Test Drive #7 - Ten Forward and Captain's Yacht

[ten_fwd_mods]

Option 01. Ten Forward: The first thing you see is a bar. A large, lively bar filled with many different faces and many different smells, sights and sounds. This is Ten Forward, the Enterprise's off-duty lounge; feel free to get acquainted with your fellow travelers and try to find somebody who's in charge: this is your new home now, after all...





Option 02. The Captain's Yacht: Oooh, you sneaky stowaway! You've found yourself in a very exclusive part of the ship: Captain Picard's personal craft, used for short jaunts when a shuttle just won't do. (One must retain some decorum, after all.) It may not be as large as the Enterprise itself, but there are sure to be some surprises aboard once people start snooping.


[OOC: The Captain's Yacht is located at the very base of the Enterprise's saucer portion, so if you put someone in there you can also play them trying to get back to somewhere they know!]

Comments

Harry Dresden | Dresden Files Books | Option One

[dresdensluck]

Harry was in the midst of spell-research when the light caught him, and every magical defense failed against whatever caused it.He felt something shift under him, and he closed his eyes at the disorientation. When he looked again, he felt a sense of déjà vu hit him, and a sense of surreality fall onto his shoulders. "No. Way. This has got to be either a dream, or someone messing with my head. In a heretofore undone way. I give it ten points for style, at least."

Harry Dresden, Winter Knight, Wizard-at-hire, sometimes-Warden for the White Council, Completely unrelated Warden of Demonreach, and generally confused guy, looked around what seemed to be a very familiar place.

"Hell's Bells."

And that was when the lights flickered and went out.

[wishedforaveil]

"It wasn't me," said Molly, making her way through the darkened room to stand beside him. "I swear."

It wouldn't have been the first time Harry had found his way into her subconscious, or the first time her subconscious had been modeled after part of the Enterprise, but this didn't feel like a mental construct. As familiar as it was, it felt very...other.

For one thing, it was populated by people other than various facets of her psyche in Starfleet uniform.

[dresdensluck]

Harry glanced aside at her in the dim light and took several long breaths, and then grinned as the lights came back up. Oh good, better energy sources than back home. Good. Then he faced Molly, eyes and senses searching her. "I know. And... I'm pretty sure this is the real thing."

A pause, and a glance around. "Or we're in a pretty sophisticated practical joke..."

But he could feel the energy around them, almost vividly, different from normal non-magical energy, and a lot closer to it, really. He wondered what exactly that was.

[wishedforaveil]

Molly grinned as the auxiliary power kicked in, shrugging her shoulders at Harry's commentary. "Yeah, but who do we know who could pull of a prank this elaborate?" she asked. She could feel the energy, too. "Not that I'm suggesting you start naming Names, I'm just saying."

She could think of a few, but most of them were definitely not the joking type.

[dresdensluck]

Harry glanced around, and then shrugged back. "Names are, yeah." He wouldn't Not after a trip like that. Seemed more than likely that naming names would lead to all sorts of trouble. And he was fond of calm times and a lack of trouble. Not that he knew what that felt like, not with his life, but a man could dream!

Harry smiled lopsidedly. "Well, seeing as we're in a lounge, I suggest we sit, and then find out if the bartender here is more talkative than the one we both like better." Even Mac's name seemed less safe here. and he would follow that instinct for now.

[wishedforaveil]

Molly nodded, eying the bar. "Who knows," she said, "Maybe the recipe for Mac's Brown Ale will have found its way into the future." Though that seemed unlikely, unless Mac himself turned out to be on board.

A girl could dream, right?

"Just try not to drink anything you don't recognize, eh, boss?"

[dresdensluck]

Harry's mouth turned crooked in a lopsided smile of amusement at their lives, really. "Maybe... we can try." He led the way toward the bar, carefully building and maintaining the shields he had perfected, well, gotten better at, anyway, while in Winter. No more blowouts, thank you. "I'm getting better at that." He had definitely learned that lesson in the Fae.

He waved a bartender down and hopefully asked, "Got any MacAnally's Brown Ale?"

[wishedforaveil]

"Not bad," she said, "Maybe one of these days, you'll be able to take a hot shower." She paused, then, and cleared her throat. "I mean..." Yeah. Now it was awkward.

She was grateful for the distraction of the bartender's arrival, and the chance to quickly change the subject. "Barring that, maybe a Guinness stout, or something like that? Unless you can recommend a comparable local microbrew." She wasn't trying to bombard their temporary host, just to find out a little bit more about where in the universe they were.

[dresdensluck]

Harry stuck out his tongue at her. And kept his mouth shut about thinking about her, and showers and him. And that he knew what was under those clothes of hers. Damn his brain, and Winter's tendency to make it go even more down those roads! He shook his head, clearing it, and forcing himself to concentrate on the bartender.

The man pulled two bottles with the familiar label out from under the bar and handed them over, then wandered off to help someone else and Harry grinned. "Well, now, there's a sight for sore eyes."

Harry eyed them, then passed her one as he opened it and took a cautions sniff, then drew down some. It was heady and just like normal. He smacked his lips in satisfaction. "Now that's the stuff."

[whitefoxkitten]

Inari was a little disoriented by the sudden shift in reality, and the darkness didn't help. She wasn't quite sure where she was, or how she'd gotten sucked in, but she knew that voice. "Mr. Dresden?" she called, weaving her way around tables and chairs. "Harry?"

[dresdensluck]

Harry blinked at the woman in front of him. She looked familiar, and yet, he couldn't lay a finger on it. And his mind went on to describe, as he looked at her, seeing her come closer, exactly what it would like to lay on her. He flushed and shoved that part of his brain in a box, then nodded to her cautiously. "Yes, miss?" The words came out cautiously.

People knowing his name without him introducing himself was sometimes very, very bad. One hand slid down the other to feel self-consciously at the new shield bracelet that hung there and reassure him that it could be easily activated. "Where are we?"

[whitefoxkitten]

"...Inari," she supplied, moving toward him. Her memory supplied her with a replay of exactly how it had felt to lay on top of him, but she ignored it, and extended her hand. She could tell he was anxious, and she wanted to reassure him somehow. "We met, once, a few years ago."

[dresdensluck]

"Inari Raith?" His mouth dropped open as he viewed the woman in front of him, remembering their first encounter very, very clearly now. "OH. Ah... hi. How are you?" That seemed so far away now, so long ago.

"I remember you now." It would be hard to forget, really.

He glanced around. "So you got sucked in by whatever this was, too, huh?" He looked back at her, keeping his eyes carefully on her face, but not meeting her eyes. "Where were you, before you showed up here?"

[whitefoxkitten]

Inari remembered the Dance-of-Soulgaze-Evasion, though at the time, she hadn't been aware that it was happening. Harry obviously had a lot of practice looking at people without actually Looking at them. And besides: in a world of self-service checkouts, and ATMs, who really took the time to look somebody in the eyes anymore anyway? She was a little more informed now, though, and she tried not to chase his gaze if she could help it.

"I was in LA," she said, "Minding my own business." She had a feeling he would know that wasn't quite true, so she added, "Okay, not really. I was minding Paranet business. But that's kind of my job now."

[dresdensluck]

Harry was about to answer when he realized he was here, and his blasting rod and staff were back where he had been. Oh not again! "Hell's Bells." He swore the oath under his breath, then fired off a smile at the woman. "Er,. sorry, just realized something about being here and not home, and it annoyed me."

At least his new shield bracelet, duster, and his necklace, were all there, not to mention his handkerchief.

Eying her, he got back to what she had said. "Good. How're things down there?" He could distract himself form imminent danger, maybe. And he was concentrating as he talked to her, letting his senses out, trying to See, without actually opening his Sight. Which... might not work, but he could try!

[whitefoxkitten]

"You don't have all your 'feng shui' tools," Inari guessed, noting that at least one significant item was missing from his hands. It was one that would have been hard to miss, if he'd been carrying. Hopefully, they wouldn't need it.

"Things are okay. Up, and down, and generously seasoned with moments of sheer chaos, but you know. The usual." She was crowd surfing the emotional atmosphere of the room, and of her current companion as well. She couldn't draw on it like she might have if she hadn't forsaken the White Court, but she'd learned to read people in other ways. "How about you? Are you still in Chicago?"

[dresdensluck]

"Yeah. Exactly." A small genuine grin formed as he looked at her again. She was smart, and quick to catch on. He'd have to remember that.

"Good to hear. Sounds about like a Tuesday. " Or any day ending in '-y', really, but Tuesdays were just evil. Everyone knew that. He nodded to her. "There and Winter. It's an interesting commute." She felt a lot different to his senses than a White Court vampire, but he remembered Thomas saying Inari had not followed the path of her sisters, so hopefully that was a good sign.

She definitely had the allure and the sexiness down. Harry snapped his mind away from that and his eyes from wandering, and looked around again. "We should get a table, and see if we can learn anything about how we got here."

[overprotective_hunter]

Alec really isn't sure where he is. It doesn't look like anywhere in New York unless it's one of those mundane science fiction shops that Simon likes to go to. But even those aren't this smooth and polished looking and none of those serve drinks.

He barely registers the details before the room suddenly goes dark. Pulling his witchlight out of his pocket, he lets out a slow breath as pale, white light spills from between his fingers. Looking around, he realizes that it doesn't look like they're about to be attacked by demons but that doesn't explain why the power has gone out. "What's going on?"

[dresdensluck]

"I think we've likely been somehow summoned elsewhere, and the, ah, power overload of it, has interfered with the power here." No way was Harry admitting first off to his problem with tech. He concentrated on pulling his power in, and felt relief as what looked like emergency lights came up.

"There, you see, they got it back. Of course, the question is, how did we get here." The man questioning him seemed just as confused as Harry, so Harry would operate under the assumption the man was also a kidnapee.

[overprotective_hunter]

"Power overload? I've never seen that with a summoning unless it was for a high level demon." He really doesn't want to think of a Greater Demon lurking somewhere in the dark. The witchlight in his hand flares brighter as Alec scans the room for anything that might be slinking up on them.

Once the lights come back on, the witchlight fades, but Alec keeps it curled in his fist just in case. "I'm not sure. Nothing should have been able to get through the wards to drag me here."

[dresdensluck]

"I've got no idea what sort of power source they have here. Maybe it interacted with the summoning agent?" Talking shop with an absolute stranger was odd, but somehow refreshing.

"Maybe whatever it was didn't get through your wards, but went around them. Like, it... followed a different wavelength then the one the wards protected against?"

realizing where they must be, Harry sighed. "It may have been science, instead of magic."

[overprotective_hunter]

"Summoning agent?" He'd watched Magnus work and read a few spell books to know the basics of a summoning but those spells were for summoning demons, not people. Which was worrying enough without considering the fact that someone had somehow gotten through Magnus' wards.

"Not mine, the High Warlock's wards." Saying that aloud somehow made the thought worse. Someone stronger than Magnus. Taking a slow breath, Alec reminds himself that he has to stay calm. It could just be different wavelengths and not someone who could hurt Magnus.

"Science? Can Mundanes really drag a person from one place to another with some kind of technology?"

[dresdensluck]

"Some thaumaturges use summoning agents to give themselves a boost, and with wards like that, maybe they really needed it." Through wards was bad news, especially is this High Warlock knew what he was doing as well as having a fancy name. Which... didn't always follow, but Booker had enough to deal with right now.

"Maybe not any, ah, Mundane, but someone powerful enough? That's something I learned a long time ago. There's always someone more powerful."

[overprotective_hunter]

Thaumaturges isn't something from the Codex or in any of Magnus' books, which worries him more. They've earned too many enemies over the past few months for Alec to not be concerned. "They'd need a boost to get through Magnus' private wards."

The pause over the word Mundane causes Alec to give the being a curious look. Downworlders knew the term and since they'd been talking about magic he'd assumed warlock or fae. "Even the powerful have weaknesses. At least whoever did this hasn't hurt us." He leaves the 'yet' unspoken.

[dresdensluck]

Harry nodded, glancing around, but other than some concern for the momentary blackout, the people here seemed... blase. "Seems like this must not be the first time this happened. I wonder if this sort of thing happens often."

"Everyone has a weakness. If you can reach them, sure." Sometimes it isn't worth it to try, though.