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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's not what most people have been saying. I've heard that the ship is fractured into cliques, and while people talk to one another, there's a bit of a schism between those who feel our captor deserves punishment and those who place higher value on their existence here."

His eyebrows both raise as he considers César. Overly optimistic, or something else?

"That's true." César nods after a moment of thought. "But either side has people who will sit and talk to someone new. And most will help someone in a dire emergency. Diversity of opinion is important. I can't blame those who feel that way for various reasons, and it's not going to stop me from helping them if they need me."

He leans back and shrugs. "Maybe I'll change my opinion if we descend into a large amount of violence, but I'm used to a healthy debate, and their opinions have helped me cross-examine mine."

César is perhaps a bit laid back about it.

"Yeah? Where's your opinion fall, on that spectrum?" Shiroe glances up between bites of something or other. Because perspective is something he wants, too. A clear picture of who's where, and what they all believe in.

Normally, he'd be playing his hand close to his chest, trying not to show where he falls, but he legitimately doesn't know enough to have a stance. So he's not playing ignorant at all here, nor wearing his usual role.

"Honestly, I'm not that good at politics. But it's been several months, and no one's immediately attempted to attack the Captain. That's at least a good thing. And I know others are keeping an eye on it, and I trust them to do a good job."

César shrugs a bit. "I'm probably too laid back about it, but my skills are in science and engineering, not diplomacy. I'll let the people who are skilled at that work at the problem rather than potentially making it worse."

"Engineering, you say?" Shiroe, despite looking like he stepped out of a fantasy land, seems to focus more keenly on César at that, leaning in slightly. "Tell me more."

César laughs. "I'm more a scientist. I often dabble in things that aren't commercially viable. Like near light-speed travel. Although my primary work is in nanorobotics."

He's fine with the topic change, guilty of suddenly veering himself.

"Not commercially viable is putting it lightly!" Shiroe laughs aloud. "At least I had a practical specialization--material engineering, with a focus on polymer processing. I was only a graduate student, though. You sound like you have more experience in the field than I do."

César laughs with him. "I've been in the field for years. Cutting edge research. Material engineering is important work. I couldn't do any of my work without you all. Need quality products to build with. ... Oh! I built my phone."

A beat, and then he lets out a louder laugh. "... that's not commercially viable, either, though. I just wanted something big enough to hold all my data. Bit of a hoarder."

"What scientist isn't, at least a little? Of trivia, if nothing else. Actually, you might be the best person to ask: how do physics operate here, compared to a standard world with standard rules?"

Of course, the definition of standard is a very subjective thing, but if someone understands the word 'polymer', they probably have at least some basis in a real reality. Right? Right.

"They're incredibly simplified. The Captain doesn't care about the details. You'll find we have no bacteria nor other contaminants, but we still don't suffer issues with gut health." César just goes straight to the punch.

"When you say 'doesn't care about the details', is it sloppy, or just simple? Are things self-consistent, or are we talking Bethesda-level programming where you're likely to noclip through a wall if you step wrong?"

Look, he's a gamer, he gets to make these references.

César just busts up laughing and cannot answer beyond a simple "No!"

He's going to need a moment here.

Shiroe looks completely innocent, digging into his food as he offers César that moment here.

César has to wipe tears from his eyes after he manages to calm himself. "... I'm honestly glad we don't have rag doll physics after we die, either." He makes a face at how nonchalant that sounded. "... When you come back from death, it's more like a terrible injury. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. I've spent six months in the world of an MMORPG--people rez in the cathedral when they die. Some people have grown remarkably cavalier about such things."

Well, that might explain the outfit; he's twice removed from the grad student life, now.

"You got mass-Isekai'd? That's harsh. ... Rezzing takes a bit longer, here. You wake up in bed the next morning." Except that part has changed, and César isn't aware of it yet. "I've only died once, and it was pretty terrible. But I didn't wake up alone."

"Yes, exactly. Mass-isekai'd, over ten thousand on the Japan server alone. It's been...a whole thing. I'm still sort of confused why I'm wearing my avatar's body here, but at the same time, I feel sort of glad to have the magic, given half of what I've heard here."

Wow, that's a very specific sub-genre of isekai, even. César can think of at least two animes about that.

"The magic will definitely come in handy. I've managed to somehow pick up a bit myself, but more parlor tricks. Over ten thousand, you say?" That's a thousand more than over nine thousand; César's eyebrows are raised. "That's... incredible and alarming in equal measure."

"Surely more outside our server, but I'm guessing the most were there. The new expansion was a midnight release, after all."

Shiroe's aware of the same anime (though he found Sword Art Online kind of obnoxious). Unfortunately, it's different when it happens to you.

A long silence from César and then he buries his face in his hands. "... My brain's first thought was 'wow, I bet that affected the critics' scores'...."

"It might have--none of us know what the reaction in the real world was."

He has, uh, rather purposefully avoided considering his parents' reaction to any of this.

César raises his face from his hands after a moment, looking more grim. "Something similar happened in my world, too. Although that was done on purpose. And it only was done to a small group of teenagers who willingly tried it."

He only got to read about it afterwards, but it was fascinating.

"Which is a very different situation in practice." Shiroe shakes his head. "But even that must have been very frightening for people on both sides of the game."

César hmms. "... unfortunately, the report was a little dry, but they were either scared or thought it was awesome since that was what they were trying to do. But either way, my brother managed to save them, so they're back to normal now. I hope the same for everyone trapped in your world."

"I'm not sure I do. Not for everyone. Given the choice, while I'd like to get a message back to my parents, I wouldn't return to Earth. There's a kid in my guild, Touya, who was paralyzed in an accident years ago. In the game's world, he's able to run again. I'm not sure he'd be excited by the idea of going back, either."

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The GenRex comics are sometimes a trip

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