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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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To him, if the circumstances were different, a ship like this would be perfect. Johnny suffers from agoraphobia. To have a self-contained floating city, a place he could learn thoroughly and never leave, he might be content.
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He sighs and flexes his strange hand some more to get the blood flowing back faster. "You have to understand the world I come from is nothing like this. We have ships, but they're made of wood and not even the biggest war ship is the size of this one. A hot bath? You have to heat the water bucket by bucket. You'd be better pointing me towards a library to read. Spare yourself the trouble."
Eventually, Hawke would catch up. He had to since he was trapped here with everyone else.
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"I imagine meals must also be an interesting challenge, full of unfamiliar things, then?"
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Rats in Lowtown. The salted fish when crossing the sea to Kirkwall. Ham that tasted like despair. Hawke's stomach can tolerate a lot of abuse.
"Is there another way to find out about things besides asking people?" Hawke really doesn't want to be a bother. He also doesn't want to reveal just how stupid he is compared to everyone else here.
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Which there are a few of, but it shows Johnny's assuming Hawke just doesn't want to bug anyone, and missing the real issue.
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"Is a heel your way of saying an ass?" Hawke bumps his shoulder against Johnny's. "Because you don't have to be so formal. You can just say some people are assholes."
Because there were always assholes.
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He returns the shoulder-bump with a bit of a wry smile. Despite how he's dressed, Johnny isn't actually a stuffy noble sort. He's a man who's worked very hard to build the life he wants to lead, after choosing to break off from his family.
"I try not to be one of them, though."
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There is one thing to say for this ship, it doesn't seem to have a class structure. Hawke is no better or worse than anyone else. No titles. No nobility. No Darktown. It's almost nice except for the imprisonment.
"It's better to be honest anyway. It makes things easier."
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No judgment, he's actually just trying to take Hawke's measure. Learn what sort of man he is.
(Let's be honest, though, Johnny might have thrived in Orlais. His champagne lounge would have been home to the most extravagant parties, just translated through the fantasy lens.)
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"I'm not saying the Ferelden nobility is any better in terms of being good people but at least you can tell when they don't like you. Free Marchers are somewhere inbetween the two." His time as a noble taught him many things. Most important being that he hated being a noble. It was so much bullshit.
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