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

[actuallyawolf]

"I don't think I'd be much better at it," Ylva admits. "I don't know how this thing works. But there's a hole right there, so why fool around?"

She leans down to look at the little trapdoor where you grab your prizes, and experimentally pushes it to see how it works. Getting back out again might be tricky, but if someone else was here... "If I climbed into the machine for you, would you open the door for me afterwards?" She grins, all teeth. "Just since it looks hard to open from the inside, but I can get your prize out for you."

[dokkans]

That was plan number two, and she had briefly considered heading in. As small as B.B. is, getting out probably would have been a pain in the ass without making a mess. Having someone else offer first was perfect.

"Oh, would you? I'd be so happy if you'd help me! I just have to open the door, right?"

[actuallyawolf]

"Yes," Ylva says, "please."

She grins toothily, and without further ado or explanation slips into her favourite trick, that of shapeshifting. Specifically, she takes the shape of a pine marten -- long and flexible in the way of weasels, small enough to have no problem wriggling in and out of a crane machine, but large enough to manhandle an object the size of a gun. From the ground she pulls herself up into the trap door, and into the collection of prizes.

For a moment, she's distracted by the sheer number of things to investigate, and the gun is a little heavier than she expected, but she takes it in her mouth and carefully drags it back the way she came. At the last second she grabs a couple bags of candy -- she can smell it and she wants it, and she's gotta have something for herself if she's doing this, right -- and then throws them down into the prize well before following, with the gun.

She scratches at the door politely, to show she's ready to be let out.

[dokkans]

Wow! A shapeshifter at that. Bonnie tilts her head, watching Ylva go for it completely! She's pretty impressed, all things considered. Part of her was planning to ditch her if she just brought the gun out, but the candy's a fun enough bonus!

So she lifts the door, excitedly applauding after the fact!

"Wow, good girl! I'd give you a treat, but you already picked some for yourself." With a giggle, she reaches for said gun. Finally!

[actuallyawolf]

Ylva climbs out and regains her regular shape, rolling her eyes because that is a little patronizing. Just a little. But she tosses one bag of candy to Bonnie and opens the other for herself.

"I mean, the candy was right there," she says, popping one into her mouth. Mm, minty. "I wasn't going to leave it. Anyway. Easy. So what are you going to do with that thing?"

[dokkans]

She effortlessly catches the bag, stuffing that one into her basket as she looks over her brand new gun. Testing its weight, finger far removed from the trigger. Discipline's key, of course.

"Mm... well, I hadn't really figured that far. A nice older girl told me there's killing sometimes, but if there's no money to be made, then..."

There was the problem! She thinks about it before... hmm! "Do you know if there's a place where I could get a little target practice in? Wouldn't wanna get rusty!"

[actuallyawolf]

"Hm."

Ylva considers this, chewing noisily on a hard candy. "I don't think I've seen anything like that. You might have to set something up yourself, but that probably wouldn't be too hard? Something to be targets and some open space. Oh, there is a big space outside for sports in general, that would be the place to do it, I think." She shrugs. "I don't think I can be more helpful than that, though."