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

[konpeito_aji]

[More words and phrases new to him.]

[Also, if Nobunaga had any clue at all he was tempting her to become a bit power-mad, he'd abuse it all the more and tempt her all the way, just for sticking to his tempting others as the Demon King of 6th Heaven bit. Good thing he hasn't figured it out yet. Especially since he follows orders... poorly, to say the least.]

Federal research. What is this?

[Mitsunari's position in Azuchi jumps to mind, but she makes it sound tedious, even compared to "Hell."]

Why would things not in your purview reach your desk?

[Nobunaga, for all his intense paranoia (see assassination attempts around every corner) was actually less secretive than the majority of his era, but it still seemed a bit misguided to be so reckless with the most valuable thing on Earth: information.]

[tempingainteasy]

[Truly, it is for the best of the world that they are not quite in sync, for undoubtedly they would spiral each other into worse people all around.

For now, April casually sips their drink before answering their eager student.]

My government wants to research certain forces within the world, to figure out what can be used and what's a threat (as you do).

As for me, I'm the one who puts the files of information - [pause, translate,] - records, pictures, write-ups, summaries, that kind of thing, I put that away somewhere when people are done researching them, or no longer need to refer to them. For the most part, anyway, I've worked a lot of different roles in that place but a lot of them revolve around collecting and organizing that information.

I guess they either think they're too busy and important to put it away themselves, or they figure it'll all go over my head.

[So, for Nobunaga's faults, he has the right idea there about how important information is and that it should perhaps have better checks and balances than checking a box that says 'no I swear I won't look at the confidential information totally' on your application.]

[konpeito_aji]

Sounds like most governments. [His own included.]

So you really are like Mitsunari Ishida.

They.... what? That is a... most egregious miscalculation on their part if you don't mind my saying so, Teacher. [One day April should really find out how much Nobuanga normally hates his tutors. But for now, it's all good.]

Mitsunari Ishida is the only tactician I'd consider second to myself, and his genius insights are incalculably valuable.

Are you able to memorize everything you read?