sail_ooc | 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

"Christ, here we go again," Erin mutters without quite being aware she spoke out loud. The smell of the food makes her realize she's hungry, and she orders her own before turning back to give a real answer.

"For certain values of 'see', the blindfold lets me see. It's got ups and downs compared to a cane, but I do a lot of fighting so I favor it. It..." She visibly mulls it over. "Tell me, what do your people know about fate?"

"I have a packmate who is blind and she does not navigate as well as you do." Her first remark makes him cringe just a little for asking about it, but he's curious. That's just how his brain works. He wants to know. "She would be shit in a fight." Ashley says it with an affectionate laugh.

"Depends on what you mean by fate. I believe I was born for a very specific purpose. Something I can't change. You can't change your fate, it just is."

"Damn, a fatalist? Y'all still survive in the wild?" Erin flashes a goblin grin. "Here's what I know about fate: it's like gravity, and about as smart. It's repetitive, unoriginal, and annoying, but it's also what connects, compares, contrasts. The grass is not the hare, the hare is not the falcon, the falcon is not the falconer, who is not the town, which is not the nation, which is not the world. But turn your head and squint, and you can see the world entire in the blade of grass. The blindfold helps me see by concentrations of fate, things tangled deep in it - people, objects of legend, sorceries. But like, this bar counter? It's a bad watercolor." Erin waggles her fingers like an inch and a half from it. "This is where I 'see' it end. 's why I walk so loud, otherwise I'd whack into everything."

He lifts his beer and grins. "Yes, ma'am, surviving and thriving." With a soft laugh he adds. "I mean, is there another choice?"

As she explained he ate a few more bites. He's never heard fate explained this way. While it's a new way to think about fate it sounds a lot like his newest obsession in science, quantum entanglement. Everything is everything, separate and together, it's all connected. Or that is what he heard from her explanation. "And the blindfold helps?"

"Mmhm. Does duty for the eyes I'm missing. Wasn't born blind, and I couldn't take a hit that would leave me unable to fight. My people live under siege, peace will never be on the table." Idly, Erin smooths down some feathers on her wings. "Like, you? Clear as day. The Declaration of Independence? Clear as day. Writing on scratch paper though, can't do that shit, so I do braille. I'll ask up front that if you've got a reason to fight me that you don't fuck with the blindfold."

"You remind me so much of Freya. Right down to the girlfriend, even. She lost her eyes in a fight a couple of years ago. Magic we weren't prepared for." It was a bit of a comfort meeting someone who reminded him of home. Ashley was adrift without his pack, or he would be the longer he was here. They grounded him, balanced his gifts. They were his family.

"Can't imagine we would ever have a reason to fight. At least I hope we won't. But, I'll remember that."

"...Freya huh. I know that name, but from a different context. Lemme show you somethin', maybe you'll like it." Erin scoots her stool far back, making sure her food isn't arriving yet, and draws the sword from the small of her back before setting it on the bar.

It's a spatha, the Roman cavalry weapon eventually adopted by the Norse as their everything weapon, and later sucked into Dungeons and Dragons as the 'bastard sword'. The blade is made entirely of stained glass in a kaleidoscope of colors, and running down the center of the blade is a mural depicting the great deeds of the Aesir and Vanir.

"...Belonged to a crush of mine back home, showed up in the mail here one day," Erin murmurs by way of explanation. "Sword's name is Bifrost, and her owner, Colors, is faithful to the gods of her ancestors. Time was I was shopping that direction, but since coming here...well, nobody really likes talking religion much here."

"Where I'm from it's a name from Norse mythology." Ashley smirked and shook his head as she produced the sword. Exactly. Norse. While he is not a religious man and instead chooses to put his faith in himself and his pack, Glass Walkers have walked hand in hand with humans for most of their existence and learned their religions. Knowledge is important as is history, Ashley is a man who is always learning and collecting information.

"And this looks like one of their weapons...except for the material. This is really fucking pretty. It just came in the mail?"

Erin nods. "The same force that dragged you here also brings in other stuff. Things from home, things we've never heard of or seen before. I got an element from my little sister's world awhile back, that's not native to me being what I am. People pick up all kinds of shit. Boxes of smokes, an entire dead sunfish, supplies of parts and tools to build things with...that sorta deal. Some of our mad scientists are getting their labs fed, my lass the detective got a supply of detective tools that work like they're from a modern Earth but look like toys, all that. Ms. Friday - the lass with no face - distributes those gifts, they show up in Sundries every so often."

"So nothing you ask for." He smirks and shakes his head. "Can't put in a request for a laptop and Starlink?" Ashley laughs softly. "This is such a mindfuck. Let's talk happy things. Tell me about your lass."

Erin offers up a goblin grin just as her food arrives, which is her cue to put Bifrost back into her sheath. Mmm, fish.

"Well, the lass I'm alludin' to here is Honoria Crabb. Hard to miss, she's a black lass on the shorter side who prefers ahhh, antiquated menswear, and her accent will tickle your ear as somethin' not exactly right. Ex-cop turned private dick, here with the rest of us now and shinin' bright." Erin's goblin smile goes wistful. "...My fierce flower. Which, if we're doing the 'and three fun things about you' thing, random fun fact - her version of Earth or at least her hometown? Just. Doesn't have homophobia? It's not a thing? Like they've got a whole-ass Catholic Church over there with no beef with gay people, I badly want to sit down with a cardinal or somethin' and get the low down on how that happened."

TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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