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

[hadnoright]

"Gargoyle. That's a new one." Daisy doesn't go to stand or even kneel just yet, giving Demona a proper once-over now she's not on the ceiling or in motion.

"No portal. We're stuck here. If we could leave, none of us—" beat, shift, "—most of us wouldn't be here."

[crushed_pearls]

"Not getting into a fight on zero hours of sleep in the last thirty is a nice start." Erin raises one of the glasses, a silent repetion of the offer. "'m Erin Peters, do call me Erin. From the looks of things you're having a bit of an evening."

[yournewsidekick]

"Maybe... they... restock everything really fast?"

YEAH. SO THERE.

[teethoftherisk]

"Good, you can use my scent to find your way back to the entrance if you become lost. I am serious when I say this goes on and on without end." He passes by the registers and then stops in one of the aisles. "There are some other creatures in here to watch out for. There is a giant beast made out of clothes. There is no flesh beneath, just more cloth, and it will crush you if it has the chance. It has small offspring that will also cling to you, so avoid piles of discarded clothing. There are brightly coloured shoes that are not good to wear either, but I do not imagine you would like them, so you should be fine."

He raises a paw and points straight ahead. "There is a restaurant in that direction where there are no people but you can find food, but it is a very long hike to it. If you go too far to the right, there is also a place where the shelves intersect and things are very odd there. I do not recommend it. But beyond that in all other directions, there are the same repeating shelves, clothes, displays and so on. I often build my nests and dens in the overstock of the shelves, or in the displays on top of the shelves. I would recommend you do the same. But you could also draw a number of shelves together to make a kind of room, and then you could exit from the top." With her wings, it should be no trouble for her to fly out of most things, or to head in deep to the store.

He turns back to Demona. "I hope this helps. You can find me here anytime, and I will answer any questions you have."

[busball]

"I mean, no, but what do I know about humans in other places, you know?" They're mostly just lightly trolling at this point now. "And the universal jury is out on whether or not I'm fully human anyway. But who knows? Maybe having an alien for an adopted dad and being born the day my mom conceived doesn't mean anything."

Yeah. That's definitely a yes. "Oh. Dope. This is the Serena Eterna. It's a ship. Well, a cruiseship. There's a lot of dying, but there's also a lot of cool food and things to do...off the ship more than on the ship, but you can always do the bowling thing if you want to?"

[professionalriot]

"When you say avatar I think video games. So are you a vessel or host for The Hunt?"

He sighs and takes a drink. Ashley isn't use to not being in the know. He's also use to having easy access to data so he doesn't have to play twenty questions.

"I get that. Still, I'm sure you have all had to tell your stories a lot. Probably sick of the noob dropping in making you do it again."

[spiritcarer]

[There's the shortest of pauses as Stella swallows something down.]

Really, eh? I'll have to keep that in mind.

[Just in case.]

Well, I just got here. So far, it hasn't been that crazy... I even still have my Everlight with me. [She gestures to the glowing orb on her belt.] How different could it be?

[spiritcarer]

[Hungry, maybe, but there were always hungry passengers with discerning tastes...]

...Oh!

[But not so discerning that she would feed anyone a talking octopus.]

You talk? I'm sorry. I didn't realize fish around here did that.

[treadwater]

“Memories? Like…your memories?” Okay, that one’s sort of tempting, because it’s unique. No one else can offer her that.

[decohere]

Cephalopods are actually a type of mollusk. Fish are vertebrates. And there's no fish around here, except what you'll find served fried up on a plate, if you're hungry.

All's down there is barnacles and hot dogs.

[spiritcarer]

"Daffy?"

[...Pff. Stella's smile cracks just a little wider.] I've called him that before, too.

[Something's amiss. Stella isn't sure what yet, but that doesn't mean it will stay hidden forever. Things just have a way of reaching Stella, one way or another.]

Well, we do spend a lot of time around food... So, it couldn't hurt to check. Did you want to come look with me?

[spiritcarer]

[...]

Well, sorry I guess? I was sort of hoping that the ocean here would be the same as the one I'm used to.

...Do you want me to toss you back? Even though there's just barnacles and hot dogs and all.

[decohere]

[half the tentacles do a lazy shrug at the apology.] Not sure what you're used to, but probably not. We're not even really going anywhere.

Nah, thanks for the lift back up.

[sabigoe]

Daffy, Daffy!

[ She repeats in a singsong voice then breaks out into a giggle. Well, she's glad it's not the first time that nickname has been used. ]

Yeah, let's look together! I know the way there. [ Especially since Fio's been living here for a while, she wants to be helpful to the new passenger. ] Um... I didn't get your name...

[ So she can think of a nickname for you, Stella. ]

[millay]

"Mmm. I'm what, I suppose most would call an android or a robot. But Delos made sure that we looked and died remarkably human." There's a shrug at that. But it's not a big deal. (It is a big deal)

"Humans. Always naming creatures as they wish." Her name was, she assumes, chosen by Ford. Hosts was a human name as well. "This is the Serena Eterna. It's a cruiseship from what I'm told. It runs on negative emotions, so we are often subjected to death or unpleasant scenarios. Recently it takes about three days to come back after dying. We've been getting to choose whether or not we participate, however. So it's up to you."

[hadnoright]

Daisy's brow wrinkles with thought. "Vessel's probably closest? But it's kind of it's own thing. Fear Gods change people. Make us something that can cause fear and feed them. Used to be human. Made a choice. Couldn't unmake it. Now I'm this."

How good she is at explaining this really does vary wildly, in part because she she does hate explaining the entire context of her world, but that's got nothing to do with how often she's done it. She just hates it.

"Plenty of people around here love talking about themselves. What you should really be bracing yourself for is having to do the same yourself."

[hate_gettin_older]

"... all right, you got me there, but if everything's getting stolen --"

He breaks off and gestures her to shush, pointing.

Someone has just walked into the coffeeshop, apparently with intent to buy something. A chance to observe!

[blindwatchersees]

"As I wish? No, my dear Mr. Summer, we'll talk as you wish. For if I am what you say I am, after all, if I am what I say I am, I'm more inclined to simply be until I'm confronted. But I am curious how you've been handling living in what is essentially a giant hotel that you can't leave from. Because on the one hand, you never have to go out again, but on the other hand, everyone and everything from your daily life is already here!"

[professionalriot]

"Would you unring that bell if you could?"

Ash gives a shrug of his shoulders and shakes his head. "I'm an open book, don't mind talking about it. Pretty boring, though. Just your everyday shapeshifter."

[blacksludgeaffair]

"Iiit can share... memories... Its own... Other hosts'..."

It burbles again at her response, but keep in one spot.

"Won't share... other passengers... Only... from before..."

[treadwater]

“Feels a little bit like reading someone’s diary, don’t you think?”

Her voice is soft and gentle. Oh Founder, is she about to try to teach morality to a symbiote?

[blacksludgeaffair]

It melts, slowly. A moment passes before it responds.

"That is... ssssecrets...?"

[treadwater]

“Not…secrets. But it’s private and more to the point, it’s not my business to know. They didn’t tell you that I could know it, or that you could just share it, right?”

[yournewsidekick]

"Ohhhhh," she whispers as she catches sight of the maybe-customer. "A mark."

...A mark for just, you know. Observing! For now. But she's gonna observe the heck out of them as they get their coffee. (Or whatever.)

[bubblegumheart]

The gamble pays off in the end, and she's left holding a clearly agitated crab out in front of her. She takes a step backward, effectively putting more distance between Gwen and the business end of that knife.

"That was easier than I thought it'd be!" Chrissy's not sure what she was expecting, really, but here we are. "Hmm... that one's tricky. We could just make a grab for it," she suggests, while carefully turning Ody in her hands.