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

"Unfortunate." An understatement but Kore has learned being calm means children are often calm. "What appearance does your father have? What are your names?" Her's and her father's. Kore's English which she somehow speaks and tries not to think too much on, does have strange syntax on occasion due to how Latin grammar worked.

"I don't either, I can't imagine too many do. Do you want to stay with me until we find your father?" No mother or nurse, she can only guess at why but of course she'd want her father, Kore thinks. Who wouldn't want their family?

"Louis is my father's name. He is very tall, and handsome, with green eyes and dark hair."

Both Lestat and Louis are handsome, women forever sighing over them. Claudia knows this, and is rather pleased by the fact, even now. "My name is Claudia. My father says I mustn't play with the slaves. They might take me and run away."

Now to see how the woman takes the acknowledgement of their respective stations, and Claudia waits, blue eyes hooded as if in worry, blonde lashes low on full cheeks.

Kore hasn't ever truly tried to hide what she was. Not in Rome, which was impossible. Not in Spartacus' camp, which was likewise. Even now, all she has truly wanted was free of her chains, which she was. "Your father has a rightful concern. My Dominus, Marcus Crassius, is leading a campaign against Spartacus now, trying to put a stop to his rebellion. His success is inevitable of course, it only a matter of time." It's a careful gambit - Kore belongs to a wealthy and powerful man (richest in Rome!) and would not like his property harmed or mistreated. "But he'd be cross with me to leave you looking for your father."

Claudia has studied history, of course. She knows of the rise and fall of Rome, and her vampire memory quickly rifles up the names, the battle.

An impossibility. A lie. A fantasy.

Claudia does not so much as blink, looking up at the woman now with her bright eyes. "My father is a rich man, with many slaves." She, too, is valued, and at far greater price than any possession. "He would see you rewarded for protecting me." A little more cunning than most children, perhaps, but Claudia has never truly been a child: she does not remember her brief mortal years.

Mutual protection, perhaps, and Claudia will find a different victim to feast upon tonight. This woman, Kore, she is far too intriguing and potentially too useful to simply kill in the moment.

It's far more cunning than a child of this age would think up. It is how something a child would echo, having been taught to. It makes sense to Kore.

"I would see you safely returned to loving arms regardless." Using violence if needed. "Have you eaten tonight? There is still food." It was possible, given the hour, Louis thought the child in the arms of slumber and so stepped out. It wouldn't be the first time a child woke from hunger.

Claudia does not eat food, and in fact the smell of meat cooking is deeply repulsive to her: but she has certainly played pretend at dimly-lit dinners. She might do so again. So she shakes her head, blonde curls rustling. "We ate earlier...but I am hungry."

Not so hungry she can't play pretend for Kore, be something like a child...but she will definitely need to find either a mortal or an animal to feed on before the sun rises. Preferably an unsuspecting human. They taste so much better than animals.

"We'll see if we can locate some delicacy for you then." Because she could only assume what she carried wasn't it, or the child would have asked. Manners or no - children could be demanding, and the younger and more noble they were the more they demanded from people of her station. Not that she cared - she enjoyed caring for others, and offering them something to eat was among the most simple.

"Do you know your room?" Kore had noticed they were numbered.

Claudia does indeed, but certainly doesn't want to give away much to Kore, nature yet unproven. She might indeed shrink with horror, or rise up with righteous anger to slay the foul creature that Claudia is: for very few societies have ever looked kindly at blood-drinking. She had read every myth she can get her hands on, after all.

"I'm not sure," Claudia says instead. "They all look the same."

That part, at least, is quite true.

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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Kore: blah blah I'm expensive no breaking me

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