etcelsior | MOM CAN YOU DROP ME OFF? (IN RUSSIA?)

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MOM CAN YOU DROP ME OFF? (IN RUSSIA?)

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place! If you'd like, take a look at our ATP post!

Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at someone else's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. The city of Heropa is what one might expect from a small, bright and cheery place. The locals are friendly enough and local shop owners might offer a free drink to welcome you to their fair city. Some of the locals might thank you for always lending your service to the nation and others might not say anything. In fact, some people might back away from any imPort who quite obviously looks like they aren't from around the neighborhood. Once in a while there's a look of disdain on someone's face and hushed voices. A snippy voice wonders aloud: "My taxes are going to their parties and other expenses? When are they going to do something for us for a change? Why if they weren't around, I bet the Soviets--" These naysayers may, however, find themselves hushed with a judgmental: "You couldn't do what they do even if you had powers. They don't have to help us, you know!"

02. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, and though it's quieter, there are just as many citizens awed at your presence. Heavy winds have people grasping at their newspapers and constantly brushing hair out of their faces, but that doesn't distract them from crowding you in excitement if you're obviously from a different time or world, or just let it slip that you're a newcomer. Children and young teenagers are especially likely to ask for an autograph and a photo.

Some locals seem less enthused to see you. They never make an approach, but they can be overheard scoffing and muttering something about cameras and an incident involving gas. "Biological warfare... we sure some of them haven't defected?"

03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania, is normally known for being a little more on the apathetic side, but there's been tension in the atmosphere lately, contrasted by headlines broadcasting petty, unimportant local news and no worldly news.

People are not as friendly in this city and go out of their way to avoid walking down the same sidewalk as the more obvious looking imPorts pass through. Local cops say nothing, but they scowl at those imPorts and mutter under their breaths resentfully about "vigilantes". However, not all locals turn the other way seeing imPorts; some of them will offer a polite enough smile and thank them for their hard work. They don't stop to clarify what they mean, though.

04. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities. It's loud, busy and there's some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement. Anyone who they come to determine an imPort is bombarded with all sorts of offers; job offers, advertising gigs, spokesperson for advocating children stay in school, etc. Anything and everything! You name it. Shops offer discounts for food and clothing, whatever they need. Advertisements are abound for imPorts to make appearances at various, televised celebrations, luring them in with promises of free food, merchandise, and payment. ImPort action figures and merchandise are on sale now, and every corner's coffee shop is still serving festive peppermint goods of every shape and form.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Because you're doing the same thing I did when I showed up. Get drunk immediately.

[ He grins a bit at that and does much the same. Tonight is a night for drinking, oh yes ... ]

So what is it that you're missing most? The people? The planet? The century?

Edited 2016-01-26 17:25 (UTC)

[He can't help the slight smirk that plays at one side of his mouth.]

You're making an awful lot of assumptions there, buddy. How do you know I'm not like this all the time? Or, better yet, what if you just caught me on a bad day? Or maybe a good day?

[I mean, not all the time, anymore. He had to be sober for his classes at the Academy.]

[ He taps his chin thoughtfully, turning to take Jim in. First the bourbon - and a glance over at what other empty shot glasses are there, if any - and then back to the bar. ]

You wanted what I'm having. Said it loud enough for me to here. Alcoholics aren't nearly that social, usually.

[Can't argue that one. He raises an eyebrow at how the other looks at him. Then after a pause, he raises his own glass in his conversation partner's direction.]

Touché.

[He takes a decent sized sip from the glass as he looks over the other's shoulder thoughtfully. Ah what the hell.]

You're right by the way. I am new here.

[ Miles is reasonably bright when it comes to people, after all. Moreso when he recognizes his own coping mechanisms. He takes a sip from his own glass, leaning one arm comfortably on the bar as he turns towards Jim. ]

Welcome, good luck, poor bastard, and all that nonsense. D'you have a name?

[He smirks. He likes this guy already. He has a vague feeling they're two of a kind. He squares himself towards the other.]

Jim Kirk.

[ Miles offers his hand, then. ]

Nice to meet you, Jim.

Admiral Miles Naismith, of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet.

[Jim reaches for his hand and shakes but doesn't let go, eyebrows shooting up at the title. Clearly not from Earth. Must be like him. He was unfamiliar with Dendarii.]

If you're gonna be formal about it...Lieutenant James T. Kirk, First Officer of the Starship Enterprise of Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets.

[He purposely left out the fact that his designation as "lieutenant" was technically only temporary at this point, although even mentioning the Enterprise is making him itch. He needs to get back but he has no way that he can think of back to it right now. He finally let go of the other's hand, taking another big sip of his nearly-empty second glass at the thought. He was getting more restless by the second.]

How'd you pick up such a fancy title, Admiral? As far as I know, none of the brass in my organization would be out drinking with commoners.

[ Very obviously not from Earth, and very obviously not in a military uniform ... though there are tells, if one is looking for him. Like the way Miles straightens up up when Jim tells him his rank. (In one version of events, Miles is a lieutenant as well.) In any case, he lets out a low whistle. ]

Well. I am certainly impressed. A spacefaring organization? What century? Is that a capital ship, then? How many crewmembers?

[ There he goes, babbling. But he's terribly excited to meet another spacer, and the manic light is starting up in his eyes to match. Miles himself is a bit ambiguous in terms of his age - he could be anywhere between twenty and thirty just looking at him - but clearly young for the title. ]

Ha. Must be something fancy and official then. Mercenaries, now, we're a lot more fun. Easier to climb the ranks if you're a friendly sort.

[Despite Kirk's shit day so far, he's actually enjoying this guy's company. He's equal parts glad and bitter to talk shop--on one hand, comforting, familiar; on the other, a terrible reminder that he's so far away from where he could help or be useful. He's going to hope a) he's not here long and b) this is some strange tear in the space-time continuum where his universe was not moving along as he found a way to get back where he belonged.

His smile is genuine, if not a bit strained at all the questions.]

Yes, 23rd, Starfleet's flagship, didn't get a chance to check before--

[before I was marooned on some sorry excuse of an M-class planet. His smile fades.]

--before I was brought here.

[There goes the rest of his drink as he tosses it back, motioning for another.]

Mercenaries huh? You're trying to convince me you climbed your way to admiral for a mercenary fleet and that you're a "friendly sort"?

[His smile turns into more of a smirk now as he eyes Miles, picking up the new drink placed in front of him.]

Though if there's less paperwork, I think I could get behind that.

[Learning about all the paperwork behind Command was something that made Jim sincerely question just how much he hated himself to go through with graduating from the Academy.]

[ 23rd century and flagships, eh? That seems a bit early for Miles, though the timeline does roughly match with his own civilization's discovery of wormhole tech. Definitely another spacer, then, and he's glad of it. ]

And now you are here, in another century entirely. Everything feels like you're in a period drama or something.

[ Entirely sympathetic, that tone. Because - well, that's how he feels a little. Everything's so quaint, starting with the existence of parking lots and going up from there. ]

Would you believe me if I said I slept my way up? [ A joke, absolutely. He takes a drink. ] More like I snowballed one ship into a fleet. And alas, the paperwork caught up with me in the end.

[Kirk just looks at his conversation partner for a few seconds, pondering him and hearing that sympathetic tone. Miles' words start to sink in. This can't be. There has to be some way back. He's currently kicking himself for not learning more about warp technology when he had the chance at the Academy.

He's starting to feel the effects of the first few drinks, thoughts are starting to move a bit slower. He has to stop himself from slamming back his new drink to get himself well on his way to forgetting all the shit that happened today. At this point, he's cycled through disbelief, anger, and despair. Now he's tired and just wants it all to go away for a while.

When he looks back up at Miles, he smirks.]

You could convince me. [For the people at Starfleet Academy who didn't think Kirk got in by name alone, they probably thought that of him. Jim Kirk had some standards.]

How did you do that?

Also, that sucks. Seems like a big waste of time. [Lucky for him he hasn't had to experience it firsthand. Yet.]

[ Poor bastard, thinks Miles, with more than a little sympathy. If Jim feels up to it, Miles will be happy to decompress that particular sorrow, as familiar as he is with it ... but for now, it seems better to focus down on the one thing. The story of Admiral Naismith is one he always enjoys telling after all.

A quick self-deprecating smirk in response - like he slept to the top in this crooked body, obviously not - before going into a mostly unmodified version of the tale. ]

Desperation, mostly. Nowhere else to go in my life. I managed to procure a ship, but the only way I was going to pay for it was to run a very dangerous smuggling operation. Failed the smuggling, got boarded ... but convinced the boarding party that I was the envoy of a larger fleet, and captured them. They became the first real members of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. Used them to capture a capital ship, and from there a space station ... and then we disrupted the pay of the real mercenary fleet in orbit, thus breaking the blockade and forcing their fleet to surrender. It became my mercenary fleet in truth.

[Kirk is gaping.]

Holy shit.

I hope you're not expecting me to follow that up.

[Really though, his own story isn't even close to that impressive. So he was graduating in a year less time (pending the academic hearing went his way...) than most and his test scores were amazing. He failed to save Vulcan and got his ass kicked off a ship. Great first day for on-the-job training.]

[ Miles just grins at that. Ha, got one over on this guy with the good fortune to be both tall and pretty. ]

Not especially, no. I'm a special case.

But surely you have a close second? Something less insane?

[Aw Miles you think Kirk is tall and pretty?

"Special case". Who the hell was this guy?

He laughs bitterly and his drink is much more interesting to look at while he talks than Miles' reaction.]

Not even close. My dad died in the service before I was born. [as I was born] He was a hero. Got recruited into the 'Fleet when my life wasn't really going anywhere. Decided to get all my command training done in 3 years instead of the usual 4.

[He frowns down at his glass.]

I have no idea if I'm even gonna be able to finish. Got called up on "academic dishonesty" for adding a subroutine into a command simulation program that was programmed to be unwinnable. [He shrugs.] So I made it winnable.

[He finishes the rest of his drink and puts the glass down harder than strictly necessary on the bar.]

Then snuck onto a ship for an emergency distress call, got caught, was sent into the field and fucked up my first mission.

[If Kirk had only fought off those Romulan bastards quicker, maybe they could have done something about Vulcan. Logically he knew it wasn't his fault strictly, but he knows, looking back, that he could have set things in motion that might not have meant the destruction of an entire planet and its people.

This conversation took a turn for the less fun. The alcohol was making him a little loose of tongue.]

Not even a close second.

[ Huh. Miles decides that he rather likes this guy - even more for the apparent failure, because boy he sure can sympathize with failing out of entrance exams. And sneaking away just to try and do something with one's life afterwards... His expression is nothing but absolute sympathy.]

That sounds more like good tactics to me. Reprogramming the test, I mean. If you can't win the battle, shift the battlefield ...

[ It's the only way Miles gets anywhere. He knocks back another drink. ]

What happened? On that first mission.

[He's now playing around with the rim of the glass, still avoiding Miles' gaze. Shit, this new guy still could get a bit of a smile out of him.]

That's what I was thinking. Guess no one appreciated my out-of-the-box strategy. Though I just think the guy that programmed it was pissed I messed with it. Said it was supposed to make me face a no-win situation.

[Fucking Spock. Though as infuriating as the guy was for what he did to Kirk both at the Academy and then on the Enterprise, his chest ached when he thought about what it would be like if Earth was just destroyed. He'd been stewing in his anger all day and remembering that fact made his earlier fury seem a little petty, even if he had a good reason to be angry.

Here, he seems to deflate a bit, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Now he had a full on buzz. He motioned to the bartender to grab him another drink. He'd need it.]

Must've still been within the past 24 hours.

[He doesn't think he was knocked out long on either Delta Vega or when he got here. Sad that it happened twice but whatever.]

Had to go to a planet occupied by non-humans that're part of the Federation because they sent a distress signal. I snuck on board the ship because it was right in the middle of my academic hearing and I was technically suspended.

Heard about what was happening in the space around the planet. Sounded just like what I heard happened when my dad was killed. I had other information than that to help. So I went to the brass and told them that. 'Course they knew I wasn't supposed to be there. We get there and it's a war zone.

A weird drilling machine was blocking communication and warping capability in the atmosphere, so they sent me and a couple others to neutralize it, figuring if I wasn't supposed to be there anyway, might as well make myself useful. The Captain made me First Officer in the process because he was getting ready to board an enemy ship for negotiations.

[He rubs his eyes with the heels of his hand. Even recounting everything is just exhausting. The bartender puts his drink in front of him which he reaches for. He doesn't drink it immediately though. He's looking to do something with his hands.]

We go down. One of our guys didn't survive the jump. Me and the other guy that did had to fight off enemies that were defending the machine. By the time we were done neutralizing it, it had done its job. The enemy created a point singularity that engulfed an entire planet into a new black hole.

[He does take a drink here.]

6 billion people.

[ Miles just goes rather still at all of it. His first - desperately wrong inclination is to comment that Kirk has absolutely given Miles a story on his level in return, because that is utterly ridiculous. Create a black hole at the center of a planet? What? Utter nonsense.

For Miles, maybe, but not for Jim. He sees the gravity in Jim's eyes and quashes fully any hint of levity. Horror rises up to replace it as Miles considers the implications. Pictures his own homeworld engulfed like that, in an instant, or any world in the wormhole nexus. Even somewhere like Jackson's Whole ... He swallows, thickly. ]

And that all happened less than 24 hours ago?

[He takes another sip as he thinks about it. He doesn't think he was knocked out because of Spock that long. A couple hours at the most. He's not sure exactly how long he was out when he was brought here but he wasn't terribly stiff. Couldn't have been more than a couple hours there too. Count the time bringing in the Vulcan elders and getting patched up, the verbal scuffle with Spock...]

Yeah.

[He pauses here and puts his glass down, rubbing his hands together a bit. It's an anxious tic of his. For the first time since they started this conversation he looks over at Miles. The amusement in his eyes from earlier is gone.]

And unless this place is in a rip of the space-time continuum of my own universe, Earth might already be gone too. That was the next target.

[ Miles meets his gaze steadily, nothing but sympathy in his eyes. ]

There is one small comfort to be had here. Once you're here, time does not move back home. So your Earth may not be lost just yet. Or if it is, it will not be because you are here and not there.

[He can't tell if he's more pissed off that Miles was giving him that look or if he felt relieved to just say it all out loud. At the same time, summarizing what happened makes it feel all the more real. He didn't realize how numbed he had been to the gravity of what actually happened. That and they had more pressing matters than to take time to grieve for Vulcan and its people. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that yet.

So in order to deal with his grief healthily, he knocks back the rest of this new drink. He knew he was coming up to his limits for alcohol that he could consume without making himself dangerously sick.]

If I'm not there, the Captain's going to meet up with the rest of the fleet in a star cluster too far away to make it to Earth in time with numbers. If I'm not there, Earth is screwed.

[He wishes he knew what was happening in his universe.]

I need to figure a way out of here.

[ Miles won't blame him for it. Miles has drowned so many of his own sorrows in wine it's not even funny ... He orders a small bottle of something for the two of them to share. ]

... What about your Captain? Why aren't they going to Earth if it's in danger?

He thinks the "logical" [He makes no attempt at hiding the venom in that word.] thing to do is shore up as many resources as possible before heading to Earth. I got my ass kicked off the ship when he wouldn't listen to me when I said we didn't have the time to mess around like that.

[ Huh. Must be some history there. ]

Well. If you were countermanding his orders in public during a crisis ... [ Miles would have done much the same, really. ] Still, surely timing is more important than resources in this situation.

MOM CAN YOU DROP ME OFF? (IN RUSSIA?)

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I have never heard of this series and now I wanna explore it thanks

READ IT IT'S GREAT

I'm cackling at how well these two are getting on tbh

omg yes me too

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