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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.]
no subject
Sure. [He's not familiar with cruises, but he's been wanting to explore the boat, so now's as good of a time as any, especially since it seems they're free to go.]
Did you want to head back first, drop that off? [He gestures to her life jacket with a cant of his head.] I'll walk you back, if you like. Otherwise we can take a look around first.
no subject
She looks down at the vest in her hands.] Yeah, I'd...better put it back. I'm not sure I want to see what happens if I lose it. [She grins just a little and tucks some hair behind her ears.] I don't remember much of the walk here, so we might find it on the way back?
[Her room was towards the back of the boat, from what she remembered.]
no subject
It's like a whole city on a boat, here. [He could easily get lost inside and not even realise he's not in some Vegasesque town, if it wasn't for the occasional churn of the sea making the ground move beneath them. At least until he takes maybe half a day to gets his bearings on the boat.]
I'm Bucky, by the way. From New York. [Since she'd mentioned LA.]
no subject
A nod.] At least if you keep going up eventually you'll come to the deck. Or at least windows.
[She smiles at that, holding out her hand to shake his.] Nell, or...well, Eleanor. I haven't been to New York in a while, my family's from Boston originally.
no subject
It's changed a bit, since the attack. Lots of new buildings. [It's definitely changed a lot in the past hundred years. Apart from those landmarks that haven't changed much like the statue or the Chrysler building, he can barely recognise parts of the city from his childhood.
And after the attack, the blip. That's changed a lot of other things, too. But people are just talking about it like it's good for business. Bucky's uncomfortable with that line of conversation, but he usually just stays quiet instead of voicing what's in his head.]
no subject
Tilting her head to the side a bit as she starts walking back towards where her room was.] Attack? Was there a recent one or...? [Was he referring to 9/11 in all of that hubbabaloo?]
I've...been wrapped up in family troubles so I haven't been paying attention to the news lately.
no subject
I don't blame you. World's gone crazy after the Blip. [He's at least mindful of treading softly and avoiding asking anyone if they'd been affected by it. Even the people who didn't lose everyone would have lost something.]
no subject
You said this happened in New York?
no subject
Sometimes he feels like he's in the matrix, still chilling in his ice box in between deployments, and the past decade has just all been a long dream sequence he's going to awaken from at any moment. She could look him in the eye and tell him he's dreaming right now and he'd just accept it at face value without questioning it too much.]
Well, don't worry about it. Probably the least of our problems right now. [They need to deal with their current predicament onboard this ship.] Is this you? [He tilts his head towards one of the endless corridors with what could be a hundred doors leading to individual cabins down the side.]
no subject
Plus, Bucky could take it as her having been extremely sheltered. Maybe even in a dream (coma) herself.] I...think so? [Nell stares down the mass of doors.] I probably should have left something like a towel wrapped around the door.
[She glances down briefly and then notices her life-jacket has a number on it. Nell hefts it up into view for him.] This says I do, looks like room ###. [Plus or minus a # depending on how big the ship ends up being. And to keep it vague for anything brought over into the game.]
no subject
Is it a good idea to put something to identify it easily from the outside? He's not so sure about that. He would put something in between the door and the doorframe like a torn piece of paper or note, then he'd know if somebody's been in his room while he was out, but, you know. He's also an unhealthy level of paranoid.]
I can wait here, if you'd like a few minutes or. Whatever. [It would be weird to follow her in, especially if she wanted to get changed or freshen up in the bathroom or whatever. At least, he thinks it's weird.]
no subject
[Nell leaves the door open as she crosses the room and gives the closet a hard tug. It refuses the first tug but then opens on the second, almost hitting her in the shoulder like it had before. The life-jacket goes right on the hook it came off of with the second one, then she firmly shuts the door.]
There. Now it's safely away and hopefully I won't need it. [Any time soon.] Did you need to...? [She gestures at the other door that leads to the bathroom. Might as well politely ask before they go off on an adventure.]
no subject
It's probably a bad habit, to always be thinking like a fight's going to break out, but it feels inevitable at this point. He's never awakened somewhere unfamiliar and just. Enjoyed a few days sailing out on the ocean for no discernible reason and get booted out of the boat once they hit land.]
I think we should head back the way we came from, and find the middle. You wouldn't put anyone with any information all the way in the front or in the back, would you? [Is it weird that he's asking her as though she's the cruise director? Well, maybe, but he's just asking for her opinion, not like she's a subject matter expert here.]