New Beginnings

[physicalstimuli]

Saval doesn't really know which part of this new assignment is more unsettling. There's the fact that he knows he's been chosen for it due to his lack of seniority among the doctors in his unit, none of whom wanted it, and then there's the fact that he's going to be spending the next several months as pretty much the only Vulcan on a starship, and

Comments

[elizabethdehner]

"Should and would are two different things. They don't like being poked and prodded and observed because it's 'invasive' even if I'm only watching. It's for their own good and anyone in the future of space travel," she explains. He already knows all of this, she's sure. He may even understand more of it than she does, though he seems rather uninterested in prolonged discussion but that may be more efficient to answer briskly.

She takes a bite of her salad and then another, glancing up at him a few times as she lets the silence sit between them. She couldn't help but observe a little, wondering what goes on in a Vulcan's mind at a quiet meal. Maybe nothing. Or perhaps they constantly train themselves to keep from idle thoughts. She wouldn't know since her specialty was humans and always would be.

"Will I have the opportunity to work with you?" she asks finally, "I'm hoping to be able to make this as easy a transition for you as possible."

Maybe it's intuition of a psychologist or maybe it's that 'something else' that she has that allows her to see a fish out of water even when they wear such an impassive mask. She knows that this isn't easy for him and regardless of the trained Vulcan logic and calm, no one can have the destruction of their home go without notice. He's been thrown into a world he doesn't know, forced to share information that the Vulcans never wished to share. It's going to be jarring for him one way or another and she hopes to make that transition easy on him, though her usual friendliness may be less than welcome.

[physicalstimuli]

Nothing strikes Saval as odd about the silence. Vulcans aren't opposed to small talk, but neither do they see it as awkward or rude for two people to sit in silence when they had been talking. He's going over what she's said, wondering if she has a great deal of work to do as the only psychologist on the ship, and what exactly research into human psychology entails, and who takes care of the mental health of the small minority of non-human crew members. His thoughts are orderly, relevant to the conversation at hand, not drifting off into odd tangents.

Her question makes him arch an eyebrow. "Do you mean to work with me as a colleague, or as a patient?" He can't quite deduce which one she means. He'd mentioned learning from her in a more research-oriented capacity, but he's not sure how she would plan to ease his transition, if not through some kind of counseling. But then, if her field is specifically human psychology, she's not qualified to work with a Vulcan anyway, so she must logically mean the former...

[elizabethdehner]

Logically. But this is Elizabeth we're talking about here. She isn't always aiming for logical and she certainly isn't going to back down from a challenge, even if that means she's going to put herself into a position where she may not know much, but she's not afraid to ask for help either.

"As a colleague, yes," she replies, "I thought since you are teaching and learning we might be able to get something from each other for those means. So if that helps your work, I hope to help you. I'm certainly not qualified to be a psychologist for Vulcans, but not for lack of trying. I'm offering to help in any way I can if you'd like. You only have to let me know how I can."

[physicalstimuli]

That had started out sounding perfectly acceptable, and Saval would have been all for it, because that is, after all, why he's here. He'd share what little he knows about Vulcan psychology, or at least, what aspects of it aren't private and off-limits to outsiders, and she can explain how weird human brains work, and voila, information exchange.

But then she's talking about trying to be a psychologist for Vulcans, and Saval arches an eyebrow slightly, not appreciating the sound of that. He doesn't need the services of a psychologist, let alone one who isn't even his own species. At least she's not pushing him, but even the offer is insulting. This woman's known him for all of two minutes, and she's suggesting he needs counseling. From a human. Saval knows nothing about human psychology, but he imagines it involves a lot of talking about feelings, what with them being pretty much entirely composed of those.

Well. He supposes that's how she can help. "You can help by explaining to me the fundamentals of your field. Human psychology must be very different from Vulcan psychology, as our minds work in vastly different ways, and I understand little about the human thought process." Such as it is.

[elizabethdehner]

She nearly winces. There's a flash of something but it's so muffled and gone so fast she hardly has time to analyze. It doesn't help that these kinds of 'flashes' have been happening more frequently and each time they pull her attention almost entirely from what she's doing, should it be work or conversation. Liz glances down at the table, blinking a few times and then pulls herself together, not taking more than a couple seconds to deal with that mentally and return to the conversation.

She doesn't presume to know anything about the Vulcan mind. Given their secrecy, how could she? She is required to study her field with some interest in other life forms and their psychological needs should a situation arise, but of all the life forms on this ship, the Vulcan mind is the most mysterious to her field. She knows next to nothing about it aside from some anatomical differences and what that says about their functions. She also understands their use of logic, even if she feels--something they wouldn't understand--that there's something to be said for intuition.

"That is a very deep well," she replies, "Humans are a psychological mystery in and of themselves. We thrive on emotion, are often pleasure and thrill seekers, unpredictable and fragile. And selfish. We are indulgent and biased. We suffer for our personalities and we make frequent mistakes in social situations, relationships and the like."

She's not exactly talking them up, now is she?

"But we're compassionate, empathetic, giving, trusting and loyal. It's the mistakes we make that make us learn. We need first hand information to feel satisfied with answers, unwilling to let go of a hypothesis without seeing the results ourselves, even if they are potentially harmful. We crave companionship in most cases. It's what I love about us as a species. We are never satisfied and that is what pushes us forward," she takes a moment to pause, think over all that. Those are the things that had lead her to wanting to be in psychology. The needs of the individual mind and how it effects those around it.

"To better answer your question, I study all of those reactions, make data files and map it all out to find the averages in us and better understand why we make decisions like we do and what fuels us. My field is to better understand human behavior and this particular post I've taken up is to find out how that human behavior can be assisted for space travel," she explains.

[physicalstimuli]

Saval's eyebrow is on the verge of disappearing into his bangs as she talks. How very strange this conversation is. Vulcans are known for their honesty--said to be incapable of lying, though Saval knows firsthand that that isn't true--and they have a tendency to mistrust people from cultures that aren't known for that quality, and yet Dr. Dehner is being blunter and more candid about her people than any Vulcan would ever be. Saval has no idea what to make of the assessment she's giving him. Doesn't she want to represent her people well? The things she's saying about humans are things everyone thinks about them anyway, but doesn't she know how to keep those thoughts to herself and spin the rest of it to present a positive front for outsiders? It seems almost...disloyal, what she's saying. No wonder humans are so disorganized and chaotic. There's no internal solidarity, no sense of pride or kinship among them.

She keeps going, though. Apparently humans do have some positive qualities after all, now that she's getting to them. He listens, interested to hear what humans say in their own defense, how they present themselves when they do want to make a good impression. Quite honestly, he isn't all that impressed by the qualities that are supposed to be best about humanity. They're just not things that Vulcans value or respect. Compassionate, empathetic, giving...those aren't negatives, certainly; compassion and generosity are always virtues, but they're not ones he would have thought to associate with humans before. Trusting seems to him to be more of a fault than a virtue, and as for loyal, how loyal can humans be when they're so willing to declare all of their worst faults to alien strangers? Curiosity, yes, that's a virtue Vulcans can get behind, but Saval would like to think that mistakes aren't a necessary part of the learning process. He could say something cutting about that, but...no, best not to be rude and make a deliberately poor impression on his first day here. That won't do him any good.

The stated purpose of her job still baffles him a little. It's not what he expected. "Is human behavior really so unpredictable that it requires so much analysis?" he asks. "Vulcan psychology, you see, is the study and treatment of mental illness. Abnormality is unpredictable, and requires the kind of research you describe, but Vulcans make decisions based on logic and reason. There is no need for data mapping or the creation of algorithms to understand why we do what we do. If human behavior is as difficult to understand as that, I clearly have a difficult journey ahead of me."

[elizabethdehner]

He seems surprised, or at least the Vulcan equivalent of it. Her field is normal for her, something that makes sense to her since she is in fact human and part of the studies. She falls under that. She knows what it's like to live in those minds. She gets it, but there's a lot that he can't possibly understand.

"That's where we differ," she begins, sounding as kind as she would at any other moment, "Humans don't base decisions always on logic and reason. We believe in instinct and desire and emotion. It causes a nearly infinite web of outcomes. Granted, many of us fall among the average, but there are the outlying few, some of them including mental illness, others extreme views. But I will not pretend this is going to be an easy transition for you. You will have to observe and at least adapt and understanding for human behavior, gestures, body language. We're very expressive and that will be difficult, I know."

She pauses a moment, reeling herself back. She felt almost unsure of how far she should offer any help. He doesn't seem fond of her, though she isn't sure what 'fond' would look like in a Vulcan. "I apologize if I'm imposing. I hope I don't make your transition harder and if it's any consolation, it'll be nice to have a new view in the medical field, even if it wont directly affect me."

[physicalstimuli]

"I cannot see how you would make my transition more difficult. You understand that human customs and behavior are unpredictable and therefore difficult for Vulcans to comprehend, and therefore I presume you will not be offended if I ask you for clarification on anything I cannot understand through research."

He may not be keen on the idea of therapy from a human psychologist, but she seems like a better candidate to answer his pressing questions about human social etiquette and other such things than anyone else he's met so far. That's the kind of help that he thinks will actually really come in handy, now that he thinks of it.

"I hope that my medical expertise will indeed prove valuable here." He's not going to articulate his concerns that they're not going to let him be useful enough to justify his presence, but she can probably read between the lines.

[elizabethdehner]

"Not at all," she replies, "It's very difficult to offend me, especially on human customs, which sometimes we even wonder what started them in the first place. The point in all this is that I'd love to be a sounding board when people are not coming off clearly as you may hope." Elizabeth is just so very helpful, indeed.

She didn't have to read very far between the lines. It seems that despite their inability to lie, as they say, Vulcans are capable of concealing much of the truth. She wishes she couldn't feel it and could pretend that she doesn't know how unsettled he is, if that is the right word, for being on this ship.

"Your insight will be useful, believe me. In a world of Humans, we could often use some straight logic," she adds. She knows how order can be very helpful with the amount of chaos that humans can create by their own means. Liz has finished her salad, though and looks down at the now empty plate. She thinks she should probably excuse herself before she has overstayed her welcome, but she isn't sure the best means of abandoning. Are there Vulcan rules on first meetings and excusing yourself?