sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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.]

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It's kind of an odd response, but Chrissy has no idea how long it's been since she'd seen Eddie last. The fact that he seems surprised to see her kind of makes sense, she supposes. Steve had been surprised, too. She can't blame him for that, all things considered.

"Holy shit is right." This place is weird in a way that she can't quite place. There's just something off about it. But she feels lighter here, in a way, so maybe she shouldn't complain too much.

"It's nice to see you too, Eddie." It's on the tip of her tongue to ask how long it's been. He looks the same as he had before, only he's not smiling this time. He's not joking around or trying to make her laugh, either. He's just... looking at her like he can't believe she's here.

There is so much Eddie wants to say, but at the same time, he's scared shitless to say it. So he settles for a smile and a nod in her direction while he tries to give his brain enough time to catch up with the rest of him.

His heart is beating rapidly, he notes. Which is still very odd, because he very distinctly remembers dying. Then again, he remembers Chrissy dying in the most horrific manner, and here she is, looking very much not like a gumby toy that's been tied up like a pretzel, so maybe that's just one of the perks of being stuck here. Maybe it's better not to put too much thought into it.

"You, um. You died," he states dumbly, wincing immediately as the words leave his mouth.

If anyone can relate to being too afraid to say the things they want to say, it would absolutely be Chrissy. Waking up here has raised so many questions and she's pretty sure that Eddie is the only one that can really answer them. She's hesitant to ask, though, because part of her is afraid of the answers.

In the end, he takes the choice away from her by answering the biggest one. She can't remember waking up after the monster caught up with her, and now she knows why. Admitting it to Vance had felt easy, and she hadn't even been completely certain about it at that point. Hearing Eddie say it now feels like something reaching inside her chest and squeezing her heart. It's not a surprise, really, because there are only so many ways to interpret someone telling her they're going to make her suffering stop. As much as she might have wanted to believe it, sending her on a cute little vacation isn't what the monster had in mind.

"I think... I knew that already." She'd been mostly convinced, despite the fact that she's clearly walking around, and she feels alive. But the last thing she remembers before the monster was Eddie leaving the room, which means- "You came back?"

Part of Eddie feels like it's best to get this conversation out of the way. He knows he would just be thinking about it, every minute of every strange day he spends on this cruise ship knowing that she's here with him. But then another part of him wishes he could live in denial. He smiles sadly, glad that he's not delivering her a huge shock or anything. Because then he would really feel like shit.

"I did. I found the K, but by the time I reached you, he already got to you. I tried to wake you up. But you were just...it was like you weren't even there." His voice cracks and wavers as he speaks, and he can't even look her in the eye. The shame of not being able to do anything, and worse of running when it was all said and done, staining his skin like the tattoos he'll bear for the rest of his life.

"I'm so sorry, Chrissy. I'm so fucking sorry, I didn't know what to do." Why did Vecna have to take her first? Why couldn't it have taken someone else, let them figure out how to save her with music?

"I remember you leaving the room, and then I was in my house. But it was like... A nightmare version of my house. My mom was there but she turned into this other thing." It sounds incredibly ridiculous to Chrissy, so she can only imagine how it must sound to him.

"I tried to run away but the door was boarded up and I couldn't find a way out. He cornered me and said it was time for my suffering to end, and then I woke up in a room here."

It doesn't matter anymore, but it makes her happy to hear that he'd found what he was looking for, at least.

"You don't have anything to apologize for, Eddie." If anything, she should be the one apologizing for butting into his life the way she had. "I thought I was going crazy, and I thought you might be able to help. But knowing what I do now, I don't think there was anything you could have done. I'm just glad he didn't get you, too."

Eddie nods along with her as Chrissy explains what she remembers happening. Based on what he heard from Max, that sounds like what she had experienced while she was at the cemetery. It just saddens him, that she had to deal with that, alone. That she had to be the first so that they could eventually piece everything together. It's not fair.

"I keep playing it back in my head, you know? If I could have done anything differently, would it have mattered?" Eddie rambles, rubbing at the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Harrington and the others, they say it wouldn't have mattered, you were marked, but I can't help it." And then, his voice goes quiet, almost a whisper, "I just wish I could have woken you up."

He swallows slowly as he looks down at his stomach, which has since been bandaged. Suddenly it's like he's back there, in the Upside Down, facing down the bats all over again. He remembers the feeling of rage built up inside of him that overpowered his fear. Make him pay, he had said to Steve. And maybe a little part of Eddie wanted to help, instead of running, always running.

"I didn't get cursed, no. But I remember dying. We were trying to --" make him pay "-- kill him, once and for all. I was just supposed to be distraction, but, well." He can't even look at Chrissy, because he feels like he fucked up everything. He couldn't save Chrissy, he couldn't keep the bats distracted long enough, it's his fault, all his fault. "I guess I screwed that up, huh."

Hearing that makes her frown. Chrissy doesn't want him to keep beating himself up over something he had no control over to begin with. She's been in that position, usually following some disagreement with her mother. It's sometimes a little too easy to fixate on what she could have done or said differently, but in the end, the only thing it accomplishes is frustrating her. She doesn't want that for Eddie.

"It's okay, Eddie. You don't have to do that," she tells him. It doesn't matter now that it's over, now that they're both here. Chrissy doubts there's anything he could have said or done that would have changed things. Maybe if she'd been able to talk to someone a little sooner, things wouldn't have gotten as bad as they had. Or maybe things would have played out exactly as they had, regardless of who she chose to reach out to. There's no way to say for sure.

As much as it hurts to know he's so upset by something she still feels guilty about, it's that last bit, the one he probably hadn't even meant her to hear, that makes her heart ache. She wants to reach for him- to hold his hand or hug him and tell him that everything is going to be okay. In the end, she doesn't do any of those things, because it's not something she can realistically promise, and he deserves better than her just telling him what she thinks he wants to hear.

Of all the things he could have said, Eddie admitting that he'd died too isn't something she would have expected. No, Chrissy would have liked to hope that they'd have defeated the monster that did this to her. He'd said she was marked, and Chrissy is honestly afraid to ask what that meant. Did that mean that he was marked too because he'd tried to help her? "I'm so sorry, Eddie." It feels hollow, pointless, to apologize. Rationally, she knows it's not her fault, but she wants to say something. The worst part of it is that he won't even look at her now.

When she does finally reach for him, it's to gently set her hand on his cheek. "None of this was your fault."

As soon as Chrissy's hand touches his cheek, Eddie feels himself crumble. He can't hold it back anymore, everything that he's been feeling. It's almost as if Chrissy was a storm that broke through the dam keeping his feelings at bay. His eyes start to sting with tears and he can feel an intense mixture of emotions swell up from his chest until it burst out.

His legs give out, causing him collapse in a heap on the ground of the Spirit Halloween and he just cries. He cries for Chrissy, for Patrick, for Fred, for Max. For Dustin, and for Wayne. For everyone he left behind, everyone he may very well never see again.

And sure, the rest of the Party could have insisted that it wasn't his fault all this time, but there's something about hearing it from Chrissy that makes it land this time, that makes it stick.

"I'm sorry, I'm not usually --" he doesn't even know why he's apologizing, laughing at himself and trying to wipe the tears away. "Shit."

Chrissy can count on one hand the number of people she's seen crying. Eddie Munson is probably the last person she would have ever anticipated adding to that list. He'd always seemed so fearless when she'd seen him around at school, so seeing him like this now makes her want to cry, too.

She's always felt kind of awkward about other people crying because figuring out what to say to make someone feel better is difficult when you have no basis of comparison. Laura has never been the warmest person, so all Chrissy knows for certain is that she wants to do better than her mother.

So she sinks to her knees and slides her arms around him. She's quiet for a long moment, unsure of what to say and unwilling to interrupt him, because she knows better than anyone that sometimes you just need to get it out.

It's only when he seems to be calming down that she finds her words. "I already told you- none of that was your fault. You tried to help me when nobody else could, and that means a lot to me." And sure, she probably could have tried a little harder to tell somebody else, but at the time she'd just thought she was losing her mind. "You have no reason to apologize."

Eddie definitely doesn't expect Chrissy to stick around. Most of the people in his life with the exception of Wayne just didn't know what to do with Eddie when he experienced emotions. And he wouldn't have blamed Chrissy for not wanting to deal with it now, considering they barely know each other.

But fuck, she is sitting down next to him and he can't help but hug back, clinging for dear life. He's still going to feel compelled to apologize, at least for a little while longer until he can find it within himself to make peace with everything that happened to him. And it seemed like they were stuck on this ship for the foreseeable future, so she may end up seeing that resolution from him after all.

"Thank you. Anyone else would have walked away by now," he whispers, burying his head in her neck. Maybe he can hold onto her for a little while longer. At least until he composes himself.

Maybe it's weird to stick around and try to help someone she's only spoken to a couple of times since middle school. And maybe he won't even want her to, but she can't bring herself to walk away when she feels partially responsible for him being upset in the first place.

So she stays- says nothing when he hugs her a little tighter than she's expecting. It's not so bad once the initial shock wears off. It hits her, as he gradually begins to calm down, that she can't even remember the last time someone held her. It's the dumbest thing to be worried about right now, all things considered.

"It's the least I could do," she tells him, thinking back to how much he'd done for her. Comparatively, sticking around to make sure he was okay seems pretty minor. "I couldn't just leave you like that."

Maybe this would be okay. Maybe they could find some peace in the horrible situation they were pulled into. Or maybe Eddie would self destruct, like he was want to do when forced into a corner.

Whatever happened from here on out, though, they didn't have the outside factors meddling. No restrictive parents, no social hierarchy. Maybe they could finally see what a friendship could have looked like without the pressures of everyone else bearing down on them.

"I appreciate it," he say finally, giving her one last squeeze before pulling back and sheepishly wiping away at his tears. "Guess there's no trying to pretend I'm mean and scary after that," he teases with a half-smile. "Guess we should, um. Actually try and find costumes while we're here, huh?"

It's a little hard to wrap her head around being here when she's supposed to be dead. It'd felt easier earlier, when she hadn't been certain, but there's a difference between assuming something to be true and actually having it confirmed.

It's ironic, too, to think about the number of times she'd wished for some nameless, faceless fairy tale savior to come and steal her away to someplace less terrible. Chrissy's old enough to realize that that isn't what this is, but it's still kind of amusing to think about.

"Feeling better now?" Better is relative, she realizes, but she also realizes that having a good cry is the only thing that helps, sometimes. She generally does feel better afterward, so she's hoping it's the same for him. "I don't know. You can be mean and scary and still need to cry it out sometimes." He's smiling at least, so that's a good sign, right? The question earns him a smile and a nod. "I guess we should!"

At least Chrissy isn't alone in that confusion. Even though Eddie had known about his own death (how could he not, when he remembers Henderson clutching him tightly as he let go?) it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

On the one hand, he's grateful that he's not just gone gone. If Chrissy is here, then maybe other people he knows will be here? Which isn't as much of a comfort as he wants to believe, because this place doesn't feel like a heaven or an afterlife. There's a sinister aura, but maybe their being here, able to face this place together, will make them stronger in a way.

"Kind of. I'm sure I've still got more in me, but." He shrugs, wiping away the last remnants of his breakdown. He glances around the place, and points in the direction of what looks like some costume pieces more Eddie's style. "Guess I'll see you around, Cunningham." And with one last wink he lets his face and posture go neutral when he turns around and starts poking around for potential costume ideas.

As confusing as this place seems now, it does help to think that there are other people here in a similar position. Having Eddie and Steve here helps, too, even if they weren't exactly running in the same social circles at home. It's comforting, at least, to know that it's not just her and a boat full of strangers.

"I get it," she tells him. Sometimes it takes longer than others. There's not much else to say about it, and she doesn't want to make him feel bad about it so she figures the best thing to do is let it drop for now. If he ends up needing another cry later, well, that's none of her business.

Chrissy grins and waves when he speaks up again. "Yea. See you later, Eddie!" He's already moved on, but she still feels the need to say something. And now that she has, she can feel less guilty about immediately turning on her heel and stalking off to another part of the store in search of that perfect costume.

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TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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fin?

fin!