sail_ooc | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

César has to come over and inspect, looking immediately worried. A real gun? In the arcade?

He comes over to the claw machine and stares into it, long and hard. César says nothing for a long moment, just... stares.

"... it might be real." Faintly horrified.

"Dude, no way. This place is crazy and all but..." Lucas stares at the game for a moment longer, then casts his gaze in the other man's direction.

"Only one way to find out, right?"

César looks between him and machine. "That doesn't seem... safe?"

"Dude, there's kids on this boat. You want them to fish out a gun instead?" Lucas raises an eyebrow. Just imagine the havoc that could cause...

César sighs and crosses his arms, because that's a valid argument, looking quietly worried. "... The problem is, it probably replenishes automatically. Even if we fish them out, they can just come right back. The medication in the Infirmary is the same way, and that's just as dangerous."

"For real? Wait-" Lucas scoffs at himself, waving his arms at the game, tone full of all the sarcasm ever, "-why am I even asking!? The reflections vanished the first day I was here, of course the murder claw game replenishes itself!"

He sighs, glaring at the glass for a heartbeat or two. Then, looking to César, "Captain's doing, right?"

"Yes; he's able to create reality to his liking, here." César is obviously still trying to think of a way out of it. "Damage to the boat repairs itself, too. But if you take stuff to your rooms, it stays."

César groans and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Please don't tell me I considered getting a gun, knowing this place will eventually probably have zombies for a short period of time."

"Huh, so...you can stockpile stuff?" The gears in his head are already turning, surprisingly along the same lines as César's.

"If you think that might happen then it's not a bad idea. Doesn't seem like this place is very organized." He casts a skeptical look to the other man, "Is it?"

César winces very visibly. "... my roommate's a minor. I trust him, but neither of us would be comfortable with an unsecured gun in the room. We'd rather get eaten by zombies, because people don't stay dead, here."

No gun safes.

"...Fair." Lucas sighs through his nose. "You know, you're the second person to tell me that? I've only been here a couple days and I'm still trying to make sense of it all."

He smacks a hand flat against the glass, scowling at the contents for a long moment. "Any particular reason this place is so fucked up or is the Captain just having a laugh?"

"Having a minor for a roommate or rather be eaten by zombies?" César shrugs to the question, as it could honestly easily be both. "It takes time, but this places does have its benefits."

As for the other question... "Apparently, he feeds off our emotions. So fucked up keeps him happy. But he doesn't like it when people touch, and he won't listen to your conversations when you do that or in your rooms, again due to fearing seeing touching. Or so we've been told."

"The dying thing," He says with a laugh. "Although, yeah also the roommate situation."

Zombies are another story. Lucas hopes they don't get these here on the boat. If they're anything like the zombies back home it won't be so bad, but if it's like in the movies...

Absorbing these new tidbits of information, Lucas slowly shakes his head. "Well...that's sure. Something." What that something is, he's not too sure. "Guess this really isn't a pleasure cruise, huh?"

César just hopes the others with younger roommates are as responsible as he is with Rich. That's a situation ripe for... terribleness. He'd worry about kids being pulled away from their families, but far too many of these kids don't seem to have functional families. So he has something completely different to worry about instead.

"For some of us, it's sadly better here than back home." César rubs the back of his neck, looking a slight bit embarrassed, as his emotions and thoughts shift over to be more pleasant. "I have to say, I'm uh. Kinda happy, here? I've found people."

Lucas presses his lips together, mulling over a few warring thoughts as César explains the situation. Having met Undine and a few others already, he has no doubt people here come from all sorts of circumstances, but most seem to be terrible one way or another. the tragedy is compounded if this place is better than back home.

Not that he can say the same. There's people he already misses enough that his chest aches with the thought.

"Finding people here is a good thing," He remarks brightly, hoping to be reassuring. "And it's good to know that some people try to stick together when facing whatever this boat throws at them. That's not a bad thing either, right?"

"It's a very good thing." César's face has lit up, the more painful part of the conversation emotionally forgotten for now (thanks ADHD). "And I'm doing what I can to make sure it doesn't end after we get out of here."

Don't worry, Lucas. He's reassuring himself.

"Like what?" Lucas latches onto the shift in conversation easily enough. He is curious to hear what the man says, though.

"Does...anyone know what happens when you leave?" He adds, cautiously.

"I understand interdimensional travel decently enough. But until that's something safe, I'm working on interdimensional phones and location. Theorizing and designing since I don't have the necessary tools... yet."

He shrugs to the second question. "I honestly have no clue. I wish I knew since it'll affect my plans."

Continued in game!

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

3 HEY YOU

HAAAAAAY

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