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

[queenofthenile]

Aunt Prudence would be horrified, Dot would be taken aback, and Jack's forehead would crinkle in that way it does when he's watching one of Phryne's more...colorful guests recount their experiences, for example, at the Folies Bergeres -- but Phryne's smile only brightens. He's all energy and syncopation, a jazz quartet breaking loose with a drum solo. Lively, and she loves life. "Smart, isn't it?"

The Melbourne elite would gnaw their own arms off to know where she found it, but that's not even the best part. It's sleek and stylish and gives a strong statement: she adores it already.

She has calling cards; one appears between her gloved fingers in the hand she offers to him, her name and title printed in elegant type on the face. "Always a pleasure to meet a fellow connoisseur." She pauses, smiling widening. "Doctor."

The title leaves her lips with as much familiarity as a Christian name might; Phryne doesn't believe in standoffishness, and she does believe in meeting as many new people as she can.

This place has been absolutely fantastic for it.

[thelasttimelord]

If he's surprised about the card, it doesn't show for long. There's something clever and clear about the delight that flashes in and out like fish in a pond. Star at night around the clouds. Calling Cards. "Oh, I've missed these." Calling Cards. As he's flipping it back and forth. Reading the front with her name, profession, and addressed. Taking in the exact minute raise of the font and the press of the fibers in the card. "How on Earth did everyone ever give up using them. They're so delightful."

So helpful. Look at that. He had her name. A location to take her back to. If only everyone came with such clear instructions.

Or such a great title attached to their name. "Lady Detective, are you?"

If she's expecting anything like the unexpected splash she might make back home, maybe she'll be surprised to find his grin widened, and a little manic pleased. Hundreds of books and references springing to mind with the kind of glee that belongs to child in the swing of just discovering how to love things. Characters. Running away. Breaking apart mysteries and piecing together all the clues before you got to last page.

"I've always wanted to meet one of those. It's a pleasure. An absolute pleasure." Ten held out a hand to her.

[queenofthenile]

A pleasure, he says, an absolute pleasure, and Phryne's smile widens into something that sparkles. Her handshake is firm, and her interest?

Well, it's certainly piqued. "The feeling is quite mutual," she assures him, that mobile smile still playing about her mouth. He isn't quite like anyone else she's met here; there's something deliciously different about him that she can't quite put her finger on.

But there are clues. "You must be from somewhat further down the timeline than me, I'm afraid." No one in 1928, from Melbourne to Paris to London and New York, has given up calling cards, and yet he knows what they are; it follows logically that this Doctor is from or familiar with her future, or something like it.

Others might be wary or uncomfortable with meeting someone who knows and has seen and lived the future: not so Miss Fisher.

All she asks is that no one spoil the really big surprises. What would be the fun in that?

[thelasttimelord]

"Well." Ten bobbles a little, on those spongy trainers, his hands juggling his cup and prong back into two hands after shaking hers. "Probably. But, you never know." He tilted his head back and forth. "Parallel universes. It could all be happening at the same time, in different places, so your now could be my now in the parallel. None of it's actually flat in the first place. It's all very wibbly-wobbly."

Beat. With the flare of a grin. "But probably. I'm from a little bit of here, and there, and everywhere else in-between."

He's nothing if not a puffed up peacock about it. It's not even about bragging. Okay. Some of it is. He loves his life. He loves traveling. He loves being at the heart of all those new and beautiful things. Loves racing to the beginning of time and then back to the end. Then chasing events that cascaded all of time, just as much as the still frozen moments never collected in any book or any record, lost and kept in a single breath.

He's seen so many horrors, but that doesn't change that he's seen so many miracles, too.

[queenofthenile]

"Are you really?"

She's all keen interest, and no disbelief; Phryne has never had a very closed mind, even before being whisked away to another universe. On board this strange ship, she's met men and women both who seem to be from the distant past and other from the future; those with worlds which sound like hers, and those from places she could never have dreamed of before being plucked out of her own and brought here.

Tucking the hat in her bag, she offers him a considering, brilliant smile, and tips her head towards the side, indicating the open position there, and the walkway that wends its way through the crowd of people, deeper into the bazaar.

"Do tell me all about it."

[thelasttimelord]

Ten's quite content to fall into step with this Ms. Phryne Fisher. Lady Detective. With a title. And a calling card. And--

"You're putting it away?" This is absolutely straight over her question, when he's gesturing to the hat. The hat. The one she's tucking into a bag instead of keeping in her hands. Or wearing. The hat that started all this. Along with his giddy tilt-o-whirl of accidentally bumping into her. He knows he should consider finding his ruffians, but really a good hat and a great smile, and a Lady Detective's invitation definitely mean he can wait a little while longer.

It's not like they'll be where he left them. They never are. No matter how many times you tell them to stay.

[queenofthenile]

"My dear Doctor."

She gives him an amused glance, as she takes up the at she'd taken off to try the other on, fits it back over her neat cap of sleek black hair. This one is a sleek bucket hat, deep navy, with a cluster of feathers that gently brush one cheek, and once it's on, with a pin inserted to keep it in place, she reaches into her pocket and hands a few chips of currency over the the grinning, nodding vendor. "Only for the moment."

Acquired hat paid for, and the original back in place, she loops her arm through his, and smiles consipratorially up at him. "Now. What was it you were saying about time?"

[thelasttimelord]

"It's wibley-wobley." He was saying with something like distraction. Rampant distraction. Because he was grinning.

Watching her with this newest one. Which must have been her original one. But it was spectacular as well. Accented to every angle to compliment her face and her hair, her make-up her outfit. Leaving Ten shaking his head with the kind of brilliant awe only capable out of the youngest of children in their innocence and the most studied of artists in their fully taught knowledge.

"This is nice. I like this." The Doctor shook his head, looking momentarily bereft even in his glee. "We used to be so fond of hats. You wouldn't believe how fond. And everyone's let it go to pot for-" There's a catch in his almost spilling it, except he's grinning, not looking like his hand is the cookie jar even slight. "-ever. Really. Too long. Much too long. The last one that stuck was a Optimo Panama."

"Mind you. It's rubbish compared to this gem-" Which gets a wave of his hand at her ensemble there. "-but it stayed a long time. Hard to let go of something when you've had it that long."