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

three

[mikraitios]

( To say the silhouette Castor notices is "familiar" is probably giving it too much credit. It isn't unfamiliar though, and that's enough for him to approach, closing the distance between the two enough that he can hear the frustrated comment, and close enough that he can respond in kind. )

They're not.

( This guy thinks he's upset over their shitty star setup here? Imagine how Castor of the Gemini twins feels right about now! Well, he's had time to come to terms with the fact, even if it can't quite be said that he fully accepts it—of course the sky of another world wouldn't be dotted with the familiar stars and friends of his home. That's the point after all, isn't it?

So Castor huffs, obviously irritated about the topic, but necessarily misdirecting it at the other yet. )

There is no navigating a ship that isn't moving.

[ressusciter]

[he knows the figure that approaches him, knows the other cannot be too far, and inclines his head as a greeting. of the pair, while Pollux is more personable, Castor has always seemed more...

well, familiar would be pushing it, but like knows like.]

Then there is no purpose on being aboard a ship at all. One may as well be stranded on a barren rock, for at least there one may find changeability to delight in.

But I needn't tell you that, though I almost question why one of the soteroi would be in this place.

[did he fight the automatic translation right then just for the sake of his sentence? yes. Dantes is a stubborn, stubborn man, and the Dioscuri have been enemies, but he can temporarily put things aside. just enough for one conversation.]

[mikraitios]

( Castor raises a brow, but doesn't appear to be displeased by the name, even as he folds his arms over his chest. )

You've answered your own question, then.

( Where else would the Dioscuri be, if not a ship where people find themselves in crisis? And naturally, he knows enough by now that there's no need to wonder in kind. Instead he poses a different question—leveling a serious gaze against the other's. )

The purpose you serve is to is to fuel the "Captain's" efforts to make himself a god. ( The scare quotes are Audible. ) Do you accept this fate?

( Because they may as well get this out of the way now, clear though the answer may look to him. )

[ressusciter]

[in answer, he laughs, the cackle sharp and bitter, utterly defiant.]

Of course I do not! A captain commands his men, but he is at their service all the same, and his own aspirations towards divinity should not impact his crew. What nonsense! What wretched avarice and folly! I do not accept it in the slightest, but it amuses me all the same.

[mikraitios]

( The laugh is all it takes for Castor's own lips to curve in a wry grin of his own, but he embraces it all the same. Sooo true, Dantes. He shares exactly that sentiment. )

Then we have a common enemy.

( Matter-of-fact and sounding perfectly satisfied with this. The enemy of my enemy is my friend—is that not what they say? )

After all, as true gods, it's our duty to carry out retribution for his hubris.

[ressusciter]

Do you currently have a plan in mind to deal with him, or is that still a work in progress?

[read: where can he get involved, and how. even without vast resources, be them his own or Chaldea's, he has a mind and he still draws breath. everything else can be accumulated, however it need to be. a city can be brought to its knees in less than six months. a simple ship? even sooner.]