TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[sailmods]

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.]

Comments

[thinkfirst]

I'm sure we could make one. You're going to hurt yourself. Or someone else.

[ 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. ]

[vibing]

[ Yuri raises an eyebrow at Flynn's pace. He isn't going to walk like that, no, thank you. ]

I've got it, actually. What, you gonna tell me I can't handle it now?

[thinkfirst]

That's not what I meant.

[ 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?

[vibing]

[ Yuri shrugs a shoulder. No, he doesn't have a plan. He just wants to not be here. He wants to not have to think about this for a minute. And maybe a drink isn't the best way to do that, but it's what he wants right now, partly because it's something he's pretty sure Flynn won't want to do. ]

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 ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Snippy, defensive. Flynn's nostrils flare as he sucks in a steadying breath. Yuri wants him to engage, so he just... won't. It's like their fights in the Lower Quarter all over again. ]

That wasn't the first time I've had something thrown at me. It seems so strange to say the ship is haunted, but...

[vibing]

Not so strange.

[ 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.

[thinkfirst]

How did that go for you?

[ 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. ]

[vibing]

Not bad. Fought a big ghost, found a apathea.

[ 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.

[thinkfirst]

Yuri, this is serious. It isn't just about the ghosts.

[ 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!

[vibing]

[ Oh, so he's going to dig at Yuri now, huh? Yuri's fingers tighten into a fist, but he doesn't throw it quite yet. ]

And how the hell are you gonna answer those questions? Ask a ghost?

[thinkfirst]

That's what I am trying to figure out!

[ 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. ]

[vibing]

[ There it is. Yuri skips a step back out of his space, but he knows that Flynn is on the brink of breaking. He wants to, he wants to so badly, and Yuri can see it in the tension of his shoulders. The only thing left is to goad him into punching Yuri and break that tension ]

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?

[thinkfirst]

[ Nothing happens. Of course nothing happens: there's nothing to throw here, no objects to mess with, no answers or solutions, just Flynn and Yuri and the salt-tinged breeze. Flynn waits with the wind tugging at his hair, his heart pounding in between his ears, and gets nothing at all.

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!

[vibing]

[ A shove is good enough. Yuri staggers back a step, then lurches forward, jamming a shoulder into Flynn's gut. ]

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 ]

[thinkfirst]

[ An old weapon dug into an old wound, like a bruise on a bruise. Flynn grunts as Yuri tackles him, lets the weight slide through him so he ends up on the ground in a half-controlled fall, trying to grapple Yuri at the same time. ]

Taunting our captors isn't going to do anything— [ He locks his hands around Yuri's biceps, bucks up with the lower half of himself to try and flip them ] —but make them angry!

[vibing]

[ Hah! He did it. He did it, but he doesn't have much time to savor his victory, because now he has to fight Flynn, and Flynn's been training with knights for three years, and even with the last few months of Yuri's journey, Flynn still has an edge on him in weight, strength, determination, and skill. Yuri has to give fighting Flynn his all, if he doesn't, it won't be fun for either of them.

He grunts as he goes down, and tries his best to stay on top, but Flynn gets the better of him and Yuri hits the ground, hand. But that doesn't stop him from trying to get a knee up between them so knee Flynn in the gut ]

[thinkfirst]

[ The thing about Yuri is that he's fast as hell. If Flynn has any hope of beating him, he has to outlast his best friend, pin him down and stop him from moving, give him no time to slip free or react.

And this is a terrible idea, fighting like this in the middle of the decks, but Flynn is alight with frustration and boundless worry and there is something so viscerally satisfying about feeling Yuri warm and alive and ready to fight underneath him. Maybe, he thinks, as Yuri's knee slams into his ribs, making him grit his teeth, it's because it's proof that Yuri really is alive. It still doesn't feel real: Flynn wakes from dreams about the boundless sea and Yuri a small dot out there somewhere, yelling for help where Flynn can't hear.

He's not in the sea now. He is under Flynn with his back on the deck, twisting like a cat, and Flynn glares and pushes down harder, lodging a thigh between Yuri's to keep him pinned and stop him from attacking the way he is. ]

[vibing]

[ Yuri grits his teeth, growling up at Flynn. It can't be over this fast. That defeats the whole point. He needs Flynn to get angry, he needs Flynn to hit him, not to just pin him to the ground. But Flynn is heavy and warm and so, so close to him. He shoves his knee against Flynn's stomach, then twists to shove an elbow into the side of Flynn's head. Make him mad. Make him angry. Get him to break. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Going for his head is a dirty move, and Yuri knows it. He always fought like that, got dinged for it again and again while they were in the knights—

Flynn grits his teeth, his blood thundering in his ears. He has never fought like that, not really: there was wild, uncontrollable Yuri and careful Flynn with knightly forms drilled into him since he could hold a stick and pretend it was a sword. Put your feet here, don't let them break your guard, use their weight against them. The mantra in his ears, his father's voice, all he has left.

Which Yuri loves to ignore. ]

Try shifting your weight— [ Flynn grits out, and twists away from Yuri's knee, rolls over on the deck and promptly shoves himself at Yuri again, all bulk, aiming his fist this time for Yuri's gut ] —and maybe that would have actually hurt!