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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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A beat. "And while we're on the subject, what would you prefer to be called? Formally or otherwise?"
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He's interested in seeing what questions she asks, if any. Or if she just files it away--that's data, too.
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Her phrasing is careful, giving room for him to elaborate now or put it off for another time.
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dancetalk about matters with. The delicacy on display is a quality of merit, in his books, and he agrees with the idea that 'having information is always a benefit'.Is this what having a crush feels like?"The Round Table Conference is a representative body for the group of adventurers from Earth who became trapped in the world of Theldesia and who settled in the city of Akiba. We're trying to work with the people of the land, to make sure we're able to survive without disrupting the society the landers have more than is necessary. Log Horizon, my guild, is made up of such adventurers, primarily. Both experienced ones and those who are younger and in need of experience and training."
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"Adventurers from Earth?" is what she finally says. "That's fascinating. Everything I've heard of Earth suggests that it doesn't offer much opportunity for that way of life."
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His expression shifts a little distant. "Those of us who ended up in Theldesia first encountered it in a game. A fantasy game that let us take on the personas of adventurers. I was Shiroe the Enchanter-Scribe, instead of just a lonely engineering grad student without many friends in real life. It was an escape--until it was our reality. Tens of thousands of us were trapped, all at the same time. An event that came to be known as the Apocalypse."
Two fucking nickels.
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"Tens of thousands? All from the same world, all trapped in another one?"
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It's only a question if he wants it to be, but she's looking at him with decided approval.
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Yes, he’s probably going to approach life on the Serena Eterna similarly, once he has a sense of who is ‘his team’ and who is ‘his enemy’.
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A touch dryly: "Though I'm told there are often slightly fewer petty obstructions when your objective is fighting a dragon rather than, oh, regulating water use."
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Do you hear the exasperation in his voice, Cass?
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