TEST DRIVE #2 - The Holodeck/Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

Where were you a minute ago? Well, you aren't there anymore. Instead, you're standing in a very large, dark room lined with yellow. There are doors at either end of it.

Here's where things get a little choose your own adventure-y. You could:



1: Approach a console filled with buttons, located a few feet away. Press one, and it'll let you out of the room. Travel down a long hallway and you'll be in Ten Forward, the Enterprises' entertainment lounge. Have a drink, mingle and try to figure out why you're here.

OR

2: Maybe you just muttered some vague request under your breath. Maybe you wished aloud you were somewhere else. Or for help? If you did, might be in a fire station. Muttered something about killing whoever dumped you here? Surprise - you're in a slasher movie!

Though they're confusing, these visions feel about as real as they can be. And guess what - other people can experience those fantasies with you, as if they too were really there. How ever will you escape? Or do you want to?

[OOC: Welcome to the Holodeck! If you choose this option, whatever your character chooses to say out loud will cause a virtual reality program to load and play. While your character feels as if what they're experiencing and seeing is quite real, they're purely living through the latest and best in what he Enterprise has to offer in entertainment. Make sure to detail what your character's fantasy is, so that those threading with them will know how to react.

Open til next month's test drive!]

Comments

[captgreatcoat]

The Torchwood hub is a pretty secretive place. Goes with the territory of being a secret alien-hunting organisation. Torchwood has secrets nobody but Jack knows.

But know them, Jack does. Or at least, most of them. The old place still has a few surprises once in a while when the Rift's getting messy, but that's Cardiff for you.

And of all the secrets he knows, this room is not one of them. And neither is the corridor on the other side of the door. But with the Rift, who knows what's going to happen or where you're going to wind up?

That's why there's a guy in an RAF greatcoat with a vintage pistol drawn and aimed as he walks through the door into Ten Forward.

[heraldsavil]

The door slides open with a faint hiss yet again to Savil's annoyance. Doors should be solid and indicate privacy, not open at any sign of movement towards them like an invitation to pry. One should be able to knock properly, not step through with a casual limp...

The annoyed glance flicked from the doorway to the man just a few lengths down the hall and sharpened as the door hissed shut behind her. She had shared the joke that her white tunic and shirt, white pants, white boots, even her knee-length white hair practically shouted 'I'M A TARGET!' but her blue eyes were not at all amused at the moment. Savil was old enough to recognize a weapon even if it wasn't familiar to her. A hand gestured to set a shield of power around her on total reflex. First layer for an energy-based attack, second layer for a physical.

"Please don't make me knock you on your rather handsome backside, I'm getting too old to take advantage of such a situation," Savil commented with a raised eyebrow.

[captgreatcoat]

The Doctor always loved to criticise the way Jack walks into a threatening situation with gun drawn. But not everybody is a pacifist Time Lord, and not everybody can afford to snub weapons when they're going into dangerous situations.

So maybe Jack doesn't need to protect his own life, but he doesn't like dying, even if it's not exactly fatal to him. For one, it hurts like hell. For another, the people with him don't have the same capability to bounce back.

He wasn't expecting a shield to pop up in front of him. And even if his Webley won't work on it (which he can't tell), he turns, aiming, hands steady as he glares at the woman behind the shield.

But she's got style, at least, and he lowers the pistol a fraction, his sly smile almost automatic.

"I'm not so sure about that. You never know, it might be fun."

[heraldsavil]

Savil was hardly a pacifist from an ancient species but there was only a defensive wariness in her eyes rather than any intent to press Jack. She would protect those who stumbled across their stare-down but had no intention of doing more harm than Jack pressed for. Much like a badger in front of its den if she had to be.

But one eyebrow rose at the suggestion and the corner of her mouth tugged a bit. At least this wasn't a situation of fight-or-flight and he still had a sense of humor. Unless he was some sort of assassin... Well, better to banter than battle. "Of course it's a bit of fun. Heralds usually don't have time for anything deeper but I do try and keep it within friends at least." Heralds kept it within friends, but the Wing-Sibs were a bit less formal. Best not to mention that... "I'm Herald Savil, actually. Kellan stayed behind to watch something called Three Dee Chess."

[captgreatcoat]

Well, there it is. Just a little suggestion of a smile, and an eyebrow raised in an elegant, questioning arch. And that's a lot better than the glare he was getting when she first saw him.

It looks good on her. And hey, a little bit of flirtation is a great way to bring the tension down.

"Always looking for a chance to make new friends." He nods. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness."

Herald. He wonders which of the worlds, races, and eras that use that title she could be from. He can't tell, not just by looking. But she's introduced herself, and she doesn't seem about to attack him. Just ... shielding herself.

No reason not to be friendly.

And it sounds like she hasn't just appeared out of nowhere. Not if someone's stayed behind to watch chess.

"Well, Herald Savil. You got any idea what's going on here?"

[and_she_waited]

"Oi, steady on!" shouts a woman when that thing comes a little too close to her face.

She means the pistol. Get your minds out of the gutter.

"Do I look like a threat to you?" she adds, crossing her arms.

[captgreatcoat]

Does she look like a threat? Well, that's probably a more interesting question than she means it to be. No, not really. She's shorter than Jack and smaller than Jack, and, well, most of the people he knows are younger than Jack, but that doesn't mean she's not dangerous.

Still. She's not holding a weapon, so his stance softens, a little, becomes less aggressive.

"Not exactly. But you could be."

He wasn't actually aiming at anyone in particular, just covering himself, and since nobody seems to be actively attacking him, he lowers the Webley.

"Where the hell am I?"

[and_she_waited]

"I could be, and if your mum was about I'd tell her to teach you a thing or two about keeping your guns out of people's faces," she snipes. "But seeing as how I'm not armed, that's the worst I'll do you."

Aside from a good tongue-lashing, if that weren't becoming abundantly clear.

"Some spaceship called the Enterprise. They're having a bit of fun with time and space. Somebody should tell them to get their own shtick," she mutters.

[captgreatcoat]

It's been a hell of a long time since -- or will be a hell of a long time until -- his mum was about.

But she does have a point, which is that she certainly doesn't seem to be armed (unless she's as good at hiding a weapon as he is), and she's beginning to fire up. She's as grumpy as the Doctor when somebody draws a gun near him.

And okay, sure, someone pointing a gun at you is not exactly the politest of greetings. So maybe she's got a point. Which is why he's relaxing, just a little, in his stance and across his shoulders.

The answer to his question isn't exactly what he expected; it makes him give a surprised little laugh.

"What, like time and space is your shtick?" he says, looking a little offended.

After all, he's head of Torchwood. Not to mention a former Time Agent. And a graduate of the Doctor school of crazy time and space travel.

It doesn't get much more his shtick than that.

[defendergirl]

"D'you mind?" calls a stern voice.

It belongs to the blonde girl who recognizes Jack immediately, a wide smile betraying the tone of voice, which was obviously just her taking the piss.

She hasn't seen Jack in ages, and now to find him here of all places?

What's going on?

[captgreatcoat]

Once, he'd have known that voice anywhere. But more than a century stranded in time will make some of the details of the past a little fuzzy. But only some of them. Not her face, her sweet, smiling face. The face of one of the dearest friends he's ever known.

"Rose Tyler!"

For so long he'd thought she was dead. And then ... the Doctor said she was stranded in a parallel universe. But she's here. Right in front of him, and then he's shoved the Webley back into its holster and he's striding over to her, and pulling her into a fierce hug. For a moment, how it happened doesn't matter. It only matters that she's here, and she's ALIVE.

"Come here."

[defendergirl]

"Hullo, Captain Jack," Rose says happily, arms going around him tightly.

It's beginning to feel a bit like old times now, what with the Doctor about, and now Jack. (Of course, the Doctor's been through a bit of a change, but he's still - more or less - the same mad man with a blue box.)

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she isn't aware of how much time has passed between them. For her, it'll be a little while yet before the parallel universe separates her from the Doctor for good.

She pulls back after a moment, her grin still there.

"You look well. Haven't aged a day."

[captgreatcoat]

Dead or not, he'd thought he would never see her again. He'd thought he'd lost her forever, this wonderful girl who helped to save him from himself and show him how much more there was to his life than just trying to score points against the Time Agency.

She'd been one of his dearest friends, and he's grieved not only for thinking she was dead, but for over a century before that for the loss of her and the Doctor and the times they'd had travelling together.

When Rose pulls away, she's still grinning, and so's he.

He laughs.

"I don't know, a couple of lines around the eyes, maybe," he says. She doesn't know what she did to him, doesn't know what he is, or what she condemned him to when she brought him back from the dead. "But just as handsome as I ever was."

It's so good to see her, he hardly knows what to say.

And he'd never hold it against her, even if she did.

[thelasttimelord]

"What is it with you and guns?" Breaks in a voice off Jack's starboard.
Familiar face. With the chills that belong to looking a A Fixed Point in Time.

But there's the shadow of a smile, even through the castigation. Feet up on the edge of a table.
"You couldn't just ask a few question first? Make nice with the locals? See if they'll just be helpful first."

[captgreatcoat]

Still, even after being abandoned and stranded and after all he went through on the Valiant, he'll never be over the thrill that runs through him or the way his heart feels tighter, the way every situation seems less dire when he hears that voice.

It's not like he isn't old enough, hasn't seen enough, to know the dangers of putting all your faith in one person. Especially one who can barely stand the sight of him. But it's the Doctor.

And he'll always have faith in the Doctor.

Not that he'd ever say as much to him.

"Hey!" he says, looking affronted at the Doctor over the top of the Webley. Which is still raised. Just to make a point. "It's not like I'm shooting anyone. You never know what's going to happen!"

But, because it's the Doctor, and because he knows what the Doctor is like, he reluctantly holsters the Webley.

"Is this something to do with you?"

[thelasttimelord]

The eyebrows raise when Jack turns on him with the gun still raised, but it does get put away. As does the eyebrow raise, while The Doctor drops his feet from the table and pushes up from the chair he'd taken to tackle this newest, so far unexplained, phenomenon.

"I never know what's going to happen. It's half the fun," he says, with something closer to only a strained fondness this time covered with dry humor. Because Jack did comply. Even if The Doctor doesn't approve of guns on the whole still. Or ever. At least it is away. Which means he can answer the question asked of him, too.

"Not me." His hands end up in his pockets. "Or Rose. She's here, too. I just arrived. She's been here a little longer."
And. Jack is here now. And. It's been a long time. It's a veritable tangle of reactions just looking at him.

[captgreatcoat]

True. Nobody ever knows what's going to happen when the Doctor goes anywhere, but what does happen usually turns out okay for the Doctor, at least. That's a knack that he's got. Those people who aren't Time Lords and can't save the world with a screwdriver and a banana sometimes have to use weapons.

But it's not like he hasn't had that conversation with the Doctor more times that he can even count, so he doesn't need to rehash it.

And, even if he's touchy about the whole gun thing, it's ... good to see the Doctor. More than good, but good will do for now.

"Rose is here? I didn't think that was possible. Didn't you say she was stranded in a parallel universe?"

[empathic_pathfinder]

And he's coming face-to-face with a Starfleet Officer sat at the bar with a PADD in his hand. He looks human, barring the spots running down the side of his head.

Terzen lowers the PADD and raises his hand... in an optimum position to tap his Combadge, should he need it. He recognises the pistol from his Earth Studies at the Academy.

"Sir..." He says, calmly,. "Could I ask you to lower the weapon?"

[captgreatcoat]

He turns, tracking his movements with the pistol, and there's a guy sitting at the bar with some sort of tablet computer in his hand. Humanoid. Wearing some sort of uniform ... that a lot of other people around here are also wearing. So. Maybe someone to do with whatever the hell is going on here.

Or at least a member of the crew of this ship.

He's reacting with a sort of calm authority to the sudden appearance of a stranger with a weapon on his ship, and that is more annoying to Jack than it would have been to be greeted with some sort of hostility. Still, he can hardly shoot a guy who's just sitting there.

"Only if you tell me where I am."

That Rift has got a hell of a lot to answer for if it's done this.

[empathic_pathfinder]

"You're on-board the Federation Starship Enterprise." Terzen explains, calmly, eyes fixed on the other man. He can feel the emotions running high, the uncertainty, the annoyance.

Sometimes, being half-Betazoid was a bonus.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Terzen T'Karr, and I've been displaced just like you. Just not as far, it seems." A comment about the pistol.

[captgreatcoat]

A starship. He's on board a starship.

There was a time when he'd have given just about anything to suddenly find himself transported from Cardiff to a starship where weird stuff was going on, because that's a key to the universe and because that's also the sort of thing that has an uncanny tendency to attract the Doctor.

Now, though, he's just sort of decided to be happy with where he is.

"People are just showing up here?"

Not the Rift then. This ... sounds far more widespread. And far more problematic.

He lowers the gun.

"Captain Jack Harkness." He takes a breath, that comes out sounding kind of annoyed, and frowns. "Just what Federation are we talking about?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Put that away, man, nobody here wants to be shot," says Noriko.

That'd be the girl with the blue hair and the metal-covered hands looking up at Jack from the chair she's claimed, sitting backwards in it so she's got a place to rest her arms.

Sorry I've been so slow!!! Got my head stuck in working out Jonas.

[captgreatcoat]

The point of a gun is not that people want to get shot.

It's not even necessarily that Jack wants to do any shooting, but sometimes, it's necessary.

When he sees where the voice is coming from, he frowns, though he does lower the Webley because, after a quick glance around the room, there doesn't seem to be any immediate thread. Beyond the obvious of him not being where he's supposed to be. He holsters it, giving her an unamused half-smile.

"Okay. But since I don't exactly want to be here, anyone got any idea what's going on?"

Noooooo worries. <3

[electro_kinetic]

"Welcome to the club, and not a clue," she says, eyeing the Webley until its in the holster.

"I was in a hallway at my school, which is not here."

[captgreatcoat]

School. Great. He's just flashed from the Hub to who knows where and he winds up with a schoolgirl. Though a remarkably composed one, so it could be worse. A lot worse.

"And where was that school? Because I ought to be in Cardiff," he says, looking around the ... apparently bar. Bar on a spaceship. Right. That's a hell of a jump unless there's something going on up above Earth that neither Torchwood nor UNIT have found on their sensors.

Which ... is not impossible.