sail_ooc | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even now the fear doesn't really fade, only settles in more familiarly, less sharp. It's only a child, it's...probably fine. Hopefully. There's something off about her still, something otherworldly he can't shake. Can't put his finger on. But if he's dead nothing like that matters anymore, right? Nothing can hurt him here.

"Okay. When did you see him last? Maybe I can help."

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.

Luke knows he looks a mess, funeral suit rumpled and smudged in dust and dirt, tie missing and jacket abandoned, cuts and bruises on his face from getting jumped before Steve found him. One sleeve rolled up to his elbow still, a tiny red mark at the inside of his elbow the only outward sign of how he got here, if this is just limbo or worse.

But he's not thinking about any of that right now, for once. He watches the girl, frowning slightly, empathetic even through itching nerves.

"Okay. Did he say where he was going? What does he look like?"

Injectable drugs are far from Claudia's time, but she's familiar with users. Drug addicts and drunks are the easiest prey, after all. She steps closer again. "I woke up and he was gone." Soft little voice, silvery and clear. "He's very handsome. He's very tall with black hair and green eyes."

She knows without a doubt Louis is not here. He would never abandon her. But she might as well play that card. It's believable.

"Have you seen him?"

She's closer, and a shiver races down his spine in answer, but he's being ridiculous. Paranoid in the wake of being home again. She's dressed far too old to not be a ghost, but then if he's in limbo that only makes sense, right?

"I haven't, no," he answers, offering a sympathetic smile. "But I can help you look for him if you want?"

Claudia nods silently, curls rustling against the silk of her dress. Her little leather slippers make no sound on the carpet. Yes, help the little lost child, and perhaps when they've found a secluded corner, she'll have her meal.

Then again, he's very skittish. She may have to find someone easier to stalk.

"Okay," he answers, bolstering himself as much as her. "Okay, we'll find him, I'm sure he didn't get that far."

The place can only be so big, right? So he offers her a hand, the better to keep track of her while they look.

"Where does he like to go? Is there somewhere he might have gone?"

"He likes the sea. He likes to watch the moonlight..."

Louis liked to watch many things, in fact. Would sit and stare for hours at things, contemplating their beauty: the candleflame, the crystal drinkware, the small canaries in their home in New Orleans. Claudia doesn't quite understand it, but is very used to his trances of absorption.

But out in the dark, it will be easy to strike.

She puts her tiny, round-fingered hand in his. She is only room temperature - and while this is much warmer than usual in the tropical weather, it is still rather shockingly chill to actual human flesh. Her hand is soft, silky, but there is no plump give as there would be with a real child. It's like silk over stone, something unyielding beneath the softness.

She is a dead thing, after all.

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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