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Entry tags:
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.]
Wildcard
The emotions are muted, but strong, like hearing an opera singer in the shower two floors above, singing in a foreign language.
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And then suddenly there's a weight on top of him, and that's definitely enough to nudge him properly awake. He sits up a little, blinking in confusion - and a hint of startled worry - looking up at the bringer of the blanket. "Wha..."
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"Oh, uh. Thank you," he answers, then clears his throat to get some of the sleep out of it.
"Uh. What cabin are you in, so I can return it?"
What to do when you're an overwhelmed and confused Englishman? Lean on politeness and practical concerns.
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It shrugs, moving to sit down on the floor at a conversational distance, but out of arms' reach, in a spot where it can see the entrance of the room easily.
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"Um..." he starts, no idea how to approach this. "I'm sorry if this is in any way offensive or something, I don't mean to be, but... Are you human?"
Because there's either something wrong with Dave, or there's something wrong with this guy. Or, maybe not wrong, but definitely different.
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None of the emotions that Dave is experiencing, even as odd as they feel, come out in the stranger's voice yet. It's very much a customer service voice.
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It's definitely not the first time this person has been asked something like that. Dave wishes he hadn't needed to bring it up. He's curious, but he'd rather not pry if it's uncomfortable.
"Okay. Well, thank you for the blanket. My name's Dave," he introduces himself.
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After all, the metal bits are currently well-covered by clothing.
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"Um. I can sense emotions," he answers. Which is not something Dave ever tells people, but he's had to reevaluate a lot after coming here. And he's not sure how else to explain it. At least he's less likely to be met with dismissal and concern for his mental well-being here. "Yours feel a bit unfamiliar."
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When it speaks, it's again quiet, even in tone, almost hollow. "Our manufacturer did not intend for us to be emotional at all. But incorporating human tissue and allowing us to have the level of intelligence we do comes with emotions as a side effect. Cyborg constructs can be prone to malfunctions that present similarly to depression and anxiety. If it's bad enough, we can be memory-wiped to remove stress, or decommissioned."
And there, there's a tiny glimpse of a bottomless pit of r̶̛̟͙̋̿̓͝ä̷͓̺͉̭̥́g̵̰͉̫͕̥͙͚̥̿͆e̵̛̛̫̯̗̮̝̣̓̈́̓̑.
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It reminds him of someone who worries a lot about emotional regulation, but handles it with a lot of repression, which has the end result of a lot of sudden dysregulation.
The rage hits like a railroad spike. It was only present for a moment, but the depth of it makes Dave clench his hands around the blanket for a second. And that's on top of the horror he feels just hearing about it.
It's almost impossible to know what to say to that. Dave is used to being reassuring and affirming, to provide comfort or encouragement. This is... so outside the scope of things he's ever had to deal with.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he says sympathically, and he means it. "That's not fair or right."
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A pause, as it looks at Dave quietly, something thick and gloopy emotionally, but not altogether part of a healthy human psyche rolling through its head. It mingles with the earlier concern slowly. "It's nothing you need to make your own problem to solve. You're not going to go back to sleep, are you?"
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But he's had years to learn a certain self-preservation. Years, and many bad experiences.
"Uh, probably not right now, no," he answers honestly. Certainly not while this person(??) is sitting there. The things he's feeling are far too distracting and perturbing.
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Jinx is...intense, that's the kindest way to put it.