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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.]
II, but know I laughed so hard at the first prompt name I wheezed a bit.
Huhu, that was a good catch. You have the reflexes of a cat, don't you? [It's a good trait to have.] If I were you, I would consider moving from the doorway to avoid further projectiles, or giving up and going inside for a bite. [Maybe the sushi ghosts and/or conveyor belt will be less pissy that way.]
ashgdf listen, alex ran up buildings so that the among us imposter could commit space war crimes
I'm not all that into fish. [Biomass is better for the body, after all. Or... His body, anyway.
He does step aside as per the guy's suggestion at that, the pale blues of his dead-eyed gaze flickering instead to the doorway of the establishment so that he can better gauge when he's out of range.] I take it this is a common occurrence?
no subject
Indeed. When I first arrived here, I got a chair thrown at me while eating dinner, among other things. Knives, tomatoes, forks... [He shrugs. This is so normal here that he's shrugging off angry ghost attacks.] Last month, furniture and the like were dancing around. You get used to it after a while.
no subject
He does stop, however, when Ebalon mentions the dancing.]
The furniture was… Right. [A swift, cursory roam through his assembled amalgamation of thousands of conscious minds within his own confirms that such an occurrence isn’t particularly normal. A few buried ones, however, draw attention to some sort of cartoon with a mouse. A wizard mouse.
That doesn’t seem particularly relevant, so he discards it for now. Focus.] What’s throwing them? [We’re just going to ignore the dancing entirely, actually.]
no subject
[Usually when furniture flew back home it was Rosso's fault.]
The culprit for throwing objects is typically the ghosts — or spirits or spectres, whatever you want to call them — who are on-board this ship. You'll find that, at times, they're rather hostile, and others not so much. I believe they're also responsible for being the janitorial staff here, and serve the roles of maids for all of our rooms... ["You can see where they might be pissed off" is what Ebalon wants to conclude with, but he doesn't, making a face that says something similar instead.]
no subject
[He's really trying to keep an open mind here. Considering he's here fresh out of a viral zombie outbreak, it's not exactly all that farfetched. Except... Well. The Blacklight virus is simple science. Biology. Genetics. A rewriting of DNA that activated latent traits hidden within the genomes to bridge the gaps previously assumed to be inevitable. Artificial evolution that would kickstart the human population into a period of natural evolution, if Gentek's view on PARIAH was anything more than hot air.
Ghosts and ghouls are something else entirely.
...Great. Now he sounds like the real Mercer, and that's not necessarily a good thing in his eyes.]
Next you're going to tell me there's magic involved somehow.
1/2 I'm laughing
[Ebalon "tsks" and shakes his head.]
2/2
It's difficult to believe in what you cannot see, huhu.
justifies this with him being from new york
Neat trick. Ghosts and magic then? Deadass?
I honestly thought you might just have been yanking my chain. [He pauses, a subtle smirk slipping onto his expression.] Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat too?
no subject
Huhu, no such tricks. ["I can drop the moon on you though."] I can heal injuries and manipulate moonlight to draw sigils for me, among other things. In fact, the intent of my approach originally was to [gather intelligence and gawk] see if you needed healing after that knife wound up in your shoulder, but it seems that you're alright.
no subject
He turns his head to glance at the spot where it continues to lay discarded and... Entirely forgotten. Alex had been a bit distracted with talk of ghosts and magic, which proves to be a problem considering a quick look down at himself reveals that the wound has long since closed. No puncture marks are left in its wake, and even the hole in his "jacket" has disappeared.
Whoops. That might raise a question if he doesn't get in front of it first.] Yeah, well I've got thick skin, so. [That doesn't help.] It mostly just bounced off. [That's worse.] Sounds like quite the useful skill to have on hand, though.
no subject
I see. [:/] It is useful, yes. It keeps me alive through some awful situations like the one you were in moments ago. [...] I have a friend back home with similarly-thick skin. Well, scales, actually, since he is a dragon.
[Sir Denif is not your friend anymore.]
So, I get it.
no subject
It's also somewhat reassuring to not be the strangest thing in the room. Public appearance has never bothered him, considering... Well. He's not exactly a person. But all the same, running into something new is a nice refresher.]
Dragons are a bit of an easier concept to get behind. From a strictly scientific and evolutionary standpoint, I mean.
no subject
[There are a lot of people like that here. Alex isn't alone, and is definitely not the oddest thing in the room.]
I suppose they're much easier to comprehend than ghosts for some people, anyway. You'll find that not everything aboard this ship is what you'd expect. There is, for example, a literal skeleton walking around.
[Shout out to Skulduggery, what a cool guy.]
no subject
[Technically those who were inflicted with the virus back home weren't entirely dead, but they were certainly near enough to count when compared to the old zombie movies some of those he had consumed had watched. It was a natural line to draw. For a moment he pauses, as if considering something with great caution.
Hm. Well, so far he hasn't seen any signs of true danger, and if it's true that this place exists somewhere separate from the one he knows...
It's not like he's very good at keeping it a secret anyway.]
I'm something of a corpse myself.
no subject
Are you? Well, you certainly seem to be in a better state than our skeleton friend is. I find that, typically, the undead have less autonomy than you seem to — at least, that's how it is on Elrios.
[Necromancy is like, super illegal.]
Ah, but that would explain how you shook off that injury so quickly.