TEST DRIVE MEME #4 - The Arboretum/Ten Forward

[ten_fwd_mods]

Option 01: Aboard the Enterprise, The Arboretum: In exploring the Enterprise, you end up on Deck 17, section 21 alpha: the arboretum. Instantly upon entering you can tell this room is different from all the others. For one thing, you're now standing on grass. It's no illusion, no simulation; it's real grass, leading up to a small pond in the center of the room. All around you grows a variety of plant life, trees and bushes and hanging plants, flowers and herbs and even what one might consider weeds. The arboretum is, for all intents and purposes, a botanic garden, used both recreationally for passengers to relax and enjoy, and scientifically for research and study. After all, the scope of alien plant life is impressive, from the Cyprion cacti down to the Earth variety roses.

The room is well lit and large, with benches to rest on and small walking paths. Children are grouped off in one corner working on botany projects, while some passengers are seen kneeling in the dirt carefully tending to their garden patches. There are even windows along one wall, allowing for a view of space while the room itself gives the illusion of daylight. It's the perfect spot to relax, read a book, or grab a spare spade and dig in the dirt. Or perhaps you've been looking for the right moment to say hello to the passenger standing off by the venus flytraps.





Option 02: Aboard the Enterprise, Ten Forward: Or maybe not. You've just arrived, and you have no idea what just happened. One minute you were somewhere else, and now you're in what looks like a spacious, well-appointed bar. The hum of the crowd is inviting, and the drinks look invigorating. There are people eating and drinking, some in uniform, others not. Some are clearly aliens.

Try to find out why you're here, or catch a drink at the bar; there's always something happening here.

Comments

Have a little shit with magic; sorry?

[geneticallyscrewed]

Henry was not happy to be on this ship. And even less happy to have a controlling influence on the man who might be his grandfather. He'd raged, tried every magic available to him and even sulked like the pre-teen he was. But nothing made any difference to his situation.

So he began to explore. Finding the arboretum, he walked in with his hands in pockets, not really interested in what was available and not caring if he hurt any of the plants.

He couldn't carry out his plan here and that meant he was bored. And a bored Henry is someone everyone should fear. Because his fun was rarely fun for anyone else.

she may notice he's magical, if that's okay? c:

[successively]

Movement caught her out of the corner of her eye; Edea straightened up, turning slightly to see the boy coming in through the door. She took a moment to try to guess his age — eleven? Twelve? Not a teenager quite yet, but not so very young, either. She'd seen enough very bored, sullen boys to recognize the look on his face right away, and the way he tromped through the arboretum with so little disregard for the plants he might have damaged in the process—

(It reminded her of nothing so much as of Seifer, about the same age or perhaps a bit younger, making an angry, petulant mess of her back garden, and her scolding him firmly before getting him back indoors to wash the mud off. The memory hurt, now, as it would not have some years ago, and with an effort she pushed it aside.)

She wouldn't scold him; she wasn't his mother, didn't even know him. But she could interrupt him and, perhaps, shake him out of that mood a little.

"Hello," she said, just loudly enough to be heard. If Henry were to look up, he'd see a woman in a long black dress, with long black hair over her shoulders, and a soft smile on her lips that belied her somber looks. Her expression was kind, but not condescending in the slightest.

No that fine, He does radiate it.

[geneticallyscrewed]

Henry did look up, but once he caught who was speaking to him, he scowled. No one he knew so he doubted she could help. But while he was an annoyed, even angry, young man, he decided it was best not to make enemies instantly here. He didn't have the back up of the Dark One like back home.

"Hello. What do you want?"

\o/ he's free to pick up that she's not really your standard ordinary human, too, if you want

[successively]

The annoyed what do you want? reminded her of Seifer, too, though Seifer at this boy's age would never have said something like that to her. Still, Edea didn't let it faze her. She shook her head slightly, circling around the nearby bench to sit down facing him, just within conversation distance but no closer. No reason to make him nervous by getting any closer — though she had the feeling, looking at him, that he wasn't easily made nervous, even by strangers.

"You looked a little lost," she commented, still with that faint kind smile on her lips. There was no judgment in her voice, just a simple statement of fact. It worried her a little, that perhaps he was here by himself with no one to watch after him — but she kept that to herself. Likely he'd say he didn't need anyone to take care of him if she voiced her thoughts aloud.

"Have you just arrived here, too?"

There was something... off about him, in a way that took her a moment to pin down. One of the few remnants Edea had left of her Sorceress Power, aside from her ice magic, was the ability to sense magical power in others — both para-magic, and the true magic more typical of a Sorceress's abilities. What she was feeling from him felt more like the latter — an innate power, not something distilled or 'drawn' from the energy of the ambient environment — and that made her curious. In her world, only women were capable of using that sort of magic.

cool; noted. and lol your edit reason amused me

[geneticallyscrewed]

He certainly didn't need anyone to take care of him. And he didn't need to explain himself to anyone either. But a very small part of controlling Gold was the company. So he shrugged one shoulder and after another moment, he nodded.

"Not lost though. I know exactly where I am." Acting as this trip was all in his plan was all he could do at present. It wasn't, obviously, but at least he wasn't powerless here.