sail_ooc | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Eight months!" That makes her reel. Eight months! She saw him two hours ago, but he's been here eight months? The afterlife either has a hell of a latency issue or there's something else going on.

And grimly, she thinks: at least that's longer lasting than where she just stepped out of.

"What's this place even? And what's the point of it?" Because it's the point that really matters - that's what decides if this place is going to be even worse than what she just went through.

It's a fair reeling. When Bellamy Blake had shown up and said he'd been existing in space for six months past when she'd watched his rocket exit the atmosphere and subsequently died (or so she'd thought at the time), it'd been a gut punch. A tilt-o-whirl for the brain to comprehend, another sick reminder that they weren't in Kansas, or even on Earth anymore. Clarke senses Gideon's shock and tries to smile apologetically; only succeeds in tilting her head and knitting her brow with concern.

"This is the Serena Eterna. It's a cruise ship in the middle of a nondescript patch of ocean, captained by — well, the Captain. He built this place and brings us here through a weird mix of chance and unexplained magic, all for the point that we suffer and die in order to fuel it." Then, belatedly: "Sorry."

Just because those are facts she's been living with for months doesn't make them any more alarming to hear the first time around. She really ought to be better about remembering that in general, but goes the extra mile to try with a friend of Palamedes.

"I know it sucks, and also sounds a bit crazy."

That gets another confused blink out of Gideon, and she sets her hands on her hips. Cruise ship in the ocean? Captained by the Captain? Suffer and die to fuel it? She runs a hand through her hair as she just sorts this all out, and as her brain rolls through it, she settles on one confusing thing, which is:

"So we can die again? You're right, that does suck and sound crazy."

Gideon, unaware that the question she's asking and the question Clarke will be hearing aren't exactly the same, waits to hear an answer that is probably only going to leave her more confused.

Let's light this candle and make this first meeting all the more weird and unnerving.

Clarke gets a particular shade of sad smile dancing around her mouth. It's pinched and mournful, resigned and exhausted all in one. But bright in affirmation when she nods and says:

"Oh yeah, we can die over and over here. I'm at... three? And sometimes revival means the Captain keeps one of your internal organs."

She's usually pretty hush-hush about her missing kidney but, given Palamedes was the one who figured out its surprising absence... Gideon really does just essentially skip four friendship levels and get the blatant truth from Clarke at first blush, it's weirdly refreshing.

Well that-

Uhhhhh that is not what Gideon was thinking of and she takes a moment to turn it over in her head. It's still not clicking. Three times? Losing organs? She blinks a few times as if that'll reset the part of her brain that can't snap this all into place.

It doesn't work.

"What's he doing with the organs? Flesh magic, or eating them?" Are these the only two possible choices? No. Are these the only choices Gideon is willing to entertain at the moment? Yes, get off her ass.

Oh no, totally fair assumption; Clarke even presumed her kidney long since chomped on until actually asking the shadowy manshape that is the Captain. Now she only 15% thinks he eats them, and 60% that they're being used for nefarious purposes (the reveal of the stupidity death tax has not yet been confirmed and made public at this time).

So she just shrugs. "Could be either. Could be he's just collecting them, or just takes them to torment us."

"Out of the fire and into the even weirder fleshpit." Gideon mutters. It never ends does it? She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "Suppose we have one advantage this time around then. And we've got Pal."

It might be stupid to throw in her trust with Clarke this soon but fuck it, if Pal thinks she's worth trusting enough to tell this kind of stuff, then Gideon's got no reason to disagree with the smartest guy she's ever met. So she plants her hands on her hips and faces Clarke. "Fill me in on the plan. I promise to listen and only occasionally make vile jokes, and only if you really set me up for it."

As one who also tends to flit from one crisis to another, that's an incredibly apt but mildly upsetting sentiment that Gideon parses out. Please never say fleshpit again, it's a horrifying visual. But Clarke shakes off a mild dismay at phrasing, somehow manages to brighten a little more when the taller girl braces herself and seems ready to dive head first into the grit of their new reality.

...a weird sort of brighten, though. Delight not yet worn off from finally having met the Ninth House cavalier, but apprehension because this is a... somewhat delicate subject? And a little depressing the more one thought about it. It's just hard to share, but here goes nothing:

"More than a few people have plans around here, and they differ. Some want to help the Captain because they think he'll eventually grow a conscious and drop us off somewhere to live out our lives instead of killing us all. Some want to force their way out of this pocket universe, but that hasn't worked for anyone who tried. Some want to kill the Captain, even though it's a commonly accepted hypothesis that killing the Captain would kill all of us on board."

Two guesses where on that spectrum Clarke falls. Hint: it's not the popular option.

Well great news Clarke, Gideon has a lot of things but a sense of self-preservation certainly isn't one of them. She grins at her. "Well Clarke, I'm already dead, so a second go-round doesn't scare me at all."

Good to know, good to know. She likes a good bit of enthusiasm, and every war needs soldiers ready to lay down their lives for the betterment of others. Both eyebrows raise like she's a fish, caught on the line of intrigue. But veering away from sounding too gung-ho about the concept of slaughtering every passenger on board in the name of the greater good, Clarke plays it safe. She hasn't even talked at length about this ultimate end-goal with Palamedes yet.

"Right. But don't rush into anything, okay? You're still new here, and should be allowed to form your own opinions. There's a book of everything we currently know in the library, and you should read that as soon as you're settled."

Truthfully, if Palamedes thinks this is the way to go, then Gideon trusts him. He's the one who figured everything out, and she's seen firsthand that when he chooses the self-destructive answer, it's because it's the best choice. She can agree with him on that one.

"Don't worry, I won't go after anyone on my own. I'll read the book, and make up my mind." Mind's already made up but sure, she'll look. It's not likely she'll see something that Pal missed but hey, it's probably good to be sure. "Until then, I'll just keep wandering around this place and figure out what exactly I've been dragged into."

Really, really quickly:

"You don't have to wander alone. I can show you around in the meantime."

Because let's be honest, it'd be really great if Gideon eventually made up her mind in the same fashion Clarke has. And what better way to encourage that than to give a tour of their setting, complete with idle commentary about what atrocity happened where?

Well, why not? Gideon gives Clarke a nod. "Alright, play the tour guide and I'll trail you all over this place. Lead the way!"

And with that, Gideon is happily lead about the ship.

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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