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[spaceshipit]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: July Planet!
When: The month of July!

[This is another planet mingle since the first one has nearly hit captcha! Feel free to continue threads or start brand new ones!]

July Planet Information

First Mingle Post

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

You realize saying something like that raises a lot of questions.

[dancingmd]

[She suppresses her sigh.]

His name is Q. He was a non-corporeal being who liked to play games with us, then later claimed it was all part of a test, to see if humanity was ready for the next step - evolutionarily speaking.

[She glances out the window again.]

Not sure if I believe him. But Jean-Luc did.

[outstandingbalance]

Non-corporeal being, huh? [She smiles very faintly at that, not with much real humor.] When you say it that way it sounds a little like someone who you can't punch in the face, even though he really deserves it.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly laughs.]

Well, he was turned human once, as punishment for breaking the Continuum's laws. I got to enact some amount of revenge then at least.

[outstandingbalance]

Funny how that works, isn't it. [She's not sure what the Continuum is, but at least the prospect of someone who's basically a god being punished by becoming basically human wasn't entirely unfamiliar.]

What'd you do?

[dancingmd]

Oh, well I didn't have to do much. Q barely could feed himself properly, much less deal with anything more terrifying than an ice cream sundae. But of course - he needed his immunizations so you know... I was only doing my duty.

[All said in a very self-satisfied way. Beverly is not often a vengeful or petty woman, but when it comes to Q, all bets are off.]

[outstandingbalance]

That doesn't sound so much like getting revenge. Maybe just not having a reason to be sympathetic to his plight.

[dancingmd]

[She laughs.]

Well I admit, I'm no Lady Macbeth, but he certainly percieved it as the most cruel and unusual punishment so it's satisfactory enough for me.

[outstandingbalance]

As long as it was satisfying. And it doesn't sound like there was any permanent damage.

[dancingmd]

No - unfortunately he got to plead his way out of being stuck as a human.

[outstandingbalance]

So the punishment was really more of a timeout.

[dancingmd]

Perhaps from our standpoint - but they see being turned human much as we might view... being trapped in a dog's body, for example.

[Totally not said from experience, nope.]

That's a bit more than a time out.

[outstandingbalance]

But it doesn't last all that long, does it? Not against centuries.

[dancingmd]

The Q effectively function outside of time so to be put suddenly into a mortal world where you have no control of the passage of time - it's more difficult than we can imagine though.

[She gives Natasha a knowing half-smile.]

Not really what we came here to discuss though, is it?

[outstandingbalance]

Maybe not exactly, but it's not exactly unproductive either.

[The both of them were feeling each other out. Letting the conversation wander isn't a bad way to do that—a low risk way.]

[dancingmd]

No, I suppose not.

[Truth be told, everyone else here is much more fascinated with Q than she is and she's had this conversation, or one like it, more times than she can count. Yet she understands that this whole situation is new for Natasha, and Nat being the way she is - of course she's going to want to look at it from every angle.]

But there's something else that happened to us that I think you ought to know about. Before... it comes up with someone else.

[outstandingbalance]

All right. I'm listening.

[The lead up is ominous, but Natasha isn't given to getting caught up in anxiety, least of all over a conversation.]

[dancingmd]

There's another fleet that periodically attacks us. We don't know who they are or what they want and it's been over six months now since we've seen them, but the last time we encountered them, they drove us into a nebula that disabled all ship systems aside from basic life support. Next thing we know, Atroma has moved all of us to the Marsiva for repairs to the fleet and what they called "calibrations" to our augments. For over a month, we were all stuck on the Marsiva together, and every night we would all fall asleep at exactly the same time and enter one another's dreams, with no control over whose mind we saw or who saw into ours.

[There's more of course, so much more, but she'll give Natasha a moment to let that sink in.]

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha lifts her chin slightly as she listens, a vague suspicion that she knows where this is going sneaking into her expression.]

And you saw into mine.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly nods.]

I'm sorry. I know what a violation that is.

[After all, it happened to her too.]

And I hope... [Her brow furrows.] I hope I am not putting to much on you too soon, when you've only just met me, but... you have the right to know.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha clears her throat, dismissing the apology.]

It wasn't your choice. You don't have to feel bad for it.

[More importantly:]

Mind if I ask what you saw?

[dancingmd]

No, of course not.

[She takes a sip of her tea in order to gather her thoughts. How do you explain someone else's dream to them?]

There was nothing straightforward about the experience - it was a dream after all. Not like here, where you can share conscious thoughts and direct memories. Anyway... I was in a room. A bright red room with a painting of a stage on one end and a set of shelves full of random items on the other, with no obvious exit. You appeared to me as a doll, a ballerina.

[She lets out a small huff of a laugh.]

Mostly we argued. About... well, many things. But eventually you insisted I take one of the objects, so I chose a pair of ballet slippers, which triggered a memory of sorts - sounds and smells, more than anything else. Of dancing but also of gunfire and blood.

[outstandingbalance]

[Yeah, Natasha thinks. That sounded about right. She winces slightly, tipping her head as though acknowledging a point.]

And did I explain to you why that was? What it meant?

[dancingmd]

[She shakes her head.]

No, not directly and I didn't ask. I figured if you wanted to tell me in the waking world, you would.

[outstandingbalance]

I appreciate your consideration.

[On behalf of a version of herself who may or may not have been the same, for something Natasha has no memory of.

But it's not a joke.

And she doesn't hasten to explain those dreams now.]