TEST DRIVE MEME #7

[sailmods]

1. before she hung up, she said she was a skeleton

[there is no note in your cabin. no forces stall your legs if you decide to walk anywhere but the atrium. in fact, for the first time in hundreds of years, newly arrived passengers on the Serena Eterna are waking up with absolutely no guidance. nothing but your fellow passengers in the halls - or maybe in your bed.

perhaps you end up in the atrium eventually anyway. it is where guest services is, and where Gal Friday… actually hasn’t been in a few days. until today. and she is visibly frazzled, her hair uncoiffed, her suit rumpled, something a bit like a bruise blossoming down from her hairline and over her smooth features. more papers than ever cover her desk, and when she turns to face you, her voice is as cheerful as ever, but audibly strained.]

Welcome aboard the Serene Eterna! [a pause] You know how to work a life vest, right? Everyone knows that! You don’t need me to teach you that!

[a light bulb burns out behind her head.]

… I’ll get right on that!

[freedom includes the freedom to not know what the fuck is happening. maybe you should reflect on that.]

2. grandma went and can't stop screaming

[it’s something about the lighting fixtures, this month. has the Bellona always had a massive chandelier? maybe. who knows. don’t ask questions. either way, in the stillness of the night, or day, or late afternoon, there is a noise like a cord being cut, and the chandelier plunges into the audience below.

it hits nothing, of course. no one is ever in the theater. and that, perhaps, is what the trouble is.

so, the chandelier starts to… travel, one could say. it starts to hang in various rooms: the dining halls, the bars, the clubs… sometimes, if you’re out on the pool deck and suddenly realized you’re under a shadow, you can glance up and see it suspended 20 feet above your head, securely fastened to nothing in particular and yet remaining perfectly in place.

until it isn’t. until it falls, crystal shattering on whatever surface it lands on: floor, table, person… and, wherever the chandelier goes, a lilting childish voice follows it, singing without any obvious source.]

Ring-a-ring of roses, a pocket full of posies… ashes, ashes, we all…

3. jeff bezos murdered the infinite tommy bahama

[the lights of the Infinite Tommy Bahama go out three days into October.

barely an hour after its closure, the lights go on again, and a new banner is unfurled.



physically, it is the same store. you can even see the old signs hidden behind the new ones. however, long gone are the tropical prints and khaki dress shorts. now, one can purchase any number of officially licensed or legally distinct Halloween costumes, decorations, and various other haunted accoutrements, leading back as far as the eye can see, and then farther still. is that a Gal Friday mask? spooky! well, at least you’ll be good and ready for the Halloween party at the end of the month, which is absolutely just a normal party and in no way whatsoever anything even remotely resembling a trick. there are only treats at The Infinite Spirit Halloween!

note: bahamanuel is still here! somewhere! it kinda looks like dan bongino.]

Comments

Spirit Halloween

[serialskiller]

On the one hand, Murderbot remembers the other Chrissy who was here. On the other, it's actually aware this might be a divergent one from another timeline. Still, still, it approaches with a certain caution, a figure built like it belongs in a military propaganda poster, but dressed in a yellow dinosaur hoodie that manages to be big on it, paired with cargo pants and stompy work boots.

"Careful going too far into the store. It's easy to get lost."

That's safe enough, right? She'll let it know if she remembers it.

[bubblegumheart]

"Is it really that big?"

It hadn't seemed that expansive when she'd come in, but Chrissy knows better than most that appearances can be deceiving. She's still in the process of turning to address the helpful voice when she notices the hoodie first. Chrissy giggles, feels a little bad about it, and brings a hand up to cover her mouth.

"I like your hoodie! Did you find it here?"

She's only just come in, so it's possible that she hasn't found the hoodies yet. Maybe she'll keep an eye out for one.

[serialskiller]

"It's...bigger internally than it ought to be. Some say it's even infinite. As for the hoodie, ah. No, not here. I have a few nice hoodies, a gift from the sundries shop."

Read, a regain. But not the traumatizing type of 'my mun wants to torment me' regain, the kind that's actually a kindness to the character.

It almost looks a little bashful when she giggles, but not in a hurt or upset way. Just...shy. It's weird for something nearly six and a half feet tall, clearly combat-ready, to be shy. Right?

[bubblegumheart]

"That doesn't make any sense." She's not exactly an A student, and she's hardly a physics expert, but it seems impossible for one section of a place to be infinite. Unless... maybe the whole place is infinite? "Maybe I should go find the sundries shop at some point." It might be nice to have something that isn't a reminder of home.

"Do you know what this place was before it was a Halloween store?" Maybe it's a long shot, but Chrissy is brand new, so she figures that most people she runs into will have a better idea of how things work around here. "Do they have other kinds of hoodies too?"

[serialskiller]

"Things making sense here is hardly guaranteed." Yes, by itself, that warning is meaningless. That makes it no less important to offer. "Before this was...whatever this is...it was a Tommy Bahama, which apparently meant upscale tropical vacation apparel. Most of it was sort of gaudy for my taste."

Ignore how bright yellow its sweatshirt is.

[bubblegumheart]

"Oh." It's not really a comforting statement, but it's still good to know. It does make her wonder whether or not there are other things like this, though. She's looking around at the various costumes and displays when he speaks up again. "I don't think I've ever heard of that one. Does everyone here prefer the vacation apparel?"

She's not going to comment on how bright the hoodie is, because it seems like a silly thing to point out. And honestly, she likes how bright it is.

[serialskiller]

“Preference has nothing to do with it; that’s just what’s been available. The ship doesn’t just stop places so we can go shopping or anything. So the choices are clothes from home or…what we find on the ship.”

Or what they end up in for events, but it’s not up to trying to explain that yet.

[bubblegumheart]

"That makes sense, I guess. Where does the ship stop?" Does the ship stop? Chrissy has no idea. She also doesn't have any money, so shopping probably isn't going to be a thing for her for quite a while, anyway.

It'd be really nice to have something to change into, though.