Shore Leave: Geartopia [Open to All]

[meat_mooks]

||Attention all crewmen, shore leave is now in progress, attention crewmen, shore leave is now in progress...||

Stacy's voiced called the entire crew, until all of them were gathered at the Obs Deck. Then, a dossier appeared on the screens, along with the image of a rotating planet.

Planet Designation: Geartopia
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-

Comments

[valaunbound]

Vala's day had been exhausting for very different reasons. She'd tried to track Daniel down earlier in the day, well by tried she means she did actually manage it. But when she'd seen he was partaking in hard labour just for the fun of it, she'd run a mile. Why would anyone in their right mind volunteer for that? Mind you, it was Daniel we were talking about - he was probably trying to get to know the locals and learn about them or some such nonsense. Unless they had hidden treasure stashes, Vala didn't see the point.

Besides, working farmland wasn't half as lucrative as playing cards and Vala was pretty up on the deal. A pocket full of gold coins jangled with every step as she held the wall to keep her balance. Now which room did he say was hers, she'd found herself not paying too much attention as she'd been reading the guestbook upside down rather than listen. Ooh, did that say 'Doctor Daniel Jackson'? And now, a good five minutes later, it seemed that was the only room number she could remember, and there it was... right infront of her.

Well it was either that or sleep in the hallway, she didn't fancy negotiating the stairs again to go and double check her room number. While stairs would be a challenge in her current state, locks weren't. Locks - she could pick in her sleep. And she even had a handy hair grip. Cue less than stealthy drunk lock picking.

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel slowly felt his way around the room until he found the bed, just in time to avoid stubbing his toe on it, and then the nightstand next, which he didn't find in time to avoid the toe slam. Son of a- Daniel breathed it out. He was too tired for this. Taking off his glasses, he set them on the table, then sank down onto the bed with a clumsy thump. He'd give them this; they did beds way better than the Abydonians did. Not that it was any fault of their own. They made do with what they could and hundreds of years later, they'd gotten pretty good at it. But this... this was heaven after a day of work. He could just feel it. This once, he'd be able to turn his brain off, just pass out the moment he hit the pillow.

A shower could wait. Daniel was about to push the pants off his hips when he stopped. Was that a creak? Not an old house creak, more like the door jiggling creek. His door.

...And he still hadn't located the light. Daniel froze, hips up mid-lift and hands still on the edges mid-pull. He might not have Teal's insane sense of hearing, but even he could pick out the sound of someone trying to open the lock and badly. Someone trying to break in or someone with the wrong room. It could be anything. Whoever it was, might actually get in. He could either let it happen or take this into his own hands.

Daniel got up, pulling his pants up to more decent level on his way to the door, He took a breath, and then reached over, slid the lock and jerked the door open.

[valaunbound]

As much as Vala would protest that she wasn't drunk, that Cactus beer was strong stuff. Normally her reaction time to hearing the lock slide on the other side would be enough for her to back off and avoid falling into the room. Not tonight apparently, she went down like a skittle from her kneeling position, faceplanting into his foot.

"Hello Daniel's foot." Yes she did say that out loud, she was practically kissing it after all. She also snorted out a laugh, this was obviously hilarious, in the way things always were when you were drunk.

"Hi," she managed to squeak out sheepishly inbetween her giggles and waved at him cutely from the floor. Maybe she'd just stay here for a minute, getting up seemed far too difficult just yet and his foot made quite a comfy pillow, well maybe not comfy but pleasant at least.

[hi_there_aliens]

The last thing he expected was to find Vala practically dumped into him. Daniel didn't even have time to catch her before she went into the ground. Was she okay? He started to lean down to check, when she giggled in the general direction of his bare feet. He didn't know Vala well enough to go drinking with her, but he knew a drunken or buzzed laugh when he heard one, and she was buzzed.

Daniel moved his foot away before she got overly familiar with it. Or started deciding she'd rather talk to it than his face, which was looking a lot more likely.

He found himself starting to wave back automatically. Feeling supremely stupid, he stopped himself. "Vala...?"

That was a good start. Daniel wished he knew where to go from there. Are you following me? was the first to come to mind. How did she know what room was his? Were you drinking? Where did you even get the money for that much booze, because somehow he got the impression, and it was just a hunch, that Vala could hold her liquor better than he could. "What're you doing here?"

[valaunbound]

"Is that a trick question?" Vala narrowed her eyes as if trying to focus would somehow help her answer it. Oh the foot's gone, that was a shame, she quite liked his foot. She pushed herself back onto her hands and knees seeing as how the foot had gone with the intention of standing up. She quickly decided that one step at a time was probably best as the room wasn't staying still. Damn these alien worlds and their magic moving rooms.

"Well I was lying on the floor, now I'm kneeling on it." There, that answered his question. Vala looked up at him and smiled, then she saw he was shirtless and smiled even more, her eyebrow quirking up. Well hello Doctor! While the door was still open the light was spilling in from the hallway, and the view was quite lovely Vala thought.

[hi_there_aliens]

No, it was a perfectly reasonable question. This archaeologist was dead on his feet and he wanted to sleep. He reviewed his questions over just to make sure they made sense. Yeah. They seemed about right. Now he wanted to know why she was breaking into his room. Or why she was taking him so literally.

Vala stared up at him, eyes raking over him and her smile grew, wider and wider, and then surpassing the Cheshire Cat's. Almost like she's laughing at a private joke, his sleep starved brain supplied. The butt end of the joke was probably him. Daniel had to resist the urge to go find a mirror. Was there something wrong with him? Something stuck in his teeth? Did he have their version of hay stuck in his hair? He returned the gaze a lot less admiringly and a lot more dumbly. Seriously, what was she staring at? He went from foot to foot. It finally occurred to him a few seconds too late that he was half naked. It occurred to him another second later that his pants were barely hanging on and she was kneeling in front of him.

"Okay, how about we get you up off the floor," Daniel quickly bent, grabbing her by the upper arms and hauling her up. "Better right?" Yeah, better, she wasn't practically crotch level. "Let's try again. Did you need something?"

He regretted it the moment he said it. Daniel asked mostly out of politeness' sake, but every part of him that wanted to crash hoped she didn't take him up on the offer.

[valaunbound]

Good luck getting any straight answers out of her Daniel, she's good at avoiding them at the best of times, but add way too much cactus beer to the mix (which by the way is probably the single most lethal alcoholic drink she's ever had the pleasure of partaking in) and he'll be lucky if she even follows the conversation.

"Good plan!" She agreed with a pointed finger as he helped her to her feet, that smile still fixed in place as if her emotions were time delayed or she'd just forgotten to remove it. Once up she teetered for a moment, getting her balance again with the help of his shoulder.

"Yes I need something," she nodded solemnly trying not to let his naked chest distract her which her hand was dangerously close to, "give me a moment and I'll remember what the something is. But it was definitely important."

[hi_there_aliens]

Vala graduated from starring at his feet to starring at his chest. Maybe if he waited a half hour, she might finally get to his face. Daniel didn't think he wanted to wait that long. He wanted to go to sleep. He tried to lift an arm from her, but from the way she swayed,maybe it wasn't the best idea. He'd have to put up with her hanging off his shoulder for a little until she got her balance back.

So she did need something. Daniel waited. And waited. And waited-oh geez, was her hand feeling his biceps up? He looked at her hand suspiciously, just to make sure. She still didn't say anything. If it was so important, you'd think she'd remember it. Then he sniffed. Whatever she drank smelled strange, kind of sweet, but very strong, like sniffing Chinese yellow mustard, and it went straight up his nose, stinging. His eyes started to water.

This was ridiculous. He was exhausted here. He didn't want another allergy attack and he didn't want to spend all night standing here. His legs were killing him.

"This's been nice and all but I'm tired. I'd really like to sleep, so can you ask in the morning?" Daniel said impatiently. He added, with the subtlety of a sledge hammer. "I'd be 'happy' to walk you back to your room"

[valaunbound]

"Room! That was it!" Vala blurted out, reluctantly knocked from her pleasant reverie abruptly. She'd forgotten she was supposed to be even remembering anything. He really did have a lovely chest, and lovely arms and lovely shoulders and well lovely everything really. Vala hadn't been imagining what it would be like to kiss it or trail her fingers over it or even just snuggle up to it. Absolutely not.

"I don't think I have one, that's the problem." She pouted at him looking as sad as she could manage, but it probably came across as more just plastered. She removed her own arm from his shoulder and on realising her balance really was compromised, she promptly sat on the end of the bed... and then lay back on it. "So I didn't think you'd mind sharing." Her head hit the pillow just as she finished the sentence.

Oh now that was comfy, it was that moment when you really didn't realise quite how much you needed bed and Vala's eyes shut.

[hi_there_aliens]

She was buzzed and/or drunk, Daniel himself was too brain dead to follow the conversation. She was practically memorizing every inch of his shoulders with her eyes and it was kind of distracting. That on top of his tickling sensation up his nose wasn't doing him any favors. All in all, he wasn't in the frame of mind to follow her "Ah-Ha! Room!" moment. All she got was a blank look.

"Yes you do. I saw it on the register." Not that he looked or anything. She stepped away from him then. Vala managed to get control of her balance, surprisingly not going to he ground again, long enough to completely take over the bed. His bed. The one he was desperately wanted to sleep in! Daniel gaped at her. At the bed that was occupied. At the way she took up the entire thing. For being smaller than he was, she seemed to take up a lot of space.

Oh no. No way. This was insane. She had options. There was any other room if she wanted to lock pick them, there was her own room, there was Stacy!

Daniel shook her roughly awake before she could pass out. "No, you don't. Wake up." Don't make him push you off, just so he can at least get some of it back.

[valaunbound]

There was no way she was moving now, she was far too comfy and sleep was imminent. Just the thought of having to stand up again made her feel bilious. She was down and she was staying down, unless you actually want her to puke on you Daniel. Daniel got barely more than an exasperated "Don't shake me," and an uncomfortable grimace at the jerky movement as she shunted up to one edge of the bed and lay on her side instead. She patted the space behind her invitingly and then pulled the gun out of the back of her pants and held it out to him in a silent gesture of 'take this'.

"There's plenty of room." And then she shifted her head a little, cosying it into the pillow. Sleep now please.

[hi_there_aliens]

She moved over, which wasn't exactly what Daniel was trying to go for. The only good thing so far was she wasn't taking up over ninety percent of the bed. Now she was taking seventy. How thoughtful. It didn't fail to impress upon him repeatedly that this was his bed, his room, and he was effectively being locked out of both. Daniel took the gun, as if she'd handed him dirty laundry to put away for her. Great. Now he was a servant.

Daniel set the gun down on the night table, away from his glasses, and looked down at her. What the hell did he do now? Share the bed, yeah right.

He could risk moving her, have him throw up on him. Something he'd prefer to avoid. He could get security, or get someone to help her to her room, both of which would involving walking down stairs, searching for help, coming back up. Even if he wasn't exhausted beyond all reason, his arms and legs already set their feet down. No, they were tired, so either do something for them or they quit. Or he could just take the last parcel of free land here and lie down.

What did he do to deserve this? If he wasn't so beat, he'd have taken the other options, but as it was, he was just going to have to tolerate it.

They were just sharing a bed. She better not get any ideas. Daniel reluctantly lay down on the open space, back to her. Ow. Every single limb protested. It was going to hurt worse in the morning once his muscles repaired themselves, and he had the anthropologist part of him to blame for it. He'd wanted to work alongside the locals, learn their methods. And he had! But now his body was killing him for it.

He tried to relax with a sigh.

[valaunbound]

If Vala had been more compos mentis and not so 'why is the bed moving underneath me' she may have lamented the fact she was lying in a bed with a semi dressed Daniel and there was nothing even remotely sexual going on.

As it was, she was just glad he was there. It felt 'nice'. It wasn't a feeling she'd had much experience of or would even admit she needed, but it was oddly comforting. Vala smiled to herself contentedly in her semi-conscious state not really sure if it was him or the comfiest bed she'd had in weeks that was making her smile, she just knew she'd never felt so relaxed and able to let go.

[hi_there_aliens]

The bed really was that comfortable. Daniel sank in, limbs relaxing. The temperature was just perfect, not too hot or cold. No weird throbbing sensation of the air around them from Stacy's innards, the one that even if you generally got used to it, it was always there. He could get used to this. He wouldn't have minded a faint breeze or nothing but clear night sky over head. This was great though. There was just one slight problem.

Now that Daniel was finally horizontal, he found that now his brain was working over time. No matter how tired he was, his mind was racing. So much for being able to pass out the moment he hit the pillow.

If he couldn't sleep, neither could Vala. And since she was here, buzzed and sleepy, it sounded like the perfect time to get down to business and start asking the questions he couldn't before, while her guard was down. Maybe a little underhanded (read: a lot), but Daniel wasn't feeling particularly guilty about it. It served her right for breaking into his room and stealing his bed.

"Vala...?" He murmured. "Back in the lab, you were saying something about the year you know me from...did I ever say why I was still there?"

[valaunbound]

"Hmm?" Vala mumbled, frowning to get her head round the question. Well not so much the question, just to translate the words into something comprehensible. Was he really asking her questions now? Couldn't it wait til the morning, Daniel? He knew she was drunk, right? How much sense did drunk people make? Granted she was probably more in control of her faculties than most and if push came to shove she'd probably even manage to be able to spring out of bed in a crisis and cope, but him asking serious questions was way beyond her abilities right now.

"Mostly because you kept missing out on Atlantis." Vala yawned and hoped that answered him sufficiently and he'd shut up now. She took the elastics out of her hair that were holding it in the pigtails and dropped them carelessly to the floor by the bed. That was better, they weren't pulling anymore.

[hi_there_aliens]

"Atlantis exists?" Daniel brightened, in that same way a kid might if they found out Santa Claus was actually real all along. No wonder! Of course he'd try to go. Atlantis, the Lost Continent.

Wait, get back on track. While the exploration aspects of the Stargate were immense, important, and easily the best part of the job, the constant danger and getting shot at or injured wasn't. The only reason he'd pushed to join the team in the first place was because of Skaara and Sha're. Sometimes, when he lay trying to sleep back on Earth, Daniel tried to imagine what he'd do if he ever succeeded. He didn't stay on the topic long. It was too hard to. It drifted too closely to a more realistic, what if they don't. Daniel believed Jack when he said they'd get them back, but it had been so long already. Each day, each new planet without news or signs of where they might be, brought on a colder trail.

Daniel half rolled over, neck craned to look at Vala. "You're saying the only reason I stayed at the SGC was because of missing a trip." ...Only a trip to Atlantis. What did that say about everything else. Was there nothing keeping him there? "What about Jack? Teal'c? Sam?"

He bit back the question before it followed, 'what about Sha're and Skaara?'. The topic of his wife had slipped out in front of Eva and only because she'd stumbled on it herself. Daniel would've preferred she never found out. It wasn't something he even willingly shared with the other SG teams. It felt too private, too personal. He wasn't ready to tell her that part of him. Maybe she supposedly knew him in the future, but he didn't know her. He trusted her enough (or he was exhausted enough not to care) to fall asleep in the same bed, which made him vulnerable, but not enough to spill his guts. Talk about skewed priorities.

Daniel could dig around some instead, read between the lines.