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

[lightconductor]

Watson stands, and he reaches to take César's hand. He squeezes gently, then releases.

"If I remind you of your father, I'll take that as a compliment," he says. "I'm sorry, César. I've had enough grief in my life that I know it fades with time, though it never truly leaves you. Some things, I think, you carry your whole life."

[pineapplesalmon]

The gentle squeeze of his hand is surprisingly effective. It's not much. But it's more than two men that are strangers typically would show each other. Knowing one stranger can be so kind to another, can just care about another human being for being human still. It helps.

"Good, because it is. He was a good man that I hope I'll be like some day." He makes room for the man to gather his cane, and he nods, body posture a bit more relaxed, the emotions on his face not hidden away, even if they've gentled to slowly lapping waves and there's a gentle smile on his face. "I do not doubt this is one such thing."

César picks up his water bottle again then gestures down the hall. "My room is down this way. ... and if you ever need a listening ear, please do come find me. I've always been a good listener. People are fascinating and emotions are important, even if I understand neither all that well. We've learned in my time that talking helps, and that it isn't against being a man to do so. I'm honestly impressed you understand so much despite living before many of the discoveries I base my own knowledge off of."

Shut up, brain. He knows he's being a hypocrite. There's no choice back home.

1.

[reciprocate]

[ this situation is nonsensical at best, and itto is bored out of his mind. his more recalcitrant nature is reined back, at least; a few passengers already earned their mini stare-down, a slight invasion of personal space from the nearly faceless friday herself, and he'd rather not be on the receiving end of that to begin with.

he moves to mirror the demonstration, life vest fitting snug around his torso, before he promptly removes the thing, plopping it down onto the floor, once friday departs, deciding to hassle somebody else. by then, itto catches the question, the curious observation of a stranger. is this hell? feels more like a kidnapping to him. ]

Huh? You look pretty alive to me. Don't you got a pulse? [ he's almost tempted to check for his own, but decides against it. there's no way they're dead. ]

[myagic]

[Well, sure, Rita has some capability for diplomacy. Some. When she really feels like it. But most of the time, a fireball is just so much easier, and a far quicker method.

Jade continues to sound like he's enjoying everything way too much, and it's exactly that continuing amicability that makes Rita suspicious he's poking fun at her. Either way, she wants absolutely nothing to do with any mention of floating items or any haunting hour, which she's going to pointedly ignore--again!]

What--hey, since when are we doing anything?! Don't be such a creep! Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?

[Jade, you don't want to get slotted into the old pervert category, do you?]

[skaikru]

( solid defensive body language, rita. it's enough that clarke will pause any further advances, content they're close enough for her quiet words to be conspiratorial, yet not easily ignored. )

Dead people don't come back to life where I'm from either. I don't know about you, but this place is nothing like my home. It might do you more good to stretch your definition of impossible until we're proven otherwise.

( that last part of rita's complaint is legit though. not dying is a great idea — again, in case friday was wrong or willfully lying. so yeah, sure, stay alive. )

[scarredhorns]

[The man's horns are the first things that Lucy's eyes are drawn to. They're red, and more slender and pointier compared to her white ones, which very much resemble cat ears.

As for his asking her whether or not she has a pulse, Lucy makes a "tch" sound.]

Well, believe me when I say I wasn't looking, or feeling, very alive moments before. [At least, it felt as though it had only been moments before. She has no idea how much time has passed between her death and her waking up in the cabin.] My body was destroyed beyond repair.

[fonomena]

[It's true that a lot of things would probably be easier if you could just solve them with arson...time and place, though, time and place! Hopefully Rita can still put her fireball diplomacy to proper use sometime soon...

But, well! That's three instances of very deliberate avoidance addressing all things spectral, which is quite enough for Jade to be wholly sure about the obvious: that this young lady is at least just as averse to ghosts as Tear, if not more so! Ah, though he probably didn't need to needle about it quite this much, to actually be sure about that. Rita's suspicions are right on the money, after all--he's definitely having just a bit too much fun at her expense, now. Look, it's just hard to resist sometimes, when some people make it so easy...!

Still, there are probably limits to the chances of having an actual productive conversation like this, and it would seem they're hitting that point about now, huh? Jade lowers the book again with a shrug and an airy sigh.]

Oh, my apologies--there I go, assuming things! Here I'd thought you might be just as interested in this ship's mysterious crew as I am...but I see now that I must have been mistaken.

[Really, was the suggestion bad enough to gain "creep" status already?? Way to cut deep! (Not that it seems to actually bother him at all. Which surely has nothing to do with the fact that this isn't even the first time he's ever been called creepy in his life, rip...) No, he'll have to pass on filling in the Raven-shaped hole in your life, Rita...]

Now that you mention it, I suppose I still haven't even introduced myself, have I? What a terrible first impression I must be making! [Jade please, as if you haven't been 100% fully aware of the kind of impression you've been making up to this point--but there does seem to be the slightest shift in the gears of his demeanor, now, something in the straightening of his shoulders and a nigh-imperceptible adjustment in his tone. Still unflappingly cheery, but maybe also slightly less humored now? Slightly.] Colonel Jade Curtiss, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces. And yourself?

[reciprocate]

[ there's that fox lady, the general with those ears and tail back in inazuma; itto's accustomed to varying attributes that sets someone apart from the rest — on top of the fact that he hangs out with social misfits, fellow outcasts no one else would care much for. so while he acknowledges them, the little horns on her head, he doesn't make a fuss about it. he obviously sticks out more, probably in the worst way to boot. but if the entire cruise could hear what she had to say, everything about him may as well pale in comparison. ]

... I don't get it. It makes no sense to me, but... I'll believe ya. Gotta be some kind of top-class actor to pull off a reaction like that, and it doesn't seem like you're tryin' to pull anybody's leg around here.

[ visibly confused, itto's still processing her words. his hand finds a spot against the back of his head, fingers briefly toying with the strands of his hair there as if the act alone would help his brain buffer a little faster than this. ]

But hey, you're here now. Think that's better than bein' gone for good. [ despite the fact that this isn't home for either of them. ]

[scarredhorns]

[In contrast, Lucy's world didn't have such a vast humanoid population. There were only the normal humans and the Diclonii, except most humans were fearful of her kind. There was no variety of horns among the Diclonii either; they all had the cat-ear-like shape, so to see another horned being is a surprise for Lucy. Unfortunately, it's not a big enough surprise to clear up her sour mood so easily.]

Why would I try to trick someone that way? I'm not the type to seek out attention.

[She hated being the center of attention, especially since most of the kind she did get was negative. From the bullies she grew up with to the adults at the institute who only wanted to experiment on her, or even kill her.

Despite how he tries to say something encouraging, Lucy's expression doesn't brighten up at all. She looks off to the side, shaking her head.]

I don't know... I was fully prepared to die. [To give up everything.] I'm not sure how I should feel, but I guess - It's not like I've got anything better to do either way.

[A small pause before she introduces herself.]

Anyway, I'm Lucy.

[It's not her real name, and really - since she's dead, there's no reason for her to hide her real name. However, calling herself by her real name still feels strange, just because she's a far cry from that little girl. Plus using an alias helps with putting up her protective walls, whereas giving out her real name so casually kind of makes her feel vulnerable. And Lucy hates feeling vulnerable.]

[fonomena]

[Alas, short and more difficult to chop into nickname-shaped bits indeed. Though Fio should most definitely come up with some kind of fun nickname for him anyway; she might just have the honor of being the first to try! (Though he has had small creatures nicknamed after him, to be fair...looks at Jade the rappig....he's still going to throttle the man responsible for that one of these days, but don't worry about that! anyway--)

The small nibble of a loaf is caught from the corner of an eye, but Jade makes a fine show of not noticing anyhow; since this isn't a royal banquet, or anything else half as important, there seems little point in getting too fussed about things like buffet decorum. Besides, Fio seems to be having another bout of hesitation at the mention of parents--one that stretches too long to make the eventual answer particularly convincing, huh? Not that he doesn't believe her parents aren't here--but Jade knows the cadence of that sort of phrasing pretty well, now doesn't he? The sort of answer one musters for a half-truth.

Of course, the possible answers as to exactly what she's opting to leave out could be all manner of things. His own thoughts automatically fall to the most common worst-case scenario he's tended to run into, in his line of work: that her parents are perhaps no longer among the living, and maybe haven't been for a little while, if the state of her clothes and her evident hunger are anything to go by. Naturally, even he's not about to try prying too much further into that...but it does elicit--a slight sigh, on his part, coupled with the briefest pause of his hand over the ladle of a container of salad dressing. Not just because the general topic of very small orphaned children is always a rather unpleasant thing--though it certainly is--but also because this does answer a few more of his questions in the wings on its own, too. Namely: that whoever might be responsible for placing people upon this ship is truly indiscriminate about who might be picked up, with no consideration whatsoever applied to those that might need more supervision and care. Like children...

My, this mysterious entity is assuredly getting less likeable by the hour!

Still, these are thoughts sorted through his head in rapid succession; in reality it's only a brief moment's pause, on Jade's part, before he's taking up the ladle under his hand properly.]

I see...thank you for answering. [His tone and expression, at least, remain about the same--slightly more thoughtful, but not exactly visibly bothered, by any metric. Dressing acquired, Jade can straighten to regard Fio properly again, as she moves on to the apparently much less tentative topic of a friend she does have.] So your friend is a brave sort, is that right? People often tell me I'm a rather scary person sometimes, you see! But I might be getting ahead of myself here. [Joking? Kind of?? He's smiling when he says it...? (Then again, it's not like he's actively trying to be scary at the moment. Let's call that a half-truth of his own! Back on topic, though:)] You don't think he's here...as you haven't seem him yet, right? But I don't know if I'd give up so easily! There's always a chance he could be somewhere else on this ship and you've just not run into each other yet, don't you think? Perhaps I could keep an eye out for him too, after this meal.

[--Huh. Actually, even Jade's not sure why he's pursuing this vein of conversation quite like this all of a sudden. Generally speaking, reuniting complete strangers wouldn't sit particularly high on his list of priorities, and it'd be quite easy enough to gloss along to other topics here. Maybe the probable-orphan notion is sitting a bit heavier than expected? ...Hm, no time to think too hard on it right now...]

How would you describe your friend? Would anything about him stand out in a crowd?

[worthallthis]

He glances aside again, at the edges of the helmet's faceplate, feeling something probably similar. He's never met another asset before, but he's definitely getting that feeling now. ... weird.

"There are no seabirds, so we aren't close to land. I haven't seen any fish. There are. Strange things here. Besides the ghosts." The pictures of him on the tv screens, doing things he doesn't think he's ever done. None of the restaurants having actual kitchens. The completely impassible bulkhead and locked door to the bridge.

The weird noises the captain puts over the intercom each morning. Friday's lack of a face, without the courtesy of a helmet to explain it.

[skaikru]

( clarke is... alarmingly confused.

there comes a point where very little surprises a person anymore. new dangers? eh. new enemies? must be a tuesday. new near death experiences? also a tuesday. new losses and complications? that's any day that ends in a -y.

but she's never been on the receiving end of a complete stranger coming up to her, throwing their arms around her middle, and insisting that they were family. clarke's still processing the idea that she was actively succumbing to radiation poisoning on the floor of becca's lab a few hours ago, and can safely say she's never seen this child before that moment. the idea of alternating timelines, timeline distortion, and the very fabric of space ripping itself apart to bring people here hasn't fully formulated in her mind either, and the kneejerk reaction is suspicion.

simultaneously, there are aspects of her personality that can't even be undercut by the absolute emotional whiplash she's trying to process in this moment. the girl ⁠— madi? ⁠— looks absolutely distraught, and that tugs on her heartstrings. )

Hey. ( almost immediately softer. the hands on madi's shoulders also ease their grasp a bit, still holding a firm distance between them but no longer biting through layers of clothes with alarm. she is just a kid, albeit strange, unknown kid. )

Hey. It's okay. It's ⁠— I'm sorry, did you say six years since Praimfaya?

[lightconductor]

Watson gives a wry smile. That might be a little bit insulting coming from someone else, but he recognises that César means well by it. And Holmes has said worse to him over the breakfast table, anyway. "Though there might be many advances I lived too early to see myself," he says, "I nevertheless know a thing or two about being human. I extend the same offer to you, of course. I'm just along here in 102, myself."

[pineapplesalmon]

"Thank you. I will if I need someone." He means well by it, but also, he looks a bit embarrassed. "I didn't mean it quite like that... it's more like I had to binge on books and other media that aren't available in your time to get to a similar level of understanding. Understanding people has always eluded me."

A pause, then he rubs the back of his neck. "I've... suddenly forgotten my room number. I really am that tired. I'll just have to show you."

[lightconductor]

"It's quite all right," Watson assures him, unconcerned. "I shall save my fits of temper for when it matters." Which is generally a good rule to follow, he finds. He can certainly have a sharp temper, but it's definitely better saved for important occasions, when possible.
"We all have our strengths and weaknesses, after all. Please, lead the way."

[pineapplesalmon]

"I have a similar policy." César doesn't have much of a temper until he does. "I find my rare moments of anger flood my mind with energetic clarity, stripping away excess thoughts."

He does lead the way. "I've learned to accept most of my strengths and weaknesses."

[serialskiller]

"And only some of the other passengers are human." But the humans weren't necessarily harmless, and the non-humans were potentially in need of protection as well. Still, it was more unknowns, more blanks to be filled in. More that was just unfamiliar.

[lightconductor]

Watson laughs a bit at that. "I wish I felt my own anger was so productive. Rather more likely to get me into trouble, since that's when I stop thinking clearly. That's when I think like a soldier, which is sometimes appropriate in civilian life, but not always."

[pineapplesalmon]

César nods in understanding. "My baby brother is like that; he's impossible to reason with when he's mad. He's sixteen, so he's going to lose it even faster for a while until his body settles down again."

A wistful sort of sad-happiness, but he's mostly amused for the moment.

"I haven't seen him truly angry since he was a boy, though. We'll have to see if he still stomps around." Did he stomp around or is that bullshitting? It's César's big brotherly duty to never tell.

[myagic]

[Rita knows that with skill, determination, and the power of friendship, there are plenty of seemingly-impossible things one can do.

Coming back from the dead just isn't one of them. (And she is going to be in for a major freakout when proven otherwise, eventually, but anyway-)]

Hey, it doesn't matter where you're from--when you're dead, you're dead. You don't come back; that's it! Not even magic can bring someone back.

[She says it with a scowl and a final, dismissive wave. Clarke isn't going to change her mind on this right now.]

iii

[kyusai]

[ this realm is nothing short of foreign to him.

a human vessel, with human trinkets, demanding human customs; there’s a familiarity there, perhaps one rooted in a dream he devoured long ago, or maybe — something more personal, something more…

the sound of fingers thrumming against the wall echoes through the hallway. a disturbance. a feeling, inexplicable as it threatens to consume him whole, guides him to the door that leads to the deck. with a swift kick of his leg, he brings the door down. the sight before him is—

a girl he recognizes, meekly standing in place. for a moment, he’s nearly stunned into silence. it’s her. it’s really her. ]

Fio— [ her name— is it said in the voice of a monster, or a human man? he can’t discern it. the words come out of their own accord no less. ] No. You didn’t…you didn’t do anything wrong. Stay. Please.

3 (Nyuu)

[scarredhorns]

At first, Nyuu thought staying in her cabin until the hauntings settled down might be a good idea, until she became too scared to be alone and decided to walk around the ship, if only so she was in the presence of other people.

Good thing, too. She arrives on the sports deck just as the shuffleboard disks start acting up. That, combined with her mind being some place else, Nyuu doesn't even know that a disk is flying towards her, which is also why her vector fails to appear and protect her. Thankfully, someone else is being more observant than she is.

She lets out a surprised scream as she feels someone yank her back and even struggles, until her mind catches up to what's happening and she hears the sound of the disk hitting the armor. Whoever this is, they just saved her.

Nyuu looks up into the reflective visor and nods. "Y-Yes, thank you for saving me just now. I'm sorry for fighting at first, you just surprised me. I'll be sure to pay more attention from now on."

Do you think its sensors might detect her vectors?

[serialskiller]

"The apology is unnecessary." It understands why she struggled--it would definitely have done the same if grabbed without warning.

It's still trying to protect her, though, keeping itself between her and most of the sports deck, listening for more projectiles coming at the pair of them.

I think it might be possible!

[scarredhorns]

[ooc: According to the wiki, vectors are made up of molecules that vibrate at different frequencies depending on what the user needs them to do, as well as the individual's own abilities. If Murderbot's sensors were to detect Nyuu's vectors, maybe they would say, UNKNOWN ANOMALY DETECTED or something like that?]

She tilts her head at the way it speaks, not sure what exactly she's looking at. A robot? Or someone in a robotic suit?

"Um, who are? I'm Nyuu." she introduces herself. Normally she'd bow her head to be polite, but with the ghosts(?) throwing things everywhere, she'd rather not break away from the protective hold just yet.

[serialskiller]

"I am a SecUnit." Right, she's probably never heard of such a thing, if she's not from its world. "A security construct."

It doesn't offer its name, though. That's personal--private. The time a human dug through its databanks to find that, it had felt like a violation.