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

[littlefairytale]

Ruby droops with tangible relief that she doesn't have to add that particular brand of weirdness to Things She Simply Accepts As Reality Now. "Thank Gods, saying something stupid is a much better alternative to someone just... growing a brand new face..."

But! She claps her hands together, shaking that off.

"Um, as for the clothes... kinda? This is the only real clothing store we have, everything else people wear we either arrive in, get in packages, or get when we go on trips off the boat."

[seethesun]

"It's all so...gaudy." Listen there's no polite way to say that but Eleanor's still giving it her best shot. "I suppose there's nothing for it, but..."

Trailing.

Trailing off.

Trailing off more.

In a very small voice: "Where are the frills?"

[littlefairytale]

"Gods, I know, right? It's all so—" Ruby makes a motion that is intended to convey the smoothness of the silhouettes of the dresses and such here, but probably doesn't. Like at all. "I was making do before I got a package of stuff like I'm wearing now, but it's not the same."

[seethesun]

"Might I, in the interest of haste, ask your help in finding something decently modest? I had been worried about being seen in my nightgown and these are..." Several words are not said. "Less appropriate. I know the surface world is warm but this seems like an overreaction."

[littlefairytale]

'Surface world' is an interesting choice of words that Ruby absolutely takes note of, but doesn't immediately ask about, choosing instead to just nod and flash a smile.

"Sure, I can help! If I could I'd lend you something but you're— well, taller? Than I am, but! There's some stuff in here that isn't so bad and you can layer it, too. We'll make something work."

[seethesun]

"Mm. Taller and longer in the legs and arms by the look of it." Eleanor approaches the clothing again with a dubious look. "I place myself entirely in your care - dear God, I haven't given you my name!"

Eleanor turns to Ruby with an apologetic smile. "Eleanor, my very great pleasure to meet you."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby waves the apologetic air away, "Oh you have no idea how many times I've done that when meeting people around here. Nice to meet you, Eleanor, I'm Ruby! I'd say welcome to the Serena Eterna but I'm never sure if that's really the right thing to say..."

That's a thought she quickly tries to shake off, rocking up onto her toes briefly and nodding down an aisle. "Let's see what we can find. I don't think anyone's ever had trouble with sizing and stuff in here at least."

[seethesun]

Ruby. A lovely name, and she certainly seems to have embraced it if her color scheme is anything to go by. Eleanor dubiously starts in on various long-sleeved tops and blouses; these should be a good place to start.

Ruby's weapons haven't gone unnoticed. "Are life forms like those common here?"

[littlefairytale]

Ruby stands by to assist where she can, already trying to remember where some other possibly useful items might be.

"Not really? It's just inside the store. There's a bigger one, which used to be the only one, and before that it didn't exist at all, it just... was suddenly a problem one day." Beat. "Oh, wait, the piano in one of the clubs comes alive and tries to eat people sometimes too. That also just suddenly started happening one day."

[seethesun]

"...And you all just live like this?"

[littlefairytale]

"We sure do!" The upbeat mask is... so very well practiced. "Not much choice but to, you know? We're all stuck here for the foreseeable future, so we just have to learn to live with all the weird stuff. And really the boat itself isn't super dangerous, most days."

[seethesun]

The fact that clothing monsters have already attacked is doing a lot of lifting here to prove that Ruby isn't insane. Eleanor acknowledges that with a nod and busies herself again; she wants a bit of time to think on how to approach the question on her mind. Is there a leader here? Is this just a new version of the nightmare she escaped?

There's a space in the conversation left by the thinking.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby laces her fingers behind her back, arms stretching out behind her as she starts idly rocking onto her toes in the silence, debating whether or not to say anything to interrupt it or not. She's not sure if it's an awkward silence, or just a normal silence, or— some other kind of silence? There are probably other kinds of silence between those, right...

Eventually, speaking wins out.

"You must uh. You must have a lot of questions, huh?"

[seethesun]

Instant relief. "A great deal of them, yes. But I suppose the most pressing is...social." The word 'political' almost made it in there. "Is there a...how have you all chosen to govern yourselves?"

[littlefairytale]

"Uhhhh." Oh, Gods, isn't that a question... "We... haven't? Or. Well. The Captain's in charge, but none of us asked for that or to be here in the first place, and no one's really... governing anything. No organised— well, no organised anything, really. Except some clubs and things."

Is that the kind of answer you were looking for, Eleanor, because it's the kind of answer you're getting.

[seethesun]

"...I feel as if we may have different understandings of 'clubs'. Surely this ship does not have several exclusive drinking establishments which cater only to their members?"

Welcome to culture shock again Ruby hope you've gotten good at it.

[littlefairytale]

"Uhhh, no, we do not. We have drinking places but not like that. Clubs as in, like... group activities? Like a bunch of us get together to practice fighting stuff, or I think there's a poetry thing... stuff like that."

She's trying! Her best!

[seethesun]

Comprehension and relief and confusion all at the same time. Linguistic drift, perhaps? Some surface custom that evolved in a different direction from Rapture's culture? Still.

"I believe I get it, but then...what is the role of this Captain?"

[littlefairytale]

"Mostly he just... watches us and sends us on trips and generally controls the reality we're in. He kind of stepped back for a while once and the ship started falling apart because it wasn't repairing itself? But he doesn't tell us what to do day to day or anything. Sometimes he makes us play games?"

...wow she hasn't ever had to do the 101 speech for someone before and it shows, doesn't it. She groans.

"Ugh, sorry, this place is really weird, it's hard to explain. Things have changed a lot over the last eight months or so I've been here."

[seethesun]

Ruby gets the long look of someone who just heard a series of wild ideas and is not sure where to rate them on the scale of wildness. Where to even start with that - actually, let's start with breaking the known laws of thermodynamics.

"...When you say the ship repairs itself...?"

[littlefairytale]

"I mean it as literally as possible. If you leave a broken area alone for a while it just... fixes itself. I assume the ghosts are probably what's actually doing the repairing, or maybe it's just magic, but... no matter what it is, nothing innate to the ship stays broken for long."

Yeah, she knows it's crazy, she's sorry Eleanor. There's really no way to make this place sound less nuts than it is.

[seethesun]

You know in normal circumstances this silent expression of naked disbelief would probably be incredibly rude but this is what Ruby's getting right now. Ghosts? Magic? A person in charge of all reality - well, no, that one doesn't hit quite so unbelievably considering, but still.

Ruby you're bad at the 101.

Ruby please.

[littlefairytale]

Yeah, no, that's fair. Ruby groans at herself again and takes a big, deep breath in and out, then clasps her hands together.

"Okay, I'm going to start over from the top. Because explaining like this is clearly not working for either of us. The first thing you need to understand is this ship is not in your world, or anyone's world. Everyone here comes from a variety of times and universes and the Serena Eterna exists in its own vault dimension. If that sounds nuts it's because it absolutely is, but it's also true. I've been here eight months. The boat does not physically dock anywhere. The weather does not change, it's always summer. And the boat is always in pristine condition, there's always food and water and power. That much has been true almost the entire time I've been here."

[seethesun]

Eleanor nods after a long moment and returns to the clothes, a clear ploy to get time to think without opening her mouth and saying something rash. Ruby's assertion that this sounds insane to her too is perversely helpful; it reassures Eleanor that she has not entered some...variation...on Rapture's collective delusions, if people are sane enough to realize they're dwelling amidst madness.

"...Please understand my position, Miss Ruby. You are making claims that directly contradict the known and immutable physical laws of my world," says the girl with 'genetic' telekinesis, "laws which define the reality of reality as I know it, in fact. It is difficult to imagine that you seem to be thriving in such conditions, in the grip of a power which can gainsay thermodynamics and create something from nothing."

[littlefairytale]

"A lot of what happens here defies the rules of my reality, too. And a lot of the rules of my reality defy the rules of others. This place runs on magic, a real mishmash of different kinds actually, and for a lot of us magic existing isn't a surprise, but for others..."

Well, it sounds like Eleanor might be one of those people who is surprised to find out magic exists, because it didn't in her reality.

"I also wouldn't necessarily say we're thriving. But the downsides to being here are a whoooole thing of their own."