TEST DRIVE MEME #5

[sailmods]

1. not subtle revealings

[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! 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. a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling

[the reflections are missing. all of them. in mirrors. in television screens. on the backs of spoons. nothing looks back at you.

then, figures do show up. not your own, like you'd expect. thin, wispy apparitions, people with pleading eyes and hands, reaching out to place their palms against the surface, from their own end. faces familiar and not, beckoning, mouthing words you just can't quite make out. help me, it might be. get me out, perhaps. just until you're close enough, until your skin warms the surface of whatever it is you're peering into. and then, those same hands wrap, all too real, burning-cold against your flesh, and pull, trying to drag you through the surface, making up for their lack of strength with desperation. any flesh unlucky enough to enter the reflection comes back bone-white and cold, all sensation dead, though it will fade within a few hours.

in retrospect, it looks a bit more like they were saying something different. something more like, better you than me. or maybe it's not even words at all. they look a bit more like they're laughing.]

3. complex mementos

[but, hey. sometimes changes are good! like, today, in Playback, there's a brand-new game available for all the children to play! it's an old-fashioned sort of claw machine, the type that's so large, a particularly dedicated kindergartner could wriggle their way inside. the prizes vary, and sit loose: bags of candy, stuffed toys, firearms, painfully early-00s electronics, actually that one just looks like a dead iguana, tiny ship-branded knickknacks... like all the other games in the arcade, the game starts up automatically upon being touched; lack of quarters shouldn't keep you from having fun! pro tip: they are loaded, and they will go off if you suck at claw games and let it fall.]

Comments

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy doesn't jump at the voice, but she does stop what she's doing and looks at the woman in surprise. She really hadn't expected to be recognised here. But then the last time she got interuniversally kidnapped, she'd also bumped into an unexpected number of somewhat familiar faces, so it doesn't completely shock her either.

"It's Lucy Cole now," she answers, dropping the book on a table. She doesn't see the point in trying to pretend she's someone different. There's only a handful of people who know about the really bad stuff anyway.

[gummyhabits]

Liiiittle bit. Our home's kinda really awful though- and if we don't fight, who will? And I think he gets that much, at least. So! We do what we can.

( and what she can involves ripping a vault door off and using it as a shield forever. as one does. )

I'm Gummy!

[pinballer]

You can die again? Fucking hell.

[ He throws his hands up in the air, exasperated. Once was bad enough. Twice, three times, more - no thanks. ]

What does it mean here, then?

[makemeasong]

It's mostly how Clara is feeling - not that she knows the thread that connects them but she actually recognizes a face and that hasn't happened yet in her time on the ship.

"Sorry, must not be the way you'd want anyone to greet you. I'm Clara." The strewn about books are forgotten. "You're the first person I've met who even looks a little familiar to me."

[essentiallyharmless]

At least she realised she was being a little impolite. That's a point in her favour, at least. And she looks neither horrified nor accusatory, so that's another point. Lucy tries to suppress her instinct to be rude to make Clara go away - she just doesn't like to be recognised or remembered from that time, nor have that name used.

"Well then, whoopee for me," she answers. Alright that was still a little bit rude, it's hard not to. "So, what do you actually know about me? Just so I know how imbalanced we are in familiarity?" Cause she has absolutely no clue who Clara is.

[makesomedeals]

That doesn't sound anything like polishing and wax coated.

"Maintenance is not quite what I'm referring to. There's more to existence than just the base level of functionality you know." He sighs, because he's pretty sure that Bastion here doesn't know.

"Ah, delightful. It's coming back online then. Good - as with most things here it doesn't appear to be permanent. I'm starting to see that as an ongoing pattern with this place, though I can't fathom why that would be the case."

[makemeasong]

"Only what was on the news," she says, sliding down into a chair and then looking around at the floor around her again.

"What are you looking for? Because frustratingly, it probably isn't here. I can't find anything related to my actual home-slash-planet that's real." It took a while for her to give up on that aspect of things, but she's convinced.

[essentiallyharmless]

"I don't want anything related to my planet, I want something related to here," she answers, turning to start pulling out books again. She's mostly just reading titles, maybe flicking through a few pages if it seems like it might be remotely relevant. If she sticks around for a while, she'll probably read a lot of these properly eventually. (There is a small bit of her brain that notes it whenever she finds something she'd actually like to read.)

"And I don't know what was on the news, I was in prison," she points out. Cause presumably Clara knows that. Lucy knows that her trial was held in secret, and everything was hushed up, so no one actually knows the details. But she doubts that she and Harry could've completely disappeared without someone noticing.

[prodigalmess]

Huh. [ The two of them ride quietly in the elevator before he turns to her again. ] What about Sherlock Holmes?

[formersurgeon]

[She blinks.]

Sherlock? Is he here??? Where is he???

[makemeasong]

"You're gonna have about the exact same luck. Everything you wanna know you'll have to ask Our Gal Friday. And she probably won't give you any real answers so prepare yourself for that."

Clara matches tone and leans back in the chair, crossing her arms loosely across her chest and her feet at the ankles.

"Yeah, that happens when people murder the PM. But literally, that's pretty much the way it went. He was dead, you killed him, controversy about who should be the next PM, and then it was over. Pretty sure no one remembers you. Is that the way you want it?"

[essentiallyharmless]

Ugh. She doesn't really want to talk to Friday. She seemed friendly enough, but the no-face thing is creepy. Sure, she's dealt with creepier, but... The lack of real answers will get annoying.

Honestly, she's kind of ready to just let someone smarter than her try to figure it out. She can find other ways to help. That doesn't mean she's not curious.

The other part of the conversation is taking up increasing focus though. She stops rummaging through shelves - she doesn't want to get too comfortable, so rather than sitting down, she leanes against a table and crosses her arms, focusing on Clara.

"I honestly don't care. Given he was planning on murdering half the population, I did you all a favour," she answers coldly.

[prefers_magneto]

not subtle revealings

Erik’s eyes flutter open and his first thought is that Mutant Control somehow picked him up again. His hand goes to his neck. No collar and… it’s fine. He can feel the metal in the ship around him, in the room, in the engine… his power is fine. So where is he? He sits up and glances around. He spots the note. Reads it.

He’s been on ships before. This does feel like one in its motion and its shape.

He gets up and finds the life jacket as instructed, turns it over in his hands and decides that meeting whoever this is is the best way to get to the bottom of the situation. No beating around the bush. But he learns nothing of value in the briefing and so finds himself standing on the deck, face still a little battered from his fight with Jean and his fight for Jean.

As someone passes he reaches out a hand to get their attention.

“Excuse me, I didn’t sign up for a cruise.”

There’s a part of his mind wondering if everyone on board is a mutant. Are they being deported?

Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling

Erik frowns at the mens room mirror, at the faces in it, pleading. He thinks he sees his mother’s face among them for a moment, then it’s his daughter’s. His eyes harden, but he doesn’t attempt to touch it. He doesn’t believe in miracles, but he believes in traps.

not subtle revealings

[serialskiller]

"None of us did."

For better or worse, the one Magneto has reached out to has about as much metal in its body as the average refrigerator, though its head is covered in Actual Organic Skin and Hair, for what that's worth. It's built like a refrigerator, too, tall and broad, muscled like a military propaganda poster, dressed in cargo pants and work boots and a dark blue sweatshirt that reads PreservationAux Survey Team on the front.

It is not making direct eye contact with Erik, arms folded, looking over his shoulder instead, or perhaps at an ear.

"After the muster drill, I can answer questions for you." After the newcomer has seen Friday and gotten some of the scope of the local flavor of weird.

not subtle revealings

[decohere]

She's not exactly the best suited for welcoming new arrivals. Especially after she managed to push a woman into a panic over it at the pool party. She's not quite in the mood to go through that again.

But. Ava pauses, giving the man an assessing stare instead of answering his statement. Her hands shoved into the pockets of her worn out sweatshirt, a rather lazy stance. "You get into a fight already? You'll probably get along just fine, then."

[makemeasong]

Clara's mouth opens and closes.

"Sorry, what? The news absolutely left out that detail." She's trying to wrack her brain and remember anything else about that time.

She can tell that Lucy is bristly but it's starting to sound like her life was completely different from what the press said about her, as simply being an unhinged woman.

[essentiallyharmless]

"Yes, well," Lucy answers, spreading her hands out as if to say: of course they did.

"I don't really care if you believe me, but given we're on this boat, perhaps you will," she says. "He was an alien. He was planning to invade the planet. He did too, but then time got rewound, so. I just made sure he couldn't try again."

It... shockingly feels good to talk about this. She kept a lot of it private for so long, not wanting to confront it, not wanting the people around her to know too much about it all. Of course, several found out anyway, through shared dreams and whatever else.

And then after that, she was back in her home world, and obviously couldn't tell anyone, and it's not like they would believe her anyway. And then with the Doctor, she couldn't reveal anything about his future to him. And it just... stopped being relevant, really.

And now here she is, and someone actually knows who she is, and there's nothing stopping her from saying all of it if she wants. It's freeing. It's not something she wants to dwell on too long either way, but at least she doesn't feel like she needs to hide it anymore.

Permanent reminder

[latersgators]

Steven hadn't noticed that the reflections were gone - mostly because he's stopped looking for Marc in them now and, actually, for a time, there weren't any reflections of himself back in the Duat, and he hadn't really noticed that either. After adjusting his pants, he goes to the sink and bends over a bit to wash his hands, and that's when he notices the ruggedly handsome chap standing next to him staring in the mirror.

When he lifts his head fully and tips his head to the side a bit to steal a peek at what or whom exactly the other man might be admiring, Steven then notices that the other man doesn't have a reflection.

Well, he doesn't have one either, but. Of course he fixates on the fact that the other man doesn't have one.

And he shrieks.

[justneedsomehelp]

He's not exactly sure he's the guy to be introducing the newbies to their new prison, but Marc stops abruptly when he notices the hand, giving a quiet pause as he looks over at the guy.

"Yeah, well... neither did any of us, buddy."

He hesitates between walking on and explaining more. Explaining more wins out, in the end. He shifts his weight, tilts his head towards the guy. "You read the note in the room you woke up in?"

[prefers_magneto]

Erik feels it as the man turns and though the stranger isn't looking directly at Erik, Erik is looking at him. Studying him with interest, in fact.

"But not before," he notes. A beat. "What are you?"

[prefers_magneto]

"Mm. And it wasn't my first." He considers her. "What is this place?" he asks her. "I mean what is it really, not... whatever the company line is," he adds, glancing distastefully in the direction Gal Friday had gone.

[prefers_magneto]

Erik looks at him with irritation, more than anything.

"Stop that," he says bluntly. "Do you think you're helping?"

He turns his gaze back to the mirror, then - since the man only seemed unnerved by what he saw in Erik's mirror, he steps around him to look in his.

There's nothing there at first and then, after a moment, there they are.

"It's the same. What's your problem?" he asks.

[prefers_magneto]

"Yes. That's how I ended up at kidnapping's most banal safety drill," Erik points out. "But it didn't actually explain anything, except where the lifeboats are and how to use them. I don't think they would take kindly to me using one now."

Not that he needs one, but if you can fly, you want to keep that under your hat when you don't know anyone.

"Who brought us here; what do they want?"

[latersgators]

Steven backpedals until he collides into a wall between toilet stalls. He covers his mouth with one hand and points at the mirror with the other. And then he points at the other man. And then he points at the mirror again. And then he's covering his mouth with both hands. After a few seconds of hyperventilating, he calms down enough to wring his hands in front of his chest.

"You don't have a reflection!" Isn't that obvious?

"Are you a ghost?!" Grabbing a roll of toilet paper that's conveniently just behind him, he hurls it at the other man as though he expects it to just pass through his ghostly form and hit the mirror.

[prefers_magneto]

Erik catches it and whips it back at him.

"It's not me, idiot, it's the mirrors. Does your reflection look normal to you?"