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

[kaylinneya]

Not hungry. Those were words Kaylin would never understand, and that showed clearly in her face. What.. must it be like to be so confidant that there will always be food coming that you didn't grab every opportunity to eat?

Even here, where it was so plentiful and readily available, she ate every opportunity she got, because she never knew when it would go away. She also kept longer lasting things in her basket, in case the food ever became scarce.

"Fine then," she said, because she had no other response.

[eternallyhazel]

As with most adults, the intellect of Artemis Fowl had them stumped. It was good to know that he still held his advantage mentally. He had nothing else. Though, now he thought on it, he wasn't sure when his last meal had been. Mulch had eaten most of what they had. But for a change, he hadn't lied. Those gave him an ache in the pit of his stomach these days depending on who he was lying to.

He pondered bating the woman or walking away but he decided against either. He would wait and see what she did next before deciding his own next move. This was not a situation in which he had all the constants let alone all the variables.

[kaylinneya]

She wanted to turn and walk away. She so nearly did. If he had been an adult, she wouldn't have stayed this long. But... he was still a kid. Sort of.

She grit her teeth. "Is there anything you do need, then?" she got out shortly.

[eternallyhazel]

"I suppose you could tell me whereabouts I am. I appear to have arrived here without my..." He stopped, the word he wanted to use fighting with the word he usually used. So he started again. Most unlike him but this situation warranted it. "I appear to have arrived alone." Information would be accepted and even helpful. But saying that to her would be like admitting defeat on his initial point.

[kaylinneya]

The small familiar around her neck moved for the first time. It made an odd chirruping noise that somehow managed to sound smug, as it lifted it's head. The rest of it was translucent, but the eyes were solid dark orbs flecked here and there with color as it shifted and moved.

"Most people seem to. You're on what they call a Starship. You'll have to get medically cleared and then they'll assign you a room."

She kept her tone crisp and professional, realizing that she was now talking to him in the way she would talk to Margot, or any of the other shysters on Elani Street. She spoke in a professional "It's not worth my job to smack you or call you an idiot but I'll be *****ed if I'm going to smile at you" sort of way. Not QUITE how she spoke to Mallory, but then... he was one of the few humans she hated even more than Margot.

[eternallyhazel]

"What do you mean by most?" He could figure out what a starship meant. It was in the name after all. Medically cleared sounded logical enough having come from a different environment but being assigned a room assumed he was staying.

"Am I a prisoner here? I did not choose to be on this ship. And..." Again he stopped, the words dying in his throat. His plans had not anticipated this. But at least everyone else was safe.

[kaylinneya]

"None of us chose it," she said, fighting to keep a sneer from her voice. "And yet, here we are. And by most..." she scratched the small dragon under its chin, "I most certainly did not come alone."

Usually she resented the small familiar, but for small moments of spite? She was big enough to admit she was small enough to take some measure of smug satisfaction from this.

[eternallyhazel]

"And yet you are here. Something else is obviously at work." But what? As far as Artemis knew, this wasn't possible. Did he have some sort of enemy he hadn't know about? Someone much more powerful and technologically advanced than even the People? No, that made no sense. Especially with the way everything was when he'd left and arrived here.

He needed more information and he doubted this woman would give it to her.

[kaylinneya]

"Or maybe I didn't come here the same way you did," she said a bit smugly. Yes, Kaylin could be childish at times. And yes, she was not above being so now.

[eternallyhazel]

"Oh? How did you arrive then?" He asked, almost innocently. If she was going to raise the stakes then he would most certainly call her bluff.

[kaylinneya]

"I fell off the world," she said, and she almost seemed proud of it. "That happens to me." She smirked.

[eternallyhazel]

Artemis seemed to ponder that statement for a while before answering, though his answer had instantly popped into his head.

"Well, it seems we may have something in common after all."

He seemed almost impressed and yet still spiteful and smirking at the same time.

[kaylinneya]

"Am supposed to be overjoyed?" she asked dryly. "Impressed? Pleased? Honored?"

There was a reason she was not allowed near the moneyed people of her city.

[eternallyhazel]

"Whichever one suits you best." Which was an answer without it actually be an answer.

[kaylinneya]

"None of those, then," she said with a smirk. She crossed her arms. She didn't say the words but her posture all but screamed "are we done here?"

[eternallyhazel]

Artemis held his own posture, replying without words in a "well you approached me" fashion.

[kaylinneya]

Kaylin could be blunt, if she had to. "Is that all you need? Are we done here?"

He officially, in her mind, was not a kid.