sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #6

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!tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME #6

1. took a time-traveling ride

[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 aboard! I'm so happy you could join us!

[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. so many dragons lurking out in the fog

[the cabins closest to the laundry room door will notice first. the steady hums and thuds of the machines, muffled by walls, are growing louder and louder, until it almost sounds like someone is bashing them against the wall. soapy water leaks from under the closed door, drips from the sides.

until someone is dumb enough to open it.

it’s a flash flood of detergent, a wave of foam and hot water feet high spilling forth and bringing down and along anything caught in its path. you’d think it would be a quick burst, that once whatever had built up in the room was released, the torrent would subside. but, it doesn’t. and a river of half-washed socks overtakes the hallways.]

3. I need protection from the things in my head

[The Infinite Tommy Bahama, everyone’s favorite destination for laid-back island sophistication, is a bit of an odd duck on the Promenade. and not just because it’s seemingly shoved between two extant locales, or because it’s a clothing store among bars and restaurants. for some reason, the unseen spirits that attend the other bars and shops, doing the routine duties necessary to keep such places running, seem to avoid this one, and it shows. clothes that are taken off the racks are not put back on again, leaving increasingly large piles of floral print and polyester blends in every aisle.

and that is where he is born.

there’s just so many piles. and they all look pretty much the same, each as tacky as the one next to it. it would be hard to notice that one has moved while your back was turned to it. difficult to realize that a singular pile has started stalking you through the stacks and racks. until it’s too late to turn back, until you’ve lost sight of the entrance, and the piles of discarded slacks and blazers seem to conglomerate into one massive beast, which rises from the polished wood floors and throws its weight upon its hapless victim.

the bahamanal strikes.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rose beams. He's doing great!

"They must." She nods, quite sure of herself. "It's done up like a cruise ship, and it's not all jumpscares and creepy crawlies, so I'm sure of it. It's pretty 'luxe even by 22nd century Mars-cruise standards. Might not have Orange Julius or the like, but I'll be pretty surprised if it's all gruel and C-rations."

She leads the charge to discovery. And stops to try to ask a ghost questions. It doesn't go well, but she's fearless, just continuing the charge, to find drinks! Ohhhh elevators. And maps! Like a mall directory! She happily gestures to Luke, actually bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Look look! See? There's a coffee shop and like 5 dinner spots. A lot of bars too," her lips purse for a moment, but she brightens, "Mom would love it." That's a danger too, she thinks.

Luke doesn't quite follow all of that, but they're discovering the food and drink before he figures out what to say.

"Your mom would like bars?!" he snorts in some surprise. "Who's your mom?"

Rose facepalms. "Well... she'd like all the deluxe of it... but yeah... bars too I guess. Don't tell her I said that if you ever meet. For that matter, don't tell the Doctor I said that either, he'd NEVER keep it to himself." Rose memorized the map, gestured to the elevators and led the way again! "She'd like the shopping most. Jackie Tyler. She's not a world-traveler though. She doesn't even like leaving the region for Holiday." A small sigh. "She'd always say, London's the best, why go anywhere else, everything you need is right there." Rose looks out the glass elevator with her open wanderlust on her sleeve and face. "She's never been on a cruise at all. But one like this?" Rose's eyes light up as they descend, and the new elaborate floors come into view. "Yeah, she'd love this."

Right until the ghosts and aliens start. Well, maybe she wouldn't even mind that. She'd been getting used to it more thanks to Rose, to be honest.

"The ... Doctor. Right," Luke says slowly. He definitely doesn't follow that.

"... Okay, all the stuff to do is better than the airships I've been on," he says. "But at least there aren't ghosts and clothes monsters and who knows what else."

It is just as well. Rose once told the Doctor she literally couldn't tell anyone this kind of stuff. And although he dragged along Mickey so she could have that with someone, it still didn't really work. In the end, she's just gotten used to it. You'd be amazed what you can get used to.

"You've been on airships too!?" All the excited. "What, like zeppelins or...?" She bites her bottom lip for a moment. "The world I was born in didn't have them much, they used airplanes instead. Faster. But less with the leisurely explorer aesthetic, yanno? What kinda clothes monsters?" She feels like there has to have been one of those in her adventures already.... but nope, nothing's coming to mind. Strange that. Mannequins was damn close though, and that probably counted.

"Uh ... I've never heard of zeppelins, so probably not," Luke says. "They were more like airplanes, I guess."

He scoffs. "Oh, some people here are saying there's a monster made of clothes in one of the shops." He clearly doesn't believe it.

She squints at that. Then why call them airships? Well, whatever.

"Is it hungry?" Her brain doesn't work the same way other people's do.

Luke would have no idea.

He shrugs at this. "It's hungry for people, I guess. If it's really around."

"That's just superstition," Rose folded her arms. "You can't say that until you meet it. Just because it's not human doesn't mean it's bad. Not all monsters are brutal."

"It's probably not even real," Luke says. "But some of these people are adamant it tried to grab and swallow them. It's some stupid prank if it's anything."

She blinks at that. To be fair, she thought the mannequins was a college student prank. And it's that which sells her on it the most.

"Wanna investigate it or get drinks?" She gestures vaguely to the sword. "You any good with that thing?" Though he HAD to be more useful in a fight than Mickey normally, so she's not too worried.

"Yeah, maybe. Let's see what the food's like first."

He isn't eager to waste his time looking for what he thinks isn't real.

He nods in regards to the sword question. "I was taught by one of the best." But there's definite sadness in his tone.

A small grin about the food. "Yeah? If -- nah, I mean when my best friend shows up sometime maybe you can fence with him. He's the best. Probably."

She hits a button to head out onto one of the decks. "Here come on, this deck has food going. Let's find chips!"

"Really? Who's your best friend?"

Luke wonders if there's any rhyme or reason to who shows up. He follows her, hoping the food is for real.

"The Doctor. He usually tries to settle everything peacefully though. It's his policy," a nod. "He always comes to get me, even if I'm way far from where I'm supposed to be. So I just have to be patient." Unspoken: she's going to get into as much trouble as she can on her own until then anyway.

"I've seen him swordfight a few times now. But he should definitely do it more often." Just so she can watch. High priorities.

"Okay. So what's he a doctor of? And how does he know where you are all the time?" Luke wonders. This is getting weird.

She bites her finger in thought. He's the doctor of lies.

No wait.

"Languages. He speaks like at least 2000. Thus the talking. Though I guess sword fighting is still communicating, isn't it?" And she pulls out the pink flip-phone with a bear charm. "It's specially modified. Even if it doesn't connect, it's got a tracker." She isn't technically lying. He tracks her through the TARDIS key around her neck, but she's long since learned not to tell people about that. "But it takes him forever sometimes, because he's daft. He tries his best though!"

"2000?!" Luke hadn't realized it was even possible to learn that many.

He looks at the phone. "What's that?" He knows what a tracker is, but he's never seen anything like this phone.

"Yup, he's a genius. But don't go telling him that, he's got a big ego already." Light-hearted ribbing.

"My phone, isn't it cute?" She does connect the dots that people past the age of phones stop carrying swords everywhere. "It lets me talk to my Mum, usually. Even from really really impossibly far away." But only through the TARDIS which wasn't here. They'd work it out. "But even this can get out of range." She turns it on and demonstrates, that there's no signal to anchor to.

"Heh." Luke smirks a bit. That sounds like what his friends would have said about him.

His world is very steampunk, highly advanced in some ways and not so much in others. He's fascinated by the explanation of a phone. "That's amazing!" He wishes he and his friends had them.

She did guess a little from the airships reference. Had to be.

"Right?" Proud beams. "My Dad -- err no wait." He walked away. It was to be expected. He lost Jackie Tyler and Rose just wanted to make him feel better, but she felt all wrong about it. Her face scrunches. "It's complicated. It wasn't him... exactly. But... in a timeline I don't exist in," see? Complicated! "He updated phones like crazy! They had this blue-tooth ears thing, and could pick up broadcast signals. Ahhhh I don't know why I'm mentioning that, I'm just -- I was just there so I guess that's why. It was on my mind. Come on, yeah?" Into Sand Dollar.

Luke is definitely giving her some blank stares through this spiel. He has no idea about bluetooth, or broadcast, and ... alternate timelines, that's a new one on him too.

He follows her into the place. "So what's this about other timelines?"

While it may not be normal casual conversation Rose goes up to the counter to try to get herself a boba tea and gestures for Luke to figure out what he wants.

"Hmmmm. Do you know the theory that every person's decisions make for different splinters? Sometimes they converge. Um, come back together. But a lot of times it's all -- it seems like one person out of 7 billion shouldn't be a big deal, right? But next thing you know, that person delivering a package saved the world from World War 3." A beat. And she waves a hand. "Or rescued a monarch or whatever. Time is really really confusing. It's always changing. You never know what can happen. So just do your best and have fun. And if you meet yourself... don't cause a paradox." She bit her finger in thought, and shrugged. "Timeline are just... What ifs. What if your world didn't have magic, how would it be different? What if in another timeline, I was a dog? It gets confusing really fast. So don't worry if that doesn't make sense, because the real thing doesn't either. You almost have to see it to get it."

Luke splits his concentration between the menu and listening to Rose.

"... I guess that makes sense," he says. "I never thought about it before, but ... yeah...."

Now he wonders if there are alternate timelines with him and his friends. Could there be a world where Van didn't try to destroy it? Where he cared about Luke?

... Still, even if there were such worlds, it wouldn't be the Van he had known.... A nice Van would have his own Luke....

By now he probably looks visibly sad.

"... Oh, what's a paradox?"

"A very very bad thing that destroys the universe," and how. "It's like a reverse fact. Two things can't be true at once. So you can't both save someone, and not save them. So it starts undoing time."

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