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

[dontcomeback]

Viggo hums thoughtfully and rubs his chin. It's hard to say. Though he wonders how much Gal actually knows or is capable of doing. She didn't exactly come across as particularly malevolent.

"Another thing to put on the list of mysteries, I suppose," he answers.

[formersurgeon]

"It's going to be a long list," Joan notes with rueful amusement. She picks up her coffee and takes a careful sip. "Mmm. At least the coffee is decent."

[dontcomeback]

"The drinks are pretty good too," he comments. That had been one of the first things he'd done here. It wasn't his idea, but at some point it just seemed like the best thing to be doing.

[formersurgeon]

"I'll have to give them a try," she says. She doesn't have much alcohol nowadays since the Brownstone is a No Alcohol Zone due to Sherlock's addiction, but she does enjoy a beer now and again.

"What kind of alcohol do they have?"

[dontcomeback]

"Every kind, it looked like. Including plenty I've never seen before," he answers, finishing off his coffee. "I saw a bottle of absinthe from 1899, as an example."

[formersurgeon]

"Really?" She sits back a little, thinking of that. "Huh. Wouldn't mind giving that a try."

[dontcomeback]

"Tastes kinda like licorice and spices. Well, the one I've tried, anyway. No idea about here on the ship," he says. "It was never actually banned in Norway," he adds, since he's heard it was a big deal in the US.

[formersurgeon]

"Oh, it's not banned in the United States anymore," she says. "But I've read that the recipe changed over time. It would be interesting to try absinthe made in its heyday."

[dontcomeback]

Viggo nods a bit. "I don't often drink much, but honestly this place seems to warrant it," he says with a slight smile.

He drinks the occasional beer, but honestly he's gotten so used to the potential for getting called away for work suddenly, that not being able to legally drive became sort of an annoyance. But here everything is so crazy, and there's no one who would suddenly call him in. Plus it can help with the headaches.

[formersurgeon]

"Me neither," she says. "We can't keep alcohol around the house. But I get drinks with friends every once on a while."

Sometimes it's a long while, considering her work, but still.

[dontcomeback]

Makes sense, if she was his sober companion, of course they wouldn't have any alcohol around the house.

"Well, I'd be happy to help you test that absinthe sometime. Or other things, I suppose," he says. He's enjoying her company. He might not have offered so freely back home - he can be pretty difficult to drag out for social activities sometimes. But it's not like he has a job to distract him or a kid to babysit, and she's the one he's gotten along with easiest so far.

[formersurgeon]

She smiles at his offer, feeling warmed. She's enjoying his company too. She's met a number of people so far, but she's connected with him the most. He almost makes her hope this isn't a dream.

"I'd like that."