TEST DRIVE MEME #6

[sailmods]

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.]

Comments

[argonautai]

[ he raises a brow, sensing something a bit amiss about miss clarke's smile...but nonetheless, he's here for the tour and by damn is he going to get it. he folds his arms across his chest and follows alongside her past the drill station he'd oh so recently been through, tilting his head at her explanation. ]

More ghosts... So we're most certainly haunted.

[ not too bothersome, although he would never settle for his own vessel to be haunted. it doesn't sound too awful at her explanation, however — working instead of trying to kill them? ]

Benevolent for the most part, I take it? [ a beat, as he thinks about it— ] Do they expect compensation?

[ he really doesn't want to piss off any ghosts. ]

[skaikru]

They haven't so far.

( inb4: the great ghost strike of october 2022. )

My understanding is enough of their souls have been stripped away that they're not much of anything anymore. Not much of anyone, and not good for much besides carrying trays and cleaning up messes. At least — the necromancer and various magicians on board haven't said they felt anything specific from them.

[argonautai]

A necromancer and magicians, huh?

[ he claps his hands together, sounding a little excited. ]

What of their names? I'd like to familiarize myself with such types aboard this ship. Especially given the... [ he waves a hand hesitantly ] ...ghosts, and all that.

[skaikru]

...oh.

( most of the time she plays names and capabilities close to the chest, treating a lot of the tenuous connections made here like personal weapons hidden in a tactical vest. but.

visibly tentative, blood from a particularly reluctant stone, etc etc. )

Palamedes Sextus. And then there's a lot of magicians: Skulduggery Pleasant, Jade Curtiss, Ebalon — ( tone and facial contortion alone denotes this one's a less that companionable option. ) — Rita Mordio...

[argonautai]

[ he caugh that. ]

Okay, so: Favorite magician. Or two of them, perhaps. I need to narrow it all down, after all.

[ still, he's fairly curious. ]

If you've any warning for me regarding them as well, I'd also appreciate those. Too often have I been misguided by such types.

[skaikru]

( well, her favorite of that list is pal, but clarke still draws the line between inherent necromantic powers and whatever the hell the rest of them do pretty boldly. so give her a moment to think and... )

Curtiss and Mordio, then. He's disconcertingly cheery and will talk your ear off, but perfectly competent. Six foot, long hair, red eyes, and glasses. She's got the personality of a particularly argumentative rock but, again, knows what she's doing and has been here from the start. Short, with short reddish hair, probably yelling at something.

Skulduggery's a skeleton, you can't miss him. He's also exceptionally smart, don't fault any of the math or rules that come out of his mouth, but sometimes he keeps secrets. ( including her own, but we're not talking about clarke griffin right now, are we jason? she's completely boring and human, with no grander ideals of stealing peoples magic. don't worry about it. )

And Ebalon's a "reforming" psychopath. ( how much DOUBT can one shove into a single word... ) But powerful, with healing magic. He dropped the entire moon on a guy once just to kill him, and the guy wasn't even putting up a fight.