![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
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.]
no subject
Yeah, happened to me too. I keep getting drinks dumped on me-- not by girls.
[ Heading that one off, too. He grimaces, glancing around for someone to pay for this monstrosity of a shirt but... there's no one here. No shop keep. And, really, he doesn't have much money. He pulls some gald out of his pocket and drops it on the counter. Except, the moment he turns his back, the coins rise into the air and pelt at him, hitting him in the back of he head ]
Ow! Fuck. What the--
[ He twists and ducks before they can hit him in the face. He surges forward to try and take on whatever it is that's fucking with him, but his punches hit thin air ]
no subject
Like a chorus, like someone chanting—Flynn almost catches the edges of a spell in there, but the voices start into something else before he can figure out which one—rising around them in waves. Flynn makes a startled sound as one of the coins that had hit the ground picks itself up and flies at him instead. He dives to the right, nearly into Yuri, grabbing for the sword still thankfully belted around his waist. ]
What is this!
[ Is that actual fear in his voice? No. No, you have to be imagining things. ]
no subject
Why does he think this? He has no idea, but it sounds like it might work. He whisks the sword out of its strap (no sheath, very dangerous), holding it up and basically batting gald away from himself ] If you didn't want me to pay, you could've just said!
no subject
[ The muttering is rising, and Flynn backs up, his own sword held out uselessly. What a pair they make, standing armed and ready to fight in the middle of racks full of novelty clothing. Flynn can see himself reflected in a pair of mirrored sunglasses.
He also sees, in the sunglasses, a shadow behind Yuri. Whirling with a shout, Flynn finds nothing there, and sort of presses his shoulder into Yuri's without entirely meaning to.
Get out, a hissing voice says. Fear crawls cold down Flynn's spine. A few shirts rustle behind him. ]
We should leave.
no subject
But he hears that same awful voice, and even if he doesn't like to back down from a fight... what are they going to gain, here? He smacks away another coin, and the aura around Dein Nomos is enough to ward off another spray of them. He grabs Flynn's wrist and pulls him back toward the door.
Apparently giving the ghosts the gald is enough to count as "buying" the shirt, because, this time at least, and they make it out of the store. The pelting gald stops after they've left the premises, and Yuri pants, then breaks down in a laugh, letting go of Flynn. ]
That was wild.
no subject
Still. As Yuri lets go, Flynn twists, looking back at the still, silent shop, merrily lit and winking with all sorts of absurd touristy paraphenalia. A few gald glint mockingly from the floor.
Slowly, he lowers his sword, looking back at Yuri, still draped in the awful new shirt. ]
...perhaps they didn't agree with your choice in shirts, either.
no subject
[ Yuri rolls his eyes, slipping Dein Nomos back into its cords, the naked blade swinging down by his leg. That's going to get dangerous, probably. ]
I bet they didn't like the gald. Maybe gald is some kind of insult here or something. This whole place is weird.
[ Weird people, weird screens everywhere, weird Vibes. But, hell, it's still a vacation ]
no subject
[ A weird situation, and one that certainly can't just go on. For all that Flynn is enjoying the chance to breathe and the fact that Yuri is here, whole and alive and well... ]
Yuri—we can't stay here.
no subject
[ Yuri misunderstands him, maybe purposefully, and starts to walk off away from the shop, sword in one hand, his black shirt in the other. ]
I need a drink.
no subject
...you really should get a sheath for that, you know.
no subject
You try finding a sheath for this thing. Whoever the hell made it didn't really think about practicality.
no subject
[ None of this is what he actually needs to be saying, but clearly Yuri doesn't want to talk any more about their situation until they're... not here, so Flynn is really just accompanying him at this point, walking at the sharp clip he learned so quickly in the knights. ]
no subject
I've got it, actually. What, you gonna tell me I can't handle it now?
no subject
[ Crisply, to hide the flash of frustration and guilt. Why does he always manage to make Yuri angry when he's just trying to look out for him? Why does Yuri insist on taking Flynn's words in the worst possible way? It's no wonder he can't seem to tell Yuri any of the larger things he's been thinking about. He'll just say them wrong.
Also, he's now leading them down the hallway, and realizes he actually... has no idea where Yuri was thinking of getting a drink. With a pang, he makes himself slow down, lets Yuri catch up to his side, trying to swallow his own simmering frustration. It isn't Yuri's fault they're trapped here, and it isn't Yuri's fault that Flynn is neatly abandoning the duty he was just given. He can't take it out on his best friend.
(Are they still that? Flynn can't go there). ]
Did... you have a plan?
no subject
Yeah, I got a plan.
[ It's sarcastic. He's supposed to be dead, they're on a ship that shouldn't exist run by a woman without a face. How could he possibly have a plan ]
no subject
That wasn't the first time I've had something thrown at me. It seems so strange to say the ship is haunted, but...
no subject
[ Goddess, he hates when Flynn is so contained like this. He knows Flynn wants to lash out, wants to fight, wants to get his anger out, and he only ever seems to do that with Yuri, so Yuri goads him into it, goads him into taking a swing, because Flynn needs it, needs to let it out.
At least, that's what Yuri tells himself. He keeps his voice drawling, irritating, to see if Flynn will bite. ]
Been on one before. Ghosts aren't so bad.
no subject
[ Flynn doesn't precisely mean to snap at him. He doesn't mean to do anything but walk but Yuri has this way of saying things, low and careless, like he doesn't give a single shit about anything, and it just—
It gets him. Every time, because Yuri cares so damn much and Flynn has no idea why he hides it like this. It can't be good for him, holding all of that back, putting on this mask of indifference and cynicism. ]
no subject
[ He can tell. He can tell that Flynn is getting pissed off at him. He wants him to be. He wants Flynn to crack, so he keeps his voice as careless as possible, a low, bored drawl ]
These ghosts are nothing on that.
no subject
[ He's so close: there is snapping anger in his voice, barely-controlled, and his boots echo off the walls. ]
Why are there ghosts? What does that mean for this ship? What does it mean is going to happen to us? Think, for once, past the near future!
no subject
And how the hell are you gonna answer those questions? Ask a ghost?
no subject
[ Flynn snaps, whirling fast enough that if Yuri isn't fast, he'll run right into him. His brows are drawn together, his mouth tight with anger. At Yuri, a little, but mostly at this boat, at the lack of answers, at his own absolute lack of progress, at—
At everything, really. His nostrils flare as he drags in a hard, sharp breath, glaring, and tries to reign himself back in. ]
no subject
Why don't we ask a ghost? [ It's said bone dry and he turns to nothing, to thin air next him to ] Hey, ghost, let us off the ship, huh?
no subject
He grits his teeth against a rising lash of anger—not at Yuri, really never at Yuri, at their situation and how awful it is, how much he can't be here—and he whirls, sudden and sharp, glaring at the only person there with him.
He doesn't attack with his sword, but he certainly shoves past Yuri, intent on going the other way. ]
Goading them isn't going to help!
no subject
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 ]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)