DECK 10; SECTION 1: TEN FORWARD

[ships_counselor]

The look of Deanna Troi's table is worrying.

Maybe not to the untrained eye, of course. There is no screaming. There is no bleeding. There is no fighting, or crying, or deep distress. In fact, Deanna Troi, herself, is currently sitting at a table, one forearm resting on the table, the other balanced on an elbow, so her chin can rest in the palm of her hand, while she studies a PADD flat on the table in front of her.

Next to it, though, is a small bowl of chocolate ice cream.

That looks to have melted a while ago without her noticing.

Comments

[reincarnshaman]

It's probably a good idea she's no longer paying attention to the ice cream bowl because there's now a black cat sticking her nose in it. She gets her nose wet and then acts surprised that her nose got wet when she stuck it in the wet thing, nearly tumbling off the table.

Because cats.

"Oh for... Veena..." With in seconds a red haired human, clearly annoyed, comes over to take 'ownership' of the cat.

[empathic_pathfinder]

"Counselor?"

And one person she can't really fool is the other half-Betazoid on the ship. Lt. Cdr. Terzen T'Karr is stood at a respectful distance from her table, a cup of tea in one hand. He's just finished a shift on the bridge and needed to unwind.

So, whatever's going on in Deanna's mind is completely at odds to that aim.

"May I join you?"

[usescontractions]

Lal almost passed by Deanna's table without stopping. She noticed the untouched dessert, the PADD, the look on the counselor's face... She was obviously busy, but then again Deanna had been one of the people closest to her during her short time on the Enterprise before. It raises a tiny bubble of guilt when she considers this, and the fact that she hadn't really gone out of her way all this time to see the woman.

So she does stop.

"Counselor Troi?"

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru casually slipped into the chair next to the counselor. Being completely new to the ship, he didn't know who she might be or what that strange thing on the table was. But he did know that he was hungry, and if the ice cream had melted, she probably didn't want it anymore, right? (It's not like he had any money on him to actually purchase food... And the only places he was allowed to go until the medical examination were guest quarters and this restaurant. No where he could forage, really.)

"... Excuse me, Miss?" He pointed to the bowl of melted ice cream between them and his stomach growled. "...Are you going to eat that?"

[ethnobotany]

The fact that Deanna has let her chocolate ice cream melt is the big sign, not just that the ice cream is there at all. Beverly knows that look, knows what it means that her friend has the comfort food. She pauses, halfway into Ten Forward with her usual bowl of fruit, and for a few seconds seems to debate with herself. On the one hand, this is her friend. On the other, this isn't the exact version of her friend and her presence might not be welcome. Still, it isn't in her nature to bypass anyone in need, least of all a dear friend, so eventually, she approaches, bowl of fruit and cup of tea in hand.

"Mind if I join you?" she asks mildly.

Unlike the first time they spoke here in this timeline, Beverly seems to be settling in much better. She's still a little tense, but that can be attributed as much to the recent crisis as anything else. Her combadge is still gone, as expected, but she will likely feel much more settled in her own skin with far fewer emotional barrages.

[diamonds_are_forever]

Emma entered the bar after dropping Faith off at daycare. She had a plan to drink some coffee and try to work out a way to get more information than was readily available to displaced people. At the moment her total plan was 'identify an underling who knows more than me and buy them a drink', which was as coy as a rubber mallet.

She paused when she saw the melted ice cream and Deanna's thoughts began to filter in. It happened anytime Emma was too close to someone and she almost backed off on instinct. Something about the woman's mind was familiar, maybe it was just the business and the weight of the decisions.

Emma really couldn't help being a busybody, especially with nothing else to occupy herself. Especially since something about the woman's mind resonated with Emma's. It was intriguing. She could sense other telepaths, perhaps that sense worked with non-mutants as well. To test Emma opened her own defenses, letting her thoughts project just a touch. "You seem like you could use a break."

[knight_2000]

Now that was strange. Usually, when people got ice cream, they were serious about it. From the looks of things, this woman hadn't even touched her bowl. The last time he saw someone studying that diligently, it was Gaila and she'd had a test. Maybe she hadn't been the only one.

Kitt keeps an eye on her, watching for a few moments longer, but no, still no motions towards eating. Finally, it starts to bother him enough that he walks over to the table.

"I can take that for you if you want. Get you something else even, if you'd like."

No, it's not his job, but he's got a thing about tidiness.

[abyssum_invocat]

"Your ice cream has melted," says Sinthia, having been watching the woman from a few tables away; she's got a few colored blobs of clay, and though she is manipulating them into taking a shape not unlike a sprouting seed, she isn't touching them.

Nor is she looking at it, favoring Deanna at the moment.

[chaotica]

"I suppose you're the one I should talk to about a job."

Cambridge slides into the seat across from her without waiting for an invitation, but does, at least, place an unmelted identical bowl of ice cream next to her. 'Presumptuous' is a word people use to describe him a lot, and not unwarrantedly.

"Hugh Cambridge," he supplies, for his name. He wears a Starfleet uniform with purple-grey shoulders, the kind from a decade in the future. The collar is blue; two pips. Full lieutenant. Which is a bit low, given his age. "One of the latest batch of Q's victims."

[the_blood]

Permissions post

She needed... less males. She was a little on edge as the poison she drank worked its way through her system, as an emptiness chilled her right ring finger. Normally she tried to time this all out with her moontime, but no way was she giving Theiorn any more excuse to fuss than she had to.

So now she was trying to prove that she was perfectly fine, thank you very much. Which meant she couldn't just curl up in bed with a sniffle book. It also didn't help that she was out of sniffle books. She could only hope Jaenelle would think to include one in her next shipment. All she had left was a Tracker and Shadow that she was saving.

So she headed to the lounge... and saw... Well... her senses told her the woman was like but unlike, a sister but not. Conflicting senses like that could mean danger, or could mean a new friend for life. She was tired of being coddled, so she dropped into the chair opposite Deanna.

"I hope it's okay if I join you, sister?" she asked, letting her gold eyes beg the other woman to say it was. Mother Night, but she needed some female company.

Theiorn followed like the good little guard he was pretending to be for the moment.

[agathaheterodyne]

Permissions post

Agatha hadn't noticed the woman, or the ice cream, until a spring she had been tightening escaped from the device she was building, sailed over her shoulder and... splashed messily into the ice cream.

Blinking, Agatha turned around, trying to figure out where it had gone.

[primeverdeen]

Sorrow. Despair. Pain. These were the emotions rolling off of Prim as she wandered in. She wasn't even sure why she was leaving her room, other than the fact that she told Killian she'd try to not just vanish, and had no clue where else to find him.

She made her way over to the seats near the star-field, to just stare out at the nothingness.

[kaylinneya]

Kaylin's permission post/trigger warning

Kaylin headed in for more food. She was happy to be fully grown again, the whole inch or two really mattered, it seemed. She walked right past Deanna's table with a tray full of food... but...

The familiar didn't.

The small translucent dragon looking thing would feel like a mass of chaos, emotionally. Quick fluxes from one to another to another. It landed right in front of Deanna and chirruped at her.

Kaylin had been about to sit at another table when she heard that and turned. "Don't you dare!" she warned. She sounded angry, the emotion rolling off her was a mix of anger...and fear.

[makesbettermouth]

"Oh my gosh, I had no idea they have chocolate ice cream here."

Amy is transfixed. Amy Loooooves Ice Cream, and aside from the sundae she bummed off of Goofy the other day she hasn't had any in weeks.