driftfleet | Chapter Seven [video]

Who: Richard Castle and YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A unless Windrose crew wants it
When: June 7th

[When the feed clicks on, Castle has his feet propped up and is reading aloud from a book, although the cover is obscured from view. Also, his Scottish accent is atrocious. Bear with him. He's discovered the cheap vending machine romance novels.]

"Lass, from 500 years intae the future ye may be, but theh be things ye kannae ken." Lord McKraken then doubled over in pain, holding his stomach.

"But I love you!" Elizabeth cried out, rushing over to her Lord's side, holding his sweating form in her arms as he grimaced in agony, running her hands along his feverish pectorals. "I've promised to never leave your side no matter what comes between us."

"Ah beg ye, lass, get thee away before it be too late- AUUUUUUGH!" Elizabeth was forced to back away as McKraken's skin became slimier and slimier. "Ah'm... Ah'm..."

"What is it?"

"Ah be a were-cuttlefish!"

[Castle then has to place the book face-down on the table and lean his head back, laughing.]

Sorry, I just had to share that with someone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Now, see, I could get behind that. See what other weird shapeshifter romances I could come across.

Hey now - not all of us find shapeshifters so strange. They can be very good kissers you know.

[She raises her eyebrows.]

Granted, can't claim to have met any were-cuttlefish in my time.

[Castle barked a laugh at that.]

Weird to my reality, then- we just had plain old humans where I come from, as much as I wish that werecreatures were real.

Maybe they are. You never know what's out there in the galaxy.

And they WOULD have some very compelling reasons to hide their existence.

[She laughs.]

Or maybe they simply haven’t reached warp capabilities yet. It is much more difficult for aquatic species, though certainly not impossible.

True. They'd need a way to breathe along the way and all.

Exactly. It's a lot more difficult to fill a starship with water than it is with air. Not that it's impossible mind you - we have aquatic quarters on the Enterprise.

Now THAT sounds cool- and it's awesome that you all did that, too. There was a problem, so you came up with a solution so that everyone could cruise around the stars with you.

Well dolphins are no slouch in the engineering department - the builders of the Enterprise had a lot of imput from them.

... dolphins? Really?

[She grins.]

Yes, really. It took us much longer than it should have to realize they were sentient too.

That's so cool! I mean, it makes sense- they do like to chat, just not in any way we can understand.

Most of them have a pretty great sense of humor too.

New life goals: have a nice chat with a dolphin. Too bad I can't communicate with aquatic creatures.

Who knows? Maybe a universal translator is not too far in your future.

Gosh, I'd love that. And we can be prepared for when extraterrestrials do inevitably discover us.

[She laughs.]

Hopefully they'll be duly impressed then.

I can only hope so- and that they don't decide to just nuke us from orbit instead.

I know this is not much of a comfort but you're probably not considered much of a threat to anyone at this point, so that does help in some small way.

You know, that's an angle I hadn't considered, but it's true. I mean, humans have plenty of efficient weapons, but I'm sure any alien beings would be prepared for hostility.