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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.]
yor forger | spy x family
[this situation might actually call for murder. but yor pushes her instincts aside for the time being. there are too many unanswered questions, and one concern looms above all else.]
Anya! Miss Anya!
[the young woman cups her hands around her mouth, calling out before scanning the assembled crowd on deck one. she takes a few quick steps, even crouches before approaching the nearest person. hopefully they're not easily startled - yor's stealth borders on unnatural.]
Excuse me. I'm looking for a young girl, very small with pink hair. Have you seen her?
[she's polite when she speaks, but there's worry in her eyes and in the curve of her frown.]
3. complex mementos
[the claw machine is just the kind of thing that a child would be drawn to, with its candy and its small toys. and look, a toy gun! a pistol with a silencer. isn't that what anya is always asking loid to get for her? yor smiles as she touches the glass. it's bittersweet to think of them right now.
but then she blinks and takes a closer look.]
Oh my, is that... It is! It's real!
[the thorn princess might prefer weapons that are a little more...pointy, but she still recognizes a real gun when she sees it. she covers her mouth with her hand, and for a moment yor seems unsure of what to do. but then she grips the game's joystick.]
I must get it out before someone hurts themself.
[there's something determined and almost dark in her voice. mama bear energy has made the assassin even scarier.]
(01.)
with a grin, she shrugs her shoulders then drops her arms at her sides.)
Nope! Haven't seen her. She miiiiiight be here or she might not. Or! — What could had happened she got swallowed up by a shark.
(that is horribly unlikely because there hadn't been any sea creatures out in the ocean as far as she's aware. but the newbie doesn't know that and she enjoys messing with newbies.)
no subject
[all of this is just yor quietly musing to herself, eyes lowered as she tries to be her own voice of reason. but her sigh is heavy with disappointment. she only looks up again at the exclamation, eyes wide and a little startled. or?]
A shark! Oh no, Miss Anya would barely make a mouthful! [but would that matter to a shark? she runs over to the ship's edge to look down into the water.] I have to find out!
[she'll personally make sharks an endangered species if that's what it takes.]
no subject
Are ya gonna jump in? That's ONE way of finding out.
(again, what this lady doesn't know that if you do attempt to jump overboard or fall overboard, the ship will just toss you right back on while you're wearing a swan floaty around your waist. jinx had only seen this be done once with natsuno but it'll be equally funny if not more if someone whose a newbie do it.)
no subject
she leaps up onto the railing with ease, crouching there and preparing to dive in. but something that the other said, maybe the inflection in her voice. yor looks at her and blinks.]
Are there others?
no subject
(hopefully she will fling herself over because it'll be funny to see someone do it. sure, jinx can easily push her off but it'll be more satisfying for the person to do it themselves than her just doing it.)
3
I think you underestimate the capability someone might have to hurt themselves regardless of if they’re trying to win themselves a gun or not~. But it’ll certainly be fun to see if you can win something like that. I’ve always found these games rather hard!!
no subject
[she's never played one of these games before, but it looks easy enough. yor takes her own advice after she speaks, and there's a moment of elation when the claw lowers and closes around the gun.
but when it lifts, it's empty-handed, leaving its prize behind. yor blinks a few times in surprise and confusion.]
It didn't pick it up!
no subject
[ He doesn’t continue with this to explain himself, simply letting her find out in her own way with a little chuckle. Well, it’s certainly best she didn’t pick the gun up by the trigger and misfire it. Though, he is still on alert in case that happens! He’s not entirely thrilled about the concept of new people being hurt. ]
These games are a liiiittle bit rigged! Sort of like, um, carnival games~? If it weren’t, there’d be too many winners and it wouldn’t have that sense of gambling that it currently has.
3
[ A little girl pops over, gazing over at the prizes in the machine with a curious gaze, before gazing up at Yor. She said something about getting it out before someone gets hurt, but...
A pistol with a silencer would be perfect to add to her arsenal. She likes to be loud and explosive, but in a closed space like this, a little stealth may be good later. ]
Oh my! That's quite the realistic toy... is that what you're trying to grab, miss?