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

Hitoshi Shinsou | MHA

[personachords]

Wakey wakey:

There is no way in hell Shinsou booked a room on a cruise ship, especially not when they last thing he remembers is clinging on to the back of giant as he rampaged through the city. Death, destruction, all out war is what he remembers. Hell he's still in his hero costume even, persona chords and capture cloth included. And yet here he is, rolling to his feet off the bed to read a note...and be all but coralled in one specific direction.

He's quiet as he follows signs that lead to the deck he's supposed to be at for whatever safety briefing or whatever he's supposed to be doing, but he's definitely on high alert. Mask up and one hand tucked under the scarf in case he needs to take action.

When he gets his lei however he's quick to remove it, frowning at the rather disturbing looking 'charms'. Yeah no, he's not keeping that thing any where near him. Instead he's just going to toss it overboard and once he's able to make his way to explore the rest of the ship. Maybe interrogate some people, there's no way the League is behind this right?

Unfamiliar Shadows:

Wandering around has Shinsou more jumpy than usual, even more so when he feels the familiar sensation of eyes on him from the shadows. He's dealt with it before, his mind thinks back to training with 1B. What was that guys name again? Right.

"Kuroiro?" He tests, using his own voice and not the modulation from his persona chords, and of course nothing seems to happen--except he feels the sudden sharp pain from somewhere and with reflexes honed in training he strikes without a thought.

Until he has a small crab...wrapped in his capture cloth....just sorta hanging there.

Poor thing.

"What the hell?"

Wild card!:

[ Can you think of some interaction? I'm open to anything. ]

Eggs and bakey

[guildmastermind]

Shiroe's also here for the muster drill, though he seems to be examining the lei quietly rather than moving to toss it away. As he glances up from the smooth white disc in the middle, his gaze registers Shinsou, and there's a small nod.

"First day, too?"

[personachords]

At first the teen squints, unsure of the person before him, eyes seeming to look him up and down before he sighs with a shrug.

"Apparently." Glancing down at the lei in the strangers hands the young hero seems cautious about the thing. He's heard what some villains can do with items...who knows what these things could be. "Did you actually book a vacation or did you just wake up here too?"

[guildmastermind]

"Just woke up here. Was forced to come to the muster drill, too." There's a one-shouldered shrug, before Shiroe puts the lei into the blocky brown bag that sits at his hip. His other hand's holding a tall wooden staff--taller than he is.

"I haven't had a vacation since I was a little kid, honestly. And never a cruise."

[personachords]

It takes Shinsou a moment to take in the guys appearance but really...it's not like his ninja-like hero costume is much better. He's seen people in weirder, though he is a bit wary of that staff for the moment.

"Can't say I was really expecting a vacation either." ruffling his own hair a moment in thought he let his eyes cast out to the ocean before returning back to the person in front of him. "Uh...I'm Shinsou. I'd give you my hero name but...I haven't settled on one yet."

[guildmastermind]

"Hero...name?" Blink-blink. Clearly this isn't a concept he's particularly familiar with. "I'm Shiroe. Just Shiroe."

Or at least, that's who he's been for months. The fact that he could go back to being 'Shirogane Kei' has occurred to him, but he's still wearing the body and carrying the skills of his MMORPG character, so it feels wrong to abandon that self completely right now.

[personachords]

Shinsou just arches an eyebrow at the reaction but shrugs.

"Yeah..." Look Shiroe is the first person he's actually talked to and surprisingly...people sans faces isn't that weird where he comes from. Neither are people with yellow skin and heads that look like moons. There isn't much that phases him considering his own world so he doesn't seem to realize that...he's not in Kansas any more Toto.

And of course. Sorry Shiroe, Shinsou here isn't the most talkative person. Instead he fidgets with the mask and scarf he has on.

[guildmastermind]

"What's a hero name?"

Look, he can ask leading questions to get information. He's good at that!

[personachords]

"A hero name...like...what I'll go by when I get my license?" That works! But it also gets a bewildered look from the teen for sure.

"Like Eraser Head, All Might, Endeavor...Hawks?" He's just listing heroes at this point...not that Shiroe will know them. "I still haven't figured out what I want mine to be yet but Aizawa-sensei said I don't have to decide yet...just soon."

Shadows and Crabbo....s

[ablativeholopleather]

This is the second guy he's seen today that's been trying to talk to the shadows. Is there something that he's missing here? Should he be trying to communicate with them? He hasn't seen any responses so maybe not?

He might have asked if the shadow had responded, if not for the sudden snapping of his Garb, and the captured crab hanging from it looking like if it had the appropriate mouthparts, it might be demanding to be unhanded at once.

"Oh, you found Ody..."

The voice, fairly monotone, is coming from someone that might have been referred to as a mutant or maybe even an alien back in Shinsou's home reality. He's wearing a black leather jumpsuit with its sleeves tied around his waist, a t-shirt with its sleeves cut off and sides ripped into a tanktop keeping him decent.

[personachords]

Looking at the crab, confused, Shinsou's head snaps up to look at the new person addressing him.

Wait. Ody?

Arching a brow the tired looking teen looked between the very yellow heteromorph and the...crab...a couple times before looking back at Wayne.

"Ody? What is this someone's pet or something?" Shifting his grip the young hero-in-training maneuvered to grab the knife portion of the crab to keep it from stabbing him as he made to unwind the capture scarf from around the poor crustacean. Of course he got pinched a couple times for his troubles, than god for his hero costume's gloves.

[ablativeholopleather]

"Mascot's probably more accurate." He has no idea, honestly. All he knows is that they somehow acquired an angry, bloodthirsty crab that for whatever reason someone (probably Sparkles, their resident soul-fracture-child-creature) handed a bladed implement.

Wayne moves to assist in the removal of crustacean from capture cloth, getting a light stabbing for his trouble, though that doesn't really seem to faze him as he flicks the thing's back-end to get it scuttling away again. He stands as he wipes the haemolymph off his arm, then tucks his hands into his pockets.

"You're new though, huh? Welcome to the Serena Eterna. You eaten yet?"

[personachords]

The help is definitely appreciated, wincing a bit when he notes the other getting nicked but in the end it's taken care of and Shinsou is left scratching his head as he watches the small crab scuttle away off to terrorize some other persons unprotected ankles.

"Yes to the first and...no to the second." He sighs, stomach seeming to decide this was the perfect time to make it's hunger known. Of course, he had been fine until now.

"Guess it's been a while...not to mention before I got here."

[ablativeholopleather]

At least Wayne's ankles are safe in his heavy, serviceable boots. He nods off down one of the corridors, pushing his gloved hands into his pockets as he goes.

"Buffet's this way." He waits to be followed, before adding, "Name's Wayne, by the way. You ever need help, I'm over in 144." Which, upon his offering that information, would be added into the boy's phone automatically. It's just a function of how they communicate here.

[personachords]

"Thanks," Shinsou doesn't waste any time in following the other, not seeming to bat an eye at the others appearance and instead just sets about rewrapping his scarf around his neck.

"Ah, I'm Shinsou." He nodded a bit before continuing. "So you've been here a while? Can you tell me what's going on?"

[ablativeholopleather]

"Time's a little funny here, but by my reckoning I think it's been about...three? Months? So not really as long as some people but long enough to at least know how to get to the arcade and the coffee place.

"As for what's going on, the general gist of it is that our dear Captain," and he puts a little bit of stink on the title, "decided he would peel copies of us off our respective realities so that he could populate what amounts to a pleasure cruise. Either he was lonely, or didn't know what else to do with himself, and he toys with this reality like a child with a collection of dolls. The resulting conflicts of emotions end up fueling the ship as a whole. It keeps the lights on."

Not the most charitable assessment of the situation, he knows, but after the last few weeks, he thinks he's earned some time to be bitter.

"Treat it like a pleasure cruise, you'll be better off. It's not all bad."

He thumbs the elevator button when they reach it, his glove absorbing the shock in the process, and steps inside to hit the button that would take them down to Windjammer's buffet table.

[personachords]

Well, Shiroe had mentioned something about other universes...and now he knows more. God he can practically hear Midoriya muttering about quirks and powers and it's something he actually kind of misses.

"Okay so...copies of ourselves? So I'm not...I'm not the original me?" Great...just one more thing to add to his mounting panic attack later tonight.

Wonderful.

He just follows into the elevator and stares up at the elevator's ceiling for a long moment.

Wakey wakey

[bubblegumheart]

"Excuse me- could I have that if you don't want it?"

Cue Chrissy on the way past in the opposite direction. As it happens, she'd glanced up in time to watch the boy remove the lei. He doesn't seem to be particularly fond of the item, so she figures it can't hurt to ask.

She also happens to be wearing one in place of a scrunchie.

CHRISSY!

[personachords]

Shinsou stops mid toss and looks at the lei before looking at the blonde and just.

Frowns.

"Are you sure?" He doesn't trust the item but others seem to be fine with it, and now this girl seems to actually want it? "Is there something I should know about them? I just figured it could be dangerous...."

<3

[bubblegumheart]

"Yes, please."

For a moment, it seems like that's all she's going to say about it, but then- "I just think they're pretty." Which is an entirely ridiculous reason, but considering her current outfit is an obnoxious Tommy Bahama floral skirt and a Hellfire Club t-shirt, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

"This place can be pretty dangerous. I'm pretty sure the leis are just a gift from Friday to cheer people up."

[personachords]

There's a moment where Shinsou narrows his eyes, looking back down at the lei in his hands before shrugging. Not like it was something he was gonna wear.

Holding it out to the girl he hands it over.

"Just be careful...if this place can be dangerous then you might not want to keep it around. Who knows what it could really be."

[bubblegumheart]

Chrissy shrugs, too, and pockets the lei for now. Her happiness wasn't dependent on whether or not he decides to hand over that ridiculous accessory. She'd only figured that he'd be more likely to give it away if he wasn't already inclined to keep it.

"It's only occasionally dangerous." It's not much of a revelation. In fact, she's pretty sure that most worlds are only occasionally dangerous. This one just happens to be particularly weird on top of being dangerous.

[personachords]

Weird and dangerous are two ways that he would luckily describe his own world so...it works.

"Right...uh...I'm Shinsou, Hitoshi Shinsou. Nice to meet you?" Awkward teen go-.

[bubblegumheart]

"Oh, right. Sorry!" The Chrissy that woke up on this ship back in October would never have just approached someone to ask a favor without first introducing herself. As it is, she feels slightly mortified. But it's too late to take it back now, so the only thing to do is power through.

"It's nice to meet you, Shinsou. I'm Chrissy Cunningham." A beat, and then- "Welcome to the cruise from hell. You'll either love it here, or you'll hate it."

[personachords]

"Nice to meet you too," He offers a small bow, more as a formality than anything before chuckling quietly.

"Yeah? Well from what I've seen so far I might be riding the line a bit." He shrugged a bit, relaxing more as he talked to the girl. "This place is definitely weird compared to home."