[party post] come sail away with me

[varymydays]

You've come through a door, and you are on a boat. Specifically, you're on a cruise ship in the middle of some giant body of water. You've come through the door behind you which is attached to nothing and may now be locked. It's relatively empty as giant as it appears to be. The only other passengers that are here appear to also have come through the door for the most part and it is not nearly enough to fill up this entire cruise ship.

Also, who knows who the hell is driving this thing since all of the employees appear to be either ghosts or holograms...

Is this your first time here or your hundredth time here? Do you want a drink or a dip in the pool? Is it day or night? Do you stumble on your room or some other situation either fun or painful within its many rooms, shops, and facilities? Do you run into someone you know or a complete stranger?

The possibilities are unlimited!

Comments

[mynameischristine]

Alternate universes are kind of old hat where Christine Chapel comes from. Why, back home she's got two versions of the same good friend, one her contemporary and born of the same alternate timeline set in motion when his older, future self went and busted up their pasts.

(Apparently, where he's from? She was a blonde. She can't quite get her head around it.)

She knows all about how universes can co-exist, thanks to discovering she and everyone she knew were in one, or had been in one in the future, however you looked at it. Maybe that's why she takes appearing here in stride. One minute, she's leaving Dr. McCoy's office; the next, she's in a carpeted corridor of numbered rooms that looks like a hotel.

...But what's that odd sensation of motion?

It's a ship. Not like the Enterprise--an honest to goodness, real ship that really sails on the real ocean. They'd already been a relic of the past, limping their way into obscurity when she was a kid in Saigon and New Orleans; by the time she got to San Francisco and the Academy they were a novelty.

She can't get back through the door, she's tried. Eventually she finds the deck and a deck chair to perch on, smoothing down the rather short skirt of her uniform dress before sitting. There's not much she can do until some real help arrives, or some more information presents itself.

Why not just watch the ocean go by? It's not a chance she'd have otherwise.

[uncompliant]

Not everyone is so calmly dealing with the fact that they are now on a ship and should relax, enjoy the view while they can.

Wolverine is not happy. With the number of times, the government has tried to fuck with him, he is not going to be happy anytime soon, and he is rushing down the dock stopping just in front of Christine to growl as he looks over the edge of it. There's nothing but water all around, and the door doesn't open, and Wolverine doesn't appreciate being kidnapped.

THIS IS NOT OKAY.

The answers he got from the weird holograms he couldn't slice open because they weren't real are not answers that he enjoys. He turns suddenly toward her, and he is all muscle and just controlled animal instinct.

"Let me guess, you came through the big, stupid door too."

[mynameischristine]

It comes with the territory of being a good hands-on medical professional: you start knowing how to read people. Especially when they're wound up, wound tight, just barely restraining themselves from action.

"That's right," Christine says, slowly getting to her feet. She holds her hands just slightly out from her sides to show she's unarmed. "I just showed up here against my will and I can't get back."

[uncompliant]

Logan takes in and lets out a long, slow breath when he sees the way she is reacting to him. This is not the time to start coming off threatening toward unarmed women, but he doesn't like being on a ship against his will. He doesn't like not having the ground under his feet being without trees or forest nearby. The endless water unsettles him.

"...great. Kidnapping by cruise ship," he says and then grips hold of the railing. There's water, water everywhere, and not a drop of sense to it all. "Anything like this ever happen to you before?"

[mynameischristine]

Christine understands it's not her specifically this man objects to or feels threatened by. But when people are upset by unexpected events, they can react in all kinds of crazy ways.

But he grips the rail rather than make any move toward her. She relaxes too, shaking her head. "Never. One moment I was on the ship--not this one, the one I serve on--and then I was here. I don't know what even happened to me, or how I got here."

[uncompliant]

Logan's way of reacting tends to involve claws so he really can't blame anyone for being wary of the likes of him. It's probably for the best for them. There's a reason he has been separating himself from the rest of civilization (many reasons).

He looks over his shoulder at her, and he narrows his gaze. Not much to go on there. Doesn't sound like they were in the same place so how does something kidnap the both of them from completely different places. "I was in... a forest in Canada," he says in a low voice, and then he notices the uniform, which doesn't really look like something a sailor would wear. "You serve on a ship like this one or somethin' else?"

[mynameischristine]

"Not like this one." She shakes her head. "I haven't seen a ship like this one besides as a historical display. I serve on a starship--the USS Enterprise. I'm the ship's head nurse."

Christine smiles, trying to put him at ease. Or to at least show him she's a friendly party in all this. "My name is Christine. Lieutenant Junior Grade Christine Chapel, Starfleet Medical. But you can call me Christine."

[uncompliant]

Logan tilts his head in confusion at the starship. He has seen a lot in his years (most of which he doesn't remember), but a ship in the stars? That is something new. This is no historical display either where he's from (or when). It's current.

"...Logan," he answers since he is a lone wolf who has no title, no position, no crew, no team, no last name (it was James Howeltt once, wasn't it? but he doesn't remember that). Then there's a tiny smirk. "You can call me Logan. ...you said starship like... a ship navigating the stars?"

[mynameischristine]

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Logan. I only wish it were under better circumstances." Like, say, not involving kidnapping and mysterious sea vessels.

She smiles. "Yes. Exactly like that. A ship navigating the stars. I serve in Starfleet, which is the exploratory and peacekeeping arm of the United Federation of Planets." He hadn't recognized the uniform; her best guess was he'd need that explained.

But why? A thought occurs to her. If this ship or whatever power is behind it can pull people from different places, why not different times?

"Where I'm from the stardate--the year--is 2259."

[uncompliant]

Logan lifts his eyebrows a bit. He can't remember the last time someone felt it was a pleasure to meet him, but he's not... really spent much time in polite society in... awhile.

The whole idea of being up in space is really unsettling to him. He can't even fly without feeling severely uncomfortable, but he likes the ground under his feet, needs the senses that come with having dirt under him and air around him. He swallows, trying to imagine 2259. He'd probably still be alive then. Nothing seems to kill him.

"...and I'm over two hundred years in the past. This sort of thing's not in any museum, it's floating around in the ocean where-- when-" (he makes a slight face) "I'm from. Just usually filled with more people."

[mynameischristine]

This is Christine Chapel. Logan's about two hundred years too early to understand what a fine southern woman Starfleet's got on her flagship, full of manners and good grace to go along with her keen medical mind and nerves of steel. Everyone's a pleasure to meet until they prove otherwise.

"Well, goodness. We're just being kidnapped from all over." It's not a good sign. It's a sign that whatever it is, it's powerful.

[uncompliant]

Logan lifts his eyebrows even further at what she says before he laughs softly. Mostly because, it's not a reaction that he expects at all, and he likes that she is someone that will still Well, goodness despite this kidnapping and everything else that goes with it.

"We are," he agrees, and then he shifts on his feet as he looks at her. It's possible he's asking this just to distract them booth from the confusion of this place. Hard to tell, overall. "But you're from space. You like being in space?"

The whole idea is still very disconcerting to him.

[mynameischristine]

"I'm from Earth," she corrects, gently. "New Orleans. I work in space. I like it--more than I expected to. Being up there gives you a sense of scale. How insignificant your problems are at the end of the day, but also how you're part of something so vast and interconnected."

She shrugs a little.

"Or maybe I'm just a romantic."

[fissures]

Danny Wilder has forgotten what it is like.

To appreciate something as simple and beautiful as the ocean going by. Once upon a time he would've stopped and smelled the proverbial roses, but that was a long time ago. The Mark takes, and what it takes, it takes ruthlessly. Words are difficult for him to come by. They are rusty, like he is rusty, and he isn't looking to frighten anyone that might help him. But he does know he needs help. Answers. Anything that can get him back to where he was before a door came in between him and his duty.

A door, for the record, that will not take him back regardless of his strength and determination.

"Are you -- "

Danny swallows. Let's try that again. He stands before Christine somewhat uncertainly, a look of utter confusion on his face.

"The door... won't work."

[mynameischristine]

She turns at the sound of his voice, surprised at being directly addressed. She offers the newcomer a polite, reassuring smile, getting to her feet.

He looks about the way she feels. Of course she's sympathetic.

"It won't work for me, either, I'm afraid. I'm sorry. I wish it did."

[fissures]

The surprise is met with an almost apologetic grimace. Danny's steps are usually quiet. It was a deliberate choice, until he barely had to think about it. Now he is just a soundless thing, and he doesn't always come without warning.

A frown creases on his forehead, though there is something reassuring and steady about her that puts him at ease.

"How long have you been here?"

[mynameischristine]

"Not very long. A couple of hours, if that."

His concern is understandable--this is confusing, ridiculous, to have wound up on a cruise ship out of nowhere.

"My name is Christine. What's yours?"

[fissures]

Almost as an afterthought, Danny slowly unfurls his fists, fingers loosening from their tense hold. The question surprises him, for reasons that he personally cannot fathom, and he looks up at her with a strangely vulnerable expression before the moment passes, too quickly to really be noticed.

"Danny," he says after a moment. Tastes the name on his tongue. "My name is Danny."

He doesn't feel much like Danny these days, but that is what he was named.

"You seem very calm," he adds by way of observation.

[mynameischristine]

"Hello, Danny. It's nice to meet you--I'm sorry it's under circumstances like these."

She shrugs, shoulders lifting almost helplessly. "I've been trained well, I suppose. I'm a nurse--and an officer." You don't get very far doing either if you can't maintain your calm.

"I really wish I knew what was going on here."

[fissures]

"That's a pretty impressive combination," Danny observes, eyebrows climbing up.

Danny hasn't been trained, so much as he and his brother trained themselves, and there isn't much he hasn't seen. There isn't much that evokes a strong reaction out of him, but he can safely say, despite living in a world riddled with the supernatural and rift activity, this is a first one.

"It's nice to meet you too," he adds after a moment, as though he's just now remembering his manners. He was once a polite boy. He thinks.

His mother taught him well, but he remembers, sometimes.

[mynameischristine]

"I don't know about impressive," Christine replies, shrugging a little. "Necessary, I suppose. If you're gonna send officers into deep space to explore, you've got to send doctors and nurses right along with them. We're needed."

Christine Chapel may be a woman of fine Southern breeding and manners, but she's not one that's going to point out or get fussed by a lapse on someone else's part. (An intentional breach of manners is another story. That's clearly not happening here.)

She smiles. "I don't suppose you know very much about what's happening here?"

[fissures]

Danny's eyes widen at the mention of space, and he is suddenly a little more convinced he'd still go with his impressive theory. Deciding he would ask more questions later, he gives a small shake of his head at her question.

Her questions come first and his can follow later.

"...No." Danny winces. He's not used to being helpless. "There are rifts in my world. They're wormholes that pull you in from other worlds, regardless of time and space. I'm assuming the door must've been a wormhole, but that's an assumption at best."

This is likely the most he's said in months. It's sort of tragic.

[mynameischristine]

"Rifts? Wormholes." The first she doesn't understand, but the second, she does. She's quiet a long moment, thoughtful, brow knit.

"It makes sense," she agrees. "That it would be something like that. I just wish I knew why."

[fissures]

"They're sometimes used synonymously. Back where I'm from, there are tears in the universe, and people fall through those holes. There isn't really a reason why for them. They exist, and there's no finding sense in the senseless. I realize that's hardly a comforting answer. I've tried making sense of it myself for a really long time now."

But there aren't really any satisfying ones.

[mynameischristine]

"At least you can see the worth in not trying to find sense in the senseless. You can try, but sometimes you just run up against something that's got no good reason you'll ever be able to figure out." She shakes her head, sad. "Too many people drive themselves crazy trying well past the time they ought to have let a thing go."