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

[tossmealifeline]

"That just sounds troubling." He wouldn't know what to do about aliens, that seemed like it was above his paygrade. That seemed like an Amaterasu problem. "Can't say I've ever met a human with super powers so you may be onto something."

It sounds like one of those silly conspiracies one could find online, aliens coming in and blending among the humans. Yato isn't prepared for that outcome.

"Of course I'm going to worry about them, I could..." He paused. Actually, there was nothing he could do about it, was there? "Nevermind."

[busball]

"There were over forty of us." Cause it stood to reason that if the fourteen of them had powers (between the Umbrellas and the Sparrows), the rest of them did, too. "Wish I knew what all the powers were, honestly." They shrug like it's not really a big deal.

"I think it's fine, actually." Cause whatever. Everything's totally fine. That's Klaus' motto these days. "I mean, there is the ever present knowledge that you can't get home ever again, but...other than that..."

[tossmealifeline]

He wasn't sure what to make about possibly forty aliens that looked like humans but the rest of what Klaus said caused him to pause.

"Can't return?" Yato scoffed lightly. "Are you kidding me?"

[busball]

Klaus looks almost apologetic about just dropping that on him. “That’s what we’ve been told. Uhh. Copies of ourselves. Here till we’re not. Ava could explain this better.” He’s almost certain he needs more to drink about it.

[tossmealifeline]

"A copy? That doesn't make any sense. Is it possible I died?"

He was wondering now if that was what happened, but it was supposed to be a straightforward process, death then reincarnation. No one mentioned spending time on a cruise ship in the middle of nowhere.

[busball]

"Probably not? I don't know how it all works, but I think there's a binder somewhere you can read through?" This place is different from basically everywhere else and Klaus isn't here to fully comprehend it.

[tossmealifeline]

"Huh. I'm not going to dwell on it for now." Yato would learn what he would when he did. For the moment though, he didn't look too terribly bothered, merely confused.

"I'm not quite sure what happened. I remember fighting and then I woke up here. Sleeping awhile isn't outside the realm of possibility. I wonder how long it's been." It can't have been that long, he can still feel the effects of the last encounter.

[busball]

"That's fair. Almost no one wants to." Even him. He knows a version of himself is out there doing...the fuck knows what, honestly. Hopefully they'll all come together and do whatever needs to be done. Maybe they'll even get their stupid powers back.

"I guess everyone comes from different points in time. I don't have anything to work off of because I'm the only one from my world. So it's hard to really say. I was chasing my brother." A beat. "What was the fight about?"

[tossmealifeline]

If there really was another version of him, he hoped they were doing better than he had been. It was hard to say, really.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that." He hasn't seen anyone he knows either. At the question about the fight however he just smiled slightly. "Nothing significant."

That was a huge lie.

[busball]

"Well, you know...like...say you killed someone. Maybe they came in with...like...no memory of it, but you remember it happening. Or...the opposite. Like that." He kind of hopes that that guy from the prison doesn't show up alive.

"Oh. Okay." Klaus shrugs. They're not one to question shit. Sure.

[tossmealifeline]

"I understand." Yato acknowledged with a bit of a nod. "Fortunately, that scenario couldn't happen to me."

If he orchestrated someone's demise, they likely didn't know it was him.

[busball]

"Never killed someone or???" Cause even Klaus has killed someone. And then been haunted by their ghost about it. Uggghhhhhh. The worst, honestly.

[tossmealifeline]

"Many people." Yato responded. "But they don't know I killed them."

Presumably their souls were long gone after all, they weren't likely to come across him.