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

[professionalriot]

That's a very honest answer he didn't expect to get. The smile that goes with it is unsettling. Then again he always does better when he can focus on someone else. Otherwise the spiral into his own emotions could get ugly and dark.

"No, no...none of that sir shit. Call me Ash. Ashley if you want to get formal."

Complicated. Breakdowns. What the hell is he going to do with that? He wants to know more but also doesn't want to be responsible for her emotional turmoil. Or making it worse.

"I'm not really okay either." He admits. "Maybe instead of breaking down, alone, in our rooms...you could show me where we can get something to eat? We can eat our feelings." Getting shit faced with a kid wasn't his style, even on a day like today. But, he could order a table full of dessert and start there. While he might not think it's okay to get drunk in front of a kid, just you try to get him not to cuss. "I could fuck up a stack of pancakes or some pie."

[treadwater]

Undine drops back into her normal girl form while she's in the hug, because she doesn't want to do muster in her uniform.

"You sticking around for Friday's speech?"

[moonlesstides]

Grace has to have a big think about that one. Partway through she takes one of her cups of tea and sips at it while she's Thinking. Her free hand goes into a little fist under her chin.

~...Not by itself, but it is...more respectful. To name one's resentment and prosecute it, to declare boundaries, these are the things that are good which my spear and my Depths may do. When the resentment is satisfied it is no longer good to continue.~

[littlefairytale]

"Just the little bit I deserve," Ruby says with a mock-sage nod. She laughs again, tucking her hair behind her ear for something to do with her hands as she gets all embarrassed of her own accord, now. "I actually uh— there's this girl who arrived a bit after you disappeared, Eleanor? She's— kind of a lot, sometimes, but actually really sweet, and— um. Yeah, we're a? Thing? As of like, last month."

[professionalriot]

Ashley watches as she doctors the beer with candy. Fizzing candy that is threatening to spill foaming beer all over. His questions and impending melancholy are forgotten. "I'm not trying to sound like a dick, I swear, but did you mean to do that? I can order you a new beer."

Had she meant to pour something else in the beer? He's seen people do clam juice and Tabasco, even orange juice for a very interesting, very good twist on a mimosa. Never sour skittles.

[treadwater]

"Well, there's a buffet, like any good cruise ship." She turns to start leading the way. Because now she's got him to take care of, so breakdowns will wait. "They're probably still serving breakfast."

[treadwater]

"Both, if you'll let me have both welcome and condolences. Weldolences?"

She lets out a little bit of a laugh.

[treadwater]

"Ooooh! Congratulations, I'm going to have to meet her at some point. Give her a proper shovel talk if no one else has done so on your behalf."

Undine grins broadly, clearly happy for Ruby.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin raises her eyebrows from under her blindfold and drinks the altered beer without breaking her best approximation of eye contact.

A girl's gotta have fun somehow.

[treadwater]

You know, it's not human ethics, but it's at least internally consistent. Undine, whose world is clearly the high point of ethical treatment of all people, including teenage girls, decides not to argue.

[crushed_pearls]

"As much of my day as you want is yours, lass, I just gotta hang back a sec and cancel some standing plans so I don't worry anyone."

[treadwater]

"No, no. You go on with your plans. I'll catch you for dinner, maybe? Or at the arcade this afternoon for DDR? You've got the same cabin number, right? I can text you."

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen lets out a bit of a laugh of her own, "Weldolences it is! When in doubt, portmanteau."

She pushes off the edge of the pool to glide to the other side on her back, carefully moderating her strength the way she's had to for years; maybe a little more, just to be sure.

"Oh, I'm Gwen. Gwen Stacy."

[professionalriot]

"This is my first time on a cruise ship." Ashley loved to surf, sure, but he is definitely a land animal. Who likes his vacations spent at luxury all inclusive resorts, where he could come and go as he pleases. On land.

He follows along. As they walk he's paying attention to signs and the layout. Trying to get a feel for where he was and where they were going so hopefully he could find his way around without getting lost.

"Looks like a uniform for some kind of private school. What grade are you in?" He asks idly as they walk.

The Most Ethical Bubble City Ever

[moonlesstides]

Grace reaches out, tea still in hand, and boops Undine's nose with a claw. ~Learning these things is something I am still doing, but there was another part of this lesson. The gentleman said, one must give opportunity to retract the insult; to deny this is crass, and unbecoming of the city-folk. I try to remember. Being among people, with words of my own they can understand, this is new.~

[littlefairytale]

"You know, I don't know if anyone has?" There's been plenty of people reminding her that they can come to them if something goes wrong, but... "She's like, over a foot taller than both of us, you might have to stand on something for the full effect."

[professionalriot]

"Today is apparently going to be a day full of firsts for me." Ashley says with a laugh before taking another drink of his beer. When his food arrives he groans happily and his stomach growls, demanding food. A few hot, salty fries are stuffed into his mouth.

"You said your blind but...you can see, right?" Not the same way he can see but she also doesn't navigate like Freya does.

Which was sometimes a bit like a bull in a china shop, especially if someone decided to move a piece of furniture or leave something out of place. Once he nearly pissed himself laughing when the blind Black Fury took out a bookshelf he had just set up. The look of horror on her face as every single book hit the ground was priceless, even if he had to clean it back up. When he was done laughing she thumped him hard enough on the ass with her cane to leave a bruise.

[crushed_pearls]

"Christ, here we go again," Erin mutters without quite being aware she spoke out loud. The smell of the food makes her realize she's hungry, and she orders her own before turning back to give a real answer.

"For certain values of 'see', the blindfold lets me see. It's got ups and downs compared to a cane, but I do a lot of fighting so I favor it. It..." She visibly mulls it over. "Tell me, what do your people know about fate?"

Seems like wrap?

[crushed_pearls]

"You're on. Same cabin number, same text to speech problems." She gives Undine one last squeeze. "Take a look over the sea when you're done, I promise it'll be very funny."

[businessorlibation]

"I am not really the person you ask to explain shit like magic. My world doesn't have any--has anyone mentioned that, yet, that we're taken from all sorts of different worlds? Some are Earth, some aren't. Timelines vary, level of magic and science vary."

He pauses, sipping at a drink of his own.

"I'm Johnny Summer. I've been on this voyage since the start, almost a year and a half ago."

[professionalriot]

"I have a packmate who is blind and she does not navigate as well as you do." Her first remark makes him cringe just a little for asking about it, but he's curious. That's just how his brain works. He wants to know. "She would be shit in a fight." Ashley says it with an affectionate laugh.

"Depends on what you mean by fate. I believe I was born for a very specific purpose. Something I can't change. You can't change your fate, it just is."

[professionalriot]

"This is all magic I don't know or understand. A little outside my scope." He's a quick learner. Obsessive, really, when it comes to learning new things. Unless of course he finds them boring, then just you try to get him to pay attention.

"Yeah, I was told my own magic might not work the same here. Haven't tried that out just yet. Little scary to think about not having something I have relied on most of my life."

He glances at Johnny and gives a nod. "A yeah and a half. On a ship. Damn. That's a long time. I like the ocean, love to surf, but this might be a little too much ocean for me."

[crushed_pearls]

"Damn, a fatalist? Y'all still survive in the wild?" Erin flashes a goblin grin. "Here's what I know about fate: it's like gravity, and about as smart. It's repetitive, unoriginal, and annoying, but it's also what connects, compares, contrasts. The grass is not the hare, the hare is not the falcon, the falcon is not the falconer, who is not the town, which is not the nation, which is not the world. But turn your head and squint, and you can see the world entire in the blade of grass. The blindfold helps me see by concentrations of fate, things tangled deep in it - people, objects of legend, sorceries. But like, this bar counter? It's a bad watercolor." Erin waggles her fingers like an inch and a half from it. "This is where I 'see' it end. 's why I walk so loud, otherwise I'd whack into everything."

[businessorlibation]

“A year and a half. Long enough to fall in love and get married, to make some truly stellar friends and a couple of deserving enemies. It’s an experience. I won’t say this place isn’t truly a fuckery sometimes, Ashley, but it is like much of life, dependent on what you’re willing to make of it.”

A pause, and a head-tilt.

“What sort of magic is it that you’re more accustomed to? I may be able to point you in a useful direction for who to talk to.”

b

[hadnoright]

Daisy doesn't really frequent Bobby's, she's not a big drinker nor a smoker and for her, her heightened senses don't exactly make the smell her best friend. But she pops her head in on occasion when looking for others.

Of course instead of finding someone she knows, today, there's a newbie. Daisy stops in the entrance, leaning against the wall and cocks her head a bit. "You can serve yourself, you know. That or fake paying, but we haven't got as many ghosts around these days. Can be a bit hit and miss."

Daisy's a small woman, 5'2" at most and skinny except for the lean muscle. At first glance she's pretty unremarkable, really, but then there's the claws. And the flash of too-large teeth when she talks, wolf-like yellow eyes looking out from her skull, all the scars...