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

"And cryogenesis isn't particularly viable on people who don't have insane healing powers," he agrees. "But there aren't exactly a huge number of drugs that would be able to render a person both unconscious and physically capable after..." He shrugs, making a face. "However long it takes to get between here and the EU. There'd be massive amounts of side affects, pretty severe mental degradation..."

"Cryo-what? You have to understand, I didn't study at the Academy of Sciences. I'm a businessman, not a scientist. And what's this EU you mentioned?"

He's more frustrated with himself than Ravi, for his lack of understanding.

Ravi just has to stare for a moment there. Academy of Sciences sounded like it was being condescending, if Johnny didn't seem genuinely kind of upset. But not knowing what the EU is...?

He lifts one hand and rubs it down his mouth, his frown intensifying, but there's worry in it now behind the curiosity.

"So this is going to be a... fantastically weird question, but." He takes a deep breath, holds it as he considers one last time how stupid a question this is going to be, and plows on: "What year is it?"

"It's 1907. Why?" But he has the most sinking feeling he knows why: a de-sync, in fact. There's genuine fear in his eyes as he answers.

His expression shifts, and there's a visible kind of resigned sadness to it. Once again, he has to be the bearer of bad news.

"I'm from 2017," he says softly. "And I'm... beginning to suspect this ship might be from some other time entirely."

"That's more than a century after me." Startled, Johnny immediately grabs for the cigarette case in his pocket--he needs something in his hands to fiddle with while he tries to deal with this news. "...how did the Franco-Armorian war go?"

Surprise, he's not just from another time, he's from a whole hecking other timeline.

He frowns again. That sure is happening a lot.

"Um." He holds up a hand with one finger, like he's pausing that train of thought. "Sorry, Franco-Armorian?"

"The war between France and Armoria that's going on in my time. Like I said, I'm from Gallery, but I'm not permitted to serve in the army. Still, with as many friends as I have on the front lines, of course I'm wondering what came of it all."

Clearly he expects Ravi to know where both Armoria and Gallery are. Clearly.

...well, now Ravi knows what it's like to be on the other uncomprehending foot.

"I... have never heard of either of those places."

"How? How can you not have heard of France or Armoria?"

It's very disquieting to Johnny. But it makes it even clearer how fucked up the situation is.

"Oh France I know very well. I'm English - part of the UK?" he adds, in case there was any doubt. "But I can't say I know Armoria or Gallery."

"How do you not know about Armoria and Gallery? Even if something happened to us, somehow, the countries would be in history books. There's no way the history would be completely erased."

He sounds a little panicked.

"I... think we might be in a situation where that's not quite what's happening," he says slowly, carefully. He doesn't want Johnny to freak out more, because it'll make him freak too.

"As far as I can tell, this... this level of technology and action is unprecedented-- it's well beyond what anything ought to be capable of in my time. Which could, andpleasebearwithme, this could possibly suggest that we have been kidnapped by a, uh. Interdimensional. Being."

He feels a bit ridiculous for saying it, but like. Zombies are real. Why not.

"Interdimensional being?" He can hardly wrap his mind around that concept. But he remembers Gal Friday's face, and has to admit this is well outside his wheelhouse.

"What are we supposed to do about that? I don't have time to faff about being kidnapped, I have a business to run!"

"I mean, I was kind of in the middle of something too, actually, this is horribly inconvenient." Better to be English and sarcastic about it than fall into panic over getting dragged away from everyone. "I'm not sure we can do anything yet. Maybe just start talking to the others to see what anyone else might be able to come up with."

"Alright. If you find out anything, let me know--I'll do the same, of course." It's not much, but it's the basics of a plan. An idea. Something to do instead of his own impending panic.

"Yeah, of course." He gives Johnny a slight smile, some sense of solidarity and purpose achieved. "I'm gonna see if there's a morgue too-- uh, a storage room for dead bodies, cruise ships will always have one. If you don't find me there, let's meet up in one of the restaurants?"

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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