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TEST DRIVE MEME #4
1. you will survive being bested
[you wake up.
it doesn't matter where you were before. going to bed? dying? opening the door to face a great evil? same result. you wake up in a soft bed with starched sheets in a cool, darkened room, sunlight peeking out from behind thick curtains. maybe you're alone; maybe you aren't. maybe you immediately notice the folded paper on the bedside table near your head. if you don't, you better fix that real quick: you won't be able to even open the door before you read it.
the note itself is written in a neat hand on white card stock; there is a stylized logo of a ship with the words SERENA ETERNA printed underneath. the note reads as follows:
Dear Passenger(s),
As your cruise director, it is my great honor to welcome you aboard the Serena Eterna, your destination for fun and adventure! We know you could have chosen any cruise line for your vacation, and we're very grateful you chose ours! On behalf of the Captain, I would like to assure each and every passenger that will we do whatever it takes to fulfill all your needs and desires during your journey with us.
At your earliest possible convenience, please attend the mandatory lifeboat drill by the end of the day. I'm sure everyone is very eager to get started on all the fun and sun, but safety always comes first! You can find your life jacket in your cabin's closet; carry it to your assigned muster station on deck one, where I will take you through the drill. If you can't find me in the crowd, just look for the gal with the winning smile!
See You Real Soon!
Sincerely,
Gal Friday
you walk to deck one. you have no other choice: every time you try to step in a direction some unseen being considers "not towards deck one," you find your legs no longer move, staying stock still, frozen. whether compelled quickly by curiosity, or delayed by pure stubbornness, the result is the same, and you are left milling around with other similarly curious or stubborn people.
you see someone in uniform near the front of the crowd. she seems to be a gal, but is missing the winning smile, along with most of her other features. she seems to see you, though, rushing to your side and placing a lei around your neck with great formality. a voice, cheery but artificial, sees to come from nowhere and everywhere.]
Welcome! We're... I'm very glad to have you aboard!
[you touch the lei. rooster feathers, lotus seeds, and a carved circle of something white and hard, linked onto a silk string.
after the drill is completed, you are seemingly free to go. or, well, your legs work, now. and maybe that's as good as it's gonna get.]
2. think about how many times I have fallen
[for the most part, no one has given the elevators much thought. they've all done their job reliably and dutifully this entire time, never so much as being blocked off for maintenance.
until today, when the doors close behind you as you enter, and don't open again.
for the most part, that's all that happens. the doors can't be pried open, or broken with force or magic, and though the glass walls remain stubbornly shatterproof, you can look through them and try to get the attention of anyone outside. (Friday, down in the atrium, sees your desperately pounding fists and gives a wave, but does nothing else.) the elevators don't move... except, when they do. going up two or three stories, and then dropping, sometimes as many as five stories at a time, stopping just as suddenly.]
3. it was the easiest thing to do
["physically assaulting people is an easy way to get attention" was probably a very bad lesson for the neglected locations to have learned, but it they did it anyway.
this time, it's the sushi restaurant on the promenade, Mikabo. it turns out, the conveyor belt can go faster than one would assume. much faster, actually, with the apparently ability to stop on a dime. both of these factors have combined to create what is functionally a pitching machine, but for dragon rolls, wads of wasabi paste, and exceedingly sharp steak knives, all of which are being aimed at anyone foolish enough to walk by the doors of the restaurant without coming in.
its aim, at the very least, doesn't seem to be the best. for now. because it very much seems like it's getting better.]
robin buckley ▶ stranger things
❰ none of this is normal, but things being not normal...seems kind of par for the course for robin, lately. the smells of this place isn't so dank and acrid, nor as dark as the upside down. breathing in doesn't make her feel like she should be wearing eight gasmasks stacked one on top of the other...so that's a plus! definitely an otherworldly experience on the opposite end of the spectrum.
not a conformist, robin does try her hand at doing something other than the directive, but eventually the curiosity compels her to just go with the flow: what is it that is so important that every direction she walks that isn't correct leaves her totally incapable of movement?
upon complying, robin is adorned with a lei, which illicit a small laugh. then it grows into a much larger one, full of disbelief and bemusement. ❱ Okay, this one was definitely the winner before, but now— oh my god, this is insane. ❰ she continues to laugh, turning to the person next to her, ❱ I cannot believe I'm trapped in some freaky Magnum P.I. universe and the ocean — well some ocean — is just...there, it's just right. There.
— two
❰ contrary to the prompt, robin isn't pounding on anything. for as little deja vu as the boat had given her — she's been to a local lake a few times, a river at camp, but the ocean? nah — this is actually an experience she's been through before. the sudden dropping and stopping and rising and falling is...not great, not something she's as used to. it's making her pretty nauseous, but so far she's been able to swallow down any potential...messiness.
after the most recent halting, right after another five story drop, she speaks up from her place flat against the wall, voice tight. ❱ So. I'm not gonna make it through another one of those without ruining my shoes. Yours too, probably ❰ her stomach turns again and she has to take a moment to make sure its contents stay firmly in place ❱ if that's any inspiration for coming up with a game plan.
*fangirls so hard* ONE
[...and this organic seems downright giddy about it. No one's that giggly. Not even Wing.]
You get hit in the head or something? [It's a logical theory.]
no subject
it dies down momentarily so robin can catch her breath, ❱ Oh shit, I-- I had to have. A Saturday morning marketing ploy is concerned for my well-being.
❰ maybe this isn't yet another parallel plane of supernatural existence. maybe she really has snapped. robin lets out a long exhale followed by a nervous chuckle. ❱ You at all concerned about, like...rust? I'm not sure how well ocean air interacts with alien metal...or however that works; I'm admittedly not on the up and up with "giant robot from space" lore.
no subject
What the frag is so funny? [It better not be him. He is a very serious robot.]
I don't rust. [He says the word like it's 'herpes' or something. Nope, he simply is too stubborn to rust.]
no subject
No, no, no, no— It's tragic if anything! I remember Mr. Coston's biology in freshman year and we had to do this group experiment on corrosion, so we put these nails in a bunch of different liquids — one being salt water — and that one was just. Brown at the end of it all. So if that's what you get to look forward to— but I guess hyper-scientific alien metal is way stronger than an everyday board nail.
❰ having said all of that, it immediately seems...irrelevant and useless. previous otherworldly scenarios have all been vastly helped by logic and reason, but the vibe of this particular encounter is way less'lab experiment gone freakishly wrong' and instead 'i think this is what being on drugs is like, probably.' ❱ I think I'm just trying to talk my way into understanding how I'm on a cruise ship next to a space robot.
no subject
Pretty sure what happens to organic matter also ain't pretty. [So there. ]
Hnff. That's easy. [Which is to say, Deadlock has a theory.] Some rich elites kidnapped us for fun. Probably gonna make us fight each other or something.
no subject
Normally I would immediately discount that theory, because it does seem insane, but right now infinite possibilities all sound likely at the same time.
❰ her voice settles into a rough whisper for this next part: ❱ We should make a pact now that if that's what's going on here, we have to band together to overthrow them instead of some death match, because hand-to-hand combat is not my strong suit. ❰ especially if her opponent is three tons and can shoot lasers. or whatever robots do. ❱
no subject
[He gets it. He was naive once, too. Another word for that was 'sucker'.
[He pauses, red optics giving her the once over, like he's considering her proposal. He's not a fan of organics but he's less a fan of whoever's trapped them here so the enemy of your enemy, and all that scrap. Still....]
Then what the frag IS your strong suit? [Fair question. Deadlock hates slackers.]
two
Of course, being trapped in a maliciously malfunctioning elevator with an obvious new arrival wasn't exactly the bizarre experience he'd hoped for. The car drops again and the girl goes even greener, her voice wobbly and tight. Darlington's feeling a little ill at ease himself, but when she speaks he gives her as reassuring a look as he can manage.]
That wouldn't be my ideal inspiration, but it's motivating enough.
[Reaching into his pocket, he offers her a ginger chew. At home, he'd brought them to the Bonesmen's ritual nights or the occasional raising at Book and Snake. After the carnage of May's excursion, the gore replayed for hours on every screen on every deck, he's started carrying a few with him every day. Just in case.]
For the nausea. Keep it held between your back teeth, and it'll last longer.