Confusion on the Holodeck
25
SEP/20
They worked their way slowly through the smoke filled corridors, unable to see more than a few inches in front of them; their faces covered with scarves to protect them from the caustic-smelling, but seemingly benign, clouds that filled the halls – clouds whose sole purpose seemed to be to confound their senses and keep them from knowing where they were going. It had taken them hours to uncover the secret to the pyramid and locate these lower quarters; standing in the flames in order to be transported down here was inspired trickery. Now they wormed their way through the catacombs and there was a very real risk in getting turned around and lost down here. Thankfully Wo…No, David. David. He ran the name through his head, Stay in character dammit. David and Sora had both worked on constructing crude maps to try to keep track of where they had gone. Thankfully, both of their drawings seemed to be pretty well in agreement and the party was making good progress through the fog-filled dungeon part of this simulation. As far as team building exercises went, this one was far more enjoyable than most. It was just so damned hard to stay in character!
The characters of Sora and David had the most obvious inspirations, as Worf and Deanna had each just switched roles with one another. The Security Officer was usually the brawler, upfront and fighting with his wicked bat’leth, glorying in the battle. Now, playing as the Empath, he had completely switched places with Deanna – who seemed to be having a blast charging into the fray and slashing at the myriads of 1’s and 0’s that the Programmer threw at them with her wicked scythe – while Worf hung back and used mystic mind powers on their enemies. Every now and again, he would tire of the charade and the warrior in him would force him to engage in hand-to-hand combat, manifesting a lightsaber and charging into mêlée. Data would then complain that this weapon was a relic of a completely different franchise, and conflating the two worlds was a violation of sacrosanct fandom principles, to which Worf would retort that the sword was “bad-ass” and that he didn’t care. He did call it a “mindblade” though, so as to avoid any trademark infringements, but we all know what the weapon is really based on.
Data seemed to have no problem with playing an elf with ties to a Dark Goddess, falling into the role with ease. The android’s yearning to embrace life seemed to be tied in his character’s own desire for freedom, and it was a joy to see him embrace the psychological introspection in this role. His character’s name just seemed a little too close to his own – merely substituting a couple of vowels to become Naga, but otherwise the persona was totally original; well aside from just trading being a crack shot with a phaser for launching arcane eldritch blasts with the same deadly accuracy, that is. Those tattoos were pretty damned cool, too.
O’Brien didn’t really seem to give a whole lot of thought to his character, he just truly seemed to want to hit things; using the many combats as a type of therapy – charging to the front lines and kicking and punching things to death. When he tired of that, he incorporated a more arcane bent to his character of Oni, shooting beams of light and even wielding arcane magic – though he seemed to enjoy the pugilism most of all. It did seem mean that the Programmer had kept throwing spiders at them, as the Chief was very arachnophobic – but perhaps that was the purpose of these simulations: to break us out of our usual roles and embrace our fears? The Chief just couldn’t break out of his role in fixing things though, even in this simulation: though he did call it magical Mending now, in an effort to “stay in character.” That was a nice touch.
This character of Mar’iya/Vashir didn’t really go the way I had expected when it was assigned to me. It looked like a great opportunity to break out of my normal role, and play more of an outsider, asshole, and logistician, rather than someone who jumps into the fray without thinking. Having access to a wide array of powers is fun, but I wonder if I would be able to handle them in real life? I mean, if I were granted the mystical powers of a being like Q, and imbued with the magic of the Continuum, would I abuse them? That power would be so tempting, I am not sure I could let it go if the….
Whaaa! Whaaa! Whaaa! The alarm bells sounded as the Enterprise lurched wildly, the illusory walls of the Holodeck flickered and wavered out of existence and for a moment the five of them stood looking in bewilderment at their doppelgangers in the fantasy world; doppelgangers who seemed to stare back at them in confusion as well, exhibiting a surprising level of sentience for digital constructs. All hands on deck! Romulan warbirds have uncloaked and opened fire.
As the walls reformed around them, the five adventurers looked at one another in confusion. Oni spoke at long last, “Well, I guess we aren’t going to talk about that.” The others nodded in assent and looked at each other in silence for a long moment. Sora finally spoke up after the long pause, “Let’s go throw one of these bodies on the ‘X’ in that other room and see what happens…”