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TEST DRIVE MEME #5
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.]
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After all, Skulduggery is a skeleton, and there's robots and Mizuki is a jellyfishboy...
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Although Undine totally has Lucas dead to rights. He'll never win a poker tournament, that much is for certain.
Thankfully he does know how to reel it in. For the most part. Eventually he decides it's best to look where Friday's eyes should be and roll with it as best as he can. Friday doesn't seem to mind, after all!
Once the drill winds down, Lucas twirls his life vest around with a much more easy going grin than earlier. "So, that was sure somethin', huh? You like hanging around for drills or did I really look like that much of a fish out of water?"
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But she wants to see the best in most people.
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And now that his legs work again, he picks a random direction on deck and starts meandering. "Right now, you're the expert though. Anything fun to do on this floating tin can?"
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She falls into step with him. "Everyone's all from different worlds, too, so there's a lot to get to know about them, not just who they are, but what circumstances they come from. Though...no one I've met so far comes from a world that seems, uh. Good. Like, a good place to be from."
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"I mean, where I come from ain't perfect by any means, but..." He trails off, shrugging. "Does that mean where you come isn't a good place?"
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"I thought it was okay, until I got here and started talking to people. Apparently teenage girls aren't expected to fight monsters in most worlds?"
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"Is it normal where you come from? Like that kind of thing would be some magical girl cartoon show back home." Which sounds cooler than it probably is. That much he knows all too well.
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"I mean fighting monsters, not so much I bet?" Speaking from a different kind of experience, the question is a cautious one. "Do you like it?"
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That is clearly a PR-vetted response, and completely and utterly dishonest.
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"Hah, you got that little speech down pat," Lucas follows this with an awkward laugh, trying to play this off and failing miserably.
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"Sorry. I just...um. I lost a bunch of my friends, a couple months ago. My team, but also the best friends I'd had since kindergarten. A monster pretty much ripped our team apart. And every time I tell people this, they're horrified and angry and they cannot believe that that's the kind of world I'm from. The kind of world that I have to go back to, if we ever find a way back home. And like. I knew it was a lot of stress and pressure for a girl my age to be under, but it's what I know. What things have been like in my world for generations. So I don't know how to feel about fighting monsters anymore. But I sure do know how to answer that question for reporters and talk show hosts and stuff."
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That really strikes a chord in Lucas, his smile strained by knowing first hand. "I'm sorry...I know I've been asking some prying questions and you've been nice enough to put up with them. But I do get it."
He looks away, out over the water. Lost in thought for a few long moments before a quiet chuckle breaks it. The kind without mirth. "I mean, I'm no magical girl back home, but I know what it's like to be too young for some horrible stuff. It's hard for people to understand when it's what you do on the daily, and then losing your friends on top of it all. It's really...a lot."
Lucas's gaze drifts back to Undine, managing a lazy, fragile smile again. "I know we just met and all, but if I ever ask too much stuff you can just smack me or something, okay?"
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It's one of her biggest flaws, but at least she's somewhat aware of it?
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"On, uh...a more serious note," His smile softens at its edges, "I'm not like a therapist or anything, but I've dealt with death my whole life so if you need to talk about anything. Well, I'll understand where you're coming from. Okay?"
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"What if I just really want a hug?" Look, shes a teenage girl, hugs are an essential part of her diet that she isn't getting enough of, here. And he seems like he might be safe enough to ask.
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"Bring it in, little dude!"
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"All you gotta do is ask," He'll say after a few long moments, but doesn't let go unless Undine has had enough. "Okay?"
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Read: you've just been adopted as a big brother successfully.
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Consider that the fastest he's ever been adopted, but at this point Undine's the adopted little sister. It's weirdly comforting to look after someone else whenever everything else has been upended...