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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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"What is... ice cream?"
He can tell it's probably cold, or at least in appearance/aesthetic, and probably with milk. But his time in Japan they don't even have cows yet. Yeah. The Mongols raise yaks. It's not really comparable. But he has been told a lot about Portuguese cuisine. Like cheese.
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Which isn't a what is as much as a what's it like, but look, those are the important details.
"And there's toppings to put on it."
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A solemn nod, a polite bow of his head. "I shall try this. Thank you."
He gestures with chopsticks so the other can sit opposite him. It's kind of less a suggestion, and more an order, but this is just habit from being a dictator 24/7 for the last few decades. At least he seemed truly grateful.
"Are those your favorites?" The mac and cheese, and dinosaur chicken nuggets. Nobunaga tried the mac & cheese day one. But he hasn't given himself enough stomach aches to learn to treat his body like his real age instead of just eating sugar and not much else. And Haguro (the hawk) preferred normal chicken without the processing.
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"Yeah. They're crunchy and salty and always the same every day. And I like the shapes, see? This one's meant to look like a pterodactyl."
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The warlord-dictator tilts his head in confusion. Another completely foreign word! "What's a..." He closes his eyes thinking hard. "Terra-Duck-Till?" A... foreign bird? Like ostrich, but they could fly? A really big duck?
Oda doesn't care if the dude stays standing, so long as he humors Nobuanga's curiosity though. Eventually Oda might stand up, so that they are both being weirdos standing instead of sitting to eat, but for now, his curiosity is humored, he has sugar, and oh gosh LEARNING new things! He's ecstatic. It doesn't show that much yet. His guard is still nearly maxed out. Being kidnapped and in the middle of an unknown ocean will do that.
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It's not sure how useful this is--or even that this guy is from Earth to begin with. Lots of people on the ship (including it, honestly) have never seen Earth, don't have a strong connection with it.
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"And the others are other dinosaurs? Giant pre-human lizards?" Sugoi... "Does that mean dragons were real?" He can't help his scoffing tone, but his inner child (... outer child???) is having a blast! "Or Ki-Rin? Wait, do you know all their shapes?" EYES WIDE! Yes, total child here.