TEST DRIVE MEME #8

[sailmods]

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.]

Comments

[decohere]

She was hoping to ask how Bill was doing, from whatever point in the future. But it seems Scott wouldn't know either... not any differently than her. But Ava nods, and withholds the fact that she has information about Thanos and half the world disappearing in the short moments after her own arriving here. No need to make him further panic about things he now has no ability to do anything about. She has no answers for him anyway, where his daughter or Hope might be.

"Ah, same. I've been here... ten months," she informs him, turning on her heel and expecting him to follow along to the cafe. "And you'll think, wait. I just saw you. How could it possibly be that long. And how could I possibly still be alive without those healing particles you were going off to retrieve." He's worrying about that, right? Maybe. She'll give him the benefit of the doubt that her health might register somewhere in his concerns.

[pissant]

That might be for the best. Right at this moment things haven't quite sunk in that this might be permanent. He's usually pretty good with rolling with the punches but if all that comes out he might actually lose it a bit.

"Ten months... Holy hell." It takes him a minute or two until he realises that the other is walking and he should be following. But he catches up soon enough. "Honestly, I hadn't actually thought about that yet..." He's a little brutally honest, and then realises that was a bit of a dick move he tries to cover up his admittance with a joke. "I mean I was a little focused on the killer piano. But, you are here right? Or is that a part of the 'ship without time' thing?"

[decohere]

"Wouldn't worry too much about the piano. Even if it manages to kill you, come back next day good as new. Happened to my boyfriend," she informs him with an entirely false confidence about how much death totally doesn't matter. If she were any better with people, even after so many months of practice, maybe she'd try putting things more delicately. But he's a man that wears an ant costume by choice, he can cope.

"Within this reality, things do seem to be suspended. There were some plants brought in from outside, and they never grow." She doesn't seem too overly concerned about it, mostly because it works out in her favor. "It's all rather fascinating, and luckily I heard enough of Bill's lectures to... already have a flexible view of time and space anyway." The part she's still struggling with is Magic.

She directs Scott down the promenade, full of a variety of different little shops and social spaces, until they arrive at Sand Dollars. She doesn't bother with the door, strolls right through the glass front window. Hopefully he doesn't do the little bird bonk against it trying to follow.

[pissant]

Thankfully, he doesn't walk right though the door with her. It's the little things. But he does sort of blindly follow her wherever because he doesn't know what's going on, and he doesn't know where he is, but he at least kind of knows her. So it's something to cling to for now.

"Please don't tell me my life is a Family Guy episode... Where everything just goes back to normal each and every week." There's only so much the braincell can handle at one time and it's hard to tell exactly how serious she's being about this.

He nods very slowly, understanding what the other is saying in the vaguest of senses. Some sort of suspension thing. I mean she had somewhat said it earlier but it didn't quite click until now. "Guess you were prepared for Limbo, technically." Oof, he realizes that that's just rubbing salt in wounds. "Sorry... This is just... Kinda a lot." And the only way he can deal with it is jokes and quips.

[decohere]

"Sure. Normal," Ava doesn't quite get the specific reference but can at least figure out enough of the context of sitcom logic where life returns to status quo, and he's not entirely wrong. "If you break something around here, it goes back together again once you're out of sight. Except during October."

Ava flinches slightly at the reminder, the familiar blur as her body separates just barely from itself, because that fear hasn't gone away yet. It's just evolved into a slightly different version of becoming Nothing. She orders herself a peppermint mocha at the counter, with extra whip, and the invisible source of lost spirits before begin preparing it. She gestures kinda vaguely at the drink. "That's what Limbo gets you, around here."

[pissant]

[[ooc; sorry for delay in tags!! we had no power all holiday week/weekend so I was using my phone and haaaaate trying to do game tags via mobile. forgive me!]]

At least that's what she gets. That's the most important part he was trying to get to anyway. It takes him a long time to order what he wants and it's a combination of things. Half staring at the ghostly baristas and half because he has no idea what he wants. He finally settles on coffee, strong and black. Something to maybe slap some sense into him.

"So I don't owe anything... Or is this one of those it'll be taken out of my ass later type of deals?" Hopefully not literally, by a piano. But he doesn't have a lot of faith given how this whole interaction started. Just like 'back home' he'll call it now, they're quick to just make something black and strong. And shit did he get what he asked for as he just about gasps at the otherworldly strength of it. My god... This isn't heaven but at least the coffees good.

Probably gonna kill him too really.

"So wait, what's so different about October? Glad I missed it I guess...."

[decohere]

[ooc: no worries at all! hope you managed to have a decent holiday despite the power]

Ava wraps her blurred fingers around the mug, knows it'll be awhile before it's cool enough for her to drink, but that buys her more time. She settles at a nearby table, instead of her usual all the way in the back, and waits for him to join. Watching Scott carefully, still somewhat in disbelief that he's here. And what she's meant to do about that next.

He was an ally by circumstance back home, in the end. But does that mean anything anymore? Would he approve of what she's doing, or join the other side? Does that matter to her? She pokes a bit at the whipped cream.

"There's no money upon the ship," other than Maximilien's worthless suitcase stash. "It's free, but only in the no such thing as a free meal way. We are here to power the ship, through... hm, our emotions?" But she can't say she feels any less full of them than when she got here, if she's being drained. Feelings just have a way of generating more.

"And October was... you've met Friday, right?" It's hard to miss the woman without a face. "She got hijacked by a ghost of one of the former passengers, from a voyage prior. The ghosts stopped working. Nothing got cleaned or repaired. The ship began falling apart, and people started getting possessed and plotted to take over. I figured out the conspiracy, but a bit too late." But at least she still feels somewhat vindicated, that her paranoia hadn't been baseless!

[pissant]

[ooc; i did, enjoyed a 1800s Christmas. it was very cozy at least round the fireplace!]

"Taken out of my ass. Got it." That's all he needs to know, he'll accept it. Maybe not willingly but my god, he'll accept it. He's really good at just, knowing that this is how life works. Apparently. He laughs when the other mentions the emotional part of it. Sorry but that's hilarious to Scott. Probably shouldn't be, but it is. If emotions are what the ships looking for than my god they're gonna have a buffet situation with Scott.

"Friday? The faceless person from the safety meeting? I think that's what they said their name was. I dunno, I wasn't really paying attention..." You really should have been though, classic Scott move. He'll figure it out the hard way, as usual. "Fuck me. So this is like some sort of Scooby Doo shit?"

He's just going to slide into the table across from the other and take a moment or two to let it all sink in, some of the adrineline wearing off.

Attacked by a piano...

Meet a friend he hadn't seen in a few months for him and several for her...

Had the worlds strongest coffee served up by a ghost...

Trapped for all eternity on some sort of Disney cruise bullshit...

"Jinkies..." Is all he can manage to get out right now before he takes a very hefty sip of coffee.

[decohere]

"The safety meeting is more a formality than... well, the ship hasn't sunk yet but if it does, floating out in the life boats sounds rather miserable. There's nothing out there." She's flown out with Skulduggery all the way to the barrier.

"Sure. Scooby Doo. Full of mystery. With plenty of meddling kids and a few talking animals." She's only seen maybe a few episodes, but it's the sort of show that feels like if you've seen one then you've seen them all.

Ava takes a sip of her mocha, staring down into it for a moment. "I... used to tell people you were my best friend, back home," she begins in a tone that indicates awareness of just how pathetic and untrue this claim was. "So if anyone asks..." please don't call her a weirdo creep that you barely knew despite it being the truth.

[pissant]

"Wait so this place doesn't even dock anywhere?" Okay that's a total bummer, cruise ships suck but one of the whole points is to actually go to port or something. Right? Never a good sign when they don't. That does sound pretty terrible, and he barely knows the place. But he certainly wouldn't want to be stuck on a small boat in the water. Talk about barf central.

He's just going to continue to try and sort out his current running mind with coffee and then she says something that makes his brow pop up and he sets his coffee down in front of him. Did she just say what he thought she said?

"Wait... What?" He must not have heard her right. "Did you say we used to be best friends?" There isn't a judgement in his tone or anything, just a wanting to understand more and clarify. The good news is Ava that he's just not that kinda guy. Not the kinda dude who gets all worked up about that sort of thing. And it's not as though they weren't friends, and shit maybe had he stayed where he was and worked through things with Janet they would have truly been.

[decohere]

"Sometimes we take a tender out to another pocket reality... visit someplace neat. I attended summer camp, and some old timey diner out in the desert, and went on a secret tomb-raiding mission on an island full of lizard people." They were salamanders. And she ended up cursed. But she's trying to hit the highlights, because so many people are quick to call this place torture. [and depending on when this liminal thread takes place, she also just got murdered at a mountain resort at Christmas. but the hot cocoa was nice.]

Her shoulders droop slightly, even despite his tone, finger tracing around the rim of her mug slowly and almost bashfully. "It's... just people talk. About where they came from. Their adventures and their friends back home. And I... I never... had anything like that, barely knew anyone. What else could I tell them? That my whole life was... running black ops missions for SHIELD, getting experimented on, and staying cooped up in a containment chamber because I was falling apart?" It's a rather pathetic way to live, and it would have been a sad way to die. With only Bill to ever care.

"But I... do have real friends now." Not that Scott isn't real, not that she doesn't think they might have been able to develop more of a relationship if they had known each other for longer. He probably had been the closest thing she had to one, given how lonely she'd been. "And a boyfriend." So see? She's doing okay for herself, for a weird shut in.

[pissant]

"A summer camp? Are you serious? Hopefully with the ghost pianos and shit there wasn't also a Jason." Again with references this poor thing might not get and no place is perfect but it's good shes easing him into it. He might be able to go with the punches but if he gets his ass kicked too much too quickly he's gonna have a real bad day.

"That's great, but you know... It's okay to say we're friends like..." He smiles and nods at the other "It's kinda true. Janet and I have been working super hard on getting back to the Quantum Realm, Janet says if we can grab particles and bring them back. We can sort you out. We're so close, so... If theres another you, and another me... carrying on... Well they're probably doing the same thing right now then. I'd always want to help you, because that's what you do for friends."

So don't worry about it Ava, Scott will think you're the normal amount of weird for other things. But not for wanting to have a more normal life after SHIELD took yours away. He'd never judge for something like that.

"And the other you definitely doesn't have a boyfriend. At least not that she's told me. So hey you're doing pretty good for yourself." He assures and feels a little weird because there's a part of him that wants to vet the guy all of a sudden. But he keeps that to himself...

[decohere]

"Despite the zodiac theming... no serial killers or even bears in the woods. I had an emergency bear drill and everything," Ava solemnly informs him of her totally legit safety protocols. And not the part where she had Sharky pretend to be a bear and attack Steven. Or the part where she kicked all the men out of her cabin. But she does tell him, "I even stole a canoe." Because who doesn't want their own little boat aboard a bigger boat?

She looks up hesitantly as Scott confirms that it's okay to think of them as friends, had halfway expected him to shut it down completely. Not that thought of him as a jerk, he'd been rather kind to her given the circumstances. But the concept of friends was still new enough that she didn't like to mistake Scott being a nice person for more than that. But she nods along to the plan to keep helping her, and still refrains from warning Scott of the future she's only heard about, knowing things don't go so well.

"You'll have tough competition," she warns instead, with a small smile. "My other friends are a magical skeleton, and a billionaire Omnic. Uh... a sophisticated metal android." Don't call him a robot. "They're not very popular." Because said skeleton just murdered a bunch of people with his evil shadow alter ego. Oh well. "But they're neat." She has absolutely no idea how they'd like him. She has other friends too, who probably would.

"No," she shakes her head in confirmation. "I... no. Never had any interest in that sort of thing," Ava admits quietly, never got out much to meet anyone and certainly not on a personal level. "Trusting somebody, especially enough to allow them to... touch you. I don't like to be compromised." Vulnerable. Back home she had far more to worry about, staying under the radar to ensure her continued freedom. And constant pain that sucked all the enjoyment out of most things. "He was born 60 years before me," she tells Scott. Mostly just to get his reaction. But it is true.