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TEST DRIVE MEME #9
1. tidal waves out on the sea
[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. I don't know where I'm-a gonna go
[something new has been set up at Friday’s desk. there’s a sign, but it’s not advertising the next excursion, or anything familiar like that. instead, it says, in big, bold letters, SUGGESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS, with a large downward-facing arrow below it, pointing at what looks to be an empty tissue box with the word “COMPLAINTS” hastily etched onto it. there is a pile of small slips of paper and some pens next to it, and Friday cheerfully informs you that you can submit anything you like, no consequences! and it’s weird that she has to specify, but, also, she really does, doesn’t she?
and there aren’t any consequences! the Captain doesn’t come out of nowhere and dome you instantly for the slight. Friday doesn’t give you the cold shoulder or a rude remark. now, an unidentifiable voice does start reciting your complaint or suggestion, with your name attached, over the loudspeaker at full volume every 20 minutes or so. but, that’s debatable as a consequence. probably. maybe. not actually.]
3. pretty soon we learn to fly
[this was one of the suggestions. apparently. that’s what Friday will say if anyone asks her about it. and they probably will. because surely there has to be some sort of reason why the floor in windjammer is, currently, lava.
like. actual molten magma-type lava, flowing in sluggish rivers around the tables and booths, the sections of the buffet. so, maybe you decide to go eat at one of the many other fine dining establishments aboard today, or at least until the floor decides to stop being lava. or, maybe you decide that those dinosaur chicken nuggets are worth the risk of life and limb. and thus, you climb, clamber, jump, leap - a perilous and terrifying journey, knowing you are only one false step away from an agonizing death.
until you fall in. and then you realize that, no, this is not actually lava at all, for all it looks exactly like it. it’s actually barely room temperature, and strangely watery. you taste sweetened tomato paste. it’s not death, but maybe that would have been a little bit better.
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He nods politely, even though... he's not polite, and reflexively he wants to shout not to get used to it. "Nobunaga Oda, Earth, Japan, Hell. 1582 by Western calendar," a vague sort of wave, "Which is what most everyone else uses if they're from Earth. Not everyone is. But more than half."
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This man reminds him more and more of one of his allies the more he speaks. He wonders if sparring is something that Nobunaga engages in. He seems the type.
The extensive presentation of his origin only gets another quiet once-over, and after a time he replies, "Wayne, of Waynehouse, West of New Muldul. Seven cycles post-Gibbous." None of which would mean anything more to Nobunaga than what the man had said to him.
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"Welcome aboard, Wayne. Don't let the complacency and greyscale fool you." It is not, in fact, grey for anyone other than Nobunaga. Even Nobuanga is already getting bits and pieces of color back, but that's his whole supposed argument. "Every other month everything happens in less than an hour -- if your world doesn't have that measurement of time, don't worry, mine didn't either," He rolls up a sleeve to show the watch strapped at just under the elbow (the only way to fit it with the gauntlets, okay!) "So I had to get used to it here. But murder, mayhem, pure chaos very very quickly, and then the next month things get rather quiet. All a gathering storm to start all over again. Supposedly that might change now. We'll see."
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Wayne regards the watch with his head at a mild tilt. Curious that it shouldn't look anything like what he's used to, but if it's used to tell the time then he'd take Nobunaga's word for it.
"Weird," he says simply, and leans his elbows back down against the railing to look out across the water again. He flips a leather-clad hand through the air and twiddles his fingers in such a way that the air deforms above them, forming an odd hypnotic pattern. It's comforting to know that at least that hasn't changed. "Madness just comes and goes, huh?"
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He's known to cause explosions and chaos even without anything going on, specifically because he gets bored.
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"I do music, but that's probably not what you're looking for." He's definitely not the lyricist Somsnosa is. She'd probably be able to talk poetry all day with Nobunaga.
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Nobunaga is un-ironically the leader of the Poetry Club, so he absolutely would talk poetry all day, but likewise isn't lacking in others to talk about it with.
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"It came with me, with my Instrument. If we can play together we can figure out a sound. Do you sing?"
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"There's also the fact that everyone's heart's different," he replies, completely straight-faced. "You're not gonna be able to just win over the majority with one or two shows."
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The brightening smile and the question earn another shrug, and the lifting of a gloved hand. "The Gestures are for combat. Someone called it magic earlier." He pans about briefly, then catches sight of a flotation device discarded by one of the other passengers and snaps. It's a dry sound, and an instant later the device is knocked back as it physically struck. "I'unno if you guys can do it but it's useful when I don't have my axe."
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"Handy," a headtilt.
Get it? GET IT?!"I can't do any magic at all, but I spent so many years trying to prove it's not real, I'm not sure I could bring myself to embrace it at this point, even if it would work the same for one such as me."no subject
Boo hiss"It doesn't feel all that magical to me, but we all do it if we have limbs to gesture with." Maybe it would only work for people from his world, though. He doesn't know how to teach such things in the first place without access to the televisions and the signals from the Monitor. It's all kind of over his head, if he's perfectly honest. He'd rather leave the teaching schtick to Old Wayne.no subject
Nobunaga nods solemnly, like Wayne said something truly profound. "It's true. I can make many a gesture with some rather extreme effects, but explaining to someone else how to do it would require such intricacies I don't know where to begin."
Like blowing kisses. He can do it, but he can get overcome with embarrassment quite easily. It is a top-tier highest-level move, according to Nobunaga.
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Wayne nods in kind. They may not be talking about the exact same things but it feels like they're of the same mind when it comes to these kinds of things. Kisses blown or otherwise aren't common gestures where he's from, they'd probably have some kind of devastating effect of their own. Maybe not Soul Crisper levels, but perhaps on the level of the nausea caused by Bubbles.
"I'm hoping I don't have to worry about it here either way. I don't wanna have to melt anyone, y'know?" He can if pressed, but he would rather not be pressed.
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Nobunaga would definitely not be surprised if blown kisses resulted in nausea. He might have had heavy backlash on his own from doing it, but he will level up someday.
Another nod, like this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say! "Best to avoid that when possible." As if it is ever not. "Maybe the music will head it all off at the pass." Fans instead of victims? Something like that.
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"Maybe. Soothes the savage beast or something, right?" He'd heard that somewhere, he's sure, and it seems apropos. He shrugs a shoulder, and looks back out toward the water a moment as he makes up his mind. "Even if I don't play for anyone else it's something I can do just for me. Or you if you have nothing better to do."
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"Exactly that. I find music doesn't exactly take time away from my other interests here." Which was the gentle way of saying Nobunaga was never at a loss for things to do, he made himself busy by breathing, including measuring the ship. "Do you dance as well?"
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"Don't worry, just move as you feel it. That's what Klaus tells me anyway. Not that I'm ever going to be fond of disco."
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