sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, hopefully ones that don't end with eternity collapsing around us..." she adds a smile at the end to make it more of an optimistic greeting. She's really shouldn't be on welcoming committee duty...

"People? Nah." A pause. No, that time didn't count. "But there is a man that turns into a cougar that does. Or is he a cougar that turns into a man..." Ava shrugs. "I try not to judge. If you'd like a tour though, I can show you the dining options. And then you can ask me whatever questions about this place."

"Is that a significant risk?" Demona doesn't seem terribly concerned, her tone is more like idle curiosity.

"There is someone here who hunts you for food and you 'try not to judge?'" She's utterly perplexed by this. What kind of human wouldn't judge that? She'd expect them all to be trying to hunt this cougar-man down and end him.

"I have many questions but I cannot trust your word even if you answer them."

"He doesn't hunt me," Ava corrects. "He's got his instincts under control. Only those who seek it out. Ethically sourced murder." And so that makes it better. Besides, she'd be a hypocrite to judge another killer too harshly when none of her own killings were consensual.

"You don't have to trust my answers. But you can use them as a reference point." But she starts heading toward the buffet anyway, in case the gargoyle wishes to follow along or not is her choice.

Despite herself, Demona laughs breathily. Ethically sourced murder? She's never heard something so ridiculous. Still... she likes the attitude on this sorceress. At least she isn't some sniveling bleeding heart. That's enough to convince Demona to trail along.

"Fine. Tell me why I've brought to this ship. What is your purpose for me?"

"Me? No no, I'm not what brings anyone here... Everyone's really welcome to do as they please here. There's no rules or laws or much of an itinerary. The only purpose is just... existing." And all the emotions that come along with it to fuel the ship.

"That's it?" She can't believe that. The skepticism is raw in her voice and demeanor. "We've been brought here as prisoners simply to exist as prisoners?"

"More or less. The guy in charge doesn't," actually want to be in charge... "care much about what you do. As long as we're generating emotional energy. To keep things running. You'd be good at that. Just scare a few people," she suggests while ushering them into the buffet.

"About anything you could want here. Doesn't replenish as frequently as it used to, but..." no, don't go on about how the food is just a magical manifestation without any real substance, nobody likes that. But as far as introductions to the ship goes, this one is going a bit more smoothly than some of her others! Better than that guy with the sign.

"I do not understand you at all, sorceress. You want me to scare members of your own crew?" The longer this conversation goes on, the more confusing it all becomes.

Perhaps food will help. They've finally reached the promised buffet.

"But?" she prompts, wanting to know what the rest of that thought was going to be before she touches any of it.

"They're not my crew," Ava insists. "I don't even particularly like most of them, between you and me." Though that's not entirely true, she likes a higher proportion than she's willing to admit.

She pauses at being called out for not finishing her statement. Tries to offer an alternative ending. "Well, I guess it's a bit like emotional cannibalism," she says instead. Oh. No that's probably not any better. "Since it's our emotions that powers the magic. And that... cycles back through."

Demona shakes her head as if that could dispel the utter confusion that continues with each new word this sorceress utters.

"The magic feeds on us. That is what you are saying?"

"A bit like how plants feed off the sun, or we breathe in the oxygen they produce in return. Every system has its energy cycle. Otherwise... you can't make something out of nothing."

"Hmm." She dislikes that this reasoning is sound, mostly because it's being told to her by a human.

"And you have accepted this fate? You are content to be maintained as a fuel source to please our captor?"

"Well, it's complicated," Ava explains, getting a plate from the buffet and handing it out for Demona.

"It's a matter of survival at the present moment. So yes, I'll give up my fair share of emotional distress if that sustains existence. But I'm focused on finding a better solution where none of this is necessary. In the longterm," but she's stalled out on ideas at the moment. Doesn't know what the next step is meant to be.

She grabs her own plate, and goes straight for the seafood selection. "Because I don't think the Captain is particularly pleased with these circumstances either."

Demona reluctantly takes the plate, turning it over a few times as if checking to see if it's been laced with poison. She doesn't smell any danger, so she starts to pile pieces of meat onto it. Only meat.

"Isn't the Captain the one responsible for creating these circumstances in the first place? If it displeases him why does he persist?"

"Because we have nowhere safe to go," Ava responds, piling her plate with crab legs. "We're not meant to exist."

"Not meant to exist? What a thing to say. No one is meant to exist or not, we simply do."

"Typically, yes," Ava agrees. "But our being here is... a violation of reality. We were removed from our timelines, and we cannot go back. The only reason we haven't been wiped out yet is... they can't locate us within this barrier." But outside of it? She has no idea how quickly they'd be identified and eliminated.

Most of what Ava just said sounds like utter nonsense. She isn't inclined to believe it. But one part has caught her attention. "They?"

"Oh. Reality auditors? A former passenger tried to contact them, but they thought she was crazy. She even traded her ship away to one. So," she shrugs. "Can't imagine that ending well for any of us."

"She traded her ship away for nothing? What a fool." And now it's going to be all of their problem? How considerate, too.

"Even if what you say is true, I refuse to accept my imprisonment here. Why should I have to pay, once more, for the crimes of others?"

"Not nothing. Information of some sort." But Ava never quite figured out what that was, only hearing of it second hand through Helena. The location of the Captain's lost memory hidden away in the island temple where they discovered her? Something more? It's too late to ask about it now.

"You don't have to be happy about it. Most aren't. Plenty choose to stay back from the excursions because they have fundamental disagreements with the process. Nobody's forced to participate."

"Information I presume she kept for herself." Which is exactly what Demona would do.

"I am being forced so long as I am stuck here away from my city and the goals I had there. Perhaps you are trying to discourage me from going on them because you fear I will succeed where you have failed."

"Not trying to discourage, the more the merrier," Ava isn't sure the quote necessarily applies here, but...

"It's more of a community effort than an individual competition, but whatever you need to motivate yourself."

"Community?" One of her brow ridges raises skeptically. "Can this place really be called such?"

"What would you consider the qualifying factors?"

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