Necessity James

USS Knightsbridge
Necessity James LC - 150 - 386
Gender: Female Position: Comm/Ops Officer Ship: USS Knightsbridge Rank: Lieutenant Commander Race: Human DOB: 236305.13 Age: 38 Edit this nav - View Bio

Ensign Necessity James, a Terran female, is currently Operations Officer at Starbase 118 Ops.

Appearance

• Height: 5'7
• Weight: 145lbs
• Hair Color: Natural blonde, usually dyed pink.
• Length of Hair: Short
• Eye Color: Ice Blue
• Skin Tone: Pale Caucasian
• Birthmarks, Scars: None visible.
• Build: Lean, powerful but not overtly muscular. Looks, at a glance, to be able to handle herself in a physical confrontation better than many of her race and gender.
• Face: Not overly attractive, nor unattractive. Usually wears a dour expression.
• Eyes: Keen, piercing, observant.
• Carriage: Usually stern and stoic, has a tendency to slouch when sitting, or standing at a duty station.
• Taste in Clothing (when off duty): Practical and hard-wearing. Combat pants and a vest top, usually. Often pink and/or black in colour.
• Shoes: Often combat boots when she can get away with it. If entirely impractical, a hardy pair of sneakers.
• Voice: Gruff (for a Terran female) and matter-of-fact.
• Speech: East London accent (similar to cockney, but doesn't use Rhyming Slang). Often uses obscure military phrases (such as 'five-by-five' to indicate she's understood something).
• Handedness: Right for everything, except for armed mêlée combat where she prefers to use her left hand. Nobody understands why this is, least of all Nessa.

Manner

• Quarters: Regimental organisation (or Regi-mental, as her former room-mate calls it). She has few decorative possessions, and is obsessive-compulsive about the position and order in which those few are kept. This is at odds with her general demeanour, and is often a source of amusement for people who get to know her.
• Favorite Room: Anywhere that features a lively atmosphere, lots of people and - under ideal circumstances - alcohol. The hustle and bustle of cantinas, bars and crowded markets make her feel at ease.
• Habits:
• Mannerisms: Nessa rarely laughs aloud, instead she'll normally just grin widely, and wink at the person she finds funny. This is not necessarily because she has no sense of humour, but to Nessa the grin is a form of communication in and of itself, and she has a variety for different circumstances.
• Religion/Spiritual Devotion: None as yet. Nessa's mind is not necessarily closed to this kind of thinking, but she needs something tactile and physical to believe in. She refuses to believe in spiritual, incorporeal beings that she cannot prove exist, and finds people who do foolish but is never one to bring the subject up.
• Hobbies and Pastimes: Her favourite is the ancient Earth bar game of darts. She's quite proficient. Nessa enjoys a variety of sports and fitness activities.
• Likes: Freedom of expression, movement and thought (she admires Betazoids and other telepathic species, for the extra dimension they have in which to do this). Fighting (under organised, sanctioned conditions. She's unlikely to start a random brawl in a bar (but unfortunately very likely to get stuck in if one occurs)).
• Dislikes: Restriction (of movement, thought or expression), confinement. Judgemental people.
• Ambitions and Goals: To make every day better than the one before it, and to end each day distanced further from her past.
• Achievements in Life: Surviving her teenage years, joining Starfleet Academy (she almost considers this more of an achievement than graduating), graduating from Starfleet Academy.
• Disappointments in Life: Basically her entire childhood.
• Temperament: Might seem dour and angsty to some on the outside, but she's learning to be more optimistic and positive. Not especially quick to anger (thanks largely to her time at the Academy), but she's known to lash out venomously if you manage it.
• Mental problems (complexes and phobias): Mild OCD related to personal possessions, mild paranoia concerning her worth and place in the universe. Has a complex pertaining to relationships (she's working on it when it comes to friendships, but it's easier to get close to a prisoner in isolation than to Nessa on a romantic level). Has a form of synaesthesia due to past drug-related experiments in her youth, usually only 'kicking in' whilst daydreaming or asleep. See below for details.
• Physical Limitations: Nothing abnormal for a female Terran of her stature.

Family

• Marital Status: Single.
• Children: None.
• Parents
  • Father: Iain Hamilton James (56)
    • Occupation: Retired civil engineer, now owns a bar in London.
  • Mother: Alexandra James (48)
    • Occupation: Freelance news reporter/journalist at home on Earth, often sent to nearby colonies on assignments.
• Siblings: Jon James (27)
  • Occupation: Entertainment holoprogram designer for a major corporation.

Personal History

(Under Construction!) Nessa was born in London, Earth. She was an unhappy child, despite her parents' best efforts, and was constantly causing trouble. In her teenage years, running away from home became a game. To begin with she had self-justified reasons for doing so, but after a while it became a case of seeing how long she could go without being forced to go back. Eventually, aged 16, she left for good, and lived rough on the streets for a number of years and became involved in the seedy underworld of London, joining one of the criminal gangs that the Federation would rather you didn't know existed.

By the age of 20, Nessa had become disillusioned with life as underworld scum, and began looking for a way out. It didn't prove as easy as she imagined, but one chance encounter with a Starfleet Recruitment Officer led to her seizing what she saw as her way out, and she enrolled in Starfleet aged 22. At Starfleet Academy, things got even worse for her. As one of the oldest and also least educated cadets in her year (and especially in her class), she was often ridiculed and sneered at by some of the other cadets, which naturally led to a series of violent encounters, where she easily prevailed. This almost led to her explusion from the Academy, however her Diplomacy tutor - Ardus Brey, a Bolian - took pity on her. With the help of Brey and the steward at her halls of residence, Nessa scraped through her training, where she majored in Security, with a minor in Comm/Ops and - at the behest of Ardus Brey - some extracurricular training from the Starfleet Marines program (mostly the discipline modules).

Medical History

Synaesthesia

"Although it doesn't affect her day-to-day life in many ways, and is not considered a handicap, Necessity is afflicted with a mental condition known as synaesthesia. This was picked up due to experimental drug use in her teenage years, and will likely be with her for life. In Necessity's case, this only seems to 'kick in' during moments of subconciousness (i.e., when asleep, daydreaming, etc). In layman's terms, during these episodes she perceives people and overt emotions as colour, and touch and sensation as taste. Tests show she has no true empathic ability, but if someone is yelling and shouting, they're obviously angry. If they're crying, they're sad. It is this that she picks up on. Another possibility is that, since these episodes only occur when she is daydreaming or sleeping, she already 'knows' who everyone is, and her brain can assign them a colour based on that knowledge.

Exact examples of synaesthesia are personal to each person. Some vivid, recurring examples given by Necessity herself are: Good-natured, friendly people she doesn't know well are perceived as green blocks of colour. Passive, neutral people as blue blocks. Hostile-natured, aggressive people, who have no reason to dislike her personally, are red. Trusted friends are yellow. People she fears, dislikes or is intimidated by are grey.

As mentioned, Necessity perceives materials and sensations as tastes. Pain, for example, tastes "tingly, electricky". If she is bleeding, it tastes of iron. Joy or extreme happiness "tastes like birthday cake".

Curiously, sound and taste seem unaffected by this. Necessity often describes vividly the music from her 'episodes', and once described the confusion she felt whilst eating a jacket potato straight out of the oven - "it was like an electrified potato, y'know? No, I suppose you don't, you're not in the habit of eating electricity. Or potatoes straight out of the oven. I wouldn't recommend either, by the way".

It is often difficult to remain professional during sessions with Necessity, as I often find myself close to bursting into laughter at her descriptions of events. It is important to realise however that this is a serious psychological issue and requires further study. Necessity seems able to retain a good deal of knowledge of 'episodes' she has. Similar, perhaps, to the way other humans can often remember a good deal about a dream they have had the previous night. This makes her idea for further study.

I have often considered the possibility of artificially inducing an 'episode' whilst Necessity is awake and concious, to see whether the synaesthesia will take hold in it's current form. Will she, for example, perceive me as a green or yellow block? Perhaps it is the notion of her perceiving me as a red, or worse, grey block that is stopping me from chasing this possibility. Also, I have no idea what effect these episodes have on her mental state, and would not wish to visit any trauma, stress or panic upon her unduly whilst she is awake and lucid."

- Counsellor Lisa Hyatt, Starfleet Academy. 228710.13

Professional History

• Date Graduated from Academy: 238901.18
• Current Rank: Ensign
• Current Assignment: Starbase 118 Ops
• Duty Post: Operations Officer