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]

There's no time to explain what a trailer is before she's speaking up again, and it's all Eddie can do to keep up. Her excitement is infectious, though, and he smiles. "Hey, that's good news. I don't have any money." He had a fair amount of cash saved up at home, thanks to drugs and gigs, but that's not going to do him any good here. Maybe his uncle will find it and be able to do something for himself.

"They have cake?" It's not one of his favorite things, but even the likes of Eddie Munson can appreciate a thick slice of cake. "What's your favorite kind?" Eddie probably doesn't even have a favorite anymore.

[sabigoe]

"My favorite? Um...! I like..." Stammering, as if it's a tricky question.

Well, it is kind of a difficult question! Truthfully, her favorite dessert is a mashed fruit treat that her adoptive mother used to prepare when she was smaller. And in her own lifetime, she had only seen one real cake. She used to play a pretend baker, creating imaginary cakes from mud and sticks. Here, she gets all kinds of food that she thinks is what nobility would eat.

"I've never tried a lot of flavors before until I came here. Lots of them taste really yummy!" She finally replies, after a small stretch of silence, "But I think my favorite's gotta be strawberries and cream.

[munstar]

This is probably the longest conversation he's had with someone under the age of fifteen in quite some time. Eddie's still not sure how to feel about it, but he also doesn't want to be a dick and just wander off to leave this kid by herself, especially when it doesn't look like there's anyone around to claim her.

He's never been much of a cake guy, outside of the ones his mother used to make for his birthday- but that ship sailed a long time ago. He can't even remember the last time he had cake. Eddie nods thoughtfully, considering her answer for a moment. "Strawberries and cream is a good choice. My mom had this chocolate fudge thing she'd make sometimes. That was nice."

[sabigoe]

Fio enjoys talking! And if he's going to stay here, she's going to keep talking to him until he excuses himself! Or when she's too tired to keep chattering away... and right now, she has plenty of energy to keep talking.

"Homemade chocolate fudge sounds yummy!" She beams happily, "My mommy used to make things for me too! We didn't have chocolate or anything, but when we had apples, she'd mash 'em up into this thing called slurpy apple."

Even though her mother was at fault for many things, there were still happy memories that she can at least speak of, such as having a homemade stew and her favorite dessert alongside her family on a rare day they could be together. Those days are long gone now.

"Oh, my name's Fio, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

[munstar]

"Really yummy." The smile he shoots her doesn't quite reach his eyes, but the momentum of the conversation makes it easy to not think about any of that. Slurpy apple has him arching a brow because that's literally just applesauce. Isn't it? Someone should probably tell her, but that someone is not going to be Eddie.

He's also not going to mention the couple of times he'd attempted to make that fudge by himself. It had been a disaster. Eddie's not much in the kitchen, but he can manage to make a few things without burning the house down.

Talking to her is nice, though, because it kind of reminds him of the younger guys at home- if they had like double or triple their normal energy. "Nice to meet you Fio. I'm Eddie."