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

[There's nothing wrong with a straightforward, sensible question, and he can imagine plenty of sensible uses for this one in particular.]

Nearly five months. One hundred and fifty-one days, to be exact.

[ she frowns at him. that doesn't quite add up with the length of months as she knows them to be... ]

I see. And did you sign up to be on vacation here?

[ because she certainly did not ]

Edited 2022-08-23 16:51 (UTC)

Oh, certainly not. [He huffs a small laugh] I bought no ticket, and I boarded no ship. No, I just woke up in my cabin without warning.

[A pause, briefly looking her up and down.] Not one of us chose to be here—except for the Captain, I suppose. And sometimes I wonder about him.

What were you doing before you woke up here?

[ she doesn’t miss the way he had looked her over, although she isn’t entirely opposed to it.
she was a stranger, and one essentially interrogating him at that.
in her mind, it was prudent of him to at least make some observations about her. ]

… and what do you mean you wonder about him? Have you ever met the captain?

[Oh dear, that's actually a complicated question.]

I was dead. Sort of. Mostly. It's a long story.

[Pal has gotten a little better about talking about his death, but he's still glad for a chance to change the subject.]

I have. [A small frown] I don't recommend seeking him out, at least not until you've learned a little more about our predicament. He isn't a pleasant...person.

[Is "person" even the right word? "Eldrich being" is probably more accurate, but that's a bit much for a first conversation.]

[ hearing he'd died certainly surprises her -- but tear knows better than to push someone on a topic like that.
it was a useful tidbit to know, though, since it was quite different from her own circumstances pre-arrival. ]

I see... Thank you for the warning. It's nice to know there's a possibility of at least coming across him.

[ if she played her cards right, maybe there was a chance she could get answers from him -- or even kill him, if she needed to.
but openly talking about murdering someone is also a bit much for a first conversation, huh? ]

I'm assuming you're not the only person that's been here for a few months, at least.
So what do you do with your time here?

[ this is her way of 'lightening the mood' and asking what his interests are :,) ]

Most of the time, he keeps to himself, though there are a handful of people he has granted an audience. Otherwise-- [a grim shake of his head] Frankly, miss, you should know that if he’s hanging around, it usually means that something terrible is about to happen.

[After such a practical beginning to their conversation, her next question is unexpectedly conversational. He lifts his brows, faintly amused.] Oh, goodness. I do a lot of reading, I suppose. The library’s selection is rather good, assuming you like fiction. Other people enjoy the sports deck, though as you might surmise, I’m not exactly the athletic sort.

But I spend most of my time conducting research on the nature of this pocket universe and why the Captain brought us here. It’s a project of innumerable fits and starts, but how else will we find a way to escape?

[So much for lightening the mood!]

Hmm ... [ that all makes sense. frankly, as composed and calm as tear tends to be -- this wouldn't be the first time she's wanted to rush in and violently save the day, or have some sort of confrontation. it was a tendency born of her youth, her stubbornness -- but one she'd need to curb, though. apparently. ]

I'm not much of a fiction type of person, myself. [ she smiles, a bit, when he returns to the initial topic. she can't help but perceive it to be a small act of kindness, in a way. ]

... Have you discovered anything significant? Those kinds of investigations can be difficult to conduct by yourself. [ she folds her arms. there's something about the way he worded it... ]

Have many people tried to escape already? I'm curious what's been tried, and why we would all still be here if attempts have been made.

[with a small laugh] Oh goodness no, even I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to tackle a project of this scope all alone. Thankfully, I am not the only person on this ship with both the interest in discovering more about our situation, and the skill to do so. If you’d like, I can introduce you to a few of them.

We’ve learned quite an impressive amount, actually. The Captain is impossibly old and desperate for power. That seems to be why he has brought us here, but I’m still not sure how, precisely, we are meant to facilitate his ambitions. We’re not the only group of passengers he has tried this on, though; there were those who came before us, and their time on the Serena Eterna did not end peacefully, to say the least.

I'd like that. [ gaining connections was a useful thing, especially when it came to gathering intelligence --
but for the connections to be so well-versed on the situation at hand is nothing short of marvelous to her.

he was making it remarkably easy to catch up on things. ]

I'm Tear, by the way. I apologize... I don't think I introduced myself earlier.

[ the smile slips from her face when he goes on, elaborating a bit further about the captain.
of course it was this kind of bizarre hostage situation. why wouldn't it be? this was just her luck. ]

This ... isn't the first time I've had to deal with someone bent on gaining power.
But what happened to the previous passengers? And how did you find out about them?
I can't imagine they left a note or anything like that...

[ if he chooses to ask, she'll tell him a bit about the situation with her brother. ]

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

No worries! It happens :)

i forgot to empty the subject line :,)

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Palamedes gives good vibes tbh. I don’t know him but I like him. 😭

He's a good boy!!

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