TEST DRIVE #1 - Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

You know how you were standing there, back in your home world, just minding your own business?

Time to forget all about that.

Instead of doing whatever the heck you were just doing, you're standing in the middle of this very stylish, sedate barroom. Happily, you're not alone there - in fact you're surrounded by people who seem to be as confused as you are...and some of them look a little, well unusual

Now would be a great time to do....well, something. Ask some questions of the person nearest you, throw a fit, stage a coup....maybe do a little exploring? No matter what you do, you're going to be here for a very long time.

For others might call it the USS Enterprise, but for the foreseeable future, you'll be calling it home.

[OOC: this test drive's open until the next app period.]

Comments

[never_felt_better]

"Hu–human?"

I'm sorry, did he hear you right? A broad smile spreads across his face. He laughs — he can't help it. He's spent the last several solar months looking for a way home, and hell, this guy is practically his neighbor. Howdy, neighbor!

John claps him on the shoulder, "Boy, am I glad to see you! How did you get here? ... Where is here, anyway?"

As an afterthought: "No, haven't stepped on the moon, but my dad did. Flown around the Earth a few times, though."

[abyssum_invocat]

"...Yes," she says dubiously. "But nowhere like this. Not at all."

It's 1944 for her, and she's not very sure what in the world just happened but this is not familiar in any sense. She looks up at Steve and falls back on the only thing she can concretely think of to say. "You're...I know your face. My father doesn't like you."

[queenofmay]

Maybe it's something like a dance. She takes a step, across one ledge to another world, not so unlike other Doors and Worlds, and somehow he follows. He takes a step, and even though her eyes go toward the subject of his words to her, she simply falls into step with him the same, without thinking of it. Quiet, blue-grey eyes catching the eves, the walls, the bracketed edges.

The way it is so much bigger, even as she clarifies on the same quandary. "Like The Window?"

In Milliways. Forever burning, and ending, on a ever present loop. Yet when you stepped outside of the Bar, itself, you were outdoors in a normal enough looking world, where no stars and worlds and time were dying. Not anywhere. Though this was quite a lot bigger, and it seemed to move sort of gently all in one direction. Endless blackness and pinpricks of light.

[queenofmay]

"You don't sound very pleased about that."

That voice comes from someone who hasn't quite made her mind up about walking up to another bar. Not that it stands out. She's passed a handful of people having any number of reactions to what seems to be the newest just appearing somewhere wave. She'd think it was Milliway's magic, but so many of them aren't from Milliways, too.

[queenofmay]

"Kate!" It's far less of a yell, and more like a surprised, heart gladdened, expulsion of her name.

She would know that voice, and blonde hair cutting through a crowd anywhere. Even if it has been too long. Which is likely her fault, she can own to that. She does stay in Ambergeldar long enough the word hiding is not quite entirely a joke, or a soft winded sort of wound. But it doesn't change the fact, that voice brings a smile to her lips, and she holds her hands out for Kate. All that matters is that it has been too long, and Kate is here, too. "It is."

"It's good to see a friendly face." Not that she's implying there are unfriendly faces, or that she's even been here long enough to go about discerning anything about much of anyone. Only that it's good to see Kate. "You just missed Caspian."

[do_your_duty]

She blinks and the world changes. All of it. In one blink. Replacing a half-empty cargo room with what looks like a mess hall full of people, furniture, noise, and the back of a head she couldn't forget for trying. The voice that cracks the air from behind him, and off to the left, would make nails on a chalk board sound symphonic, filled with hesitationless razor edged accusation. "What did you do."





Oh. And did we mention the primed pulse pistol?


That will probably look as familiar as this face to John.


Especially when the holder of both is narrowing her eyes and inclined only to the offensive at both the man in front of her blundering into things he shouldn't but always does and a room where she's already spotted two races she can't even place. She doesn't need to place them to know this is all his frelling fault. Again.

[never_felt_better]

He whirls on her, and she'll recognize this look, too. Wide-eyed panic. It's the norm when Aeryn is around.

"Whoa whoa whoa Aeryn," he hollers, hands out and defensive. "Put that thing away, would you? For crying out loud, you're going to get us shot!"

Despite the obvious threat on his life, he moves closer. Out of the line of fire. Closer to the trigger if he needs to ... right, John, you're going to disarm the Ultimate Peacekeeper Barbie. Better to just reason with...








Frell.

[do_your_duty]

Her eyebrows arch stiffly upward, as her expression slashes toward something that would make repugnant disgust run for a dying star to hide in. She was not 'going to get shot.' She was not going to let anyone on this, whatever it was, shoot her. She might let them shoot John. But then she'd have to shoot them out of some forced loyalty.

Or necessity for peace if she returned to Moya without him. Or point of pride.

Because if anyone was going to shoot John, it was going to be her. For saying things like that.

Which is why she ignores the dren he's saying now, for restating, colder and sharper, as it's obviously more important than ever disarming herself in unknown environment. "You didn't answer my question. What did you do this time? Where are we?"

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate takes her hands, of course, but she also cups the woman's face as if to get a good look at her. Laughing, she wraps her up in a quick, warm hug.

"Ah, you're tellin' me. It's so good t'see you! M'sorry I missed Caspian."

There's a slight curl to his name. A sing-song lilt, just a hint of an 'Oh? Caspian? Really?' When she pulls back, she's all smiles and that familiar glint in her eyes.

"How've you been? Both of you? My, but I never expected t'see you here."

[never_felt_better]

He almost laughs. She's got that thing going on with her face. You know, the thing where she's curling her lip like an Elvis impersonator, but looking at him like she can will the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"Nothing," he says, and it comes out slightly annoyed. He's always teetering between the two with her. Amused, annoyed. Confused. Terrified. Excited. Okay, so there's a few more emotions than two. "Aeryn, I didn't do anything. I was just walking, and this place showed up. I thought maybe it was normal."

How the heck would he know? Weirder stuff has happened.

[from_the_outside]

There's a second's pause that gives her time to weigh her options if he doesn't believe her -- not that there are many. Even if he doesn't believe her, she can't leave him alone. Orders are still order, even if he knows about them, even if they grate at him like she knows they must, because they'd grate at her.

But he seems to get the picture -- or, at least, as much as could be expected from either one of them at this particular moment, and doesn't argue the point. Sure. It's not the warmest of conversational starters, but she's not in this to charm him, just to help keep him alive. Him liking her is not a prerequisite for a completed mission, here.

Still, this probably won't help, what she's going to say. She chews briefly on her bottom lip, sliding her gaze away from him, and around the room, like she has every twenty seconds or so since she got here. "I've got no idea."

It's not helpful, but she's also dropped the facetious tone, and there's tension sitting between her shoulders. "I was just going for a bagel, and I ended up here. Where there are no bagels, and definitely no lox. I mean, that's just rubbing it in."

[stark_spangled]

He takes the time to think back and concentrate. Eventually, one quick shake of his head answers her question.

"I had just parked my bike in the south garage, and was walking to the entrance." He doesn't specify where. You never know who's listening, and Natasha will know what he means. "I don't remember losing time. I don't feel like I've been drugged. One minute I was there, and the next--"

He spreads his hands. "You?"

[stark_spangled]

Lox and bagels. It almost draws a smile out of him.

"Great," he mutters instead. He doesn't know why he half expected her to admit she followed him here. Even if she did, she wouldn't come out and tell him she did. No, she came from a different direction. She was here before he was. And her answer, as much as he wants to believe she's lying, sounds truthful enough.

He takes a step forward, testing the ground beneath his feet. Not everyone here is human, but there's a fair number of people in uniform. Red, teal, gold. "Is there anyone here you recognize?" He turns, fixing her with a no-nonsense look. "I don't care about covers right now, so don't lie to me."

[from_the_outside]

Her mouth flattens, and she gives him a narrow glance, but shrugs it off.

They're on the same team. Eventually, he'll realize that, or he'll quit being Captain America and move out to the middle of nowhere where no one will ever ask him to fight for them again. "There's no one here I recognize."

She waves a hand in the general direction of one group all wearing the same sort of jumpsuit: black on bottom, different colors on top. It almost looks familiar, but not enough to ring any bells. "Those aren't S.H.I.E.L.D. They're no uniforms I've ever seen before, but if I were lying, how would you be able to tell?"

That comes with a glance back up at him, but her expression is wry, not patronizing. "This is all just as new to me as it is to you. Still -- "

She looks back towards the group, head cocking as she considers them. "They seem peaceful enough. No one's opened fire on any of us newcomers -- and we're definitely not the only ones feeling out of place. Could be friendlies."

[stark_spangled]

He nods, giving her another friendly smile. "Me, too. Where I come from is nothing like this."

He leans back on his heels, and sets his elbows on his knees. "I'm not surprised, I know a lot of Germans who don't like my face."

[abyssum_invocat]

"It's not just your face he doesn't like," she says, though the way she rattles off the information belies the fact that she's never met Steve before. She's only heard of him through Johann, and nobody can say that's not an entirely biased source of information.

Still, it's one of the few she's got access to. "You're Captain America," Sinthia continues. "He says you want to stop him from stopping the war." Which is...technically, maybe true. Steve more than likely wants to stop the Red Skull ending the war the way that man would like to; Sinthia knows how the ideal plan ends. She kind of wants Steve to stop him, too, but it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.

It's a little disconcerting. (It's a lot disconcerting if you're eight and the major power in this war happens to be your only living blood relative.) "Is this an American trick?" she asks.

Well, it's not like she's got any better explanation.

[i_got_vision]

And Butch can always turn his money over to someone who can actually gamble, and trust him to make the most of what they've got.

Well, everybody's got their strong suits. Some people are good at being friendly. Some people are good at cards and being intimidating. A man should know what he's good at, and maybe work on getting better at the things he's not so good at, but accept it if practicing doesn't help.

Or if it just doesn't suit his temperament.

"Bourbon, then?" he asks. "If they got it. I'm not too sure about that blue stuff there."

[thebesteverseen]

Aeryn isn't ever sure which of the things coming out his mouth is the less sane and confusing. That he thought it was normal, or that he thought he should put down her gun if it wasn't his fault and he had no idea what this place was either. It's definitely the second, even if the first is rolling out her mouth. "Do rooms full of people just appear where you're from?"

The answer is no. The edge of sharp scorn in the question makes it one that doesn't ask for answering.

But the fact he answered her first question means she can turn her attention from him, and onto the room.











Where absolutely no one is actually paying their arrival any attention in the slightest.

[mintgiver]

"...Nelson, I don't know what kind of deal you made with those Time Babies, but if you don't get me off this floating tin can and back in the Widowmaker in two seconds Today's Experiment's going to be the director's cut of Plan Nine!"

...enjoy your very loud, very blonde new arrival, guys.

[is_great]

For a minute or two, Bender presumed he'd been blipped into one of Fry's Star Trek-based fever dreams.

But now he's cackling.

It's a very quiet kind of cackling.

It's the sound of someone who thinks he's found a goldmine of presumed-suckers to exploit.

Catch Bender sneaking around the lounge, trying to lift jewelry or pick pockets, or maybe by the bar, trying to spend his ill-gotten gains on a drink.

Hopefully the bar serves Ole Fortran.

[splendid_roman]

"Oh," he said, with understanding. "Then this place is far better than home for you." Assuming she wasn't a Nazi, but having been brought up to believe that all Nazis were evil and she didn't appear to be evil, Ian assumed she wasn't.

[splendid_roman]

Ian was surprised by that reaction, but perhaps the other man had been living among aliens or something. Maybe there really were little green men on Mars.

"I don't know where here is," he admitted, "except for a spaceship in space in the 24th century." He was going to say they were in the future, but if the man's father had been to the moon he was already from Ian's future. But it was good to know that humans made it to the moon eventually.

"Seeing Earth from orbit must have been an amazing sight."

[fallaces_sunt]

"I went up to the roof to clear my head. Open the door, here I am."

This time, the twist of her lips is tight.

"If this is a joke, someone's going to find themselves in Antarctica very shortly."

[evilontheloose]

Meanwhile, at the nearest table he can spot a short, slender girl with a cybernetic left arm, enjoying a drink and tapping away at a touchpad computer.

It's CandyBurst, not Science, because even evil geniuses need distractions.

[never_felt_better]

"Twenty-fourth century?" John repeats, taking a closer look around. That's definitely the future from when John last saw Earth, and for a minute he feels rattlers in his stomach. Maybe the Earth he knew is gone, and everyone's dead, and he'll never find his way back.

He spies an officer in red and black sitting at a table. There's a little starfleet comm link on his breast. "Hot damn," he mutters, blinking hard. "What? No, yeah, it was amazing. Most amazing thing I'd seen until..."

He squints at that officer and starts laughing again, but this time it's low and forced and slightly manic. "Great googly-moogly. How the hell did I get here?"