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

[kepthimhuman]

"Oh my go--Emma." It never crosses his mind that this might be something his father is making up. There are just too many things that fit together for it to be a lie. "What was he doing in Neverland?"

[magicsprice]

Yet another question he'd love to figure out a creative way of not actually answering, but given this Q person's abilities, it might actually be in his best interests to continue being honest and reasonably straight-forward with his son. While he hoped that Q never brought his father on board, least not as Pan anyway, he had no real assurance it wouldn't happen.

Given how Pan already used hidden knowledge against him with Bae once in Neverland, he'd hate for it to happen again here.

"A pair of Pan's pawns kidnapped him and brought Henry there for him. Apparently Henry was in possession of something Pan wanted."

He paused there for now, because really, how is he supposed to properly explain the fact that not only does Pan want Henry's heart to extend his own eternal youth, but that Pan is Henry's great-grandfather as well.

[kepthimhuman]

"He'd be..." He does some figuring in his head, how long ago it was he knew Emma. "Eleven. What could an eleven-year-old boy have that he would want?" There were lost boys around that age, but he never seemed to want anything specific from any of them.

[magicsprice]

"A heart that believes. I heard them call it 'the heart of the truest believer'."

He could stop there, he had answered the question asked of him after all. However, he knew that the answer would cause more questions and perhaps it'd be better to answer what he thought might be asked and hope that whatever questions followed weren't as hard to answer.

"Pan wasn't always immortal and the magic that is keeping him young and alive is coming to it's end. Unfortunately, he found a way around that. If he gets his hands on Henry's heart, it will render him truly immortal, we were working to prevent that come coming about when I was brought here. We being Henry's family." And Hook, but all the pirate really did in his mind was provide the means of transport and save Charming from dying after a fashion.

[kepthimhuman]

This is a lot. Not only does he find out he has a son, but that the boy is also a target for someone he never expected to hear about again. Not much else is making its way around his mind right now.

"His family?" Emma, of course, but she didn't have any other family.

[magicsprice]

He knows the feeling of being overwhelmed by information too well, though his most recent experience of it was from a boy that though he looked like his grandson, wasn't truly his grandson.

"Yes. Emma, Regina, Emma's parents, along with you and I rounding out the team."

[kepthimhuman]

Okay. One thing at a time here. Emma didn't have parents before, but obviously she does now. Something to do with the curse, probably. The fact that he was there (somehow, despite these things not actually happening) must have something to do with how his father knows this. There's one question he has first though.

"Regina?"

[magicsprice]

He's not too surprised at that particular question, given the time difference and the fact the woman hadn't yet been even thought of when Bae had crossed worlds. Somehow he doesn't think the answer will go over too well, but there isn't anything he can do to change the truth of it.

"She's Henry's adoptive mother. From what I've learned, Emma was in jail when she had the child, she gave the boy up to give him a chance at a better life. Around that time, Regina came to me asking her to find her a child she could adopt and raise, and the child I ended up locating for her was Henry." He still thinks fate has a sense of humor, even if it did effectively provide them with a means to pull Emma into their town at the right time to break the curse.

[kepthimhuman]

"Eleven months." The full import of everything he's been told hadn't hit until just now. He needs to sit. There's a bench. He'll sit on that bench.

"So you all ended up going to Neverland. How'd you get there?" It's difficult to leave, so he imagines it's not easy to get there either.

[magicsprice]

Gold followed his son, deciding after a second's thought to remain standing before the bench instead of seating himself beside Bae.

"The same manner you left our world, with a magic bean." He grudgingly adds to that after a couple seconds. "And a ship belonging to a pirate who had been there previously. It's a bit of a long story."

[kepthimhuman]

"You took Hook's ship to Neverland?" There had been other pirates around the place from time to time, but with the way things seem to be working, there are no coincidences even if seems like there are, and Hook would be the most accidentally-coincidental of them to show up. Plus it makes sense that Hook would make an effort to show up wherever his father is.

It doesn't cross his mind that maybe his father doesn't realize he knows Hook, nor does he stop to wonder how they knew how to sail his ship. He went, apparently, and he would know how.

[magicsprice]

While he did know that the two men did know each other somehow, he'd never given much thought as to how that had come about. Asking about that could serve as a decent distraction from the current tricky topic.

"Yes. Hook was the one with the bean, so we decided to call a truce in the face of the current situation involving Henry." Or more like he'd asked if the damn pirate was over his useless attempts to murder him and then a truce was given once he'd gotten an affirmative from the man.

"I've been wondering, just how is it you happened to know the man? When did you learn how to sail his ship?"

[kepthimhuman]

"Neverland." There's no point trying to hide it now, especially given that there's a truce in place. "The bean took me to the land without magic. I met a family there, the Darlings, and I stayed with them for awhile. The shadow threatened to take one of them with it, so I went instead. I got away from the shadow, fell in the water, and there was Hook and his crew."

[magicsprice]

"So he took you onto his ship and ended up teaching you how to sail it?"

There's a trace of disbelief perhaps in the latter statement. Not over the truth of it, that was proven some time back, but rather the fact of Hook doing it for no reason but to be friendly. He had to wonder just what the story was between the rescue from the water and the teaching and when and how his son parted ways from the pirate to live on the island. He wondered how soon Hook realized just who he'd rescued and if the pirate had intended to use his son against him in a similar manner that his attack on Belle had been actually directed towards him.

[kepthimhuman]

"He asked me my name. He knew who I was." Being used like that is something he can be less angry about now that he knows there's a truce.

[magicsprice]

"I see." It's plain in his terseness if not in his voice or expression that he doesn't much like the implications behind that. No doubt the pirate had had every intention of using the boy somehow to hurt him before he again tried to make good on his death threats.

"How did you go from sailing with him to living on the island in a cave, might I ask?"

[kepthimhuman]

"He--" He pauses, thinks for a moment. He didn't say anything about leaving Hook's company, and he certainly never mentioned a cave. "How did you know about that?"

[magicsprice]

"You told me you lived on the island in a cave, while we were in Neverland. Obviously you had to leave Hook's company to end up on the island."

He doesn't bring the conversation itself to mind despite his bringing part of it up in this conversation. The situation and events that followed it still were somewhat of a sore spot he didn't want to prod more than necessary right now.

[kepthimhuman]

The first thing that crosses his mind is 'no I didn't,' because he can't have. Until he remembers that apparently he was back in Neverland, it just hasn't happened yet.

"I left the ship, and I couldn't leave Neverland itself so I had to stay on the island. I refused to be one of the lost boys, so that left the cave."