sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #8

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TEST DRIVE MEME #8

1. but times have changed for sailors these days

[you wake up.

it doesn't matter where you were before. going to bed? dying? opening the door to face a great evil? same result. you wake up in a soft bed with starched sheets in a cool, darkened room, sunlight peeking out from behind thick curtains. maybe you're alone; maybe you aren't. maybe you immediately notice the folded paper on the bedside table near your head. if you don't, you better fix that real quick: you won't be able to even open the door before you read it.

the note itself is written in a neat hand on white card stock; there is a stylized logo of a ship with the words SERENA ETERNA printed underneath. the note reads as follows:

Dear Passenger(s),

As your cruise director, it is my great honor to welcome you aboard the Serena Eterna, your destination for fun and adventure! We know you could have chosen any cruise line for your vacation, and we're very grateful you chose ours! On behalf of the Captain, I would like to assure each and every passenger that will we do whatever it takes to fulfill all your needs and desires during your journey with us.

At your earliest possible convenience, please attend the mandatory lifeboat drill by the end of the day. I'm sure everyone is very eager to get started on all the fun and sun, but safety always comes first! You can find your life jacket in your cabin's closet; carry it to your assigned muster station on deck one, where I will take you through the drill. If you can't find me in the crowd, just look for the gal with the winning smile!

See You Real Soon!

Sincerely,
Gal Friday

you walk to deck one. you have no other choice: every time you try to step in a direction some unseen being considers "not towards deck one," you find your legs no longer move, staying stock still, frozen. whether compelled quickly by curiosity, or delayed by pure stubbornness, the result is the same, and you are left milling around with other similarly curious or stubborn people.

you see someone in uniform near the front of the crowd. she seems to be a gal, but is missing the winning smile, along with most of her other features. she seems to see you, though, rushing to your side and placing a lei around your neck with great formality. a voice, cheery but artificial, sees to come from nowhere and everywhere.]

Welcome aboard! I'm so happy you could join us!

[you touch the lei. rooster feathers, lotus seeds, and a carved circle of something white and hard, linked onto a silk string.

after the drill is completed, you are seemingly free to go. or, well, your legs work, now. and maybe that's as good as it's gonna get.]

2. tried to amend my carnivorous habit

[the space inside John's where the piano normally sits is mysteriously vacant today. as a matter of fact, the entire piano bar is silent, without so much as a muzak-inspired interpretation of Uptown Girl to hum along to.

the piano itself seems to have disappeared... for the most part. unlucky, unsuspecting passengers who enter the cabin hallway, step out onto the lower decks, or find themselves in one of the other narrow corridors of the ship, may find themselves suddenly facing down a silent, unmoving grand piano. it takes up too much space to squeeze by comfortably...

and then, the cover lifts, exposing what looks to be... teeth?

yeah. yeah, those are its teeth. and it's coming right for you.]

3. that American creation on which I feed

[it had been a difficult October for bahamanuel, the bahamanal. its territory had changed utterly, becoming alien and strange. new predators were encroaching on its hunting grounds. its position in the natural order is under threat. and so, nature finds a way.

the old timers know to be wary of large piles of clothes, but even they won’t think to look twice at the tiny lumps of garish kids’ swimsuits and sundresses - until they feel something latch onto their leg, and then several more things, and anywhere from ten to twenty balled up clothes piles try to take down their prey.

the young must learn how to hunt, after all.]

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Oh, Lieutenant. Sorry. [He bows his head apologetically.]

Yes. I've gotten bits and pieces. Enough. It's a lot to take in. I don't really want to believe it.

[He glances down at the weight he was just curling. It actually is a substantial amount but for some reason he looks slightly embarrassed about it.]

Thanks. It's part of my routine from home. I guess I just didn't know what else to do to fill all the time. You know?

[He didn't try to tell her she was either too young or too short to be a spacer lieutenant, so he's already ahead of some people, mostly annoying stationers. She waves away the apology with a small smile.]

You weren't to know. Usually I'm in uniform, but not here. Take your time. With taking it in, I mean. It's a lot, for anyone.

[She understood about routine, although trying to carry on with hers hadn't exactly been successful.] You're doing the right thing in keeping busy. I thought I'd go mad with all the empty downtime when I first got here. Finding ways to fill it helps. What line of work were you in, back home?

[He motions down to the sweat shorts and tank top he's wearing while he says:] Yeah, these aren't my usual look either. I had to borrow them from that clothes store. Most of the time I'm in a suit because I work as a live-in butler.

[That's...partially true. Close enough to make the lie convincing.]

So, usually after all this I'd be going to see what my master wants and getting ready to do chores. I really don't know what to do with myself now. Do...you need help with anything?

[Butler translates as an odd archaism to Ari, and she suspects the translation mechanism isn't doing him justice, because he looks far more like a personal bodyguard to her eyes. She accepts it, though. There will always be an opportunity to ask questions later.

Does she need help? Not with anything specific - but Ari Tayrey also knows exactly what it's like to go from working twelve-hour days where everything you do has a purpose to being here where nothing seems to matter. She'd done more than her fair share of pointless pacing up and down the deck.]

Actually, I could really use some help with a couple of things I'm working on. Do you know much about battle strategy, either on land or in space - or can you proofread? A lot of us also try to keep up a regular patrol of the ship, in case of any hazards, if that's preferable.

[He may have the trim and muscular physique of a bodygaurd, but the soft anxiety in his big brown eyes makes him seem more like a playful puppy than a serious guard dog.]

Really? I don't know anything about space and Josiah was always the one in charge of making strategies, but I can proofread. I used to do that for my master all the time." Erik being an ancient vampire had a habit of using the old spelling of words sometimes, so Max would always skim his contracts to make sure they were modernized properly.

"I can try to help do patrols, too. I can be observant."

Josiah's a colleague of yours? [It's not odd to her that someone who employs household staff would also have someone dealing with strategy, of one sort or another.]

I'm sure you'd be valuable on patrol. It's really something that people take their own initiative with, but if you do it, and you find anything suspicious, you can always call me in to help deal with it. Any time.

I suppose the other request is more personal. I'm writing something at the moment. It's a surprise, for a friend here. Maybe you could look it over - although I'm not sure what I can do for you in return. What do you need help with?

[Ari Tayrey is learning from her mistakes and not throwing the word contract at new people right away, but that doesn't mean she has abandoned the principle. Any agreement has to be mutually beneficial.]

Yes. He's the chief of security for the house I work for. I live and work with my master at his mansion. But, it's just the three of us most of the time.

How can I call you? I'm still trying to work out how these phones we got actually work.

[The iPad had only debuted that very year for him, so touch screens are not unheard of but still a very new kind of technology.]

Oh, that's a really nice surprise. I'd be happy to help. I don't know that I really need anything in return, except, just...

[He looks down bashfully at his own feet.]

Is it weird to ask for a friend? I've been on my own for so long I don't... know.

They're archaic, aren't they? Alien for me, too. [She has precisely the opposite problem with the phones. He's already doing better than her; she let hers sit in a drawer for a few weeks because there didn't seem to be any point to it. Now, though, she rummages in her gym bag and pulls one out to show him.]

You tap here, where it says Ship Talk, see? And the numbers are for people's cabins. Mine is 159, so if you look there, you'll see me. Arilanna Tayrey. You can call, or if it's not safe to speak, write a message instead.

[At his request, she smiles brightly, and reaches out to pat him on the arm.] It's not weird. Being alone here makes it so much harder. Maybe there are reasons why we really won't get along but right now I'm not seeing any. No reason why we can't give it a try.

[She looks thoughtful for a moment, and shakes her head.] Did he make you call him that? Master? My family had a lot of household staff when I was growing up, and I've never heard of anything like it.

Archaic?

[Is she kidding? Oh. No. She actually doesn't seem to be... wow. Is this how Erik feels all the time when new technology is presented to him?]

159. Got it.

[Now that he looks at it, this doesn't seem all that different in main function to his Blackberry. The texting feature looks a lot more advanced, as a matter of fact. He could have fun with that. (RIP everyone when he finds the emojis.)]

I can't see why we wouldn't get along? You'll tell me if I ever annoy you, right?

[Max, meanwhile, would sooner die than ever potentially hurt her feelings so he will never say a word.

Crap. But now she's asking about his relationship to Erik. Most people don't tend to like hearing the way his situation is actually structured.]

Um, yes? Because that's the polite way to refer to the master of the house. [Nailed it.] I could call him Lord Osborne as well, but no one seems to recognize that name here.

[Definitely archaic for her, but her Tradeline communicator doesn't work here - how could it, it's the only one of its kind? - so she's learned to get along with them. She'd explain more, but he appears to be figuring it out well enough, so she leaves him to it.]

I mean, we don't know each other. Maybe it'll turn out we don't have any shared values. I hope not, but it's possible. I don't care if people annoy me, but- [she turns very serious for a moment] -I'm the only one here from my culture, and sometimes things don't carry, so if we ever offend one another, or we don't understand, we've got to ask, alright? Fair contract?

[She ponders what he's said about his work, and then nods.] Some sort of aristocrat, then. I've never properly understood those systems. My father was just Director Kittredge, back home. [Ari could never call someone master. It's horribly servile - but she's trying to be understanding.]

[Uh oh, he's not sure he likes how serious she turns all of the sudden. Her use of the word contract makes him wary. Is that one of those cultural things for her?]

A-all right. I... [He swallows hard against a rising flood of anxiety.] I'll ask. Um. Just. Sometimes, I ask too much when I shouldn't.

Yes. He's... in charge of governing a large chunk of territory. It's a very prestigious role. I'm his personal servant so that comes with a lot of responsibility. [Or, it should. But Max isn't actually a decision maker about much more than superficial details.]

What is your father the director of?

[She can tell that she's making him nervous, although perhaps not exactly how much. It's strange to her that someone so important as Max's employer wouldn't have more than two people working in his household, but she decides that might be cultural.

Ari wants to reassure him, and her voice takes on a more gentle tone.]

You can ask whatever you want. Never worry about that. If I don't want to answer I'll say so, but never feel you can't ask. That's how misunderstandings get started.

My father's Director of Finance at Cardalek. That's a megacorporation out in my sector. It has several subsidiaries and one colony world. [Another smile. For a long time she'd have kept this information to herself, but Ari and her father are on good terms again, and here it can't hurt anyway.]

[He makes a weak noise in the back of his throat that is mostly assent still mixed with anxiety. He is never not going to worry about it.]

Oh, so he must be pretty influential? Sorry I... did you say worlds? Like. Planets?

[It seems to her that his nerves are probably as a result of being new - which she can't blame him for - and that they'll pass once he's seen that she won't do him any harm just for asking questions. No need to draw further attention to it, then.]

Planets, yes. There are over a hundred inhabited colony worlds in my sector, many of them owned by corporations like Cardalek. My father's fairly influential, yes. He lives near the top of the Tower.

[Unless that's what's making him anxious? She adds, quickly:] I grew up Company, but I didn't stay. I'm a spacer lieutenant, with the Tradelines. Defending the colonies and facilitating trade.

Over a hundred...wow.

[He may not understand the context of living at the top of the Tower, but he can understand the general sentiment, he thinks. He's less sure about the rest but it's clearly some kind of military.]

You must come from somewhere that's way more advanced if you're already all living in space and on different planets. I'm really impressed.

[She hasn't had many people react to her that way, so this makes her smile.]

It was all just ordinary to me, but the technology here isn't what I'm used to, it's true. Your people stayed on their homeworld? [She almost asks if it was this 'Earth' so many of the others seem to come from, but holds back, because it'll confuse him all the more if that isn't the case.]

Yes. Don't really have the means not to. Some people have been talking about trying to colonize Mars but I doubt I'm going to see it in my lifetime.

[Maybe his master Erik will get to live to see it. He smiles to himself a moment, imagining his vampire master going on a rocket ship. No. He'd probably hate that. He doesn't even like to fly in airplanes.]

Are you, um... still a human or are you some other... species?

[That gets a slightly bitter laugh from her. Not even in Saratha Cordain's most paranoid conspiracy theories had she suggested that the children out of Cardalek Genetech might be treated as something other than human.]

Sure. I'm human. Slightly enhanced human, you might say. I was born out of a genelab.

What's Mars? Is that your neighbouring system? You could colonise that with slow ships, if you've got terraforming technology. [And slow ships. Maybe it's literally just talk.]

A lab? Like... you were created in a tube?

[He has some uneasy feelings about that. Not that he would treat her as anything but human, but that's still a very strange thing to learn about a person.]

No... Mars is another planet in our solar system. I think they are trying to make plans for how to colonize it but that's not going to happen for a long, long time. Probably way after I'm dead.

In a tube? What? No! [Ari shakes her head quickly. Better to say it plainly, so that he understands.]

My genemother didn't want to be pregnant with me, so instead she gave me up to the genelab for experimentation. I guess you could say I was born twice - once when I left her, and once when I was done growing in the lab incubator.

I'm guessing that if you haven't colonised neighbouring systems yet, you haven't got genelabs either. I won't say it's typical, but it's not remarkable on my homeworld, either.

They can do that? Wow. Yeah, we don't have anything like that at all.

[He can't help wondering how different his life could have been if they did. His mother didn't really want him, either. She left when he was only just old enough to remember. He never saw her again, but his father did his best to raised Max and his sister to feel wanted, regardless. Still, the abandonment left a mark.]

Do you ever feel, I don't know, weird about it sometimes? That you don't have a mother? I didn't really have one either...

I used to, when I was young. I didn't like seeing her, knowing who she was, and that she'd never speak to me. Now I know how hard that must have been for her. I grew up a lot after I left home. I was lucky, really. My adoptive father was a really good person.

[A little more softly] I'm sorry that you lost your mother.

I'm really glad your father was so good to you. Mine was too. He was everything for me and my sister.

[He chews on his bottom lip, trying to decide if he should say this next part but... he doesn't want her to have the wrong idea.]

My mom didn't die or anything. Um. It was... I don't want to say worse but... she cheated on my dad, and then she left us all to go be with the guy she was having an affair with. My sister was barely older than an infant and she just... ran away. My dad had to raise us all on his own. He's basically a superhero.

That's- [She looks momentarily uncomfortable as she tries to make sense of it, tries to fit it within her own framework of understanding.]

It's more of a betrayal, isn't it? Where I'm from, partnership contracts end all the time. People fall out of love -but they should have the maturity to end things properly, and there's no excuse for never seeing your children again.

Did your father not have any help? You didn't have nannies, or tutors?

Yeah, betrayal is what it feels like. God only knows, that's how my dad must feel. He didn't like to talk about it much, but it was messy.

[He laughs bitterly.]

Us? No. We didn't have anything like that. My dad owned an auto repair shop. The closest we got to nannies was "Uncle" Bill keeping an eye on us while Dad was busy helping customers. And we went to public school.

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TEST DRIVE MEME #8

Re: 2 - gym

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cw: abortion/reproductive choices (futuristic)

cw: abortion/reproductive choices (futuristic)/absent parent/abandonment

cw: abortion/reproductive choices (futuristic)/absent parent/abandonment

absent parent/abandonment/infidelity

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