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TEST DRIVE MEME #2
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.]
no subject
[He folds his arms, letting out a thoughtful hum as he considers the information laid out in front of him. Want is what drives every living being - subconsciously or not, physically or mentally. Which leaves the natural conclusion that the captain of this vessel must have them all here to achieve some specific goal.]
Perhaps the show of force involved with attempting to remove the barrier put him on the defensive? It may be prudent to engage in correspondence via miss Friday, should she be willing. Simply to convey the message that we wish to speak on equal terms.
no subject
["The faceless lady" is a fucking rude thing to say, Ebalon. You don't just point out that people don't have faces.]
That could be possible. I would very much like to speak to the man and ask why we're all here. Many of us are from different planes of existence — ah, I must apologise to you. I shouldn't prattle on without introductions.
[Here we go—]
Moon Master Ebalon, former Sage of Seven Tower and current priest. It's an honour to meet you.
[He bows with a little flourish.]
no subject
Of course... That was in his youth. He has long since grown to fill the shoes left vacant by his father. Ebalon doesn't outright come off as someone malicious or sinister; he seems rather genuine in his spoken sentiments, in fact.
He also, however, comes across as intelligent. A bit shrewd. Which marks him as someone to keep an eye on, if nothing else. The smile Ayato gives in return is just as genuine, and he gives a slight bow of his own.]
Kamisato Ayato, Lord Commissioner of Inazuma's Yashiro sect and head of the Kamisato clan. Making your acquaintance is a pleasure to me as well, and I look forward to discussing such matters further. You mentioned different planes of existence? I do not consider such talks idle prattle; an explanation to the state of things is in fact more than welcome, so long as you are willing to go on.
no subject
Ebalon, on the contrary, does not focus on discerning the character of others. People are easy to manipulate at their core; even the most well-read and intelligent sort of folk can be swayed to one side or another with a bit of flourishing, flowery language. Those that are too stubborn to follow after him are not people he wants at his side. The sweetest of heroes can become the sickest of villains if the proper motivations are in place, something Ebalon has and will take advantage of where possible.
No, what he's interested in is the information that can be provided, the intel gathered, the explorable mindscapes of residents on this ship.]
A pleasure, truly. And yes, in fact, I am a scholar — Seven Tower was a mage's college of sorts — so I do have information on other planes of existence, if you're interested. [And it seems he is, so.] On Elrios, my home plane, there are several neighbouring dimensions. Imagine, if you would, the material world — for the purposes of this explanation, let us say it's represented by this orb here.
["This orb here" being a ball of white-gold moon magic Ebalon conjures to his palm in broad daylight.]
Now, the material world is made up of your regular run-of-the-mill facets of existence — continents, sentient life, flora and fauna, the works. Surrounding the material world of Elrios is the dimension of Henir. [And at that, a sheet of dark magic envelops the ball of moonlight, hovering some several inches away from it.] They do not touch — well, not completely. Cracks of Henir have slipped into Elrios historically, but these are not a result of the planes overlapping and more akin to spacetime anomalies squeezing into a fragile reality.
[Moving on, Ebalon creates two more balls of moonlight, one on the upper side of the orb and one on the lower. At that point, he lets them hover without the assistance of his palm seemingly holding them up.]
The topmost orb is the heavens, a realm known as Empyrean. The bottommost is aptly named "the demon realm" due to, you guessed it, demons residing there. Their positions in relation to Elrios proper are nebulous, though common belief holds that they are positioned like so. More to the point: To cross between realms, one must pass through Henir in some way, shape, or form. This can be done by two proven methods: Walking through one of Henir's interdimensional cracks — quite likely to kill the person travelling, as the primordial chaos is a virulent dimension — or via portal. The construction of portals is a practice that originated in the demon realm, and it was actually demons who introduced Elrios' population to the science behind their creation. As you may have surmised, this is entirely because of Henir's danger; it will corrupt anything it touches.
As for the realms themselves, I cannot speak for the heavens — Empyrean is scientifically unknown to us — but the demon realm is inhabited by dark elves as well as demons, and if knowledge serves, they have their own functioning countries, sentient creatures, flora, et cetera et cetera. Would a demon scholar consider their world the material plane, then? It's difficult to say without speaking to one, huhu.
[Off to the left of this weird little 3D map he's made, Ebalon holds out a pointer finger to create a much smaller ball of light.]
This is the Serena Eterna. Where it lies in space relative to Elrios, I know not, and that is something I aim to figure out. Near this are other planes I've heard of... [Just. Adding a couple more larger balls of light near this.] And as for if Henir surrounds all of this, I have not been able to ascertain that either. That begs the question: Where does Henir end, and some other "filler" dimension begin?
...
Regardless, it seems the multiverse is much larger than what I had originally believed. Somehow, the Captain has access to all of these planes of existence and more, which is likely how we all ended up here — some type of magic that randomly pulls others from different worlds...
[He trails off there. Please tell him you absorbed all of that. As a side note, if Ayato tries to touch the magic, he'll find that the dark magic hurts, but that the lighter magic feels cool and pleasant.]