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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.]
no subject
"Daisy Tonner. Long-time passenger." She straightens up from leaning against the wall and finds a seat inside, instead, sitting with her legs over the arm. "It probably is different. Your ideas of ghosts. They're nothing like anything we might call ghosts in my world, either. Boat runs on its own rules."
The way she looks at him isn't quite studying, but it's... something. The awareness of the predator those more animalistic traits betray her to be. There's also no real sign of the way she sniffs him out, over the smoke and whiskey.
Not human. Not something she's encountered before, either. But there's something hunt-y there, she can never mistake that.
no subject
"Ah. So the ship is really the one in charge." Which made no sense but there it was. Ashley doesn't notice the way she sniffs him out but he knows that look. She reminds him of his Alpha. Small in stature but fierce. Not to be underestimated. After taking another drink he gives her a pointed look and lets just his eyes change. They look a lot like hers, golden wolf's eyes.
no subject
Theeere it is. Daisy snorts. "Our 'ghosts' back home mostly attack people." And whether the manifestations of the Entities they call ghosts are really ghosts is... debatable. "So. What're you, then? You don't smell like any of the other shifters."
No beating around the bush, she's not the type.
no subject
"We're called Garou. Werewolves." Though he wasn't a fan of that terminology. It was just what was familiar to most and made the conversation easier. Not that he had this conversation frequently. What he is has always been a carefully guarded secret, he just doesn't see the point in trying to hide it here. "I have four other forms I can take."
no subject
"London, 2018. World with eldritch fear gods." She's done the 'which universe' song and dance many a time, in her two cruises. She knows her script. "I'm the closest thing we have to werewolves. No transformations. Not before here."
Here, she got a package from sundries that let her turn into two sizes of wolf, but that's not a natural thing for her.
"Avatar of the Hunt, if we're technical about it."
no subject
"Avatar. As in you represent the nature of the hunt? Carry the spirit? That's...we all are kind of bound to a spirit but I've...nevermind. This is all new for me and I'm hating feeling like an idiot who knows nothing." Huge adjustment for him. He feels out of sorts and kind of lost here. On day one.
no subject
"Sometimes the packages that turn up in sundries give out new abilities. I got that."
And she hadn't been much a fan of it, at first; she's adjusted by now, even if she doesn't use often.
"Hunt's one of those fear gods, for us. Nothing so neutral as a spirit. Being one of its Avatars is. Not. A fun gig." She shakes her head a bit, and lets it drop back over the arm of the chair. "For what it's worth? Everyone starts of feeling like an idiot who knows nothing, here. Doesn't last forever."
no subject
He sighs and takes a drink. Ashley isn't use to not being in the know. He's also use to having easy access to data so he doesn't have to play twenty questions.
"I get that. Still, I'm sure you have all had to tell your stories a lot. Probably sick of the noob dropping in making you do it again."
no subject
Daisy's brow wrinkles with thought. "Vessel's probably closest? But it's kind of it's own thing. Fear Gods change people. Make us something that can cause fear and feed them. Used to be human. Made a choice. Couldn't unmake it. Now I'm this."
How good she is at explaining this really does vary wildly, in part because she she does hate explaining the entire context of her world, but that's got nothing to do with how often she's done it. She just hates it.
"Plenty of people around here love talking about themselves. What you should really be bracing yourself for is having to do the same yourself."
no subject
Ash gives a shrug of his shoulders and shakes his head. "I'm an open book, don't mind talking about it. Pretty boring, though. Just your everyday shapeshifter."
no subject
She huffs. "Think saying yes would make me sound like a better person than I am."
The real answer is 'it's complicated'. There's too many facets in play, many of them different depending on if the hypothetical would be to undo it here and now, or go back and change her life entirely.
"Everyday shapeshifter. Right, sure. What's that mean to you? 'Cause I bet it don't mean the same as all the other shapeshifters around here. There's a woman that turns into a dinosaur."
no subject
Ash figures most people like them have those times they wish it were different. That they had been dealt different cards.
"See...that's what I mean. I'm pretty basic. Wolf. I mean they make movies about werewolves. Not shapeshifting dinosaurs."
no subject
Daisy shakes her head, loosely. "Made the choice I made for some bad reasons. Feels. Wrong, somehow. Saying I'd have made a different choice."
Daisy has some very... specific, ideas, about how she should handle her own past. Ideas that don't necessarily make sense to everyone else. She's extremely wary of coming off as if she's absolving herself.
"There's probably at least one universe where weredinosaurs are a normal thing," she says with a shrug. "But, see. Whatever the deal is with wolf shifters in your world won't be like anyone else's. Better you explain whatever that deal is to people than have 'em think you're— Twilight, or something."
no subject
Ash didn't have a choice. This was what he was born. Some days he wished it was different just so he didn't have to hide it. So he could have relationships that would last. Maybe not scare his neighbors cat. Most days he loves what he is.
"Ew. Twilight. No, I'm not like that at all. I mean, I have one form that is a wolf. Another is a massive wolf, little gnarlier looking. 'Bout the size of a horse. Something a little like you. Still human but with fangs and claws and the eyes. Then the big one, full Kaiju. Just a little under ten feet...wolf man, I guess."
no subject
Daisy nods her head to the side like 'eh', not expressive enough to give away the constantly warring complicated mess of feelings under the surface.
"Don't think we have a lot of people who have a form like that last one that isn't just. Permanent." Like her. She's just like this. "And if shapeshifters are a thing in your world. Have a whole unique name and everything. Then you've probably got your own rules and culture and whatever. And some people love getting nosy about that. And then everyone else has their own shit. This place is like one big culture clash."
She is drastically overselling how much of a complication said culture clash causes, honestly.
no subject
Ashley has friends that have lost their lives over breaking the Litany. Another who lost her sight. Not having that pressure weighing on him for the first time in his life isn't bad.
"Culture clash. Not melting pot. Noted." Ashley was the visible 'face' of the pack and Chairman of his house because he is the politician of a sort, the guy that greases the gears and makes deals, who smooths things over. He's good at integrating, not clashing, when he has to. One of his gifts is assimilation, to help him fit in anywhere, with anyone. On a small ship with under a hundred people on board? He gets the importance of getting along.
Though he is sure there will be plenty of things that challenge that. Push his buttons.
"Kinda one of those live and let live sort of guys, you know? As long as it isn't being pushed on me or hurting anyone I care about. I can let it go. I can also try really fucking hard not to be nosy." He says with a laugh. By nature he is just curious and some of the people he has met so far are fascinating. It's hard to shut that off and not keep asking questions sometimes.
no subject
"Makes you a cooler customer than some people around here. Me included. Though lot of 'em also learn to mostly forgive murder. Y'know. Since it doesn't stick and we're stuck together."
It's still fucking weird, if you ask her, the woman who lived through a cruise where the murder was far more frequent and definitely not as easily brushed off. The people who actually hold a grudge make way more sense to her.
no subject
no subject
"Probably, yeah. Captain loves set-ups that make us kill each other. So, there'll be that at least."
Even before touching on the passengers that do enjoy dabbling in a touch of recreational or otherwise murder.