Social Disconnection
by Maruchan
Maruchan picked up her dinner fork and held it up to her face.
Peering through the tines, she pretended that everyone else was in
jail. *Rotting* in jail, even.
She smiled, almost demurely, noting that people were giving her
strange looks. She cut a strange-looking figure: a short girl wearing
army boots and a huge green jacket over a long, feminine floral skirt -
holding a fork much too close to her face and eating too many spam sushi
rolls.
Normally, she would have looked "normal," but one had to make
allowances in such instances as a parent's co-worker's kid's first
birthday party. Nothing like a little variety to prepare the kid for
the concept of different people. Besides, parties were always more fun
when you had the chance to stare at someone else and convince yourself
you were perfect; Maru was simply providing entertainment. After all,
the clown had to have a chance to enjoy the party too.
[A party, and no excuses I could have made to waste my time
elsewhere,] she thought, glancing sourly at the socialites around her.
Although the guests had come by families, everyone had soon gravitated
into their little groups. Maru was the only one in hers, knowing no one
else at the party who would want to risk being branded as "odd."
Maru snickered at the people almost idiotically, but no one was
paying any more attention to her. She smiled anyway, thinking of her
English teacher. [Always telling me to smile, silly ass.] It made her
think of her old guidance teacher, Mrs. Ito. She'd said she was
socially disconnected and had referred her to the skool therapist.
Maruchan still had nightmares about the teddy bear decor.
The fork was no longer amusing. The other people at the party
had long turned back to their sterilized world, and there was nothing
else to do, and no one to scare away. After a moment, Maru slumped in
her seat and put her head down on her backpack. Something in the
backpack started buzzing.
[Damn. Hope I don't need to go on a mission or something, as
long as I can get away...] She knew it was the JihadLinker. She also
knew that it probably meant that something bad had happened at HQ and
she would have to go out to help. This was surprising, since most
people thought she was some "98-pound weakling" chick who wouldn't be
much use on the battlefield.
Damned self-righteous idiots. She hated people who talked to
her continuously about why she wasn't getting any taller than her five
feet or how come she was so skinny. "Maybe you need growth hormone," or
"Maybe you have some kind of metabolic disorder." Of course, these were
the same people who whined about being too tall and having short pants.
What the hell had happened to accepting people for who they were?
Maruchan wasn't accepted like that anywhere among humans. She liked to
think that when it came down to trust in a friendship, she was alone.
Alone, not lonely. Loneliness was the longing for
companionship. Maruchan had gotten over that long ago, though she
sometimes wished there was someone who understood her. She doubted it,
though.
Maruchan flipped open the cell phone extension on her 'linker.
"'Llo?"
"Maru, get down to HQ immediately," came an anxious female
voice, and then the clunk of a receiver being dropped. Maru guessed it
was either Katze or Nexxus. Judging from the funny accent, it was Nex,
and she was obviously distressed.
Maruchan put the 'linker back into her backpack, and glanced at
the party. No one would notice her absence. She stuffed one last piece
of Spam[tm] into her mouth, shouldered her pack, and walked out into the
garden.
The only thing that saw her disappear into the darkness was the
clown, who thought nothing of it.
Maruchan teleported straight into the situation room at VRDET
HQ, finding herself to be one of the first occupants. Gradually, people
began to filter into the room. Maru didn't recognize most of them, but
it didn't matter at the moment; they'd all meet each other later.
Most of the Rangers were pretty much normal-looking humans.
Maruchan noticed a man standing at the head of the table, looking around
impatiently. Finally he took out a sledgehammer and placed a nice-sized
dent in the podium.
"Right. Now that I have your *attention,* we can begin the
briefing." He glared at the assembled Rangers, and cleared his throat.
The briefing was short and nondescript, as were most briefings,
and then they were dismissed. Maruchan popped into her small apartment
on the fourth floor of VRDET HQ. She pulled on a field uniform and
began packing, assuming she had little time before she would have to go
back downstairs to see what was happening. She took out a standard
VRDET pack, tossing in a few items and putting the rest into her
pockets. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and teleported down
into the dimensional research lab.
To be continued...