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]

Daisy shakes her head, loosely. "Made the choice I made for some bad reasons. Feels. Wrong, somehow. Saying I'd have made a different choice."

Daisy has some very... specific, ideas, about how she should handle her own past. Ideas that don't necessarily make sense to everyone else. She's extremely wary of coming off as if she's absolving herself.

"There's probably at least one universe where weredinosaurs are a normal thing," she says with a shrug. "But, see. Whatever the deal is with wolf shifters in your world won't be like anyone else's. Better you explain whatever that deal is to people than have 'em think you're— Twilight, or something."

[blindwatchersees]

Oh, looks like the current mindset is "waxing poetic about husbands."

"Eil is loyal to a fault. He's never had much reverence for the gods, and for that I applaud him! They rarely do anyone any good, and he's always been of a mind to leave the gods alone and hope they leave him be in turn. So it's sort of funny that we ended up together. I can't say I'm the same man he married, but that doesn't change the fact for him that he made a vow, and he takes those very, very seriously. He's a caring man, a caring physician; he doesn't put limits on what he believes can be treated and made livable, and he'd give a patient his own blood if he thought it would serve as an effective medicine for them. In fact, it has in the past."

[businessorlibation]

"Blood transfusions are a thing in my world. I know very little about them, but I remember seeing an article about the Academy of Sciences innovating matching donor blood with patients. That said, usually it's not doctors donating directly to their patients--that sounds a little mad."

He smiles over that last sentence.

[blindwatchersees]

The Madgod laughs warmly, in a voice made of songs about dancing in the rain.

"Oh, he's wonderfully mad. Do you know, he wasn't just donating his blood to anyone. He was using it to treat vampirism. Vampirism! And you know what, it worked wonders. Didn't cure the poor lad, of course, but it helped him keep his cover and not lapse into a bestial state like old Molag's spawn so often do. Eil's got such a gentle heart. A tender heart. Very, very tender."

[decohere]

"Yeah, it takes awhile to get used to..." Ava trails off, apologetically.

"But good news is... um. Do you like to eat?" Maybe stone women don't eat, she doesn't know.

[professionalriot]

"If it feels wrong then don't say it. Sounds like you made the right choice for yourself."

Ash didn't have a choice. This was what he was born. Some days he wished it was different just so he didn't have to hide it. So he could have relationships that would last. Maybe not scare his neighbors cat. Most days he loves what he is.

"Ew. Twilight. No, I'm not like that at all. I mean, I have one form that is a wolf. Another is a massive wolf, little gnarlier looking. 'Bout the size of a horse. Something a little like you. Still human but with fangs and claws and the eyes. Then the big one, full Kaiju. Just a little under ten feet...wolf man, I guess."

[treasonlikebeauty]

"Just a mild headache," Garak promises. It's certainly the stress. "But somewhere darker would be appreciated. You humans always do keep things cold and bright, and one does grow... weary of it, after a time."

He takes her arm, casually, but cautious as well. He's still expecting a trap.

[treasonlikebeauty]

"How... fascinating," Garak says, frowning a little. "I wouldn't have thought something like species would be the sort of thing that could change. External appearances, certainly. Any decent surgeon could do such a thing. Every species has their spies, after all. But the experience of being human? Or Cardassian, for that matter. I fail to see how that would change."

He turns his glass between his fingers, idly. "I did notice your eyes. I haven't seen a human with eyes that... gleam, shall we say, as yours do."

2

[lightconductor]

"You know, while generally if you run into any sort of beast on this ship, it's a thinking passenger, but the crab appears to be just a crab."

It's advice offered freely and casually, with a vibe of "I don't want you to feel foolish but" to it. Watson has been reading by the pool, and he sets his book aside.

b

[crushed_pearls]

"Oof, crab shanked you. You gotta watch your ankles, my man." Erin's coming out of the Tommy Bahama with a new load of pillaged laces - shoelaces, strings from shirts and dresses, the whole nine yards. Does she need to keep braiding her shitty rope? No. Will she? Yes. The new guy looks vaguely familiar but if you held a gun to Erin's head she couldn't figure it out (her memories of Star Trek are fuzzy and mostly confined to TNG).

Fortunately, she keeps medical supplies on hand. Erin yeets the materials in her hands off to the side and starts digging out bandages and disinfectant. "Lemme at it, bleeding out would be just the most shit day, I think."

[businessorlibation]

There's a quirk to his lips when Garak says that every species has their spies. Oh, Johnny's had surgery to change his looks, but hardly for that reason. But. He is subtle enough not to go digging there overtly.

"My night vision is excellent, too. But it isn't always a matter of appearances. Some of the changes run deeper than the skin. Some are even magic."

[treasonlikebeauty]

"I don't plan on dying," Garak says, "particularly not to a crustacean."

There's a brief moment where he looks intently at her, trying to work her out -- not human, surely, with those ears, but certainly not Vulcan, and probably not Romulan either. Is she at least trustworthy? Ah, a joke, he's not about to trust anyone at the moment. He smiles again, and limps in her direction. "But if you're the local doctor, I won't turn down the help, dear lady."

[crushed_pearls]

"I'm not! But I've done enough field medicine for government work." Erin kneels down to get a look at the wound and start working. "This is disinfectant, it's gonna sting like a bitch. If you're after local doctors, you want Doctor Watson - human fella, uses a cane, very polite - or Tendi, she's shippin' out from Starfleet, green lass with a lot of energy."

The disinfectant does in fact sting like a bitch.

"Name's Erin Peters, do call me Erin. I'm...something, around here. I guess you could say I'm the one who knows a guy, maybe?"

[treasonlikebeauty]

"Magic, really? Oh, my dear sir, am I meant to take that seriously?"

And yet. And yet, there's always that tiniest of doubt, the tiniest suspicion that things here are not... right. The drink in his hand, even, seems unlikely. "Are we sure this isn't a holosuite? Oh, if it is, I suppose you wouldn't know anything about it. This place is strange, but magical? I can hardly be expected to believe that."

[businessorlibation]

“And I’m not going to try to convince you. The nature of the realm is illusory and constructed, I’ll grant that, but the function isn’t through holograms. Anyway, it’s all quite large and mysterious and if you won’t believe me, it’s not worth discussing, is it?”

He shrugs, taking another sip of kanar and considering potential mixers. Juices, perhaps? Ginger beer? Something to play with.

[treasonlikebeauty]

"There's someone from Starfleet, here?" He's almost startled. Green? An Orion, perhaps, though he can't imagine there's many of them in Starfleet. Interesting, if he runs into her.

Garak winces a little at the disinfectant, but doesn't complain, either. "A pleasure, Erin. My name is Garak. I can see it being useful to know someone 'who knows a guy.'"

[crushed_pearls]

"Can be. I'm often the one who greets new arrivals, though from your lack of open panic this either ain't new to you, someone else gave ya the rundown, or you've got one hell of a poker face." Mmm. This is gonna need stitches. Erin sighs and starts cleaning a needle. "'s nice to meet you in any event, Garak. Welcome aboard."

[treasonlikebeauty]

A mixer? With kanar? What a strange idea.

Garak grimaces. "But it is illusory. That you could find kanar in a place like this... well, it is too good to be true, isn't it? How long have you been here, Johnny Summer? You seem very accustomed to the lay of the land, at least compared to myself."

[treasonlikebeauty]

"Do you think I should be panicking? I fear I'm still working out all the rules of this place, but I don't see that panicking will do me any good."

Garak looks down at the flash of the needle, and his manner, all gentle smiles, hardens somewhat at this moment. "What are you doing?" There's an edge to his voice, suspicious and sharp. "None of that, madam, until you explain yourself."

[crushed_pearls]

"...Right, you recognize Starfleet, which probably means you haven't seen this in a hot minute." Erin sighs, not moving the needle closer. "I'm about to suture the wound, which is what we did before whatever the fuck Tendi has that just regenerates the wound. It will also hurt, like a bitch, but you'll just keep bleeding if we don't close this up."

[busball]

"Uh huh. Sure." They aren't so sure that they believe that, but then...you know. They tend to just assume the only people that hate the sun are the ones that are allergic to it.

There's a slight shrug at that. They aren't gonna force some apology or be bummed out over a lack of forgiveness. That's her business. They consider saying something about it, but the question about the copy thing seems better to go with. "Yeaaaah. I mean, I have all my own memories, too. But like you're still home and here at the same time. You aren't missing from home. From what I understand. But now you're forming new memories that the you from home doesn't know about, so...yeah."

[yourexoduslaughing]

"Oooooff, yeah, I bet that's miserable. Well good news is that we're in a tropical kind of zone so we're warmer than most, though the downside is the sunny stuff but that's where we're going to get you shades. Okay, so heads up, I have a kind of teleportation but it involves falling so like, hold on, I won't drop us from any serious heights. But we will drop some."

Somewhere dark... Cosmic Bowling is dark, but also it's full of neon lights. So- oh! "Okay, I think I have a place to take you, and then I'll grab you some sunglasses. Okay ready?"

[businessorlibation]

"Over a year. Since the beginning of the voyage. I'm one of those who's been around longest--unless we count Daisy, she's from a previous voyage, originally." And she wonders how the newcomer might get along, or fail to, with her.

[treasonlikebeauty]

"But that's barbaric," Garak objects. "If someone on this vessel has a dermal regenerator, I think I'd rather wait for that, madam, than allow a stranger to stick a sharp metal needle into me."

It's not the pain -- pain is easy, straightforward -- but the sheer number of ways this could be a trap. He still doesn't know why he's here or what the people who brought him here want, but an elaborate assassination attempt is not out of the realm of possibility.

[crushed_pearls]

"I ain't gonna make you but it's a long walk to the infirmary, so..."

Erin puts the needle away in favor of the bandages. Better something than nothing. "You good with a tight wrap at least? I'd really rather not be the asshole who just lets you get got by the damn crab."

She says, as if she does not ride the crab around sometimes.