"A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk."

The Sensoriums are being used; this in and of itself is not news to anyone, as the ship has a multitude of active crewmembers now and any of them can be seen in the cavernous VR room at any moment.

No, the oddness doesn't register until you actually walk in to the current user projection. If you're human, that is.

A vast expanse of grass stretches as far as the eye can see. A huge meadow, held in by trees and peppered with flowers like tulips, devil's paintbrush and broom shrub; in the distance, a small pond, bordered by stones and overseen by a twisted old oak. The eye, however, seems not to catch much. The blades of grass are oddly hazy; only when they move, whistling lightly in the wind, do they suddenly become incredibly crisp, each individual strand as striking as the next. The entire field is like this; each time the branches creak the movement is incredibly sharp, and each bee and butterfly alighting on each flowerbud is in clear relief. Rabbits hide in the grass, their quivering bodies pulsing with each heartbeat.

Wonder of wonders, no matter where you go or how you carry yourself--the grass always seems to be at chest level. How odd.

There is no red to be seen, not in the tulips or the paintbrushes; the yellow of the broom flowers in tinged with green. The grass is ludicrously green, the sky and the water both ridiculously blue. No orange in the brown rabbit fur; only a bluish grey. The tree bark is as grey as slate, and the clouds are white and diaphanous.

But the smells. The scents are nothing you could experience from an ordinary human nose. Some people with lighter stomach may find themselves overwhelmed. The cloying scent of flowers, the honey smell of bees, the dusty, bloody scent of the rabbits; every stone, every tree, every strand of grass has its own taste, its own smell.

If you hustle around in this wierd world for a minute, you can find Bandit, dozing lightly in a sunny patch of grass.

"Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives."
- Sue Murphy

Those first hours, after he got back from meeting the returnees from the mission--he slept. In the warm, soft hollow of his tiny sleeping nook he slept the sleep of the dead, and Stacy left him with the firm knowledge that no one would disturb him, he wouldn't be woken for a mission or testing, and he could just rest. For as long as he wanted. He slept until he couldn't anymore, until his legs and body felt cramped beneath him, and the need to stretch was unbearable. So he went exploring. Nose to the ground, with that permanent fleshy scent filling his nostrils, he went about the myriad caverns of the meatship.

The only possession he'd reclaimed was a bright red collar; there was a faded copper tag, with the name 'BANDIT' in big, blocky letters. On the flipside was the name of his owner, but the letters were smaller and faded with wear. John? Jane? And a telephone number: 5something5-23somethingsomething. The collar had come with a box. A big box. But Bandit knew what was in the box, and so he left it alone. He never wanted that again, and Stacy knew. He went back there only once--and the box was gone. So maybe it was for the best.

His first stop had been the mess hall--the food dispenser was his new best friend for life. It scanned him once, and produced the same good-sized portion of kibble it had given him previously. Once that was done, some three-odd seconds later, he made it scan him again, but the ration was smaller this time. I refused to scan him again, stating sufficient fulfillment of nutritional requirements. It would not be swayed--not even by puppy eyes. Made by an actual puppy.

This thing was on to him. So Bandit moved on.

Bandit found his way to the media library, and was busily examining the various terminals. They weren't coughing up anything of note, however; they just did things like play music or start talking at him, which he was pretty sure was a Bad Thing because the last time he'd made something make too much noise he had been punished. Cautious dog is very careful.


ooc. Feel free to come upon Bandit either in the mess hall, the sleeping halls, or the media library.