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

[midnightroads]

"Bro, I flunked out. Use smaller words, please."

[takethatnature]

"Not you too," Wilson grumbles, remembering running into Pratt and immediately getting into an argument about whether science is stupid. "I mean... 'friends' is closer than anything else, except we don't like each other or get along. But we're not the kind of enemies who want each other dead anymore either."

[midnightroads]

The 'not you too' gets a bit of a flinch, Bash's gaze dropping like the dunce cap had just been put on his head, too heavy to stand in defiance of. Because he doesn't think that science is stupid at all.

He knows he's too stupid for science.

"Oh, like fatebound rivals, maybe. Where each of you's the cup that decides the shape of each other's water."

[takethatnature]

That was the wrong thing to say, wasn't it. Winona would probably have some nasty words for him if she were here right now.

The next thing Bash says knocks all thoughts of the previous topic out of his head. "Huh??"

"I don't believe in fate," he says, defensively. "I earned that rivalry."

[midnightroads]

"I wish not believing in fate was enough to make it not a thing in my life." There's a deathgrip sort of humor there, a smile that doesn't reach Bash's eyes.

[takethatnature]

Wilson groans. "I never had to deal with anything supernatural back on Earth. Things were governed by observable, explainable forces, not magic and destiny."

This is significantly less true than Wilson thinks it is. Magic is within closer reach in the Constant, it's true. Anyone with the right materials and a workstation with a silly name could fill their pockets with magic staves and amulets. But there are enterprising individuals who found ways to harness it from Earth, mysterious phenomena that defied the laws of nature, portals that let Them cross between worlds. Some of his fellow survivors could even have told him about it, if he'd been willing to listen.

The thought that he might have been steered to the Nightmare Throne by forces greater than either of them instead of earning his Pyrrhic victory rankles. Wilson knows he wasn't the only survivor who tried; Wendy made it halfway into the gauntlet, WX-78 almost reached the end before being torn apart by spiders, a few others at least tried out the portal. The idea of a world where things went differently and he's just another survivor to Maxwell because someone else was the one to free him also bothers Wilson, for some reason he can't put his finger on.

"Never mind. What was that about cups?"