sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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!tdm

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.]

Threaded | Flat

1. Gravity Works
[Shaun’s hooves clop on the deck as he wanders along on all four feet, peering this way and that, a bit wide-eyed. He’s rarely been off the farm. Only been to town a few times. A rural farming community in the very backwater of England has nothing on this cruise ship! Fancy!]

[Shaun stops, squinting at his feet. A shadow? A shadow of…? He looks up with a gasp as the chandelier drops!]

[Drops and…explodes into a cartoonish cloud of dust and crystal, which clears to reveal…Shaun, suddenly bipedal, front hooves pressed close to his body, standing in the impossibly-narrow center ofvthe fallen chandelier. He looks about with surprise, and heavys a big sigh. He reaches up and wipes his forehead with a wrist. Then he looks at the mess and clicks his tongue.]

Maaa.

[Somebody better clean this up. He reaches into his fleece and from the fluffy depths produces a dustpan and broom. Time to get to work!]

2. Costumes Galore
[The shop with all the costumes is the best! So many wigs and caps! Not even stolen from the farmer or knit from his own wool! He and the flock could definitely get away with ordering pizza with some of these!]

[Spying a particularly interesting outfit, Shaun stands up on his hind feet to reach out, pluck up the hanger, and hold the coat against his fleece, measuring, muttering to himself in contemplative little ‘baa’s under his breath.]

[Until he spots your character staring at him!]

[He drops the garment and drops to all fours again, blinking innocently before offering a sheepish:]

Baa?

3. Wildcard
[It’s a ~~claymation~~ small Scottish Blackface sheep wandering the ship. Go wild. Further infornation in the journal!]

I. Radioactive

[ Seraphine is in fact waking up and feeling it in her bones. What is "it" in this instance? Only Imagine Dragons and her throbbing headache know, as she sits up in bed to look around at this new cabin. New place? That's fine. Keep cool, Sera, you can figure things out. What were you doing last night? There wasn't any parties or riots or... hm.

She mutters a few affirmations to herself as she pokes her head out the door, looking down the hallway sheepishly for a moment before she tries to catch someone's attention. She gives her best smile, only slightly lopsided to convey her nervousness. ]

Excuse me, um... where... are we? Sorry if that's a weird question, I just don't remember falling asleep here!

II. TGIF

[ This certainly isn't the first time she's been given a "you're on your own, good luck" sort of spiel. But it's the first time the person who was giving it to her seemed so frazzled. Or maybe "frazzled" isn't the right word. She can't really tell at the moment. None of the songs around her were making much sense to her, but she's going to blame that on the tension she feels right about now.

But despite her own nerves, she extends her hand out towards Friday in some attempt to stop her. ]

Do you need help...? I don't mind doing a bit of this work.

III. Operation Dawnseeker

[ The first time Seraphine hears the chandelier clatter to the ground, she immediately goes to investigate. The singing has goosebumps trailing up her arms as she does her best to make sure no one's gotten hurt, but... everything seems to be okay? And then, just like that, the chandelier just starts... moving? Then disappearing. And that voice- that song. She hears it so clearly. Thus, she starts heading for it instantly once again. ]

a. [ And if you're caught in the same room as it, she'll frantically try to head for you to pull on your hand to get you out of the way. ]

b. [ Or, if she heads to a room that's empty, you'll catch her trying to sing back to the voice. It's probably a fruitless attempt, but if she can get this... voice to stop causing damage, she thinks the try is worth it. She's trying her best to listen for the emotion in the voice -- something she's usually so good at, yet struggling with ever since arriving on the ship. Nerves, she convinces herself. It's just nerves. She does her best to harmonize with the childish song, and sing with it, rather than over it. ]

And all this time,
we fought so hard to swallow all our pride,
but the time has come for light to shine the way.
Your story will be told,
you will never be alone.

IV. This is Halloween.

[ But, like, what is Halloween? Seraphine has to stand outside the store to stare at it blankly for a long time until someone comes around, to which she'll turn to them to ask. ] Did they misspell "Harrowing"? Are there things in there to stop the undead...?

Edited (don't look at my my html is trash) 2022-10-08 01:12 (UTC)

the deck.

[ There's a cat on the deck.

Sunbathing. Like it owns the place. Maybe it does, considering the absolute authority with which it stretches as long as it can get, a large, furry orange mess of claws and whiskers, taking in the light for as long as it will grace its fur.

And you, random person that just happens to have taken notice of the cat on the deck, if you want to brave a belly rub... well, nothing's stopping you. ]

a cat on a chandelier above the pool.

[ Wait what?

Yeah, there's a cat on a chandelier, suspended on thin air. Somehow. Why is there a chandelier floating above a pool? How did the cat get there? How is it going to get down? All valid questions, but alas, they are to remain a mystery.

But every now and then, the cat meows. Loudly, perhaps with a bit of urgency. As if its patience is waning. Perhaps getting on top of the damn thing wasn't the triumph it might have thought so, and now desperately wants to be moved to a more structurally sound surface.

The fact that is looking very intently at the whoever gets closer to meow specifically at them might be related.

Where are the firefighters when you need feline rescue? ]

like a cat in a place with things.

[ The cat found the store.

The cat is currently pushing everything on an edge, off the edge. Consistently, methodically, it's big green eyes following the path of whatever its paws got a hold on. Some break with interesting sounds, some don't. Some bounce, those are quite the treat to watch.

There's no sign of it stopping. Not until It Is Done. Until what is done? The cat does not know, but there's still edges to push things out of. ]

wildcat.

[ The cat is not one to stick to a place for too long (unless there's warmth and food), and so it roams. Into rooms, into places. Private places? The cat does not know. The boat is its oyster, and it will crack it open for its delicious spoils.

That or it will find the coolest box around to twist itself into it and sleep. Really depends on its mood. ]

Edited 2022-10-08 03:22 (UTC)

Before She Hung Up

It's unnerving, waking up in such a small bedroom. The last thing she remembers is Eddie leaving the room, and then her nightmare house. The monster. Running, running, running until she couldn't run anymore. Gentle words from a monstrous figure, promising to make her suffering stop. It was desperation that had driven her to Eddie in the clearing that day, and something else entirely that froze her in her tracks. And then there was nothing.

Until she woke up here.

Chrissy's never been on a cruise ship before, as far as she can remember.

Eventually, she makes her way to the atrium, and finds herself staring a little at Friday. She's not even the worst thing Chrissy has witnessed recently, and yet, she's having a little trouble wrapping her head around what she's seeing.

"I'm sorry, but... I think I do need you to show me how to work a life vest."

Can't Stop Screaming

The theater is kind of disappointing, if only because it seems like nobody ever hangs out there. It doesn't stop Chrissy from checking periodically, but she's apparently just fortunate enough to check at times when it's deserted. It occurs to her to ask someone, but she's easily distracted- easily overwhelmed by everything else that's going on.

The first time she spots the chandelier, she's across the room. She doesn't even realize it's there until after it's started to fall. After that, she's careful to keep an eye out even if there's no rhyme or reason for where and when it shows up. The most unnerving part, though, is the sing-songy voice that always accompanies the crash. It takes her a couple of times witnessing it happen before she realizes she recognizes the rhyme.

The next time, she's prepared with a quiet "... we all fall down."

Infinite Spirit Halloween

Halloween used to be one of Chrissy's favorite holidays, back before she discovered that monsters were real and could very much come after her. Now, though, she's not entirely sure how she wants to feel about it. Generally speaking, she knows that her experience isn't universal. She knows that not everyone was seeing and hearing things that shouldn't be there, that not everyone is an easy target.

Currently, she's browsing the store. Chrissy's pretty sure it used to be something else, or maybe it was a different type of store altogether. Maybe she wishes it hadn't changed, so that she could see what was in stock before. It bugs her, too, that it's apparently October here when it had been March back home. How much time has passed since then? She has no idea. Maybe this place just works differently.

Choose Your Own

[Wildcard it up if none of the above are doing it for you. Feel free to hit me with brackets if that's your preferred format. You can also catch me at

cornyflake or CornyFlake#7375 to plot some nonsense- or just to chat!]

1
[He bobs back to consciousness in a place very different from where they left. The air is muted by the size of the space, whatever surface they are on is soft, more like a bed than a table. There are no other sounds in the room, meaning they must be alone. But he can't confirm it until he can see for himself.

A cascade of impossible things happen: A throat tightens, vocal folds vibrate, a jaw hinges open, and lips move, and the word "Arthur-" is spoken aloud.

He stops, and becomes aware of his own breathing, responding to the shock of hearing himself speak when he shouldn't.

"Arthur?" he repeats almost carefully, almost solely to test if those body parts move again.

The room is still for another moment, before John sits up. The movement is natural, occurring without thought, and he opens his eyes.

He's wearing the bloodied robes of the cultist they - he - ... Arthur was wearing on the table in the auditorium. A black under-robe, looser, coarser yellow robes over top, and...

His hands (his hands-) rise and meet the hard angle of the pallid mask.

The cabin is small, decorated strangely, but - he can hardly pay attention to it, and it feels redundant to catalogue it now that... That he hasn't heard any answer from Arthur.

He explores the room. He finds a mirror. He sees his face. The pallid mask.

His left hand rises, touches the jaw of it. He could unmask.

...

He exits the room into a small hallway. It appears to be that of a ship, one that is massive and decorated, an ocean liner, perhaps.

This is not the Dark World, nor is it the Dreamlands. The only evidence he has is how this world feels, and it does not feel like either of those. It doesn't quite feel like the one they - he just left, either. He will have to explore, and he will have to be careful.

The air breezes around the edges of his pallid mask as he moves through the halls, looking for some other sign of where he is, and what else may exist in this realm.]

2

[He's learned that while this world isn't free of danger, it's less obviously out to kill the denizens of it than the realms he's experienced.

Or so he thought.

He sees the chandelier floating in the middle of the promenade, seemingly unanchored. A strange sight, but harmlessly strange rather than the mind-facturing sort.

That lasts as long as it takes to move in the air, and reflexes he never had before command him to dive out of the way.]

JESUS CHRIST.

[He lands on the floor and curls his black-clad arms over the yellow hood of his robe, clear of the chandelier but not the wave of crystal fragments that shatter away from it. Jesus christ. He's going to be picking glass crumbs out of these robes for the rest of the day.]

3

[... He looks up at the banner, and then through the windows of the store to the unbelievably tacky contents within. He crosses his arms. He already has ill-fitting robes (not ill-fitting at all, actually) and a terrible (perfect) mask, he doesn't need more of either.]

Edited 2022-10-09 01:13 (UTC)

1. first it was a bulletproof vest

[

is the first thing anyone would hear if they happen to be nearby when Eddie comes to.

Because of course the last thing he remembers before waking up in this tiny room that somehow makes his trailer look like a mansion is being torn apart by bats and sweet Dustin Henderson making sure he didn't die alone. So naturally, the fact that he's awake is just maybe a little disconcerting.

]

[

His voice trails off as he starts to get his bearings, deciding that if this is the afterlife then he might as well make the most of it. And if it's not the afterlife and he somehow got stuck in another hellish dimension?

Well, at this point Eddie wouldn't even be the least bit surprised. The world might as well pile on more shit while it's at it.

Somehow he does end up in the atrium, but not before making several wrong turns, so he's looking downright exhausted before he comes across Friday.

]

[

Funny, the last time he was in the water, was --

maybe now's not the time to think about how a life vest wouldn't have actually helped in that situation.

]

[

he grumbles as he begrudgingly moves along to try and find the answers to a few question. Namely: how the hell did he even get here?

]

2. live like tomorrow doesn't exist

[

The first time could have been chalked up to a fluke. It had seemed kind of out of place, but this whole cruise ship is like one bit amalgamation of weirdness, so Eddie doesn't think too much of it.

Until he's on the pool deck, and notices a shadow. A shadow that definitely shouldn't be there, because there wasn't a single cloud in the sky last he checked.

There's an exasperated laugh -- yep, Eddie has definitely lost it -- as he just tosses his hands up in the air, mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like you win and retreats back inside.

But not before he hears a loud CRASH followed by the eeriest of voices, chilling to the bone.

]

not

3. if we can't raise the dead

[

Honestly, who the hell knows what brings Eddie here. Halloween kind of feels a little weird when the last time he wore a mask it was to sneak out of Forest Hills and hotwire someone's home.

But clearly he's not in Hawkins anymore, and if he can find something to take his mind off the absolute crazy fucking shit that he's already witnessed since coming to, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Right?

Maybe, just maybe, he can hide out in here for a little while and pretend that he isn't slowly losing his mind.

]

[

It's mostly said to himself, but if the Spirit Halloween just happens to not be as empty as he suspects, then perhaps he can be eavesdropped muttering to himself.

Oh yeah, he's completely sane.

]

4. wildcard!

[

or if none of the above tickle your fancy, feel free to toss something out! pm or find me at

aoneknifestand to discuss!

]

Edited (forgot to add wildcard oops) 2022-10-09 12:24 (UTC)

1: Before she hung up.

a. [Rose expected oblivion when she sacrificed herself to save her world. What she didn't expect was to wake up in bed in some plain room. Only the slight feeling of rocking told her that she was on some kind of ship. How she got here was a good question.

[After checking to see if she had any serious injuries, she got up and left the cabin. The ship itself was unlike any other that she has seen before. At least she wasn't the only one on the ship. Though she is probably standing out a bit by being in leather armor and carrying a sword with her. Eventually, she stops someone to ask.]

Excuse me? Do you know what is going on here? Or even where "here" is?

b. [She eventually makes it to the atrium, and meets Gal Friday. The encounter only left her more confused and slightly disturbed really.]

Something is very off about this place... [She muttered to no one in particular as she left the atrium.]

Is this supposed to be some kind of afterlife?

2: Grandma went

[Rose was out on one of the upper decks when she heard the eerie child-like singing. After looking around to see where the singing was coming from she finally looked up.]

What in Soa's name?!

[A large crystal chandelier was hanging high up, suspended in mid-air! No ceiling to anchor it, just an open sky. It started to sway as the song got to the "ashes, ashes" looking like it was definitely going to fall.

[That was when she noticed someone directly under the thing.]

LOOK OUT!

[She yells as she rushes forward to tackle the other person out of the way as the chandelier starts to fall.]

3: Infinite Halloween

[Rose stood in front of the former Tommy Bahama looking a bit perplexed.]

What is "Halloween" and why is there a spirit for it?

[Really, the image on the banner reminded her of the wraths that roam the Death City. What items she can see through the display windows only added to her confusion.
She could see outfits and masks that were clearly meant to be scary, but there were also some items that were labeled as "sexy" something.

[Seriously, what was this store?]

4: Wildcard!

[Anything else you would like to play out with Rose.]

Edited 2022-10-10 02:09 (UTC)

I.

[If Sylvie were thinking clearly, she would probably be grateful that she woke up in a cabin, where her initial panic could go unobserved by potentially hostile strangers. After all, the last place she had been - the Citadel at the End of Time - and what had happened there... well, whatever she had expected to happen afterwards, this was emphatically not it. She was in a strange new place and with no weapon and no way back - it was terrifying in a bone-deep sort of way, a way she had thought she couldn't feel anymore after the first dozen apocalypses she had fled through.

[Some time passed before she was calm enough to dare exploring, though she was still far from what any rational person would call calm. She stalked the deck like an alley cat that knew any shadow could be a coyote or a car, frustrated by the barriers of rail and sea that made it abundantly clear that she was caught. Caught by what, she wondered as she walked, looking for information or signs of life. Was this some sort of cosmic punishment? Had the Citadel ceased to be without its occupant and she had been thrown here by chance? She had many questions, and she knew instinctively that no one here would be able to give her any of the answers she sought. After all, what would they know?

[They were probably doomed. This was probably another dead-end timeline. Assuming that made the entire situation easier to digest, even if it meant she was going to die. She had figured on that, anyway. She'd never worked out what to do when she'd finished her mission, and part of her didn't believe that she would ever get the chance.

[(Not that she didn't have regret. Not for going through with it. Not for finishing her mission. But for not getting a chance to figure out the rest with him.)

[She has no more answers by the time she reaches the atrium as she had when she started. The bizarre presence of the battered, uniform-clad woman attracts her attention, but she doesn't take well to being ignored.]

Excuse me? What the fuck is this place?

[Her words are really more of a demand than a question. She feels uncomfortably certain that she isn't going to get a solid answer.]

cyoa

[Please feel free to stop and talk to the angry-looking, petite, obviously-dyed-blonde woman who looks somewhat personally offended by the entirety of existence as she walks around the decks trying to get a better feel for the limitations of her new "home."]

Bad dreams make me get up and walk

[The waking up is easy. He'd done it most of his entire life, until recently when he didn't have to anymore. Then it was difficult. But this felt like every other day of his life before it wasn't really his control anymore. But walking out of the cabin, Jon knew immediately something was wrong.]

Martin?

[They'd just been together. They were talking, they were holding each other, they were-

Well. One of them was in worse condition. Jon still looks in worse condition, shirt and clothes splattered with mud and blood. But the life jacket and card are odd; exactly his particular brand of odd. So he's clutching the (at the moment) useless life jacket in both arms to his chest as he makes his way up to the deck, looking around for any sign of anything familiar or known to him.

He'll stop the nearest person, though, whether that person looks like they just woke up or not. This poor man covered head to toe in different scars and hideously worn clothes looking all the world like a caged animal trying to get his bearings.]

Excuse me, I'm sorry. I'm- I just was somewhere else and - Have you seen a tall, broad ginger here? Answers to Martin?

Can't stop screaming

What...

[He looks up as the chandelier seemingly appears out of nothing. It wasn't there before, not twenty seconds ago and Jon can't seem to pin down what exactly caused it to arrive here in the dining hall. For anyone watching, the man who has yet to change out of his blood and mud-caked clothes is standing perfectly still staring right up at it.

That is until he suddenly jumps back about ten steps before the thing crashes with a yelp.]

Are you all right? Christ...

Gnashin plastic fangs casting shadows

[Jon is standing in front of the shop and... Not entering, but he looks mildly displeased. Or maybe that's just his face. But he still looks unhappy about it. No Martin, still in his current condition, no sign of His Particular Brand Of Problems so far.]

I see otherworldly ships are not quite immune to nonsense.

Edited 2022-10-11 03:55 (UTC)

1. Wandering Completely Unlike a Lost Puppy to...
[There'd been a moment where he woke and wondered how much of the past few nights had been a dream. If he was going to wake imprisoned in Asgard after his defeat on Midgard. But he woke to a torn and dirty white shirt, the sleeves rolled up his arms and a feeling in his chest that all of it had been very, very real. He looked around the room while pretending not to, despite the fact that there was no one but himself to fool. But whatever he was looking for; be it the door or her... it wasn't there.

[A part of him wanted to scream. Then, he remembered He Who Remains and the promise of a Multiversal war. He Who By Now No Longer Remained. He wondered what would happen to that castle at the end of the everything now, and he wondered if Sylvie was okay. But he couldn't breathe while thinking of her, and there was a voice in his head telling him that he should warn the TVA. That they should know. It moved him to his feet. It moved him through the halls of the ship.]

3. A Store of Lies
[Loki finally stops walking outside of the costume shop. He's been wandering the ship, more out of aimlessness than curiosity since he woke with the sort of urgency that comes with not remembering having fallen asleep. In all honestly his heart was still racing, as well as his mind, and he knew which one had the lead.

[He presses his lips together as if trying to hold onto something, and then he closes his eyes. He smiles. He strides with more purpose into the shop and the rows of lies. This wasn't the TVA and he had no way to contact them. No idea where he was, other than some ship. When, where? Did it matter? The world didn't seem to have ended yet.]

You would think they'd have a better sign, with a place this big.

[Loki says to no one. Or maybe he says it to the 'Lightning Viking' costume his eye catches, all red-wig and oversized incredibly plastic hammer. He scoffs, and crosses his arms]

I mean, really? I guess size isn't everything.

1) Wanderlust or just lost?

[Waking into a dream, or perhaps a nightmare seemed a more suitable description for this place. A cruise ship....filled with ghosts, death and darkness. A shiver runs down her spine as she walks down the haunted halls, flits of spirits at the edge of her vision and down every hallway.]

Is there even anyone alive here?

[She can sense life...somewhere. Another turn and into the atrium.]

Hello?

2) Spirited Costumes

[This place is perhaps the oddest cruise ship she's ever been on. At least the haunted place saw fit to celebrate the season. Cheap costumes lined walls and hung on racks, with more expensive and refined ones near the back of the store, as if it sought to draw you deeper. Though perhaps Valdis is reading too much into it. Still, this place is creepy.

She picks up a hefty fake sword, it's unbalanced and made of wood, not that a real one would be useful against ghosts anyway. She sighs, closing her eyes and breathing slowly.]

I don't know how I feel about this place, but it can't be worse than hell.

I. This is Not My Ship.

[When Lieutenant Arilanna Tayrey wakes, her first thought is that there must be something wrong with the environmental controls. The temperature is wrong. The lighting is wrong - she's on second-shift, everything should be dimmed. It takes a moment, in fact, for her to realise that this is very much not her cabin. It's several times larger, for a start, and as she glances around at all that unsecured furniture, ready to cause chaos the moment there are gravity fluctuations, she thinks that whoever does own this cabin must be a very careless spacer indeed. No, a passenger, from the size of it. Careless passenger. Honestly, she's never had much patience for them.

When she's fully awake, she realises exactly how much worse the situation is than she'd imagined. She feels queasy. Either it's late-onset space sickness - a bad, hallucinatory case - or she is actually planetside, on some kind of boat. On an ocean.

She ends up in the atrium eventually, still in her blue Tradeliner uniform, tapping at her slate computer (it tells her all communications are down, isn't that just peachy? do sea-ships have signal lights? not signal lights that can be seen from space...) and adding the location to the rough map that she's creating. When she spots Gal Friday, she has a whole lot of questions, but she doesn't get very many of the answers she needs. She's told that she's a guest - well, what do you call a guest who can't leave? Ari wants to see the captain. Ari's demands, right now, aren't getting her anywhere.

Fed up, she tries her luck with other people passing through. ]

You there! Yes, hold there a minute - do you know what planet we're on? Does this ship have a chart room? I really need to see the charts... [This isn't a demand so much as the plaintive request of a very lost astrogator.]

II. This is Not Even My Genre.

[The first time Ari sees the chandelier fall, she puts it down to carelessness. This might not be a starship, but oceans can get rough, can't they? Why would you have something like that dangling from the ceiling? Ari might have been born into luxury on Cardalek, but she's cultivated a very practical streak during her years shipside.

The second time Ari sees the chandelier fall, she knows something is wrong, because she'd been in that hall yesterday, picking up a meal and she knows there wasn't a chandelier there then. She's sure of it. Lieutenants of the Tradelines are resourceful and calm in a crisis, though. Ari doesn't freak out - or rather, Ari reminds herself of this fact, and then she doesn't freak out. Instead, she decides to mark the light fixtures on her map, because then she won't be trusting to memory.

The third time Ari sees a chandelier where it shouldn't be, she's enjoying a glass of wine in a very antiquated-looking bar. At least this ship gets something right; the drinks are decent enough. Suspicious of any and all dangling light fixtures by this point, she keeps her distance from it. Unfortunately, someone else looks like they're set on sitting right underneath. Ari sighs. Wine glass in hand, she gets up and goes over to them.]

You may want to stay clear of that. It's a hazard.

[She does point upwards at the chandelier, in illustration, but otherwise, that's all the explanation you're getting. Is she drunk?]

III. Wildcard!
[She'll be trying to investigate everything she can to make sense of this, so find her anywhere! PM me to plot if you want, or just tag in and I'll roll with it. Lots of info in her journal, but tl;dr she's from a spacefaring, libertarian capitalist future and is a recently-qualified lieutenant astrogator (navigator/pilot/cartographer) on a starship which has both military and trade functions.]

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

This is.

New.

Vicious just is not the 'sink or swim' type of teacher but Sera checks just in case her mentor has lost her mind or maybe she's under attack again. Neither seems to be the case. All the stuff in this cabin is made of stuff and not ectoplasm; further, it turns to ectoplasm easily enough. So she went to bed after a hard night working on her show and woke up on a cruise.

Cruises are supposed to be crowded though, aren't they? Where are all the sounds?

Uggghhhh. She's going to have to find people, and they're gonna be in a big crowd somewhere, doing, doing cruise stuff in tropical colors with those really stupid sun hats that are really close to their heads, and it's gonna be a whole thing isn't it. Serenity makes a temperature bubble around herself, pats herself down, and swings her door open with telekinesis.

Directly into...you, probably. It's not a hard open, but then, it's not a small door, is it?

2. grandma went and can't stop screaming

So there's a new girl.

And the chandelier seems to be uh.

How do we put this?

Hunting her.

The crystal chandelier falls at Serenity, who floats out of the way with remarkable speed. It shatters, and then - wait, it's supposed to vanish, right? But instead it gets enveloped in this green, snottish substance, put back together just the way it was, and floated towards the ceiling.

Let's get a bit closer, shall we?

"Pleasestayuppleasestayup I don't wanna get in trouble on my first dayyyy -"

And then the chandelier falls and the girl is dodging again.

"OH COME ON!"

3. jeff bezos murdered the infinite tommy bahama

"So this is all real stuff too," Sera murmurs to herself, floating through the wreckage of the Infinite Spirit Halloween. "Real smashed stuff but still. The room's..."

She goes cross-eyed after a moment of trying to analyze the dimensions of the room and then she stops doing that. That stove is hot, message received.

She has no idea that this is Bahamanuel's hunting ground, but she finds out soon enough when the creature lunges from behind a display of animatronics. Serenity throws her hand out and tilts her head; her oversized bangs cover one eye.

"...Someone made you. Can I -"

She cannot. Whatever she wanted to do she Cannot. It does not happen. Serenity takes a full dose of Local Urban Legend to the entire four-ten-eighty-pounds non-presence that is her mortal form and has to blow it off of her body. The blast of telekinesis comes with a panicked shriek.

"What -"

She throws her hand out again.

We got nothin' here, Sera.

"WHAT?"

Bahamanuel stalks closer...

Edited (Formatting) 2022-10-14 03:45 (UTC)

one – a day in the life. (tauva)

[there is a stranger attired in black and white in the establishment, having taken over one of the larger tables and a chair, half kneeling on it. a glass of whiskey in his hand, he’s bent over a map of the ship’s decks, currently annotating things with a precise hand and utmost focus. and that’s when the chandelier that’s been travelling and causing such fuss decides to crash down thunderously – Dantes narrowly avoids it smashing his hands, but it sure falls and explodes, a sound of countless crystals shattering, splintering, wreckage denting the table and causing him to have leapt to his feet. it’s loud enough to be heard outside, given how quiet he was being before.

with all the dignity he can muster, he extracts the map from the destruction, moving to another table to keep working, but sighs deeply upon examining the glass he has. there in the amber liquid are enough small fragments of chandelier to make it undrinkable.]

…Such a waste.

[now he’s going to have to hunt down another glass. but, keeping his eyes open for anyone else drawn in by the sound (or who just appreciates good booze), anything so much as a footstep is going to get his attention.]

two – keep your eyes sharp. (library)

[he’s no stranger to libraries – Dantes finds reading to be one of man’s better pastimes, though the pure channel of fiction makes him roll his eyes at the idea of information being withheld. clearly deliberate, and yet, he’s searching through the shelves with a singleminded determination that can’t be ignored, dismissing shelf after shelf with a scowl. you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s angry about something, he carries that air.

and yet, venture close enough, and he backs away to offer you the choice of books first before he continues his search. or perhaps you’re walking through and finding it hard to reach something – and suddenly, a black gloved hand will grasp the book you’re searching for, and drop it into your hand. don’t thank him, he just doesn’t want to watch you struggle.]

three – an apparition. (poolside.)

[it’s deep in the middle of the night when he’s out there – one would be forgiven for taking him for another poltergeist, dark and clinging to the shadows. only those truly willing to destroy their sleep schedule would be out with him, or those trying to stargaze. head tilted back, he studies the sky in silence, the sounds of the ship itself at peace. but so quiet, the statement he makes to himself is audible enough, rough edged voice full of disbelief.]

How on earth is anyone supposed to navigate through this…?

four – wildcard.

[have another idea? hit me up and let’s go! please note, Dantes will not give anyone apart from castmates his real name in an effort to hide his identity.]

1. Um... okay... [he's seen a loot of strange things recently, but even that was kind of familiar, like home! this...was something different. He hugs the guitar absently and looks about for someone that seems friendly]

Hola. Is this...still the Land of the Dead? [because it kiind of looks like it is, but it kiiind of looks like it isn't]

2. [Miguel looks up. He's never seen a chandelier in a library before, but there is one and it is huge, swaying like it's caught in some kind of earthquake. He stares at it in wonder, until it starts to fall and then he yelps and dives behind a nearby chair as shards of glass go flying everywhere.

As soon as it seems safe he peeks his head up]

Is...is everyone okay?

3. Qué padre! This is amazing! [there are so many different costumes and outfits that he can't stop looking. He notices someone nearby and sidles up to them, clutching absently at the strap of the guitar] Hey...do you work here?

Edited 2022-10-19 04:57 (UTC)

one – it was a graveyard smash (anywhere.)

Watch out!

[the voice is gentle, but her warning is real, coming probably just a second before the chandelier makes contact with the ground. Helena knows by now the faint tinkling of crystal that precedes the drop, the loud crash of the fall, knows to turn away so no small shards fly out and scratch her. oh, but she hates sharp things where she doesn’t expect them, and can’t imagine it’s pleasant for anyone else to be caught in flying pieces. but the voice singing in the aftermath – she can’t pin it to a direction, so it’s fruitless to search. instead, there’s only the other, who she carefully moves over towards, cane delicately tapping her way through.]

...Are you all right?

[hopefully they heard her in time to avoid injury.]

two – this is halloween (infinite spirit.)

[it smells strange, is Helena’s honest impression at first. that’s probably the fog machine, hissing away while other devices cackle and groan in their recorded fashion, adding an interesting backdrop while she feels the clothing up for grabs. the slippery texture of satin, the roughness of cheap lace, and the plastic edging of false leather. all different, all curious. some certainly have to be for particular purposes, others too scratchy to be fun, but this one…hm. pulling the velvet dress off the rack, it has a nice weight to it. it might fit, though she knows it won’t be that warm.]

What do you think of this one? How is it?

[the question is addressed to whoever stepped into the costume section nearest her, and she holds it out in (hopefully) their direction. the dress is supposedly for a vampire queen, red and black – cape included in the set. at least it’s modest, unlike some of the costumes in the packages. help her out, talk her into something else, get jumpscared by the giant mechanical spider that’s about to go off in fifteen seconds next to you?]

three – happy haunts (library.)

[if there’s a place Helena will be happiest, it’s surrounded by literature. that most of it is hard to decipher is no problem, because the part of it that is speaks to her heart. fiction grips her, keeps her in its sway, and she curls up with a few to pass the time away. mysteries, romance, all the things she wants to read about she can, and so she does, fingers flying across the pages the more engaged she gets.

but time does take its toll, and a whole morning spent in one place has its drawbacks. when she surfaces from the book enough to notice, her stomach makes a growl, and she frowns.]

Stop that…

[it’s a quiet admonishment to herself, but it puts up another one, shorter. she can put up with it for just a moment longer, just long enough to finish this chapter – the build up is far too good to put down for a little grumbling.]

four – wildcard.

[have another idea of what to do? go for it! she can be anywhere and everywhere.]

ooc: feel free to reply in brackets or prose!

001.

Before Lorna can answer the question about the life vest sarcastically, the woman's attention is turned to the light bulb that just went out, and Lorna is left blinking wondering what the fresh hell she got herself into now.

“Well then.” Lorna turns from the desk and starts to walk away — but does so too quickly and nearly runs into the person behind her. “Shit, sorry! Uh, do you ... know what the deal is, or have I really lost my last brain cell this time?”

002.

The chandelier drops so suddenly near where another person is standing that Lorna can't react quite quickly enough to catch its fall (she's not her brother), but what she can do is the net best thing. “Going down!” She extends a hand and a small protective magnetic-energy shield is in front of the other person; crystals bounce off from it as it shatters against it and the ground.

Once the shattering stops, Lorna lowers her hand and looks over the other person. “You good?” She asks, only to be interrupted a half second later with creepy disembodied singing. Which she promptly gives a wordless the fuck?? facial expression to.

His Highness had escaped. That was the most important part. He'd made sure, if nothing else, that this was true.
Bloody and beaten, Dedue gasped for breath on the ground. The guards of Fhirdiad Castle had left him for dead. He wasn't sure whether or not they should have just finished the job.
Dedue felt his eyes get heavier and heavier. The fight to keep them open was becoming a Herculean task. Perhaps he didn't need to. He had done his duty. Yes. Perhaps, finally, he could sleep for a while...

- The Infinite Spirit Halloween -

When Dedue's eyes opened again, the world looked wrong. Surfaces were too flat, nothing like the stone of Faerghan architecture. The light came from strange directions, and it was not the right colors. And there was... clothing? The clothing was garish and disconcerting, even by Fodlan standards. He must have been having a nightmare. Though, if this was the case, why did everything still hurt like it was real?
*Where am I?* he tried to ask. But what came out of his mouth was just a small, pained exhale.

1. Wake Up

Gideon Nav wakes up alone in a strange room, which is especially weird since in all her time listening to the ancient crones of the Ninth drone on about death, and all her time reading books about scorching hot necromancers in the Cohort, nobody mentioned that the afterlife was like… this.

She spends a long time lying in bed, occasionally touching the places in her chest that should be holes before she sits up. Her things are all here - her sword, her shoes, and most vitally, her dirty magazines. The sunglasses are still on her face and she touches those too, tracing along the frames.

So. Dead then. At least it didn’t happen on the Ninth. Her bones won’t be subject to an eternity of cleaning Crux’s bedpans. For a brief moment, she entertains the idea that Harrow will turn her into half a dozen curios to wear as she goes about her eternity, and that some handsome cohort soldier will look at a bit of Gideon turned into a broach and ask, and Harrow will touch it and look wistfully into the distance.

Then, because Gideon is Gideon, she imagines Harrow’s face puckering and remarking that Gideon would have preferred that her femur became a dildo instead. Which she would have, but Harrow’s already got too much stuffed up her ass, so there’s nowhere for Gideon to fit.

She sighs, rolls over, drags herself out of the strange bed and the strange room. Sword on back, glasses on face, pornography hidden: Gideon is ready to figure out what exactly this afterlife is.

The only trouble with wearing sunglasses indoors is that she steps out of the room she’s woken up in and promptly slams into some poor bastard just trying to pass by. “Shit- didn’t see you.”

2. Got the Spirit

Gideon has been enjoying this otherwise corpse-free afterlife when she looks to the right and finds a store full of bones. She’s never going to escape these things, is she? It’s been delightfully absent of shambling skeleton servants so far but of course it couldn’t last-

Wait. What? Something’s very off here. She leans forward, popping her head inside. There’s skeletons alright, but they’re not real bone at all. She scrapes a nail along the side of the skull, finding nothing but plex in it. And it’s not even made right. Gideon’s no necromancer but she’s spent her life among bones, suffocated by those dry shins and withered pelvises, and so she knows the way they look. The jaws aren't right at all, and everything’s connected in the wrong places.

“What the fuck.” Gideon says, mostly to herself, though now that she’s said it out loud, it’s an invitation to anyone standing near her to step in and clarify what exactly she finds so wrong about the decorations.

3. Bar None

Gideon is absolutely lost and baffled. This place reminds her of Canaan House, except there’s still life here instead of moldering ruins and dead bodies. There’s also the sea around them, though strangely the rock they’re on shifts and moves this time, which makes Gideon wonder how long it’ll be before they all tip into the sea and drown. Can they even drown? She really doesn’t want to find out.

On the other hand, she does find the greatest of all possible treasures while exploring the many strange rooms, and that’s bottles and bottles of alcohol. As someone who’s only ever had the most disgusting fermented fungus twice a year during the geretric nun’s various worship days, Gideon promptly tries a shot of everything, choking each glass down no matter how nasty they taste or how badly they burn her throat and tongue.

Which means that by the time someone stumbles across her, she’s well and truly soused, lounging in one of the padded booths and surrounded by a dozen bottles as she mixes her own concoctions like a demented alchemist attempting to turn lead into pure liquid gold.

4. Wildcard

There is a giant woman with a skull painted on her face and a two-handed sword wandering around the ship. Approach at your own risk.

( hello!! morgan is from after the end of the game and comes packaged with notes for those who are psychic and/or have death-sensing abilities. also hit me with either prose or brackets it's all good. )

1. walls keep spinning and my path keeps turning

Morgan wakes up as usual, and half a second later realises there's nothing usual about it.

Firstly, she's a black shifting mass, which her brain tells her isn't normal, despite the fact that she knows better. For roughly eleven seconds, she considers staying that way to be contrarian, but on the twelfth she rolls her many pinprick eyes and draws the face and body of Morgan Yu back over herself.

Thus attired, she's free to realise that there's a second reason why this morning isn't usual.

Much like a bowl of petunias, her reaction can be summarised as: oh no, not again.

The immediate area that surrounds the room she woke up in is unfamiliar in its details, but familiar in its themes. Old blood, new blood, scorch marks, water damage. Doors blown off their old-fashioned hinges, leaving shrapnel through the hallway. It all raises the question of: why? Why this again? What's the point of it?

Morgan wanders the corridors in a beaten-up red space-suit, elbowing doors and finding them locked, and looking around with an expression of mixed confusion, caution, and annoyance. Nothing escapes her attention: walls, ceiling, potential vents or climbable decorations, trash cans. The only thing that doesn't occur to her is to knock on any of the un-blown-up doors.

Anyone wondering who she is might find a clue in the fact that her suit has a nametag on the chest: it reads, in neat sans-serif, M. Yu.

2. patience thinning and my calves keep burning

Whoa. That's a chandelier.

Morgan notices it floating there, and then immediately she starts glancing around for any handily-placed furniture or wall ornaments that she might scale. What, you think she's going to spot such a perfect perching-spot and then not try to get on top of it?

The chandelier, sadly, has other ideas. When it crashes down, Morgan startles (the yell she lets out is probably her first vocalisation since she arrived, at least until she talks to someone on the first prompt) and performs not the best, but certainly not the worst, tactical roll ever seen out of its way.

She springs up again quickly, and now she's joined by three flames, circling her apparently of their own power, leaving white lines of heat in their wake. She spins as the ghostly voice sings, scowling intensely, looking for an attacker to throw them at.

3. maybe I finally reached the point of no return

Morgan has found the buffet.

She stares silently for a few moments, her eyes tracking over plate and tureen, bowl and trencher. She takes in the walls of the room, and the ceiling, just in case. Then, with the gravity of an important tactical decision, she strides towards the crab legs and starts eating them straight off the platter.

You know when you give a dog a treat and it goes down so fast that you're like 'did you even taste that'? That's the energy Morgan is giving here. For every one she eats, two more disappear somewhere inside her suit for later, though... hopefully not too much later.

i.

There is no doubt in his mind... Edward Teach has died. That, or since the rise of The Kraken, he's drank so much that he's hallucinating. The former seems more likely, and frankly... fucking finally.

He hadn't necessarily believed in an afterlife... but this one seems specifically created just to mock him. Perhaps hell is real, and it is a technological mindfuck of a ship, absolutely hemorrhaging fucking ghosts, among them Edward considers himself. Why he can see some of them and not the others, he doesn't know. Doesn't care. If his fate is to exist on this fucking hellmouth for the rest of eternity then he's not going to stand idly by and be ordered around.

No rest for the wicked never was more true. He'd have thought death would bring him peace, but he has his work cut out for him.

"The fuck is that." he hisses in response to being questioned about a life vest. Funny name considering he's certain he's fucking dead. It doesn't take him long to put it together, watching as others slip weird garments over their heads and begin to inflate them. He scoffs at the sight as one is handed to him and waves it off. "Fuck off, I can swim."

ii.

And here Ed thought two chandeliers were overkill. This ship has one in every damn room.

The first time he witnesses one crash, he's been drinking and it does startle him. He's quick to move and avoid any serious scrape, pressed against a wall with his gun drawn and pointing at various corners of the room, searching for the assailant that cut it down. Glass crunches under his boots as he pushes through the debris and calls out madly for whoever is responsible, the sound of a child's song raising the hairs on the back of his neck.

"Come out and face me!" he snarls, eying everyone suspiciously as if they could be the culprit. The lack of anyone stepping forward has him laughing wickedly, strands of hair hanging in front of his kohl-smeared eyes in a way that makes him look positively unhinged.

"No? You think I won't find you? That I can't sniff you out?" his voice is strangely calm as he hovers over another nearby passenger, feeling them out and determining them not a threat before approaching another. "Watch your fucking backs." he hisses, "Because when Blackbeard does find you, you can count on your spine being ripped out and used as the next fucking chandelier..."

arcade
[ Were you trying to play use a machine? To use a game? Well, you're not anymore, because the second you approach it she's going to cut in and take it for herself. It's first come first serve, so she sees this as perfectly fine, especially when there's plenty of other machines in the area. Likewise, if a person just happened to already be two steps away from it and she happened to bump them out of the way then that's not her problem.

She really is an ill-mannered child, but she doesn't quite see the problem with this bad behavior this time around.

Or you might get lucky and just find her playing a game like a normal person and repeatedly trying for high scores. ]

bellona
[ She's happy that she missed the stupid introduction to the place, leave her alone!! Right now the absolute mess of a ship is of greater interest to her. It looks like somebody's just been setting off bombs and flinging items around and who the Hell knows what else, which is really stupid if they all have to live here, and she is in fact already tired of this place. Who knew Hell would be on a sinking ship in an empty ocean?

Either way, her patience has pretty well thinned out by the time she has a chandelier nearly crash land right on her, and as any reasonable person would do she first yelps, flinches, and jumps back from the sheer shock of it. Her second response is to do take the equally normal and reasonable action of kicking it. ]

Stupid thing...! What the Hell! Why is there even a chandelier here!?

[ If anyone happens to be in the area she is going to glare at them as though they were personally responsible for her nearly being crushed, or at the very least the person she expects to answer her question.

Give her a minute and she'll act normal. ]

island gems
[ When she's not acting like an edgy teenager, she does take the time to look around the ship proper. Kyoko isn't so stupid as to ignore it, and the jewelry shop catches her attention for how comparatively pristine it is. It's lined up with glass cases, and it doesn't take more than a single resounding bang of her fist against the top of one of the to determine that it won't break. It's not something she's interested in pushing, but rather resorts to tapping it and looking this way and that

It's a bit of an odd thing to focus on though, isn't it? She examines one after another, increasingly puzled as she does so given that nothing here seems to be of any real value. If she catches sight of another person, she'll tap the glass and ask, ]

... What's the deal with these?

wildcard
[ Choose your own adventure! Feel free to find her whenever, wherever. ]

I. Dining Mishap

[What has or hasn’t been around the ship really isn’t something that Yato had noticed, but what he has noticed is the very lovely buffet on offer, and he was pleasantly stuffing his face at the moment the chandelier happened to hang precariously above him.

It wobbles, and yet, Yato seems completely oblivious. There are crab legs to be consumed! They’re not just going to eat themselves after all.

A slight creak finally gets his attention and he looks up as the chandelier suddenly falls.

He dives across the floor, sliding right into the next table, knocking over two chairs as the glass shatters everywhere, splashing across his clothes.]

Are you trying to kill me or something?! I thought this place was up to code!

[The taunting song is not helping.]

II. Playing Dress-Up

[Dressing up for Halloween is just not a thing to him, but what’s more exciting than a new experience? Look at all the selection!

Yato finds himself drawn to a cape with a crown. The cape itself is the most gaudy mauve he can find and he cackles with delight. A sceptre? Definitely on his wishlist.

What’s a moment of levity in a million moments? No harm done of course. Once he’s done fooling around as king of the ship, he’ll browse some of the other options.

He tries on the devil horns and laughs a little bit. Doesn’t really go with the tracksuit though, does it?]

III. Exploring the Ship

[Yato will find his way everywhere he can, partly to scope everything out but more than that, to seek out the highlights and maybe to figure out what’s going on.

There’s a bar, he definitely needs to have a drink there. A general store with a bunch of snacks. A casino! He wondered if he’d find some luck at blackjack or something, but most importantly there was a souvenir store. It wouldn’t be amiss for him to deck himself out in all the gaudy ship merchandise would it? Maybe he’ll find himself just sitting by the pool with a drink, watching whatever’s going on at the time.]

IV. Choose your own adventure.

[I’m literally up for anything.]

1. [Shen Qingqiu has no idea what's going on - but that's to be expected, right? More of note is the fact that he's wandering barefoot around the ship, limping slightly, dressed in nothing but a ragged and bloody white robe. If he entered the atrium it was just long enough to see the frazzled figure inside before heading right back out again, but otherwise he seems content just to wander with an almost dead-eyed look on his face...or as dead-eyed as one can look with only one eye.

As for what's going through his head - maybe this is the afterlife. Maybe death for sinners is a weird-looking ship of horrors. Not that he remembers being all that close to dying just yet, but hey, he can't think of any better explanations at the moment. Nightmare dreamscape, perhaps? Yeah, that's probably more likely, now that he thinks about it.]

3. [What's this? A clothing store? Exactly what he needs! Except from the looks of it there's not actually anything worth wearing in the place. Weird suits, too-short skirts, masks that look far more gimmicky than useful...he pulls a sexy mailman costume off the rack, the expression on his face showing much more confusion than anything else.]

...Are people really expected to wear these? [he asks, since you've been so kind as to step within earshot.]

2. [Let's say he found a kimono at the costume store, with sandals and a cheap eyepatch probably stolen off a pirate costume - and is now staring with narrowed eye at the chandelier floating without support above the buffet. When it falls, he moves with a nimbleness one might not have expected from his behavior so far, quickly dodging a flying piece of shattered crystal before turning to serve himself some smoked salmon.]

What a nuisance. [...is all he says, before trying a sip of coffee and immediately grimacing at the taste.]

Edited 2022-11-07 14:21 (UTC)

waking up dazed and confused

Yue Qingyuan knew the taste of his demise before the first arrow made contact with its thousands of brethren as timely in placement. He would swear he had not blinked, staring ahead, knowing the impossibility of his ever reaching his target, that the desperation, the immensity of his fear and hatred in that moment was struck sudden and dumb into silence, acceptance.

Totality of failure, and he has himself to blame for it, forever unable to save the one person he'd always wanted to help most.

The arrows never make contact. He watched their arc, descending, unsheathed sword in hand, and then: he wakes up. In a room he cannot recognise, sword sheathed, rounded window betraying... water? Outside. Even that he's uncertain of, and the grip of the wrongness, and the strangeness, of this has him carefully navigating the room's length and stepping through the door, scabbard in hand.

He doesn't feel like smiling when he sees an unfamiliar face in the hall, but he offers that politeness, and a bow of his head.

"Yue Qingyuan, of Cangqiong Sect. If I can trouble you for an explanation of where I am," he says, and then he trails off, eyes flicking to take in the continued strangeness of his surroundings. "I'd be most grateful."

dancing with myself

Yue Qingyuan cants his head to the side, hearing the tinkling precursor of the chandelier's fall for what is not the first time, and simply brings his sheathed sword up to knock it off course of where he and another passenger are walking through.

"You're uninjured?" He asks his companion, because the chandelier might be thwarted in a direct fall, but the shards of crystal and metal that attempt to grenade on impact always manage to get him, enough so that his robes are starting to carry small holes and lacerations like he's run through a kitten infested room a time too many in the last few days.

the spirit of the season

Yue Qingyuan is not an exceedingly large man; he's tall, proportionately built, shoulders wide enough to be substantial rather than willow-thin. He rarely thinks about it except in how and when to allow his presence its own weight, both as sect leader and as instructor to his peak's students, and apparently, now.

Because for whatever unfathomable reason, with a need for a second set of robes, all he's finding in a size that would fit is a collection of odd not-quite undergarments. Everything else he sees, things that look like actual clothing in some sense, is blatantly child sized. No matter how far he walks alone.

"Is this some new undergarment... fashion?" He asks himself, looking faintly, politely puzzled. "This merchant appears to cater to children." There is no merchant, just the store itself and its endless odd inventory, but the point (for him) still stands.

There's absolutely nothing in line of sight that he can wear. Strangely, as soon as anyone else joins him, options that will fit in all sorts of absurd costumes will become available, as if the store, in its debatable wisdom, knows he'd probably go back out and hunt down needle and thread if left only to his own devices.

( ooc: feel free to tag in with action brackets, i'll match! or to wildcard, i'm just rolling with whatever's silly. this is yue qingyuan from the end of proud immortal demon way, the novel within the novel of scum villain, in the moment before he dies horribly by arrows. thousands of arrows. poisoned arrows. )

Edited 2022-11-09 02:00 (UTC)

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