.004 Test Drive Meme

[thefleet_mods]

The Fleet: Test Drive Meme. ❖Instructions. 1. Pick a prompt 2. Comment with your thread start, with your character name and fandom in the subject line. 3. Tag into other's threads. 4. Have fun! 5. What happens on the TDM defaults to staying on the TDM (it's not taken in game), unless all players involved agree AND you have mod approval to c&p the thread to the log comm. You must get mod approval. **If you have questions, ask the Mods ❖Meme Prompts. [Shuttle] You've arrived! You've been seen by a coolly efficient (what you hope is a) medical professional - after all they did give you a shot of something. Then you were handed a slew of things you're still trying to process - communication devices, a ring (which is also a key?), a piece of transparent film that's flashing information. And clothing, that was a thoughtful gesture. And then there was the explanation - You've been taken (isn't that a nice way of saying 'kidnapped') by that floating orb of light, you can't leave, but while you're here you get room and board. Is that really a fair trade? Oh, and to top everything off, you have a set of gem like stones set into your chest, that you can't remove. Before you know it, you've moved with the crowd towards the shuttle and now that you are sitting down, it's now suddenly sinking in. You are so very far from home. [NOTE: Please note that the actual arrival process is different from the above scenario - please see the New Arrivals Page for a detailed explanation of the actual arrival process.] ~ ☼ ~ [Cafeteria] You’re hungry, and though the smells coming from the cafeteria are strange, they are alluring. The grumble in your belly tells you it’s worth chancing. ~ ☼ ~ [Multipurpose Common Area] You’re bored but haven’t quite worked up the courage to venture out into the greater parts of the station. The common area of the residential community seems like it might provide some distractions. And the view out the large windows lining one wall is simply stunning. ~ ☼ ~ [The Center Station Central Gardens] In an environment where spatial expansion is finite, it seems extravagant to house a garden this big. What looks like giant trees at first glance, turn outo be the wire structures that rise up six stores before fanning out actually house various breeds of creeping vines. There are two levels of raised walkways that wind around the vine structures. The ground level also wraps lazily through various plots of vegetation. There is enough variety of plants here to keep anyone interested for hours. ~ ☼ ~ [Cemetery Ring] If you’re in more for a somber atmosphere, the Cemetery Ring is open to everyone. The first sign posted outside the door reads "We are the lights that shines brightest against the night." The sign below it simply says "All are welcome." This wide corridor, that traverses the whole very top of the Inner Rings, is dimly lit, but pinpoints of light twinkle all over the wall. The wall juts out in an effort to create more surface area for memorials to those Owmi who have passed on to the next life since the Owmi started their nomadic journey. The peacefulness of the room is inviting. ~ ☼ ~

Comments

Gardens. Also borrowing Ezra's blue flowers from elsewhere. X3

[princess_weia]

Leia had been on her way home, taking her preferred route through the gardens, when she spotted a woman she didn't recognize examining the plants. A newcomer, almost certainly, since she was a human. She noticed that the woman was getting close to a particular patch of flowers though, and given the way she was handling the plants, Leia felt the need to say something.

"Be careful of those blue flowers," she said stepping off the path to approach the woman. "If you handle them like that they'll stain your hands blue for days."

[smuttywitch]

Rachel hadn't smiled much in weeks, not since Kist. But now, at the sound of a child warning her about staining her hands of all things, she couldn't help a tiny smile as she turned to look up at the little girl.

"Thanks for the warning," she said, standing up and brushing her hands on her strange clothes. "But I've got a lot more than some funny stains working with plants before." Like the smell of burnt amber coating her whole being from going into the Ever After, the dark tinge to her aura...

She shook that away, forcing herself to grin warmly so that the kid wouldn't worry. She knew she hurt everyone around her, but she didn't want them to be afraid. "Do you know if they can do anything else? Like...for medicine, or something? I've never seen them before." Being a witch--a witch who had been able to use leyline magic, even unconsciously, before puberty--meant she didn't underestimate someone just because of their age.

[princess_weia]

Hey, it was a legitimate concern when one was six. Rachel didn't feel dark to Leia, though. There was an overall dim grayness to her that Leia had come to associate with sadness, as well as an undefinable something that hinted to her that the woman before her might be something more than an ordinary human. But there was nothing of the threatening chill that indicated the presence of the Dark Side.

When asked if the plants could do other things, though looked thoughtful. "Maybe," she said after a moment. "I don't think the Owmi use them for that; most of their medicine uses nanodroids and things. But I bet you could find out more about them at the library. I've found out all kinds of neat things there."

[smuttywitch]

Rachel nodded, taking that in. She'd noticed some of the odd technology when she arrived, things that seemed too much biodrugs to her for her to feel safe with them. Which was why she wasn't sure how their hosts would take her particular brand of medicine and protection. Even if she'd been born after the Turn, didn't usually feel the need to hide like those born before the sixties had, she was still a little on edge.

"I don't know what nanodroids are, really," she said with a bashful laugh. "I've only used plants and stuff I made myself for medicine. And I'm not worried about experimenting but I don't like using myself as a guinea pig when I don't even know what this stuff is." It was pretty, though. And she could maybe pick up something just from the scents.

The fact the child wasn't backing away from her either meant she couldn't see auras or didn't care. Maybe no one warned children here about smut. That would be nice, to be in a place where she wasn't judged for what she'd done to survive. "Do you...think they'd mind if I took a couple of the plants to work with? I wouldn't take a lot, just enough to figure out what's in them." Of course she could ask the Owmi themselves, but they still felt strange to her. A possible threat, like Trent or the IS. This little girl didn't feel anywhere near that intimidating.

[princess_weia]

"They're little, tiny droids," Leia said holding her thumb and forefinger a tiny distance apart. "Robots so small you need a microscope to see them. We have them back where I'm from too, but they seem to use them for a lot more things here."

She thought for a moment, though about taking the plants. "Well, if you're just going to take a few leaves or something, I don't think anybody would even notice<' she said. "But if you're going to take whole plants you should probably ask first. The Owmi really like science, so they'd probably say yes, and maybe even help you out. I know Nayine Gudura helped me when I was doing an essperiment with the crystals that grow in the Sacred Keep; she made sure I had the right kind of scanners and things to measure and everything."

[smuttywitch]

Rachel frowned a bit at the description of the robots. That sounded like something out of a movie, and she would have said so if she wasn't here.

Not that she was really sure she was here, completely. Part of her wondered if when she'd taken the Focus into herself--when she'd lost Kisten--something inside her had been lost. Or that she'd actually died, and this was all a crazy dream.

She sat back, crossing her legs and brushing a stray curl from her face, not worrying about the bit of dirt and plant material it left smeared on forehead. She smiled a bit at the child's slightly lisping pronunciation. "I'd never take anything they couldn't spare," she said, completely serious. This wasn't a witch's garden, sure, but it also wasn't like Trent's, all show.

She cleared her throat awkardly at the mention of science. "I'm not really doing...science, exactly," she said, carefully. "I mean, some people might call it that, I guess? But I make..potions and charms, not...human medicine." Would that reveal what she was, in a place like this? Would it matter? She really couldn't tell. This didn't seem like the sort of place that would start a literal witch hunt, but considering how many people had died during the Turn just for daring to reveal their existence to try to save humans...Rachel wanted to believe better of people, or to not care if they weren't better, but she also couldn't know if any other witches might be here, hiding for good reason.

[princess_weia]

Leia tilted her head curiously at the way Rachel described her plans. And hinted at things about herself that Leia already suspected. "Most of the people here aren't human, so I don't think it'd bother them if what you were making wasn't for humans," she said mistaking the meaning of 'human medicine'.

"But does that mean you aren't human either?", she asked. "You feel a little different from one, but not in a way I've felt before. You don't quite feel like someone who has the Force, like I do, and you don't feel different enough to be someone like the Doctor, who looks human but is really a Time Lord."

[smuttywitch]

Well, Rachel had sort of suspected that when she'd looked at the people around her, but they hadn't smelled like Inderlanders or the humans she was used to, so she hadn't been sure.

The child's comment that she 'felt' different made her skin prickle a little, wondering what exactly the little girl was getting from her. If she could see auras, she would have known, surely. Or at least been close enough. Taking a careful breath to keep her pulse slow in case the child could pick up on that too, Rachel made herself grin, cocking her head.

"Nope, I'm not. I'm a witch. We look a lot like humans, but we're different on a--genetic level." She thought the child seemed smart enough to understand that, and she remembered how much it sucked to be talked down by adults just because of your age when you were smart, so she wasn't going to dumb it down too much. "We live longer than most humans where I'm from, and we can do things they can't. It makes some humans...not like us very much." Of course, she hadn't been alive for the worst of the hate during the Turn, but the fear was still there. "I could use human medicine for most things, but mine works a lot faster." She actually smiled at that, thinking of the time Edden had given her that 'asprin' that hadn't done anything but give her a sore throat.

[princess_weia]

Leia nodded her understanding. "That's kinda how it works for people with the Force too," Leia said. "We can feel it and use it because we have more... middi-chlor-ians in our cells than most people. We're not a whole other species though." There's a bit of struggling with the difficult word, but she manages admirably.

"And are you from Regulus and Lily's world then?", Leia asked. "Lily's a witch too, but doesn't feel quite the same as you. And since people can be brought here from anyplace and time, it's hard to keep track." Seriously, remind her to show you her family tree sometimes. And tell you about how she's met two of her future sons from two separate universes.

[smuttywitch]

Rachel grinned. "That sounds about right. I don't know the whole science about us, though. I know we came from another place, a long time ago, with a few other races, when there was a big war." She doesn't know if the word 'demon' will mean anything here, have the same weight, but she doesn't want to bring it up, not it or the Ever After or the elves. Not yet. "There are...enzymes in my blood that are different from humans, that make spells and charms work if I mix it with plants." That, admittedly, was dumbing it down, but going into leylines with someone who wasn't a witch, even a really smart kid, seemed a bit chancy.

She blinked a couple times, then shrugs, rubbing another leaf between her fingers to try to get something from the oils. Jenks would probably do better, but she doesn't have him, so she's having to trust her own senses. "I don't know. I haven't talked to anyone named Regulus or Lily. Maybe. If humans where they're from know about witches, probably." Unless they were from before the Turn. Oh God, that'd suck dishwater, to run in to pre-Turn witches. Pearce had been okay, but that had only been for one night, and he'd been on a mission. "Have you seen them do magic here?" Maybe that would tell her, if she knew what kind of magic these other 'witches' did.

[princess_weia]

Leia nodded again, this time surprisingly solemn. "There was a big war where I'm from too, but that was before I was born," she said. Except that the Jedi hadn't been able to escape their war. "And I know there'll be others too, that I'll probably be part of someday. There've been people here from my future and they talked about it."

"People with the Force don't need plants to make it work, though," Leia said. "Some people can use the Force to help plants grow better, but I don't know how to do that. I can show you what I can do with the Force, though, if you want."

Leia nodded. "Regulus used the Owmi's magic," she said. "But I think that learning it kept him from being able to get his own back here; you can only have one kind of magic at a time, I guess. I don't think I've seen Lily do magic, but you could ask her about it if you want; she's nice."