COMMENCE VOYAGE

[bathymetric]

Fun Fact: Did you know the Atlantic Ocean has a surface area of 41.1 million square miles? No reason.

...

There's something uneasy in the air as you come to.

Well, "come to" is an interesting word in this case. It implies waking up, which is not exactly what happens. None of you are in beds, nor are you really asleep in the traditional sense. One moment you're somewhere else, doing something else with your time, and the next? You're somewhere on board a massive cruise ship - maybe lounging on a deck chair by the pool, maybe getting some Gains in the exercise room, maybe enjoying the tasteful décor in the buffet - and you have no idea how you got here or how you might get back. This is not your beautiful house. If you have a beautiful wife, she isn't here.

What you do have, apart from 25 other unlucky souls, is a small smartphone-like device in your pocket with only a handful of things on it: a clock reading 11PM, a pdf of a ticket in your name on a special Atlantic Liners New Year's Eve Cruise, an app labeled Passenger Profiles with some basic information on your traveling companions, and a message:

Welcome aboard, passenger! Please feel free to partake of any of the facilities while you wait for the big event! Remember: when midnight comes, you better make your way to the theatre at the back of Level 1 for the main event! The Captain and the First Mate will be there to take care of you all personally, and to help you ring in the new year in style!

Well, that's a start. But what you do until then, it seems, is up to you!

Comments

[ltcommandroid]

[In one moment, Data is standing in a turbolift, on his way back to his quarters after the end of his night shift. Nothing of particular note happened, and he has already made a report to that effect. Nothing of particular note seems to be happening at this moment, either. He is planning to feed Spot her breakfast, and then finish work on his most recent painting.

And then, suddenly, he is below water.

He is, in fact, standing upright at the bottom of the pool. With his bright yellow shirt and dark hair, he is extremely visible there. Just looking up at the surface of the water, with no apparent sign of distress. It's fine! It's normal!

Unless interrupted there, he'll just walk over to the shallow end and climb out using the stairs. For a moment, he just stands poolside, while water appears to pour out of his body. It's fine! It's not all that much water, the pool wasn't that deep! While this happens, he taps the badge on his chest.]

Data to Enterprise. [.....] Enterprise, this is Data. Can you read me?

[He may try this a couple more times, but it's plain that they cannot, in fact, read him.

After that, he moves to stand beneath one of the pool umbrellas while he inspects the device he found on his person. The ship's manifest would seem to indicate that he is meant to be a passenger, along with a number of other individuals who...are quite possibly from unknown planets, if not a different time or universe altogether. He'll have to investigate a little before he can form a real hypothesis there.

Although, reading the profiles, there is one thing...]

It is not entirely accurate to say that I have likes or dislikes.

[Well. Whatever the case, you can find him at the theatre after that, trying to...just break the hell in, it looks like. It also looks like it isn't going particularly well. Data seems faintly impressed by this!]

poolside

[scouserer]

[Oh. That certainly is a fully grown man walking out of the pool like it's nothing. Constantine blinks, sitting up from the edge of the pool and watching Data.]

Well, that's a neat trick.

[He says in a dry tone, watching the last drops of water trickle out from the seams in Data's skin. It's kind of horrifying! To Constantine's credit, he doesn't seem all that perturbed by it.]

Don't think they can hear you, mate. Especially not after your pager's taken on water.

[Because...Data's using a miniature pager, right?]

[ltcommandroid]

That is not a problem - it is waterproof. However, it would seem that we are, at least, out of range.

[So yeah, he'll give up on that for the moment. Having just gotten out of the pool and all, he hasn't had a chance to check out the profiles yet, so:]

May I ask who you are?

[scouserer]

[John raises an eyebrow at that.]

Name's John Constantine. Don't wear it out. I'm a detective.

[Given Constantine's accent, Data can probably at least guess that he's British. Constantine takes in Data's stilted pattern of speech, pale complexion and...well, the water situation, and tilts his head to the side. A robot, maybe? This cast of characters just keeps getting more and more bizarre.]

Though, last I remember, I didn't book a ticket on a cruise like this. Certainly not one with a bloody Margaritaville on it.

[ltcommandroid]

[Data tilts his head, in that smooth precise way of his that doesn't really look not robotic.]

You are familiar with Margaritaville?

[Theoretically Data absolutely could be as well, but I refuse to live in that world]

profiles

[scythegun]

[Yeager's been on the deck this whole time, which means watching Data emerge from the pool, pour water out of his body somehow, and move over to hang out near an umbrella. That's. That's kind of a lot to take in. This is exactly why it takes him awhile to approach, which is the perfect opportunity to insert himself into a conversation!!]

Really? What makes you say that? I thought everyone has at least a few things they dislike.

[...just dislike???]

[ltcommandroid]

[Well, now that he's looked through the profiles, it seems fairly clear that there is Some Bullshit happening here. The kind of bullshit where maybe we don't have to worry about the Prime Directive and can just tell people what the fuck is up.]

I am an android. I have no emotions, so I cannot like or dislike anything. I can have some preferences, but that is not quite the same thing.

[isn't it though.......................]

[scythegun]

[god bless the bullshit and the lack of the prime directive]

Oh. I would consider preferences to be close enough, but perhaps that's simply a matter of opinion!

[...but uh.]

What precisely is an android?

[...you are totally somehow a blastia person aren't you and boy does he not like that!!!!!]

[ltcommandroid]

An android is a robot created in the form of a human being.

[Although like what baseline are we working from here...]

I am like a computer.

Poolside

[oceangirlfriend]

Oh, you have your own communications device? [Adeline has just finished wringing out her own labcoat, and is now looking down at the phone she just found in her pocket.] It is waterproof, right?

[ltcommandroid]

It is. However, we may still be out of range, or the signal may be meeting with interference.

[Because, like. Clearly no one is hearing, or at the very least he isn't hearing them back.]

If I may ask - are you familiar with this place? [He hasn't had the chance to find his own phone yet, though he is now checking for his normal things. His phaser's gone. That's not a great sign.]

[oceangirlfriend]

I'm afraid not. I haven't even been on a ship this size before. Most of the time I just swim on my own. [She gestures at the gills on her neck and the tail behind her.]

[ltcommandroid]

I see. I have rarely traveled on seaboard vessels - I am too dense to swim. I have started plans for a flotation device I could install in myself, but it is still only theoretical.

[Thus, the pool thing.]

So you have also just appeared on this ship?

profiles

[sivard]

[Having already learned in quite an embarrassing way that somehow he's completely visible to all humans, he doesn't immediately see any reason to not assume Data is one, too.

At least, not until he reads his profile. Zaveid has many questions, but first...]

Not a strongly opinionated guy?

[ltcommandroid]

I am not capable of emotions, which means that I cannot feel like or dislike. I do have opinions, but I am not sure they would qualify as "strong" by human standards.

[sivard]

Huh.

[His only experience with people not having emotions was... uh, not a good thing to put it mildly.]

Maybe that's what it means, then. It's not like I'm an expert on humans.

Theater

[sharddrive]

[Data might be the one person Shard's made an actual effort to seek out. He definitely doesn't look like Eggman's work, despite the confusing profile.]

[That trivia section just seems like it's meant to sow discord, though.]

Yeah, this place is pretty solidly built.

[ltcommandroid]

[He nods.]

Much more solid than I had expected. It looks like something I could easily break.

[sharddrive]

Hm. Mind if I take a shot at it?

poolside

[guffawsungraciously]

[...he

he probably knows he's leaking, right...

...maybe he's just undead. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. He doesn't look like any of the standard undead, but. You... you know.]

You, ah...

[...]

Whatever it is you are using, I doubt it will work. There is some sort of block on magic, by everything I have observed so far...

[ltcommandroid]

[Data blinks at him for a second, before realizing that by "magic", he's referring to the commbadge.]

My communicator operates on subspace channels, not magic. But you are correct - it is not working.

[He looks up.]

Judging from the stars, that is not surprising. We would appear to be on Earth.

[guffawsungraciously]

...I see.

[Sounds like magic to him! Something something Arthur C. Clarke, but whatever, he won't argue. Maybe he'll ask how it works if he gets another chance to talk to this individual under less pressing circumstances.]

Is there something preventing these subspace channels from reaching... 'Earth,' then?

poolside

[ignobel]

Yeah, you heard me! Arise, Nobel Gundam!

[... Evidently Data is not the only one currently making use of the pool -- the bright-haired, brightly-attired girl over here doesn't look like she's decked out for swimming nor sunning of any sort -- in fact, she's in a bizarre dramatic pose facing the ocean with one arm thrust into the air, yelling very loudly for something or other.

It kind of looks like she's trying to summon something, but nothing happens.

... After a moment, without noticing the company, she raises her other arm and repeats the shout, but LOUDER. Nothing happens, alas, because that particular robot is in another castle entirely.]

Ugh, why? There's no way I'm far enough away for the Gundam not to receive my signal... Hey, you! What's your signal lookin' like?

[Seems like she noticed Data also trying to communicate, albeit much more sedately and much more poolside.]

[ltcommandroid]

Nonexistent. But, if we are on Earth, I suppose that is to be expected.

[Granted, Starfleet HQ is there, so you'd think someone would pick him up. But then, obviously something is going on, because they also would have noticed like ten other things happening here.]

Who are you trying to call?

[ignobel]

Sure looks like Earth -- I don't know of there being this much water anyplace else back home.

[Then again, her sense of 'back home' is probably a little left of center considering where they are and who she's talking to, but given current events she might be forgiven for completely bypassing or ignoring that. There's a small huff as she looks between the tablet she's just dug out and his communications device; obviously measuring the differences there.]

But if it is Earth, then I can't be all that far from where I started. My Gundam's gotta be somewhere nearby. There's no way I was asleep that long...

[It's half muttering to herself and then there's just an awkward laugh.]

My Gundam. Umm... maybe there's been a systems malfunction.

[She doesn't seem to realize she's supposed to explain the term...]