on this the night all hallows' eve

[sailmods]

who: the living and the damned
when: October 31st, 8PM to 11:59 PM
where: around the main pool on deck 6
what: HALLOWEEN PARTY, 1/2
warnings: TBA

[as you exit the elevator and walk towards the pool deck on Halloween night, you follow a sort of labyrinth of panels and decorations. about halfway through the maze, a scythe swings into your path, and a tall animatronic crackles to life:]

It is harvest time. I can smell it in the air. And I sense your soul is ripe for harvesting as well. When your time comes, my scythe will cleave your soul right off the vine like a ripened pumpkin. Time for carving!

[welcome to Halloween aboard the Serena Eterna.

the Infinite Spirit Halloween has been put to good use by a crack team of Mizuki and Ebalon, and half of it seems to now be located around the deck on the main pool. the pool has been dyed a swamp-like green; fake plastic vines and (hopefully) fake plastic limbs float in the waters. there are fog machines studded throughout that are putting out a frankly dangerous amount of fog, and it can be pretty difficult to tell if your next step is onto the floor or directly into the pool.

there is food available on a long table on the side, but it’s entirely the usual fare found in the buffet, though there are also two punch bowls: one is a delicious fruit punch, and the other is about 99% vodka and then a single orange. the bar is also open, with extra liquor bottles scavenged from the other bars on the ship. Halloween music plays from unseen speakers.

Friday is here, and dressed in costume, but never seems to stop fussing and rushing around long enough to actually have a conversation with. but, hey! Jenny is here! hooray!

have fun. you have ‘til midnight.]

Comments

[skaikru]

( the amount of disappointment in this tiny human vs the amount of blood that just rushed up and stained her ears... )

No. We don't hold emergency meetings just to fu — ( strangled garbled sounds of frustration. aka, an ugh. )

[stormpirate]

Oye, I am new here, remember? I don't know how you people do things!

[skaikru]

W... we hold meetings. We've had two just this month! Jenny —

( desire to rip her hair out only barely resisted. )

But you're not new, here. You've done all of this before, and if there's something different going on this time around — like possessions — we need you to tell us if that's super abnormal and deeply concerning.

( chill out clarke, calm, cool, collected. )

So you — in your entire first time on this ship, never saw anything like this?

[stormpirate]

[thinks...]

Not that I can remember. Which isn't saying much, but... I do feel like I would remember if that had ever happened.

[skaikru]

( oh my god we're doomed. )

Do you at least have any suggestion as to how we deal with it?

( bc the brig is only so big, and people want their friends back. )

[stormpirate]

[shrugs]

Kill them? What else would you do?

[skaikru]

They're in the bodies of people we care about, and I haven't heard any assurance that they'd come back normal if we did kill them.

( for as passionately as she speaks on this topic, it's with an air of distance. this plague of possessions hasn't really touched the select few people she cares about, none of her friends are possessed, no way no how.

she will still rally the cause for those put-upon faces at the emergency meeting. ...to a point. it's a royal "we". )

[stormpirate]

Why ask for my advice, then? You know I only have the one plan!

[skaikru]

Because —

( mega frustration has clarke feeling challenged, and standing pretty abruptly. legs of the deck chair scrape a little on the ground, shrill and grating. )

Jenny.

( and backtracking immediately, invoking godsnames. )

Gaubenex. Your plan didn't work in the end, did it.

[stormpirate]

That doesn't mean I've magically started making better ones! [GET OFF HER DICK]

[skaikru]

( tempting offer but no, you're stuck with the sexy combat nurse now jenny, she thinks you might be a big key component. )

...I could say something stupid, like "aren't storms malleable and the weather quick to change?"

But I'd really rather know: can you at least try to make better ones? For Friday, if not for anyone else here?

[stormpirate]

[siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh]

Fine, fine... [beat] ... Kill them, but only a little bit?

[skaikru]

( mentally seesaws hands....... )

Obviously. I mean, if there's no other choice in the end.

[stormpirate]

See? A classic is a classic for a reason! Never fails!

[authors note: it does]

[skaikru]

( frustrated grumble, frustrated grumble, but she's not wrong about anything minus the chances of failure.

...then a sigh. )

I'm guessing you also missed the meeting Skulduggery put on at the beginning of the month. All that information's still in the library if you ever want to read it. Does it change your plan at all, knowing that killing the Captain destroys everything here — up to and including whatever remains of your brothers?

[stormpirate]

[blinks]

Was... Was that news to you people?

[skaikru]

For some.

( personally clarke had always been drawn to bringing the big bad down at the expense of the party, but some passengers are super shaken. )

Hearing that we're all just copies did people heads in more, though.

[stormpirate]

Hm, a bit of a deeper cut. The way Friday explained it to me... Reality is a river. You have the beginning [holds up one hand] and the end [holds up the other hand, farther away] and every drop in between is the same river. The river doesn't notice if you take a bucket from it. And, if you toss the bucket back, it just goes right back to being the river.

... I could have returned to my reality, and forgotten all of this. I wouldn't even notice that my brothers were missing, because they wouldn't be. [pause] But, they would be. And so, I stay.

[skaikru]

( that's a beautiful analogy. and clarke listens with a slight tilt of her head, until the wait, what? questions start to filter in and her entire spine straightens like pillar. )

We were told going back home would destroy realities. Skulduggery said — ( she makes a brief grimace, resentful that the bulk of information here always begins with fucking skulduggery said... ) — we couldn't ever go back, and any hope of escape would have to rely on the Captain dropping us off in a completely different world to live out our days.

[stormpirate]

[frowns] Just going home wouldn't do that. I could have done that right from the start. I would have just stepped right back into the place I had left.

... Actually, how are you defining "we?" Would we be talking about "Jenny" or "Jenny, specifically the one that has been aboard the Serena Eterna?" Because that Jenny could not do that and still exist.

[skaikru]

First "we" was all the passengers here, second was ship specifics. But —

( this immediately isn't sounding as hopeful as it had first blush, but. bulldog with a scrap of flesh between it's teeth, clarke's still gnawing. )

Why? Why does it work that way. You can't tell me a river would object if a few stones and a cup of saltwater was mixed in with the bucket when it got thrown back.

[stormpirate]

[beat]

Hold on. I need another metaphor.

[gets up. leaves to the food table.

returns with a handful of mashed potatoes, which she immediately just. splats onto the chair she was sitting on.]

You looking? Watch.

[she molds the potatoes until it is shaped into a line. then, with her finger, she pushes out a tiny sliver of the middle until it's sitting separate from the rest.]

Now. Return that piece.

[skaikru]

( first thought: of course there's fucking mashed potatoes here.

second thought: okay. it's a puzzle meets science experiment meets philosophical question, right? clarke's slinking off her own deck chair and settling on her knees alongside the line of potatoes. looks at it for a second, then looks up at jenny with something between a determined scowl and a pout.

then indulges, using the side of her palm to carefully realign the stand-alone sliver of mash. end result is still a relatively straight line, but there's potatoe smears on the chair itself, not even counting clarke and jenny's hands. the line itself looking a little thin at that particular spot. )

[stormpirate]

[she smooths the line out.]

Now. Take that exact same piece out again.

[skaikru]

( oh. so this is the test.

diligently, clarke tries to pinpoint the exact spot the previous segment was separated from, and drags her finger through the line to displace it. but even while doing so, she starts to get what jenny is going for. )

...I can't do that, can I. Because it's all just a homogenous mess, and I can't pick out potato particle from potato particle.