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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( like. a. slap. to. the. face. )

Okay, I guess I'll wait for that time then.

( even with a sour taste in your mouth, still gotta shoot your shot. )

Until then, can you at least tell me where the ship's wheel is?

On the bridge!

[beat]

With the Captain...

( one beat in turn.

then two. look, she's a better bulldozer than negotiator, and thus far gal friday hasn't been threatening enough to make clarke stop pushing. )

And how do I get there?

Well, there is a door. It's on the top deck. It's just that, well, only I can enter it! Most of the time!

[and sometimes he just also locks her out. it's fine they're friends.]

( a disappointing lead, but clarke's history of wars against locked doors usually has her coming out victorious so! it's a starting point. she's nodding, committing top deck to memory and silently trying to figure out a way to tactfully extricate herself from this interaction without raising any of gal friday's alarms. but then.

most of the time.

and she's dragged back a few moments, to a potentially very alarming statement that had been glossed over in favor of asking her own questions. )

This time? What did you mean he might take an interest this time? ( what number is this batch of lab rats? rip clarke griffin's blood pressure. )

Well, he hasn't been very happy with the last few passengers... [there's a sort of. sad inflection, to her usual tone.] They weren't very fun, apparently. And they didn't last very long at all...

( panic. a particularly familiar sense of panic. and let her tell ya, friday, nothing aligns clarke griffin's priorities to mesh with the community than thinking of the few people she'd managed to meet thus far, imagining whatever horrible fate is being alluded to here, and how it could possibly be avoided.

survive at all costs will eventually override the kneejerk escape at all costs. but right now she's reeling. )

I —

They weren't fun. Didn't last long and now they're — ( a space here, if they're dead she wants to hear friday say it. )

All of them?

Well...

[she ducks her head down.]

Some of them really did get to leave. It won't be a trick. [...] But, it will always be alone. That may be the trick.

[whatever. she'll just pay for that later. it's fine.]

( whatever distrust she held towards friday is not alleviated by that somewhat conspiratorial confession. under the baseline alarm at the story she's being told, there's an ocean of salt as large as the body of water surrounding them, and clarke's going to need a bit of time to collect her thoughts, and some solid evidence before she decides if all that tracks.

eyes narrowing, pulse thundering in her ears: )

I don't follow your meaning.

She did promise she'd come back one day. Maybe you'll get to meet her!

[not even remotely close to an answer.]

But, other than Jenny... They're all gone. The forever kind of gone.

( this is starting to feel like talking to an immovable wall. but it's more informative than climbing the ships mast would have been, and clarke's already invested. )

And what made Jenny so special?

Oh, she's just... [sighing wistfully without a mouth sounds really hard but she manages it anyway.]

... The Captain found her very interesting! He likes challenges, I think. Be one of those!

That's vague.

( and clarke's mind is still going a mile a minute. she's considering gladiatorial scenarios, some sort of game show where the winner walks away with their life. some hot take on scheharazade and the one thousand and one nights, or a new interpretation of divine judgement (with a mysterious man filling the role of god). and then —

all that confusion is neatly folded, compartmentalized and shoved to the back of her mind to be dissected later. in a safe space where it didn't matter how nauseated the idea made her. )

But thanks, Gal. I appreciate the insight.

( she hasn't survived this long without being the embodiment of a challenge at times, so that's all very comfortin — nope. nah. still alarming as hell. )

[freezes up for a minute before she just kinda. bops on her feet, a pleased sort of motion.]

Gosh! You're very welcome! [she's gotten like two compliments today that's a new record!]

( this makes the Top Five Worst Days Of Clarke Griffin's Life, but happy you're happy, friday. someone's gotta be around these parts.

this feels like a natural close to the conversation, and clarke is secretly hoping friday will walk away so she can try to scale the mast again. but niggling ideas at the edge of her thoughts finally push forward, and on second thought... )

Can I ask you one more question?

You can ask as many questions as you'd like! [and she'll probably even answer some!]

You said leaving is one of the few impossible things to do around here. So what are the others?

Oh, but isn't it better to think about all the things it isn't impossible to do...?

... I suppose it is pretty hard to die forever. Some people manage it, though!

I'd like to know the limits first before starting to test them.

( flatly. oh so flatly. ) So, try not to die but it probably won't be a big deal if you do. Got it.

( and turns out clarke is a huge lying liar who lies, because she has more questions almost immediately. ) I — Gal, can I ask how are you seeing me? How did you see —

( vague gesture at her face burns, with the hand still holding that so thoughtful and so damn suspect gift of medical supplies. )

[long pause]

Why wouldn't I be able to see?

( wow, that's sure her stomach dropping down to her feet. big yikes energy. )

I... I'm sorry.

( panic. abort, abandon ship, backpedal. no, follow through, but diplomatically. )

But if you have eyes, I can't see them.

-- Oh! Is that it?

[a slight laugh]

You don't need eyes to see!

(

.... okay so many additional questions sparked. )

I know I need eyes to see, and if your anatomy is different, I'm just a little confused.

Well, if you were like me, you wouldn't need eyes, either! [answering exactly zero questions] But, you're not, because you're you! Which is good! It'd be no fun if everybody was just the same!

I —

( hate literally everything about that non-answer, and am increasingly uncomfortable with this entire interaction. )

...guess I can't find any flaw in that logic.

( there are so many flaws in all of this, and clarke's tone slipped into a sour, dissatisfied deadpan. )

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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