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

[the_blood]

"Lady works, just fine," she assured him dryly. "The favor is this, never EVER let Theiorn know that this had been dangerous for me. Ever. Under any circumstances. Ever. Okay?"

[doctorbrucebanner]

"As you wish." He nodded. Then he blinked. "Er... if you wish... okay?" He glanced at Hulk and Hulk nodded.

"Okay then. We agree." Bruce was confused but now he was curious about what was going on and his mind was spinning across possibilities.

Back in the normal world, his body reverted back to his normal form, and settled more peacefully.

[the_blood]

In the dream and the waking, her hand lifted and moved as if strumming across a small harp. Her real fingers brushed the strands of the webs, breaking them, sending their minds each back where it belonged.

It was a good thing she was a stubborn woman. Having the extra mind there that she had not accounted for had drained her more than she had anticipated. She called in her Purple Dusk necklace and fed some of the power from the Jewels into her body, but even that was almost too much.

She vanished the web, and pushed to her feet, working on pure stubborn. She walked over and knelt beside Bruce. She hadn't meant to kneel, but Theiorn never needed to know that. "You may wake now," she said to Bruce, though it probably was not necessary.

Theiorn stood behind her and touched her shoulder. That she didn't snarl at him or shove him away told him all he needed to know. He put a skintight shield around the both of them, then dropped the other shields. She did snarl then. He ignored it.

[doctorbrucebanner]

Bruce stirred and slowly looked up at her. There was naked gratitude in his eyes. "Thank you." He pushed himself up to sit cross-legged, gathering the remnants of his clothing around him. After his years of ending up naked after the Hulk's little outbursts, he had no embarrassment left, but he didn't like to inflict his body on others, who he knew, often, had morals or customs forbidding nudity.

He settled back and pulled his smart phone out of the remnants of his pants, and his tools out of one of the boxes he had dropped and got to work modifying it. It took under two minutes.

"Well, now, where am I, anyway?" The newly modified phone scanned the quantum field around them, and he sighed. "Great. Another universe."

[the_blood]

"why ask, if you could answer it yourself?" Theiorn grunted, his attention mostly on protecting Ailishyia. This male was still a very unknown element, and he didn't trust anyone or anything around the Queen that he didn't understand.

"This is a star ship, from what I understand," she said softly, trying not to let the exhaustion sound in her voice. "It sails through the night skies like a dragon, and we ride within."

[doctorbrucebanner]

"Because I only know a general what, not a specific one." Bruce looked at the man with curiosity. The possibilities flared in his mind in less than a second. The way he stood, she and the man obviously were allied in some what. If she was a queen, then he must be an adviser or bodyguard.

Bruce looked at her next and his eyes gentled. She had done him a favor and he was grateful, and he nodded. He heard her and saw her, his mind picking up little bits of the way she sat and faced him, and he nodded again, thinking. "Well, okay. Do you know when? And why?"

[the_blood]

"No, but we were told that Witch bade us wait here, and help where we can, so I serve under the leader of this odd ship, whose caste is Captain," she said. Her Purple Dusk was being drained too quickly to support her. She needed to eat and soon, but there was no way she was saying THAT to or in front of Theiorn, he was a fussy stubborn Warlord Prince, he would know what it meant that she was suddenly hungry. As much as she might wish it were the case, she could not let herself think that he was stupid. Would be easier, if he were.

[doctorbrucebanner]

Bruce's eyebrows rose as he listened, and he wondered what Witch meant to them. Obviously something important. They did not know Earth type things, and yet this ship seemed run by a ship's captain, which maybe meant a navy not unlike the one in his time, if for space instead of water.

Which meant military and Bruce swore inside, but kept his control. Soon, sooner rather than later, he would need to find a way off of this ship. He and the military never quite got along.

Bruce rose, gathering himself together. He then looked around, taking in how she looked, how the man behind her looked and what everyone else was doing. "Perhaps we should sit at a table and order something, so as to gather less attention."

He had no idea what sort of money this place took, but surely he would find a way. His scanner soon found the computer system and he began to run algorithmic sequences along the computer system.

He realized that this system, while years beyond what he knew, operated on Earth math and baseline knowledge. And that meant... with a suddenness, his order was accepted and he smiled. "The waiter will being drinks."

[the_blood]

She pulled free of Theiorn and stood, smiling at Bruce. "An excellent idea, we do want to fit in. Though the drinks here are too tame," she told him, trying to hide the shakiness in her legs as she sat in the nearest seat. She wondered if maybe adding a drop of poison to her drink might help. So long as it was one of her own brews, and she only used a small amount, it probably couldn't hurt. She resolved to do that.

"Why is it that nearly every time we meet someone new here, you want to drink with them?" Theiorn grumbled at her as he pulled a chair near her to sit right beside her.

"Must be your winning personality," she snapped at him, then shook her head, to flare her hair, before smiling at Bruce. She was still ignoring the pull, especially since he didn't seem to feel anything, as near as she could tell. "Should I order food for us all, or do you have a specific taste for something?" If he left it to her, there would be more than ample food for all. She wore Purple Dusk, Theiorn wore Green, maybe they did not eat as much as Jaenelle and the coven, but what they considered a decent meal was more than most landens ate in a day. A week, maybe.

[doctorbrucebanner]

"Perhaps we'll make some of our own, then, in time." Bruce settled opposite them. He set his scanner phone down and set it to analyzing everything he could, but carefully. He didn't want his intrusion detected too fast.

He smiled faintly as he watched them, then nodded to her, feeling an odd but real interest in her. She seemed an interesting person, but he had no idea what to expect. He'd never met anyone remotely like her.

Bruce hesitated, then spread his hands. "I leave myself in your hands, Lady. I'm Bruce. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[the_blood]

"I am Aiylishia, This is Theiorn," she said, inclining her head. When the waiter came, she ordered the food. She ordered a truly alarming quantity of food. Steaks, salad, soups, desserts, coffee, breads, pastries, meats and cheeses... it was as though she went through a list of everything she had ever eaten, and ordered three large helpings of that.

She assured the waiter that it was in fact for them, and no she didn't plan on wasting it, thank you very much, and grunted a bit when the woman finally departed. She would have been more annoyed had it been a male.

"You would think three people never ate together before," she grumped, hoping her grumpiness and b********s would keep Theiorn from thinking too much about just how much protein and carbs she had in fact ordered.

[doctorbrucebanner]

"Good to meet you both." And curiosity making, as well.

Bruce's eyebrows went up as he saw the massive amount of food an drink ordered but he shrugged. Intriguing.

Bruce nodded. "Sounds like a party." He chuckled. "I know I'm hungry. Changing always takes an effect on me."

[the_blood]

"Can you explain what exactly that was?" she asked, tilting her head slightly as she asked. The waiter brought over the coffees then returned to help others while their food was being made.

Ailyshia breathed in the scent of coffee and smiled slightly, then called in a small vial, it appeared in her hands and she uncorked it, pouring just a bit of a viscous milky liquid into her coffee before closing the vial and vanishing it again.


Theiorn eyed her warily.

[doctorbrucebanner]

"That was rage, and power, pure and undiluted by anything like humanity." Bruce sighed. "When I am startled too much, or caused too much pain, or grow more than my usual angry, I change, transforming into another person. A being of rage, who gets more powerful and stronger the angrier he gets."

He lifted a cup of coffee and downed it straight, then poured another. "It's not the most pleasant of things."

[the_blood]

"Oh," she said simply. "So you're like a Blood Male then," she said nodding, relaxing some. That was certainly odd. Normally that would make her more tense. Maybe this was what Jaenelle had meant... maybe.... maybe he was actually hers. She never imagined feeling comfortable with a human male, Blood or otherwise.

"I am trying to determine if you are trying to insult him, or me," Theiorn said simply. He passed his coffee to Banner, since Ailishyia was still nursing her first mug.

[doctorbrucebanner]

"What's a Blood Male? What makes them special?" He had almost heard the capital letters in those words, and so he was curious now. Theiorn's words made him chuckle.

"Does it matter? " He gladly took the coffee. As he drank and ate, he almost visibly gained more energy, and felt less tired. A side-effect of his condition.

[the_blood]

She seemed to be reviving the same way. "Stubborn, snarly, fussy, over protective," she began.

Theiorn pushed more food onto her plate. And she glared at him. "And they manage the bossy without saying a word," she said primly, but she did focus on earing, getting a refill on her coffee.

"If you wish to understand anything, never ask a woman to explain it to you," Theiorn said, smirking.

Oh the fire in her eyes. "My explanations make perfect sense, it's not my fault that the male brain is too small to follow my logic."

"The day a woman has logic, I'll be happy to follow it," he said, leaning back and smirking a bit.

She looked ready to murder him. "Keep this up, Prince, and we WILL be playing chess." He paled a bit. She smirked triumphantly and looked back to Bruce. "So, are you reasonable, or are you male?" she asked with a sharp smile.

[doctorbrucebanner]

Bruce smirked, watching them. "I'm me. And I reckon, no offense, you've never met anyone like me." And his eyes gleamed pure green as he spoke, and then turned back to his food.

This was more fun than he had enjoyed in a very long time.

[the_blood]

She did NOT want to admit that he might be right about that. But there was something about him that was pulling at her. She had a feeling that if he offered his service she would not be able to stop herself from accepting. "Oh, why?" she asked, so as to not admit that she might agree...

Theiorn sat back, willing to let another male take the brunt of her temper for once.

[doctorbrucebanner]

"Lets just say I am not one, or two, but more, and less. And neither man, nor monster, but both and neither. I am... ill-defined. And I am a scientist, a doctor, a villain, and a hero." His lips twitched as he sipped his coffee, then dug into the food again.

[the_blood]

"Sounds to me like you are a Blood Male," she said simply and a bit snippily. "All you're missing is the magic."

[doctorbrucebanner]

Bruce raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and then simply stood. "Well, with that tone, and disrespect, you'll never know. Good day, madame." And he turned on his heel and walked away.

[the_blood]

she rolled her eyes. "Male most certainly," she said at his back. "Stubborn, too proud, and lacking in gratitude. I'm better off without the lot of you."

"My lady, you need protection, you are in a strange place, and if he could be such protection, do not chase him away."

"I would chase you away if I could," she said standing, and turning to stalk off the other way.

Back turned, Bruce would not hear the sound she stubbornly fought down, but would hear Theiorn. "AIYLISHYA!" as she fell.

[doctorbrucebanner]

Bruce didn't either bother to reply, quickly lost in the Ten Forward area, looking for someone to tell him more. He had no desire, nor need, to be insulted, looked down upon, or made a joke of. He had endured far too much bigotry of one kind or another to endure any more.

Half way across the room, he heard nothing of her words, but he did hear her man's cry, and turning back, sighed.

He moved back to them, shaking his head. "Oh for the love of God... what happened?"

He moved to their side, his scanner out and running.

[the_blood]

"You pushed yourself too hard with that web, didn't you?" Theiorn snapped at her.

She glared weakly at the both of them, her Purple Dusk Jewel drained.

"She drained her Jewels, that shouldn't have happened. She didn't attach any Jewels to the web!" he snarled.

The scanner would show that her body was acting like she had been starved for weeks, and then ate, her organs are having difficulty both with the lack of food, and the sudden glut of it. She drained the reserves of her body trying to help him, and only stubbornness and her magic had kept her moving past that, but using her Jewels that way only made it worse.

"I'm free to help who I choose," she snarled, but there was no heat to it, no strength. Her Purple Dusk Jewel vanished and a Rose Jeweled necklace took it's place.

Theorin shook her. "If you drain the Rose as well you could break yourself back to basic craft! Or worse! Just accept the help."

She glared weakly at him. "Stubborn snarly male."

"I serve," he said simply, pushing some hair back from his face. "That's what a Blood male is, and what a Blood male does." He looked to Bruce. "Pain can sharpen a tongue already honed to an edge, but she is a good person and a good Queen."

"The whole week you've known me," she mumbled, eyes fluttering as she came close to succumbing to the rest her body so desperately needs.

"One I trust said so, and I can tell," he said softly. "Sleep, I will do my best to find you a Healer."