sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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.]

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Chloe knows those kinds of pauses. For as much as she wishes no one experiences anything similar, someone of the same ilk is a comfort.

"Do you mind if I ask why you like that?" And what she really wants to ask is if he chose Rin for himself. It feels like a step too far to do so. In some ways she can understand not wanting that which is of use to others to matter on a more personal level.

"I'm sorry," she tells him quickly. "Sometimes I talk too much. Say silly things. I don't mean anything by it." She looks down to the water, as if slowly swinging her legs back and forth underneath it requires a tremendous amount of focus. She's sure she had a sense of how to properly engage in conversation once upon a time.

"Some would say it's just a question of algorithms and computing capacity," she answers matter-of-factly. How much she believes that herself wavers. She knows what she'd like to think. But that doesn't make it true. "Although... those attitudes are on the cusp of change." Finally, she stops staring into the water. "May I ask what your where and when might be?"

'Chocobo' also didn't register with her. "What's one of those?" Ever curious, Chloe is already fascinated by the world of Eos. Poor Prompto may end up being subjected to many, many questions.

"Oh, I didn't mean right now," she clarified with a slightly apologetic note. "I just meant, well, in general. You don't have to though, of course."

It folds its hands in its lap, and looks at them instead of at her as it responds.

"I have a name I call myself. It's for me, not for anyone else. It matters."

For a moment, her hand moves like she’s going to reach out and touch one of his. An action she quickly decides against. Instead she just smiles.

”It does,” she agrees. “Everyone should have that. Something that’s just for them.”

It’s all gotten rather heavy and while she doesn’t shy away from being serious, it might all be a bit close for the both of them.

”Why don’t you tell me a little more about your serials? Is there anything I need to catch up on?” There. That’s much lighter and much more pleasant. She can probably avoid shoving a well-meaning foot into her mouth with that topic.

Prompto would always take every opportunity to gush about the marvels that were chocobos every chance he could.

"Chocobos are the best! They're big fluffy birds, normally yellow, that we ride sometimes. They're really fast, and the black ones don't like my friend Iggy. It's hilarious how they steal his glasses."

That was definitely an interesting combination of words. First and foremost, seeing Prompto more at ease made her smile. People regaling her with their passions was one of her favourite things to listen to. Secondly, it how fantastical it sounded had Chloe completely hooked.

“They sound absolutely stunning. Being able to ride a bird like that… I bet it’s quite an experience. I like birds too, but there isn’t really anything like that where I’m from. Are they kept as pets?”

"I'm not offended. It's my leg, it looks how it looks. If anything, I'm sorry you have to see it." He gives her an apologetic look. "I'm from London, 1892."

He's almost afraid to hear what date she might give.

"It's true I don't know how an artificial brain might work and how a bit of math might make a mind. I'm also not quite sure how my own works, for all I know that it's electrical current through a lump of flesh. The men of my time are busy trying to decide what type of humans count as real people, and some nations still drag their heels on outlawing slavery, and I have no time for it." Watson gives a little snort. "You speak to me as a person, you are a person. Anything else is a matter for philosophers and priests, of which I am neither."

"Ha! I wish! I totally would've had a chocobo as a pet! But they're way too big for that. Mostly there's chocobo racing, that's the national sport and uh, there's outposts where they live? Like ranchers have them. That's where I got to ride one. We rented some from Wiz, great guy." Prompto was happy to gush about one of his favourite subjects, and the least likely to upset him.

[No! Nuh-uh! Sanji is the one kicking here. Sanji is the priority! Sanji not being priority numero uno on Zoro's list right now just makes him more stressed and more violent!

He's not stopping until they're both properly spritzed like the bad dogs they are.]

[Sanji snorts. If manipulating blood is so morbid, he has to wonder whether his high tension nose bleeds are too.]

Better than snot. [He retorts instead, pulling back from his close up scrutiny. Sanji is eternally grateful he never had to kick the bastard who could turn his entire damn body into mucus.] You get that under control, and it'd be a hell of a lot more than just useful.

What kind of fruit didja have to eat to manage that shit?

[Quite a bizarre question out of context.]

As Camilla dissolves into his shirt (his poor shirt), she latches onto him as if she never wants to let go. Her eyes squeeze shut; she does not cry. Palamedes has seen Camilla Hect in any variety of situations and battle and distress, both emotional and physical, and she barely cries in front of anyone. Even him. Even when she was a child. But her fingers curl into his clothes with a terrific vise-like grip, and her feelings betray themselves in the desperation of those clenched muscles, that iron grasp.

And with her bare hands so close and his psychometric abilities to hand, he can sense it: her bones are older. Her skin has touched the dirt of strange new planets. There are new nicks and scars on her body, the flesh healed over, a map of the intervening time she's lived without him — the eight-and-some months since she lost him, the longest months of her entire life.

"Welcome back, Warden," she says, although it comes out as a bit of a muffled mumble against his shoulder. It's very undignified. It is, probably, the most undignified she's ever looked.

She couldn't give a damn.

[ "showed up right on time," she says. it's a first. he'd been too late in far too many ways -- but maybe she had no recollection. maybe this was a world where she could be...

happy.

that alone is enough reason for him to stay here. in this foreign world that makes little sense to him -- maybe there was something greater than he ever imagined to be found here. his shoulders raise slightly, and in a manner that could be uncharacteristically described as sheepish, levania gradually extends his claw towards her. ]

Did you, uh...want to get back on?

[ a beat. ]

Not like I have much to do here...so...

"I'd be glad to start the series from the beginning. My favorite is a show called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which is about a colony solicitor and her team, dealing with trouble on a small colony on a terraformed moon."

It sounds more passionate, like any fan talking about the best show ever. "The solicitor's bodyguard is sleeping with one of her trainees, her assistant is secretly in love with her, and the rest of the trainees all have secrets. It's awesome."

"Oh, no, you have nothing to apologise for at all," she tells him, expression both perplexed and concerned. If anything, she admires him for being able to show what could be regarded as an imperfection. And for being so gracious about her comments. After her previous rambling, she keeps these thoughts to herself.

1892. She can only imagine the culture shock. "I'm from Detroit, 2038." Not so ridiculously far in the future. At least, she thinks not. Though the years themselves might be relative to the amount of change that's taken place within them.

The admiration deepens as he expresses his views. This time, she tentatively voices hers. "That's very progressive of you." Perhaps it's easier to consider the artificial as being real when one has not had so much direct contact with it. Then she adds a quieter, "Thank you." As much as she wants others to echo what he's said, it still sits kind of uneasily. "Although... for all intents and purposes, androids like myself have been a facsimile of a human. To be seen as such isn't entirely the product of prejudice or anything like that. Machines marketed and sold as machines and therefore that is what they are." She shrugs a little, smiles a tight little smile. "It all gets rather complicated."

"Oh, like a horse." After a pause, she follows up with, "Do you have horses in Eos?" As he might not have any idea what she's talking about.

"Have you ever raced one? It all sounds very exciting." Already it sounds like he's lived an interesting life. At least, by her standards. Though she might not be the best judge of what counts as an exciting, action-packed existence.

"How scandalous!" She's more playful, and clearly intrigued by the drama of it all. Chloe is not above a good bit of cheese.

"Do you like musicals?" One of her own guilty pleasures. As Rin has a media player, she might be able to share something in return.

"I haven't seen very many, but some of the shows I watch have had a musical episode. I like those. Why?" Yes, Chloe, share your own media banks--more movie nights for everyone!

"I really enjoy musicals. I was wondering if you might like to watch one of those sometime too? A cultural exchange, of sorts." Sign Chloe up for all the movie nights. She'll bring the popcorn. If there is popcorn on the ship.

She'll bring some kind of treats for everyone!

[Despite that she warns him with time to spare, Sanji does not move. Sure, he can dodge bullets at point blank range, but that doesn't mean this perfect goddess can! The texts charge into his backside one after the other until he slowly, seethingly turns his his head to glare them down, barking through clenched teeth.]

No roughhousing while the lady's present.

"Uhhh, nope?" Prompto said with a bit of a nervous smile. "S-Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean."

He nodded a little bit. "Well not officially. I just raced against my friends, but my favourite chocobo, Lemon Kwehkers is really fast! She's the best!"

The name may or may not have come from him.

"Life and death could be cheap in a game, could it..." But he pays attention intently along with her instructions, happily beelining towards treasures and potions. He seems to be remarkably good at shooting, for what it counts, but might just easily fall into traps or get distracted by shiny pick-ups or coins or collectibles.

Well, the coins and collectibles help too. She lets him meander, but does point out important things, like how to defeat Death with magic, or which enemies are strongest. It's all in good fun.

"The next level is the boss level--we're going to be fighting the dragon. Aim for the heads!"

"Well, I won't try to grasp all the nuances of... androids, is the word you used? But I don't have it in me to start picking and choosing which classes of people are properly human, and which are not."

He grunts again, annoyed at the idea.

"I do have a strong suspicion that I should not be considered 'forward-thinking' by your standards," he says, thoughtfully. "If I am, well, I'm rather sorry about that. I'm a simple man who tries to be moral, that's all."

[ Here, she doesn't have to suffer scornful gazes. It's not lonely either. But sometimes it does feel kind of lonely when she has gone through days without exploring the Cage with Levania. She has missed those nights.

And hardly does she ever ask for much. She might have been secretly hoping that he would invite her to sit up on his shoulders again. Her smile just can't get any wider. ]

Yeah! Let's check if it's safe to go back out first.

[ With the silence outside the door, she would like to assume that it's safe. Best to check first. Plenty more space to run around and rooms to explore. ]

I've never been to the beach much back home. But now you can see it here all the time! [ A small gesture towards the window. A nice view of the sea. ] It's so pretty!

[ She doesn't know if he actually cares about that sort of information. Perhaps it's not very important at all. She just wants to talk about all sorts of things with him. ]

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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dont even worry about it! always happy to see her /not/ miserable

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