TEST DRIVE MEME #4

[sailmods]

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.]

Comments

[opheliac]

(hm, that was an interesting reaction to that song but she doesn't pry. it's better to have him have the floor if he wants to explain himself or not. jinx continues to wrap him up until finally, thinking that's enough. and since there are no scissors around, she simply uses her teeth to tear it -- a rough jerk back of her head to rip apart from its roll.)

Alright, there. That oughta do it!

(she uses a bit of stick tape to fix up the ends.)

[lenivy]

Alright, well, he's pretty sure she could find some scissors if she had a look, but that works as well. He's not fussy.

"Nice," he answers, looking it over. Looks good. And this time it's not soaked in blood, so that's good. (He's trying very hard to stay positive and not think too much about the events of the night.)

Dylan hops to his feet again, and heads over to the sink to try the water. He takes a sip right from the tap, and then pulls back making a disgusted face. "Nope. No thanks. Let's find something," he says, shaking his head a bit and then sticking his tongue out. Whether it's the water itself that's gross, or just his werewolf aversion to clean water, well, who knows.

[opheliac]

Pffffft! — HA HA HA! Alright, alright. We'll find somethin' else. But let's wash your hair before we head out.

(she playfully hops out of her seat and makes her way over to him again; hands intertwine behind her.)

Blood in your hair isn't great soap for your scalp.

[lenivy]

"Ah - nah, let's just wait until I can get into a shower or something. It's all dried now anyway. Don't want to go around dripping sink water," he answers awkwardly. Even just drinking it was sort of... weirdly tingly. "My clothes are already covered, it's not like anyone's gonna worry about my hair."

[opheliac]

Alright, if you're sure! Then I guess we're headin' to the clothing place.

(with a spin, she leads on by heading out the door.)

Juuust to warn you, the clothes there are terrible. So not my style. — Don't really get why everyone else here is so into it.

[lenivy]

"Well, yeah, Tommy Bahama is beach-wear, it's supposed to be terrible," he answers, grabbing the life jacket and the lei. (Does he really need either? Probably not, but he's a mostly responsible boy, he's gonna bring them along.)

"You can find stuff in there that's alright, though," he says. It's kinda hard to tell, given he's covered in blood, but Dylan already has a slightly preppy style, just with more band tees sprinkled in. So as long as he stays away from the flowers and palm trees, it's acceptable.

[opheliac]

I'll believe it when I see it. If you can pick out somethin' that isn't shit, then I'll take back what I said.

(thank goodness for elevators though because from here to that place is a very long way if they wanted to do the stairs route. anyway, she hums quietly as they make their way to the cabin hallway now.)

Oh! For future reference, if ya ever need me — I'm in room one-one-nine. Sometimes I'm there but a lotta times I'm in the theatre.

[lenivy]

"Well, you know, taste is like the butt. Divided," Dylan quips. Which is definitely not the stupidest thing he's ever said, but he does realise it sounds weird. "Sorry, I read that in a book somewhere."

He too is thankful for elevators. Especially after a summer with zero elevators, and then being awake for... way, way too long.

"Oh, right, cool. Sure. I'm in, uh..." he says, then stops, like his mind just bluescreened. He stops and turns around a little, trying to orient himself. "It's on the left side - uh, the, whatsit, the port side of the ship. I'm pretty sure."

[opheliac]

(she glances over her shoulder at his "saying", she assumes? there's a look of how she really didn't get the joke or what he is trying to say. what he said legit made no sense to her.

and the expression she gives him goes even further when it appears he doesn't seem to know what his room number is.)

... You don't know where you're roomed in.

[lenivy]

"Well, I know... vaguely. I dunno, I was a little bit distracted when I got here!" he answers defensively. "I don't think I even have like a keycard or anything though! Can't we just ask in reception?"

For a weird coma dream with mysterious cruise ships and faceless ladies, this is turning a lot more annoyingly mundane the longer he stays here.

[opheliac]

(a quirk of an eyebrow of him getting frustrated but maybe this means he is slowly snapping out of it. she rolls her eyes as she pulls out her smartphone.)

These things are the key. You hold it up to the door and boom. Door open, room access.

(jinx would tease the fact that it was definitely told to him because she was lurking from above during the whole no face's demonstration. but she refrains for now.)

[lenivy]

Bold of her to assume he absorbed any of that.

"...Oh," he answers. He did find one of those, yeah. He goes to reach for it in his back pocket, but, well, he's holding shit in the only hand he has available. (God, this is annoying to deal with.) He holds out the life jacket and the lei to her, so he can pull out the phone to look at it.

[opheliac]

(she can already tell that she may have to keep him straight in the future. but she is fine with that because how else is she going to have him on her side if she doesn't put up with his goofiness? after all not only he doesn't seem like a pushover to her, he seems to be rather interested when she talked about her bombs.

maybe he will become useful in other ways. still, she takes the life jacket and the lei -- holding it for him while he pulls out his phone.)

[lenivy]

Can't keep this boy something he wasn't to begin with.

He pulls out his phone and turns it on. That's... probably the least amount of apps he's ever seen on a phone. Boring. There's a chat program though, so that's good to know.

Always keen on figuring things out, he types in Jinx's name and room number and finds her in the chat. He grins a little, then sends her a single emoji: "💩"

[opheliac]

(ah, suddenly her phone seems to be making a notification sound. so it's her turn to try to shimmy through what she has in her hands to check. others might see this as immaturity or would probably give him an annoying glance, but with jinx -- she only snorts. and with a smirk, she sends him back something:)

🐵💩

[lenivy]

Dylan's grin broadens, and he nods approvingly. "Nice," he answers, and stuffs the phone back in his pocket so he can take back the stuff she's holding for him. "Hey, does it say my room number on there?" he asks, since he had to know hers to be able to message her.

[opheliac]

Oh! — Uh...

(she looks back down at her phone and to their message.)

One-twenty-one. Hey, that's right next to me! What a coincidence, huh?

[lenivy]

"Eeey, mystery solved," Dylan says cheerfully. See, he can be pretty good at figuring shit out, even when he's not really trying, and his brain is exhausted.

"So, which way to the god-awful beach wear?"

[opheliac]

Straight on ahead and then up a few floors! So not too bad.