Eccentricities

Posted on Thu Sep 16th, 2021 @ 8:20am by Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara & Lieutenant Amanda Rose

2,050 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Out of Time
Location: Counselor's Office

Haruna Mizuhara turned up for her appointment with the ships counselor, Lieutenant Amanda Rose for her psychiatric assessment. The young engineer had de-toured slightly via some Jeffries tubes to fix things she has noticed along the way.

Her gold tunic was unzipped revealing her cropped undershirt below revealing the lower section of her stomach and navel. She didn't seem to care that she had grease in her brown hair from the old ships systems or the fact that she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

"I'm here!" She announced.

Amanda looked at Haruna curiously. "So you are," Amanda answered. She remembered that the Chief Engineer had ingloriously fell through a ceiling panel and into the briefing. The woman seemed tom boyish and rather immature upon first impression. Upon second impression, Amanda started to reaffirm her initial belief.

Warmly, despite internally cringing at the potential for her furniture getting dirty, Amanda said, "Please make yourself comfortable."

"Cool" Haruna said as she flopped down onto the couch. "So, I need to be deemed not crazy right?" She asked.

"That's not quite the point of an evaluation," Amanda responded, making a mental note to have the couch fumigated.

"So, you're going to look into my mind and try to evaluate me?" Haruna asked sitting up slightly. "Good luck, and may god have mercy on your soul for getting into this girl genius's wonderful world."

"Why do you say that?" Amanda asked with a small smirk.

Haruna laughed. "You know, I don't really know why. Maybe its because I'm different than anyone else"

"And do you perceive this to be a problem?" Amanda asked sweetly. "Unless you're a clone, how can you be identical to anyone? And even then, there is a large body of evidence that says environment would change the personalities of the identical clones."

"Can you imagine 10,000 Haruna clones? Maybe a level five esper can finally get to Level six by... oh wait... wrong Anime and genre..." she stopped herself and grinned. "I totally just broke through that wall didn't I?" She laughed.

She shifted to a crawl position like a cat and perched on the end of the long chair. Tilting her head she smirked at the counselor. "I know that I'm different. My mind works in all sorts of strange ways. I can only cook eggs, everything else I burn. I can happily sleep in maintenance tubes and hatches. People often think it's weird that I don't get embarrassed at loose or revealing clothing. I get from Point A to Point B via Point Z, I don't seem to think in linear, I see pictures in my head rather than words, sometimes several at a time. I have acute hearing, right now I can hear the plasma running through the conduit above us and I believe I'm heterosexual, although I've never kissed a boy... or a girl for that matter?" Haruna paused sliding back to a cross legged position. "Is that the sort of thing you were looking for?"

"Feel free to continue," Amanda responded, not giving any hint of what she was thinking.

"What else?" Haruna asked curiously sliding back and sitting cross legged. "Apart from I can't keep still. I have a stupidly high IQ. I see and hear everything around me, but people say I'm oblivious to the 'normal things'. What does that mean? And why do people get annoyed or embarrassed when I ask them who their diety is and why they shout about it so loud when praying together at night?" She asked curiously. "I didn't know so many people were so religious..." she sighed.

"Oh, my!" Amanda replied with a blush. "You are rather naive, aren't you?" Amanda thought about this conundrum for a moment. "You said that you're a virgin. Have you ever taken the opportunity to pleasure yourself sexually?"

"No!" Haruna snapped back rather quickly. "I don't think that's appropriate for a young woman to do stuff like that!" she told her.

"Why is that?" Amanda asked curiously. "It is quite normal, actually."

"I don't really know... That 'sort of thing' has never really been high on my list of priorities" Haruna replied simply with a smirk. "I still blush at ecchi stuff" she grinned sheepishly. "Do you do that sort of stuff with yourself?" she asked turning the question back onto Amanda.

"That's not a polite question," Amanda rebuked Haruna like an unruly child, "but the answer is yes. I think you need to tell me a lot more about your upbringing, Haruna."

"So you're not perfect in every way then... wait, you're not an English Nanny..." Haruna pondered. "My upbringing... I grew up in my fathers workshop. We repaired and rebuilt hover cars, trams and commercial vehicles" she told her with a smile. "It was mainly just my father and myself. He taught me everything I know. I was always under some sort of vehicle fixing something from as far long back as I remember."

"I never went to high school either. I chose engineering school over that!" Haruna smiled.

"Who said that I was perfect?" Amanda asked, her eyes growing wide, completely stunned. She was not sure how anyone could think she was perfect. She was flawed, so very flawed, and she knew it. "How'd you get into Starfleet without high school?" Amanda wondered aloud.

"I went to the Japanese National Engineering School instead" Haruna explained. "It was like a high school, but full of mainly boys wanting to be engineers. I used to beat them all the time in the tests and exams" she grinned. "However, I found them... noisy so I often kept to myself. I prefer the company of my own tools and myself."

"I see," Amanda replied, trying to keep a straight face and not biting her lip. Her mind still wondered who claimed she was practically perfect but she was here as a counselor, in this moment, not a gossip. "Then what about in Starfleet? What was your social life there? Did you not have a rooommate?"

Haruna shook her head. "I always got my own quarters. Most of my... roommates often moved out after a day or two" she explained. "I know that its weird that I can sleep in different places, I work late into the night on engineering projects or that I sometimes have night terrors.... oh. I shouldn't tell you about those...."

"Yes, you should tell me about those and I want to know about them. Everything that you tell me here is confidential, Haruna. Unless you're a threat to yourself or the ship, nothing that you tell me can be revealed. However, have you ever considered why your roommates moved out?"

"I've never been popular. People think I'm weird, but I often get told that I'm just 'special'". Haruna told the Counselor. "This is weird" she said as she sat crossed legged rocking slightly back and forth. "Most Counselor people have told me to get out by now or shrugged me off" she explained. "As for those nights terrors, they are mainly my bad memories. I remember everything, down to words people say to me"

"Get away you weirdo! You're nuts, no one wants you here get out of here Freak! Why are you even on a starship, you're just a strange little freak of nature! You can't sit here, we don't want to be seen with you! Something is wrong with your head, your parents should have thrown you in a river once you were born! Go sit somewhere else, you're not wanted here! Get our of my office, I don't deal with retarded people! You should never have been born! I see that daycare let out early today,..." Haruna recited perfectly unaware that a few silent tears had managed to escape her eyes of blue.

Amanda sighed. She had to admit that she thought Haruna was weird herself. That had to do with her upbringing and being sheltered, however. It was her duty to help Haruna acclimate to something that was not nearly medieval. "Haruna, those are horrible things and I'm sorry that others have said them to you. I think that you have had youth experiences that are, shall we say, very sheltered. Would you like some assistance in bridging the gap between yourself and others?"

"I've always been alone" Haruna admitted. "Do you think I need to get closer to people?" she asked.

"I think you need to learn a great deal about social expectations and understanding how people normally behave." Amanda sighed. "I think we're going to need to meet a couple of times a week, at a minimum. It is time that we assist in your maturation process."

"Maturation process?" Haruna asked. "It almost sounds like you're treating me like a partially assimilated child. Don't put me into one of those maturation chambers though. Those things are nasty."

"Um, would social acclimation and integration work as better terminology for you?"

"I suppose... I've never really been good at interacting with others" Haruna admitted.

"Well, not doing anything is not going to change that, is it?" Amanda replied with a hopeful smile.

"I'm an engineer though. Not a social butterfly" Haruna sighed. "Do you think that I really need to make friends? Is that so important to living a successful and happy life? Or can I claim that the nacelles are my friends?"

"They're inanimate objects," Amanda replied bluntly. "And, even in engineering, you have to interact with other people, so yes, I do believe that it is extremely important that we work on some of your social skills."

Haruna sulked. "Well ok. Where do you want me to start?"

"We will start slowly. Perhaps we could start with clothing off duty and starting to meet one person at a time?"

"Clothing off duty?" Haruna asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Dressing in non-greasy clothing, for example. Dressing for reasons other than those that are practical."

Haruna raised an eyebrow. "Non-greaay clothing? Dressing for other reasons. But I always wear uniform, I don't have any other clothes. I don't really need them. I never go on shore leave, I stay away from public places and I'm not a 'girly girl' like you" she explained. "Why would I need other clothing on a starship?"

"Shore leave is something that we should work towards, as well. Haruna, people were not meant to be alone. I know that your upbringing has been rather secluded but it is more than time that you step outside of work."

It took a few minutes for Haruna to assimilate the information she had been given. "People aren't meant to be alone huh... but I'm not alone. I see people everyday. Are you referring to finding a romantic relationship interest?" She asked curiously.

"No, I'm talking about friends and interpersonal connections. Perhaps one day, one of those things might lead to romantic interest but that is not something that I think you will need assistance with once you start discovering how interpersonal connections work."

Haruna sat there and stared at her for a short while, a small moment of silence fell upon the room. "You know I'm not a child right..."

"Of course," Amanda answered simply.

"So, can I go home now? I have things I need to do tonight" Haruna grinned. "And do we get a lollipop for coming to these? Or are those only dentists?"

"Adults don't usually get lollipops for doing what is expected of them," Amanda responded seriously. Didn't she just say she's not a child?

"Well that's poo" Haruna sulked. "I'll just replicated one when I get home then. I can go home now right? I have a nice old 2264 Plasma Conduit assembly waiting for me to realign... built it myself. Scotty would be so proud!"

Amanda blinked twice. The girl was confounding. On one hand her maturity might be that of an 8 year old. On the other, she obviously had the genius of some of the engineering masters. Social norm training was going to be a must. "Yes, for now, you can go. We'll meet again soon, though, Haruna."

Haruna jumped up. "Thanks. Toodles!" she said with a slight wave before heading out of the door.

Posting by

Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor

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