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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.]
no subject
"No."
He doesn't want to go find the books on his own, he wants to probably murder this person in cold blood, but barring that, he'll suffice for annoying the hell out of him.
"What's your background? Why go to such lengths over manners?" Maybe for the same reason as Oda himself, but Oda would have... literally told anyone asking for books where to find them. So the man has no place to be lecturing him.
"Would you really risk your ears over this?" Stubbornness? Oda kind of... really wants to see if the sword skills are that good. He's met friends over trying to kill them, what's one more? Of course it might not work, and he'd rather not kill someone over something this stupid, and while Oda can hold back, he doesn't have a fantastic read on the skills of the others to ensure he won't accidentally hurt himself or something more idiotic.
"Draw." Your blade, he means, and withdraws his own, despite having JUST sheathed it!
no subject
"I'm a pirate captain, by trade, and I have a crew of ready persons who are all very talented in their own fields. And most of them know how to keep their sword in their sheath. If you're so concerned about me noticing the length of it, I do, and it's very long and sharp. Well done."
no subject
That explained a lot, actually.
Exasperated, Nobunaga just re-sheathes. AGAIN. Though he is actually amused by the overcompensating insinuation. Nice. He actually hasn't heard that one, listen it's the 1500s and no one wastes time on banter in Japan. And also... no one would waste banter on Oda Nobuanga. He might have to use that line on Kenshin sometime to see if he can get a couple of laughs.
"Why didn't you just SAY SO?" That he was a pirate. Pirates are... of course they give no damns. "Oh, you're a literate pirate? Well done." No, he means that genuinely. Most Japanese pirates... aren't. And the ones who accidentally wash up on Oda's shores, definitely aren't.
And then there's a REALLY long beat. "How the hell did they kidnap you? From a ship?"
The same way they kidnapped Nobunaga, obviously. Why would pirates magically be immune, just because it's on sea, and they're used to the sea? Okay, Oda will admit, that was a stupid question. "Stupid question, better one: is this really the North Atlantic ocean?"
Look you can give him the location to books... or suffer a million, billion, trillion, infinite questions.
"Do you even know what the North Atlantic ocean is like? Do you know what this ocean is? What's a Viking? And why are they being repulsive?" a gesture to the cover. Not that sex is gross, just lewd covers to books instead of general wood carvings or other works of art is well, repulsive to him. Because it reminds him of the kama sutra and other monk-stuff.
The only problem with Stede letting it known he was a pirate captain is....
This is how Nobunaga treats pirates. Like AskJeeves in the early 2000s. "Hey hey, how far have you traveled?"
He's like... an absolute child.