Open to anybodymajor_westJanuary 3 2009, 23:19:49 UTC
Most of the day had been a sort of blurry haze. He remembered getting absolutely hammered, and then Billy came in and helped him, then Morgan arrived, and...
Well. He supposed he ended up sleeping a lot of the alcohol off, in the end. Now, armed with a killer hangover and a nauseated, but empty and demanding, stomach, Major Henry West entered the dining hall, feeling more self conscious than he ever had before. The red dress was too... showy, he thought, too formal for a regular sit-down meal. But he didn't have anything else-- none of his own clothing would fit, and to be honest, he didn't want to try to change clothes with this body until he absolutely couldn't avoid it any longer.
That he was now a foot shorter than usual was distressing, as well. He wasn't used to having to look up at everybody, at feeling so small. Even when he had last become female, for that other flood, he'd still been quite tall for a woman-- barely shorter than his real height, actually. This was completely different.
He hated this flood-- he hated the Barge. Sullenly, he took his food and followed after Harvey's example. He sat alone, and he hoped that everybody else would be too embarrassed by the flood to come to dinner. That way, he could eat and get out without anybody noticing.
West/'Piqard'/Other?q_ueryJanuary 4 2009, 02:57:18 UTC
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...
Q would have preferred keeping himself away, until this social disaster passed. Nutrition, however, was a necessity and his ego would not allow for asking Kaylee to bring refreshments to what could have otherwise been a personal fortress of solitude.
So, looking around for the most harmless-looking of those gathered, he decided on the table with the young, human female. Whoever it was, went Q's train of thought, was almost certainly going to be too worried about their own humiliation, to be interested in trying to draw attention to his own. Even if they had been of the same gender, getting regressed to such an age could be a complication, in and of itself.
Unless it was someone who had simply developed a genocidal psychosis early on.
Hmm...
"Not a word," he emphasised in a voice rather different to the usual. A point of finger seeming required of the command, as he fixed her with a warning glare. "We're just... Briefly inconvenienced, that's all."
Kung Lao likes teh young preety grlz :X1st4earthrealmJanuary 4 2009, 03:00:13 UTC
Kung Lao walked into the dining hall. He was a bit uneasy still about what exactly was going on around the place- some "flood", but so far no one had told him much about it. It seemed whatever it was, it occurred with some frequency, but that still didn't sit well with Kung Lao. After all, it appeared to be magical in nature and, after his past few experiences with magic, Kung Lao was anything but relaxed.
He grabbed a tray of food, mostly healthy fare, and glanced around the room. There were a few other people eating at the dining hall already, most seemingly in pairs. That is, except for the young girl eating by herself. She seemed kind of cute in a stern way. Sort of like Taja.
Kung Lao approached her table and gave her a big smile. "Excuse me," he said, "may I eat with you?"
He hadn't even gotten through two bites before he was joined. Why, of all the tables, did the man have to choose this one? He shot the bald fellow a completely unwelcoming look, but since he was using the face of an adolescent girl to do it, it just came across as bitchy and petulant, like he was shooting a glare at a parent who'd just told him he couldn't go out with his mates. Not his intended expression.
Then, he wrinkled his nose as the bald man pointed a finger at him. "I won't say a word if you won't," he answered, then glanced up as another man approached. Seeing as he didn't recognize either, he wasn't sure if they were new arrivals or Inmates who'd been hit by the flood. Well, the first man probably wasn't a newcomer-- must've been another Inmate who'd been affected, judging by the comment about being inconvenienced.
The other, though... he was smiling. Why was he smiling? Was this funny to him? West clenched a small fist around his fork, frowning, then stopped when the man asked if he could eat with them. Oh. He was just polite, not a prick. That was a change for the Barge.
"Um..." He bit his lip, then shrugged. "Alright... yeah. Have a seat."
And now, it seemed, his desire to be left alone wasn't going to go fulfilled. Well, when had things ever gone his way on the Barge?
Kung Lao hesitated a moment, glancing at the girl. She had said it was okay for him to sit there, but sounded not so thrilled when she gave her permission. He also noticed the bald man to his side- perhaps the girl had been planning to eat with him instead and Kung Lao was interrupting them?
"Oh, are you sure it's alright?" Kung Lao asked, "I didn't realize you already had company. I don't want to inconvenience you two."
Q was beginning to understand Picard's dislike of children. Not that he really needed the encouragement to think badly of anything considered an inferior, but there it was.
With a tray of food already obtained, Q was about to take a mouthful, when the sudden impact of just how awful the consequences of this would be, then hit him.
"I'm going to use... His mouth to eat this. I'm going to have to use his tongue. I'm going to have to swallow, using his throat."
Now the impaling fork of food just looked downright unpaletable and, for the moment, Q let it drop back down the plate, looking more than slightly miffed.
"Well, I have to say this has to rate as one of the most uninviting prospects I have ever encountered. And that includes... Oh, what's the point of it all?"
"This isn't company," West wanted to say, but opted for politeness and shook his head. "No, really, it's alright. I'm just a bit put-off today." He offered a big, fakey girlish smile. "Sit!"
Then he looked over to the bald man-- who was he?-- and quirked an eyebrow.
"You know, of all the problems with the flood, I'd have to say that ought to be the least of your worries."
For instance, he wasn't the one who had to use a little girl's body to perform basic... necessities. Nor was he the one who had to worry about volatile teenage hormones. West sighed and took a bite of food-- which made his stomach lurch, but it was better than keeping it empty-- then looked at the man again.
"You don't seem too bad off. Who are you normally?"
"Don't seem too bad off?" Echoed Q, incredulously. "Don't seem too bad off?! My dear, I think you fail to grasp the sheer monumental consequences of just who I have become This is a man who avoided six years' worth of Admirals' banquets, in preference of some relentless obsession with the most tedious of tedious! A thing - a beast! A creature with less awareness of what's going around it, there's rarely ever been!"
A pause.
"And I'll thank you if you'd address me as... As..." Finger wagged and Q was unsure quite why there was such a natural impulse to give voice to the rest of the phrase, only that it felt right. "Captain."
Kung Lao took a seat at the table, albeit slowly. Based on the conversation he was overhearing from the other two diners, it seemed both were being affected in some way by the mysterious "flood". It also seemed reasonable for him to then assume, if the details he had heard about the flood were true, that both men he now ate with were not wardens like himself but inmates.
Kung Lao decided it would be best to be cautious, but still polite and friendly. After all, maybe he could learn a bit more about the ship he now found himself on from them?
"'Captain'?" Kung Lao remarked, wondering if that was the inmate's actual name, "Nice to meet you. I'm Kung Lao."
He then turned to look at the young girl. "And what's your name?"
"Captain?" With a snort, followed by a giggle, West clearly dismissed that notion. "Captain what?"
Then he stiffened as he was asked his name. He didn't want to have people address him as himself while he was like this-- it was too weird, and besides, he didn't want anybody to know who he really was. So, he poked at his food a little bit and gave a shrug. "Hannah," he muttered.
With Q still only marginally being affected by the alternative personality, it was still, nonetheless, a progressive worry. Because he was Q, however, it was probably annoying him, more than most of them.
"If I am witnessed by either of you attempting to set up a committee or create a hydroponics bay, please accept this as my official endorsement to end my life, would you?"
Kung Lao was lost. "Committee"? "Hydroponics Bay"? These were not exactly concepts he knew of back in Zhu Zin. In fact, compared to much of the barge he had explored and observed so far, Kung Lao was beginning to think of Zhu Zin as a simple, peaceful place.
Well, except for the fact in Zhu Zin he constantly was being attacked by ninjas or assassins sent through portals from the countless enemy realms seeking to enslave Earth. But Kung Lao figured this meal was not the time to start dwelling on his memories of home.
"Ok..." he replied to 'Captain', and took a bite of salad from his plate, "But is it really something worth ending your life over?"
While Kung Lao may've been taken back by the "Captain's" request, West just cocked his head slightly.
"But you'd just come back," he said simply, with all of the logic of youth. "So unless you want us to keep doing it..." He shrugged. "I think you're out of luck."
Then, a chipper smile, which he wasn't even sure why he was expressing. "Besides! It's not so bad. You're at least an adult."
"Humans have yet to attain a sufficient level of maturity to be designated as such."
Q had eventually come to find them intriguing, but that did not mean that the species was any less deserving of the Continuum's suspicions.
Looking down at the arranged food, Q clenched a jaw not of his own and went for broke; taking a mouthful of nutrition, chewing and swallowing it. It was a process done before, but... He had never been Picard while doing so.
A slight wince was shown and he looked the other man's way.
"In answer to your question, yes... It would. I know the end result of this particular transmogrification. I'll end up decreeing all rooms be painted beige and assigning comet-watching duties. Believe me, it's not something I want, anymore than I suspect our young friend, here, wishes to continue their own."
Kung Lao chuckled a little. 'Comet-watching duties'? Just what kind of person was this man dining with him now turning into?
More importantly, who was this man before the flood?
"I suppose you aren't normally a fan of beige?" he asked, hopeful it would spur some revealing conversation. Maybe he could ask his new friend, Spencer, about anything he learned later.
He then glanced over to the young girl. "And you aren't normally adolescent?"
Well. He supposed he ended up sleeping a lot of the alcohol off, in the end. Now, armed with a killer hangover and a nauseated, but empty and demanding, stomach, Major Henry West entered the dining hall, feeling more self conscious than he ever had before. The red dress was too... showy, he thought, too formal for a regular sit-down meal. But he didn't have anything else-- none of his own clothing would fit, and to be honest, he didn't want to try to change clothes with this body until he absolutely couldn't avoid it any longer.
That he was now a foot shorter than usual was distressing, as well. He wasn't used to having to look up at everybody, at feeling so small. Even when he had last become female, for that other flood, he'd still been quite tall for a woman-- barely shorter than his real height, actually. This was completely different.
He hated this flood-- he hated the Barge. Sullenly, he took his food and followed after Harvey's example. He sat alone, and he hoped that everybody else would be too embarrassed by the flood to come to dinner. That way, he could eat and get out without anybody noticing.
Reply
Q would have preferred keeping himself away, until this social disaster passed. Nutrition, however, was a necessity and his ego would not allow for asking Kaylee to bring refreshments to what could have otherwise been a personal fortress of solitude.
So, looking around for the most harmless-looking of those gathered, he decided on the table with the young, human female. Whoever it was, went Q's train of thought, was almost certainly going to be too worried about their own humiliation, to be interested in trying to draw attention to his own. Even if they had been of the same gender, getting regressed to such an age could be a complication, in and of itself.
Unless it was someone who had simply developed a genocidal psychosis early on.
Hmm...
"Not a word," he emphasised in a voice rather different to the usual. A point of finger seeming required of the command, as he fixed her with a warning glare. "We're just... Briefly inconvenienced, that's all."
Reply
Reply
He grabbed a tray of food, mostly healthy fare, and glanced around the room. There were a few other people eating at the dining hall already, most seemingly in pairs. That is, except for the young girl eating by herself. She seemed kind of cute in a stern way. Sort of like Taja.
Kung Lao approached her table and gave her a big smile. "Excuse me," he said, "may I eat with you?"
Reply
Then, he wrinkled his nose as the bald man pointed a finger at him. "I won't say a word if you won't," he answered, then glanced up as another man approached. Seeing as he didn't recognize either, he wasn't sure if they were new arrivals or Inmates who'd been hit by the flood. Well, the first man probably wasn't a newcomer-- must've been another Inmate who'd been affected, judging by the comment about being inconvenienced.
The other, though... he was smiling. Why was he smiling? Was this funny to him? West clenched a small fist around his fork, frowning, then stopped when the man asked if he could eat with them. Oh. He was just polite, not a prick. That was a change for the Barge.
"Um..." He bit his lip, then shrugged. "Alright... yeah. Have a seat."
And now, it seemed, his desire to be left alone wasn't going to go fulfilled. Well, when had things ever gone his way on the Barge?
Reply
"Oh, are you sure it's alright?" Kung Lao asked, "I didn't realize you already had company. I don't want to inconvenience you two."
Reply
With a tray of food already obtained, Q was about to take a mouthful, when the sudden impact of just how awful the consequences of this would be, then hit him.
"I'm going to use... His mouth to eat this. I'm going to have to use his tongue. I'm going to have to swallow, using his throat."
Now the impaling fork of food just looked downright unpaletable and, for the moment, Q let it drop back down the plate, looking more than slightly miffed.
"Well, I have to say this has to rate as one of the most uninviting prospects I have ever encountered. And that includes... Oh, what's the point of it all?"
Reply
Then he looked over to the bald man-- who was he?-- and quirked an eyebrow.
"You know, of all the problems with the flood, I'd have to say that ought to be the least of your worries."
For instance, he wasn't the one who had to use a little girl's body to perform basic... necessities. Nor was he the one who had to worry about volatile teenage hormones. West sighed and took a bite of food-- which made his stomach lurch, but it was better than keeping it empty-- then looked at the man again.
"You don't seem too bad off. Who are you normally?"
Reply
A pause.
"And I'll thank you if you'd address me as... As..." Finger wagged and Q was unsure quite why there was such a natural impulse to give voice to the rest of the phrase, only that it felt right. "Captain."
Eyes screwed shut and forehead dropped into hand.
Q knew what this meant.
"Oh no..."
Reply
Kung Lao decided it would be best to be cautious, but still polite and friendly. After all, maybe he could learn a bit more about the ship he now found himself on from them?
"'Captain'?" Kung Lao remarked, wondering if that was the inmate's actual name, "Nice to meet you. I'm Kung Lao."
He then turned to look at the young girl. "And what's your name?"
Reply
Then he stiffened as he was asked his name. He didn't want to have people address him as himself while he was like this-- it was too weird, and besides, he didn't want anybody to know who he really was. So, he poked at his food a little bit and gave a shrug. "Hannah," he muttered.
Reply
"If I am witnessed by either of you attempting to set up a committee or create a hydroponics bay, please accept this as my official endorsement to end my life, would you?"
Reply
Well, except for the fact in Zhu Zin he constantly was being attacked by ninjas or assassins sent through portals from the countless enemy realms seeking to enslave Earth. But Kung Lao figured this meal was not the time to start dwelling on his memories of home.
"Ok..." he replied to 'Captain', and took a bite of salad from his plate, "But is it really something worth ending your life over?"
Reply
"But you'd just come back," he said simply, with all of the logic of youth. "So unless you want us to keep doing it..." He shrugged. "I think you're out of luck."
Then, a chipper smile, which he wasn't even sure why he was expressing. "Besides! It's not so bad. You're at least an adult."
Reply
Q had eventually come to find them intriguing, but that did not mean that the species was any less deserving of the Continuum's suspicions.
Looking down at the arranged food, Q clenched a jaw not of his own and went for broke; taking a mouthful of nutrition, chewing and swallowing it. It was a process done before, but... He had never been Picard while doing so.
A slight wince was shown and he looked the other man's way.
"In answer to your question, yes... It would. I know the end result of this particular transmogrification. I'll end up decreeing all rooms be painted beige and assigning comet-watching duties. Believe me, it's not something I want, anymore than I suspect our young friend, here, wishes to continue their own."
Reply
More importantly, who was this man before the flood?
"I suppose you aren't normally a fan of beige?" he asked, hopeful it would spur some revealing conversation. Maybe he could ask his new friend, Spencer, about anything he learned later.
He then glanced over to the young girl. "And you aren't normally adolescent?"
Reply
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