Star Trek: Starbase 777 - little-bird-spa

For a little sensory experience, Haru was here at the spa! Or as one of his Korean coworkers called it a 'gym tee pond'. Clearly, languages were not Haru's strong suit, it was called a 'Jjimjilbang' meaning 'bathhouse'. Anyway, he had just finished getting a back massage and was now just soaking his feet in one of the foot baths! The spa also had manicures and stuff, but Haru didn't really want strangers touching his hands. That was reserved for his husband and those he wanted to be close to. The white robes seem to blend in with Haru's skin and hair. He did a little arm stretch and kicked his feet in the tiny foot bath. The sound was incredibly satisfying. As he relaxed on the soft chair, he closed his eyes and breathed slowly. The nice thing about the spa was the walkways were very wide and the inclusion of railings helped Haru navigate on his own without having to have his PADD out the whole time. He was just vibing, the warm water was nice. He didn't have a drop of Vulcan in him, but he did like the warmth. His skin was pretty thin so he preferred warmer environments. The downside was that real sun burned him pretty fast so if he wanted sun and warmth he'd need to stick to artificial means like the spa or holodeck!

Though he'd initially needed to be convinced by Elohae and Rakim to come here, Vara'l had actually started to enjoy his time in the Spa. He'd initially been convinced to try out a massage and had.. once he'd managed to deal with how he happened to feel when someone beheld his Borg implanted tech. It had actually turned out to be quite pleasant, relaxed him a good bit and helped him work out the sore muscle he'd acquired courtesy of a rather lengthy period of sparring in the holodeck. That was nice! Now, having finished that massage, Vara'l entered a new room within the spa. Clad in a white spa robe of his own, having entered to find a chair to enjoy a bit of quiet time and a should massage, Vara'l paused as he spotted someone who appeared to be having a..foot bath. After he first processed that fact, the Romulan then noted the fact that they seemed semi-familiar. Potentially a tactical officer he'd either encountered on the job or encounter the file of during one read through or another. That observation one that prompted a. "Hello." As he walked in and settled down on one of the chairs in the room. "Apologies if I'm disturbing you at all, just grabbing a chair"

Haru didn't even notice anyone else walking around the area until he heard a 'hello' and the sound of someone moving the chair next to him. He stopped his kicking to eliminate any background noise so he could focus on the stranger who greeted him. Haru turned his head and opened his eyes towards the sound of the voice. His eyes focused on in Vara'l for only a few seconds before crossing and wandering in two different directions. "Jolan tru!" Haru said with a friendly and lively tone. Obviously, he did not recognise the stranger at all, he just saw a peach blob with some auburn hair it looked like. A few grey-ish dots mixed with the larger peach one, but Haru's vision was way too low to give him any further clues. His implants increased the contrast of colours and provided him with infrared data if that mode was active, but they couldn't identify specific people. He waved both hands and smiled. "Enjoying the spa too? I just got a massage! It was nice, the lady was a little heavy handed, but I think they say if it doesn't hurt it's not working..?" He said, speaking his native Rihannsu as always, but his dialect differed quite a bit from what was commonly heard within Romulan space. Through the UT there was no difference, but another Rihannsu speaker would easily be able to tell by the way Haru said 'massage pufaekha received a massage' versus the 'standard' Rihannsu variant 'massage faekhahrn received a massage'. There were other pronunciation differences too with Haru stressing the beginnings of words, whereas standard Rihannsu typically stressed the second to last syllable.

Silver eyes watched the other as he spoke to them, noted how their eyes crossed. A well schooled and trained memory, as he noted their reaction and listened to what they said while he waited for the masseur to arrive and start, immediately called up what little he knew about such things as eye issues and idly noted mentions of someone with such issues he'd spotted in Tactical department stuff. Mentally resolving as he noted that to look into the file he'd spotted further, Vara'l continued to watch the stranger and smiled a bit. "I have been aye, also been in for a massage, I've heard similar and..given how I felt after it was done, I'm half inclined to believe its the truth." He commented then before, as he decided it probably would be a bit rude of him to not introduce himself, he launched into a introduction. "I just realized I've not introduced myself, that was rude of me, my apologies." He started. "I'm Vara'l tr'Hara by the way, its very good to meet you."

Haru moved his feet slowly in the water, not too much to make any splash, but enough to get some water flowing between his toes. Haru could definitely sell some feet pics online or something because his toes were long and feet very wiggly. When he heard the ACTO's name, his eyes widened and body stifened! THE ACTO?! Haru felt so dumb for not noticing, not like he could because well, he was blind, but still. "Commander tr'Hara, yeah!" Haru said with a nervous laugh. "I.. totally knew it was you, yeah," He lied, poorly. "It's an honour to meet you here, sir," Haru said as he began to fiddle with the ties on his robe. "My name full name is Ha'taurakh tr'Khæthætreh, you can just call me Haru," He introduced himself, including his rather tongue-twister like surname. Even Romulans had trouble saying it. His first name was a Vulcan name, but said with a Romulan accent. Despite being terrible at the Vulcan language, Haru had a distinct Vulcan accent when he spoke. It was due to his upbringing on a Vulcan colony. "Sorry I uh... didn't recognise you," Haru rubbed his eyes in an attempt to try and focus his vision, but his eyes kept wandering off, never making eye contact for more than a second or two. "What brings you here to the spa?"

"Its very good to meet you to, Haru tr'Khæthætreh, If you'd like you can call me Vara'l as well, I'm off duty." Vara'l responded at first as he continued to fix the other with calm silver eyes, the masseur whenever they entered signed too as he had indicated he was fine with them starting to work on his shoulders. "No need to apologise about not recognizing me, if anything I should be apologising for not introducing myself first." The Romulan responded then before he sheepishly added. "After all, I can see I ah, made you jump a bit to use a human turn of phrase when I effectively informed you mid chat I was the ACTO." His tone apologetic, the Liberated Borg if anything slightly embarrassed it'd slipped his mind to introduce himself when he first started to speak. Haru's name and face fixed in his mind to be remembered if they spoke again, Vara'l addressed the others question. "I came here as I was convinced to try out a massage and work out some of the 'tension' in my muscles." He said then as he responded to that. "Its certainly made a change from other spa's I went to in the past or the Hara one I visited once." He'd paused then. "A friend of mine knows this place and picked up on something I'd said about feeling like I had very stiff and knotted muscles in places." After he'd said that he'd then asked. "If you don't mind my turning the question back at you, what brought you here, Haru?"

"Okay, Vara'l!" Haru said enthusiastically, easing his posture a little when the other said it was fine to speak casually off duty. Haru had only a few years out of the Academy and felt like he had so much he had to learn. He wasn't an ensign anymore, but he honestly didn't feel any more experience than he did a year ago. "I just wasn't uh... expecting you. And like... I also recently met the CTO, uh, wow we're a division with Vulcanoid supervisors," Haru said with a giggle as he began to kick up some of the water under his feet. Haru nodded as he listened to Vara'l explanation on why he came to the spa. He was trying to maintain eye contact as he had learned it was a sign of respect. Even if they were off duty, Vara'l was older than him and Haru had been taught to respect his elders, senior officers or not. He combed down the back of his hair with his fingers, realising it was probably messed up after laying down for so long. "That makes sense! This is a great place to come to release tension in your muscles! I'm here for that but also the sensory experience," Haru lifted both hands to shoulder height and wiggled his fingers. "Maybe this is a hot take, but I kinda like the feeling of someone just like," Haru karate-chopped the air. "Doing a lil hii-yah! on my back and grunting really loudly. At least, the dude who did my back massage did that! I love sensory experiences," Haru kicked his feet in the water again, splashing some outside of the little bucket. "What's your tactical specialty, Vara'l?"

"Thats fair enough, I've not been to a spa on the station before or well...anywhere public for a while." The Romulan responded once the other paused or a moment and as the masseur started to work on him. His tone even and calm, interested in the conversation. His next words interrupted briefly by a grunt though, as the masseur located a knot in his shoulder muscles and started to work on it. "And.. we are, admittedly not met the CTO yet, I imagine I'll meet them soon." The Liberated Borg grunted once more as another knot was worked out of one of his shoulders and he sighed a tad. That certainly felt quite nice, he mentally observed to himself, at least after the initial discomfort it had caused him to experience. "..The sensory experience has been quite interesting, thinking about it, though I suspect what we both experience with that is a tad different." He paused then before he elaborated. "I'm functionally deaf without my implants, with them I have been told I still hear somewhat differently to a Romulan of my age should." When Haru asked about his tactical speciality, Vara'ls response was quick. "I'm a Field Tactician, I'm proficient in a number of different fields of Field tactics, do have a sub-specialisation in Anti-boarding tactics."

Haru tilted his head slightly when he heard that Vara'l had yet to meet the CTO. That was awfully strange considering they were both senior staff, but they were probably busy people so maybe they hadn't gotten the chance yet. "The CTO is nice! Uh... normal Vulcan... I think," Haru said, thinking the CTO reminded him a lot of the teachers he had in school on Surak II. He had a few Vulcan lecturers at the Academy, but specifically the CTO reminded him of those during his compulsory education. Naturally a majority of them were Romulan, but there were a good amount of Vulcans too, who were patient and quiet just like the CTO and extremely chill with Haru's constant energy. "Ohh! So.... is the massage like.... a visual thing for you?" Haru asked, blinking very fast for a couple seconds and then stopping. With his implants, he didn't need to blink as much as a normal person so he would often forget, hence the random spurts of blinking. "I can't speak much about uh... Visual things, I have low vision with photophobia, but I think my eyes give that away," Haru pointed to his eyes, red eyes with an almost completely black sclera as his implants shifted to adjust with the light. "Oh cool, field tactics! I don't think I'd be very good at that," Haru chuckled. "Anti-boarding tactics. That sounds like a good specialty. I'm an explosives expert, you can count on me to handle the station's explosives," Haru said proudly.

"Happy to hear that." The Romulan responded then at what Haru informed him about regarding the CTO. "Looking forward to meeting them at some point, though right now I've just been keeping on keeping on with my ACTO duties." He trailed off for a moment then as he considered things and grunted a bit when another knot on one of his collar muscles was identified and worked out. "Aye, somewhat." He then confirmed when they asked him about the massage and what sort of thing it was for them. "That and apparently I've got a bunch of 'knots' in my muscles from work stuff so there's also a element of that." He responded as he watched the other, the random spurts of blinking noted but otherwise ignored. It'd be rude for him to comment on it "I..didn't want to comment on that before, but I admit I'd suspected aye." When they then said about their specialisation, Vara'l smiled a bit. "Its been a useful one, anti-boarding, yours sounds very interesting working with explosives." He paused then before he smiled. "I'll be sure to keep you in mind if any situation involving explosives arises."

"That's true, you must be really busy," Haru wasn't entirely sure what the ACTO and CTO's did aside from like... all the administrative work including approving time off and allocating duties. Haru splashed his feet in the water a little, looking away from Vara'l, seemingly staring off blankly in the distance. His eyes were just a lil tired, which was a good thing since he was here to relax. Haru nodded upon hearing about the other's 'knots'. "oh yeah, relaxation is important! Especially for someone with so much responsibility!" Haru was still talking to Vara'l but he wasn't looking even remotely in his direction. "Yeah! I was born with low vision so I am pretty well adjusted to living with it. Sometimes I do wish I knew what people were talking about when they were describing how stuff looks," Haru said with a lil head tilt. He leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms up. "What other stuff did ya do in your career? I'm just a junior grade lieutenant so like... i have a really long career ahead of me!" Haru was going to take advantage of having the ACTO right there to ask him some questions. A senior staff position was not anywhere in Haru's near future, but a part of him did imagine he could be senior staff one day! If Geordi could do it, so could Haru! Starfleet had tons of other blind officers too! It would be a lot of work, but hopefully Vara'l work history could give Haru a clue of what Starfleet may be looking for in terms of accomplishments.

"I have tended to be, its mainly just admin work like time off approval, duty allocation and other administrative work." He responded then as he leaned into some of the massage that continued to go on, another grunt what probably indicate it continued and continued to find muscle knots. "I've also had some time for field tactics related work though, been looking through a few old files and updating some tactics holoprograms." Vara'l grunted once more and smiled, actually smiled at what Haru said next. Smiled a smile that coloured his voice quite clearly as he responded. "Aye.. I suppose I'll need to address that a bit myself, seems I've developed more than a few muscle knots." When Haru then added the whole thing about their being low vision and such, Vara'l moved to nod in understanding before he instead said. "I've a friend who's said similar relating to their hearing, though I cannot pretend to understand how that can be." He paused a moment then. "He said something similar about certain sorts of noises and such." He then addressed their query about his career as a wince crossed his face. "I was mainly in tactical for the whole lot of it, or in roles that were basically in what was in essence Tactical." Vara'l sighed after a moment. "I started off in Field Tactics in the Imperial Navy, developed some knowledge of anti-boarding then...was assimilated." He paused before he then added. "I've had... a interesting career some might say but well, I've had it mostly doing the same sort of thing as I was doing as a Lieutenant on Station, I found something I was good at..and it never got old."

"That makes sense!" Haru said, his voice still as emotive and energetic as ever. "I remember studying it a little in the Academy when I began my tactical career track. There are tactile displays but like.. It was never my thing" Haru tilted his head side to side, just vibing as his feet soaked in the warm soapy water. "Oh yes, I visualise noises as colours and lights. I can't see details, but I can certainly see colours and light," Haru pulled on his robe when he felt a little breeze against his collar bones. His expression visibly changed when Vara'l mentioned the Imperial Navy. Although Haru had never lived in Romulan space and lived his whole life surrounded by other Romulan diaspora, he knew what the Navy was and he knew what they did. He went through an entirely Romulan education system after all, which aimed to replicate the general education system found in the Star Empire. The biggest difference being their history class was more modernised and in line with Federation or Vulcan standards. He learned about the atrocities of the Empire and the slavery. "Ahh... Yeah," Haru shouldn't have been surprised hearing his much older Romulan Republic transfer ACTO was former Imperial Navy -- many Romulans had been, but it did unsettle Haru. In a weird way, Vara'l being assimilated made it less discomforting since clearly his views changed after that. "Mmm... any other like... skills that you have?"

"Encountered a few of those sorts of displays myself, the tactile displays I mean." The Romulan responded briefly then before, when they said about visualizations, Vara'l looked thoughtful then. "I've heard of that a few times, I forget what its called but its always sounded very interesting.." Vara'l commented before he then grunted in surprise as another knot was found and the massage continued. "Ow...that was." He paused a moment then as he continued to speak to the masseur. "...Wow." When they said what they said in response to his service history, Vara'l sighed. "Yeahhh.." The sigh that followed after a moment probably if anything sounded very haunted. Not that Vara'l would have ever spoken about his time in the navy. The fear that had dogged everything and all the other stuff. He might not have been involved in atrocities directly but well. Yeah. He happened to be fully aware of what had occurred back then, more so now than he'd been then. What he felt about that would never be aired. Emotion was at least in a way irrelevant when one happened to be the ACTO of a station talking with subordinate. His past and the like also wasn't something that needed airing unless someone started to harbour views about him that weren't right. "Job related skills, I'm trained in two forms of martial arts." He trailed off a moment. "But I've been following my old Riov Samekir and my matriarch's suggestion, exploring my hobbies more, I retained some of my skills as a Hara forge smith from before my assimilation and..have been exploring it now.." He paused a moment. "Doing that and also been mulling woodworking as a pass time."

Haru couldn't see what sort of massage Vara'l was getting, but hearing the older Romulan's reaction made him giggle. His eyes seemed to smile when he did, forming little arches with wrinkles visible on the corners. He had a gummy smile with a light yellow tint to his teeth. Haru took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. He was glad he didn't ask for another massage because he probably would have been way too distracted. "Oh! Woodworking! I don't really know much about it, but it seems interesting! I can't really speak for like... the techniques or anything," Haru responded to Vara'l's mention about his hobbies. He lifted his feet out of the water for a few seconds to feel the much cooler air on his skin. Hearing about Vara'l's post-liberation journey, Haru wondered what sorts of other struggles liberated Borg had. He never had many friends or acquaintances who had been part of the collective, Vara'l was one of the first he had ever met. There were a few liberated Borg here and there in his life, but he never spoke or worked with any of them for an extensive amount of time. "I think I'm gonna go stick my hands in the therapeutic sand," Haru said as he did a little spin out of his chair. "It was nice meeting you! Maybe we'll meet at work! Jolan tru,!" He did a little salute and slid his feet into his slippers after a little struggle to try and get them on and headed off!