sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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.]

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He's got his mouth full again, so he just gives Shiroe a thumbs up. This is their reality, temporarily their home, so he was inclined to try and make the most of it.

He moves to retrieve something to drink, picking up a bottled tea from the current selection of things to go with their meals.

"Spend a lot of time up at the pool-" usually dissociating at the bottom of it, "or in the theater since that's where the music equipment is. Arcade's pretty dope too. Library's alright if you don't mind that there's no nonfiction to draw reference from."

"What kind of games are in the arcade?" That might help with pinning down some sort of timeline on the situation--maybe. It's a long shot that it'd actually help, but Shiroe's grabbing at straws here with utter desperation.

"A lot actually. Classic old world arcade cabinet stuff, a foos-ball, this dance thing I can't get the hang of. Pinball if you can grab it between the times that it's being used. I tend to stick to the sidescrollers and platformers in the active cabinets."

"No MMORPGs, then. Probably for the best. Actually, I doubt this boat has internet. Not important." He waves a hand as if sweeping the topic off to a side. "What are the people like, for the most part? Is there any organization in the community?"

"I can show you the place later, if you wanna see it," he offers.

The next questions get a bit of a grimace. "Kind of cliquish, if I'm being honest. Not everyone gets along and there are a lot of misunderstandings. Some people are gonna be pretty wary of basically everything and I can't really blame them for that. It's been a weird last few..." Pause. How long were they in those tubes? "It's been weird. I'm trying to kind of keep to myself lately, but I know how rough it is to be new here too. I have a little friend group that's mostly chill people, and all of them have their own outside groups that they spend more time with. Some of them are even kind of sociable if you catch them in the right mood," he jokes.

"That sounds...dangerous, honestly. If people are isolating in small cliques and there's not open communication and cooperation. I get the instinct to stay with your friends, but..."

It's almost like the early days in Akiba after the Apocalypse--though, it sounds like player killers aren't as much of an issue here.

He sighs softly, the hand holding his fork rubbing over his face while the other one tucks under his arm. "I know. But there's a severe personality clash and some people are really stubborn and don't want to find compromises. They're angry and hurt and carrying baggage from the places they came from. And I get it man, really I do, I came here immediately after doing what I could to prevent something cataclysmic happening to my people and sometimes it feels like going right back into fight mode. But, I'm tired. A lot of us are. Don't judge us too harshly, huh?"

“I’m not going to judge you at all. But I am going to ask this: what can I do to help the situation? You know it’s a precarious one. What’s needed to make things balance better?”

Bad habit: Shiroe’s the kind of person who hears someone vent and immediately wants to work on practical solutions.

While Wayne hadn't expressly meant to vent, the immediate attempt to find an appropriate solution is more appreciated than Shiroe would probably ever realize. He likes when something can be worked out logically and with real, physical action.

"For the most part we're figuring that out. There was a rough patch where the nature of this place changed and we're not sure what all the changes are yet so we're being careful. I think the best that you can do right now is keep an ear out, and try to stay safe. If you ever need help, there are a lot of really great people here that wouldn't hesitate to try."

"I don't expect staying safe to be a problem, unless there's significantly more danger than I've already perceived. I have magic, if things start getting dangerous."

Okay, it's not really the best magic for single combat, but still! He has magic!

Wayne perks up a bit at that."A good few people have magic here, you'll be in good company." Himself included, though he still has a hard time actually framing his Gestures as such.

"Good. I'd love to know more of what everyone's capable of. I'm best running support. Buffs, debuffs, battlefield control. I work best with a frontliner--tank or striker, but can support another caster if they've got a more offensive build."

Beat.

"...that might have come out too technical."

Oh, this guy is really in his wheelhouse, huh?

"Nah man, you're speaking to a career support," he replies easily. "I work in Gestures. Statuses, debuffs, defense and healing, though I'm not as good at that as others on my crew at that last one. Never managed to figure out Foam Armor properly." He lifts a hand at that, screwing his face up briefly and manifesting an odd little clay device between his fingers, though it doesn't do much more than produce a single tendril that isn't really capable of making anything worthwhile. "I stockpile food for that though, and this place has a lot for me to pocket. I currently have like uhh...a full stack of hotdogs ready for deployment. They're great for keeping your Flesh up," he explains.

"Sadly, I don't heal, myself, but I can buff another healer. It sounds like different systems, but I'd almost like to try working with you to see if they're compatible enough that we could work together. Mine doesn't require food to work, but I'm limited by skill cooldowns."

He is lighting up like someone told him he arrived just before Christmas. Someone else who knows the pain of the Enchanter life???

"My go-to is a debuff-plus-armor-reinforcement that keeps my tanks in the fight longer. If I can enable them, then I'm doing my job." He's satisfied with that, too. It feels good being useful to the rest of his crew, and if Shiroe is already thinking about how the two of them might collaborate, who is he to turn him down? "I could probably hit up my partner to help with all this, he's got the makings of a full-offensive tank, and there are a few people that would probably be happy to try practicing this stuff. It's a safe place to do so, and all."

"I love a good tank. I've got a Guardian, a Swashbuckler and an Assassin for other senior members of my guild. The Swashbuckler's a dual-wielding build, and the Guardian's sword-and-board. They're used to working with me, too."

Battlefield strategy is one of his ~~kinks~~ favorite topics of discussion.

"I also tend to fall into the role of field monitor for battles. Someone's got to have a clear picture not only of what's going on right now, but what the situation will look like in the near future. Monitoring cooldowns, monster abilities, things like that."

Wayne is becoming slightly more animated as he talks, his food by the wayside for now. He's so pleased to be talking to someone that understands his position on an experiential level.

"Between our proper healer being able to tank whatever was thrown at them, having one of the Dread Knights on our side for full frontal assault and one of my best friends working the AoE angle, we were actually really balanced overall. We're lucky that cool down isn't necessarily an issue, but running out of Will can decide a battle instantly. You can't Snap a Cave Cineast to death just like that, not with the sweeping ability it has. If I've been able to stack statuses on it then maybe but we'd take heavy damage in the process. But I work in bleeding damage overall and as long as you keep up that pressure sometimes attrition actually pays off."

"Your Will sound similar to my Mana, in terms of effect. I wonder if my Mana Siphon ability would help with Will recovery for you, in a fight. Also, damn, if there's one thing my party lacks at this point, it's AOE coverage. I have friends who can tag along if that's what's stopping me in a specific scenario, but it's not on hand in the guild, and that sucks. I'd kill for a Sorceror or Summoner to rain terror down. Erm, not that party comp matters here, given I don't have any of the rest of mine around."

Though both Nyanto and Naotsugu would be all in on this discussion if they could be here, too. Hell, anyone from the Debauchery Tea Party would delight in this sort of collab.

He's heard that term before, as well as other words for the same basic principle. "Maybe. I was discussing at one point whether Glamour conversion might work that way too but ultimately that didn't pan out the way we'd hoped. It might be easier if we could get our hands on a Converter Worm, but the one I had went to Dedusmuln- my healer. They were able to make much better use of it, the amount of Flesh they'd built up made the trickling damage negligible. We should definitely test it at some point. Maybe if we go on another excursion that goes sideways."

He could certainly see Dedusmuln and Pongorma getting in on this talk as well. Probably while Somsnosa sat back and judged them all for being complete nerds.

"Better to get coordination down before anything goes sideways, honestly. But, uh...what are excursions like, here?"

"Good plan. I've already been stomped too many times to want to go into something new without a strategy." He pulls a mild face at the question, though. "All over the map, as far as I can tell. When I got here, we were attending something like a carnival. Not really dangerous, but something was following people all through it and picking on us. We had to stay overnight in some cases. Reality broke into fractures not too long ago so that put a damper on whatever else might have been going on. I've heard some other wild stuff though. It seems like it's all geared toward putting us on edge to be honest."

Shiroe nods slightly, soaking up every bit of information like a sponge.

"Are people involved in organized patrols? Is there effective communication on excursions and what people encounter there?"

He pulls his phone from a pocket of his jumpsuit to show. "Every one of us gets one of these. It's strictly one-to-one but it's great for coordinating with texts and passing info quickly." He says, to a guy that is for all intents and purposes still just a normal modern human dude. "Nothing about this place is organized though. We're trying to get by as best we can and take care of our own."

"I suppose I need to figure out how to be part of someone's 'our own', in order to have any support here."

That's more of a daunting proposition than he wants to admit. Shut-in gamers aren't always good at making friends.

He offers what he hopes is an encouraging little thumbs up. "It'll happen, don't worry. Even when you mess up people are still gonna be on your side."

(no subject)

guildmastermind - 2023-05-26 03:55 (UTC) - Expand

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