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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.]
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But uh.. yeah I guess I was a Deputy; back home in Hope County, Montana. Not really one here. It's just a force of habit.
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Brit here. But was traveling when I was suddenly...here. Is it normal to not remember the in between?
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I uh.. [Yeah there's no good way to ease into this so he just goes for it.] I was dead back home, so kinda makes sense I don't remember from there to here. But most people aren't, and I dunno what it was like for them.
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I wouldn't have known what to say if I wasn't dead too, so lucky, that.
[ She offers a lopsided smile and a one-shouldered shrug. ] Technically dead, I guess. Just hasn't happened yet. Should we start a boat gang? Like West Side Story. Dunno which set of ghosts would be the Sharks, but I feel like it'd be us, right? Water-themed at all.
[ Clara realizes she's rambling, but doesn't really tell people and he's the first one she's said it out loud to on the ship. And as for the mirror things: she’s going with ghosts. ]
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Oh. Sweet. Well I mean, not sweet. Sorry you died and all but I was kinda feeling like the only one. Like maybe me being here was a mistake.
[He gives a half smirk at the mention of starting a boat gang.]
So I think being a police officer I'm like.... legally precluded from joining a gang? I think I have to turn in my badge and my belt or something.
[Well probably his badge and his gun but he doesn't have his gun here.]
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[ Clara pauses to think, then smirks. ] We're a regular club. President, Vice-President. [ She points at herself, then him. ] If we find a Secretary and Treasurer, then we'll really stay under the radar.
[ She laughs softly, then shrugs as it trails off. ] Just seems like in this place we're gonna need all the friends we can get. [ Then, she circles back to what he said before, about his arrival and she nods a little. ]
I thought it was a mistake too. I was in my ship, then I was on this ship and I'm sort of hoping mine is here somewhere. Startin' to doubt it though.
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Yeah I think this place sucks less if we're not all trying to kill each other or fighting.
[A frown because he sure hasn't been practicing what he preaches. Though he's feeling a lot better about that not being an issue in the future.]
You have your own ship? Because I haven't seen anything. It's not like this one really has a dock hanging off of it. But I dunno, we could go take a look?
[He assumes she means ship like the kind that goes in water, and not the kind that goes through time and space Also he's pretty sure they won't find it, but maybe it'll take her mind of her arm for a bit if they go hunting for it.]
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[ Clara saw his slight frown, but sometimes it's better to move on and let things come up naturally if he wants to talk about something. She's heard more stories from people by not pushing. ]
I'm a time traveler. Well, space and time traveler. It's not weird for me to turn up places I've never been before, or even stuck for a while. But I really don't like being separated from my ship. [ She doesn't think it's here either, but always the optimist, she looks back toward the mirror. ]
I'm up for exploring as far away from mirrors as possible.
[ ooc: Since I'm in the game now, we could always continue this in my open post? I could do a top level after your next reply if that works? ]
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[Wait a traveler through space and time? That kinda sounds familiar, but he's also distracted from that by the fact that someone nearly got eaten by a mirror.]
Any experience with weird mirror ghosts in all that space and time travelling? Because they're really freaky. And kinda hate the idea that they're watching us all shower.
((OOC: Yes! Sounds good, link me pls.))
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