TEST DRIVE MEME #10

[sailmods]

a. that's where we both belong

[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.]

b. and there's plenty of that down by the sea

[it’s strange to think about, isn’t it? how all those new passengers, the ones grumbling or shouting their way through the forced muster drill, have absolutely no idea what happened just last month. no idea about the labyrinth. no concept of why anyone around them would be a bit more hesitant around shadows.

they’ll learn.

sometimes a shadow is darker than it’s supposed to be. very rarely does anything come of that; just a vague sense that someone is watching you, and little more. sometimes, though, the shadows move. sometimes they grab at your ankles as you walk. sometimes they give you a shove as you go down the stairs. sometimes they pull your hair, or pinch your arm.

sometimes you feel something sharp cut into your lower leg.

that’s not a shadow, though. that’s a fiddler crab. you see the crab, sometimes. the cut isn’t from its claws, which don’t look very intimating; it’s not a very large crab. the cut is from the large kitchen knife crudely taped onto its back. it’s probably fine. it's not chasing you. there isn't evil in its heart. probably.]

c. think I'll go back to the Keys

[one day, in the atrium, two pedestals suddenly appear. on each is a large button: one green, and one blue. pressing the blue button gives you a little treat, popping out of thin air next to you. pressing the green button sends a small electric shock through your body. weird, but, hey, pretty avoidable, right?

except, it seems to be spreading. to every other button on board.

in the elevator. on the soda machine. the arcade. your phone. the bell on Friday’s desk.]

Comments

[bubblegumheart]

Chrissy knows very little about crabs, and so she has no idea if anything they're doing is going to be effective at all. But they've already come this far and the plan seems reasonable even if it might not be particularly effective.

The knife's still aimed at Gwen, which was the entire point, and still she feels slightly guilty about it. Worrying too much about that isn't going to accomplish anything, though.

"Three!" she announces, before lunging forward to make a grab for the little guy.

[hate_gettin_older]

"No, we agreed," he insists, trying to sound stern and adultly, "check everything out before trying anything. This isn't everything."

[yournewsidekick]

"It's everything important," says Nimona, but it sounds a lot more like ugh, fine, whatever. Sulkily, she crosses her arms and adds in a mutter, "Guess you're on the No Fun Brigade too."

[spiritcarer]

[That's a fair reaction, to which Stella takes in stride. It's not too often she really needs to explain what her profession is. Everyone already seems to know what she's doing even before she opens her mouth.]

A boat - my own. It sailed wherever I took it. But, I guess it was more of a ferry, eh?

[Whatever you call it, it was hers.]

Which is to say, I was ferrying spirits.

[hate_gettin_older]

Oh no, sounding adultly has backfired.

"Just want to make sure your fun dun't end up with you getting smashed in the face." Still sternly, because it's too late to back down from that now. "In case this is the kind of place where that happens."

[goodweather]

[ Phil mulls that over for a moment. ]

How do you mean? [ he asks, in a tone that is much less I don’t believe you and much more that’s curious, please clarify? ]

[spiritcarer]

[A safety net is important! Creating bonds and building those relationships leads to a better life all around! Stella does a lot of that herself, but nobody can protect themselves forever...]

Thanks! I named him myself! [Lily helped, as little sisters often do. Unfortunately, Daffodil is a smart kitty. And he should be in her shadow by now, if he was here. But it couldn't hurt to look, right?

Right.]

Hi, Leppy! Judy! [She's pleased to meet all three of them.] You've been living on this boat for a year now? Gosh, I hope the captain is treating you well.

[spiritcarer]

Spirits.

[Tips her hat. Partially as a pause while she ruminates on her own words. She. doesn't really have to explain who she is. Usually other people are doing that.]

I'm the Spiritfarer - Or, I was. I move spirits to whatever comes after... life, you know?

[yournewsidekick]

That's right, Edgar, a teenager doesn't think you're cool. Surely this is the worst thing that's ever happened to you.

"I could take 'em," she says, still in a sulky mutter, before relenting with visible reluctance. "Fine, fine. If we're gonna look, then let's keep looking."

The sooner they finish looking, the sooner they can get to the smashing!

[thismaskismybadge]

In the end Ody is simply a crab, if a possibly evil crab with a knife strapped to his back, and he has very little defence against a surprise grab attack. Except to flail his unevenly sized pincers around, but even then he has a limited range of movement. His danger zone is still firmly in front of him.

"There we go! Next problem: getting the knife off him."

[decohere]

[oh, somebody new. and apparently hungry.]

Another?

[she's more offended by the idea that there's another octopus lurking around than somebody threatening to eat her. though she does smack at any attempt to touch her.]

apologies for the lack of icons, i have not got her a paid yet

[angelofthenight]

Demona pulls herself up to her full and considerable height and glares down at the woman before her with still glowing red eyes.

"A human?" she hisses in alarm. Her claws swipe at Ava's hand intent on knocking the stone shards aside. "What are you doing with those? Where am I? What sorcery is this?!"

After Midnight

[teethoftherisk]

There's a new scent on the ship and Siffleur has no idea what to make of it. It's odd enough that it's lured him away from his usual haunts, sniffing along the corridors as he tries to find who - or what - has that strange new scent.

It's only as he turns a corner that he spots something winged crawling on the ceiling. The smell is coming from them. He stays where he is, ears flat on his head as he calls out to the new passenger.

"Are you looking for somewhere to hide?" He calls out to them. "I know a place where you won't be seen unless you choose to."

[Night]

[hate_gettin_older]

It's the distinctive sound of metal tearing that catches his attention, as he's wandering up to see if the buffet is open at this hour and if he can get a hot drink before bed.

He stops in his tracks, glancing around warily. It doesn't (yet) occur to him to look up.

[angelofthenight]

She startles and turns to look at him over her shoulder. That doesn't exactly ease her concern. Did that cougar just speak?

"Who or what are you? Some kind of trickster?"

She isn't coming down yet, but she does turn around on the ceiling so she can be in a better position to pounce if she needs to.

[teethoftherisk]

"I am a werecougar. I change between man-shape and cougar-shape. But I am no trickster of any kind." He stays where he is, only his head around the corner. Now that she's turned around, he can see her somewhat better. He has no idea what she is, but she's clearly unhappy to be here. "You've arrived on a cursed cruise ship that pulls people from many worlds. I am from one world, and you're from another, and so is everyone else here beside the Captain and Friday."

[angelofthenight]

She's only a little behind and to the left of him. He's looking around...looking for her, no doubt. This godforsaken place is inhabited with all manner of hazards. Well. This time she's going to get the drop on someone else before they do the same to her.

So, from above, her tail swings down to wrap around him and bodily hoist him up off his feet. She twists around and gets right up into his face, "Who are you? What is this place?"

after midnight

[hadnoright]

It's not unusual for Daisy to be up and about in the early hours, considering the wolf in her gives her just a touch of a nocturnal streak and her brain's general disagreement with good sleep as a concept. Walking doesn't clear her mind, but now she can get away with running, she's heading to the sports deck to try that... when she catches the sound of someone else moving, and the unfamiliar scent a second later.

She whips around. No one behind her, then where—

She looks up. Blinks. "...what the fuck are you doing?"

[angelofthenight]

"Werecougar? Not human, then." Some of the tension leaves her shoulders just knowing that. "Come out. I want to see you."

It isn't that she's not heard or understood the rest of what he said, but that she needs time to process it--to decide how much she believes it.

"My word as a gargoyle, I will not attack." She drops from the ceiling, then, landing in a crouch with her wings folded down over her shoulders.

[angelofthenight]

She doesn't answer the question, unless a loud hiss counts. Instead, she releases her claws and twists mid-air like a cat to land bodily on top of Daisy, attempting to pin her down to the floor.

"Who are you?!"

[hadnoright]

Jesus fucking christ—

Daisy's arms come up a second before she's being knocked to the ground, grabbing for Demona's to try and flip them or throw her off entirely, backed by might far stronger than her size would lead anyone to think.

"Who the fuck are you?!"

[teethoftherisk]

Gargoyle. Hmm. So that's what that smells like. Siffleur trots out and sits where she can see all of him.

"My name is Siffleur. I come from an Earth where I and my mother are the only two of our kind." He curls his tail around him and tips his head at her. "You are the first gargoyle I have met. There are other non-humans on the ship, but most people here are human, or human-like."

Daylight

[saltwaterlungs]

Darcy passes by the statue on his morning patrol. Then, an hour or so later, he returns. With sticky tape and a couple of cut out crude drawings of pigeons.

Look, is this a passenger? Yes. They have a lei on, it clearly is. But obviously they're literally petrified into stone, so it's not like they're gonna care if Darcy makes it look like terribly drawn pigeons are roosting on them. Which he does, placing one on Demona's shoulder and one on her head. Decor! Accessorising! Surely this will not come back to bite him.

[angelofthenight]

Demona isn't expecting the pushback to be so Much. This woman is strong. Supernaturally so. Daisy doesn't successfully throw her away, rather, they go tumbling one over the other while Demona fights to be the one who comes out on top.

"The humans call me Demona. It will be the last thing you know before I rip your throat out if you do not answer me immediately!"

[hadnoright]

Strong, armed with claws, and when she growls in petty frustration at this whole encounter there's a flash of teeth that definitely do not belong in the average human's mouth. Supernatural is right.

"That would not go however you think it'd go," she bites back, almost amused, but ugh, she doesn't actually want to have to wash blood out of her clothes— "My name's Daisy, happy now?!"

All the while still grappling in such a way that they're tumbling over each other.