ways_infirmary | in the shrink corner

Gus wanders into the infirmary, not sharing the same comfort as Malcolm. He's been in here more than usual lately, and still isn't sure why he let Guppy talk him into this.

Nonetheless, he presses onward, looking around the infirmary as though expecting someone to jump out at him.

"Hello?" he calls hesitantly.

"Hi," Malcolm calls back, his voice confident and welcoming. He sets his notebook down and stands up to greet Gus with a smile.

"I'm Dr. Malcolm Crowe, but feel free to just call me Malcolm."

Finally seeing the man face to face, Gus is taken aback slightly. He was expecting like... a skinny geek with glasses and a sweater vest.

He probably would have preferred the geek, actually.

"I'm Gus," he says, offering a hesitant hand. "You already knew that."

Malcolm is definitely not the skinny geek type, but he's had plenty of experience at carrying himself with a non-threatening demeanor, which is what he's doing now.

"Pleased to meet you, Gus." Malcolm steps aside and gestures to the space behind him where a small couch and some arm chairs are in a small circle, "Help yourself to a seat and we can talk about what's on your mind."

Gus goes immediately for one of the arm chairs, and as he sits, he can't help but wonder if it's some sort of a test. As if whatever he picks might make some sort of difference.

"Doc said I should talk to someone about... things. Said he's not trained in all this."

He pauses for just a moment before adding, "Recommended you personally."

Malcolm suppresses a wince at the mention of 'Doc'--for a second he thought Gus meant--. But, of course, he means Guppy.

As for the choice of chair being a test, well, let's just say Gus is lucky Peter Venkman isn't around as much these days.

"I usually do handle talking to people about things, that's true. Guppy and I have worked together a lot over the years."

"Are these new things, or have they been around a while?"

Gus has been too busy being a bit self-absorbed to be aware of any other Doc round Milliways.

"He's... he's a good guy," Gus says, taking time to consider every word. Praise is obviously an awkward thing for him.

"But they're these panic attack things. Just started a couple weeks ago, and I'm not getting any sleep cause of them."

"Ok," Malcolm nods, as if panic attacks were the most natural and understandable thing in the world. Which is more true than not in his line of work, depending on how you look at it.

"The lack of sleep is something we can take care of in different ways. The attacks too, probably."

"But lets back up a little. Can you tell me a little about yourself and where you're from? That's usually the best place to start."

Malcolm's been at Milliways long enough to know not all Earths are alike. Let alone all the other places.

He shifts in his seat slightly.

"Uhm," he starts, but doesn't get any farther before he starts to fidget a bit.

Every instinct he has is telling him that this was a Very Bad Idea, and that he shouldn't have listened to Guppy. But, at the same time, he would very much like to at least pretend at being normal again.

"This is all in confidence, right?" he asks finally.

Malcolm looks more serious for a moment. "Completely."

"There may be circumstances where I need to talk to Guppy in confidence--strictly in regard to health concerns. But aside from that, whatever you tell me stays with me, unless you say otherwise."

This is a good time to practise that pesky honesty thing that Gus has never been very good at.

"Doc knows most this stuff anyway," he says. Mainly because he began to lose track of his own lies, more than anything.

"S'just... the last time I did anything like this, it was courtesy the Nevada Department of Corrections." He laughs nervously and then looks away again.

Malcolm nods sympathetically, "I can see how that would be a problem."

That... wasn't the reaction Gus was expecting. He's not sure what he was expecting, but that wasn't it.

"There's the answer to your question, I guess," he says. "I spent a lot of time in prison, and a lot more time doing things to get me there. Don't know what I could possibly be stressed about here."

He shifts again, pulling a face as though the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Don't dick this guy around, or he won't help you.

"I can think of a few reasons," Malcolm offers.

Hell, it was a rare person who managed to live in Milliways without some kind of stress.

"But let's move along to that thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. How well can you remember it?"

"I went out with a... with someone. I don't really know how it worked. I saw the door open, and thought I could go home, but it was her world, instead." He grinds his teeth just at the thought.

"It was horrible."

Malcolm nods sympathetically. "That's happened to me too. The way I understand it, whoever opens the Door determines which world it leads to."

"What was this world like?"

(ooc: sorry for the delay--RL interrupted)

"Nothing I ever seen," he answers. "It was like Mad Max with zombies."

[ooc: no worries. It happens]

Malcolm lets out a slow breath.

"Yeah. That had to've been a shock."

"How long were you there?"

"Coupla days," he says. "S'when these... panic things started happening."

"That sounds like it could be a long time in a place like that."

"Sorry to have to ask this, but it's the sort of thing I have to: what's the one thing you remember most clearly about that place? Is there anything that stands out more than anything else?"

He takes a long time to think.

"I don't know," he says finally. "The whole thing was just nuts. I nearly got eaten by this giant crab thing, and there were zombies, and that nut with the shotgun."

He rubs his face.

"I tried to block most of it out."

Malcolm shuts his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. Milliways always finds a way to make things completely nuts.

"Ok, yeah. Hard to pull one thing out of an experience like that."

"Let's try something different. The panic attacks. Did they start while you were still there, or were they something you started having after you got back here?"

"There," he says. "Right after the guy with the shotgun."

For a criminal, he's quite the pacifist.

"Do you remember anything from that first attack?"

"How it started, what it felt like, how long it lasted, that sort of thing?"

"I remembered getting shot," Gus says. "Back home. I was too busy feeling like I was having a heart attack to take notes."

Malcolm nods. "Got it." That heart attack comment was just the thing he'd been looking for.

"Heart palpitations. How about sweating? Nausea? Dizziness? Chills?"

Malcolm's voice is doctorly, referring to these things only as medical conditions, symptoms to be treated and not anything else.

"Yeah," he confirms. "Woke up a few times from it, too. Never done that before, either."

"Well," Malcolm ponders. "I could suggest to Bar that she give something to help you sleep."

"That wouldn't really solve the problem, but you could get some rest. First things first."

"Doc said the same thing," Gus says. "I think that's why he sent me here."

"Did he actually suggest any medication?"

Malcolm starts flipping through Gus's file again. He didn't recall seeing anything prescribed yet, but he might have missed it.

"No," Gus answers. "He said he was 'hesitant'."

Malcom nods. "We both like to avoid prescribing medication if we think something else might work."

"On the other hand," Malcolm half-shrugs, "If you're not sleeping, that's going to make everything else more difficult."

"I'm not even sure what the hell's going on any more," Gus says. "Whatever you think'll work, man."

"All right. I'll touch base with Guppy, get his second opinion, and then I'll talk to Bar. We'll see what we can do."

"And Gus," Malcolm adds. "This place can get to anyone sometimes. But from what you've told me, this sounds like something the medicine of our time should be able to cope with. Ok?"

"Right," Gus says flatly. "Whatever it is, I just want it to stop, okay?"

Malcolm nods gravely. "We're working on it, Gus. We're working on it."

"Good," Gus says. "Cause I don't know how much more of this I can take."

in the shrink corner

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