come_sailaway | "But what if I forget to magnet!?"

Video games are not board games. But far be it from Nobunaga to get hung up on the past and not embrace something new, shiny, technologically advanced, and loud and flashy.

He still isn't ready to try playing, because he's basically hoping he can watch others, and then just do his normal never-lose-ever thing.

It's probably offensive to ask the glowing green woman if she's an alien or a youkai, right?

Probably.

Not that he's one to talk, in his black Sengoku-era 16th century Japanese full plate mail. And assorted bright nonsense from Tommy Bahamas, which truly, truly only makes it worse. Not that he is either aware, or cares.

"Have you played this before?"

"Oh hello! No, not this one, but well, it's pretty simple. You need to kill the monsters, and the counter is constantly going down, and every now and then it says 'Wizard needs food badly!'" Tendi stands from the machine and gives a shurg. "Seems rather hard, and not very...complex, if you know what I mean?"

"Oh also, I didn't introduce myself! Hi, I'm Tendi! Nice to meet you!"

He really has no clue. "Wizard... food???" Nobunaga was expecting it to be like a board game. Or carnival games. Like shooting. Maybe sports.

"Oh, I forgot... too. I should have done that first." He's got a long way to go. "Nobunaga Oda, year 1582 Japan, Earth." He bows solemnly. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! D'vana Tendi, 2380, USS Cerritos, and I'm an Orion, which is why I'm green. Want to try something else? There's some that use some plastic guns to hit some targets, rather violent, but that's what you get from old earth!"

Nobunaga likes her already!

"You read my mind," to be fair that's common with him. "Yes! I love guns. Though I'm relieved humans have the freedom to get less violent in the future. Is Cerritos a rank, or a ship? Orion is..." He thinks carefully trying to put together what little he knows from off-Earth travel. Isn't it tricky with constellations? He only knew the basics of Japanese lore, but obviously, the mythology and religion were completely different outside of Japan. He knew as much as he could glean, but really only enough to be self-sufficient when he got to set sail, and still able to roughly translate between things without help. A hesitant guess, "A different star cluster? Or an adaption for storing sunlight???"

He rubs the back of his neck uncertainly and admits, "I'm trying not to be crass, for once. I know Africans are black, because of being more in the sun," thank you Yasuke! "And there are different size stars and so their output to worlds is due to..." He rolls his hand in a circle uncertainly. He's from 200 years before Copernicus, mind you. He shakes his head and makes a small irritated grumble. "Output,' he just flounders. There's no Japanese word for it, so even the translation can't quite help. "Ah! The distance from the sun?"

Also, really importantly: "have you tried any of the gun games before?" Best stop himself there or he will unleash a bombardment of a million questions.

Edited (I tried to fix the typo twice orz) 2022-09-14 19:42 (UTC)

"Ooh, well, Orion is a planet! About 25 light years from earth. And as for why I'm green, my blood uses copper as an oxygen binding agent rather than the iron of your blood, so that effects the color! Does that answer your question?" Tendi looks a bit excited to talk science and biochemisty.

"Oh, I've tried some, there's a zombie one over here, House of the Dead that is kinda fun. Very hard though, I keep dying at like, level 2."

Oh good, because Nobuanga has a need to fulfill his two favorite things in life: guns, and curiosity about new things.

"Is it--" ahhhh what's the word? "Co-Op? I'm sure I can help. And I've been wanting to see these zombie creatures everyone spoke of and to understand why guns would even work on dead bodies." A nod.

As for blood... Damn how does he even begin?! Can he go crazy and ask everything? Should he try to mollify that first? -- Yes. Almost definitely. Okay. A warning. "I wish I could say that satisfied my curiosity, but it is truly never-ending. So..." nope can't say please though. He'd literally rather have to fight duels constantly. "Find a way to..." ahhhh the words for this are so hard! He's NOT in his time, he's not in his WORLD, and he's no longer able to just expect his every order to be instantly met before he even says it! Tact. Damn! He hasn't needed tact ever, and used it even less! "You're very intelligent and--" It's fine just stab him, so long as you give him answers! No no, not everyone is as reticent as an infuriating pirate, right?

Nobunaga's really struggling not to go full question bombardment here. "There's no nonfiction! The only way to know anything is to get it directly from people. I'm not trying to invade your mind," just crack people open and devour their knowledge? No wait... "But my usual... reflex, is to save time by asking everything that comes into my head all at once." A nod! "So if you need to stop me, just do, and I'll listen."

"Aw, thank you! And look, if you have any questions, just ask! Really, I'm more likely to talk until you're bored than for me to get annoyed with questions! So really, ask away! What's on your mind?"

He's so thrilled! He can't even look straight at her though, because he's genuinely embarrassed and worried he's going to show how much even he feels like a five year old just going outside for the first time to explore. Meeting a professional explorer! AHHHHH THE EXCITMENT!

Gah. Too many questions though! "Copper. Do you know when they found that out? Binding agent..." closes his eyes trying to think of humans as weapons with the iron, and that's just dizzying. "Are you related to humans? Descended from? Have you met humans before this ship? What was your normal life like on Orion? Does the copper thing change much else? How far have you traveled--?" Oh... He is going to go FOREVER. Okay. Slowing it down, he rummages through his pockets for a lollipop to suck on, and offers a spare one to her as well. But um. More questions, "Oh, can you have this kind of candy? The Portuguese missionaries always brought me konpeito. Symbolic, but now I have a weird instant association I guess." Solemn nod. "Is the copper thing every person knowledge or esoteric? How'd you individually come by it?"

"Well, I'm not from Earth at all, Orion is far away, and as for when, not sure, it's just one of the basic medical pieces of information. Humans, yes, I've met those before, we've been warp capaible for a while, and we've always had run-ins with them, even before I joined Starfleet. Orion was nice, but well, it can be kinda...rough. But it's a lot better now! Most Orions haven't been pirates for like, 5 years! And the copper binding dosn't really effect much, just a diffrent way of doing things, you know? Some other species have similar things, Vulcans for one, but their skin is a more pinkish human color. And sure! I can have some candy, what's it made of?" Tendi rattles off her responces almost as fast as Nobunaga can answer, she's thrilled to talk about anything.

"So you are my third alien..." spoken with a happy note of wonder. SO THRILLED. Also, yes. Third. But the other first two were humans from Auldrant. Wherever that is.

"What's Starfleet? Ohhhh pirates..." He said that out loud, oops. Pirates though. Of course, he has a pretty love-hate relationship with pirates. Being as he's kind of at war with them, but also wanted to be one, and envies their freedom and exploration. "Vulcans," he nods like he understands, but he literally is thinking like pink like pigs. "Do you know a lot of other non-Earth species too? How many? What's the furthest you've traveled?"

Deep breath, they are going to be such good friends! "Sugar! And I think these might have cream? Which is European milk, um, my lands don't have milk yet. It's really rare. It comes from cows and other mammals, but it's not as disgusting as it sounds, it's sweet. Oh! Have you had ice cream yet? That's made from cow's milk too! Cream. Sugar is the sweetest part of plants, super processed and crystallized and melted down, and it's the best." Also part of his love-hate with pirates, because if it wasn't for them, he'd have almost no sugar in Japan at all, and then he'd probably die from deprivation. "What do Orions eat? And Vulcans? What's the plant-life like? There's all kinds of different plants in Europe we don't have in Asia. Even the trees are different! And the Portuguese were talking about how the New World - that's called America um, some four hundred years to my future, the plants there are even crazier."

He only pauses long enough to breathe. "Oh! And have you seen the alcohol around here? They're made from different New World plants too! In Japan, we mostly just have sake! It's made from rice. Never thought I'd say it, but in comparison it seems really boring." He's on a high from novelty, and it might take a long time to wear off! "But here there's more than I could have imagined? They make alcohol from everything. There's more alcohol than even food types? But Windjammer has so many, and one day if I'm here long enough, I will try them all! Do they have Orion foods too?"

Oh also - "So -- Orion used to be pirates, but did they have guns? Or was it so far in the past it's kind of irrelevant? Do the humans of your time still have guns?"

Edited 2022-09-15 03:17 (UTC)

"Oh of course! We've had ice cream, there's a place to get it on the ship, all sorts of flavors, very nice stuff. Foodwise, well, just about whatever the replicators can make, I do really like Pesto though! That's very tasty. And if you like Alochol, I've gotta show you some Romulan Whiskey or some Klingon Bloodwine! It's powerful stuff!"

Tendi pauses for a moment at this last question. "Um...No, it wasn't in the past, and we had guns, I mean, phaser and energy weapons, if you mean chemical kinetic weapons? we don't really use those much anymore! I mean, I'm from 2380!"

"Yes, I only ever first had ice cream here," nod nod. "And then I tried to try all the flavors in one go, but I'm less worried about not getting a chance to now. Romulan whiskey, Klingon Bloodwine, got it."

He bites the side of his thumb, and nods again, a little more uncertainly. "I guess spaceship war is a bit... beyond my understanding." Wow that's hard for him to say. The idea that he couldn't instantly pick up on any and all war technology, but no... it's fine... that far ahead? Definitely fine. "But it is more peaceful than Earth's past, right?" Nobunaga gestures to one of the plastic guns as he picks it up and gets ready to test it on game zombies.

"Well, depends on where you are really. Like, there have been some nasty wars, Wolf 358, The Dominion War, things like that, and some people are a lot more aggressive than others. Earth itself is lovely though! I spent time in San Fransisco for the academy." Tendi draws the plastic gun and with the other hand pulls out her phaser, showing it to Nobunaga. "This is what we use now, it's kind of a multitool as compared to just a weapon."

She hits the start button and aims down the screen. "But for the most part? It's peaceful."

"Wow!" He's brimming with the possibilities. "What else does it do? I would have never recognized it! What's the Dominion War? Oh, and academy? What do you do?"

Diana liked to think that she was pretty open-minded in two particular arenas: Sex and music. Unfortunately, she was better at talking the talk than actually walking the walk. And at the end of the day...she was actually pretty particular.

Case in point: The sound she heard screaming out of Rische that she could almost--but not quite--refer to as music.

"What the what?" she muttered to herself, pausing outside of the doors. She'd been on her way back to her room, but...

Yeah, she had to know what that was about.

So she ducked inside, her love beads clacking as she carefully approached the booth, like others might approach a wild and slightly rabid animal.

"Oh hi Diana!" Tendi gives a happy wave as she sees her friend. She turns down the music a bit as she approaches. "How are you? I haven't seen you since we had that...you know, talk at the pool, remember?" Tendi gives a slightly embarrassed grin. "We really had a conversation then didn't we?"

Merde.

The girl she'd accidentally insulted by comparing her to Elphaba.

Diana had spent a lot of sleepless time tossing and turning and fretting a little about their conversation. In retrospect, she wasn't able to pull apart how much of it had just been her, versus whatever sort of magical forces were at play on the ship. Likewise, since she didn't know Tendi all that much, she couldn't be sure about her, either.

She still seemed cheerful, at least. And she wasn't bolting out of the room, leaving behind a Tendi-shaped hole in the wall so...

Yay?

Either way, she ducked her head, nipping at her lower lip. "That's putting it mildly."

"Ah well, don't worry about it! It's all ok, really. So do you like the music? Klingon acid punk! these speakers really get the low guttural moans of the dishonored! I'm impressed, really! Almost as good as seeing them live."

Wait, what? That was it? Remarking on the conversation and letting it go just like that?

Diana was beginning to think that the magic had had nothing to do with any of it. This girl was just...chill. Not that she was complaining but...

Wow. Someone in the Order definitely would not be that relaxed about the whole thing. It was kind of groovy.

"Uh, it's really loud," she said. "Not sure what a Klingon is. Is that when your socks stick together in the dryer?"

Tendi laughs, and shakes her head. "Oh no, it's an alien race, big bulky guys with bony ridges on their foreheads, always talking about honor and oaths and stuff. Alright people, but they can be kinda...intense. Very hot blooded, you know what I mean?"

"Sound like the ancient Spartans," she said. Minus the aliens. And the bony ridges, which put Diana in the mind of a number of Nosferatu she'd met, over the centuries.

Warily, she eyed the device Tendi had plugged into the booth. Diana was total crap when it came to technology, but she was pretty sure that it was definitely not of this world. "Is that how you're streaming?"

Maybe it wasn't compatible.

Maybe that was why the music didn't really sound like music.

"Yup! Just hooked it up, and played it, seems to work pretty well! Do you not like it? It's a bit intense, I could play some classical music if you like?"

"I like classical music," she said.

Which was a more diplomatic way of saying that she wasn't so much a fan of the guttural groaning and the strange shrieking coming from the static-Klingons.

No judgment. Just not her thing.

"Oh great! Ok, I've got some that Rutherford liked...Ah, here we go!" Tendi begins playing, and the music starts playing. "Its a bit old school, but hey, I know good music when I hear it, you know?"

Diana's face split into an enormous grin. Although she thought of the song as more 'a classic' than 'classical,' it was absolutely, one million percent more her speed than the static-Klingon music.

"Oh, yeah," she said, breaking into a dance right there on the spot. She had pretty good moves, even if they were a little cliched.

Doing the monkey while listening to The Monkees?

Whatever!

Max never goes into Rische because everything about it is terrible: the music, the lights, the smell of fog machines, the people. But whatever unearthly screaming is being pumped through the speakers is loud enough to be heard from down the hall.

He actually winces, because that is a decibel that his processors are not equipped to handle. Fortunately, he can actually turn his hearing down so he's not overloaded by this, but the fact he has to do anything is extremely annoying and he's going to go be irate about this.

"Is this what passes for music in the future?" He glares at Tendi, but if his voice is even audible is debatable. He only comes in two volumes: his normal voice: lyrical, soft and mechanical, and computer noises.

"Oh hello Max!" Tendi turns down the volume, at least to the levels where conversations can be held, but the thumping and growling of the Klingons singing over the wails of the dishonored. "Well, it's one of the genres, this is Klingon Acid Punk. If you want something more...melodic, there's Kasseelian opera. Apparently, the singers train for their whole lives for one performance, and as they sing the final note, they stab a dagger into their chests."

Tendi flips through her collection of music. "I was never really that into it, as well...it's a bit...final, you know? I mean, you hear this amazing artist, and then that's it, they'll never make more."

Every interaction with Tendi makes him question if he wants to actually live to see the future.

"They commit suicide on stage while singing, and people pay to see this? And there continue to be new singers who do so?"

He really wants to ask what the hell is wrong with her universe but there's no way to ask that without a lot of cursing involved. First the cars, now music, and he's starting to wonder if the future is a mistake. Apparently even adding other species than humans to the mix doesn't help that much.

"How is that at all profitable?"

"Oh we don't really have money in my time. I mean, why would we have money, when we can just replicate things? I mean, like your suit, I can make a boat load of those exact ones, down to the molecule, for free, so why would money even exist?"

Tendi presses play on the PADD, and the music shifts from the screaming heavy noises of the Klingons to something calmer. "It's part of their culture, I suppose, not saying I get it, or even agree with it, but who am I to tell them what to do?"

"You what."

That's it. He hates the future. The future sucks. He doesn't want to hear anything else about it.

He's going to abruptly turn and go to leave before he starts making panicked fax machine noises as his processors reboot frantically trying to handle his meltdown.

"Max? Max! Are you ok?" Tendi rushes over from the DJ booth, her tricorder out, and begins to sweep it over Max, looking at the readouts. "Oh hell, you're overheating...I think your processors are trying to do too much, or maybe caught in a loop...Umm...I don't know how to reset you..."

She looks at the display on her Tricorder, the worrying red lines on the screen. "Oh! Max! Rule One of the Rules of Acquisition. Once you have their money you never give it back!"

He wants to angrily shout about how of course he's overheating because no one could make sense of the ridiculous information she just said. Anyone would do the same! This is a normal reaction!

"They're not caught in a loop, and if you try to reset me you won't have any appendages left to do... whatever it is you're doing with that thing." He glares at the tricorder like it's personally offended him, which it has by informing Tendi that his precious car is an antique.

He's still storming out of there, to go scream into a pillow or something, which won't work because that's not really where his voice box is, but then she yells at him and he actually pauses. Turning to look at her he blinks, "What?"

Well she has his attention now anyway.

"The Ferengi rules of Acquisition. Number 48, The bigger the smile, the shaper the knife." Tendi has pulled her pad out and is quickly scrolling though files. "I have some of the recorded ones here, there's some that the everyday people don't know, but also they could mess with the numbers just to screw with people..."

"Ah! Number 9. Opportunity plus instinct equals profit. Ferengi are all about profit, they love themselves some Gold-Pressed Latinum."

He.... does not understand what's happening. There's the desire to leave so he doesn't have to hear more terrible things about the future, but also she said the magic word.

"What's Gold-Pressed Latinum?" He's never heard of Latinum, but gold he likes, and gold pressed sounds intriguing.

"Ahh, well Latinum is a silvery liquid metal, think Mercury, but with a kind of...sparkle or shine on the surface, it's actually quite pretty in it's liquid form. It's very very rare, forms in nebulas I think...But most importantly, it can't be replicated! So it's rarity is actually meaningful. I mean, take a diamond. That's just carbon arranged in a uniform pattern, utterly simple to create in a replicator. That's why they use gold, they take the gold, which is worthless, and infuse tiny bits of the latinum into it, and make strips, bricks, bars and the like!"

Tendi thinks for a moment. "I think you'd really like the Ferengi. And the Orion Syndicate."

Alright, he's liking what he's hearing here. Not the part about diamonds being easy to replicate, but the rest of it is good.

Well not the gold being worthless thing either. Okay, the only good thing is the rarity of this mercury shiny thing that gets mixed with gold into bars. THAT is good. He is intrigued.

"So there's still an economy in your world? I thought you said everything was free."

"Well, the Federation doesn't use money. The economy is complex, once you reach post-scarcity, things change very quickly. And replicators can't make everything, there are some things that are too complex to make easily. But energy-to-matter conversion solves a lot of problems in the world, you know? And some places do use money, either cause they don't want to give up the power or it's just too big of a part of their society. When your entire culture is built on making profit, having a piece of technology that makes your piles of gold worthless is not really accepted."

"And there's always the people who claim that replicated food tastes worse than cooked food, but I don't get that, it's the exact same!"

"Because things are better when there was some effort put in. Especially if it's your own plan you see coming to fruition. Naturally I'm not sure about cooking food, as I don't eat, but I imagine it's similar to business. I could have simply bought my way into some of my supply routes for my distillery, and that would have had the same result. But crushing the competition and forcing myself into the market feels so much more... fulfilling."

"I suppose, but remember, post-sacristy. I'm not great at economics, but when the supply is infinite, doesn't matter how much or how good the item is. Also, buying your way in could've left you with allies, whereas crushing your competition just leaves you with enemies, you know?"

"Enemies are more fun. Allies are people who will betray you later rather than sooner. It's all about knowing the true costs really."

[Half of the games around the arcade had the same two names at the top of the leader boards JNX & EKO. The two of them seemed to constantly be battling and stealing one another's spots until the ghosts decide to reset the whole thing and they have to start over again.

Currently, Ekko was completely crushing Pac-man once again. Having already figured out all the patterns and moves he'd have to make.]

I've already won this game, doing it again just for fun.

"Oh, Hi! I'm Tendi. I've heard of this game, heh, even in my time people still know Pac-Man, it's one of those retro things some people have in their quarters, like a globe or something you know?"

"I'm Ekko, and not really. Hadn't seen this until I came here, though I've seen games similar. They're all pretty easy once you have the pattern figured out, it's all about timing and getting it just right."

An almost too close call with one of the ghosts helps to emphasize the point as he nabs the pellet and pivots back on it without missing a beat.

"Haven't seen a lot of other people hanging around here. You been on board long?"

"Oh a bit, a few months. Been mainly working over in the medical bay, helping anyone who needs it, even if most of the people here don't really seem to worry much about treatment!"

"Med bay, so you're some kind of doc then? Wasn't sure if they had an actual on board, well besides the guy that Jinx keeps mentioning, assumed she was just amking him up"

Ekko hadn't been in a position to use the medical bay just yet. Thought Jinx had seen enough of Watson to have included him on her list of favorites, and someone she'd embarrassed with horrible teasing.

"You really help anyone or just those who can return a favor?"

"Yup, well, Medical Ensign, but I have full medical training! And of course, why would I refuse to give someone help who needs it?"

"Not something that I've seen most of those here would be willing to do. Good to know there are at least a few that get it, and aren't just looking for the quick solution."

"But what if I forget to magnet!?"

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