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WHO: Jean-Luc Picard
WHERE: 7i (forest shrine)
WHEN: Sept. 27th
OPEN TO: Samantha Moon
WARNINGS: None atm; will update as necessary

For all that there's no denying that the foxes that seem to be all over the secondary settlement - which he's almost certain is going to need a better name at some point - have gone from minor inconvenience to genuine nuisance, there's still quite a bit of the area to be explored. Not that he's really expecting to find anything, but he figures that it can't hurt to try. And not just because there's at least one person he's promised to share any relevant findings with.

Admittedly, he wouldn't normally be interested in the forest itself - he'd much rather be exploring caves if he had the option - but since forests are what there are, forests it is. And if nothing else, he supposes he might happen across some interesting plant life to mention to Beverly later. Coming across not just a building tucked away but something that would appear to be something like a shrine, on the other hand, is more than a a little intriguing. Especially given that if he's not wrong, it happens to be drawing from some of Earth's cultures. Which doesn't mean that they are still on Earth, but is certainly intriguing all the same.

Not that he can say that he's terribly familiar with the cultures this particular shrine seems to be drawing from, but he recognizes it all the same.

Still, once his curiosity has been piqued, he can't simply leave it, when it's likely going to be more interesting than trying to take stock of the variety of trees in the forest and he makes for what would appear to be the front door without so much as a second thought. And if he's being carefully to not disturb anything too much, he figures that's a reasonable precaution, given that he's had his fair share of unexpected accidents happening as a result of something similar. And given that there's already foxes very nearly everyone in the secondary village itself, the last thing he wants to do is accidentally make things worse.

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Sam had never really thought of herself as the adventuring type, but there was no doubt that she was a curious soul. And that her experiences as a Kindred--the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly--had definitely made her bolder than any North Shore girl could ever dream of being. So, really, she didn't see it as a big deal to decide that morning to just kinda wander around the new town. Maybe there was something worth scavenging. She was very good at scavenging.

Instead, she found the shrine.

Some of the architecture reminded her of snippets from her intro art history classes. They'd been pretty heavy into Renaissance art, but there had been a section on Japanese buildings. It hadn't been in the textbook, but her teacher, Mr. Kaplan, had been a little more progressive than whoever in Texas put together the curriculum and decided it was worth a couple weeks.

Needless to say, she absolutely had to draw it.

She plopped down right in the middle of a pathway, criss-cross-applesauce, leaning her notebook against one knee, working careful lines of charcoal into what quickly resembled a portrait of the landscape. Her work would have made Mr. Kaplan proud. If he was still alive, which, of course, she had no way of knowing and probably never would.

It's certainly not impossible that there's something worthwhile by way of scavenging. Admittedly, Jean-Luc's explorations haven't quite gotten that far, but given that it seems to be a fairly accurate replica of the village he's more used to, it's certainly not impossible that there are things that could be borrowed for other uses. Of course, it'll probably help to not have quite so many foxes underfoot, but at least it isn't tribbles, for all that he's only heard of the latter by reputation.

That said, for all that the shrine isn't precisely hidden, he can't say that he'd been expecting to find someone else there as well. And certainly not someone he's familiar with besides. Nor would he have been able to avoid her, even if he'd wanted, not with her sitting in the middle of the pathway he happens to be using.

Still, it isn't until he draws near enough to see what she's doing that he speaks up.

"That's some impressive workmanship, if you don't mind me saying."

Certainly better than he could manage, at any rate.

One of the downsides of being Kindred--and then not Kindred--was that Sam could never really lose herself to...well...anything. As much as she loved drawing, it no longer kept her attention 100 percent of the time. It was just too dangerous not to be aware of your surroundings. So she heard him coming. And a part of her might have been bracing for some kind of collision, until she heard the familiar voice and breathed out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.

She turned to glance over at Baldy, expecting him to be talking about their surroundings. They were impressive. But he was looking at her drawing, which gave her just the teeniest, tiniest little surge of pride.

Once a desperate AP student, forever a desperate AP student. Or something.

"Thanks," she said, dipping her head just slightly. "It's just a rough sketch. I mean, who knows if this place'll even be here tomorrow, the way things are around here."

The surroundings are impressive as well, it's true. But it had seemed more appropriate to have her drawing be the first thing he mentioned rather than anything else. Not least of all on account of the work that has very clearly gone into it, for all that it's only a rough sketch.

"I'd like to think it'll still be here tomorrow," he answers with a brief shrug. "Although I suppose it's not impossible that catastrophe will strike overnight. In which case, I suppose no one would object if we had a look inside the structure itself."

To say nothing of the fact that he's always been prone to a little bit of curiosity. But even without that, far better for it to have turned out that there isn't anything of particular interest inside the shrine then for it to have turned out that there was, only for the structure to be rendered inaccessible by one means or another. Especially given that it seems like the sort of thing that Observers might do. Or rather, it's the sort of thing that Q might do, and so far he's figuring that the Observers at least have a similar outlook on this whole affair.

"My mother always said, 'Hope for the best, expect the worst.'" Which had actually proven a fairly handy motto, considering the twisted and blockaded path that Sam's life had ended up taking.

And that was even before this place.

She gave Baldy a thoughtful look, before snapping her notebook shut and getting up to her feet. Her first impression of him had been a little less than sterling. She'd hated the fact that he seemed to be withholding the future from her. But hey, if he wanted to go poking the proverbial bear, she was happy to play along. It was a specialty of hers.

And...maybe...must maybe, it was entirely possible that she'd considered delving deeper into the shrine but had realized that going alone maybe wasn't the best plan in her catalog of plan-shaped things.

Maybe.

"It's a good saying."

And one that's applicable to a surprising number of situations. Enugh so even that he wouldn't be surprised if it were the unofficial motto for any of a number of people in Starfleet. Perhaps not in so many words, mind. But it's not an unfamiliar sentiment all the same.

"Especially in situations like these, or so I've generally found."

Not that he wouldn't have been willing to poke the metaphorical bear all on his own - not when he's made something of a career of doing so, albeit often politely - but having another set of eyes can't hurt. Especially when Sam's likely a good deal more familiar with what to expect out of things like this than he is. Or at least, is more familiar the various things that can and have happened in the settlement and beyond than he is.

Still, as far as he can tell, nothing seems to be actively impeding their approach to the shrine, and that's certainly a better start than some of the other beginnings to explorations that he's been a part of.

Sam took the lead, an unconscious habit she'd picked up from Avery. Not for the first time, she wished that he was around, even if she was equally likely to punch him in the face as hug him. She supposed that was normal for vampire families. Especially ones as severely fucked up as hers. Well, she'd live up to his spirit, anyway.

And pay the consequences for it later.

"Wish I knew more about botany," she muttered, letting her fingertips brush against the leaves of a bush along the path. "I'll bet some of these plants are interesting as fuck."

At least they were marginally different from the other ones she'd seen. She may not have been a botanist, but she did have eyes. Perfect vision, actually. Went hand in hand with being genetically engineered.

It's odd, a little, to have someone who isn't one of his crew taking point. But for all that he is used to command, and is at least not unused to taking point himself, he doesn't argue either. If Sam feels comfortable taking point, he's going to assume that there's a reason for it - and in either case, it's not like being the captain of the Enterprise is going to mean much, here.

(Which he still finds a little strange, but he's trying to not let it bother him too much.)

"I'm afraid I'm not much of a botanist. But I do know someone here who is; assuming this is all still here tomorrow, I'd be willing to at least mention it to her."

He isn't going to promise that Beverly is going to be interested. He wouldn't be surprised if she were, of course. But he's not simply going to assume, either. Not when it's starting to become fairly clear that just about anything can happen here. And the last thing he wants to do is pull Beverly away from anything more pressing that might present itself simply to see what she makes of a few plants.

Sam glanced over her shoulder at him, her ginger eyebrows disappearing under the fringe of her wig for a moment. "So," she said, "turns out you're one of them too, huh? One of the people who has friends from home here." She made no attempt to hide her consternation at this fact. It was an unending source of internal debate for her. She wouldn't wish this place on her friends. And, honestly, she wouldn't wish her enemies on this place.

They were that bad.

But that didn't offset the loneliness. Sam always felt alone, even when she was in a room full of people. But this? This was a new kind of alone. If she disappeared one day, no one here would notice. And as emo as she could get as a teenager, at least she could honestly say that wouldn't have been the case back home.

She pushed forward, turning her head up to keep from any kind of cry-face. "This looks just like the Takekoma Inari Shrine," she said, deciding it was best to change the subject. "It was the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan. At least, in my time. I studied it as a student."

One of Jean-Luc's eyebrow creeps up his forehead at the comment, but other than that, he makes no effort to deny it. It might not be impossible that he'd managed to find someone here who was something of a botanist and had the matter come up in conversation besides, but he's not going to deny that there are people he knows from home here. Only one of whom he's actually spoken to, but he supposes he can't entirely blame Major Nerys for not seeking him out. Not when they've barely spoken even back in their own continuity.

"I am," he answers, with a brief nod. And while there's more he certainly could say on that matter he figures that brevity is likely the better option here. Especially given the implication that Sam herself isn't one of those people, and that anything he might say will likely come off sounding as a platitude at best, given that he'd arrived to find his best friend already here.

(Which raises some very interesting questions about the state of the Enterprise, just at the moment, but those aren't anything he needs to burden Sam with.)

"I wouldn't be able to say if it's still standing, in my time. My studies at the Academy never quite managed to cover that particular time period."

There's also the fact that the wars of the early 21st century did quite a number on the world as a whole. Not that other majorly important structures hadn't survived, but he'd been a little more interested in archeology than more recent history.

It took everything in Sam's power not to ask a million questions about his Academy. Was that a future college where he learned to be a spaceman? If so, she wasn't sure how practical it would be to study Japanese history. Who cared about Japan when you could hang out on Yavin IV or something like that?

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she could hear Avery scolding her for such a thought:

Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Those who fail to learn history correctly were simply doomed.

Although she would be the first to point out that her knowledge of Japanese shinto shrines had hardly helped avert the doom that befell their world. Sometimes, Sam enjoyed arguing way too much. It was no wonder Tom had suggested that she ought to be a lawyer.

"Well," she drawled, "in my time, it's in Iwanuma. And the shrine is also home to a horsemanship museum. I always wanted to visit." Add that to the very, very, very long list of places that Sam would never get to see. "Some horses would be handy around here."

It might not be entirely accurate to call the Academy a sort of college. But other than Sam's guess is pretty much entirely accurate. Admittedly there's also a bit of a military bent to it besides, but that's something that he figures he can leave be until such time as it should actually happen to come up. Assuming it does in the first place, but that's not something he means to spend a significant amount of time worrying about just at the moment.

That said, he wouldn't entirely deny that Earth's history isn't important. It's just that there's quite a lot of it, and the more general history courses are taxed enough making sure the basics are adequately covered.

"I suspect this one isn't likely to be home to a museum. And while I certainly can't deny that horses would make things easier, there would also be the matter of housing and feeding them at the very least."

Admittedly, most of the horses he's been familiar with have been the sort than only exist on the holodeck, but he's not entirely unaware of the needs of flesh and blood horses, and he can't say that he's seen a whole lot of pasture around the settlement even if that isn't a strict requirement for a horse's well-being.

Sam shrugged. If wishes were horses. Literally, in this case. "We do have some farm animals, though," she pointed out. "Goats and cows. Not a lot of them. Just enough for a little bit of butter and cheese."

And where they came from was anyone's guess.

And there was still the matter of the mysterious source of lye that Helen was using to make soap. Sam had decided it was probably best not to ask too many questions about that.

Helen was, perhaps, the only person in the clown rodeo that Sam found even remotely intimidating. She couldn't exactly say why. Maybe it had something to do with respect. Because she damn well respected the woman. And related to the pain of trying to work scientifically with severely limited resources.

Sadly, the question of where the farm animals happen to have come from isn't one that he can answer. Not that he wouldn't have been more than willing to do without butter and cheese if it had absolutely come to that, but it would certainly have been a far cry from what he's used to.

Not that there hasn't already been a number of things he's had to get used to not having, but surely it's better to have at least a few luxuries than none at all? Even if one of those luxuries happens to be something as simple as soap.

"Better a little than none at all, I'd imagine. And who knows, perhaps we will find horses turning up, some day."

It's a slim hope, and he knows it. But there's nothing to lose by hoping, at the very least.

"Well," she said. "It would be hilarious, if nothing else." Because the idea of some of the people in this clown rodeo trying to ride the horses was a whole separate issue. Particularly Major. And for some reason, she always pictured Major shirtless while on a horse.

With a shake of her head, she dismissed the notion.

They were at the entrance to the shrine and Sam hesitated. She'd dealt with far too many booby traps in her life to feel comfortable just walking inside. Especially when there were any other people around to set precedent.

At least she had Lady Gray's booby traps to go on.

She held up her hand to Baldy, signalling him to stop. Outside of the entrance, she knelt down, dropping her head to the ground. A trip wire was the first, most obvious problem. Given the angle of the sun, she thought she might catch a glimpse of something. But there didn't seem to be any indication of one.

"I'm not sure that's quite the word I would have used. But it would certainly be something, at least."

Still, it's a moot point until such time as horses do show up. Assuming they ever show up, but that's a matter for another time. Not the least of all because they've arrived at the entrance of the shrine proper. And if he can't quite manage to keep a flicker of a smile off his face as she holds up a hand to indicate that she should stop, he at least manages to keep quiet about it.

Nor, for that matter, can he say that she's wrong to want to check for traps. He might not be terribly familiar with how the Observers tend to work, but given that he hasn't any way of knowing what to expect (and has known a few cases similar to this where there have been traps of one sort or another) it certainly can't hurt.

"I'm not seeing anything from this angle either," he offers after a moment or two. Admittedly, he doesn't have any good way of checking for something more sophisticated than a trip wire, just at the moment. But to the best of his knowledge, the shrine is nothing more and nothing less than it seems to be. Even for all that it doesn't quite match to the rest of the architecture present in either settlement.

Sam scowled a little bit. The odds were she would have felt better if she actually had found a trap. At least that would give her a pretty obvious next step. Without a trap, she had to face the possibility of just, you know, walking in. Like a fucking person or something.

She clamored back to her feet, brushing the dust of her palms off of each other. "I once walked into a bunker. My brother tripped something in the tiles and caused a trap door to open. He nearly got himself impaled."

It was, if she thought about it, more than she'd actually said about her life before to, well, anyone here.

A weird memory to start being open with, but there you had it.

Tentatively, she took the spine of her journal and tapped it against the floor. It sounded pretty solid. A good case to make against trap doors. "I guess we won't have to relive that today."

Sometimes there really isn't anything for it but to step into the lion's jaws. Admittedly, there's no teleporter room standing ready here, capable of snatching them out of harm's way if things should go south. But he can't entirely imagine that the Observers would be willing to simply kill their test-subjects outright. Cause significant harm to, perhaps, if the plague that's just recently run through the settlement is anything to go by, but certainly (hopefully!) not anything past that.

"I'm glad he didn't. It's not anything I'd call particularly comfortable."

And he should know! He'd survived it, yes. But that really speaks more to the medical abilities of the era rather than anything to do with where he'd been impaled. Not that he's going to mention that part just at the moment, mind. But it's still something that he'd be hard pressed to forget all the same.

Instead, there's a nod at her comment about them likely not needing to worry about reliving that particular moment. Once was quite enough and he knows very well that it would be harder to repair that sort of injury here.

"Shall we see what the inside looks like, then?"

Sam gave Baldy a curious glance. He sounded like he was speaking from personal experience there. Which, of course, made her want to ask all the questions.

She didn't, though.

Not because she was trying to be on her best behavior. Sam didn't do the behavior thing. But she figured the shrine was probably more urgent. And probably more likely to vanish without a warning than Baldy.

At least, based on her prior experiences.

"Sure," she said, tearing her gaze away from him reluctantly.

Nothing to do and nowhere to go but forward.

He certainly doesn't mean to leave, at least. Whether or not he will at some point is likely another matter entirely, but it's not anything he means to dwell on either. And while he's certainly not unwilling to explain the situation that had ended up in him getting impaled, he can't fault her for wanting to prioritize exploring something that might not end up lasting all that long.

But rather than actually directly say as much, he simply nods, and then takes a careful step into the shrine. It's only once that first careful step doesn't result in them tripping a trap that he steps in further. And unless Sam has any specific objections he takes point without really so much as a second thought. Even if that does mean stopping once they're both inside so he can have a proper look at whatever they might happen to be dealing with.

She let him take the lead. But mostly because she'd seen a lot of movies where some sort of mechanism slammed the door shut and then the guy with the chainsaw showed up to murder the campers. Fortunately, as he moved forward into the shrine, the door continued to remain wide open. And after a moment, Sam moved to follow.

It was almost tempting to call out, "Here, chainsaw guy, chainsaw guy, chainsaw guy."

But she was betting Baldy wouldn't appreciate the joke.

No one got her.

Whetting her lips, she looked up at the ceiling. "This is an incredible replica," she said. "Exact same crossbeams and everything."

It's a little less that he wouldn't appreciate the joke - he does have something of a sense of humor, for all that it's not always immediately apparent - and more that he wouldn't get it. He hasn't really made much of a habit of watching any of the videos from the early parts of Earth's history that have managed to survive through to his time. He's aware that some have, yes. But hunting them down and managing to find time to watch them is another matter entirely, especially when he could simply curl up with a good book instead.

(Not that there aren't books that do similarly, of course. But it's a different sort of experience, and he tends towards other genres besides.)

"Surely it can't be here just for that, though. Unless the Observers thought we needed a shrine like this?"

Which isn't necessarily impossible, but certainly strikes him as being more than a little unusual.

"Mmm, somehow, I doubt their nefarious scheme is to make us all get religion," she said. Although, in all fairness, the town did have a church. "Or to give us something pretty to look at." Although, in all fairness, the town did have a Major.

Feeling bolder than was probably warranted, Sam started down the middle of the shrine, craning her neck in every direction. "If I remember my art history class, the primary kami of Takekoma Inari Shrine is Ukanomitama." She butchered the pronunciation a little. "I think he's some kind of god of farming."

Traditionally identified as with Inari?

She was better with the Old Testament.

Sam brushed a piece of synthetic hair behind her ear and turned to look up ahead. And that's when she saw the pod.

"...that's not traditional Japanese shinto."

"It's not impossible. But I'll admit that it's not the most likely of outcomes."

And even if the Observers have put the shrine where it is with the intention of encouraging the population into religion, it's certainly not a very well-done attempt, to say the least. Not to mention it would a fairly significant misunderstanding of human nature besides. True, there might well be some people in the settlement who would be glad to see a shrine like this present, but that's hardly the same as everyone deciding to take up that particular religion.

"That's at least in keeping with the lifestyle they've been trying to encourage, if nothing else. Assuming they knew enough to pick what shrine they wanted to recreate based on the deity primarily associated with the shrine in question."

Still, it's not really something that Jean-Luc can say that he's terribly familiar with. And given that he's hardly the most familiar with the various whims of the Observers he's not about to rule out the possibility that this particular shrine had been very much deliberately chosen.

Still, any further thoughts he might have had along those lines are cut short by the sight of the pod.

"It's not traditional anything I should think. And it's certainly not something that I'd expect to see here."

Which doesn't stop him from drawing near all the same, in the hopes of being able to get at least some idea of whether or not it looks like any sort of technology he's familiar with.

Sam was a bit more reserved. She remained where she was, watching Baldy approach. "Do you know what it is?" she asked. It had a whiff of tech about it, but she couldn't be sure. Engineering was an area of science where she tended to...stall. Just a little bit. She was great with software and all, but not so much with the more hands-on science of hardware.

If Max were here, he'd be all over the damn thing in a second.

But, of course, Max was also kind of fucking insane. So it was probably for the best that he wasn't around.

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