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

[conjobs]

"You're Johnny from Gallery. I'm John, from Liverpool." That should have been obvious enough with the accent, but he makes it clear anyway. "Anything else you'd like to know, we could talk about over a few drinks," Constantine offers with a shrug.

Otherwise he's just going to poke his nose where it isn't wanted, try and dig a little deeper into the menaces that are upsetting life on the cruiseship. But how he's going to end up spending tonight doesn't seem to bother him at all with his easy come, easy go attitude.

[skaikru]

( right. right. the devices that looked like phones, but that clarke still held out a faint hope would somehow be able to hail the mainland. or some passing spaceship. anyone, really. from a pocket under her lifevest, she pulls her own phone, fiddles with it until opening shiptalk and taking a quick assessment of its functions.

seems like a closed network, and definitely worth testing out. )

Yes, okay. Sorry. That's actually a really good idea. Do we need user I.D.s?

[shootybangbangs]

[ This barely meant anything to Zouichi; cyborgs were always online or whatever. However, it did look like they had an agreement. Nice! ]

Great. You see where it says to enter a name and room number? Try 'Zouichi' and '302'.

[conjobs]

[He's not sure if that's a good thing yet, but he's still teetering in that strange space between not wanting to have this much distance between himself and the floor, wanting to curl up and go back to sleep, and actually fully waking up, sobering up a bit, and wanting to figure out what the hell is going on.]

There's no big boats like this in hell. I know every inch of the place. [That's meant to be reassuring, although he's hardly in a position to be reassuring her of anything. His feet carry him along with her all the way up to the edge, and his white-knuckled grip curls tightly around the railing. It's far too bright and there's nothing as far as his eyes can see. This feels more like hell than hell itself, honestly.]

Right. I'll be okay. Cheers, love. [Does she really want to hang around and watch pale, naked, sick guy throw up everywhere? Surely she's got better things to do.]

[businessorlibation]

"Oh, I'll gladly do drinks, but I don't traipse off to bed with anyone right away." He pauses, before continuing more quietly. "I have some scars I don't like to show anyone until I trust them a bit."

Strange Chateau

[conjobs]

By the time Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome is out of his room, John had already been to the safety briefing, and while he has no idea how he came on board, who else is on the boat, why he's here, how does he get off-- well. One look at someone just standing there in the hallway not-hyperventilating and not-panicking and Constantine's pretty sure that's how he's getting off.

A whiff of fresh sea air carries with it deep, rich undertones of freshly harvested fear. He might as well have DAMAGED GOODS tattooed on his forehead.

"'ello love." Is that a metal hand? Constantine's betting ten quid on PTSD. "You look lost."

[shootybangbangs]

Ah. Hold on a second -- it didn't ask me for one.

[ And indeed, on second glance, there didn't seem to be any options for user profile. ]

Try my name, 'Zouichi'.

[ He spelled it out for her, hoping the program was smart enough to not need some arcane friendcode handshaking process. One could only hope. ]

i.

[mewchan]

....Wah?

[ Gin wakes up slowly, rubbing his head and trying to curl back under the blankets at the sound of someone shuffling around. When Childe speaks, he sits up, slowly blinking with a truely impressive bedhead of ruffled brown hair. The gaze that meets Childe is sleepy and without any recognition. Gin stares for as second before he looks down and realizes the majority of his costume, mask, hooded cape and gloves are lying on a small table beside him. ]

...! [ Silently, the kid dashes for the clothes, shoving them on with an urgency that total ignores Childe's evaluative expression. It's only after his face is covered and the gloves are in place that he turns to address Childe. ]

Of course not, woof! Raaah, did you kidnap me, scarfy!? I won't forgive you, meow!

[rumorradio]

"I can see them- the ones talking, sometimes. Just barely, never quite in my line of sight- but they're there, and then they're gone. ... It must sound unbelievable, I'm sure."

( or it would, if not for the poltergeist tantrums since a few days into this rotten stay.

tsukasa would break things. he'd find smaller, lesser spirits, and want to see what makes them tick. she's used to spiritual outburst- but she had the security to know that tsukasa wouldn't harm her, at least. now that's gone. )

[mewchan]

[ Sure, Sure. Gin nods along as he taps at the phone with the plush gloves, unwiling to take them off to make texting any easier. Zouichi is a pretty hard name to spell, and Gin doesn't speak a word of English, so he's not sure how he even knows if he's doing it right. ]

Like this? :P

[worthallthis]

For a moment, his mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Then he closes it, tries again: "He was my mission. I was supposed to kill him." And then. He didn't. And now he's just the stupid former target who upsets him to think about too hard.

[shootybangbangs]

If we're still on Earth, we should be able to use celestial navigation. But provisions and weather would also be an issue.

[ What a weird thing to say. Anyways. ]

Do you know if anyone's tried to contact the captain?

[skaikru]

( what she wants and what she's going to do are, as always, in stark contrast. so, no, she doesn't want to be in close proximity while he hurls into the water below. but this is her very first human interaction in this strange place, and clarke's not about to abandon that tentative alliance over a little vomit.

so, john tries to dismiss her, and she just levels back a completely unamused, unpersuaded, flat look. which she'll maintain until he eventually turns to vomit; then she'll even give a few perfunctory pats on the back. encouragement, comfort; all with the much appreciated buffer of the life vest between them. )

[businessorlibation]

"You're some kind of an assassin then?" It explains the gun, or at least why he's carrying it.

"Are you going to kill anyone here on the ship?"

[worthallthis]

[Yeah, at this point, he's willing to believe a lot of things. After all, the gal doing the safety speech has no face, and he's pretty sure he's not the only one who saw that one.

And, well, now he has to ask.]

Have you seen one who's. Blonde. Older. Square jaw. Nice gray suit.

[shootybangbangs]

[ So it worked after all. That was a promising start. ]

Exactly.

I'd like to test the range. Can you keep texting every now and then while I head to the other side? If the connection drops on either end, at least we'll know how far you can reach someone from.

[ And he could find out how big this ship was, while he was at it. ]

[worthallthis]

That'll be the easiest ten quid you ever won, John. This bad boy can fit so much PTSD in him.

He doesn't quite look at John, but it's clear he keeps him in his sights. He struggles for a long moment between admitting weakness and maybe getting help, but finally he grates out, "I can't move."

Gin Ibushi | YTTD | OTA

[mewchan]

A. Life Vest.

Hey...um. [ Once orientation wraps up, before you can leave, a small tug at your sleeve as a dimuntive kid sidles over to try and whisper in your ear. ]

Mraaah...you can't laugh, woof! I'm not dumb, and I'm not forgetful! But...I don't really get what no-face lady was talking about...? I didn't sign up for a cruise, meow! And I know how to put a life vest on without scary ladies looking at me.

B. Gone to the dogs.

[ As the ships day goes on, Gin can be found all over, turning over potted plants with his costumes paws and...sniffing the air? He takes books off the bookshelf in the library, he fiddles with the toys in the gift shop and only puts a few of them back. In other words...he's a total menace that Friday has to clean up after! Will you stop his rampage of exploratory destruction...or join him? ]

C. History Mystery

Mraaaaah!!

[ Maybe you're hiding from the floating, attacking cultery, maybe you're watching the chaos go down, but at some point a middle schooler starts running around trying to swat the levitating items out of the air with a cat cushion. The pajama costume he's wearing somehow acts as pretty good armor. Nobody can get him in his special outfit! ]

E-enemy d-down...woof! Get behind me and Mew-chan stranger, I can fight!

[businessorlibation]

I haven't heard anything about it, if they have. But that doesn't mean much, yet. We're uncoordinated, us passengers.

[That sparks the beginning of some ideas for him.]

[skaikru]

( following directions easily enough, she punches each individual letter into an address line pulled up on the app, along with a brief message before hitting send.

with a fwip of message sent, and the pleasant ding of message received on his device, under the name clarke reads: )

What do you think chances are these are being monitored?

[worthallthis]

Well, there's no handlers here, so no, that's not in the plan.

Even more so, though, he grounds out uncomfortably: "I don't. Do that anymore." He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to. There's no one here to tell him he can't want that.

Even if he's about 60% sure there's a Chair here somewhere, so there might actually be someone here who can tell him he can't want that. He just hasn't found them yet. To possibly shoot them. Maybe. That's not the same, right?

[businessorlibation]

"Good on you for getting out, then."

Johnny's still trying to figure out what to make of the asset, but he hears something in his tone that sounds like struggle, like determination. If there's one thing Johnny Summer knows, it's the importance of being able to make your own choices and not let someone tell you who you are.

"You know, you might as well come in properly, if you want. Have a seat on the couch or something. Now that we've decided we're not shooting one another."

[worthallthis]

[That, at least, is not something the makers of these photos tried to do: he is not smiling in any of them he's found so far. He isn't sure what his face would even look like, smiling.

He keeps glancing at the one on his screen out of the corner of his eye, like expecting it to change. Or expecting someone to come swooping down from HYDRA to punish him for being on there at all.]

Yes. And people who aren't passengers.

[He has maybe done a thorough canvassing of the ship before washing up here to panic at his own face, trying to count and memorize the people here.]

[mewchan]

You can count on me, emo big bro! I'll ask you lots of questions, woof!

[ In fact, he won't even wait around, already fingerpecking one key at a time. He'll be slow enough Zouichi should have plenty of time to start wandering the ship before Gin's first message arrives. ]

1...2...3...Go! Get ready for my quiz, meow! What's your favorite animal?

[ This is a quiz now. There are wrong answers. ]

[worthallthis]

There's another hesitation, but he does finally step inside, and tuck the pistol away again in its holster at his thigh. He eyes the couch like it might bite him, and stands by the door instead. "I wasn't going to shoot you. Anyway."