2021 Hong Kong

2021 as seen in the Hong Kong Shatterdome 
==Pietr==
I'm thinking about how the Lins' suicide attempts will impact Pietr and, dear lord something like that might come as close as possible to knocking him out of alignment and into a RABIT. The man's been hopeless and mildly depressed and badly frightened for his and others' safety, but that bottomless pit of soul-removing despair is /completely alien. No /wonder he's going to be a mess for a while afterward. To make it worse, he's facing off against these feelings without any close friends on station. He's got Seti (who he's just met) and Hermann (who he knows professionally) and that's it. Everyone else he's familiar with is thousands of miles away.
Gah.
And Chao's gonna be spooked by the happy outcomes... Sounds like that first Drift's gonna be a /disaster. 
Meeeep. I AM SO SORRY PIETR!!! Whether or not Xiong gets a bad feeling from the near miss, does she stick them both (back) in counselling? Is Pietr self-aware enough for it to help/would he even know what to do? And other such questions. 
Yeah. It really does sound like we're setting up a mess. Here's hoping /Shaolin doesn't have plasmacasters. DX
I also just realized Chao will be Pietr's first new Drift partner after Mimmi.
===Disaster===
I also just realized Chao will be Pietr's first new Drift partner after Mimmi. Is the near-disaster aftermath of /that gonna play in, too?
Huh. I'm not sure /what Pietr will make of what's happening to him. That despair is so alien maybe he figures out that it's coming from Chao and needs treatment to get himself back to normal. But maybe he thinks it's a Ghost Drift thing and will just fade away on its own. Or maybe he just chalks it up to homesickness and tries to power through.
Because they're in such a rush to get him up-to-speed with /Striker, I doubt he gets the full course on how Drifting works and the possible transfer of mental illnesses, unless Lightcap bothers to fill him in during Anchorage 1.0. But he seems to get through Chuckles and Wash without picking up survivor's guilt, an anger management problem, or Wash's depression, so it might not seem like much of a possibility. So he may not realize it's possible that Chao's despair has taken root in his mind.
Because he's so isolated in Hong Kong, it might be one of the Shatterbucks crew (since he's going to need coffee no matter what) who first notices his mood plummeting and not coming back up and lets someone in Medical know there might be a problem with the new Ranger. Or maybe Griet notes he's not calling home as often and seems listless when he does and alerts Lightcap. 
Or maybe no one in Hong Kong really notices since they're not sure what he's like normally and seeing Griet and Anniek over the vid-con perks him up enough that he comes across as normal to them. The problem is only noted when he gets home on leave and he's sleeping too much and just doesn't seem all there and someone finally thinks to call Lightcap. Who, as you suggested earlier, absolutely flips out at Xiong.
===Assumptions===
Assumption One: After Mimmi, Pietr knows the Ghost Drift can do some weeeeird things. 
Assumption Two: Setsuko also knows the Ghost Drift can do some weird things (Cheung and period cramps, Min's brain messing up)
===Thoughts===
He's in counselling, keeps telling the psychologist "it's just the Ghost Drift". They're doing multiple patrols, I assume? Makes perfect sense. 
Interest starts waning in Pokemon which Setsuko picks up on--she ends up having a number of bits and pieces but doesn't put them together (which we will see again with Boubou and Ashao. There's a balancing act to be had immediately Post-Pitfall when Min starts hallucinating--how much is Setsuko not noticing, how good an actress/liar is Min, and how much is simply the fact they barely see each other 'cause Min's in Shatterbucks only for the rush?)
Maybe he starts drinking less coffee, or not finishing it
He's in the rec room with his gameboy staring at the battle screen but not doing anything. 
Griet picks up on something, as you suggest; his texts are shorter, he may be calling more but they're shorter too (congruent with thinking it's homesickness)
The psychologist is like, "he's got depression but it's probably the Ghost Drift". 
And Griet calls Lightcap once Pietr's on the plane ('cause she doesn't want him to feel even worse).
Category:Pietr
Category:Setsuko
Category:Harrowing Ghost Drift (mention)
Category:Pietr is a Spare
Category:Mimmi (mention)
Category:Chao
Category:Chao (meta)
Category:Griet
Category:Griet (meta)
Category:Pietr (meta)
Category:Setsuko (meta)
Category:Tang Min (mention)
Category:2021
Category:Hong Kong Shatterdome
Category:Hong Kong Shatterdome 2021
Category:Meta