ten_fwd | Ten Forward Lounge

~~Doggie!~~

The door in front of TenSoon opened of it's own accord and Wan stepped through. He stopped short at the sight of the dog while the door shut behind him. The dog was bigger than most dogs that he had ever seen and it was whining and that tugged at his bleeding heart in a way he'd never been able to ignore.

Eyes softening, he spoke in a gentle voice and extended a hand out for the dog to stiff, "Easy there, fella. You don't have to worry. I know you're probably lost, you look it, but I'm sure we can find where you're supposed to be."

TenSoon backed up from the stranger, eyes darting to the corridor behind him, nose twitching at the scents wafting in. The air coming in smelt just the same as it did in the room he was in and the light seemed just the same.

This man, this stranger, smelt far too sterile as well. For a moment, TenSoon was tempted to speak directly and ask where he was, but there were too many people in the room for him to take the risk. For the moment he was going to play into the assumption the stranger had made about him.

He curled his tail towards his belly, lowered his head and whined pitifully, watching carefully for the man's reaction.

Wan knelt down, sitting on his knees so his face was at TenSoon's level. He kept his hand out and brought the other one up in offering as well. He was only 'sterile' smelling because of the way the showers in the place worked. Closer in, the wolfhound would be able to catch some rather odd scents off of Wan. A mix of ash and fresh turned dirt, of the salt spray of water and a crisp spring breeze. On top of the more normal 'human' scent, of course.

"Don't worry, I'm friendly," He said, tone still gentle. And not so much because he was talking to an animal as he was talking to someone who was scared. He didn't try to advance for the moment or touch TenSoon. He would probably try that soon enough if the dog didn't react negatively, though.

He obligingly sniffed at Wan's hand, watching him for any sudden movements. Odd indeed, for the ashen scent had a difference acridity to the volcanic ash that covered TenSoon's own legs.

Nothing about the man suggested subterfuge, so TenSoon sat back and looked about the room, marking how many people were there and how much attention they were paying. Too many, far too many, so he didn't risk breaking his cover.

He did, however, put as questioning a note he could into his next whine as he looked back at his seated companion, then glanced side to side.

And with that, Wan ceased to fight his urg to pet TenSoon. One hand dropped to his lap and the other went to gently start scratching behind an ear - if he wasn't shook off, of course.

"Just with how dirty you are, I'm going to guess you're wondering where you are. We're in a place called Ten Forward," Wan answered as easily. "It's a place inside the City-Ship called the 'Enterprise'. It's all one big, enclosed city because the City-Ship travels the space between the stars and there's no air to breathe out there."

"Hnnnngh." It wasn't that the scratching was unpleasant, but TenSoon wasn't a touchy feely person at all, especially not with strangers. Still, after a short hesitation he leaned into the caress. It wouldn't do to drive away someone so open.

Though a dog shouldn't have been able to understand the information, his eyes widened and he spun to look over to the window he'd only glimpsed before. He'd never seen the night sky, for the Mists sprang up as soon as twilight approached, but he'd heard tales from the First Generation of how the world used to be before their Father was forced to alter the planet. That was the blackness of the night? Those were stars? He glanced over his shoulder at Wan, the whites of his eyes showing, then slowly wagged his tail, hoping a show of gratitude would earn him more information.

He nodded as if asked a question by that look, "No earth beneath us or sky above us. We're above the sky and in the middle of the longest night there ever was."

Wan continued petting TenSoon, his fingers light and easily pulled away from if the dog chose to. He didn't know it wasn't welcome, after all. With a slightly weary sigh, he continued, "Most of the people in the strange clothes that hug their skin are from this City-Ship. But not all of them. And not all of those who don't wear those clothes are from other Cities and Worlds. They call them 'planets' or 'universes'. But they also call a collection of stars and planets a 'universe'. It gets a little confusing. I don't really know much more than that. Except someone name 'Q' is the one who has brought those that don't belong here to here."

We went quiet for a moment before changing the subject to a different concern of his, "Do you want to get cleaned up? Have something to eat or drink? We can try to see if there's anyone you know running around if you'd like, but you'd probably be more comfortable if that muck doesn't dry up and tangle your hair."

Edited 2014-12-14 03:43 (UTC)

His eyes ran over the people in the room as Wan talked, marking those from the ship and those from other realms. This was so strange, so different, that had he not possessed his Blessings of Presence he'd be tempted to think that everything from the moment he was hauled out of prison was a mere hallucination brought about by too long spent trapped in his own thoughts. He shivered under Wan's fingers, realising that even though he could read the body language of the humans milling about the room, this was a society he was a complete stranger to. It had been nearly seven hundred years since he could have said he'd not understood the motives and the history of the crowds he planned to move through.

Wan's offer was so very kind, as kind as his voice. TenSoon was prone to be suspicious of such altruism, but really, he didn't have any better choices confronting him. He looked around again for observers, then stood and nodded shallowly.

"Alright," Wan said and stood in a fluid motion. "We can get some water here, but we won't really have room to wash you properly. If you want to follow me, we can go to the house they assigned to me and use the bath there. But if you'd rather stay here, we can probably be okay making a small mess behind the bar."

He pointed to the side, at the bar Guinan was usually behind, "whichever you'd like more."

TenSoon stood as well and walked to the door, intending to sit in front of them to indicate his choice- except they opened as he got near to them. He jerked back, expecting someone else to walk through, but no, the hall was empty.

He stepped closer, wary of the doors closing just a abruptly, sniffing the air and failing to pick up anyone else nearby who could have opened the door. Was this some sort of pulley system, perhaps subtly weighted plates in the floor? He leaned his weight back from his front paws and then pressed down again, then frowned as his theory failed to produce results.

A dog shouldn't have been able to raise his brow the way TenSoon raised his, but his range of doggish expressions were hardly enough to communicate how utterly alien even the doorways were to him.

Wan didn't think anything of it. After all, he'd lived with spirits and animals for a while. Many of them (animals) were just as intelligent as any human. Spirits absolutely were. They were as much people as any human, to him.

"The spirit of the City-Ship opens it for us," Wan said to the obvious confusion. He'd shared it himself when he'd first arrived. He continued talking to TenSoon as he moved out of Ten Forward and down the hall, walking at a slightly slower pace than he usually did so the dog could have some time to look around as they walked. Not that there was much to see when all the halls looked the same. "It can tell when we're close enough and it opens. We have to take whats called a 'lift' to a different floor to get to the home they assigned me. It's not obvious that it's moving, but it is. It goes up and down from floor to floor."

TenSoon followed silently behind Wan, observing much and understanding little about their hallways. The lights, the architecture, the materials, all of these were utterly alien. He entered the lift and waited for the doors to close.

"How long have you been imprisoned here?" His quiet voice was growling and slightly muffled by the shape of his muzzle.

Wan looked down, an eyebrow raised in slight surprise. So the dog was a spirit-dog, not just a dog.

"A few months now," he replied, crossing his arms as the doors opened almost as soon as he answered. He led the way down the hall to his room, number 714 on the 7th deck. The door opened as he came up to it and he stepped to the side so TenSoon could enter first. Once inside, he headed to the bathroom.

"Computer, please ready the shower," he said loudly and was answered with a 'chirp' before the shower door opened and water started to run. "Thank you, Computer."

He turned to TenSoon and grinned, "Computer is the name of the City-Ship's spirit. She talks sometimes, but not always. She has a lot of responsibilities to keep up with."

And back to their discussion: "But don't fault the people who live on the City-Ship for this. It's Q that is keeping us here. The people of the City-Ship are trying to make things as okay as they can for most of us. We aren't allowed to go everywhere, but they don't keep us locked up like prisoners. We're treated as guests in their homes."

"At any other time I'd welcome the reprieve this city offered, but the circumstances in my homeland are dire. We're dying, and I need to find the woman who can save us. I don't have time to be here."

His head drooped; complaining to a kind stranger wasn't going to get him anywhere, apart from possibly begrudged his wash. He stepped into the cubicle.

The water smelt as sterile and clean as everything else on the ship, but the warmth was welcoming. He stepped in and let the spray drench his fur, raising up onto his back legs so he could rinse his underbelly. The shower caught him by surprise when it switched from rinsing him to blowing him dry, but that was certainly preferable to wet fur. He emerged a short time later, cleaner, fluffier and less twitchy-nosed, as he'd finally realised the oddness in the air was the lack of suspended ash particles.

"Thank you, Computer, and thank you," he inclined his head to Wan, "for your kindness to a stranger."

Wan waited patiently for TenSoon to get the shower done with. When the spirit-dog exited, looking and smelling much better, Wan was sitting in the middle of the living space. Legs crossed and hands folded lotus-style.

"You're welcome to kindness any time," Wan inclined his head at the thanks before returning to TenSoon's concerns, "From what I've heard, Q will sometimes take up a table in Ten Forward. But I don't know what he looks like or who he is. I haven't met him or had him pointed out to me yet. If you can find him, you can try to convince him to send you back. But if there's anything more I can do here and now to help, I'll do my best to do so."

So soon after being transposed by one of Q's capers, Worf was having a difficult time adjusting to the sights and sounds of Ten Forward. For him, this was not a transportation to an alien time and place, but to a very familiar location.

Canines however, were not a commonplace distraction in the lounge, especially not those covered in ashen filth. Old security instincts kicked in. Worf placed himself between the door and TenSoon, wishing to prevent the beast from escaping into the ship's population. The klingon had no idea that the Kandra was sentient. Not yet. "Stay," he warned the frightened animal, and then a little more forcefully, "Pelosh!"

For a klingon, the gesture was calm and insistent, hands spread up and out to suggest that TenSoon was not going to get far, should he try to bolt. Given that Worf was far from a five-foot nothing waif of a woman, he might look a little more imposing than the average world-saving heroine.

Worf's efforts to calm TenSoon failed as the Kandra realised while bolting that the man wasn't a human, nor a Koloss, nor anything else he'd ever seen or smelt in his seven centuries of sentience. He was a stranger, thus a potential danger, or at least a puzzle that he couldn't spare the time solving when so much was at stake.

His Blessing of Potency strengthened his muscles as he made a running leap, arcing to sail right over Worf's head.

And Worf, seeing the bunching of the muscles beneath the dog's shaggy coat, rose to the occasion. The Klingon had fought in many battles, had defied the odds against everything from trained gem'hadar warriors to mindless, powerful borg drones. Likewise a huge, shaggy dog seemed inexplicable in the human predominated lounge, and Worf did not trust his eyes that TenSoon could be a simple, panicked animal.

There could be more to it than that. There usually was. He tackled the dog, putting his weight and training towards the goal of pinning TenSoon's ashy body in order to determine if the animal needed proper confinement.

TenSoon yelped as his momentum was turned against him and he crashed into the ground. He struggled underneath his captor, the whites of his eyes showing as he glared and growled and bared his teeth, but he didn't bite Worf, not yet. For all his panic at the situation, he was still loathe to use violence unless forced to.

For all that Worf was capable of the utmost restraint, TenSoon's bared teeth only got a similar response accompanied by a klingon snarl. Worf, keeping most of his weight on the dog, lifted his head. "Who is the owner of this beast?" he called -- of course he was not going to try to communicate with TenSoon; he did not know the canine could understand his words.

"Pets of this size are not allowed free roam of the ship!"

A pet, he thinks I'm a pet, he's no Inquisitor, he can't sense what I am.

From under Worf, TenSoon could see little of the other people in the room. He thrashed, but Worf's grip was too trained for him to escape from.

He cringed in surrender even as he tried to work his legs under him, whimpering loudly and as if in pain. In truth, Worf's hold was incredibly uncomfortable, even if it wouldn't leave TenSoon with any lasting injuries. If he could get a respite, at least he'd be able to make sure there weren't any Inquisitors lurking. How could he have let himself be so hasty?!

Edited 2014-12-15 00:42 (UTC)

When nobody came forward to confront Worf over the huge dog, it began to come clear what might be happening. Q. Worf gave the occupants of the lounge a last careful, accusatory looking over, then he turned his full attention back to the dog.

The scruffy creature was whining like a newborn Targ. For all that he was not about to allow TenSoon freedom to escape, Worf could not hold a glare under the current conditions. Those soulful brown eyes had the look of loyal companion. It was a look he remembered well from his boyhood. He loosened his grip a little, just enough that he knew the dog would not be able to easily escape.

Twisting his lips for a moment of consideration, the klingon shifted his grip and tapped his communications badge -- after the brief talk with the Captain, he at least was able to speak with the security staff, even if he was no longer in charge of them. A brief conversation ensured that two security escorts would be on the way... something about a quarantine and a sickbay examination. "Hold steady," Worf explained, voice softening as he turned it back towards TenSoon. It was the voice of someone who did not truly expect himself to be understood, so relied largely on tone. "You may have been separated from your companion or your pack, but you will be well cared for here."

TenSoon quietened as he adjusted his position under Worf's hold, then licked Worf's cheek and lowered his head again, wagging his tail uncertainly. If he couldn't hide, he decided, he'd come and cower behind this man. Whatever manner of creature Worf was, his soft spot for animals was a boon.

His ears twitched every time someone moved behind him. There were no Inquisitors in sight, thank the Father, and as long as none were involved in the security processes he was about to endure, he trusted in his disguise to hold.

Inquisitors or not, Worf was no gentle owner. "Up," he repeated in universal, and then in a guttural rasp, "yih ghugh!" At the same time, he loosened his grasp to just around TenSoon's nape, at which point he marched what he considered the dog to the door, which opened smoothly. Presented with the hallway beyond, brighter than the lounge, Worf began towards sickbay unless the creature attempted to make a break for it.

Every time somebody stopped dead in the corridor to exclaim over the dirty dog and his impromptu, ash-smudged handler got one hell of a glaring down.

Had there been any alleys or open spaces, TenSoon would have fled in a moment, but there were only long, endless corridors. This was either an incredibly large building or an underground structure, he surmised, as there was not a hint of natural air reaching his nose. The ever-present tinge of ash in the air was missing, apart from the smell that clung to him. He wagged his tail at anyone who approached and exclaimed over him, hoping that he'd be granted leeway, but his captor wasn't letting up.

When they approached sickbay he risked looking up and letting out a confused whine, in the hopes of more explanations.

Worf gave TenSoon a look much like those he had reserved for Spot: assessment, maybe a touch of concern, and a steadfast attempt to impress upon the dog-like creature who, exactly was boss.

"We have reached Sickbay. You -- and anybody else who has arrived without warning -- are to be examined for potential illnesses and vaccinated against those which are common to this ship, but may be a danger to... newcomers." Not that he expected TenSoon to understand, but when the doors of Sickbay whooshed open, the tang of sterile air was strong enough that it was not only the skin-wearing shape-shifter who noticed.

It would appear that Worf was no less desirous of checking in with the doctors, but the Klingon, despite a stoic glare towards the interior, attempted to prompt TenSoon inwards by the scruff of the neck.

His nose twitched as he entered the sickbay as he tried and failed to identify what potions or astringents were being used by the doctors in this place- but there wasn't any scent, apart from that of newly-clean human and newly clean whatever-Worf-was. The sterility of the air was shocking to him, all the more so for being filtered through his dog-modelled sensory organs.

A blue-uniformed human approached, making no effort to hide her curiosity as she spoke to Worf. TenSoon watched, ever the curious pet, wagging his tail whenever she glanced at him as she gave her greetings and then her instructions to Worf. She must be one of the healers, he judged; she sounded too kind to be inclined to tackle him if he moved the wrong direction. Hopefully this would mean the end of being gripped by his scruff, though he still appeared to be trapped.

Edited 2014-12-23 21:12 (UTC)

As far as TenSoon was concerned, he was trapped until he could handle jumping in to a beam of molecule-shredding light. There were upsides to being familiar with this ship. If Worf had any idea that the dog was not simply a mutt lost aboard a ship out of place and time, perhaps he would have more sympathy... or perhaps not.

The one-time security and tactics officer kept a firm hold upon TenSoon's ruff even as the nurse guided them further into Sickbay. There, the Klingon knelt beside the shapeshifter's hairy face -- in that they were not so unalike. "You may have been estranged from your master, but you will be well taken care of here." It might have been a repetition, but it was meant to soothe frayed or uncertain nerves. He walked the dog through the steps of the tricorder reading, which the nurse performed from the other side of the dog. That, of course, got an 'interesting' from the nurse. Worf looked up to the woman.

"What is it?"

"These readings are... somewhat anomalous, sir." Even if Worf was wearing white, ash-smeared robes, his face was a familiar one. "Excuse me, I need to find Doctor Crusher."

Worf glared thoughtfully after the woman, then turned his gaze on TenSoon. Words seemed inadequate when he had so little information, but the implication that the dog was not as he seemed hung perfectly well between them.

Small moving objects, for Marika, are a threat.
Ririka wasn't what you'd call a pet person and even a cat would trip a huge stack of false alarms on the security system at home.

This explains why she whirls at TenSoon's path through the lounge.

That is no small dog.

"Hey there," she offers coming closer.

He scrabbled to a halt as the girl suddenly put herself his path, barely avoiding barrelling her right over. He backed up a step, keeping an arm's length between them as he narrowed his eyes for an undoggishly piercing stare as he tried to read her intentions.

Arm's length is just fine.

"Bet you're surprised ending up here, huh?" she asks.

Her tone of voice is as soothing as she can manage.

"Wonder where you before you got picked up like the rest of us?"

Ten Forward Lounge | TenSoon's entry

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject