TEST DRIVE #3 - Alien Bazaar/Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

#1

Option 001. Alien planet, marketplace: So you're new to this whole space travel thing. The ship is cool and all, but there are hundreds of alien worlds out there. You want to explore. To see what the universe REALLY looks like.

Well, here's your chance! Your first stop is this lovely indoor marketplace, which looks kind of like a mall. There are stalls one after the other as far as the eye can see, and they sell all kinds of things: food, clothes, trinkets, animals, fabrics, jewelry, perfumes, books, etc etc. Some things look human, easy to recognize; other things look very alien. There are two levels, and constant chatter as people hawk their wares and discuss prices.

Do you want to explore? Poke at the weird shops? Buy a gift for a new friend? Flirt with someone at the food court? Maybe you see a pickpocket, and must run to the aid of the victim. Maybe there's some other villainy afoot. After all, a crowded marketplace is a good place for villains to lurk, causing trouble. Whether you're a hero or just an unassuming traveler, there proves to be some adventure for you on this planet.


2

Option 002. Aboard the Enterprise, Ten Forward: You have no idea what just happened. One minute you were home, and now you're on a spaceship, in the middle of a crowded room. It looks like a bar. There are people eating and drinking, some in uniform, others not. Some are clearly aliens.

You've managed to land in Ten Forward a long bar with barstools and a bartender, tables sprinkled throughout, and the far wall is nothing but windows out to space. It looks like a nice lounge, low conversation making the room hum.

Better ask some questions and find out where you are, or just tap the closest person on the shoulder and try to make friends. The bar is open.

Comments

The 8th Doctor | Doctor Who | 01

[tragic_optimist]

Well, this was an odd situation.

Last he had known, The Doctor had returned form seeing Susan again, trying to get her to go get some help all the while ignoring his pleas for her to join him. "Too much work here" she kept saying, "too much to clean up on Earth now." She was obviously in pain, even if it had been a decade in her timeline since Alex's death. But for him it was as raw as the day before.

Hell, it may have even been the day before. The Doctor had been jumping around so much in the TARDIS, trying to find every loophole, every contradicting rule, even foolish little bylaw to find a way to get Lucie and Alex back. It had been long and exhausting, but when he was busy the Doctor made sure to lose himself. Because stopping meant thinking.

The sad thing is The Doctor was always thinking. And thinking. And thinking and thinking and thinking and-

Then he was in a Different Place.

He couldn't feel the TARDIS, at least not in the way he always did. He was in what could be best described as a bazaar, but with a large number of alien species. Which he did not recognize. For a few moments, The Doctors mind is pulled away from Lucie Millers face and to the odd sight around him, where things are both familiar and unfamiliar. The aliens are all humanoid, but not in any of the forms he knew.

"Now this is a curiosity."

[and_she_waited]

Amy tends to go for the alien bazaars and markets more so than the screaming and running for her life, so she's not going to complain about her current location. Not that the latter won't happen here, but as usual she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it.

She's having a look at a stand set up with holographic chronometers, next to another that's pushing some odd alien meat she's got no intention of trying, when she hears The Doctor.

Not her Doctor, of course, no. But something about his voice makes her straighten and turn, looking him over with her customary stern expression.

"All right?" she says.

[tragic_optimist]

"Yes, yes I am. I just seem to have made a wrong turn and ended up here. The last place I was was certainly a good deal more destroyed than what I'm looking at. I may have just wandered through some kind of temporal anomaly."

The Doctors opens his coat and grabs a small silver and red device from his inner pocket and begins to scan it from side to side with a sound that will undoubtedly sound familiar to Amy.

"Excuse me if I seem a bit brusque, but I was trying to make it to my home and I would very much like to get to it, Miss...?"

[and_she_waited]

"Destroyed?" she parrots, curiosity piqued.

She's about to press him further about wandering through a temporal anomaly, because that sort of talk isn't something she hears every day (Doctor excluded), when he pulls out that device.

And suddenly she is completely, uncharacteristically, quiet.

Eyes wide, she turns to face him fully, posture looking about ready for a fight though her face shows only surprise.

"Pond," she says, wariness settling in her voice. "Amelia Pond. And who are you?"

[tragic_optimist]

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Amelia Pond. I'm The Doctor, and if you would excuse me I have a bit of a mystery here. See, most of the time I'm in tune with the Vortex, so I know when I go through some kind of a anomaly. But this time...it just snuck up on me. Odd that it could happen that way," The Doctor continued, the sonic screwdriver continuing it's scan of the stall closest to where he had walked out of...so to speak.

"And yes, destroyed. Where I was is still recovering from quite the nasty invasion."

[and_she_waited]

So he doesn't know her, but she knows him. She knows him better than she knows herself sometimes. He told her once as a little girl that he could change; new body, new rules. Still, she's inclined to contradict him until he goes on speaking, and the words are just daft enough to make her believe him.

But just a bit.

"Would you say you're more in tune with the Vortex than the TARDIS is?" she challenges, eyebrow raised.

There is the slightest, smuggest smirk playing at her lips, because if this is true, if he is The Doctor, then she knows something he doesn't know.

[tragic_optimist]

"Of course not, that would be utterly ridicu-what what what?"

The Doctors hand stops moving and his face turns to hers, a look of utter confusion and concern upon it.

"Very few people know what a TARDIS is. That means you've dealt with Time Lords before. Who was it? Romana is more the type I would prefer you to know, but there are plenty who would travel with humans. Does the name Rani ring a bell? Or possibly The Monk?"

The look now turns serious.

"Now, now. Out with it!"

[and_she_waited]

While he turns serious, Amy can't help but feel lighter. She laughs, a brief, bright chirp of realization.

"That may be the most I've ever had you tell me about the Time Lords," she says, almost victorious. "None of those names sound familiar. Just one."

She smiles, but it is oh so bitter-sweet.

"The Doctor."

[tragic_optimist]

"The Doctor? But that's me, and I don't know you. That must mean..."

There is a dramatic clasp of a hand to his head.

"You're a future companion! You can't be here! At least not with me around! do you know what happens when two Doctors exist at the same time? They annoy one another to no abandon! And besides, I cannot know my own future. There are very big and important laws in regards to that."

The Doctor looks around a bit, this time with a much less dramatic flair.

"If you see me...the other me, I mean, just flap your hands. That'll tell me he's around and I'll be on my way. Pleasure to meet you, but I can't stay if I'm around."

[and_she_waited]

Her smile only grows.

"Goodness, and here I thought you were dramatic before," she says, taking the piss.

He's not her Raggedy Man, not by a long shot, but she can see glimmers of him. Here and there, like ripples stretching out to shore. She laughs at the thought of two Doctors in one place driving each other mad, but she grows a little more serious before she answers.

"He isn't here. At least not last I checked, and I've been looking, believe me. We were separated," she says.

[tragic_optimist]

"Well, that does make me relieved, at least in a sense. Can't have too many Doctors about a place. Sorry to hear that the two of you got separated. I really should keep better tabs on my companions, getting separated seems to be a bad habit I should break."

The sonic screwdriver goes back up the the wall, trying some more to find oddities in the material.

"And I am quite the dramatis personae, aren't I? I suppose things some things will never change."

[and_she_waited]

To his first remark, she answers with a flat look.

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind getting on that," she scolds.

She can't stay mad at him, though. Not even this him, who she's sure is most definitely him now. She's a little disappointed he hasn't come to bring her home, but if he's so worried about multiple Doctors in one place, then that must mean it's possible, right? He could still be coming, couldn't he?

She leans against the wall and casually watches him, arms crossed.

"You really don't know who I am?" she asks. "And you didn't come with the TARDIS?"

[tragic_optimist]

"Sadly my dear, I do not. You are no one familiar to me, but I am quite familiar to you. So I would guess you know a future incarnation of myself, one that probably shares a few personality traits with myself. So what is it, then? I seem to be just as dramatic as this version-"

And now he starts trailing off, continuing to talk while he scans some more.

"-and I certainly hope that I keep my dress sense. I always have the oddest clothes, but I really like these ones. Do I wear something similar to this?"

A heavy shake of his head sends his curly auburn hair bouncing about.

"No, no, no, it's not good to know about your future, Doctor. You know this."

[and_she_waited]

Amy laughs. She's not intentionally mean about it, but hearing 'my dress sense' coming from the Doctor elicits some mockery.

"What harm is there in knowin' you run around in bow ties and braces and Donegal Tweed?" she says, as though she's breaking some bad news.

And it only gets worse.

"Oh, and the occasional fez. I keep hiding them, an' somehow you always find more," she muses.

[tragic_optimist]

There is a bit of a rolling of the eyes at the laughter. She reminds him of Lucie, right down the the laughter at the mention of his dress sense. But when she mentions what he wears, the disgust goes from mocking to an actual mild one.

"I suppose I could possibly make tweed and the bow tie work, but a fez? I prefer my hair out and about, thank you, and even if I did have head wear I would pick something more dignified than a fez."

More buzzing, and then an annoyed look from The Doctor.

"Well, this isn't telling me anything, except that this is some high quality fabric."

[and_she_waited]

Amy's face lights up. Not that this isn't weird, but it's good to be bantering with the Doctor again, especially when he's agreeing with her for once.

"That's what I said," she says, sounding vindicated. "Though, to be quite fair, you have better hair. How do you get it so bouncy?"

Is that jealousy? No, Pond. None of that.

She takes a step closer when he consults his screwdriver, peering at it to unravel its mysteries.

"Tryin' to work out where you are?" she guesses.