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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The joke was lost, but it was hardly the first time one of Diana's jokes had fallen flat. It didn't help that she had a pair of sisters who--between the two of them--had roughly no sense of humor at all.

But she let it go without comment.

"Yeah," she said. "Totally lost." The lay of the land wasn't much different from your average mall. But the fact that she was on a boat at all was pretty...lost.

Add to that the spiritual disappointment that had completely consumed her in Phoenix. And yes. Definitely lost.

--It's fine.

[She mutters it quickly. She's still awkward when it comes to apologizing and dealing with others' apologies. But it's not this girl's fault for not knowing.

For a moment, Rita's distracted by the burns that are on her hands too--even as the more serious ones have been practically staring her in the face the whole time--though she answers the question.]

...Yeah, that's pretty much it. As far as I know, there's currently no such thing as magic that can control someone's mind.

By the way...are you doing anything about...all that?

[She vaguely waves a hand towards Clarke's face.]

Reality is totally different from fairy tales, you know.

And even if there's a lot that doesn't make sense right now, that's only because we don't have enough information. Once we do, there'll be a reasonable explanation behind all this.

[Yes. It has to be this way. Rita's insistence is not at all denial!]

( she hadn't exactly stopped in her cabin to stare at herself in the mirror, but clarke's watched enough people burn to death because of radiation in the air to know she probably looks horrible. every stretch of her skin hurt, it's painful to swallow, and it's only the adrenaline thruming through her veins that she's still managed to stay upright and active. )

The woman who welcomed us — ( yanno, the terrifying faceless person that seemed all too excited about their kidnapping. ) — gave me a salve and some bandages.

( they're actually in the pocket of her hazmat suit, and clarke absently pulls a small jar and a tight bundle of gauze out as if to demonstrate. but the look on her face is one of guarded disdain. under the textbook definition of distrust, would be a picture of her blistered, red face making the exact same expression. )

But I don't think I'm going to use it. I don't know what's in it. And anyway, I lived — I'm sure I'll heal.

[Rochelle looks up from her food and raises a brow.]

Like this is some conspiratorial shit?

[Don't get her wrong: she's listening.]

[ Tabia nods, and looks over the railing at the ocean. ] It's amazing, isn't it? I feel like I can see the edge of the world.

[ That's hyperbole. Tabia does know the world is round, at least in theory. ]

Tell me about Rome.

Oh, she knows the heartbeat of fear - and how odd. Has he met one of her kind before? Claudia wonders, and answers.

"In our room, but I can't find him now. He went out."

Half of it a lie, honestly, but only half. Claudia had last seen Louis in their hotel room...in Paris. Dressed in far finer clothes than this man....and the cut is all very strange. Unfamiliar fabrics, unfamiliar shapes, as this is all unfamiliar and yet not. Maybe he's a laborer, a common kind of worker.

Those make for hearty meals. He might yet.

"In our room. He went out." Half a lie, and Claudia adds onto it, easily, artfully. She's an old hand at lies, and people tend to think a child incapable of falsehood, somehow. "He went out, and I can't find him."

Another slow step towards the woman, careful, as though frightened.

[A cursory glance from Kara confirms the life-vest has been properly secured. She's caught off-guard, though, by the little girl apparently studying her. Something she should be well accustomed to, but when you're trying to remain incognito, that's simply the last thing you want.]

O-oh. Well, in that case, it's good that she was able to show you what to do. [She can accept that.] I just thought that you seemed... nervous. That's all.

"Yes," Claudia answers, softly....vaguely, because the art of lying is one she's well-practised in. She learned from Lestat, after all, master of lies told and omitted. "But now I can't find him."

Crossing her arms as if to hold herself, poking out that tiny lower lip, careful not to reveal her fangs. Little shell-pink lips, in her marble-white face: pale from not feeding, cold and hungry.

But she is not so hungry she can't think, and indeed, she is thinking: of Lestat, using all his charms to make a woman love him utterly, the dalliances with his victims, until he drained them to death. Of Armand, and the boy he'd kept, locked away safe in the heart of a vampire coven. Of Madeleine, wild for a child that would not die, broken irreparably by grieving the little girl she'd lost. Claudia doesn't understand mortal passions, but she reads that faltering.

"I don't like being alone."

Edited (what is tense) 2022-02-22 03:42 (UTC)

He stares at the offered hand for a long moment with clear hesitation. He knows this. He's seen it done. He has no idea how to actually do it, himself. Techs weren't exactly shaking hands with HYDRA's weapon. And he doesn't actually want to start now.

But he's pretty sure it's going to look really weird if he just keeps staring at it. So he lifts his hand, reluctantly, and puts it into Ravi's. The shake is slow and careful, the next best thing to limp lest he go too far the other way and crush the poor man's hand, and there's only one, before he hastily steps back again. He resists the urge to immediately wipe his hand on his pants, feeling sweaty from just that moment of contact.

"You're welcome. Try to keep an eye on your surroundings. When you're not in your cabin."

[She's frowning a little now—smile a thing of the past—with a worried look slowly growing. Nell grabs a hold of his face in her hands, mostly just to... To keep him there.]

Luke, listen to me. That wasn't you. That house... [She shakes her head a little.] Steve is right, in a way. It is the sickness that's plaguing our family. [She started to see through the curtains it put in front of the mold just as the house tried to finish what it started. It just kinda sucked that she had to see it the way she did.

But there's another bit of information she now latches onto, her hands slipping down onto his chest. Her fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt, just enough to have something to cling to.] Luke... Did... [Nell bites her lip, she doesn't want to say it either. But she has to.] Did I slip off the top of the stairs in that house?

...

[ Called out, which isn't all that difficult when it's Fio. She's a bad liar. An audible pause, as if to indicate that the woman was correct in her assumption. Though no matter how obvious it is, Fio will deflect. ]

I'm fine!

[ This time spoken with more cheer in her voice. She smiles, despite their current circumstances. Everything is fine, even if they are all suddenly on a strange ship. ]

What about you? Oh, my name's Fio by the way.

I know.

[ The words are quiet, because he knows it was the house, the damn thing got its claws in and tore them apart piece by piece and he didn't choose, but it doesn't feel like less of a failure for that. She told him to stay away, didn't she?

But the rest of her words....he can't look at her. His head drops, gaze lowered, darting, looking anywhere but at her as he forces his answer out, voice cracking now. ]

They said...They said you hung yourself.

[ His hand reaches up to rub at the back of his neck reflexively. Because he'd known, he'd known the moment she woke him up with it, but he hadn't been able to acknowledge it until he saw her after. ]

I know it wasn't you though. It happened but you didn't do it.

"So am I. It's been two sunrises but it both seems much less, and much more. I have found places for food, however, which I could should you if you wanted?" Water had been Kore's priority, then food, followed by toilets and making her way back to her cell. She's been able to do that much even if she didn't know what to do with the glass device near her bed, so she simply ignored it.

I hadn't thought of it in terms of those but yes, it's extraordinary. Watching the stars on the water is like something from a dream.

[ Kore's been taught the theory as well, but it's something she's needed to use. ]

It's a vast city and never quiet, you can almost always smell smoke and cooking on the air or perfume from a temple. There are more people than I can begin to put a number to. I lived in a large villa of my Dominius, with his wife and their two sons and the other slaves of the household. [ There was no point in hiding it. ]
I've been there many years, I was born in Gaul, but have no memory of it or my life before Rome. The very poor of Roma live in crowded wooden apartments and there are often fires, one is how I came into the Household of Marcus Crassus, when he bought an engulfed property. You'll find the markets larger than some cities and just as densely populated. Anything you could ever want can be found there.

If he rolled his eyes any harder they would have rolled right out of his skull. "Do the poltergeists make your bloody shitehole of a pisspot hotel any less of a hotel, hmm? How is this place any different?" And God, please, nothing would please him more than her just trying to convince him that the hotel isn't haunted. What's she going to tell him? It just has flareups in paranormal activities on several days ending in -y?

"It's not any different from what I do everyday. Don't blame the ghosts for your incompetence," he quips. Clearly if he can deal with one or three hundred annoying lost souls, it's her fault that she can't enjoy her time on board the ship.

It does indeed. [He's never had the utter frustration that comes with dealing with silk, so he wouldn't know.]

T-shirt and jeans, I suppose? I'm not an average bloke. [And for once he's not actually making any sexual innuendos. He's aware that he's perfectly comfortable in his sloppy semi-work-looking wear, and he doesn't wear clothes that a lot of other people around him enjoy lounging around in.]

People grow used to the abuse. Sounds to me like you've spent too long huffing those fancy folks' farts. [He gives her a few reassuring little pats on the forearm.] Not to worry, little bird. You'll have more than a little taste of freedom on board this magnificent lady, [He's referring to the ship of course, but it might sound like he's talking about another person.] and then you'll wean yourself off of him in no time. If you see either of those wankers on board, let me know alright? I'll give them hell.

"Unfortunate." An understatement but Kore has learned being calm means children are often calm. "What appearance does your father have? What are your names?" Her's and her father's. Kore's English which she somehow speaks and tries not to think too much on, does have strange syntax on occasion due to how Latin grammar worked.

"I don't either, I can't imagine too many do. Do you want to stay with me until we find your father?" No mother or nurse, she can only guess at why but of course she'd want her father, Kore thinks. Who wouldn't want their family?

Are their arts spread through the world? [ He's not from there, or Rome, and seems from far away as such, she can only guess it much be widespread knowledge. ]

What are those? [ A t-shirt she'd parse as a short-sleeved, short-lengthed tunic. Jeans would just seem strange to her. ] Then you are? [ How one defines himself is important. ]

No, Marcus values people who work hard and skilled in their tasks. I was educated alongside his firstborn, and I'm often called on to assist in deliveries, even those of his youngest. We're always well-fed, our part of the villa kept as warm or cool as the rest, he doesn't tolerate others mistreating us. Even beyond what some would consider proper, such as when Hilarus struck Tiberius to teach lesson, even to drawing blood. It was lesson which needed taught. More severe one likely. Many citizens live ten to a room, the same size I share with two, or all but starve. Fire is a constant fear. Even if I was freed, by law Marcus would have to continue to provide some level of support for me. It's common for high-status slaves to want to stay, as it's a better position than starving or being killed in the streets. [ Better the slave of a kind master who can afford to take care of you, than free and poor and at the mercy of others while begging or trying to scrape a living by. ] Tiberius or Domina I'd care not to see. But if it's Publius, he's only a little boy. I'll allow him to wander alone.

Food was kind of an enormous concern for Diana. Mostly because she didn't want to get to the point of having to start chewing on the passengers. Not cool. Not only because it was, you know, cruel, but because she knew the math well enough to understand that a population this size probably wouldn't be able to sustain much of a Cainite presence. Maybe in the short term, but definitely not in the longer.

Still, forgetting all of that, Diana really did kind of want a friend right now.

"Sure," she said, shifting the strap of her guitar up on her shoulder. "Lead the way...uh. Sorry. Manners. Totes a thing. I don't even know your name! What is it?"

[Rita makes her own frown of distaste--both at the mention of the no-face and the suspect salve.]

Yeah, I wouldn't trust anything from them. At least you don't look like you're about to pass out or anything...

[Not that Rita has, like, any medical expertise. She's had enough experimental mishaps to have seen a few burns in her life, but not ones this bad (that weren't immediately dispelled by her friend's magic, anyway).]

Well, I'm no doctor or healer, but why don't you try some real medicine?

[Even if Rita isn't exactly the most charitable person, she can't ignore the injury, so she pulls a small red gummy candy from her pocket.

It's fuzzy with lint.]

...You do recognize these, right?

"And you didn't listen when he told you to stay put? Can't blame you. I never liked being cooped up when I was little either." Tonks shrugs and takes a step forward. "Why don't you turn around and we'll follow those petals back." She had a good feeling they would lead her somewhere. Maybe not to the little girl's room but somewhere.

No. I spend much of my life in the mountains.

[You know the ones. Not those other mountains.

Slowly, she nods.]

No, I am. [From Liyue, that is. She's doing her best.] My name is Shenhe. And you are...?

[...

It's so much easier to talk to people when she knows them, and this conversation isn't like many she's had before so it's not like she knows what to expect. Most people she's met have treated her so differently then him, as well. It's all so odd but it almost reminds her of the Traveler, somehow. He doesn't regard her as an adeptus and isn't treating her like she's something she's not... Hopefully it's a trend that continues in this place. It won't exactly make her happy to be here, but there's something undeniably appealing about just being Shenhe.]

[She recognizes him, of course. She's seen him countless times outside of her Master's abode, even if she had always tried to listen to her Master and give him a respectful distance. Seeing him here is a bit of a surprise, but she supposes there's no reason that people she knows would end up here alongside with her.]

These ones are real.

[She may or may not have put a plastic flower in her mouth. Who can say?]

They taste the same as the herbs back home...

[So they must be just as nutritious, right?

She hesitates, though, because she knows she should listen to her elders... They know more then she does, and considering how many times she's seen him and he looked the same as he does now, he must be quite old... And he's someone her Master holds in high regard, so she'd probably nag at Shenhe if she ignored his advice... If the bird shows up and finds out about this, she'd never hear the end of it.]

A lot of the food here doesn't look anything like what I've seen in Liyue, though, so I'm not if any of it is all that healthy...

[She sounds like a child. Sorry, Zhongli.]

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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/quietly breaks hearts

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It hurts so muchhhh

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