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

[munstar]

[Eddie's not generally in the habit of making promises, particularly when he knows he might not be able to keep them. Getting someone's hopes up and then shattering them has never been his thing. It's just easier to avoid putting himself in that situation.

So when he says he's not going to leave, he's actually surprised by the realization that he means it. He hadn't actually said the words, but they're just a formality at this point. There's still the question of whether or not this is all some big elaborate hallucination or something, but until that turns out to be true, he can at least make an effort to stick around for as long as she wants him to.]

That's a good sign, right?

[Or maybe it's just wishful thinking. Eddie's lost count of the number of times he'd wished for the chance to see her again.]

Okay... But I should tell you- If I wake up some morning and realize you're gone again, I'm gonna be in such a bad mood.

[It's an admittedly terrible joke, mostly meant to lighten the mood a little.]

[cheerleader]

[What starts out as a laugh turns into a small fit of giggles. Something about the way he says it just strikes her as so light and sweet given the subject matter they're talking about. Of course, the heaviness of all that isn't far from her mind. So her tears finally fall, a combination of joy at the fact he's able to joke around with her at all, and sorrow that they've been put in this position at all.

Maybe she clings to him a little tighter as she goes through her emotions, and she winds up leaning against him. He's so quickly become her support. The head cheerleader with the most unusual cheerleader of her own.]

I'm sorry!

[She apologizes once the laughter subsides, the tears remaining as she pulls back enough to look up at him. A smile graces her features, cluing him in to the fact that she's not completely upset.]

But I was about to say basically the same thing to you.

[munstar]

[Well, he'd been trying to make her laugh, so he's going to call that a win for now. He's quiet as she devolves from laughter to tears, content to just be there for her to lean on. It's nice to hear her laugh, even under such crazy circumstances.]

Nah. Don't be sorry. I missed hearing you laugh.

[When she pulls back to look at him, Eddie smiles and lifts a hand to brush the tears away with his thumb.]

Don't worry, princess. I'm not that easy to get rid of.