful pause. "It's not their fault they can't cook pasta." Her frown turned into a smile, a stupid joke that meant nothing, like this meeting. She looked around, before looking at Cam. "Do spider brains need therapy? Aren't you wired different or something? Your mom ain't here, you do you sister from another spinster."

Cam shakes her head. "Thakozois would tell. That snitch."

"Can't you use them spider womanly powers over him? Just stare him down? It literally worked for me," Eliza said, chuckling. "Surely you've got a chance. What's he gonna do, use the FTL lines to call her?"

"Spiderly whatnow?"
 

Acewing13

GM
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Camelia chuckles. "I suppose you have a point; But he also thinks this would be a good idea... So I can get to know you guys better, I guess?"

"Right." Arachne squinted down at her datapad, one could almost hear the dialup tones coming from her brain, "Is this everyone? Are we going to have any more stragglers?" She tapped a few more times on her datapad- likely taking attendance as the stragglers mosied their ways inside, "This is a 'safe place' for all of you to air your greivances. Unless you mention that you plan to hurt yourself, or others, nothing you say in this room will be told to anyone else. This includes complaints about your superiors or other crew members. Let us try to maintain a proffesional and polite enviroment, however."

Or others... Camelia stares at Eliza with amusement.

Eliza's eyes slowly looked over to Cam, and she just stared at the spider.

*Intense staring*

"Since this does appear to be everyone on my list, we will begin our session. Is there anything in particular the group of you would like to start with?- or would you all prefer that I lead our discussion?"

"I wanna congratulate all Spider-kind," Eliza started, "on somehow not being the scariest bug people in the galaxy. I thought giant spiders would be the worst, and it got worse. Always remember," she leveled a commanding finger at the room, "Things can always get worse. Good rule to live by."

Maksim's hands tightened their grip on his arms. He hadn't slept much since that mission. Eliza was right. He didn't think anything remotely as horrible as those things could show up, and they did. What's the point? I never should've come here. He tried to chase the thought away.

Eliza paused, frowning. She sounded like a downer, which she remembered was the opposite of what she wanted here. Not that she really knew what she wanted here. "But you know," she said, arms crossed and leaning all the way back. "Can always get better too. Sort of a glass half broken, glass half usable kinda thing."

"A good view to have, there's nothing wrong with tempering optimism with realism and vice versa." Arachne shifted, and rested one leg over the other. "This is an excellent point of discussion, though. Let's talk about the bugs. This is an excellent time to unpack that experience."

"Speaking of packing, did you leave your guns, Eliza? That would make me more comfortable." She muses, clearly joking around.

"Major wouldn't let me bring any," Eliza grunted. "Something about potential health risk or something, I wasn't listening." Her joking mood was diminished, even as she tried just then. "Ain't much to talk about otherwise. It's just... one more thing in the Universe that won't hesitate to kill you. Giant bugs, again, but now even bigger." Leaning her head back, she stared up at the ceiling with a low sigh.

"Y'all did good though. Better than expected, and you're alive to boot. Bright-side sorta shit, you know?"

"Sure, we did absolutely fantastic." Safaa replied with an audibly sour tone. "Ask the Commonwealth troops who got mowed down by those things how optimistic they're feeling."
She'd quickly decided she was going to embrace the military stereotype of disliking psychologists, or counselors, taking some degree of umbrage with Arachne's overly clinical attitude. Or was it detached? Safaa decided it was a moot point and settled on still not liking her regardless.

Maksim winced as images he'd rather not think about right now surfaced in his mind. He glanced at Arachne, worried that the group might say the wrong thing and frustrate her. She didn't give him the impression that she was easily emotional, but he couldn't help seeing her as an authority figure.

Arachne nodded her head, she didn't tap anything out on her datapad this time, "I understand that can be rough. It's difficult to process something so traumatic in the moment, so after it's over you're left trying to piece together what happened and how you feel about it. It's absolutely normal to be angry or feel depressed. You might even feel guilty, and that's absolutely okay too." She sat her datapad off to the side and leaned forwards, resting her elbows against her knees, "This is unfortunately something you will all be facing often enough. The best thing you can do is find a way to cope with it and don't be afraid to come here- or the medical bay if you find yourself on the edge."

Her eyes fell onto Safaa, "You did do fantastic. What's something you do for stress relief?"

"Not.... this." Safaa replied, giving a small dismissive wave at the room. "And nothing I can easily do given we're stuck in a hamster-cage of a base surrounded by hostile atmosphere."
Not being able to do any of her regular outdoor activities had left her feeling a bit stir-crazy, and engineering projects in the workshop only went so far in tempering her stress.
There was an irony in having come out so far into space only to be stuck in a base where the outside air was less-than tolerable and Safaa was painfully aware of it. She was also ready break the counselor's datapad in half if she suggested Safaa get a new hobby she could pursue instead.

"Find something. There's a gym. See if anyone is willing to spar with you. Masturbate. You need to find something to occupy your brain and reduce your stress or you're going going snap. Do laps around the facility if you're hard pressed to find something else." Arachne sat up and then leaned backwards into her chair.
A very slight grin formed on her lips for a moment- perhaps it was only a trick of the light, "Have you ever tried knitting?"

"Or cooking," Maksim added quietly, trying to be helpful. He knew how important it was to keep busy around here. Any second of spare time left him feeling suffocated. "You could always train with Ben, Eliza, and I."

Benny had zoned out thinking about the meaning's of everyone's names, until Maksim mentioned him. "Aaa-h yes, y-yes," he nodded with a clearly fake smile on his face. It was obvious that he had no idea what had been happening for the last ten or fifteen minutes.

"If anything, I'd love to learn more about the whole... Mech thing you've got going on." Camelia chitters towards Safaa. "It'd be less... Work, than training with the three amigos."

Safaa gave a glare that looked like it could incinerate someone, but opted to reign it in before doing something she'd possibly regret later if only because of the administrative backlash.
"It's not a mech, they're cybernetically connected arms. It's like being able to plug extra limbs in, also any likeness to a spider and/or Theradactan is purely coincidental."
She leaned back and crossed her arms, turning her attnetion back to the counselor.
"Funny, you say that like there's some miracle solution on the table here. Have you ever actually been on the front lines or do you stay behind a desk all day?"

Arachne raised her eyebrows at Safaa- content to let the rest of the (more amicable) crowd pipe in, "Im not telling you that anything Im going to tell you in this room is a solution. That isn't how mental health works. Everything I have to give you here is just to help you cope- and what helps you isn't always going to help anyone else. None of this is going to work unless you put effort into it." She paused for a moment and closed her eyes- brow wriggling as she performed some silent ritual in her head, "If you can remember back to just prior to our session starting you might have heard the clerk telling all of you that I am the substitute counselor." Her eyes opened back up and her lips worked into a smile, "I was there when first contact was made. A very large portion of my normal duties require me to be... boots on the ground." She stopped leaning and slowly sat back in her seat as she spoke, "I was once an enlisted woman like yourself- when I was younger. Do you have any more questions about my credentials? I am more than happy to share if it helps put you at ease."

"In fact. If any of the rest of you have any questions, I am happy to answer them. This is your time- after all."

"You can't put Archie behind a desk," Eliza chuckled, "You might as well shoot everyone else in the room to save them from the pain. Like keeping a neoraptor in handcuffs, it won't save you." Eliza leaned back, confident in her position on this darn couch. "She's gotta be in the lab, probably with a dozen different knives, doin science and shit. Only reason she ain't still slinging lead is because of that brain. Though, that brain probably pays a lot more," she said with a playful roll of the eyes.

"Um, actually...I have a question." The Kitezhian muttered. "Since a lot of people here have combat experience...do you ever get used to it?" He swallowed, trying to keep from getting choked up. "The violence, the smell, the sounds. When are you able to stop thinking about it?"

"Ah." Arachne crossed one leg over the other, "My experience with... battlefield 'combat' is limited, but I have experienced death in the field. Violent death. The most recent of which was a young woman, a civilian. Barely an adult. I think about her in my quiet moments. Not every day, there are days that I don't think about it." Her face scrunched up, "It's very likely that you won't ever stop thinking about it. You'll learn how to live with it though. Questions like that are why most postings have a chaplain or a counselor- if not both."
 

Acewing13

GM
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Well that killed the vibe real quick. Eliza's confident smile became hollow, dropping to a frown that some might call sad. Others might call it angry. She only just barely kept the fire in her eyes from flicking to the spider in the room, memories of that bullshit of a day returning from the dark pit on her mind, where it had remained in a bottle, to be eventually forgotten. Or not, perhaps.

"The second you get used to it, as in you no longer feel shit when that stuff happens, you might as well be a robot. It's not fun, it's never been fun, it's never gonna be fun." She crossed her arms, once more in a subconsiously defensive stance. "The ones that hurt the most are the ones you could have helped. If you'd just... done something different. Anything." She sighed deeply, as if trying to expel years of death from her body in a single breath. "Mak, buddy, you're gonna be able to remember it forever. It'll fade with time. Never completely, or maybe I'm just fucking lucky," she seethed at herself.

He nodded, but halfway through Eliza's answer his eyes shot to the ground and stayed there. He sucked in a breath. "I just wish -- " His voice caught, and his next words were strained with emotion. "Why does it have to be like this? The fear, the guilt -- everything!" Hot tears began to run down the sides of his reddening face, his accent coming back strong as it did when he let himself go. "If I cannot change what happened, if I cannot go back, then why does it last? Why does it hurt so much?" He tried to catch a shaky breath. "Why do I just have to live with it? How am I ever supposed to?"

Camelia watches everyone answer the question, and she pulls her legs in, and underneat her. Spider-loaf was the best way to describe her sitting position right now. "You know, I'd do anything to change what happened for me to end up here. What I did had ended a lot of lives. It's not like I chose to, of course, but... I understand the guilt, I do. Guilt is a motivator for me, I suppose. Otherwise, I'd have been gone a while ago. You can't change the past, but I was told I could help change the future by being here, helping the humans do what you do best, even with swords and guns and... A lot of death. It's part of life." She paused, not wanting to seem like she was just simply running her mouth. "I'm sorry." She chitters, looking at the floor directly in front of her. "What I'm saying is... You're doing good by being here. That's the burden of living, is helping change the future."

Benjamin remained silent, but gently placed his hand on Maksim's back. He was never good with emotions, not really, but he could be pretty comforting. Something about his height, he thought.

"W-We're all... in it t-t-together," he nodded, in his attempt to be reassuring. They were - one person's loss was felt by the others.

Maksim wiped his eyes, feeling foolish for letting himself rant like that. He looked up at Camelia. Something in her words resonated with him. Maybe he could relate to the Theradectan more than he first realized. "You're right." He smiled sheepishly at the group. "You guys are right, thank you. I'm sorry for acting like this..."

Safaa pitched an eyebrow at the topic of conversation, Maksim's outburst did raise a point she'd been mulling over in the back of her mind since they'd gotten back.
"Is is standard AU policy to just hurl everyone into the front lines, scientists included? There's a reason you have people like us, and her" she nodded at Eliza. "to lead the way."

"I am a GDW Officer, not an American Officer. " Arachne tilted her head, giving Safaa a strange sort of look, "I am an officer first, and a scientist second. I am every bit fit to lead. Regardless, some fields of science require Frontline work. I am a Xenopathologist. It is generally my goal to find diseases before they find you. Often this means going to hostile places. It is what it is."

"She's a little bit right, Archie," Eliza huffed. "Not about you, you're trained for it. They ain't," she said gesturing to the two researchers. "They weren't supposed to be there. Some bullshit about 'We don't know what we'll find!' and I was like 'Yes we do, it'll be dangerous no matter what' and lo and behold, I'm a fuckin genius. A prophet. Prophetess? Same shit. I said we should have cleared the area before we bring any non-combatants in."

"Ah, fair point. My apologies. I am in agreement." Arachne glanced over the other researchers, "They have a point about not knowing what we might find, it will be helpful to have a wide breadth of expertise, but I am not the biggest fan of sending non-combatants into such a dangerous place. They did the same with the Surveyor Corps. Dangerous flora and fauna was always a looming threat."

Maksim's eyes widened as he shook his head. "I don't want to be a burden -- I can learn to deal with the combat," he insisted. "Eliza's been training me, after all. It's nobody's fault that we got in this situation."

"You're not a burden," Eliza started in Mak's own defense, before grunting. "Well, only a little bit. Actually, thanks to me you're less of a non-combatant and more of a 'rarely-combatant.'"

Benny was indeed a burden. Despite Eliza's training, he seemed utterly incapable. At least he was... adequate... at negotiation. A shiver ran down his spine and he shook his head. "P-People being... in p-places they uhh... they shuhh-shuhhhh-shouldn't be," he shrugged, contemplating the idea of this whole situation not being anyone's fault.
 

Acewing13

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Safaa pitched a small, but undoubly smug, smile at the conversational win as Eliza backed her up.
"It's a shame we can't have you guys do your work by remote, or stick you in power armour thick enough to tank a small nuke. But on the bright side you haven't accidentally taken a shot at us yet in a firefight." she joked.
All this discussion regarding non-combatants in the middle of a gunfight reminded her of the Pioneer training, and in hindsight there were functionally no "academically-oriented" candiates. Everyone there had backgrounds in applied or technical fields with enough variety they could probably build and run an outpost, but no-one with a degree in the classics.
"Have you considered getting an augmentation or two to help pick up the slack?" she asked in the direction of Maksim and Benny.

Arachne nodded along with people as they spoke- taking back up her pad to take notes once again, "You could absolutely do that, it isn't a terrible decision If you are worried about your long-term survival in the field. There's generally grants available- although they are usually for Infantry and the sort."

"Do you think you could create an augementation for me?" Cam asks Safaa. "I've seen you in fights. You've seen me in fights. I'm good at hiding and biting but.... I don't know. I'd like to do more." Cam tilts her head. "There is a human film - Thak made me watch it. It was about an iron man and a spider boy. Can I do something like that?"

"Er, building that level of tech is way out of my wheelhouse here. I'm a field-tech, not a doctor. I'm not even sure how compatible these implants are with Theradactan physiology." Safaa replied, running a hand along the back of her head. "Also, I'm not sure you need even more arms."

"Well, I've thought about it before," Maksim said, referring to Safaa's question. "Many people on Kitezh had augments...it's just that I was too young to receive any before I left." He twiddled his thumbs. "Maybe I should consider it now, if it would be helpful."

"Either that or you put in the training," Eliza huffed. Augmentations. Great for cannon fodder, since they didn't have the skills to back it up. She didn't need them, she was already the best, didn't need to also be the Terminator. "But you don't have the time to go back and actually do the decades of work required. Even with the tech, I bet y'all wouldn't last a day in the Swamps of Horrific Immorality." SHe waggled her fingers around mysteriously as she smiled. "Now that shit's scary."

"Stop trying to scare them- that's terrible counterproductive to what therapy is supposed to be for, Veronica." Arachne shook her head and let out a soft 'tsk' sound, "You can continue seeking training from other personnel, I am sure there are plenty of people around here that would find... some sort of satisfaction behind teaching the 'nerds' how to be proper soldiers. Isn't that right?" She stared pointedly at Eliza with the start of a smirk on her lips, "I have... most of my lab work caught up on and will be joining the lot of you in the field again. If Eliza is unable or unwilling to teach you, you are welcome to come find me in the free time I can spare."

"Some of us had to work for our augmentations, especially if we can't do any fancy magic." Safaa retorted, crossing her arms. "There's no point in gearing someone up if they're not going to put the work in, you might as well just send in a tin robot than a person instead." She was somewhat rilled by Eliza's blase dismissal of augmentations with a sweeping generalization.

Benjamin had somehow procured a glass of water during the conversation, and choked a little. This tension was not going to be good. "I am uh... h-h-happy... for a r-r-r-robot to be... s-sent in.... aha..." he chuckled, weakly, giving his shit attempt at solving the situation as his eyes darted between Safaa and Eliza.

"Yeah, you had the time to work for it, to have the skills which are then upped by the augments, but Ben and Mak don't." When did Benjamin get water? He hadn't left. Had he? She would have noticed, surely. "How would they get augmentations now? That shit requires surgery, and we are in the middle of buttfuck nowhere without a paddle to bat away the shit monsters of the similarly labeled creek. Step one, they need guns. That's done. Step two, training with said guns, and I am doing that," she grumbled at Arachne, "and have been, Archie."

"Step three is survive the horrors of space and get the fuck back to civilization. And then train more, because it's only a matter of time before the next threat to humanity shows up!" She took a breath, one she didn't realize she'd been cycling for a minute or so now, steadily growing faster. "Because it will come, gentlemen, gentlewomen, gentleothers. Spiders and humans alike. And if we're not ready we can't do jack shit to help. I don't know how I got to this topic."

"Maywetalkaboutsomethingelse?" Maksim blurted, then instantly felt guilty for saying it. He felt partially responsible for the topic coming up, after all.

"Admittedly this seems like a good spot to begin wrapping our session up. Does anyone have any closing remarks? Do any of you want to be scheduled with a follow-up appointment with the primary therapist? It might help to do future sessions privately. Even if you say no now, you can reach out to me in secret and we will schedule you an appointment. Just in case you are afraid to be judged by others, it is normal to feel this way. No shame in it." Arachne holds up her hands and offers a friendly smile to everyone, individually giving eye contact to each member of the group, "Even if not, I will be seeing all of you in an official capacity starting tomorrow. You will no longer be running an officer short. Someone has to babysit the Captain, no?"

"Actually he's a major now," Eliza chuckled. Certainly she wasn't the captain in questionk, she was too busy babysitting the nerds from imminent mortal danger to be babysat. So clearly Archie meant the boss. "We need more eyes on our little nerd bois. Granted, the spider does have plenty for it."

"Mm."
 
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