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

[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."

[likesfondue]

Howard nodded his head, listening to Steve as he spoke. As much as he didn't want to, he could slow down a little for the man who used to be his friend. He wasn't deluded enough to think he ranked up there with Barnes, but he had thought that he might have a small spot in Steve's life. It was complicated, to say the least.

His grip on Steve's hand loosens as he grips his glass a little tighter instead. There's something in his eyes, hurt perhaps. Thinking about that particular memory with Peggy isn't one he really wants to focus on too much. "I... I'm not sure you want to hear that story, Steve. You might sock me too." He already had let her down. He couldn't let him down too.

He turns, looking out the glass at the stars around them. "What is there to explain? I am staring at the stars, Steve. And they are so close that I could touch them!" He took another sip of his drink, leaning back in his chair. "Do they have a lab? Alien tech that I can hold and possibly play with?"

His voice lowers and he leans in a little closer. There was so much he wanted to say, but he just didn't know where to begin.

ooc: gah, sorry this took so long!

[stark_spangled]

It would be hard for anyone to get to the place in his heart Steve reserves for Bucky, but that ain't anything against Howard. Bucky was his family, his partner. Howard played a big part in making Steve the man he is today, but Bucky made him the man Erskine first saw. And sure, they've had their ups and downs, but Steve knows underneath it all Howard's got a decent heart.

His hand stays sure and strong, for Howard. For his friend.

At least, until he remarks on that story about Peg with that particular look in his eyes. Steve's brow gathers, a hard line forming between his eyebrows. Here's one other thing that hasn't changed about him: his mind still jumps to the worst case scenario. "If I socked you, Stark, it would be because you deserved it. So I hope you can tell me you don't."

Even at their worst, he could never believe Howard would hurt Peggy. And he knows she can take care of herself. But what was that he was saying about the roots she's left in his heart?

"You're on a spaceship with a guy you thought was dead, and the first thing you want to know about besides their liquor license is if you can play with alien tech?" he asks, with a little more levity in his voice. He can't help but chuckle a little, shaking his head. "Yes, they have more than one lab. I think before they'll let you touch them you're going to have to prove to them that you're not crazy, though."

Let them start out small. There is a lot to say, but they'll get there.

my turn to apologize ... pokey

[likesfondue]

He hates to see Steve staring at him like that. Mostly, because he knows that he deserves it. It's the same look Peggy gave him in her room at the Griffith. "Wish I could tell you that, Steve, but I can't. Peg socked me for a reason, and it was a damn good one. I thought I was doing good at the time, but I left her in the dark. Should have trusted her more, you know. She's Peg, after all..."

He sighed, letting go of Steve's hand. "Had a sample of your blood left. Wanted to use it for good. I was the lead scientist on your experiment. They took samples of your blood, I got one. I... It was your blood, Steve. It held all the answers. Vaccines. Healing people. The common cold. I couldn't let the SSR get it. They would never give it back." Howard sighed, finishing his drink and strongly wanting another one. "They took your samples and ruined them trying to make more of Erskine's serum, but they couldn't do it. And I refused to help them. They would want a super soldier, not someone like you. Remember they didn't want you, Erskine did."

Shaking his head, he looked up at Steve. "I didn't tell Peggy about the blood. Should have. I should have trusted her more. I wanted to protect her. She loved you, her emotions were too close. And she was SSR. I... I didn't know. So, I lied. And she didn't find out about your blood from me. Bad form."

Turning away from Steve, he stared out at the open blackness beside them. "Can't prove I'm not crazy, Steve. A bit of me is just that. Mad scientist with illusions of grandeur, wanting to be something better. Something like you. I just don't have your moral compass. So, yeah, I want to know about the booze. And the lab. All the money and influence I had don't mean shit here."

Howard normally didn't feel this wordy. Gazing down at the glass, he frowned. "Damn leaky glasses."