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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.]
punches you but also two
A Vision - hydro, neatly attached to a belt around the waist of a man she doesn't recognize and who certainly doesn't look like he's from Liyue. Still, the fact he's from Teyvat makes him more approachable then most everyone else on this ship.
Not that Shenhe is exactly sure how to start this conversation. Even after spending more time with Liyue, speaking to anyone without a goal or purpose is... difficult. It's easier to be quiet and observe, which is why she just. Stares at Childe. It's unlikely the man knows any more about their situation then she does, and she doesn't really need the help or comfort of a stranger, but that Vision on his belt keeps her attention from wandering.
Eventually, assuming Childe doesn't notice her first, she'll speak up.]
...You're from Teyvat.
[She's nailing it. She's sure Cloud Retainer would be proud, starting conversations with humans and not fights.]
my first time tagging shenhe.... uguu...
Shenhe catches him right as he's draped over the railing on the deck, a hand pressed out to feel for himself the barrier keeping them all locked in and how much force he can apply before he starts to feel it in his wrist. he knows better than to actually push hard enough to break his hand, but that's not going to keep him from considering the prospect.
he notices her only as a lingering presence in the corners of his eyes until he realizes that she's not going to be leaving any time soon. then he glances up, catching the way she stares at him and canting his head to the side right before she speaks.
someone else from Teyvat shouldn't be very surprising, given he'd just met Zhongli not too long ago. but he's quite sure that he's never seen her before in his entire life. so much for the "this is all some really weird dream" theory. ]
I am. [ he doesn't deny it. why should he? ] What gave it away? [ it's probably the Vision. that she doesn't immediately mark him for a Fatuus says more than it needs to. ]
no subject
Still, maybe this is… a normal line of conversation.]
You have a Vision.
[She’s never had much experience with the Fatui - she had heard whispers of them during her time in the harbor because people liked to talk. She only has vague knowledge that the Fatui were behind unleashing Osial and hasn’t dealt with any Fatuus personally, yet, but like most things she only knows the bare bones of it.
It doesn’t bother her much, at least.]
Though I don’t recognize the casing it’s in.
[It’s different from what houses her own Vision and the Visions of everyone she’s met so far, so she imagines it has to mean something.]
no subject
[ silver hair, multicolored eyes... definitely not anyone normal. even if her clothes place her as a Liyuen there's too much about her that's above the norm for that place, comparable only to the likes of the Qixing. on the front, at least, he can't spot her Vision so he can't make a fair assessment, but if he had to guess ... maybe on her back or in her hair?
his hand pulls away from the barrier and he turns to put his back against the railing and look over at the young woman. if she were from Liyue he doubted she'd have any kind words for him if she found out he was Fatui and had been directly involved with the Osial incident. revealing himself to her would serve no purpose but neither would hiding his allegiances, and with no Traveler to concern himself with the option for either was left entirely up to him.
maybe in due time. if it ended up culminating in a fight, even better. ]
Going by looks alone -- [ a cursory sweep over her form, respectfully. ] -- I'd say you hail from Liyue. Am I wrong?
no subject
[You know the ones. Not those other mountains.
Slowly, she nods.]
No, I am. [From Liyue, that is. She's doing her best.] My name is Shenhe. And you are...?
[...
It's so much easier to talk to people when she knows them, and this conversation isn't like many she's had before so it's not like she knows what to expect. Most people she's met have treated her so differently then him, as well. It's all so odd but it almost reminds her of the Traveler, somehow. He doesn't regard her as an adeptus and isn't treating her like she's something she's not... Hopefully it's a trend that continues in this place. It won't exactly make her happy to be here, but there's something undeniably appealing about just being Shenhe.]
no subject
(he does)
it's easy to see how difficult it is for the woman - Shenhe, his mind supplies automatically - to hold a conversation, and he wonders if his assumption that she might hail from Jueyen Karst is accurate. while he was never able to actually get into that sacred domain himself, he knew enough about the general whereabouts of the home of the adepti.
of course he could be completely off the mark and wrong since there were a lot of mountains in Liyue, but who knows. ]
Tartaglia. [ he replies. he considers leaving it at that, but the poor girl's nervous enough already. ] But you can call me Childe.
no subject
Is there one you prefer over the other?
[Odd names, as if the man wasn't off enough already. A strange foreign man who knows Liyue - which isn't exactly shocking considering it's a huge hub for trade, but still.
There's something about him that sets him apart.]
...
[...
Oh, right.]
But it's nice to meet you, Childe.
[Almost forgot her manners! He hasn't made her want to resort to violence (yet), so she should be nice(?).]
no subject
her question makes him pause, considering. not particularly, and it's interesting to note that no one's ever really bothered to ask.
a moment and he shrugs, shaking his head from side to side. ]
Not really, just whichever one you're more comfortable with. It's nice to meet you too, Shenhe.
[ the boat rolls a little, bobbing on a particularly strong wave. behind Shenhe someone runs to the side of the boat just in the nick of time, however the nature of the barrier doesn't really hold up in the face of projectiles, maybe. whoops. ]
Am I the first one from Teyvat you've met?
no subject
Why would my comfort be more important then what you want?
[Why are you so weird, sir!! Stop being so casual and affable, Shenhe doesn't know what to do with this.
She ignores the scrambling behind her, managing to stay steady as the boat rolls despite her heels. It does make her feel a bit... Off? In a way? Something about the way the boat is never truly still...
Ugh.]
Of the people here, yes. Most of them seem to hail from somewhere else...
[...]
Or they simply don't have Visions.
[More people in Teyvat lack Visions then have them, at least.]
no subject
but damn this is. it's not really awkward, but it's definitely a little off. Shenhe's off, and this entire conversation feels like an exercise in How to Talk to People.
he laughs, the sound bright and conversational. ]
You're so polite, it's almost suspicious. I'm starting to think you might be one of those mountain-dwellers.
[ an adeptus, in other words. given her manner of speech and her awkward delivery, it would make sense. ]
And I've surmised as much from the people I've run into. They all seem to be from entirely different places. It's rather interesting, all things considered.
no subject
...
[She's doing her best, here, and it wouldn't be the first time someone assumed she was an adeptus by nature. She knows she shouldn't be frustrated, that it's not a baseless assumption because of how she acts and what she does, but she has to wonder if she'll ever fit in with humans at this rate.
She glances to the side, debating on whether to address his suspicions or not, before pressing her lips together and shaking her head.]
I am as human as you are, though I was trained in the adeptal arts.
[She watches as someone tests the barrier, keeping Childe in her peripheral vision.]
I wonder how someone was able to pull people from so many different places here, and to what end.
[If you're going to be dragging people in from the multiverse, why put them on a cruise ship?]
no subject
"trained in the adeptal arts" brought about more questions than answers. to his knowledge the adepti did not go about associating with humans unless necessity dictated it - the incident at the harbor being the sole example in his mind - and he didn't think the people of Liyue would go out of their way to attempt replicating adeptal arts in order to try and sell it as some kind of training method. or maybe they were, who knows what people might resort to in order to make money.
but more than that, he's aware there is such a thing as adepti sickness. and Shenhe did not look the least bit sick. ]
Your guess is as good as mine. According to the note we're all brought here for fun and adventure - and yet there's a barrier over everything. Kind of feels more like a cage or a prison.
[ maybe all his past misdeeds have finally caught up with him. his tone is pretty bright and conversational when he continues, less a press for more information about Shenhe and an attempt to tease her into revealing things about herself. ]
You haven't done anything to warrant being thrown into a jail cell, have you? Like say - killed anyone?