TEST DRIVE MEME #2

[sailmods]

1. this hotel room got a lot of stuff

[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 aboard! We're so glad to have you!

[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. and a touch-tone phone

[chatterbox isn't exactly the most popular venue onboard. it probably has something to do with the distinct lack of open liquor bottles. so, nothing personal. except it seems that it's decided to take it that way, suddenly.

anyone enjoying the other amenities of deck five will feel the distinct sensation of being watched while they do so. the kind of feeling a prey animal gets while being stalked on the grasslands. something may slither by their foot, or past their elbow while they rest it on the bar, but nothing appears to be there when they look.

until there is.

a black electrical cord originating from somewhere will, first, wrap around their ankle, tugging in a very clear "follow" instruction. should this instruction be ignored, a second cord will wrap around their other ankle, and, once again, tug. should this clear final warning be ignored... well, now they're being dragged down the promenade, and that's really their own fault, isn't it. don't struggle. struggling means more cords show up. and none of them seem terribly aware that most species need to expand their lungs to live.

their final destination, no matter the journey, is chatterbox's main stage, where the karaoke machine awaits. the cords place a microphone in their hand; the mic's cords bind it tightly to their hand.

they don't have to pick a song. there isn't an actual gun to their head, in any literal sense. it's just, those cords really don't seem that interested in letting go until they do.

and if you were heading to chatterbox anyway? welcome to the weirdest goddamn karaoke night you've ever seen.]

3. and a bucket of ice (cw: cannibalism mention)

[no longer will scoops be bound by the shackles of only having 31 flavors. for this month, and this month only, a sign that very much looks like Friday hand-wrote it announces, they will have 32!

what is that mysterious 32nd flavor? it depends, really: the letters on the display case seem to shift and change with each new pair of eyes that fall upon them, with the contents changing along with it. someone from the capital wasteland might find some Nuka-Cola ™ branded ice cream. twilight town residents will be thrilled to find sea salt on the menu. and a frankly concerning amount of people bring out a flavor that only describes itself as "long pig." it's a weird off-white color. don't think about it too hard.]

Comments

[exiledwill]

From what I've noticed, there don't seem to be any nearby... But I didn't see much of the ship beyond the room I woke up in and the deck before those cables decided they had other plans in mind for me.

[Admittedly, Rion doesn't feel much urgency in trying to understand where they are or how to leave given that... Well, there's likely nowhere for him to go to.

Seeing Lars though, he can see that his own ambivalence is probably more of an outlier than anything. If Lars woke up here as suddenly and randomly as he did, he's sure the boy is eager to figure out the how and why, and more importantly, how to return to where he was before.

So he offers what information he can, even if it's honestly very little.]

If we can't find that sort of information elsewhere though, we'll have to pass by some landmarks at some point, surely. [They seem incredibly far out at sea, but they'll have to pass by something eventually. Worst comes to worst, every ship inevitably needs to resupply somewhere.]

[fray]

[ Lars knows no more of Rion than his name and disposition, but he wonders at his calm. Is it a high level of personal restraint or a lack of urgency? Unwilling to ask, he can only speculate as he warily monitors their surroundings.

His life has never been peaceful nor calm, growing up in a nation locked in constant strife. It breeds a certain anxiety that digs in and grips tight. Even now.

Perhaps it's worse, actually, as he arrived here on the heels of a jarring revelation. He'd yet to process what to even do with that.

The name he'd heard whispered in the dark was-

Forcibly, he shoves the thought aside. Bends his focus on listening to the rest of what Rion is saying to him... And admittedly, he only picks up the tail end of what that soft voice has to say. ]

...Probably.

[ At some point. Right.

He's never been one for waiting. ]

[exiledwill]

[Rion is also much more inclined to take action when he can, but growing up sickly and then falling deathly ill, he's also very aware that "when he can" is actually incredibly limited. There's only so much he can do on his own, and he's spent plenty of time waiting. Waiting for a coughing fit to pass, waiting for medicine to make him fit enough to walk on his own, waiting for food from his clockwork companion.

He knows when to act, but he's also learned how to be patient as well. He's had no choice but to, really.

Lars, on the other hand, seems a touch more tense than he is. Of course, he realizes that his own circumstances are... hopefully unique to him, in all honesty, and those circumstances are part of why he can maintain such a sense of calm. It's during the most stressful times that one should try to keep calm, so he tries to encourage the same in Lars by keeping a cool head himself.]

For now though... Why don't we find something to eat? Being dragged to and fro just to sing has taken up quite a bit of energy! Or at least it has for me. [They can't do anything without energy, right? Maybe food and something to do will help settle Lars a little.]