![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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.]
no subject
[He finds a screwdriver easily enough and he's starting to unscrew the screws at the back.]
Is credits the monetary system here? Or is it pink fluffy alpacama's and other various stuffed toys?
no subject
[As for the stuffed animal, called out. Murderbot hesitates and then puts the alpacama back in the Doctor's pile of winnings. It doesn't really need a plushie anyway, it's a grown bot and certainly doesn't need to hug anything or anyone.]
no subject
[And oh, that's not what he had intended at all. It was just some good natured teasing...from a stern looking man.
The panel comes off pretty easily once the screws are off and he clicks his teeth. The inside is woefully empty with no hardware to speak of. In fact, the inside looks not so dissimilar to the inside of a cardboard box.]
Looks like you were right, come take a look.
no subject
[But unlike some people on the ship, there's no judgment in its tone for Friday herself. For some reason, it kinda identifies with her.
It moves toward the cabinet to peer inside the box.]
Yeah, this is what the slot machine was like inside. Hollow empty.
no subject
[He hums before hitting the back of his fist against the top. Despite it looking like brushed metal, there's a dull thud similar to that of cardboard.]
How do you feel about liberating the rest of the toys?
[Will it ruin the fun of other people? Potentially. Maybe. But he also just feels the need to take something apart with his hands.]
no subject
[It sympathizes.]
And I don't care what you do with the toys. Though I'd rather the guns didn't just get left out anywhere.
no subject
I'm assuming her programming doesn't allow her to disobey then? And has anyone tried to help her?
[He's saying all of this of course while grabbing an exactoknife out of the toolkit in an attempt to cut open the underside of the claw machine.]
You did seem to take a liking to the pink alpacama. You can take it if you'd like, I don't need that many toys. Maybe just the yo-yo. We can toss the guns overboard for all I care.
no subject
[It doesn't think it's very good at that, yet.]
I don't know what I'd do with the alpacama. I don't really need anything like that.
no subject
[The Scottish accent just makes it sound patronizing but it’s a genuine question.]
Do we ever really need anything though? I had a yo-yo once and I didn’t necessarily need it but it certainly came in handy in a situation you wouldn’t have expected it to be useful. Also you can want something for the sake of wanting something. Like the dead iguana.
no subject
no subject
Ah there we go! Not too shabby even without my sonic screwdriver working properly.
[And there are some of the guns. He wrinkles his face in distaste as he pulls them out specifically placing them away from the toys.]
Did you answer me before by the way? How is making friends with Friday going?
no subject
[It shrugs slightly.]
no subject
[And then he motions to the pile now on the floor.]
The guns can meet a watery death but it seems a shame to have these meet a similar fate.
[It’s a not so subtle attempt at him trying to urge SecUnit to take the alpacama stuffie.]
no subject
Friday might appreciate it, maybe. Worth the attempt, I think.
no subject
[And then he remembers the guns. Ugh.]
Before that do you mind helping me get rid of these? Haven't quite hit the regeneration of myself with multiple arms.
no subject
[The alpacama is tucked down the front of its shirt, as it grabs an armload of firearms.]
Friday's usually by guest services. She runs sign-up for shore excursions and plans parties and shit.
no subject
[He sounds far too chipper to be saying something like that but ah well. He collects the last few firearms, tucks the little toy blue police box into his pocket along with the screwdriver, and leads the way to what he assumes is a deck. Feel free to point out if he's definitely not headed in the right direction.]
What are those like? Am I right to assume that they also have some kind of weird quirk to them like the machines?
no subject
Not always, not all the time, and not all in the same way, but they're always some sort of bad. The first one we had was a battle royale, where everyone who signed up had to fight to the death, and only one person survived three days.
[A pause.]
You'll want to go up to the next deck. Either stairs or elevator.
no subject
So they were tricked into it. Did you participate? [The Doctor can only assume that they're probably more than capable of taking care of themselves.] And what happened to everyone else that didn't participate? Are there consequences?
Ah, right thanks. [He looks a little surprised before turning on his heel in the direction it sends him.]
no subject
[It might sound a little defensive when it says it didn't kill anyone. It sure did shoot someone, and have a huge panic attack. It wasn't a good time.]