sail_ooc | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Since early March, I think? So over four months now. It's weird to say you get used to something like this, but...there's a rhythm that's established over time.

I'm Undine, Undine Wells.

[For someone under the age of 16, she's very at ease talking to adults, even those in suits who look Official. To her, he looks like a member of the City Defense Department, and she's quite familiar with them.]

Six.

[He studies her carefully.]

You seem rather calm given what I've learned about this place so far.

Edited 2022-07-25 17:20 (UTC)

Maintaining a full on panic for four months would be exhausting. Besides, I fight monsters back home. This place is...well, I'm not going to say it's better, but it doesn't rely on teenage girls to protect everyone all the time. Which is nice.

[One of the frustrations she's had is dealing with everyone who's shocked, horrified that someone her age is being used as a protector of the city. It's all she's known all her life, that magical girls fight the monsters and protect everyone.]

I don't expect you to be panicked. Just surprised you're so casual about it.

[He'd expect some caution.]

[Also not even a twitch at the "I fight monsters" revelation.]

Right now, things are relatively calm. We're not out on a shore excursion where everyone's killing one another, there's nothing attacking the ship. By the standards of the Serena Eterna, this is a good day, and you need to enjoy those while they last.

[She shrugs, making note of his non-reaction. If anything, she's relaxed a little by seeing that.]

I still wouldn't entirely let down my guard.

[Seriously, what's to stop whoever dragged them here from turning a "good day" into a "very bad day"?]

It takes a total of six seconds for me to transform into my magical girl form and become dangerous. Do you want to see?

[That's not meant as a threat, quite, but there's a bit of frustration that seeps into her tone of voice. Particularly here, by the pool, she can be a force of nature without even trying.]

And I could kill you in four.

[Not a threat, just an observation. He'd added a couple seconds to account for potentially slippery terrain poolside. He moves much faster than most people expect.]

[He raises a brow at her.]

Are most threats here clearly-telegraphed or just that slow?

Both. But also, most passengers don't have a reason to make themselves threats to one another. Generally speaking. Like...if there's a situation where we're going to be fighting one another, we all know about it and can be on guard for it.

[She doesn't doubt what Six has said though, looking him over thoughtfully.]

[Yeah, that eyebrow is going to raise again.]

That's rather considerate. [Dry tone is dry. Do go on.]

The captain had a shore excursion that turned out to be a battle royale. Everyone fighting to the death. We were fitted with collars that contained a poison, and told if we didn't fight, if no one killed each other, we'd all be poisoned. We were on a small enough island that we kept running into one another. Killing one another.

[Look, it's not a good fond memory.]

Prompto and I killed one another. I drowned him, he shot me.

[He has no idea who this Prompto is. Also, not sure how to respond to that in general. What do you say? "I'm sorry"?]

I'd heard about death not being permanent in this place.

[He hates the idea, but he isn't happy with a lot of things regarding this "vacation".]

Did you all know ahead of time that's what the excursion was?

No. We were told it was a three-day camping trip which might be strenuous activity. We had no idea what to expect.

I'm pretty sure none of us would have signed up for that, if we knew. Though...a lot of us signed up for the next shore excursion, so who knows.

...Technically, that would be a three-day camping trip though not the kind you were likely expecting.

[Sorry. His sense of humor can run a bit dark.]

[That and camping trips with the rest of One's students got...interesting...at times.]

Right, a bit of a disconnect in communication there. Expectations weren't set at that point.

[If she minds said darkness, well, she's not showing that.]

The second shore excursion actually was a camping trip. Or a trip to summer camp, more accurately.

And the catch for that trip was what exactly?

[Because at this point, he's expecting every excursion to be a trap.]

There really wasn't much of one, if you didn't mind summer camp things like arts and crafts. Though it was sort of a demonstration of the captain being bad at set-building. The forests really felt fake, if you looked closely at them.

...I suppose when your "actors" are busy trying not to die, they don't typically pay much attention to how bad the scenery is.

[More dark humor. Yup.]

Yeah, kinda. It's a thing here on the ship too--there's no bottom to the ocean, no seaweed, no fish or other animals at all. No birds in the sky or anything. Someone said there's no satellites above, either. It's just not quite as obvious, because ship.

Saves power.

[After all, why bother with an ocean floor or birds if people will mostly be occupied with what's on the ship?]

[That could mean that the force that brought them here isn't omnipotent.]

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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