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

[throwawayrunaway]

Max watched him limp there and back, staring at the cake that was placed in front of him. Ignoring any cutlery because he hasn't used that for so long, he carefully takes a bite. If he'd still been living in the castle, he would have scoffed that this wasn't nothing like the real thing. But it has been so long that it tastes amazing and it's gone within seconds.

A smile manages to cross his face when he's finished. "Thank you."

[forgottenmotley]

The pie is eaten much more slowly. It's really not as good as real apple pie and sure some people say they can't tell the difference, but the Fool can tell a lie.

"You're welcome."

From the pocket he pulls out a book. It's one of those Western Pulp novels that were so popular in the 1800s. At least, that's what it looks like. The book is obviously brand new and isn't the Fool's particularly horribly worn version, taped together and with the pages falling out.

"This is a book."

[throwawayrunaway]

Max stares at the book with interest. Taking it from the other man, he opens it and instantly gets a paper cut. He drops the book on the table and puts the finger in his mouth to soothe the wound. Fool might have noticed the blood wasn't the usual shade of red.

"Dangerous." He muttered around his finger.

[forgottenmotley]

"Anything is dangerous if you're not careful," he says idly.

He notices the blood and gives it a curious look. But he's hardly one to call names on strange things like blood. His shadow, for example is flickering oddly, like he's in front of a fireplace.

[throwawayrunaway]

After a moment, Max takes the finger out and it's healed nicely. There's a slightly pinker patch where the cut had been but no other evidence to suggest he was hurt.

He picks up the book more carefully this time and opens it. "What are the markings inside?"

[forgottenmotley]

Huh.

"They're letters and the letters make words and the words make sentences and the sentences make paragraphs and the paragraphs make stories... at least in this case," he explains, waving his fork around.

A bit of pie goes flying into someone's face, hitting them in the eye. It makes the person stumble and fall into another person's lap, spilling their drinks all over them. They start to argue.

The Fool gives a malicious smile at that.

[throwawayrunaway]

Max ignores the other people, trying to listen to the Fool's words.

"I've never heard of such things." It confuses him. Not that he's never been confused before, but back then it didn't matter. And now it appears to.

[forgottenmotley]

"You've never heard of words or sentences?"

Curiouser and curiouser.

The arguing people look like they're going to escalate into a fight, but other people pull them apart which makes the Fool scowl.

[throwawayrunaway]

Max frowns. Maybe he has. In the dark recesses of his mind that he tries to forget. He shakes his head, more to change the subject than as a negative to the other man's question.

"Do you know where I am?"

[forgottenmotley]

"We are far beyond any world, in the stars between here and there. A ship that can slip between the night and day to reach places you can only think of in your dreams."

He notices the fear at wanting to remember, of not wanting to seem somewhat foolish about the questioning.

[throwawayrunaway]

Max nods, finally understanding something clearly though not quite sure he wants to believe it.

"Sounds like I can't go back." And he's all too happy about that.

[forgottenmotley]

"You might be able to. You might not. There are beings more powerful than I that control these things."

He tilts his head briefly, the hat falling over his eyes. It's shoved back up. "But I would guess, from your state, you would rather be here than there."

[throwawayrunaway]

"Here I can have cake. I cannot there." And while cake wasn't the be all and end all of everything, it was nice to not have to be hungry all the time and work for everything just because he didn't live up to his father's expectations.

[forgottenmotley]

"And here you won't be beat. They don't take kindly to such things."

Annoyingly.

He gestures to Max's face and the injuries there upon.

"You seem like a boy who has been kept in the shadows far too long."

[throwawayrunaway]

"That's also a good thing." But since he hadn't been beat until he'd met Adam, that wasn't something Max really cared about.

"The shadows are cover. The shadows protect their own. Going out into the light is where the danger lies."

[forgottenmotley]

"Yes. Yes, we do. The Forgotten protect their own."

He smiles a bit and the shadows around him deepen more than they should considering the light sources around them.

[throwawayrunaway]

That was when Max noticed the shadows. It didn't bother him. He was more...intrigued. But he put it down to the place, not the man.

"I have only lasted this long because of the shadows. It was the light that gave me the beating."

[forgottenmotley]

"It does that. It offers things that will eventually lead to disappointment. To life wasted. Hope has no place," he says finishing up his pie finally.

"They offers promises. We at least are honest in what we are."

[throwawayrunaway]

Max nodded in agreement. "I'm surprised you understand. Most people don't."

[forgottenmotley]

"I am the Fool. I am one of the Forgotten. I was created out of fire cast shadows and ash when men were first learning how to put names to fear. Of course I understand."

[throwawayrunaway]

"I'm Max." Only fair to exchange names, though he's not sure what to do with the rest of the information.

[forgottenmotley]

"Hello Max. I'm the Fool, though sometimes people call me Alexander." Is he reintroducing himself?

Perhaps.

Once was as a title, naming himself. Now he's introducing himself.

There's a difference.

At least to him.

[throwawayrunaway]

"Do you have a preference on which I call you?" It's easier to talk about names than anything else. And Max certainly doesn't want to talk about himself. So it's better to keep the focus on this other man, this Fool.

[forgottenmotley]

"Whatever you wish. I answer to both. I am both," he says with a shrug. "Some find it easier to call me a fool. Some find it easier to call me Alexander. I judge not."

Then, because he's curious. "How did you come to the shadows?"

[throwawayrunaway]

"I think I prefer Alexander." Sounded more like a name than Fool.

But as for the shadows, he shrugs. "My father." And that's all he has to say about that.