Post by Michael Callahan on Mar 3, 2013 23:22:08 GMT -4
January 15th, 2012
Temecula, California
Suburban California as one could expect was, unsurprisingly, an absolute minefield of troubled people ready for the astute eye of Dr. Gray. Housewives needing mollies, cheating husbands and their STI guilt, all manner of grizzly people leading grizzly lives that all required some form of treatment. Never too busy but never too quiet, it was here in Temecula and indeed here in California where Dr. Alexander Gray first opened up shop. It was also here that he met his second patient, Victor Zzyx, a former soldier suffering from PTSD.
As Gray sat at his desk observing the anxious GI, The GI twiddled his tumbs in a circle not willing to take a seat.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now then, Mr. Zzyzx. What brings you to my clinic today?
The GI: I'm here... I'm here because... I … I can't... I can't let go man. I can't let go.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Please, have a seat and calm yourself down. Would you like to take a mild sedative, to calm your nerves?
Gray gestures to the reclining couch just near the desk so that GI can lie down, relax and tell his story.
The GI: Sure... sure. Just take me out of the battlefield man. All I see when I close my eyes... is is is gunshots... whizzing past my head.
Gray smiled and reached into the top draw of his deck to pull out a large quantity of a clear liquid packed into a syringe. Stepping out from behind his desk, he slipped off his jacket and walked towards The GI.
Dr. Alexander Gray: I got just the trick for that my friend. Tense your arm.
The GI clenched as Dr. Gray slipped the needle into his arm and pumped in the sedative, slowly pumping through his veins to dull him down and calm him.
The GI: Aghhh!
Dr. Alexander Gray: Very good. Now... do you feel light headed?
The GI: Yeah... yeah... I feel... I feel calmer. The bullets don't sound so loud now.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now I've had a look through your medical records and I understand that you've just recently retired from active service in our nation's armed forces. Would that be correct Mr. Zzyzx?
The GI: Ye-yes... yes sir. I feel woozy.
The room around The GI starts to spin and he feels a bit nauseous. Gray seems like he's slipping further and further away, his desk seeming more out of reach than it did before. His eyes begin to dilate and roll around.
Dr. Alexander Gray: That's to be expected, the sedative is having it's effect. Now, you must've seen some pretty shocking things on that battlefield.
GI's eyes went deer in the headlights at the mention of the war, remembering the disgusting things he'd seen on the soldier side and starting to shake again even under the effects of the drugs.
The GI: So much blood... so much death... innocent lives... aggghhhh...
Dr. Alexander Gray: Calm yourself, Mr. Zzyzx. Calm yourself. You're not in the line of fire now. You're here in my nice, safe office. Listen to the sound of the clock ticking and focus, to remind you where we are.
The GI: … Okay...
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now what you have sir is a case of what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a disease of the mind brought upon by shocking and disturbing events which lead to impaired mental functions an inability to cope with day to day life as you struggle with the memories. I imagine you've seen a lot of nasty things done to good people and it's really affected your mind... but for now Zzyzx, I want you to cast your mind to a happier place as I try and tell you how it is I intend to treat your ailments. Can you do that?
The GI: I can't think of any happier place....
Dr. Gray smiles and pulls out a post-card from his desk saying “Greetings from Honolulu!” in big blue letters. It looks like something out of the 80's. Gray passes it across the table to GI who starts staring at it.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Think of yourself as a glass statue on a beautiful tropical beach. There's a hole in the toe and tide is coming in rapidly. Imagine that hole in your toe slowly filling you up with the swish and wash of the seawater, only for tide to go out and for all the water to flush out of your body again. Nothing can hurt you on this beach, nothing at all. Just focus on the clock and think about it. Can you do that?
The GI: Sir, yes sir.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now... normally a psychological debriefing is what would be issued to a gentleman such as yourself. That's where I give you the chance to talk about what you did, what you saw, what you felt about it in a safe environment, free of judgement. Nobody is looking down on you now Mr. Zzyzx. You are looking straight ahead, straight forward. Now, instead of a debriefing alone, we're going to try and do something. We're going to try and ease you back into a life by tackling the soldier mentality that keeps you inside your mind on the battlefield and bring you back here where you belong. Do you think you can handle this?
The GI: Sir, yes sir. I think so sir...
GI's words sound fainter and fainter as the dose kicks right in.
Dr. Alexander Gray: That need for... adversarial violence, competition and the fight for survival is one of the key aspects that needs to be challenged, so we're going to wean you out and-... Mr. Zzyzx are you still with us?
Nothing. Silence and a light snoring as The GI slips unconscious under the effects of the drugs.
The GI: ….zzzz...
Gray chuckles to himself.
Dr. Alexander Gray: I'll lower the dosage next time.
And with that, the interview ends.
---
Backstage at Meltdown, Gray watches the tape of his first session with The GI keenly, paying attention to every word and exchange to remind himself of the “progress” that both he and his partner have made. When the tape finishes, he turns in his seat towards the camera and addresses the Meltdown viewing public.
Dr. Alexander Gray: If there's one thing I've learnt in fifteen years of therapy, it's that there is no better way to bond than through your worst traits. This is what I've learnt about my two patients this week, a long-haired Canadian with a penchant for destruction and a once-upon-a-time Harlem gangster who's capacity for punching holes into the society from which he grows is seemingly limitless. These two mindless basket cases are quite simply the crème de la crème of people who have no respect for themselves, so therefore they have no respect for anyone else. Hence the carnage and the chaos.
Gray's contempt for the lessers is apparent. How a man this elitist and superior could be a therapist begs belief, yet here he sits singing his own praises and analysing his next opponents.
Dr. Alexander Gray: On the one hand, you have Jake Titan, a larger than life character who simmers in the shadow of his “thug life” lifestyle trying to impress people that are no longer relevant to him, chasing shadows in the name of reputation and personal glory. Then there's Leon Roberts, who's senseless destruction lacks as reason as it does direction, simply targeting anyone stood between him and his desires. Yet for him too, my sympathy remains unprovoked. These two imbeciles are nothing more than genetic trash, requiring purging from our contaminated gene pool and being sent back to the caves from which they crawled out of.
It's not the most well-researched as Jake Titan has reformed since his days of gang-banging and Leon Roberts has mellowed some, but both men are still pretty dangerous.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Of course, lugging around the dead weight of a 6'5 piece of mongrel meat with as much sense as a door handle is not going to be much fun, but at least he serves a purpose. Distraction, sabotage, absorbing punishment so that I may carry out my grand plans. These are the purposes of a true soldier, and the purpose by which The GI serves me inside that ring. Together, we will prove to the world that these so-called Killaz are nothing more than common street hoodlums with a penchant for irrational violence and gung-ho acts of chaos. Well enough is enough. These two men will be treated, not as killaz but as the scared little pit-bulls that they are. That, my friends, is straight science.
Fade.
OOC: Sorry, it didn't paste the entire promo.
Temecula, California
Suburban California as one could expect was, unsurprisingly, an absolute minefield of troubled people ready for the astute eye of Dr. Gray. Housewives needing mollies, cheating husbands and their STI guilt, all manner of grizzly people leading grizzly lives that all required some form of treatment. Never too busy but never too quiet, it was here in Temecula and indeed here in California where Dr. Alexander Gray first opened up shop. It was also here that he met his second patient, Victor Zzyx, a former soldier suffering from PTSD.
As Gray sat at his desk observing the anxious GI, The GI twiddled his tumbs in a circle not willing to take a seat.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now then, Mr. Zzyzx. What brings you to my clinic today?
The GI: I'm here... I'm here because... I … I can't... I can't let go man. I can't let go.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Please, have a seat and calm yourself down. Would you like to take a mild sedative, to calm your nerves?
Gray gestures to the reclining couch just near the desk so that GI can lie down, relax and tell his story.
The GI: Sure... sure. Just take me out of the battlefield man. All I see when I close my eyes... is is is gunshots... whizzing past my head.
Gray smiled and reached into the top draw of his deck to pull out a large quantity of a clear liquid packed into a syringe. Stepping out from behind his desk, he slipped off his jacket and walked towards The GI.
Dr. Alexander Gray: I got just the trick for that my friend. Tense your arm.
The GI clenched as Dr. Gray slipped the needle into his arm and pumped in the sedative, slowly pumping through his veins to dull him down and calm him.
The GI: Aghhh!
Dr. Alexander Gray: Very good. Now... do you feel light headed?
The GI: Yeah... yeah... I feel... I feel calmer. The bullets don't sound so loud now.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now I've had a look through your medical records and I understand that you've just recently retired from active service in our nation's armed forces. Would that be correct Mr. Zzyzx?
The GI: Ye-yes... yes sir. I feel woozy.
The room around The GI starts to spin and he feels a bit nauseous. Gray seems like he's slipping further and further away, his desk seeming more out of reach than it did before. His eyes begin to dilate and roll around.
Dr. Alexander Gray: That's to be expected, the sedative is having it's effect. Now, you must've seen some pretty shocking things on that battlefield.
GI's eyes went deer in the headlights at the mention of the war, remembering the disgusting things he'd seen on the soldier side and starting to shake again even under the effects of the drugs.
The GI: So much blood... so much death... innocent lives... aggghhhh...
Dr. Alexander Gray: Calm yourself, Mr. Zzyzx. Calm yourself. You're not in the line of fire now. You're here in my nice, safe office. Listen to the sound of the clock ticking and focus, to remind you where we are.
The GI: … Okay...
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now what you have sir is a case of what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a disease of the mind brought upon by shocking and disturbing events which lead to impaired mental functions an inability to cope with day to day life as you struggle with the memories. I imagine you've seen a lot of nasty things done to good people and it's really affected your mind... but for now Zzyzx, I want you to cast your mind to a happier place as I try and tell you how it is I intend to treat your ailments. Can you do that?
The GI: I can't think of any happier place....
Dr. Gray smiles and pulls out a post-card from his desk saying “Greetings from Honolulu!” in big blue letters. It looks like something out of the 80's. Gray passes it across the table to GI who starts staring at it.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Think of yourself as a glass statue on a beautiful tropical beach. There's a hole in the toe and tide is coming in rapidly. Imagine that hole in your toe slowly filling you up with the swish and wash of the seawater, only for tide to go out and for all the water to flush out of your body again. Nothing can hurt you on this beach, nothing at all. Just focus on the clock and think about it. Can you do that?
The GI: Sir, yes sir.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Now... normally a psychological debriefing is what would be issued to a gentleman such as yourself. That's where I give you the chance to talk about what you did, what you saw, what you felt about it in a safe environment, free of judgement. Nobody is looking down on you now Mr. Zzyzx. You are looking straight ahead, straight forward. Now, instead of a debriefing alone, we're going to try and do something. We're going to try and ease you back into a life by tackling the soldier mentality that keeps you inside your mind on the battlefield and bring you back here where you belong. Do you think you can handle this?
The GI: Sir, yes sir. I think so sir...
GI's words sound fainter and fainter as the dose kicks right in.
Dr. Alexander Gray: That need for... adversarial violence, competition and the fight for survival is one of the key aspects that needs to be challenged, so we're going to wean you out and-... Mr. Zzyzx are you still with us?
Nothing. Silence and a light snoring as The GI slips unconscious under the effects of the drugs.
The GI: ….zzzz...
Gray chuckles to himself.
Dr. Alexander Gray: I'll lower the dosage next time.
And with that, the interview ends.
---
Backstage at Meltdown, Gray watches the tape of his first session with The GI keenly, paying attention to every word and exchange to remind himself of the “progress” that both he and his partner have made. When the tape finishes, he turns in his seat towards the camera and addresses the Meltdown viewing public.
Dr. Alexander Gray: If there's one thing I've learnt in fifteen years of therapy, it's that there is no better way to bond than through your worst traits. This is what I've learnt about my two patients this week, a long-haired Canadian with a penchant for destruction and a once-upon-a-time Harlem gangster who's capacity for punching holes into the society from which he grows is seemingly limitless. These two mindless basket cases are quite simply the crème de la crème of people who have no respect for themselves, so therefore they have no respect for anyone else. Hence the carnage and the chaos.
Gray's contempt for the lessers is apparent. How a man this elitist and superior could be a therapist begs belief, yet here he sits singing his own praises and analysing his next opponents.
Dr. Alexander Gray: On the one hand, you have Jake Titan, a larger than life character who simmers in the shadow of his “thug life” lifestyle trying to impress people that are no longer relevant to him, chasing shadows in the name of reputation and personal glory. Then there's Leon Roberts, who's senseless destruction lacks as reason as it does direction, simply targeting anyone stood between him and his desires. Yet for him too, my sympathy remains unprovoked. These two imbeciles are nothing more than genetic trash, requiring purging from our contaminated gene pool and being sent back to the caves from which they crawled out of.
It's not the most well-researched as Jake Titan has reformed since his days of gang-banging and Leon Roberts has mellowed some, but both men are still pretty dangerous.
Dr. Alexander Gray: Of course, lugging around the dead weight of a 6'5 piece of mongrel meat with as much sense as a door handle is not going to be much fun, but at least he serves a purpose. Distraction, sabotage, absorbing punishment so that I may carry out my grand plans. These are the purposes of a true soldier, and the purpose by which The GI serves me inside that ring. Together, we will prove to the world that these so-called Killaz are nothing more than common street hoodlums with a penchant for irrational violence and gung-ho acts of chaos. Well enough is enough. These two men will be treated, not as killaz but as the scared little pit-bulls that they are. That, my friends, is straight science.
Fade.
OOC: Sorry, it didn't paste the entire promo.
