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.


2

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

Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[likesfondue]

Howard Stark, man of many talents. Bright. Enigmatic. Intelligent. He was a man who was a charmer. He loved the ladies, and some of the men too, though that didn't get as much press. Some things just had to remain private, even if you were a Stark. A man who loved science, he loved to see how things worked. His mind was always whirling, always trying to invent something new, something better. He was a man who loved his work.

Sometimes a little too much. His life suffered for it. Oh, he had a life, lots of fun and knew how to throw his money around, but that didn't always buy happiness. His best friends were his butler and the woman he could never have, the one that was just too good for him. He wasn't surprised by that fact. As fabulous as he was, even he couldn't play second fiddle to Captain America. Nobody could ever fill those shoes. Instead, he loved Peggy like a friend. Like a sister. And always made sure to be there for her as much as she was for him. He'd have been lost without her. Peggy and Jarvis were the only two who had rooted for him all along and believed in his innocence, even when he wasn't really. He thought he'd been doing a good thing. The road to hell and all of that.

Peggy. He could go for a little does of her right about now.

He smiled as he made his way around the bar otherwise known as Ten Forward, sipping his drink and eying the other patrons. Waking up in a place he didn't remember passing out at wasn't a new thing for Howard. Space, now that was something different. If he was going to find out anything about where he was, he was going to have to do what he did best. Charm people. He turned, walking up to the first person he saw with a huge grin.

"Hey, I'm Howard. A bit new around here. Fancy showing a new guy the ropes? I promise not to bite hard?"

[stark_spangled]

He knows that voice.

He hasn't heard it in 23 months and 69 years, but he knows that voice like he knows the sound of Vibranium taking a hit, or the smoker's lung stutter of war birds flying overhead. He glances up, focus shifting from the pad of paper sitting in front of him to some unfixed point at first.

"He's lying," he says, loud enough to be heard, the corner of his mouth half-cocked in a smile. He sets the pencil down and looks in the direction of the voice at last. Even if Howard isn't looking right at him, Steve would know that silhouette anywhere. "He's got jaws like a pit bull's."

It's been 1 year, 11 months, and 14 days since the last time Steve Rogers laid eyes on Howard Stark, but it feels like a lifetime ago. And in a way, it has been.

[likesfondue]

Howard smiles at the man in front of him. Seems nice enough, but the scales are a bit of a turn off. Still, he has other assets that are fascinating enough to him. He doesn't even get a chance to hear his answer, though, cut off by the sound of someone else replying behind him.

A voice that he also knows very well. He freezes, his shoulders tensing and he closes his eyes. It can't be. He has to be dreaming. No way is Steve Rogers right behind him, when he'd been searching for the man, never giving up. "My jaw is not that bad," he mumbles, but the snark wasn't there like it used to be.

Steve Rogers had thrown him off his game. Only two other people could do that to him. He opened his eyes, watching the other man walk away, cleary not falling for the Stark family charm. That didn't really matter to him, though. He had more important people to talk to.

When he turns around, he should be more surprised by what he sees. There is the Captain America, sitting at a table with a sketchpad like nothing had changed. Suddenly, Howard really wanted a drink.

"Now, how would you know what my jaw is like? I don't remember you sharing them with me? Was I drunk and I forgot about it? Because if that's the case, that would be a damn shame." He swallowed, trying to use snark to hide the surprise that is clearly still visible in his eyes. Striding over to Steve, he pulls out a chair and sits down, not trusting his legs to hold him up.

"Shouldn't you be a nice shade of blue, Captain?"

[stark_spangled]

He's seen Stark flirt before, but this is new. His eyebrow tics as Howard goes still, an apology slipping into his smirk for the humanoid man who wanders away. The careless jabs and flirtations that used to make Steve squirm and turn red just make his smile turn more crooked, but there's more to it than that.

He's seen enough hollowed-out men on the front lines to know that look in Howard's eyes. The way he ambles up and takes a seat like no time has passed, the bob of his Adam's apple, and the near desperation that oozes from his pores to hold onto his wit, his charm, his control. The war changed them all, in ways big and small. But it's only now, in this moment, that Steve really wonders about what happened to Stark after he hit the ice.

"I could ask you the same question," he says, eyebrows arched. In 2014, Steve Rogers is still kicking while Howard Stark has given up that particular race. Funny how things change in 70 years. "And trust me, I think if that had happened you'd remember; Peggy would have given you a sore jaw in the more traditional way."

He reaches over and claps Howard's shoulder, a bracing gesture meant for one purpose.

This is real.

[likesfondue]

He stares at Steve like he is dreaming. He wonders if he asks Steve to pinch him what might happen. There's a slight tremor in his voice, one he can't push away when he speaks. Peggy, he thinks to himself. Focus on Peg and talk about her. That's easy, wasn't it? She was a pal, a friend to the end. They could have a conversation about Peggy and that would be normal.

Who was he kidding? A conversation with a dead friend is never normal.

He swallows, nodding his head in response. "Trust me pal, she has." He reaches up, rubbing absentmindedly at his jaw as he thinks about that time in her room, long after Steve had disappeared. Much as he hated himself for doing it, he'd kept a secret from her. A doozy at that. And oh, did she make him pay for it. Well deserved, but still painful. "Don't ever tempt her right hook. Or her left one."

And then there it is. Steve's reaching over and squeezing his shoulder. He's real. Steve is really real. Not at the bottom of a cold body of water, being looked for by a potentially madman millionaire who has been told many times to just give up already.

"I... I need a drink." Forcing a smile, Howard gently extricates Steve's hand from his shoulder and stumbles over to the bar. Leaning against it, he orders the strongest, oldest scotch he can get his hands on. He downs it fast, feeling the familiar burning feel of the liquid in his throat before he orders a second to take back to the table with him.

When he returns, he sits down a little closer to Steve, grabbing the chair beside him instead of the one across from him. Reaching out, he takes one of Steve's hands in his, marveling at just how big it is. "This is real. I'm not just dreaming? I'm in space and Captain America isn't dead? I think this might call for a toast. Peggy isn't here somewhere, waiting to hit me again, is she?"

[stark_spangled]

Steve's become something of an authority on having conversations with dead friends, and one thing it's never been is normal. His first few months here, after Bucky and Sinthia and then Peggy, he started to think about what it would be like if other long gone friends showed up, and he wondered if that meant he was losing his mind. He knows what Howard went through to find him. He deserves the closure.

But he's pulling himself away and leaving the table, and Steve is left frowning in his wake. He gets up, moving to follow him at first, and then he thinks better of it. He stands about a foot away from the table and pockets his hands, watching Howard order, drink, and order again. His brow beetles, wondering if this is too much to put on him like this, but it's too late now. Howard's in space, in the future he spent so many years dreaming about, and still he's being haunted by the ghosts of his past.

The careful look of concentration on his face breaks into a smirk when Howard returns, grabs his hand like he's had one too many already, and starts babbling. He sits back down on the edge of his seat, keeping the space between them close.

"Not a dream, sorry," he says, pushing away the offer of a toast. The smile on his face stays true, but his words soften. "And no, Peggy isn't here anymore. But you're gonna have to tell me the story behind that right and left hook sometime."

You'd think after all this time he wouldn't look a little jealous as he says so, but the roots Peggy's left in his heart have grown deep. "Howard. Take a breath. I know this is all -- strange, but it is good to see you. I'm gonna need you to slow down and hold off on the toasts long enough for me to explain, though."

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[electro_kinetic]

It may just be Howard's luck that one of those first people in sight is...different. Not really in bad ways, just in future ways; she has bright blue hair held in a messy twist with a screwdriver functioning as a hair stick, that's probably the most obvious. The next most obvious bit is the long metal gauntlet on one arm, encasing each finger and all the way up to her elbow, the mate of which she's disassembled and is carefully cleaning out.

"Not sure how to order a drink from a bar?" she asks, eyebrows lifted as she raises her head. "Because I'm pretty sure anyone who looks like you can't be that unfamiliar with the atmosphere."

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[likesfondue]

Howard blinked, looking at her with a mock hurt expression. "Hey now, you just met me, yet you think I know bars? I don't know if I should be wounded or flattered?" The corners of his lips turned up in a smile and he nodded his head lightly. "Maybe I just wanted to know what you were drinking so I could buy you one?"

His eyes raked over her. Unlike most men, he wasn't checking out her traditional assets, even if it appeared it might be. No, his dark eyes were drawn to the screwdriver and the gauntlet. "Or maybe I just wanted to get a closer look at that?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, if you can pull out that kind of line on a stranger, I'm willing to bet on it," Noriko replies, leaning back in her chair. She was used to being looked over in all sorts of ways, and didn't shy back from it, instead lifting her chin like she was daring him to stare at her.

"Assuming you know what it is, sure, you can have a look."

[likesfondue]

"Ooh, a challenge. I like those." Howard grinned and pulled up a chair, glancing at the gauntlet in her hands. Any flirting he was going to do was gone now, instead distracted by the electronics in front of her. He didn't touch, not for lack of wanting too. Instead, he stared at the gauntlet, tilting his head this way and that, trying to get an all over picture of them.

The corners of his lips turned up as he leaned in closer to her. "Hmm, interesting. It's like a regulator of some sorts. See here, this? It means that you can channel the electricity through. I'd bet that that's a pulsor. I've seen HYDRA tech like that on a gun. Some people just don't understand what they have." While he might be right about her gauntlet, it never occurs to her that she might be enhanced like Rogers.

"Where did you get this and where have you been all my life?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, babe," she laughs, shaking her head. "I know what it all does, I built it. It is a regulator, and for electricity, but it's not a pulsor. It's a battery and a capacitor on either end; one from me to the battery, one from that to the discharge point."

Notably, if Howard's paying attention, she's left out the part about where the current is coming from. "I dunno about all your life, but I'm from Tokyo and live in New York. Salem, up in Westchester, as boring as I find it. You?"

[always_a_gerbil]

A few years and a couple decades ago, that offer would have had him choking on his drink, sputtering and turning a brilliant shade of red. Now there was just a hint of that past shyness as Steve ducked his head, trying to decide if the offer of biting was a joke or if he was being propositioned. Then, he realized that the voice was familiar.

Steve should have realized it right away but he'd never thought he'd hear it again unless it was in the old newsreels. It was still sloppy for him to be that unobservant but at least he had an excuse. He can almost hear Peggy in the back of his mind chiding him for the lapse.

He should try to find a nice way to break it to Stark that he was alive since he probably was from a time after Steve had been lost, but how did you make something like that easier?

Looking up at Stark, he gives him a wry grin. "Sorry, but I'm one of the new guys too." Pausing a beat, he thought of Tony and his comments over Steve's unique fighting style. "Why are all Starks fixated on biting?"

[likesfondue]

"Hey, I'm not fixated on... Wait, what do you mean when you say all Starks, kid?"

Howard turned his head sideways, tilting it as if trying to get a better look at the young man in front of him. He wasn't sure why he had not noticed it before. Once he finally takes a good look at Steve, he feels his heart stop. It was impossible what he was seeing. It was Steve, but it wasn't. This was skinny Steve, before project rebirth.

He'd seen him only once, just before they started the experiment. It was a view he'd never forget. The before and after of something tremendous. Biting his lip, he couldn't help but stare. "St... Steve?"

Yes, he was staring.

[always_a_gerbil]

"I know a relative of yours. He makes comments on how much I like to bite people." Yes, Steve knew there was an innuendo there. It was impossible not to spend time with Tony and not pick up some of his sass. "Must be a Stark family trait."

Steve was used to having people study him, but they usually dismissed him after a few seconds. It was something that he cultivated, wanting to blend into crowds in most situations. It made his work easier but this was Howard. He hoped that he hadn't been forgotten by one of his friends.

"Yeah, it's me. I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to see you again but this place..." Pausing, he looked around the lounge, his expression hinting at the awe he still felt at being on a space ship. "It gives us second chances."

[likesfondue]

Howard frowned, only because he didn't think his father was anything like him. And honestly, how the hell did Steve Rogers know his father? One hand reached up and he scratched at his head, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Steve was here and claimed to know another Stark as well.

He at least had the grace to look a bit sheepish as he stopped staring at Steve. No, Steve had never been forgotten. On the contrary, he'd never given up looking for Steve. That was how he had found the Tesseract. Every day, the ship would search. And if he could be, he was on it. In a way, Howard felt incomplete without him.

"Second chances," he murmured softly. Howard tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You... You don't..." Howard bit his lip. "You look different than I remember you. How long have you been here?"

[always_a_gerbil]

He probably shouldn't have mentioned Tony but he wasn't even sure Tony existed in all the timelines. It wouldn't surprise him if he did. The world, or worlds, needed Tony Stark and Iron Man. That was probably something he shouldn't mention until Howard got over the shock of seeing him.

Which meant he was probably from the same reality as Peggy. Not his Peggy but the other reality's Peggy. Yeah, that was confusing.

"I've been here a couple of days. I arrived like this." Seeing how Howard was trying to be polite, Steve gestured about a foot above his head. "Let me guess. You're used to a guy about this tall? Probably a lot more muscles."

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[inbedbynine]

The man at the bar turns around and raises an eyebrow at his boss. "Direct and to the point as always sir," Edwin Jarvis says dryly. He hadn't expected to see Howard here but he's thankful. For all Howard's faults and Jarvis knew he had many, Howard was a loyal friend and employer.

"I'm afraid I can't help you however as I have just arrived myself."

[likesfondue]

"Jarvis!" Reaching out, Howard slapped Jarvis on the back of his shoulder, grateful to see the man in front of him. There was no other person besides Peggy that he knew to be as faithful and loyal as him. "You know me, I am always direct. More flies with honey, though." At least he wasn't offering to bite Jarvis.

Moving over to the barstool next to him, he leaned lightly on the bar. "You too, huh? I just arrived. Now, all we need is Peg to have the band back together," he teased. "Not that I want her here. She is probably better off. Look outside, Jarvis. That's space. Not some dime store sci fi book. Where are we? We are in the future!"

Howard grinned like a kid at Christmas. He finally was somewhere that his skills and knowledge could finally be vindicated. More than just on a battlefield. This was his dream, his energy source.

[inbedbynine]

Jarvis' lips twitch slightly at Howard's excitement. Edwin would never admit it out loud but he enjoyed watching Howard light up when he made a discovery or encountered a new situation. "I have a feeling Miss Carter would enjoy herself as much as you currently are sir," he replies, "she never seemed the type of person who liked sitting still."

[likesfondue]

Turning back to Jarvis, Howard gave his friend a smile. "And I'm betting that you're not. You've found out about the replicators, haven't you?" He laughed and turned to the bar, ordering a glass of scotch. "I bet if you ask nicely, they might give you a kettle? Peg would feel just as strongly as you do, I'm sure. She might enjoy it here, but no tea? She'd go batty."

[inbedbynine]

Edwin sniffed at the mention of replicators. He would have been perfectly fine not knowing where and how he got his mug of tea but now that he does it's difficult to even look at it without wincing. "I'll adapt," he says carefully, "but it does distress me that the art of tea making has gone away in the future. There is just something so calming about boiling the kettle to the right tempature and then wanting for the leaves to steep. "

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[element_wizard]

"What if I want you to bite hard?" The words are out of Alec's mouth before they've even registered in his mind. They've actually completely bypassed any sort of thoughts. There might not have been any thoughts involved, when you get right down to it.

After he's spoken Alec actually looks at the guy and does a bit of a double blink as he recognizes who the hell he just said that too.

He doesn't apologize though.

For Stark, Alec is your typical pretty elf looking boy with the demeanor of a scatter brained budgie. Despite the pretty boy looks he does have a lovely scar across his left eye and a sort of ridiculous tattoo on his right. He's wearing jeans and a tee-shirt currently (which is better clothing than he usually does). And now he's waiting curiously to see what exactly is going to happen.

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[likesfondue]

"Well, then maybe that can be arranged. Bites aren't free," Howard teased. Moving over to stand beside Alec, he leaned against the bar, raising an eyebrow at the young man. The look Alec gave him made him wonder if he'd met the lad before. He doesn't look familiar, but anything was possible in Howard's world.

His eyes moved up and down Alec's body, taking in the young man and wondering just where he came from? Based on the odd choice of uniform, he doubted that it was his own era.

He hesitated, only for a second, before giving Alec his warmest smile. "Pleasure to meet you. So, does that mean you'll help?"

Re: Howard Stark - Agent Carter / Marvel Cinematic Universe

[element_wizard]

It's more like, not that Howard knows that, Alec's seen him before in another reality. He's only skim visited Howard's version of worlds and so is fuzzier on the details, but he knows major people when he sees them.

"They never are." Alec sighed somewhat overly dramatically before grinning. "Sure. I'd love to help. I'm very big on helping - though if it's good help is debatable."

[likesfondue]

"You sound a lot like me." He laughed and moved over to sit down beside Alec, glancing around the bar briefly before back at the young man in front of him. He sighed, looking as if he was hurt, only teasing the man.

He chuckled, giving the young man a look. "How about this? We start with the important ones. Where am I? Who are you? And how do I get a drink in this place?"