TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[sailmods]

1. now it's fun to wake up in a strange chateau

[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! We're so glad to have you!

[you touch the lei. rooster feathers, lotus seeds, and a carved circle of something white and hard, linked onto a silk string.]

2. messing with my mind was fun at the time

[freshly lei'd, your legs are forced to lead out onto the deck and towards your muster station. the same woman is there, carrying a clipboard. this time, she introduces herself as Gal Friday, the cruise director, before immediately going into the muster drill spiel. it is very boring, and you are not allowed to move, except when you are required to show you know how to put your life vest on. you could try to not do this, but Friday will move to stand in front of you very closely and just. look in your direction until such a time that you decide to do it. and I'm sure your fellow passengers want you to just get on with it, too.

but, once it ends? she reiterates her desire to welcome you aboard. and, then, you're free.

well, free to move about the ship at your own leisure, of course. which is a kind of free, and probably the best one you can hope for. you could try to escape, maybe, if you have the means to; Friday certainly won't be one to stop you. that's what the barrier is for, after all.

but, wouldn't you much rather have fun?

the buffet is full. the pool is open. the casino jingles and chimes.

welcome aboard.]

3. lots of mystery in the history of the devils I knew

[you were never alone.

a few days have passed since you first arrived on the Serena Eterna. perhaps you've made yourself a little routine, and settled in a bit. or maybe you haven't done that at all. either way, you're here, and it looks like somebody is pretty pissed off about it.

it starts small. sometimes nearby plates skid off tables, or a pool chair upends while you're walking next to it. and sometimes that chair is aimed right at your head. objects are moving with quickly increasing frequency, and a wide variety of styles: some are dropped, or pushed, and others and others are tossed, but a few of the items are thrown, with great force and odd accuracy. if Friday is around during the lighter moments, she simply titters and cleans up whatever mess is made. if a pot of soup sails off the buffet line and nearly drenches you in boiling minestrone, she simply walks away.

and then there's the voices. hundreds, maybe thousands, calling out. not all are intelligible English, but you seem to understand them anyway. some sound scared, or angry. some are screams, others whispers. some sound entirely strange, while others are achingly familiar. and they're all saying the same exact thing:

Get Out.]

Comments

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ It's not just her, everyone tends to make him nervous. It could be a teenager thing, could be a full on anxiety thing. ]

Y-yeah.. I shouldn't have... said that.

[ Welp. He's been sitting her less than five minutes and already embarrassed himself twice in front of Black Window. ]

So... when did you get here? I've been here about a week.

[blind_devil]

Matt smiles and nods once again leaning on his cane. "Yes," he says, "it's a bit overwhelming." He watches the young man with a tilt of his head. "Did you just get here too?" There is no better way to get the lay of the land then to ask.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter nods in understanding, fighting the urge to hover incase there's a wave or something that knocks the man over. Why is he leaning so far over on the cane?

"Um.. about a week ago now, I think?" He offers. "It's kinda hard to keep track. Watch out for the ghosts, they sometimes throw things."

[heropose]

[Sounds to her like the boy needs some yoga.

She gives him a reassuring smile, a small one.] Look at it this way, at least you only said what you did. [A shrug.] They can't read minds, right?

[Not so much embarrassing, at least not that he should feel. But yay! Teenager brains! It's hard for her to relate on that though.]

A week? [Granted, she's not been around Tony to hear him go off about the lad's disappearance.] Wonder how they're getting us here then... [Frowning thoughtfully.] You didn't hear helicopters or anything overnight, right? [aka she got here this morning...roughly.]

[chocobosnap]

"Uh huh, sure!" Prompto said with a cheerful little squeak as he smiled brightly. "That'd be good. I mean, I got to see real live chocobos, best day ever."

It was much nicer to think about the good things over the bad, wasn't it?

"That's really nice of you." Prompto said with an honest smile. "Uh, I dunno, but maybe later?"

He wasn't in the habit of sharing his burdens with others, terrible as that habit may be.

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ Peter shrugs at her tone. he's sure May's raised Hell by now and surely Tony Stark is getting the brunt of. Man, having been on the receiving end of May Parker's temper a time or two, he really doesn't envy Mr Stark now. ]

Oh... no. Come to think of it.. which I definitely would because I can hear heart beats-well, usually. It kinda comes and goes. I get waaaay too much input sometimes.

[heropose]

[Raising her eyebrows at the information.] I take it noise cancelling headphones don't do much for you.

[Now wondering if Stark hasn't made something for the kid. Then again...if he didn't know about it...]

No unnatural water noises from overboard? [Subs.] Or within the ship? [One of those fancy underwater dock thingies.] Weird electrical noises? [Portals are always fun. This is less an interrogation and more so just recon.]

[hashtagparkerluck]

Um.. not much, no.

[ Oh no, Tony's done a lot for him but when he's out of the suit, like now, there's no real way to stem the flow of input. ]

Uh.. no? I don't think so. [ He's not entirely sure because what would that even sound like? ]

I mean, I can hear all those things-or I would be able to, probably but it's really hard to differentiate most of the time.. it-it's a lot to focus on.

[heropose]

[Same universe doesn't much matter to her anymore.] Same time? What do you mean?

[An eye for where danger lies, smart man. (As far as she knows, anyway.)] You don't seem like you're from Asgard, not to mention they don't have drones as far as I know.

But no, Corporate Rim doesn't ring any bells. [She's wondering if it should...]

[heropose]

[Peter just walking around with his mask on all day. nbd She nods her head a bit in understanding.] Tony said you hadn't really had your powers long.

[All of the focus will come with time.] Probably just better to not try and focus on them, give yourself a headache.

[Oh look, a ghost brought lemonade! Or...well a pitcher of it.]

At least you look like you haven't had a hard time sleeping from all the constant noise. Then again, living in the city must have gotten you used to it somewhat.

[hashtagparkerluck]

I've had them almost a year now. [ he offers as though that helps anything. It really probably doesn't other than to prove Tony's point. ]

Wait. Mr Stark told you about me? W-well what did he say? [ Because they've kinda had a touch and go correspondence and Peter really, really wants to know if he's impressed Tony Stark. It's really important to him. ]

Oh tha- [ He pauses as there's no one attached to that pitcher and looks around but then again.. ghosts. ] -nks...?

Uh.. [ He shakes his head ]

Um.. that's mostly because I'm used to running on like.. three hours of sleep. [ But that's probably not great for a teenager, especially one with super powers so moving on! ]

I usually listen to music like.. really low to give me something to stay focused on so I don't get too distracted.

[heropose]

[Not long at all. Just a babby~ But a capable babby! She's seen him fight!] Not much, other than you were "a kid he's taking under his wing."

[Sorry, Peter. Given how he was talking about him, Natasha was led to believe he was just a temporary addition to the team. But that's just Stark being protective.

She'll just...take that from the ghost and pour the glass herself, since she holds very little trust with the ghosts.]

Ugh. I remember days like that. Try not to do it too long, you'll start seeing hallucinations. [Though most of hers were spent doing recon and whatnot.] Makes sense. Sounds like a good way to learn other languages too.

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ That's still better than something like 'this was a mistake.' ]

Yeah... I've done that before too... [ and they were not very kind hallucinations. His 'you can't have nightmares if your not asleep' was proven false that day. ]

Oh, I have the Duo Lingo App for that. That bird is pushy.

[serialskiller]

“Of course.” Murderbot has grown accustomed to these attacks. It knows approximately how long it will need to shield the human. As long at the objects being thrown are plates and bowls rather than forks and knives, it’s got this.

Of course, the sound of a cyborg deflecting a bowl with the metal plates along its forearm is different than that of a human dealing with such an attack. It also doesn’t seem to be breathing heavily with the exertion. Clearly Matt’s defender is something special.

[heropose]

[Half a joke and half serious, tbh.

Natasha stares at the offered hand, taking in the slim figure in front of her. She's more likely to tug the girl down if she let things take their course. So she'll still take it—out of being nice—but hoists herself up under her own power.]

Standing isn't the problem. If you want me to do a pirouette then we might have a problem.

[serialskiller]

If you’re from Earth, I’m from centuries beyond you, when humanity has left Earth behind and mostly lives on space stations far outside the Sol system. Which makes being sure of if it is the same universe more complicated but less actually necessary.

[treadwater]

He has caught her at a Gauntlet Dark Legacy cabinet, playing Blue Valkyrie on the mountain level. Blue is so very much her color, after all.

“Okay, so I’m the lady with dark hair and wings on her head. She moves when I push the stick in a direction, and attacks when I push the buttons. Like this.” Sword attacks fly across the screen, hitting monsters and the spawn point they’re coming out of. “This is a multiplayer game. You can join in and help me?”

[wimdy]

He observes her controls and button-pressing, nodding sagely as if he understands completely. Whether he really does is... questionable, he's from a medieval fantasy era after all. But he does have pretty good hand-eye coordination, maybe this can work out.

So, he picks a green cleric/magician. "I'll choose this one, then! She looks cute~ please be patient with me if I try my best, all right?"

aaaaaaand then you almost got nell here

[heropose]

[Frowning as she takes this in. Because you realize how crazy this sounds, right? But seeing as...stranger things have happened, she's not so "alarmed" as one might expect.]

Depends I guess if you've lost all of Sokovia because of a rogue lifeform. [Since, for the TDM, she's not quite at the Snap.] Any reason in particular for leaving Earth?

Or did global warming finally do us in?

[heropose]

[Peter no... Don't make her smother you with a pillow to sleep. He probably has a stupidly fast metabolism too so any kind of sleep aid or tranquilizer probably wouldn't work. Unless it was for the big animals.]

Yeah, I couldn't do the bird. [A small shiver.] Much rather just learn it either in the country or through tapes. [Omelette du fromage?]

It'd love her too.

[serialskiller]

Global warming, resource extraction, corporations wanting to escape Earth government regulations like labor laws. You know, nothing too unexpected.

[Because if you run a space station, you can charge workers for not just food and water, but air usage.]

i still need to hit that tag back. sob. just in a nat mood.

[heropose]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Though I'm surprised you didn't include World War III or anything drastic like that.

[So probably not her world if he's not agreeing with Sokovia. But that leads to the question:]

So how many "earths" have you run into? [Here on the ship.]

[serialskiller]

Many. Some of which are wholly contradictory or have differing versions of history.

[Beat, back to the root of the conversation.]

That's why you don't recognize my drones. Future tech to look forward to.

[heropose]

Great. More things to potentially look forward to. [Trying to remember all the various timelines and whatnot.]

I've seen a lot of futuristic tech, happens when one of your "friends" is Tony Stark and another one is a god of another world. [And so on and so forth.]

[treadwater]

"Of course! All you can do is your very best. And you can always continue the game if your character dies." She begins to coach him through the level, pointing out treasure chests and potion bottles, warning him not to shoot the green or red barrels when he's right by them.