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

[treadwater]

"Yeah. I once tricked one of the pirates into drinking it without telling him about the tapioca."

Ah, shame that she doesn't know that none of the pirates are still aboard.

She considers Shouji for a moment, and then offers her arm like she's asking to be accompanied properly.

[dupli_arms]

His head tilts at the offered arm, and the smile beneath the mask grows enough to lift the edges of it as he holds his main arm out to her, another pair of hands morphing into existence on that side as if to present it that much more formally.

He walks with her, keeping his strides slow so that he wouldn't be dragging her along. "The first time I had it I had to be tricked into it too," he admits with a soft laugh. "When I moved where I could actually have things like that the girls that I went to school with decided that I apparently needed to try a bunch of new things like that."

[treadwater]

Now that she's getting used to his morphing, there's no hesitation at all. It's just another power like any other. Okay, yes, guys with powers is not normal from where she stands, but she can roll with it.

"Girls are like that sometimes. Did they try putting nail polish on you at some point?"

[dupli_arms]

She would fit in with the rest of the 1A girls, he thinks.

"No actually, that dubious honor was given to another friend. He's more of the...goth? Type?"

[treadwater]

"Nothing wrong with a goth." Says the girl who used to date Darcy. "I know this is probably a weird question, but if someone did your nails on one of your other hands, would it stay if you...um. If the hand shifted?"

[dupli_arms]

"Oh definitely not, Tokoyami's probably my best friend out of anyone, he's just very committed to his aesthetic." And he could just imagine his friend getting ruffled over the teasing tone that he's taking as he talks about it.

The question makes him look down at his hand, actually thinking about that a moment. "Probably? Since it'd still be stuck on the skin. I didn't want to test that and end up ruining his work but...huh."

[treadwater]

"We could try it. Calgona spa has nail polish. Though it you come there with me, I might also wheedle my way into giving you a haircut. Dye too, if you want."

Look, sometimes, she just wants to play.

[dupli_arms]

A blink, then a hand going up to the white sweep of his hair that keeps the top of his face fairly effectively hidden. "What's wrong with my hair?"

[treadwater]

"Well. It's all in your face. How can you even see with it like that?"

Has it occurred to her that he, with the whole mask thing, is hiding deliberately? Fuck no.

[dupli_arms]

She's not giving one iota of thought to the idea that he's deliberately hiding his face and honestly, it's kind of refreshing. He's just going to hope that she doesn't get too insistent past playing with his hair.

"Uh...like this, usually." And the end of one of the other arms morphs into a round eye that blinks serenely at her from there.

[treadwater]

"Huh. Okay, yeah, that makes sense."

By this point, they've just about reached the muster, and Undine gives Friday a somewhat mocking curtsy.

"You're waiting for me, right, Shouji?"

[dupli_arms]

If Friday recognizes her, she does a good job of not showing it, as far as Shouji can tell.

"It would be extremely rude not to."

[treadwater]

Between glances back at him, the muster drill occurs. Lei is given (and tucked into a pocket), and Undine returns to Shouji.

"So, I've got a question for you, and I think it might end up being a little rude, but I'm going to try to ask it in the least little rude way possible. Is that okay?"

[dupli_arms]

Briefly during the drill, Shouji reminds himself where his lei is, because it seems important to do so every now and then, especially after realizing that they all got them.

The hesitant approach to the question gets an even look, and he straightens up from where he's been leaning. "Trust me, whatever you've got it in mind to ask, it probably won't be near as rude as most of the things I've heard."

[treadwater]

“Yeah, see, that just makes me want to be even more careful. But, um. Do most of the people in your world conform more neatly to the standard human body template?”

Really, what she’s asking is if he’s the only one like him, but she doesn’t want to make it sound like she thinks he might be a freak. But…

…he is hiding, isn’t he?

Even as she asks, she’s taking his arm again. It feels important. Because if he is unique, he probably exists in a world where he’s expected to make his oddities useful somehow. And she understands that so intimately.

[dupli_arms]

"Eh..." That's hard for him to answer, because he's not totally sure that he can answer in a way that would make sense. "We're all still human genetically and the layouts of our bodies are still pretty much that. But, some of us don't expressly look human, no. We're referred to as heteromorphs."

As in, they have their own classification. And if Undine knows her prefixes, she'd realize that the classification is based on the distinct difference in morphology.

He accepts her hold on his arm, the opposite hand coming to rest lightly over the back of it. He's deliberate and gentle about every move he makes.

"I take it that it isn't something in your world."

[treadwater]

Hetero-morph. Other-shape. She purses her lips, shaking her head.

"No, not exactly. We do have some people who are different, from others, though. I'm a magical girl."

[dupli_arms]

"Magical girl?" He's never heard the term before, though her abilities would probably be easy enough to reconcile with the concept of the Quirk Factor.

[treadwater]

“Girls who have the power necessary to fight monsters and keep people safe. Some have weapons, some just have magical talents. Either way, we’re powerful and necessary, to protect the city and all its people.”

Sound familiar?

[dupli_arms]

A beat, then, "In my world, you would be referred to as heroes. Especially if you went through an agency, or had a team."

[treadwater]

“I’ve got a manager. And…I had a team, though now it’s just me patrolling with one other girl.” Any smile she had flickers away before she can plaster it back on her face. “Your world has heroes? How young do you start? Are you one of them?”

[dupli_arms]

The moment that that smile flickers, he has the sinking feeling that he's just said exactly the wrong thing. The forced way it comes back is just as telling. But then she's moving on, and he can only do the same.

"It's different for everyone and usually depends on where you live, what your parents do, what you can afford. I...I got in by sheer luck, if I'm being honest. But, I would like to be. A hero, I mean."

[treadwater]

“Your world makes you pay for your training?” She suddenly has a sharp understanding of certain things Erin said to her forever ago. But…it’s not pleasant breakfast conversation, is it?

Still, her hand on his arm tightens slightly.

“It’s definitely a noble goal, though. Wanting to help people, I mean. If you have the ability, it feels like something you owe the universe, sometimes.”

[dupli_arms]

"It isn't entirely student-funded, but if you've got money, you've got better access to a lot of things." So, the same as most everything else in the world, regardless of iteration.

"It's all I ever really wanted," he admits quietly. "I was born with the ability to help people in a way that not everyone can. That's what hero work is about, right? Using the unique parts of yourself to take care of the people around you."

[treadwater]

“And it’s deeply ingrained in your world’s society, that to be a hero is an act of service.”

She tilts her head slightly, her tone of voice incisive. “Do heroes take advertising deals, too?