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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.]
1 because we might as well let the timeline break to start lol
He's changed up his looks a bit since being pulled on the boat
so Google will fail you. Over a white dress shirt with the first two buttons unbuttoned, he wears a deep v-neck double breasted grey vest. Black pants, dark brown riding boots, and double-looped belt with old-fashioned leather belt bags complete the look. Did she get kidnapped to a steampunk convention on a cruise ship, and did he put his cosplay together at the last minute? One must wonder.He rests his forearms on his belt bags and shrugs, smiling sympathetically. "It's as Miss Friday said. You're on the Serena Eterna. As to where and when we are? I don't have the equipment to determine that. As crazy as this sounds, people are being pulled from all over the multiverse. For example, I'm from Earth, the year is 2013, and my Earth's technology is further ahead than most. Anti-gravity is standard technology and we have a space elevator between Earth and LEO, Low Earth Orbit. But there are other people from the late 1800s and the early 1900s, people from vastly different Earths, people from other worlds entirely, and people even from slightly in the future to me."
Oh, he's a bit of a talker, but at least he gives completely explanations...?
no subject
"This has to be a dream," she says. "Or, like...a really thorough hallucination."
no subject
César pulls an honest to god gold pocket watch (small, a woman's, but there's much more to notice if one is observant enough) and presses down on the crown to open the lid, showing her the time.
"Does this watch work?" He pauses for a moment and laughs, realizing. "... I'm psuedo-cosplaying. That's why I'm dressed like this. Might as well, right? The watch is a longer explanation."
no subject
"It's ticking and the hands are moving, so I'd say yes."
no subject
The phone looks pretty normal. It's got some sort of slice of life vertical scrolling comic on it. Something more visually interesting than just pages of text.
no subject
"Yes," she answers, holding it out to him. "One piece," she says, good naturedly wry.
no subject
César sighs after a moment. "... it's going to be harder to convince you, though, because this ship has an object permanence problem."
no subject
But that curiosity is quickly displaced.
"What do you mean, 'object permanence problem?'"
no subject
"The ship's reality repairs itself. Break something outside of your cabin, and it'll fix itself, but you'll be able to keep any pieces you're holding on your person. Your cabin furniture will also repair itself. Items you bring into your cabin from outside remain as they are."