come_sailaway | pleased to meet you

Entry tags:

pleased to meet you

CW: murder

[it is the morning of the 17th when the usual morning announcement is replaced with the sort of tentative, nervous tone that Friday takes on immediately before something insane happens.]

Good morning, passengers! It's, um... Well, I sure hope everyone had an interesting time on their shore excursion! The Captain sure did! In fact, he had such a good time, he's asked me to inform you all that, tonight, he's going to be hosting his usual captain's formal in the main dining room, but with a twist! This time, it's going to be a, um... victory party! For Natsuno! Because he won! [small laugh] And also to celebrate the opening of a new shop on the Promenade! Gosh, and that really is something to celebrate; I haven't seen that happen since he--

[LOUD STATIC NOISES]

-- Yes, well! The dress code will be cruise formal; everyone can find a new set of clothes in their cabin to celebrate the occasion! I-- Oh, right, we'll see you all tonight! 8PM sharp!

[the connection cuts off. today, for the first time that anyone can remember, Friday can't be found in the atrium. or any other room. smoke 'em if you got 'em.

at 8PM sharp, the door to the dining room swings open. it is mostly empty: the only tables left are a dozen or so under the main chandelier. there are name cards at each table setting, written in Friday's neat script; the seatings seem mostly random, except for everyone who was on the island, who will find themselves at a table with their killer and/or victim(s). except Natsuno, of course, whose name is displayed proudly at the head table, next to an unnamed place. once they are inside, all of them find themselves under the same sort of compulsion that they felt during the muster drill, and their legs will stop working until they have gone to their assigned seats.

Friday enters the room first, dressed up nicely, but with hunched shoulders and her hands clasped firmly in front of her. the door shuts behind her. she says nothing, and acknowledges no one, not even Natsuno, as she takes her spot behind the chair.

a few fashionable minutes pass. it starts as smoke pouring out from under the door, moving towards the table as it slowly solidifies into the form of... a rather normal-looking man. he sits, cross-legged, in the chair that Friday pulls out for him. he looks over the assembled crowd, visibly considering something... there is a flash of silver in the light, and the knife he'd had in his sleeve is across Friday's throat quicker than she can react, and she falls bonelessly to the ground, a spray of arterial blood across the table setting.]

There, perfect.

[he looks out at them again. and he smiles. the knife is placed back in his sleeve, and he holds his hands out, palms up.]

Well. Here's your chance. [he waves a hand lazily, and the compulsion keeping them seated fades like pins and needles.] Try not to embarrass yourselves.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"A display, meant to frighten or impress? I can make a guess at the motivations of men. But the Captain? I'm not certain if he is bound by the same sort of motivations."

That is a lot of whiskey. Something enviable about that. Still, Watson will stick with his wine. For now.

"I am almost sorry for Friday, sometimes."

And he's not sharing his whiskey neither! Ahem.

"I can't get a good read on her. Well, either of them. She comes off as human most of the time, but..." Zoro gestures vaguely toward her poor body, or the last known coordinates thereof. "...that ain't normal for most humans, even the kind I know."

"I wonder if she knew what was going to happen. She seemed... well, more nervous than usual."

Well, that's an unsettling thought. Poor... woman-shaped entity. "No, I can't make sense of her, either. I've never been able to decide whether she is a person or not." He shakes his head. "I don't believe we've met. Dr. John Watson."

He offers his hand to shake.

For a moment, Zoro eyes the offered hand before clasping it, firmly but quickly. It's not a common gesture where he's from. "Roronoa Zoro," he trades in turn, even if their names are reverse order. Whatever, it's cool, he gets it. "I can't tell, either. That was a lot of blood, though, so she's something living. Ish. Sorta living."

"Some sort of flesh automaton," Watson suggests. "An extremely lifelike puppet. Someone whose personhood has been taken from her. No, I have no idea. Before I ended up on this ship I would have called all of these ideas impossible, but many things people have shown me are equally impossible to my way of thinking."

He shrugs. "I suppose that while we're here, the fact that she will come back from this is no evidence that she's not a living person."

"What, like a cyborg?" To be fair, Zoro barely knows all the other options out there, but the fact that a guy with that many swords knows what a cyborg is is...odd, enough. He shrugs in concession, it's as likely a possibility as any of the others. "I get it. So long as she comes back, all it says is that everyone here no matter what they're made of is gonna come back. Whether it's Skully over there..." He gestures with his drink to the other wallflower corner where Skullduggery is rather obvious. "...or anyone else maybe not quite human."

He takes a calculated sip, then, and adds, "You don't seem too fussed about the whole idea of people not staying dead."

Hey, cyborgs are definitely alive. In Watson's opinion. He knows one. Though not exactly by that name.

"Do I?" Watson shrugs, sipping his wine. "I suppose I've had time to become accustomed to the notion even before my recent adventure, where I died myself. Not that it becomes any less... unsettling," he adds, a wry edge to his voice, "but I might have exhausted my supply of hysteria over it. For the time being, at least."

He smiles, a strained expression.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. I didn't see all of it, I didn't know." A man's gotta nap sometimes, after all. "But...what do you mean, accustomed to it?"

Look, if at least one person on the ship did not, personally, see Watson die, he is okay with that.

He shakes his head. "Just that I've had some time to learn of the concept before it became... practical. It seems to be becoming a more important aspect of life on this ship lately, but... that wasn't the first of it, you know."

"....no, I didn't." Zoro frowns darkly. Clearly, he's been taking this little trip too lightly, it's time to get serious. "The so-called ghosts, or people turning on each other?"

Even as he says it, there's a sinking feeling in his chest. Under these conditions, people are definitely going to start turning on each other without needing incentive.

"The latter," he sighs. "In addition, the phenomenon was first revealed to me through a rather dramatic practical demonstration. I hadn't personally tested it, of course, but I wasn't overeager to."

He'll leave César's name out of it, poor guy.

"I'm not really sure what the invisible ghosts are. I haven't heard any explanation for them."

A shrug. "Nobody I know has that answer, yet. I don't believe in ghosts, but they're doing a good job serving me booze so for now, they seem harmless. Tolerable, I guess."

It sounds like a joke but he's dead serious.

"Somebody actually did that to prove it to you? That sounds...kinda dumb, actually. There's gotta be better ways." Especially if they get more new folks coming on board and have to explain the problem with death to all of them.

"Ah, well, that was Jenny. I suppose you weren't here for that."

Watson sighs and gives Zoro a brief, wry grimace. "We had a visit from a woman who called herself Pirate Jenny. She claimed to have once been in the position we are now, captives on this ship at the mercy of our generous host," he gestures to the Captain at his table, "and she demonstrated to a friend of mine the impermanence of death by asking him to kill her. He did, she revived, as promised. Later she grew to be fifteen feet tall and summoned a storm, before she left us."

"No, I was," Zoro notes with a bit of a frown. How did he miss that? "I mean, I know all the rest of it, but I didn't know she let some guy kill her just to prove that to you. I had this feeling she was a bit crazy but...damn."

Maybe for the best he didn't try to commandeer her ship...

"Then if I would have actually followed through and attacked her, it wouldn't have mattered." He might be wrong about that, but there's distinct anger in his tone. "Is everyone here like that, or is it just the ship that revives us?"

"Oh, you were here then? My apologies."

Well, that's embarrassing. Oops. "Her implication, as I understood it, is that it was this place, or at least our gracious host," Watson nods towards the Captain, "that makes that possible. It was certainly nothing I was capable of before. Not that I ever tested it, you understand."

"No, I get it. Most people don't want to test that, since being wrong is kinda permanent." Zoro tosses his head idly, he's not bothered. Really, it's his own fault for missing out on things, what with his multiple bad habits. "Nice of her to give you a crash course, at least. If that's how we learn anything around here..."

He looks rather pointedly toward the Captain. Demonstrations appear to be the order of the night.

"Hm. Yes."

He takes a drink of his wine. "So I had a suspicion that I might come back after I died. That was poor comfort in the moment, though. There's a certain amount of instinct that takes over in moments like that."

Watson's not wrong, but... "...never been in a life or death fight before?"

Really, Zoro is just that kind of idiot but considering his near-death vision right before getting yanked into this dimension, he feels qualified to brag.

"Oh, I certainly have," Watson says, as casual as he can be. "I was a soldier, once. Wounded in action. I have plenty of experience at not dying when I should have. I suppose I was overdue to fail at it sooner or later."

"Soldier, huh? Yeah, that counts." All the better for approaching this gentleman; Zoro might have been fishing for information to start but now it's just a good chat on a different level. He makes a wry face at the joke. "That's life, though. One long race against Death, and eventually it wins. It's all in whether you take it like a man or run screaming from it." It takes a moment for him to remember why they started talking about death. Ah, right. "I don't think this place counts, though, if we all come back. Unless we're already dead, and this is just Hell."

"Hell. Yes, that's occurred to me. It doesn't seem quite unpleasant enough for that, surely." Watson's mouth twists. "I would never have imagined eternal torment as having endless crab legs at the buffet or a library of reading material to while away the hours when you're not being tortured as pleasantly as possible."

He pauses. "Purgatory, maybe."

That actually gets a chuckle. "Right? The endless free booze and rent-free cabins. Couldn't be Hell."

Out of instinct, Zoro feels around his vitals, even though it's been weeks and he's long past being remotely close to injured. "I didn't think I actually died in that fight. I could've sworn I got out. But purgatory...eh, I suppose that's the best place I could end up."

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