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

[fonomena]

Oh--? [He'll admit, he actually thought Yuri was telling him to shut up for a second there, and Jade is half-ready to fire back with a thoroughly insincere sort of apology and maybe even a laugh--it's so sudden and vehement that it skips right over the line from offensive to funny, honestly. By the time he's turning, though, Yuri's already stalking right over to the counter...? And--ah.] Well, thank you! I do think I almost had it, but it seems the spirits have decided nobody else should have coffee this evening.

[The measuring spoons are still trying to skitter away across the tabletop from him, actually, even as Jade speaks--though he does manage to snatch one right before it goes over the edge! So that he can start measuring out some grounds to scoop into the filter anyway. Proceeding with an entirely unperturbed amount of good cheer, at utter contrast to Yuri's tired exasperation:] It does seem to be getting worse with the passage of time, doesn't it? I don't believe they were nearly so rowdy this afternoon. I do wonder if this ship was ever actually theirs, though...or maybe they're traces of the previous prisoners here? [Yuri's interpretation is still equally valid and possible, but one does have to mull over the other possibilities. Jade pushes the filter back into the machine, before trying to get some water poured in. Key word "trying"....] Perhaps "get out" is actually a warning? Or perhaps they're taking our ocean-throwing discussion as a challenge to--ah. Look out, there--

[A couple of cups throw themselves off the counter, at each of their respective heads; Jade's sidestepping sharply, and would be inclined to push Yuri out of range as well, assuming Yuri isn't already dodging them himself.]

My, my...have you got a weapon on hand, actually? [The way the tables around them are starting to twitch and shift isn't a great sign, all things considered...]

[vibing]

[ Of course. Of course he can't even drink coffee in peace. One of the ghosts goes so far as to throw his own cup of coffee at him, which he dodges. At Jade's prompting, he grabs his sword from where it was leaning against the table he was sitting at, and tosses the leather cords that were on it away ]

Pretty shit warning. I don't want to be here. None of us want to be here! Tell us something useful if you're going to-- [ One of the tables comes right at them and he shouts Azure, a blast of blue light streaking from his sword to knock it off its path and into the pastry case. RIP pastries, you'll be sorely missed.

He throws a few more artes out at random, trying to hit the ghosts if he can. That's how it worked on Aifread's ship: if he touched a ghost, they would become tangible enough to fight, but it doesn't work this time. He groans in aggravation ]

Fine. Fine! We won't drink coffee. Jeez, are you happy now?

[fonomena]

[As a whole case of pastries are murdered in cold blood and an entire apparent spirit brigade appears to spawn in rejection of all coffee-relaxing activities, Jade's spear materializes in hand in a crackling snap of energy as he wordlessly summons it--but it's assuring to note how promptly Yuri's grabbing up his own sword too. Seems he won't have to worry about covering a civilian, at the very least? In fact, said non-civilian seems accustomed to combat on par with someone who fights for a living, even! As techniques that are quite visibly some kind of arte flare to life with his sword work...interesting.

Still--a mob of floating tables aren't the worst threat either of them have probably ever seen, but they're still a threat that needs taking care of first, before any more investigative questions in that vein can be fielded. With movements not half as agile but similarly trained, Jade's deftly running his spear through a couple tables and chairs of his own, focusing enough fifth fonons in the pointed tip to sear through wood and split sundry aggressive furnitures in twain, scattering embers here and there. Alas, the artes that Yuri proceeds to launch in myriad general directions indeed don't seem to perturb the poltergeist activity at all; when the tables do stop floating at length, by way of them all crashing back down onto the floor in unison, it seems less because of the attacks and more because the agitation passes on its own.]

I suppose it must be difficult to phrase decent warnings when you're angry enough to throw tables at people... [As they seem to have weathered the worst of it, Jade's planting the end of his spear on the floor with a sigh, leaning on it a bit as he turns to consider Yuri properly. Wryly:] Seems they're satisfied about your coffee promise! At least you actually got to drink some of yours...

[Seems the coffee machine got thrown at some point in the fray too; its pieces adorn the floor someplace close to the counter. But you know, whatever...not much point in crying over spilled coffee machines now.....anyway--]

Have you fought ghosts in the past? You seemed to be aiming for a specific reaction, a bit earlier...trying to remove the invisibility, or something similar?