Rec Room -- Day 46 (afternoon) -- Open

[mentalmapping]

Zan had always liked reading about other cultures' forms of entertainment. He'd been surprised to learn that Vulcans had any, and a little disturbed by how many traditional Andorian games required some form of weaponry

Comments

[comm_cat]

M'Ress had a busy day ahead of her, full of errands to run for the Communications Unit. She decided to have her break and snack now so that she could work uninterrupted later. When she entered the Rec Room she noticed the cartographer playing with crackers, possibly chocolate-flavored ones. This naturally aroused her curiosity.

"Good day, Lieutenant Elrix," she called before approaching, in order to be polite. "May I ask what it is you're doing? Is it a game, or an eating ritual?"

[mentalmapping]

Zan carefully placed the last cookie on top of the tower, holding his breath as it wobbled a bit. It seemed to be staying upright for the moment.

He looked up at the sound of his name, smiling brightly at her. "Hello, Ensign M'Ress." He knew he had to look awfully strange, even if he wasn't sitting close enough to anyone to get a steady stream of mental input.

"It's just a game, really. I think it's supposed to be played with little wooden bricks, but I didn't have any of those, so I just used these because they had the right shape." He hadn't decided yet whether he was going to eat them when he was done.

"Want to play? It's a multi-person game."

[comm_cat]

"Oh, I would love to," she crooned in response as her tail twitched happily. "I like games, pprrbb. Thank you."

M'Ress seated herself in the chair next to him. Gazing at his stack of crackers, however, she had a moment of hesitation. Her ears dipped as she asked uncertainly, "We're not meant to eat these, are we? Chocolate is poisonous to Caitians, you see." She hoped she hadn't ruined their opportunity to have fun.

[mentalmapping]

"Oh, no, no," he assured her. "Not at all. Then we'd only be able to play it once." Now that he thought about it, that would be a sad fate indeed.

"All right," he mused, contemplating the tower. "If I remember correctly, the objective is to try to remove blocks without knocking the tower over, and then you put the block back on the top level. And then of course the game's over when the tower falls down."

Zan liked to think he had reasonably steady hands, but he still couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was probably going to end up toppling the tower on the first try.

[sweetinaskirt]

Daniela had come into the rec room with the intention of sitting off to the side and do a bit of people watching. Beside the hours she worked and the time she spent in the cafeteria, she really didn't interact much with her fellow crewmates. But she was hoping that could change. If only she could gather the courage to actually start a conversation with any of them.

Sitting down, she noticed the Lieutenant stacking his food, and wondered just how bored he must be to resort to playing with his food.

[mentalmapping]

Zan had chosen a corner table mostly in the hopes that it would be easier to keep his tower from falling over if there were less traffic around it. He was only just close enough to the yeoman to pick up snippets of her thoughts.

Zan scooted a bit closer, partly to make sure his tower was even, and partly for ease of conversation. It didn't take an empath to figure out that someone sitting alone in the rec room might be a bit lonely.

And anyway, he couldn't let that thought go without defending himself. "Oh, I'm not playing with my food," he said, triumphantly placing the last chocolate brick on top of the tower. "I mean, I guess I can eat these when I'm done, but I just needed something brick-shaped. It's a human game, ever played it?"

[sweetinaskirt]

She was startled when he spoke and, seeing how no one else was immediately around but the two of them, she guessed he must be talking to her.

It was surprising that he'd assumed she must be thinking he was playing with his food, especially since she had just been thinking that, but on the other hand, it was a good conversation starter.

She nodded shyly, sitting up a bit straighter and trying to keep her face from turning red at being addressed. "Yeah, with wooden blocks."

[into_the_skies]

Adrian had been taking full advantage of his last free day before the new mission started. He felt that he'd made the best use of the morning by sleeping right through it, followed by a gloriously unhealthy late breakfast, and at the present moment was rounding off his afternoon by losing spectacularly to himself at cards.

Conceding defeat graciously, he tilted his chair back and propped his booted feet up on the table, shuffing the deck absently as he scanned the room. His attention was caught by the guy at the next table - he spent the next few minutes watching with unconcealed interest.

"So, I have to ask bro," he said eventually; "Are you playing jenga with chocolate crackers?"

[mentalmapping]

"That," said Zan happily, "is exactly what I'm doing." He was glad someone recognized it, even if he didn't really mind making a slight fool of himself by letting people think he was just playing with his food.

"Since you're the first one who's gotten it," he said, "want to come play? I take it I don't have to explain the rules."

He was sure Jenga could be an entertaining enough one-person game, but everything tended to be more enjoyable with two. And anyway, Adrian was sitting far enough away that Zan couldn't hear anything but words from him. That was no way to hold a conversation.

[into_the_skies]

"Sounds like a plan," Adrian said, flashing him a grin. The front legs of his chair thumped against the floor as he swung his legs down off the table; leaving the deck of cards sitting there for whoever happened by next, he headed over and slid into a seat at the other guy's table. "Adrian," he introduced himself.

[mentalmapping]

"Zan." He stuck out a hand, careful to reach around the table to do so. "Bridge crew, huh? That must be exciting." And the uniform was such a fetching shade of yellow, too, not that Zan wasn't happily loyal to his own department.

"All right. So apparently, I'm supposed to try to push the blocks out and stack them again, and you're supposed to try and distract me? Is that part of the game? I think I read that somewhere."

[notacactus]

Lately Jay had been spending the majority of her free time in the rec room. The constant buzz of conversation and sounds of people were soothing, a comfortable background noise. She was carrying a padd as she headed to a free armchair in the corner, intending to read a novel her brother had sent her.

Perhaps it was simply the length of time she had gone without any sort of mental contact, but the brief impression of another consciousness at the edge of her awareness derailed her utterly. She stopped dead mid-stride, abruptly enough that she nearly stumbled, and looked around sharply with shock as plain on her face as it was in her mind.

[mentalmapping]

That was close enough for Zan to pick up on. There were others within his range of perception, a few different trains of thought going at once from different people, but nothing quite like that. That was the unmistakable recognition of another telepath, something he hadn't let himself hope that he'd encounter again until he got home.

he thought, sitting further upright and locking eyes on her, because didn't want to speak out loud if there was a chance he didn't have to. He missed being able to communicate, really communicate, with someone who could hear directly from his mind.

[notacactus]

She turned, following the thought to its source, lit up with unmistakeable hope. she asked, the words conveying a depth of delighted disbelief that would have been utterly lost to spoken speech.

[mentalmapping]

Thrilled, Zan beckoned her closer, even if he could already hear her more clearly than he'd been able to hear anyone in months.

He knew he recognized Jay from the science department, though he'd only ever seen her in passing as they changed shifts--stellar cartography and biochemistry didn't have much occasion to mix.

He knows she understands the loneliness of that, and everything it entails.

he asks, still marveling.

[im_a_donnie]

Why did he keep getting assigned computer programming in the rec rooms? He had more important things to think about. Quantum physics to ponder the outcomes of dangerous experiments to. The molecular structure of a three week old banana! Before the ensign level work had been absolutely dandy to distract him from his obsession. Now it was annoying. Especially with the people crowded in here. Why couldn't everyone just spend a nice quiet home alone for once? And--ooh! Biscotti!

Donnie nicked the presumably free stick of biscotti off a plate. It wasn't the one with the tower of biscotti, but he snuck it before it could be added and immediately consumed it. At least there was good refreshments.

[mentalmapping]

Zan did not pick up on that thought quickly enough to defend his biscotti, though he did pull the rest of the plate back toward him. The motion made the tower quaver slightly, and Zan nervously steadied it.

"The replicator's right over there," he complained, pushing a brick back into place. "Get your own. It'll even give you milk to go with it."

He knew the cookie theft hadn't been deliberate, but still. "I'm getting another one. Don't let anyone knock this thing over while I'm gone." It seemed fair enough to make Donnie stand guard over the tower for a few seconds.

Zan returned shortly with a replacement biscotti and two glasses of milk, one of which he offered to Donnie. He was sure he recognized the man; they worked in the same department, even if they didn't often cross paths. It took him a second to recall his colleague's name.

"I'll share when I'm done, all right? I'm just trying to play this old Earth game I read about."

[im_a_donnie]

Donnie, for his part, was completely befuddled by everything that was happening

[mentalmapping]

Well, now Zan felt less guilty for not immediately remembering who Donnie was. He raised his eyebrows at the rapid-fire recitation of facts--his own research certainly hadn't been that in-depth; he'd just remembered something about a tower that you took blocks out of. The chanting part sounded fun, though.

He replaced the cookie on top of the tower. "I wish," he said, "but no, I think you have to stack them back on top of the tower once you pull them out. And anyway, if we ate them, we'd only be able to play once. Maybe when we're finished?" They were pretty tempting.

"And my name is Zan, by the way." He sat down across the table. "Want to go first, or should I?"