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

[crushed_pearls]

Through shaky breaths entirely too full of conflicting emotions: "O-okay. Try not to freak out when you see me, I've got. Huge bird wings now. I-if you want me to walk with you I can go get dressed real quick, won't take but a minute, just..."

She can't finish that thought.

[treadwater]

"Go, get dressed. I will definitely take you walking me, absolutely." Because it's better not to go alone.

[crushed_pearls]

"Okay. I'll uh. I'll be right back."

This is the fastest Erin has ever put on her good clothes. She needs the comfort right now, to help stay steady for Undine and not go into a blubbering wreck when odds are good that the girl is scared and unhappy right now. She's back in her fancy new digs, crab pin over her heart & sword across the small of her back, inside three minutes.

Her socks don't match but shhh.

[treadwater]

Undine opens the door and takes in the sight of Erin, gaze lingering on wings for a moment before she takes a deep breath. “Can…can I have a hug?”

[crushed_pearls]

"I warn you, my hugs have upgraded beyond human capabilities," Erin whispers, before pulling Undine into a tight one; she wraps her wings around the two of them and holds the girl tight. "...I've missed you, but I'm still sorry you're back."

[treadwater]

Undine holds tight herself, with typical teenage strength. Look, the choice to transform and squeeze harder's there, but that's a later idea.

"I mean, I hate that I'm here, but also I'm glad to see you again and I want you to understand that."

[crushed_pearls]

"We've got so much to catch up on," Erin murmurs. "Good news, bad news, weird news. But we gotta get you to the muster drill, yeah? Friday uh. She wasn't kidding about the leis. You're gonna want one."

[treadwater]

“Yeah? Yeah. Okay, let’s go.”

She knows the way, there’s no fighting the ‘right direction’ power. No, directly there she heads.

“Um. How…how long?”

[crushed_pearls]

"'s July," Erin murmurs by way of explanation, falling into step beside Undine. She offers a hand out; no pressure, just if the lass wants it. "You actually ended up missing a gay pride party, Sharky put it on. It went really well. Phil was there as the second biggest surprise of the night, number one slot goes to the hivemind of tiny ants that's transgender. He's Victor, adorable little guy. Goes nuts for sugar."

[treadwater]

“Hi…hive mind of ants. Who are trans. Okay! Ship stays weird, that’s not news!” There’s that ‘if I don’t go with it I will lose it’ tone to her voice here. “July, though. Wow, I must have missed…a LOT.”

[crushed_pearls]

"Yeah, you did. Some of it was good, some of it sucked shit. And I'm...gonna have to catch you up on some of it that sucked, but it can wait." Erin blows a long breath out. "...Things are a bit tense right now. Good news is, we ended up freeing a lot of the ghosts. They're not powering the ship any more. Bad news is...they're...not powering the ship any more. Big man upstairs has vowed a return to excursions that suck until or unless another power source can be found. Means damage to the ship is getting fixed slower, people come back from the dead more slowly and with things...taken from them, and, well, the food's not restocking instantly. We've gotta take inventory and shit."

[treadwater]

“Aaaand that’s not the part that sucked that you need to catch me up on? Okay. Okay. Who else is still here? What are we doing about inventory? How can I help?”

The time away and what’s been going on in Undine’s world has not helped with the whole being responsible for everything all the time thing.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin shakes her head with a weary laugh. "Right off the bat when you don't even have the right use of your legs back. The doctors might not mind a hand with infirmary inventory if you need something to do, we're still short on those. But Darcy, Max, and Dedue - oh my god you haven't met Dedue!" Erin makes a noise audible only to dogs. "Dimitri's boy from home, he's very polite and funny." Beat. "And also a lass sometimes! Kills it in a dress and heels, lemme tell ya."

[treadwater]

“Oh, excellent. But what does Max have to do with anything?”

She’s thinking of the metallic one. Never a friend of hers.

[crushed_pearls]

Mental gears grind to a halt.

A few feet down the hall they start up again. "New Max. Tall dude, very friendly, turns into a dog sometimes. Kinda ended up adopting him as my little brother, an' we're both uh, dating the same girl." Pause. "...Twice." Pause again. "...I'm beginning to realize that explaining that statement is going to take just about as long as the entire rest of the status update. Point is, human dude, not Omnic dude."

[treadwater]

“He’s human, he’s just sometimes a dog?” Good old ship weirdness, huh? “Sounds like you’ve been doing kind of okay?”

[crushed_pearls]

"More or less, yeah. Been, well..." Erin laughs again, and shakes her head. "Trying to help, mainly. Working on some personal projects, but, y'know, the shit's been going down. What about you though? Like..." Erin tries to find the thought, and sucks a breath in between her teeth. "...No real delicate way to ask this, you live any life at home while you were gone?"

[treadwater]

“Yes. And I didn’t remember the boat while I was back there, and I’m not sure how much I want to talk about it because I can’t do anything about it while I’m here.”

Because Goops sure is a thing, huh?

[crushed_pearls]

"Well, no pressure or anything, but, y'know. I've always got a listening ear if you ever want to." Unspoken, but very much present, is the sharp extent to which Erin remembers Undine's extreme choice just before she vanished, and how worried everyone was for -

- Wait.

"...Lass. Are your lights back on at this time?"

[treadwater]

“…oh. I don’t actually know yet. Because you’re right, they might not…”

Hesitation. Considering swearing.

“After the drill, or should I try, like, in the elevator on the way?”

[crushed_pearls]

"I don't have to know either way," Erin offers, ever so gently. "Nobody does. It's not our business."

[treadwater]

“I know it’s not. But…I want you to know, because otherwise you’ll be thinking of me as someone who potentially needs defending when crises arise. I want to be sure of things and I want you to be sure too.”

[crushed_pearls]

"Elevator then, it's as private as we'll get with that picture joint being a thing."

Which, speak of the devil. Erin pushes the call button, and tips Undine a sideways smile. "But, lass? I'm afraid you've got a ticket for that ride either way. Being in the business of protecting people...it's been a good change for me. If you're dead set on it though you'll need to meet my roommate Helena, she's organizing for emergency preparedness. Blind lass, short, uses a gorgeous cane, very cute taste in clothes. Can't miss her."

[treadwater]

It is probably weird to be right in the middle of a transformation sequence in a tight elevator space. And it is definitely wet.

And Undine’s costume seems to have changed a little, at the shoulders and on the boots. Small adjustments; character growth.

[crushed_pearls]

"Hrm, splash zone - oh my god it changed." Erin's ears twitch, caught between curiosity and respecting Undine's privacy. "You weren't kidding about getting time at home, huh?"