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

[makeapromise]

Alex startles, then flushes with embarrassment. He got so caught up in getting used to a decent instrument that he didn't even hear her coming. This, uh, weird woman with a blindfold and... are those pointy ears??

"Oh, um... thanks. Thank you, ma'am. Sorry, were you... are you using this?"

Damn OCs and their one liners

[crushed_pearls]

"Nah. Not to completely destroy my dignity immediately but my instrument is the hurdy-gurdy back there."

[makeapromise]

It says a million things about him that he immediately lights up. Which is impressive, given how excited he was to finally get his hands on a violin that isn't from a shitty high school storage closet.

"You play a hurdy-gurdy?"

[crushed_pearls]

"In public, even." Erin's grin is huge. "If you keep that iron a goodly distance away from me I can bust it out if y'like? I don't need any accidents that I might have to explain to my loved ones."

[makeapromise]

The iron? The... oh! "Oh, you mean my pipe?"

He doesn't feel great about being too far away from it where it isn't safe from being stolen or something, he's not going to lie, but that anxiety is deeply overridden by the prospect of hurdy-gurdy.

"I can do that. Hold on." He picks it up from where he laid it by his chair and grabs his backpack too, hauling them both against the nearest wall, the pipe underneath the backpack so that he might hear something in case it gets taken. He doesn't think this pointy-ear woman will do anything, but the shadows have been really weird lately, so...

"There. It's over by the wall. Um--... how did you know I had that? And can I ask why? Does the..." oh he sounds dumb for even asking but, "... does the hurdy-gurdy have something magnetic?"

[crushed_pearls]

Erin shakes her head and talks while she goes to get her instrument and set it up, which will be a moment; it uses an amp. "Iron doesn't get on with my brand of magic. If it's any comfort to you I'm powerless against that pipe; it'll cut through anything I can throw at it, shatter my sword, an' kill me nice and dead. The blindfold that lets me see perceives it as like...negative space. Your turn, why the iron?"

[makeapromise]

Alex blinks. Shakes his head.

"Um." A nervous laugh. "I'm sorry ma'am, I'm--I'm going to be honest, I just got here and that was... kind of a lot for me, can--can you repeat that?"

[crushed_pearls]

"...You carry a weapon around, youngblood. Artists don't usually do that. So I'm very, very gently, asking you why that might be." There we go, instrument hooked up. Erin goes to get settled in her chair. "And I'm telling you that it gives you a decent edge on the belief that if you're lugging around, again, a weapon, that might be on your mind."

[makeapromise]

So he was talking about everything else she said about magic and swords, but it's too late to correct her so he's just gonna go with it. Magic and swords. At this point, why not? It means she'll believe him if he starts talking about weird stuff. Right?

(Also did she just call him "youngblood?" He's not sure he knows exactly what that means besides "newbie" but it sounds cool. He wants to be called a youngblood.)

"It's just for self-defense, ma'am, please don't worry. I, I needed it." A pause. "There were these sort of, puppet things? Puppet people? In the place before I got here. At first it was okay, but then they started to get really aggressive, so I took it out of the wall and started... using it." Wow he's never been gladder that he actually takes the time to scrape the blood off. "My friend's carrying a baseball bat. ... um, have you seen a really mean-looking girl in a pink dress?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Puppet things. That's unlocking some memories I'ma have to drink away again." Erin shudders. "...But no, I've not seen anyone like that lately. Shit, I haven't seen a baseball bat lately. We don't exactly have the room to play ball here."

[makeapromise]

Alex frowns, expression drawing with concern. He'd expected as much, but it doesn't make him any less worried. "That's okay. Please let me know if you do."

He trots over to where she's sat with the hurdy-gurdy, sort of wringing his hands. "So have you been playing long?"

[crushed_pearls]

Yes, the instrument. Erin waggles a hand. "On and off for a couple decades now? When this showed up in the mail here I was rusty as hell, but practice, practice practice, y'know? I picked it up as a joke but it's honestly actually pretty sick. Let me hit you with a piece I like, just uh, forgive the dropped notes, they're gonna happen."

Erin takes a deep breath, and starts to play.

[makeapromise]

He's already impressed just to be able to behold a hurdy-gurdy and a hurdy-gurdy player, in real life and in playable condition, paying rapt attention to the notes and trying to land the style (which he can't quite do, so this is so interesting) and just, the entire way the instrument is working. The keys, the wheel, the strings, the friction, the way this is effectively a bow that you don't have to change bowings on...

And then she starts layering with that loop pedal, and he's astonished, and then she starts putting in fucking--electric guitar sounds??????? Okay, so that's what the electrification is for.

There are sparkles in his eyes. There are so many sparkles and stars in his eyes that he might be generating an entire new universe and he didn't even need to breed any frogs to do it.

"How did you do that?"

[crushed_pearls]

"You ever get into something as a joke and then find out you love it?" A technical explanation follows which the Narration is not qualified to conduct, but Erin's both eager and patient; this is something she loves doing, and rarely gets to do with or for others. No question is too basic or stupid, not that she's expecting to receive either.

The look of wonder on this youngblood's face is absolutely worth the time.

[makeapromise]

He rarely gets to interact with instruments outside of what you'd find in a high school band room, plus maybe some stuff like recorders or tin whistles here or there. A hurdy-gurdy is completely new to him and he is so very, very excited.

He asks a lot of questions, some of them perhaps a bit awkward but asked politely and out of enthusiasm and respect only; it very quickly becomes clear that he's operating on a very high and thoughtful level. Probably higher than even the average working professional. And he's a total dweeb.

[crushed_pearls]

"Y'know," Erin muses. "There's a bit of a dearth of sheet music on board, but the karaoke machine in Chatterbox? It'll only give instrumentals. 'Cause, y'know, karaoke. I've been trying to learn songs by ear that way, every now and again. Think you can?"

[makeapromise]

He scratches behind his ear. "Karaoke... I can follow along or accompany that stuff by ear, sure, but... I usually only play classical, not pop. Or rock." Well "classical" is its own movement individual from Romanticism and Impressionism and such but--

[crushed_pearls]

"Good news, the machine is haunted and it has everything. And I mean everything. Like, Gregorian throat chanting levels of everything."

[makeapromise]

Oh, no. Nobody should've given him this power.

"Where is it?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Place is called Chatterbox, 's off the Promenade." A beat. "Hey uh, youngblood? I dunno what you usually do for fun and all and I promise this warning is all practicality and no judgement, don't try to take things from the bars yourself. The bars are also haunted and they'll kick your ass."

[makeapromise]

"Oh! No, I don't drink. But, um, thank you, good to know."

He's the squarest of squares except for the pipe violence. Nobody needs to worry even a little bit about him trying to filch anything. He's still sort of worried that he's going to get billed for this trip somehow. Speaking of--

"Do I have to pay to use the machine?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Good news! Money has no value here. Welcome to communism as presented by The Horrors." Erin flashes half a smile; those teeth are sharp. "When you're using the stores you gotta go through like, the motion of paying for things? But it's just the motion, a...an echo, maybe? No money's needed anywhere, just following the ritual of Purchasing Your Items."

[makeapromise]

Blink.

"... Are you sure?" he asks, then mentally smacks himself because of course she's sure, she lives here. But it's his polite go-to in place of you've got to be fucking with me. "Sorry, I mean it's just that that sounds... really, really unusual to me? All this stuff has to come from somewhere, right? I get that this is probably some weird--weird, uh, side dimension thing, but there's gotta be something."

[crushed_pearls]

"...So bad news. The ship is feeding on us." Erin gives a guilty shrug. "Specifically our passions. Get mad, get sad, get happy, it'll take something from that to keep running."

[makeapromise]

Ah. There it is.

"... Alright," he says slowly. "So... what exactly does that mean for us?"