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

Erin's voice and face soft, gentle and tinged with both wonder and pain. "I'm gonna tell you something, and ask you to try and envision that it applies to everyone here. Everyone who ever hurt you is far away. As long as you're here, you'll never go hungry, or poor, or cold. You'll never be homeless, you won't be press-ganged into someone's army or government. Every. Single. Bad circumstance of the world you come from is gone."

"...What might that realization do to someone who turned to evil to make it all stop?"

There's a long silence there as she mulls it over. Wonders what the words might sound like in the ears of those she knows, those running from what would chain them and those who are striving towards something better occurring in the world. For a second, there's a bright and shining hope, a wish to gather all of them near, to say there's something to this. It doesn't solve their problems, but it offers them respite. Even if one day they have to return, take on those burdens - there's a rest, as deep and easy as the midnight sky. Even the parasites can't reach them. They won't lose themselves.

They won't lose themselves.

It is fog curling at her ankles, soaked in red, it is damp and sticky shadows painted in more blood, it is the choked back desire to rip off the head of the faceless woman, to give her a face with a dagger and see if she can scream without a mouth. It is rot set into the membrane of her skull, dripping through her veins like any drug. Kill your way out. Slaughter them until they release you, or you seize the key from their corpse's grasp. Snap their bones under your heel as you walk over the bodies. Build a portal from their nerves and sinew, and go back, because you are not done. You have already lost yourself. But to reclaim-

The thoughts are shoved away as one might heave off an enemy attack, to dissolve into their mist and shadows, to leave her be. On the outside, she's merely pulled back, looking somewhat sorrowful, but she forces herself to take a breath, to smile a little.

"Absent of any reason to be evil, why would you keep going? It wouldn't make sense."

Erin's ears droop; the taste of pain in the air, knotted and whispered. She knows that feeling, even if not its cause. Someone hurt this woman very badly, and Erin's heart wrings in her chest.

"...Yeah. And then it's just...learning how to be a person among people again. We fuck it up, give in to old bad habits, but...well, one of the other neat prizes of being here is that opportunity. The chance to shuck the old life like a husk, and see what we might make of ourselves in its absence."

For some, that might be possible. When you know what you're shedding so that your own flesh doesn't rend in the bargain. But when you don't? The scraps and husks have to stay, for the time being. Whatever they cover, Fever isn't sure she is ready to see. Not yet. It's too much, too soon, and it makes her head ache. Unconsciously, she moves a little more back towards a table, to discreetly steady herself with it.

"It sounds wonderful, for those that need it. I can see very well why you'd choose to stay."

But thankfully, mentioning the cult means that it's likely any hesitation reads as focusing on saving the land she lives in, and not for where it hooks deeper into her heart with cat claws and tugs. Breathe. Just breathe.

"And people will understand why you want to go. Just...not all exits are equal, conceptually. Keep it in mind and you'll do fine."

"I will. If we have time, there's no reason to compromise on the exact way out. Something that'll make the most of us happy."

When Johnny explains the idea of two of her, it'll take a little of the urgency out, but not all of it. It's her, but it's not her. That makes it different.

"Alright. I'm gonna uh. Dip. And continue this whole project later, do feel free to explore the cheese store." Erin pauses, and then, with a note of mischief: "Nothing between the front door of this shop and the three-hour mark is lethal, should you choose to explore."

"I'll be seeing you, Erin."

TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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