TEST DRIVE #10 - Cetacean Pool and Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

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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]

"Alright," she said with a nod. "Gloves first. Follow me, we'll get you gloves, and food."

She leaned back on her heels, quirked her lips and said softly, "I wasn't a thief either, until it was the only way to survive. Even then, we" ******* it! she had NOT meant to say "we" and that was visible on her face. "tried to take as little as possible. Just food. Just enough to not starve."

Barely. Some days she didn't think there ever would be enough food to keep themselves alive. And now that she was here, and there was food for the asking... she couldn't give them a mouthful.

People always told Kaylin that they didn't need to read her mind to know her thoughts, and they were right. Her face was a complete open book; the sorrow, the pain, the regret she was feeling, knowing that there was no longer any way to help them... no longer any need to help them... was visible and obvious.

[southernreaper]

Kevin's a little too self absorbed at the moment to read anyone else's face. Plus, the no gloves thing is still bothering him.

"I found a better way." Rather than stealing, he sold his art. Sometimes. Most of the time, he goes hungry, but that's okay too. He'd rather do that than steal. He can't get past that core morality.

"Where are the gloves?" He pushes himself off the window for the first time in the conversation and takes a step away from it. He tends to slouch, and tucking his hands deeper in his pockets makes it even more pronounced. Singed ends of his bangs flop into his eyes and he just watches her, not approaching, but at least not retreating any more.

[kaylinneya]

"As I said, we have to get some. There are things called replicators, apparently they can make anything other than weapons, but so far I've only tried it for food."

She turned and headed towards her quarters, glancing back, to make sure he would follow.

[southernreaper]

He tucks his hands deep into his pockets and hunches his shoulders forward. But he follows her. He has no idea where they're going. Kevin has a bad habit of all but slinking next to the wall, to avoid people and make sure they are protected from his power.

He swallows hard when someone comes close to him in the hallway and scurries away from them, following her closely. When she steps into her quarters, he steps in behind her, keeping close to the door.

"So, we're expected to just live here?" And not find a way home?

[kaylinneya]

"Not the first time I've fallen off the world," she said with a shrug. "Won't be the last."

She went to the replicator and had it reproduce a pair of gloves. She tossed them at him. "Doesn't mean we're not trying to find a way home," she said, arching a brow. "But as long as I'm here, I'm doing my part. And you want to know what?" she asked, sitting on a table. The small dragon like familiar moved to curl up on an end table near the door, watching him. "This place is a **** of a lot better than home. Do I miss some of the people there? Yes. Do I miss starving? Not a *****ing chance."

[southernreaper]

He's too eager. He wants the gloves desperately and that means that his power is eager too. It wants to touch, to feed...

He grabs the gloves out of the air and it happens. That slight pull, that gentle brush against the back of his mind that gives him the rush and makes it feel like it'll be okay.

Before he knows it, ash is sifting through his fingers, falling to the floor. Kevin stares at it, almost fascinated. "They need to be inorganic." His voice is rough and harsh. He looks up at the woman who brought him here. "The gloves. They need to be inorganic."

[kaylinneya]

She blinked, staring at that for a moment before swearing up a blue streak. She glared at the bracer she wore, as if it had offended her. It lay there inert on her wrist, she scowled and looked up at him, swearing again.

"That's...not magic?" she asked, to be sure.

[southernreaper]

He blinks at the swearing. It isn't his fault! He can't help it!

"No, not magic." He swallows hard, and stuffs his hands back into his pockets. Now that he's fed the need, it's going to get stronger and he's going to have a headache later.

"I'm a mutant." That explains everything, right?

[kaylinneya]

"No clue what a mutant is, kid, but so long as it's not magic, we're..." she broke off and started swearing again, shaking her head. She looked to the replicator trying to figure out how to get it to make non-organic gloves. Whatever the ****s that was.

The familiar stretched, yawned, and flew over to the replicator.

"If you bite or breathe on that," she growled warningly at the dragon-like thing.

It glanced back at her, chittered, as if lecturing her, then turned to the device and chirruped. A pair of inorganic gloves formed. Clearly looking smug, it flew to the table by the door and settled down as if making a nest for itself from the glass.

"I have no clue if these are better," Kaylin said, tossing him the gloves before returning to glaring at the familiar.

[southernreaper]

Kevin flinches when the familiar moves. He dislikes pets. They're too small, too vulnerable. The memory of the dog in the junkyard is still fresh, even if it happened a while ago.

Still, he reaches out and catches the gloves, waiting on that familiar pull, that something that says his powers are working.

... Nothing.

Slowly, he pulls the gloves on and takes a deep breath - his first since showing up here. It's relief, followed by fear again that she's going to realize how dangerous he is.

"These are much better." He flexes his hands slowly in the gloves. "Thank you."

[kaylinneya]

She nodded, hesitated, held up the wrist with the bracelet. "I get it," she said flatly.

"What do you want to eat? I can't think of any food that isn't organic."

[southernreaper]

He doesn't understand what the bracelet means, but if it's anything like his gloves, then he understands.

Kevin sighs. Eating is just a hassle and a half. Sometimes, he doesn't do it, just because it's such a hassle.

"I can eat anything. I just... have to be careful how I eat."

[kaylinneya]

She nodded and turned to the replicators. These things still amazed her. They weren't magic - she would know - but they just made food appear from nothing.

"A tray of meat buns, hot, beef," she told it, then took the tray and set it on a table somewhere between them. She claimed three buns, before stepping back.