TEST DRIVE MEME #5

[sailmods]

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.]

Comments

[dragonhunters]

[it's the helmet, right? It's usually the helmet, before the gun sheathed alongside his saber or the dragons all over his...everything, or the eyepatch...

Okay no sometimes it's the eyepatch.

Masamune's good eye shifts back and forth as he tries to process the train of thinking here. Who is Shogetsu? Why is he late? No, wait...what?]

You speak as though you know me. [which just makes him puff up a bit, throwing his chest out] But of course you would, who wouldn't know the One-Eyed Dragon? Except nearly everyone else on this damned ship.

[huff, he wasn't drinking! Just. Exploring, really.] What makes you think you have any right to order me around? Who are you, anyway?

[konpeito_aji]

[It's definitely the eyepatch. And the swords. Nobunaga collects katana, especially if they've been given a name and he knows their creators like it's etched into his soul.]

[But the dragons do it too. It's honestly reassuring for Nobunaga to not always be the most obviously decked out one, that's why having Masamune always around is such a pleasure, even when they do end up competing worse than he does with... anyone else, actually. No wait, "even when," no, it's probably because of that. After all, no one else in the world is foolish enough to challenge the Fool Lord at anything!]

[There's a small barking laugh. He knows right? But in Nobunaga's case, it's kind of a delight not to be recognized. It means he wasn't kidnapped for that... for once.]

It's not like you to let that faze you.

[Ah?] Amnesia? What's the last thing you remember? This morning we were in the war council room putting the bath-house plan to action. You had a bet with Mitsuhide whether my lucky charm would fall in love with me first, or whether you'd steal her heart first so you told her you were counting on her to hold out. That's the last I saw you. You don't remember?

But look... [Unfastens some of his armor to show the bandage.] I still have the bandage, not just Haguro.

[Eyes narrow and a small frown.] You really don't recognize me?

[If this was a joke... it sucked. Oda had no idea it would bother him not to be recognized by Masamune. But you learn something new every day.... and today he's learned a lot.]

[Well.... if he isn't recognized. If it's amnesia...]

[How much of an asshole move would it be to pretend he's not Oda Nobunaga?????]

[Very, actually. Especially when Date found out from the other people on board, and ugh it would be SUCH a headache to have to pretend to everyone just for a really REALLY bad joke.]

[Still, for now, he'll just see how long he can let this continue, for funsies.]

Do you remember uniting Oshu? [Because even back then, Oda was his ally, but maybe Masamune's age was misleading??? No, probably not....]

[dragonhunters]

[ah, the delight of mish-mashed timelines, where things are almost but not quite recognizable. Date spends more than a minute making confused faces, eyebrow creased, lips pursed, as he tries to follow the logic. Bathhouse? Mitsuhide?? Wait WHAT?]

Akechi...did what now? I...no, none of this makes any sense! Dammit. How did I find someone from my time and yet it's still not the same?

[at least, at that he can muster a stern look] Of course I remember uniting Oshu! It was my driving focus, my dream, everything hinged upon it. But anyone from the Oda at that time...either they were backed by Tokugawa or pressed by fringe movements. Should we...? Were you a renegade who came to my aid with the Toyotomi?

[konpeito_aji]

[Fringe movements????]

[Mentally, Oda reels. Well hell, maybe Nobunaga's the one in need of a drink.]

[Indeed. Someone from the same time.... and not.]

What threat did Ieyasu and Hideyoshi face? [His right hand man, and the two men he was hinging the future on so he could finally leave Japan. So Nobunaga left, but then... what changed? How???? Just from this morning? A few days? That didn't make sense either!]

[Should... should he tell him who he is?]

Date... [Low serious voice, because this is really damn important!]

Let's get some ice cream. [... No, but it is really important, and Masamune wouldn't do great in a bar, and even Nobunaga kind of needs to sit and think, and get some sugar. The sugar is very important.]

[Oh. But maybe he should be more respectful, since it's not like Masamune remembers him yet.]

[But how? If Nobunaga died, and then wound up here... How did that much time--]

[Grrrr.] It's like cold mochi. You'll like it. [Eyes closed.] The Date Masamune I knew would anyway. And then he'd go figure out how to improve upon it. [Look, it's really really important. More than conquering the future. That can wait. At least if they have ice cream with this conversation, they can get brain freeze and stuff, it will keep their heads cool.]

[Also... Nobunaga knows that wasn't as deferential(????) as maybe it was supposed to be. He's literally never been deferential to even his father though, so it's a headache to figure out how to start.]

[And wasn't that his favorite part of Masamune? That they were as close to equals as Nobunaga had in the whole world. He never had to worry about manners, and likewise, he never had to remind Date to cool it with the annoying formalities! If he started up with them now... It might never be the way he appreciated again.]