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

[sheriff_bigby]

Like me. His heart skipped a beat at those words and while it wasn't exactly civilized, Bigby couldn't help himself at what he did next. It had been a very long time, centuries, since he had last met someone like him. He leaned over slightly and took in a big sniff near to her hair before pulling back to his original position.

"Well I'll be damned." Bigby swallowed thickly as he stared at her, feeling suddenly out of place in this body which was far more foreign to him than the big furry one always trapped inside. It was good timing that his drink came just then and he turned more toward the bar and took a big gulp from it.

His brown eyes took in the people chatting pleasantly around them before he looked back to the girl. When he spoke it was much more quietly so as not to attract any attention from eavesdroppers. "So you're a Fable then? I find it hard to believe we never met before. I would remember your scent if we had though."

[didnotwant]

Marion ended up smiling in response. Something about this made her feel better. This wasn't the first time she had met another werewolf but this was one of the better meetings. No bullshit due to whatever excuse someone came up with.

"No." She shakes her head. She isn't lying. "Almost.... almost three years ago I got..."

She trails off and she stares at her drink looking uncomfortable. Her fingers twitch then her hand falls against where her gut got mauled. "Attacked. Hurt real bad. I don't think I wold have survived if that change hadn't took."

She glances back up at him and just shrugs silently. "Guess we're different, then."

She's not really sure what he would have meant by Fable anyways. She just knows that means they're really different from each other.

[sheriff_bigby]

That was pretty horrific Bigby thought as he glanced down to where her hand fell. He knew the stories of course, Fables were all good at knowing all kinds of stories, true and false alike. That it was possible for some wolves to infect others was disturbing to him and he felt some relief he wasn't one of those kind. That could mean she was though.

"I..." Bigby stopped himself - it was weird, to just tell her, too weird to follow through with. Bigby never talked about his family, or his origins, or any of that bad business all those millennia ago. The biggest rule of their culture was not to expose yourself to Mundanes but she wasn't really, though she used to be. What did that make her?

He took another gulp from his whiskey thinking how the taste was off but he ignored that for now. There was no poison in it, he would have smelled that immediately. Bigby looked over at her again. "I came by it honestly," was what he ended up saying. "What's your name?"

[didnotwant]

It obviously still bothers her given how she reacted. One couldn't just simply forget being hurt like that. Marion dealt with it much better than she had in the past but she wasn't as over what had happened as she would like to be.

She takes another sip of her own drink. It calms her nerves more than anything else she could try right now. She doesn't usually let herself use drinking like a crutch to deal with things like this but this is a special situation.

"Marion," she offers. She expects he'll introduce himself. It'd be really weird otherwise.

[sheriff_bigby]

"Bigby Wolf," he answered back. Her name reminded him immediately of Maid Marion and that made him give her a slight smile, not something he gave very often but this chance meeting warranted it. Bigby lifted his glass to her. "To our kind, huh?"

He took a gulp and set it down again before glancing at the stars. No, it still hadn't sunk in yet. It might take awhile. Onto the most important thing at the moment: "Hey, you got a smoke?"

[didnotwant]

"To werewolves, it never gets boring," Marion says in all seriousness though there is a slightly entertained twist to her mouth. She doesn't get bored easily. Restless well, that's different.

"Nah. It drives my senses batty," Marion says with a shake of her head. She didn't smoke before because of her Dad but even now she just can't because of her nose.

"Messes with how things taste."

[sheriff_bigby]

"I can't stand the smell of all the mundanes and all their smelly machinery and things they do to their bodies and put around their houses. Too many smells in a city, drives me batty." It actually wasn't so bad here in - what had she called it, Ten Forward? Everyone smelled more or less the same and there was a general blandness to the air that was neither pleasing nor displeasing, really. It just smelled manufactured.

He scratched at his thick stubble and gave her another slight smile. She was just a cub, he found himself thinking, which made him think of his little cubs all far far away. "So you joking with me about this star ship thing? And who is Q?"

[didnotwant]

"That's why I'm still more of a country girl," Marion said with a chuckle. "Cities can get... loud. Annoying."

The noise of the ship doesn't actually bother her. She doesn't like noise in cities. It echoes off of buildings in a way that just hurts.

"Nope. It's.... weird. But the people native to this place are nice. They didn't really give me a good enough run down on Q. Just that he likes to play games with the crew."

[sheriff_bigby]

"Can't wrap my mind around this." And Bigby had seen a lot in his long life, more than most mundanes could likely ever wrap their minds around. Stepping out of a world he knew inside and out, even if it wasn't his native world, into something this bizarre was too big for the old wolf. The scope of it was too large.

"The more important question might be: when do we get to go home? Is there a ship that will take us back there?" He had things to do, missions to complete, and his cubs to return to.

[didnotwant]

"I know. I have a hard time believing in half of what I've seen on this ship," the younger werewolf admits. She has been here longer than him but still hasn't fully processed everything. There is just too much information to take in.

"Apparently we're in another universe so even if there are other ships... we're stuck. Which pissed me off. I was asked to consult in a situation that was... kinda fucked up."

More like seriously fucked up.

[sheriff_bigby]

Stuck?! Now that word he could process even if he couldn't quite grasp the idea of space yet. Bigby's brows furrowed heavily, his expression turning mean and unhappy at the implication of that. There was too much to do, too much to lose.

"What kind of situation?" That wasn't the question he wanted to ask, he wanted to ask about gateways and witches and enchantments they could utilize to return home but he didn't know the situation here yet. He'll have to do a lot more investigating. This cub might know he's a wolf, but so far as he could safely assume yet, she doesn't know anything of the Fable world and it has to stay that way. Letting the word slip earlier had been a calculated risk but perhaps one too costly.

[didnotwant]

She didn't let his expression bother her. She gets his reaction, more or less based on how she had felt.

"Sometimes.... Sometimes weird things happen. I sometimes consult as far as the research side goes. Sometimes if it's something that needs uh... handling? I try to help out." She stares at her drink silently not sure how to explain things.

"Kids were dying." It makes her sick and angry all at once. "Anyways. All I know about Q is that he hasn't shown himself to the people he's been sending to this ship.... at least not yet. Might change. I plan on decking him."

[sheriff_bigby]

Bigby was more prone to bouts of melancholy than he would ever let on, and he was content to let most assume it was simply grumpiness. Everything had been coming to a head, years of loneliness, centuries of loneliness. Now, this. The universe really liked to deal him a fucked up hand, Bigby thought to himself with some self-pitying. He sighed and took a gulp of the whiskey, finishing off the short glass.

He immediately began berating himself. Here she was talking about kids dying and all these other people suffering, and Bigby was thinking only of himself. He gave a small snort through his nose and shook his head. "I'll be right behind you on that. Save a good spot on his face for me, pup."

[didnotwant]

Marion was getting used to her lone wolf routine. She hadn't stayed in one place for more than six months ever since she found out about what had happened to her that lonely night at the rest stop. She just wasn't really comfortable settling down in one area.

She blinks at being called pup then lets out a short laugh. "Sure thing, old man," she teases lightly.

"I'm sure there'll be plenty of him to go around."