sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

Entry tags:

!tdm

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.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ u better not get my hopes up

but damn this is. it's not really awkward, but it's definitely a little off. Shenhe's off, and this entire conversation feels like an exercise in How to Talk to People.

he laughs, the sound bright and conversational. ]

You're so polite, it's almost suspicious. I'm starting to think you might be one of those mountain-dwellers.

[ an adeptus, in other words. given her manner of speech and her awkward delivery, it would make sense. ]

And I've surmised as much from the people I've run into. They all seem to be from entirely different places. It's rather interesting, all things considered.

Claudia does not eat food, and in fact the smell of meat cooking is deeply repulsive to her: but she has certainly played pretend at dimly-lit dinners. She might do so again. So she shakes her head, blonde curls rustling. "We ate earlier...but I am hungry."

Not so hungry she can't play pretend for Kore, be something like a child...but she will definitely need to find either a mortal or an animal to feed on before the sun rises. Preferably an unsuspecting human. They taste so much better than animals.

[ will they play? Zhongli is actually quite curious if they will. Rochelle is thinking out of the box, he likes that! ]

You may be on to something.

Claudia is rather cool to the touch - she's dead, after all, and generally runs to room temperature unless she's killed recently. Being touched without permission sets off her temper, her New Orleans accent getting a fraction stronger.

"I will not. I want to see what happens. I've never seen a ghost before."

She steps back, sharp and precise, skirts rustling.

[If Zoro's going to just give him what he wants, then he'll have to respond in kind! A heavy stomp sets his legs ablaze as his opponent bites down around Wadou Ichimonji. His teeth grind around his cigarette. He stays silent. Then, Zoro charges.

Sanji wields his freshly spawned flames in a brilliant arc, kicking the exploding pieces of shattered table into ash before fluidly transitioning into a hand stand. He needs both legs and all the momentum he can achieve to take Zoro's strength head on, so he continues the arc from earlier. His body spins with all the fervor of a fire dancer owning their stage until boot meets blade meets blade meets blade. The abrupt halt is signaled by a cacophony of flying sparks and protesting floor boards, all strained to the limit under the two fighters' stalemated forces.]

You couldn't kill me if you tried. [He asserts firmly but without raising his voice.] And I'm not convinced you truly wanna try. So? Feeling better, or should we take this up to the deck for round two? What do those shitty muscles of yours think?

( the lint is the least of clarke's worries, and absolutely not the source of her confusion as she looks between the candy — tries to follow literally any of the logic behind it's supposed properties (medicinal and analgesic make absolute sense, but that doesn't change the fact she's never heard of this type of pain killer that apparently moonlights as a snack) — and rita's face.

to that first question, there's a brief shake of the head. then curiosity can't be restrained, and she's muttering — ) Why would you... ( give that to me, but clarke trails off, successfully distracted by that second question. )

We don't use physical labor past what's required to gather supplies. Everything runs on electricity, gasoline, or thermonuclear power. With that last one being the most powerful.

( hence the absolute devastation rained down on the entire planet — and clarke griffin's face — with the reactors all melted down. literal scorched earth. )

2B. [Any Location] How do vacation; can you eat it?

One minute, César had been at work, doing things that made his heart sick. The next, he woke up in a room that wasn't his own. He read the note, bewildered. Bewilderment is joined by alarm when he can only go to the muster drill, during it, and after.

But he hides that by being quiet, expression only mildly worried. He watches the other people react normally. César knew this sort of thing is possible; it's not a worry. Instead, he worries about all the things left undone back home.

Ten minutes later, César regains his resolve, face set and determined as he begins a brisk walk. He doesn't know what's going on. So his first order of business is to memorize the layout of the ship and learn what else he can.

... Unfortunately, as careful as he tries to be while looking around and walking quickly, it's quite possible he might accidentally bump into someone at any point in the ship. Or, well, appear suspicious. It's not his fault he looks good in a goatee and quiff, all right?

2B. [Atrium] This, clearly, was not how to vacation; whoops

César's grateful he kept up with the gym. But even with that, he's definitely spent the last several hours exploring the large ship from top to bottom. While forgetting to do important things like drink water or eat anything, such was his hyper-focus. Such was his hyper-focus back on Earth, too, as he had drunk only coffee and water.

Several mistakes were made.

He'd be laughing at himself if he wasn't just dizzy and fatigue enough that flopping onto a comfortable seat in the atrium is about all he can muster. Right. All his physical cues to eat and drink were left at home.

César isn't the type to ask for help, but he's clearly not feeling too hot right now. Not badly so, but enough that someone could help him recover a bit faster before taking care of things himself.

3. [Library] Who gets in trouble if the library itself is loud?

Still not sure what to do about this, César decides to unload the problem onto his subconscious self. Which means distracting his conscious self. Books are a good distraction, especially since it's been forever since he's read one.

And it'll be a while longer, because the moment he reaches for an interesting sounding title, another flies from the shelf takes aim for his head. It misses because of the bad angle. The second book that flies off gets him right in the shoulder.

César dives behind a solid looking chair, peeks out from behind it, and then ducks back down when another book takes aim for his head.

Get Out.

César's eyes widen, his body stiffens. He even winces as another couple of books whizz by his chair. Yet, his voice is eerily calm. "Oh. This can't be good."

[The producer shrugs, then steps back and gives it a moment.

It's a good thirty seconds before anything happens. Then - a fork appears, floating and drenched in ketchup. Likely done out of sight. Rochelle blinks. Before she can decide whether this was a bad idea or not, the fork floats in front of the grid and starts to "draw".

With an O.]

Holy shit, I was onto something.

[Just one "O" for now ~~because I don't feel like writing out a whole game of tic tac toe~~ but it's something!]

Oh. Rochelle blinks again, then brings her hand back and holds it up in a vague sign of surrender. No touching, alright.

"I get it, but - uh. Maybe we can watch them from somewhere where we DON'T get attacked, alright?"

And you think the Northland Bank is just going to disappear overnight, is that it?

[ it was practically the Fatui base of operations and he knows for a fact that there are still operatives roaming the mountainsides. at least, that was knowledge he'd been made aware of prior to his departing the city. though nowadays he's unsure what it might have become, with the Liyue Qixing extracting reparations for the harbor.

the casino itself is definitely something he's never really had much experience with, although he's familiar enough with the nature of cards to recognize a few of the games being dealt. there are a few people already seated at tables here and there in a small semi-circle, tapping for hits or else flipping up the smallest edges of their cards as though wary of someone sneaking a peek. the shuffling of casino chips is a monotonous white noise to the whole room, easily able to drown out the mutters and murmurs of those engrossed in their games.

it's absolutely boring. ]

I don't think that's something I can answer. I don't speak for Her; I am only a means to Her ends.

[ it's said with the utmost conviction, as if this is something that has been ingrained in him since birth. ]

As for my being calm... how else do you expect me to act? Do I seem like the type to start screaming and throwing a fit when thrown headlong into unknown danger? Really, Zhongli. I thought we were friends.

[excuse you cook how dare you call him out like that. It's true - he can't go as wild as he would on land or an enemy ship, else he would have. It's not like he's suppressing anything, gosh...

He's mad, though, especially when he finds himself seriously blocked and then taunted, and grits his teeth hard on Wadou's hilt]

I was having a perfectly good dinner until you barged in, shit-cook! Whatever, I can kill you anytime I want if you're so keen to die. It doesn't have to be here and now.

[though, he doesn't quite back down fully, just shoving his swords against Sanji's shoes to throw him off and then point with Enma]

You're the one who asked for it. You don't get to change your mind.

Kore could use friends, she'd had some in the villa, and a one in the Follower's Camp, one in Caeser, and a few among the Rebels. The idea of being here without friends was a kind of heartache she didn't want to face.

"Kore. You are called?" She's been too long among the Rebels to not introduce herself by now but she'd learned there could be reasons to conceal one's identity.

Kore? Diana's eyes lit up like the lights on a pinball machine. "As in the goddess of spring?"

If ever Diana had a patron goddess, Arty always joked it would have to be Persephone. The goddess of springtime and flowers, forever associated with the dead? That was Diana to a T.

The York sisters always made jokes like that. A residual carryover from having the father they'd had. For all of Adam's faults and flaws--and there were many--he had given his girls a classical education. And they used it.

Diana grinned, holding out her hand. "I'm Diana."

Sounds confusing, if wonderful. So much to learn and see. [ Her education was probably the best gift she'd ever been granted and it had given her a hunger for it. ]

I would be pleased to know what they are. [ She's wearing a long rectangle artfully and carefully wrapped around her body with just one tie. She's not going to judge what people wear - she's comfortable and the fabric is expensively woven. She'd know, she tallied the bills. ]

You presume this is such a perfect world? [ Being a high-status slave was protection in Rome, and having a master like her's provided well for her as well - better than she could have being free and likely better than she could have as a citizen now, much less when her family was carted from Gaul. But being free, safe, well-fed, and protected was better still. ]

"We'll see if we can locate some delicacy for you then." Because she could only assume what she carried wasn't it, or the child would have asked. Manners or no - children could be demanding, and the younger and more noble they were the more they demanded from people of her station. Not that she cared - she enjoyed caring for others, and offering them something to eat was among the most simple.

"Do you know your room?" Kore had noticed they were numbered.

Like re-animating the dead?

[N. Brio snorts and knocks back the rest of his drink.]

Oh no. Our tests were mostly on animals, enhancing intelligence and whatnot. The standard things that come with making an army to take over the world.

Kore smiled warmly and nodded, she had indeed been named after that Goddess, as was common for Romans to give their slaves Greek or Roman names.

"Goddess of the Hunt." Kore was much more familiar with that goddess than the one she was named after. "Matching patterns of names must mean the Parcae have ordained us to be friends?"

Parcae? Diana tilted her head, impressed. It was an interesting way of phrasing it. Most people referred to them as the Moirai. Or, if they were Disney fans, the Fates.

This chick knew her stuff.

"Could be," she said, letting her hand fall to one side. Not everyone was a handshaker. She respected that. "Although, between you and me, I'm not really much of a hunter." Although Joseph used to jokingly call her 'little huntress.' Mostly just to annoy her. Before she realized that she loved him.

Oi! [He snarls as Zoro throws him off balance, and he's the one forced to take the first step back. Damn swordsman. He is not keen to die, no matter how many times he stupidly dumps himself into the martyr role. Honest!] If I wanted to die, I would have asked Nami-san to bury me in her sweet, angelic embrace! Being escorted to hell by some muscle-bound marimo would be torture! You're insurance, got it, bastard? Nothing but insurance!

[Because Zoro is the only one who would never, ever allow him to harm another member of the crew again. No matter his reasons. He still hasn't explained that bit though. He probably isn't going to.

He plucks the cigarette from his lips, raises it to meet Enma's razer sharp point.]

So there's no reason to change my mind. We can resume this whenever the hell you need to.

[Introducing the most roundabout, offensive way anyone has ever said: "Please help me."]

[Zoro holds for an extremely long moment before lowering Enma and taking the third sword from his mouth. As long as they're mutually agreed to put it on hold, he can do so without looking weak, but he sure isn't taking his one good eye off Sanji for a few more minutes.]

You promised me a good time, so no take-backs.

[insurance for what, though? There's so many unaswered questions here and he might be daring enough to ask them if his overall confusion remains high. Still. Battle on hold for now, swords go away one by one with a little huff of finality.]

Right. Go back to getting me another drink, I was empty last I remember.

[has he even noticed food and drink just coming out of the walls?]

Ahaha - friends close, enemies closer, et cetera. I was hoping to use that multiverse fiasco as a way to d-d-destroy him myself!

[He proceeds to laugh in a comedically evil manner. Definitely not a bad guy, nope.]

Ahem. I still have some t-t-testing to do though, it seems. Anyway - whatever happened to her is inconsequential, I suppose. She hasn't caused any trouble that I'm aware of.

[She's been told she shouldn't snack on them, but Rita's quite confident that there are no negative side effects (sure, it's the not-insignificant dent in their funds that annoys the others, but when has that stopped her?).

Anyway, the discussion also has Rita's attention more than insisting the gel's fine, what are you waiting for. Electricity she recognizes, but not the latter two--and there's that nuclear again, which reminds her that Clarke seems to be using the term to mean something specific.]

"Nuclear"... You mentioned that before...or something related, I presume.

[Her eyes flicker to the burns again.]

If it's not magic, what is it?

She knew her Gods well and would be sad to know so few knew them now. There was comfort in the ritual of prayer and sacrifice.

Kore had completely missed the meaning of the gesture of the handshake, as she didn't know what it was. "And I prefer city over meadow," she admitted with a small laugh.

"Oh, totes," Diana said, waggling her eyebrows. "Cities have it all over everything else." Cities had people. And people were much more entertaining than flowers.

Then, of course, there was the dreaded Midwest, which Diana absolutely loathed.

This girl, though, definitely wasn't a Midwesterner.

"So where ya from, Kore?" she asked, absently twisting the ring on her left hand, like she always did when she wasn't sure what else to do with her hands. "I'm getting a European vibe off of ya."

Kore started to lead towards the dining rooms, thinking the lines and rows of food would be best to show first. "This ship appears as floating city, not unlike confusing dream."

As she lead, Diana would get a view of her back - largely bare save for the artful twisting and draping of her dress, notable for its lack of joining seams, clearly made from one piece of fabric and embroidery. "Rome. I was born in Gaul, but I have no memory of it, taken into Italia when I was very young. Rome being the first place I remember."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 52 of 102

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

César Salazar | Generator Rex | OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject