i'm feeling devious, you're looking glamorous | OPEN

[cacophonish]

WHO: Jeff & OPEN
WHEN: June 1 - June 10
WHERE: Random cabins, every bar, the buffet, idk basically anywhere
SUMMARY: A messy new arrival hits the ground, uh... stumbling to rock bottom. I swear he'll chill out after this.
WARNINGS: Binge drinking, references to demons, possession, trauma, and death. Oh and Billy Joel slander.

So, like...

All things considered, Jeff thinks he's taking this pretty well. Obviously, he's majorly fucking dead, which is about what he expected after performing the ritual to give his body over to a demon. And, okay, so the afterlife is a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, and that's, like, really not his scene, but it's better than the big empty void of oblivion he'd been expecting, so... Things are already looking up.

Look at him. He's chill. He's copacetic. He's not freaking out about anything at all.

After the mandatory safety drills are done, you can find Jeff all over the Serena Eterna, exploring all the fine shops and amenities the ship has to offer.

i. bar hopping...

...fuck it, okay, fine, he's bar hopping. That's all he's doing. Look, there's a lot of places to get a drink here, and Jeff's a connoisseur of self destruction and debauchery, and besides, he's already dead, so it's not like he has any reason to sober up now.

So, really, if you stop by any bar on the ship, you're likely to run into Jeff there at some point or another, in various states of intoxication. Maybe he's holding a one-sided conversation with an indifferent ghost at the poolside bar, while it blends him a daiquiri. Maybe he's singing to himself and anyone around him at Hurrikane-- hey, wait, did a cocktail napkin spontaneously burst into flames while he was singing? Maybe he's dancing with anyone who's got the misfortune of being at Rischie at the same time as him. Or maybe he's grooving alone at John's, to the beat of some song in his head, stopping to hurl expletives at the ghostly piano player as it launches into its set. "Fuuuuuck you, Piano Man. Billy Joel's a hack. Ha... ha... Fuck. Billy Joel. I'm in hell..."

The ghost of the piano man doesn't even care. Somehow, the indifference stings.

ii. strange bedfellows...

Big messy breakdowns can take a lot out of a guy. Not that Jeff's having a breakdown. It's just a general observation, about breakdowns in general, for other people. Jeff's fine, after all. He's just having a good time.

But sooner or later, that breakdown good time starts to take its toll, and Jeff's gotta crawl back to his cabin to sleep it off. The only thing is, he doesn't actually remember his cabin number. It's... 123, right? No. Wait. 113. 102... He knows for a fact it starts with a 1.

(What do you mean every cabin starts with a 1?)

Eventually, Jeff finds his way back to his cabin, or at least what he thinks is his cabin. Maybe it's actually your cabin, in which case: if you left the door unlocked, he's definitely going to stumble in and zonk out on one of the beds, thinking it's his. Total Goldilocks move. If it's locked, well, he'll just slump down in front of the door and sleep the booze off there, in the hall. You might have to step over him, or just wake him up.

iii. breakfast of champions...

Decked out in Tommy Bahama, with sunglasses perched in his hair, Jeff looks like he's finally settling into the cruise life... as he groans and slumps his head down on a table at the buffet, a plate of untouched food beside him. What's the point of hangovers in the afterlife?

"'s not fair. I wanna diiiie..." he whines into the table, as if this hangover is, truly, the worst hangover anyone's suffered, ever, in the history of the universe. If you join him, Jeff will lift his head and look absolutely pitiful. For as much of a mess as he is, he really has mastered the art of puppy dog eyes. Somehow, he actually manages to look like some kind of innocent Disney princess decked out in Tommy Bahama.

"I don't think I'm doing so good right now," he confesses.

Fine. Okay. So maybe Jeff isn't taking any of this well at all.

iv. wildcard...

go wild, throw anything at me. hit me at weeyotch or weeyotch#8200 if you want to plot something in particular!

Comments

[cacophonish]

Huh. Jeff tilts his head, taking that in. It makes sense, in a weird kind of way. Getting in a cab you didn't know was coming... He wonders if that's how it felt for the demon when it danced to his music, danced all the way to his head, to a plane of reality it didn't belong, and couldn't get back home.

Just a big, stupid, cosmic fuck up.

Jeff rubs his face tiredly and manages a laugh at the silly joke. It's right up his alley, okay, and he'd rather laugh than dwell on his own miserable thoughts.

"Chocolate if we're going somewhere nice, and, hm... Hot sauce if we're not."

At the question, he glances down and shrugs his shoulders, suddenly very interested in his hangover meal. He takes a moment to take an experimental sip of tomato juice, just testing the waters, seeing if his stomach's going to be chill about it, then tries to figure out how he wants to answer.

"I just thought..." I think I'm dead. It's on the tip of his tongue, but he can't bring himself to say it out loud now. Now it isn't a we thing, but a just him kind of thing, and that's so much scarier.

"...I just had a really bad night, before I woke up here. The kind you don't, um, you don't expect to... wake up from," he says softly.

[bazooka_girl]

"Aw I'm sorry about that. That's gotta be hard. But you did wake up from it." Because if she's alive she doesn't know why he wouldn't be. "And even if it's extra spicy hot sauce, I mean, no one says we have to drink it." Which means that he shouldn't give up yet. They just got here!

"Want to go and look around? It might help you feel better to get moving."

[cacophonish]

When she puts it like that... Jeff actually manages a real smile this time, though it's a little hesitant, like he's not really sure it's... what, safe to feel hopeful about anything?

"Hey, yeah... I did wake up. And on a cruise! I mean, it's a... haunted cruise? But... but it's still a cruise! I've never been on one before."

So that's kind of exciting, right? It's not like he has anything to look forward to back home.

"Let's check it out-- wait, hang on--" Jeff grabs the glass of juice and downs it like a shot, pausing a moment to grimace as his stomach lurches at the sudden influx of nutrients, before he picks up his remaining toast and gets to his feet. He's... still a bit wobbly, but at least there's a little bit of pep in his step now. "Fuck it. I'm ready."