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

"Walk around long enough and you'll either meet the werecougar that lives in there. Or the— bahamanal? There's this thing made of clothes. Attacks people."

There's a whole weird ecosystem forming in there, between the bahamanal, the bahamanal's babies, and the crocs that bite you then multiply. This boat is fucking weird.

"I've been here almost. Shit, almost a year? This time around? Longer, the first time Anyway. Some of home blurs together. But after Ny-Alesund..." Her brow furrows. Half trying to remember, half trying to figure out how much to risk sharing. There's not much harm most of it can do from here, but... "We had some Web trouble. And some Jon trouble. Though," she snorts, "that's not exactly new. And then things... ha, they sort of spiralled."

"Absolutely fascinating," Helen replies, utterly genuine. She'll be sure, of course, to keep a respectful distance. She's found herself much more susceptible to death than she was comfortable with, after all, and as far as she knows she is intended as a victim as much as anyone here. But that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the craftsmanship.

As Daisy recounts her memories of home, Helen's brows raise. The spirals in her eyes twirl just a little bit faster, as if they too are intrigued. "Spiralled in what way?"

"Julia Montauk and Trevor Herbert came after Jon. Bad enough on its own, with me weak as I was." She talked big game when they first appeared, but without giving back into the Hunt like she did in the end, she's not sure she could've taken the both of them. Trevor, maybe, the Hunt couldn't completely compensate for his age, but... "But the second time they attacked, everything kicked off."

She lets the front legs of her chair hit the floor again, though she doesn't sit forward.

"Lukas made his big play with Blackwood. Trying to take over the panopticon. Released the thing that pretended to be Sasha in the process. Elias got himself out of prison—or, Jonah? I guess? Magnus. Whatever. So, Jon had to run off to save his boyfriend. Me and Basira stayed behind to deal with the Hunters and Stranger— thing. That's the last thing I actually remember. But apparently, I killed Julia."

Helen's eyes widen slowly as Daisy speaks, and so does her grin. Daisy might not lean forward, but Helen does. She seems almost elated as the realization that she was right sinks in.

"I knew it." She laughed, the sound skipping like a record with a faint echo. "Once I moved my door to the tunnels, it didn't take me long to find that old watchtower. I had a sneaky suspicion of what Elias was planning to do with it, but I wasn't completely sure--- Oh, that is so much fun! And Jon and Martin finally got together, did they? How sweet! Truly the height of romance."

"At some point, yeah. Took 'em long enough." Do you know how much Martin Angst you're exposed to when you spend so much of your time with Jonathan Sims? The answer is a lot. The only reason she didn't think finally! when she realised they were together was because there was so much more going on in those recordings.

It's a little pot-kettle, considering her own brooding around Basira. But that's a whole tangled knot of messy feelings, between her first cruise where they were both there, home itself, and the tapes.

"You ever think of telling us about that? Or did you enjoy watching us fumble around trying to figure it all out too much?" She huffs, arms folding loosely. "Not that it matters much. Far as I can tell, whatever Elias's plan was. It worked."

He got his ritual, he got his apocalypse, and it shouldn't matter to Daisy when she knows she's dead back home and she's tucked away on the boat, but unfortunately for her, she cared about some of the others by the end. And so, she worries.

"Well, I wouldn't want to cause a panic if I was wrong." Helen shrugs innocently. "Besides, do you really believe knowing would have stopped Jonathan Sims from doing exactly what the Eye wants? I'm sure it just would have made Elias' methods more elaborate and the way everything played out infinitely more stupid."

Knowing he had killed Jurgen Leitner and Gertrude Robinson hadn't stopped the flow of events. Knowing he'd lied about Ny-Alesund hadn't changed anything either. Elias could have told that ridiculous Archivist the whole plan start to finish after a certain point and Jon still would have done it. That is why he was chosen.

"So! What was it like? Or were you too busy having your own fun to take in the sights?"

"...probably not," Daisy admits, somewhat reluctantly. No, Jon would've found some way to stumble directly into Elias's trap regardless of how much he knew. He climbed into the coffin after her on half-baked information, after all.

Even in the apocalypse, the 'plan' he and Martin have barely sounded like it deserved the title. Why did she have to end up surrounded by so many people who can't plan for shit?

Sigh, then, flatly: "Like I said, the last thing I actually remember. Is letting the Hunt back in. Just turns out the Eye kept giving Jon tapes after the apocalypse. And some of those tapes turned up here."

"Right, yes, you said that and it slipped my mind." Being an aspect of the Spiral did give one a slippery mind at times. "Tapes, though! Those are always fun. Anything good on there? Juicy gossip?"

Helen is teasing, of course, but she is genuinely curious--- not just because she'd be excited to hear how the Watcher's Crown pans out, but also because it'd give her much-needed clues to where Daisy stands.

Just as flat: "Well. I'm dead. So, there's that."

It's what she asked for, of course. She knew that there was never going to be any coming back from the Hunt without it, but even she hadn't anticipated how bad she'd get. It still haunts her to think of Jon describing her as happy, there, in the apocalypse.

She sighs, rocking her chair back on its rear legs again. "Only got four tapes. From Jon and Martin finding Basira out there to my death. Mostly I was just listening to the three of them argue. But far as I could tell, there's different areas for different Fears."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Helen fawns. "Both about the death and about the constant arguing, neither sounds particularly pleasant. Though to be fair, arguing is... most of what the Archive staff does, in general."

"Different areas, eh? Each Fear with their own personal playground? That does sound fun. Though if the Eye, or more specifically, Sourpuss Jon himself, is in charge... That sounds like a bit of a killjoy." Helen's latte was still whirlpooling aimlessly in her cup, undrunk and cold now.

Daisy's eyebrows go up behind her cup as she takes a sip, as if saying 'yeah, it sure is'. She contributed her fair share to the arguments, after all. It was fucking exhausting.

"Heard 'em walk through somewhere Hunt-y, somewhere Flesh, Desolation... and one of yours, actually. Some messed up mental hospital." Her nose wrinkles a little. Dr. David Jon was just... concerning, honestly. "Jon's definitely 'in charge', but I dunno. Seemed to be just what you all wanted. But I only got a glimpse."

"Mine?" Helen feigns innocence, a hand to her chest. "Daisy, I am not the whole Spiral all by myself. That would be absurd. It's just me and my doors! Honestly, you give me too much credit."

Not that it didn't sound like something she'd enjoy.

"Right. But you did pop up on the tape. Paying the local Avatar a visit, I suppose. Said hi and went on your way to do rounds."

After offering Basira that shortcut (Two minutes, door-to-door, quick shot to the back of Daisy’s head, and we’ll be home before you know it.) but she's keeping that to herself, for now.

Though she might have to figure out how to head-off one of the others letting it slip before she does...

"Anyway. That's... pretty much it. All I've got. No idea where Melanie is. No idea if they survive. Just," she jerks her head to the side a little in a demonstrative sort of way. "This place."

"Fascinating! I suppose the me that still exists in the frame of time in question will just have to see it for herself. Though if you still have those tapes, I'd be curious to have a listen at some point," she says merrilly. "I do hope Melanie survives. She was always my favorite."

"Anyway, since I'm here now--- What can you tell me about this place?"

"I'll think about it." The tapes feel so awfully personal, even discounting the information she's leaving out on purpose. She'd put them in the ship's new Artefact Storage if they didn't.

"Besides the real basics... well. This trip's been going over a year and a half? So everyone's all. Tangled up. Friends, enemies, lovers. You name it. But everyone's from different worlds entirely. Most of 'em don't have the entities at all. Still. Plenty of 'em have their own weirdness going on, and they all fear the same. You probably won't have trouble feeding."

Fear is fear, regardless of universe, after all. There's more than a couple people around susceptible to Helen's methods.

She says this casually enough, but she also lets her chair settle properly on the ground once more and leans forward against the table.

"Ooo, drama," Helen teases with a snicker. "Yes, honestly, the ship in general has a lot of potential."

Clever places to tuck doors into the scenery like Easter eggs, strange and colorful locations to serve as set dressings for her tricks, existing trauma from encounters with things like her that can be exploited--- this is a buffet.

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to point your old pal Helen in the direction of any particularly tasty snacks? I'd owe you a favor."

"And let you have that in your back pocket? Risk people finding out? Even if I wanted to, there's no favour worth that." She snorts. "But I won't warn anyone. You can have the headstart."

Her head cocks ever so slightly to the side and the glint in her eye is very, very much not born of any part of her that may still be human.

"But if I find out you tried to feed on Erin Peters, Max Maximum, Karkat, or Johnny Summer? You won't have to worry about just any old arsehole being able to kill you. Just the old fashioned threat of a good Hunter." Her smile flashes just a little too much teeth. "We clear?"

"Unfortunately those names don't mean anything to me at the moment, so if a mistake happens, you'll have to forgive me my ignorance." A Cheshire smile curls tightly on her lips. "But fair. I won't interfere with whatever new soap opera you've found yourself in."

Then, a realization. She tips her head back and to the side, spiralling eyes casting off to the corner of the room thoughtfully.

"Actually--- I have heard Erin's name, come to think of it. I made a charming friend at the pool bar who spoke fondly of her."

Daisy rolls her eyes, "Johnny's a short guy, slicked back hair, golden eyes. Karkat's grey with horns. Max is like 6'4" and spends half his time in the kitchen. Erin's blind and wears a magic blindfold."

She leans back again, apparently satisfied that's as much ground as she's going to get someone like Helen to give. "Not surprised Erin's the one you've heard of. She's... very social. Tangled up with everybody. Knows a lot about people. Always doing something. Honestly used to think she was all Spider, but..."

She shakes her head. Erin's earnest in her social networking, it's not a game to her. In fact, she's actively trying not to be a manipulative arsehole.

"She sounds interesting." Helen places her elbow on the table, propping her chin on the back of her hand as her long fingers dangle off the side. She observes Daisy with interest for a long time.

"You've gotten very strange here, haven't you, Daisy?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" is... probably just about the most defensive answer she could give, which she only seems to realise after she's already said it. 'This is a very strange place', that would've been better. More dismissive, at least. Ugh.

At Daisy's knee-jerk, Helen does her level best not to laugh. "You've changed. That's all. You act as though you've gotten harder, more in tune with the Hunter within. But you've got all these delightful new soft spots! Before I got here, the version of you I knew only had the one. I hardly mean it as an insult, of course, I think it's quite charming."

At last, she stands. Her latte is gone, the cup sitting empty on the table. When did she drink it? "Well, I've likely taken up enough of your time, my dear. But thank you for the chat! We'll have to do this again sometime."

Daisy's brow wrinkles in a loose scowl, but she bites her tongue rather than say any further incriminating things. Chooses to take an ounce of comfort that if Helen was still thinking of Basira as her only soft spot even at home, then she's still not got all the pieces.

...man, she should not be taking any comfort in having more soft spots than expected. Ugh.

"Sure. Good luck settling in, I suppose."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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Sorry for the delay, new Pokemon DLC was holding me prisoner lmao

lmao no worries!

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