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

"The dead rarely are." He says this sourly. But it's true. "Same. Well, here. More or less. Alec Hardy. Just Hardy thanks." He leans back at a bit of flying debris and sniffs. "What did you do to start this up? Walk into the room?"

"Um, nice to meet you, I guess. considering the circumstances."

Peter, thanks to his quick reflexes is able to catch whatever was thrown and serious considers the idea of throwing it back. It's unlikely to do anything but escalate things and he makes a face before letting out a frustrated groan and just setting it down.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't remember doing anything to them but then again, I can't remember signing up to go on a cruise so maybe I insulted them on the way in or something." Although he's fairly certain he didn't. It didn't sound like something he'd do.

"If it's their home they probably don't want a lot of living people mucking it up. Or uninvited dead guys."

Beetlejuice hummed. "Peter, huh? I can't say my name, I'm cursed. I'd suggest charades, but," He dodged a plate and grinned, fangily. "We're kind of busy."

That's okay, Peter's not entirely sure he'd be great at charades anyways. "that's a weird curse." His senses spike and he ducks just in time to dodge a plate.

"I mean I don't blame them for being angry but they could at least try to hear us out? or take it out on person that actually brought us all here?"

[ A shove is good enough. Yuri staggers back a step, then lurches forward, jamming a shoulder into Flynn's gut. ]

At least I'm doing something!

[ And now, he's going to get Flynn to let loose a little, because he can. He can and if he's honest with himself, he wants to feel alive, too. He was so sure he was dead, so sure that was it for him, and here Flynn is being an asshole and one of Yuri's last thoughts in the water was that he wouldn't be there to look out for Flynn anymore, and here he is, and he sure as hell is going to see Flynn through this, even if it means wrestling him to the ground outside this tacky gift shop ]

"Damn. I was hoping there would be some sort of catalyst." He clicks his tongue and folds his arms. "Quick>" He notes at the boy's reflexes. "And I don't think any of us chose this. That's why it's important to figure out what happened and how to reverse it.

Difficult to do without getting killed in the process... I don't suppose you've managed to find anyone to give you a detailed explanation."

"Um.. no, sorry. I tried to ask some people but they didn't know anything or wouldn't give me straight answer." he admits, ignoring the comment about his reflexes. He'd like to keep his power under wraps for the time being but if he has to use them out in the open well.. he can deal with the consequences later.

"That Friday lady wasn't much help either, and I'm guessing if you talked to her you had about as much luck as I did?" Getting home would be ideal. He has an Aunt to get back to and she's probably worried sick. Poor May. after everything that had happened and now this. She'd only just agreed to let him keep going out as Spider-Man.

[ An old weapon dug into an old wound, like a bruise on a bruise. Flynn grunts as Yuri tackles him, lets the weight slide through him so he ends up on the ground in a half-controlled fall, trying to grapple Yuri at the same time. ]

Taunting our captors isn't going to do anything— [ He locks his hands around Yuri's biceps, bucks up with the lower half of himself to try and flip them ] —but make them angry!

[it's difficult not to be sarcastic about "sea-cook" though he deeply wants to- He doesn't really know the difference. Does the kid lose all of his cooking ability on land? Can he only do sea food? Alec knows himself enough to know that he's going to sound like an ass if he says anything so he refrains.

Instead he thinks about his own abilities... he sighs]

I'm a bit new at this yet but... [he pulls a small pin from his pocket and, wincing, jabs the pad of a finger and a bead of blood wells. After a moment's concentration the blood floats from his fingertip like a little globe, spinning lazily.]

That's about it. I can do a shield if I need to or a weapon if I have to but nothing for long. [or he starts to feel anemic. He realizes in the face of things he's pretty bloody useless, but he's long since gotten used to the sensation]

[ Hah! He did it. He did it, but he doesn't have much time to savor his victory, because now he has to fight Flynn, and Flynn's been training with knights for three years, and even with the last few months of Yuri's journey, Flynn still has an edge on him in weight, strength, determination, and skill. Yuri has to give fighting Flynn his all, if he doesn't, it won't be fun for either of them.

He grunts as he goes down, and tries his best to stay on top, but Flynn gets the better of him and Yuri hits the ground, hand. But that doesn't stop him from trying to get a knee up between them so knee Flynn in the gut ]

[ The thing about Yuri is that he's fast as hell. If Flynn has any hope of beating him, he has to outlast his best friend, pin him down and stop him from moving, give him no time to slip free or react.

And this is a terrible idea, fighting like this in the middle of the decks, but Flynn is alight with frustration and boundless worry and there is something so viscerally satisfying about feeling Yuri warm and alive and ready to fight underneath him. Maybe, he thinks, as Yuri's knee slams into his ribs, making him grit his teeth, it's because it's proof that Yuri really is alive. It still doesn't feel real: Flynn wakes from dreams about the boundless sea and Yuri a small dot out there somewhere, yelling for help where Flynn can't hear.

He's not in the sea now. He is under Flynn with his back on the deck, twisting like a cat, and Flynn glares and pushes down harder, lodging a thigh between Yuri's to keep him pinned and stop him from attacking the way he is. ]

It really is quite a mystery, isn't it? Why, I'm certain a person as brilliant as I would have stumbled upon something like this "aer" you speak of quite some time ago already...

[Nice try but he remains unfazed!! Though there's at least a hearty enough sarcastic lilt on the word brilliant that the words are much less sincerely preening and more generally sardonic. Not to mention how that really is a legitimate question; honestly, Jade's all but certain something like aer definitely would have been discovered by now, in his time back home...

Just how far apart are they in origin here, he wonders?

Freed of the spear's weight and general materialized existence, Jade's slipping both hands back in his pockets, properly resuming his idle posture of earlier. There's some begrudging respect happening here for sure...and it might even be mutual, maybe, just a bit. He'd be blatantly lying to say that he isn't actually very curious as to how this supposed aer substance actually works, on Rita's end...she mentions artes, at least, and so he has to assume there's some sort of parallel application applied with aer on her own end of things. By the sound of it, though, the similarities seem to end at about there...hmm. A decided itch to investigate further is starting to develop, but--

Rita's question is followed by a very slight pause, as if an answer might yet be made...but then his shoulders roll in a slight shrug, and Jade shakes his head, smiling.]

Now now, that's a finer sort of detail! I'll confirm that you're correct, in that it's certainly going somewhere when it's broken down--but if I told you where, I daresay I'd be losing quite a lot of my element of surprise! Surely you could take a guess at why I store a weapon in this way, yes?

[It's nothing personal, really--all told, Rita doesn't actually strike him as a potential future danger by any particular stretch right now--but all the same, even despite his own fascination in comparing the differences in their systems of matter...prudence still must take precedent. Training and past experience still reign in any temptation of being too candid; they're still functional prisoners in strange circumstances, after all, and he's not found a single familiar face here yet. This, at least, has less to do with his allergy to explaining things...

Well, though the teaching allergy still has a bit of a hand in it, admittedly. Jade's starting to wonder, vaguely, if he's already given away a bit too much. Really, this might be a bit of a headache down the line! Perhaps he ought to head things off now! ~~(Little does he know it's already far too late, but anyway--)~~]

In fact, I'd be curious to hear you take a guess or two about the workings of my little storage system in general, at some point. You seem rather versed in these sorts of topics, even if our studies of focus seem to differ quite a bit. --So! I look forward to hearing your theories the next time we meet, hm? [Jade why are you...phrasing this like some kind of homework assignment.....???]

[Honestly... He's hit his head a lot in his short life. It would surprise no one, least of all himself, if he'd jostled his brain out of whack along the way. Unfortunately for the universe, no amount of head wounds will ever cure him of his lusty chivalry.]

Is that what those are? Horns? [He beams at those horns with such energetic earnest that it has to be genuine, fingers grasping longingly at air as he holds himself back from feeling up the real deal.] They're so cute I thought they were ears! I was looking forward to seeing them perk up while you praised me!

[ Peter's settled in as much as he can be and sits sipping some lemonade. He has no idea where hhe is or ow to get home but if he thinks about that for too long he'll end up panicking so for now he's just going to focus on is lemonade. ]

[ He frowns heavily because he's pretty sure smells- oh yeah, he's definitely smelling blood. Gross. ]

Um...

[ He glances over at the man and then glances at the obvious red patch. ]

Shouldn't you.. be going to the infirmary or.. something?

"Giselle," she supplies, her lips quirking in amusement--though more for his characterization of the spirits as fucking with us than the question. For her part, she watches Palamedes with interest, eyes flicking to follow the wards' design as he undoes them.

"I've dealt with my fair share of the dead," she adds, after a moment. "Enough of them to know that it isn't always malice when they don't speak to you in the tones you'd prefer."

Or, to be fair, when they throw stuff at your head.

"And you, mister ...?"

[Peter's question goes ignored for a good three, four seconds before Adrian finally has to stop drinking and come up for air. It takes him a few more seconds to get his bearings, dragging in a deep breath and blinking hard behind his visor before letting all the air out in a rush.]

Nah, I'm good. I just gotta make more blood.

[Because that's how biology works, right? Right.]

[He reaches an arm behind himself to feel for the bullet wound, testing to see if the bleeding has finally stopped. His gloved fingers come away tacky rather than wet, which is a definite improvement.]

...And stop losing what I've got left, I guess.

[ He's really not sure how to respond to that because no?? that's not how that works and surely an adult would know at least that much, right? ]

Um.. sure. I mean, I guess but don't you think you'd have an easier time keeping what's left in if you uh.. patch up the hole?

[ He feels like he should insist on this but at the same time Peter knows he's just a kid this man so it's unlikely he'll convince him to seek medical attention. But he can at least try? ]

Why do you take the OJ with you to the infirmary and get it checked out at the very least? I'd hate for you to.. you know, pass out.

[Adrian appreciates the concern, he really does, he's just not going to acknowledge it as valid.]

Oh, don't worry. [He waves his hand, the gesture slow and a little clumsy.] I already did that.

[Pass out, he means.]

I'm fine now, though. It just took a while for my body to figure out how to work with just the one kidney.

[ Peter opens his mouth. ]

[ and closes it. ]

[ He opens it again. ]

[ ... ]

[ closes it again ]

Uh.. that doesn't really...

I really think you should get that check out. You could potentially die?

I'll go with you, if you want?

And the former Asset doesn't even have much of a concept of friendship. He's watched people in the street, in the past few days before landing here, and wondered. He's got slivers of feeling from the stupid former target that he doesn't know what to do with. Nothing concrete.

But he does know what it's like to have a team, and that's a feeling he prefers to working alone. Plus, sharing intel is just good sense. So he nods. "We can schedule a meeting. Every couple days, maybe."

[It happens in an instant, one fluid motion fueled by instinct. Sanji shoots up, sending the book on his face flying through the air as he catches Kuwana before her knees hit the floor. One very angry dress shoe slams down over the book, pinning it flat. Then it's time to bridal carry his dear, misguided rescuer behind the cover of a shelf.]

Miss? Miss? [He doesn't dare shake her, but he does carefully lift her head. Nothing else. Proper fawning can happen after he makes sure she's uninjured.] To think a beauty such as you took a hit for my sake. And I let it happen! I'm a failure as a man! Please, open your eyes so I can make it up to you! Miss?!

[Aw, it's kind of cute how much this random kid is worrying. It almost makes Adrian want to indulge him and head to the infirmary, but ~~stupidity~~ stubbornness is a hell of a drug.]

[He takes another sip from his pitcher, and it honestly does make him feel a little better. Thank God for the placebo effect, and also the curative powers of raising one's blood sugar enough to restore some semblance of coherent thought, because getting some goddamn medical attention is finally starting to sound like it might be a good idea.]

Y'know, if you wanna watch them dig the bullet out of my oblique you can just say so, it's cool.

[And thus begins round two, with Sanji immediately aiming a kick down over Zoro's head. There's no heat this time, no emotional weight behind his blows; just good ol' fashioned violent stress relief.]

"That seems like a good plan." And it thinks organizing its observations to share with someone (someone who it can't just drop video onto the feed for) will be useful to help it analyze everything.

[Hardy's efforts to hold back his sarcasm save him from a very offended lecture on all the unique skills necessary to cook for a crew at sea.

Instead, his little blood display earns Sanji's full attention. The chef stalls his walk to the bar, leans in closer to get a better look at the floating crimson drop. Rather than disappointment or disinterest at Hardy's lack of skill, Sanji's brow furrows in contemplation.]

Can you do that... with anyone's blood? Or just yours?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 81 of 102

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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

2.

no subject

cw: blood/injury/complete dumbassery

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject