pocket canon plot: to boldly go where many have gone before

[o_tea_p]

When; January 5 (characters who wander in will come back out the same day, no matter how long they spend in TNG!verse)

Canon Universe; Star Trek: The Next Generation

Participants; Open! You can wander in the same location as Iroh, or find yourself on a different part of the Enterprise entirely
 

Iroh came perilously close to dropping his third favorite teapot. One moment he had been in his kitchen, preparing to open up the Jasmine Dragon for the morning rush. He stepped through the door to the main dining area, and then suddenly he was somewhere else: a long, metallic white corridor. He looked behind him, but as expected, there was no door back to his shop.

He sighed and looked down at his pot. "I should have brought a teacup."

Comments

[element_wizard]

"They have teacups here," Alec says appearing from somewhere.

He looks comparatively relaxed at the situation. There's only a tiny bit of a twitch when he thinks he hears someone walking by. It's the sort of nervous twitch someone gets when they're afraid of hearing someone they don't like coming by.

[o_tea_p]

"WAAAAAH!" Iroh jumps, spilling some of the tea on his foot. "Ack!" It takes him a moment to cool his foot off, and then he takes a deep breath. "You startled me!"

[element_wizard]

Alec jumps back with a yelp himself. "Sorry!"

He runs his hands through his hair. "I keep on forgetting that people get startled when I do that."

/threadjacks

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Why?" Shirley asked, doing her best to appear out of nowhere from somewhere behind Alec. "I can't imagine doing it for any reason other than to elicit that kind of reaction, myself."

Because she's kind of a troll.

[watsonyourmind]

Jane was running late this morning and was sure she was going to be late for work. It didn't help when she opened the door to the room and saw that it opened out instead onto a long white corridor, oddly curved and definitely not any part of the hotel she'd seen before.

She stepped back inside and shut the door. Still their room. She opened the door. Still the white corridor.

Maybe she'd actually had a mental breakdown instead of coming to Burby, and this was her subconscious trying to tell her she was now in an asylum.

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind and stepped through the door again. This time there was a swishing noise behind her. She didn't have to look to know that she wasn't going to get back that way.

So she started warily down the hallway, passing people as she went. They all seemed to be in uniform, which made her feel even more conspicuous.

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"At least you're wearing clothes," Shirley said, standing in one of the other doorways in the hallway. She was wearing only a towel, her hair was wet, and she was holding a toothbrush. Apparently she had gotten lost somewhere between the shower and the sink. Or something.

[watsonyourmind]

Now Jane had to wonder if she were dreaming instead. None of this was fitting together properly.

(Although usually if she dreamed about Shirley being naked, she wouldn't add a towel.)

"Well, I had to go to work," she answered automatically. Then she frowned.

"This makes even less sense than Burby usually does."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Now that it looks like you're going to be late anyway, don't you wish you had joined me in the shower?"

[lawbender]

Lin Bei Fong knew nothing of corridors. At least, not yet. That was because she was on the holodeck. Which seemed to be functioning properly for once, not that she would know the difference.

She was in a bar with a stage, but instead of a musician playing, there was a man with bad hair, up front telling jokes she really didn't understand. The rest of the audience seemed to be enjoying it. Lin leaned back against the wall and observed, arms crossed. She didn't remember how she'd gotten here, but there was no harm done yet. She would wait and see which move to make. If nothing else, she could follow the other guests out, she thought.

She wished they'd hurry up.

[takealook]

Engineering was busy, as always. Geordi hadn't gotten any notification that there were surprise visitors aboard the Enterprise, but even without that knowledge there was plenty to do. Things to re-calibrate, settings to check, dials to adjust. He and his crew were hard at work.

Not so hard, though, that they wouldn't notice any of said unexpected visitors.

[element_wizard]

Well as soon as Alec shows up there may not be any notifications about surprise visitors but definitely some notification of disturbances in reality.

Very localized.

Person sized localized.

[takealook]

Geordi taps at a panel, frowns, and then does it again. Something in here was trying to disobey some of the more basic laws of reality, which is not good when you keep anti-matter around. What in the world is this disturbance?

So maybe it shouldn't surprising that he latches onto Alec pretty quickly. For one, he isn't wearing a uniform. For two, he could be Q for all Geordi knows.

"How did you get in here and what did you bring?" He's trying to be polite, but he sounds stressed and serious.

[element_wizard]

True Facts: Alec was a Q really early in his history. Like REEEAAALLY early. He got over it-ish? Where's that rainbow?

Alec starts to answer him. Stops. Tries to come up with a more coherent answer. Doesn't get one.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

Oh look hey here is one of those surprise visitors now! Shirley is really kind of interested in what it is that you're doing - if for no other reason, then because you seem so absorbed by it. Your absorption is absorbing, Geordi. That must not be as easy as you're making it look, and yet you're making it look so easy! Intriguing.

[takealook]

Geordi was absorbed, and yet, he had that feeling that eyes were on him. He wasn't wrong. There was a strange girl in here, a strange nosy girl. For a moment Geordi wondered if she were a cousin of Wesley's or something; he could swear that he recognized that sweater.

But cousins or not, Wesley really should have asked before he let her in here. She had that sort of look he was learning to be wary of: she was very interested. And sometimes interested people push buttons.

"Civilians aren't allowed in Engineering, miss," he told her in a polite but professional way.

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Oh!" Shirley startled a little, both at suddenly being addressed and at the fact that her disguise was working. That was somewhat of a relief, because as adorable as she thought this sweater was she was beginning to worry that she'd stick out around here for being the only person dressed remotely like a normal person.

"Sorry," she said, affecting a nervous smile - which wasn't all that hard to do, since she was nervous and being awesome at a thing made her want to smile. Best not to get cocky, though - the less story she tried to give him, the better. He would come up with a perfectly mundane reason for her being here if she let him, no doubt.

"I think I'm lost."

TOTALLY THREADJACKABLE IN ENGINEERING, just keeping the ship's areas together

[deus_ex_cadet]

Engineering is one of the more frequent stops on his training rotation, and definitely one that he excels at, so it's not unusual that the young Ensign is putting in some time with said crew.

At the moment, he's working with a few of the engineering officers on those re-calibrations. Ah, but there's a tool they need - he knows where it was left, and he goes to get it, taking the service lift up to the upper level that encircles the warp core.

threadjacking ahoy

[element_wizard]

This is not Alec fiddling around with a sonic screwdriver at one of the panels.

[deus_ex_cadet]

Funny, because what Wesley sees is someone who isn't supposed to be there doing something they're not supposed to be doing.

"Hey! What are you doing in here?"

And of course, his hand goes straight for his comm badge, because he realizes that what he should do is get security down here - now.

[shiftylyingbardwholies]

Okay. This is weird.

Which is why Keldar is traveling around as a ginger striped cat instead of a person.

Maybe there's something useful he can






Borrow.

Yes. Borrow.

[thirdcriterion]

Of course, it's not standard procedure to run internal sensor sweeps continuously. That would be a massive drain on the systems, and if anyone were to gain unauthorized access through any known means, an alert would sound. Suffice it to say, people wandering through a doorway out of one dimension and onto the ship was not one of the default methods of entrance that the systems would be monitoring for.

Data is not on bridge duty at the moment, but he will be momentarily. So he's on the move, out of his quarters and on his way to the bridge. You may run to him at any point along the way.

[shiftylyingbardwholies]

A ginger striped cat crosses his path.

Better than a black cat?

[thirdcriterion]

Intriguing. Typically, when he finds a cat roaming the decks of the Enterprise, it's Spot - not that he would prefer Spot to find a way out of his quarters again, but at least finding Spot is simply resolved by returning the cat to his quarters.

This cat, he has not seen before. So, he kneels and extends his hand toward the cat, all the while addressing it in a calm and rational manner.

"Pardon me, but I am afraid that you are not permitted to wander the corridors unattended."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

Shirley is wandering around kind of aimlessly and unobtrusively, trying to stay out of people's way while simultaneously determining where she is. She can't really just walk up to some random person and ask for directions - as much as that seems like the obvious answer, it's probably also the worst idea. As much as these people all look like they're wearing leisure suits, they're the same leisure suits, which means it's a uniform - which means military or pseudo-military. Which means that if she draws attention to the fact that she's not supposed to be here, best case is that she'll get locked in a room to be dealt with at someone else's convenience. And that would be boring and awkward.

So, instead, she's watching people and learning how to blend in. But this gentleman right here is interesting because he actually doesn't blend in - not just with the other people on the ship, but with humanity as a whole. It's not so much how he looks but how he acts - it's like there's a distinct lack of expression in his mannerisms. But not in the way that one would associate with certain kinds of mental illness, nor in a creepy way. This man was something else entirely.

That's why she's trailing him. From a distance, of course.

[thirdcriterion]

The thing about trailing an android, even at a distance, is that you're probably going to be noticed sooner rather than later. Which, of course, Data has.

He's not certain as to whether Shirley does or doesn't belong on the Enterprise - she may have come aboard at the last starbase they visited, after all. But he does note that she seems to be following him, so he stops.

And then he turns back to look in the direction from which he came, tilting his head slightly and craning his neck to peer around the curve of the bulkhead.