TEST DRIVE #10 - Cetacean Pool and Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

#1

Option 001. Cetacean Pool/Aquatics Lab: Of all the places in the world, you open your eyes and you find yourself in a medium-sized aquatics laboratory, filled with various living specimens along with various science officers bustling about trying to maintain order. There's much to explore here (and hopefully, in the crew's opinion, not break), but the main attraction is the large pool at the far end of the lab; enormous but tanklike in appearance, it contains several dolphins happily swimming about, seemingly without a care in the world.


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Option 002. Aboard the Enterprise, Ten Forward: You have no idea what just happened. One minute you were home, and now you're on a spaceship, in the middle of a crowded room. It looks like a bar. There are people eating and drinking, some in uniform, others not. Some are clearly aliens.

You've managed to land in Ten Forward a long bar with barstools and a bartender, tables sprinkled throughout, and the far wall is nothing but windows out to space. It looks like a nice lounge, low conversation making the room hum.

Better ask some questions and find out where you are, or just tap the closest person on the shoulder and try to make friends. The bar is open.

Comments

[fuckingblind]

"Ah." He backs off a step, hands reaching around him abortively to try and avoid doing that again. This is completely unfamiliar to him, and he's got no idea what is going on.

"Sorry, I just---I don't know this place." The other man says a name and he makes a face. "It's Danny. Danny Valdessecchi."

Another small step back has him bumping the table again, and he puts hand out to steady himself.

"There an explanation to go with that foot?"

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

Picard makes disgruntled noises each time a hand sweeps out and connects with some part of him, though it's entirely from annoyance and not any actual discomfort.

"Danny Valdessecchi?" he parrots, expression severe. The likeness is uncanny. He would be inclined to believe this is some manner of practical joke, if not for the fact that the man before him is too young to be the James T. Kirk he knows, and by this point in time it is also quite evident that he cannot see. As he bumps into the table, Picard reaches a bracing hand out for his elbow, poring over the young man's face. Why, it's nearly unsettling.

"There is a title," he answers stiffly. "Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise. You have stumbled onto my ship."

[fuckingblind]

Yeah, Danny can hear it, and he's not the only one that's annoyed.

"It's what I said," he says, looking almost directly at him then, his own expression unamused. "What are you staring at?"

His hand finds the table, but then the other man's hand is at his elbow and he jerks it away, face screwing up as he does. "Touch your elbow, god."

But then he is continuing. "Ship." he repeats. "This is a joke right?" This can't be possible, but he knows for a fact he is somewhere completely different than where he was.

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

His spine straightens almost instinctively at the question, but the surprise is short-lived. He pulls his hands back with no further prompting than the aggravated tug and complaint provide, pursing his lips and sighing in disapproval. He feels no call to apologize. Perhaps he had been staring, but it seems obvious to him that the boy is simply trying to get a rise out of him.

"It certainly is not," he says, as terse as he had been a moment ago. "Everything I have told you is true. Now, I imagine from your actions that you do not need my help, but perhaps if you would calm yourself for a moment I might explain your situation better."

If he can deign to be civil.

[effingblind]

Danny can sense the shift in the air, the emotional charge, the irritation and upset. Once Picard pulls his hand back, he relaxes someone, face twisting in brief irritation at the sigh from the other man. He's not trying to get a rise out of him. He's trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him.

"Right, okay. And no, I don't. I'm fine," he says, tone firm. "But yeah, sure, explain away. I'm all ears."

You think this is uncivil? Oh, just you wait.