ten_fwd_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #4 - The Arboretum/Ten Forward

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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."

"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.

"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."

"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."

"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.

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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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.

"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.

"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?"

"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.

He nods, accepting this. There's a lot to be said about someone who calls him Alexander than the Fool.

"Run away or thrown?"

Max didn't answer. Instead, he stood up and moved to the replicator, trying to make it give him more cake. There was a slight limp to his left leg but it's barely noticable. He's failing at getting the cake though.

The Fool notices and he wanders over to watch the boy try to get his cake. If Max asks, he'll help.

Until then... well, he's content to let the boy make a fool out of himself.

Max never asks for help. But an old fashioned annoyed hit to the console does the trick and he moves back to the table with his cake. Sadly, once it's eaten, he's thirsty but he's not trying that contraption again. At least he got out of answering that question. For now.

He laughs when the thing works when it gets hit. It's so predictable it is funny. Wandering back after him, with a plate of fish and chips this time, he sits back down to watch Max eat.

"Don't let your pride get the better of you, unless you wish to be made a fool," he says poking a chip into the tartar sauce.

What pride? Max doesn't ask for help as it requires trusting and relying on someone else. You can only depend on yourself. Or the shadows.

He ate the cake slower than before, but that doesn't stop the thirst. And despite his best efforts, the conversation is bringing back memories he doesn't want.

Stick to the shadows. The shadows protect their own. Beware of the light.

"This is horrible," he grumbles, poking at his food. "It's as if all the joy has been sucked out of it. It's merely the parts but not the whole."

Flicking a glance at Max he then says, "How did you get hurt?" Tapping his leg with his walking stick the Fool continues, "I was chased from my home because they thought I was a demon. I broke my leg running."

Max didn't know what to say about the food. He'd take in a heartbeat due to his life back...where he came from. Home wasn't a word he would use for the outside. Or the inside for that matter. They were just...places.

But he decided he would give an answer to the question. Even if it was slightly more cryptic, perhaps it would warn Alexander not to ask any more.

"I trusted someone. And they let me down."

The Fool is very particular and peculiar at times about his food. But that's par for the course, isn't it?

"Trust is a tricky thing. It sounds like Death's Shadow has been bothering you."

Max snorted. "That depends. Is Death's Shadow called Adam?"

There's a tilt of his head. "No, I don't think he's ever been called by that name. Currently he goes by Karren. But Death's Shadow deals with betrayals of trust. He is the one that gets people to stick their knife in your back.

"A real knife or not."

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