TEST DRIVE MEME

[mourningstarmods]

LOOK AT MY UGLY, GRAPHICS-FREE MEME.

While Reserves are Open, there's no one in the game yet, so feel free to test out your muses in the setting here! Should you choose to app, you may pick threads you've done here to count toward activity (if all characters involved are in the game).

Some prompts:

1. Fetching or Vetting. Your character is either introducing an Inmate to the ship or is going to pick them up. Or they have recently returned from this endeavor.

2. Yeah, that rumble earlier? Not a big deal. Just a flood. (You pick how it affects your character.) Let somebody know if you start feeling a little funny.

Comments

[bastardofipswich]

Dead. So, Caleb really did kill him. Which means he was right: Caleb was responsible for his being in this place, which is, apparently, hell, if the woman's to be believed. He moves forward, although the cot's in the way of getting too close to the bars, but he grabs onto them all the same.

"What do you know about what's missing?"

[gimmethemap]

She nodded, closing her eyes in a way that suggested she was rolling them under the lids. "I've...encountered magicians enough in recent years to know when they're trying to stare at me to death." She also glanced at enough of his file to get the basics. "You're only down here because sometimes new arrivals panic when they appear, and we'd rather nobody get hurt before someone's spoken to you."

[bastardofipswich]

So, she knows what he is. That'll make this... easier, he hopes. Chase drops his hands from the bars, holding them up placatingly. He even smiles, even if it looks a little too much like a snake trying to convince someone it's not about to bite them.

"Okay. Fine. I won't hurt anyone. Tell me where I am and let me out."

[gimmethemap]

"You're on my ship, but you needn't be for long. We take passengers such as yourself because, lucky you, someone thought you deserved a chance at earning your life back instead of going wherever it is souls go when they die in your circumstances." She leaned against the opposite wall, crossing her arms. "So what happens now is I answer your questions about that that means for you, if you choose to stay, and if you decide you'd rather take your chances, we put you right back where we found you."

[bastardofipswich]

He listens carefully, watching her every movement even as he remains still in his cell. "What does this mean for me? Am I on the River Styx or something?"

[gimmethemap]

"Maybe? I've never heard the waters named, myself." She shook her head. "It's complicated. Some people have called it purgatory. Others think it must be what happens before reincarnation. Some don't have names for it. To keep it simple, though, you died damned. Someone thinks there's a better destiny for you than that, but you have to earn it. We only get the first one for free. So your time here, if you choose to accept it, is about working toward that."

[bastardofipswich]

"And what do I do to earn a better life?" he asks. There's some suspicion in his voice. He doesn't quite know where he stands on this whole thing. It sounds a little too good to be true, and he's certain that there's a catch somewhere. Well, another catch besides the thing where his magic's gone.

[gimmethemap]

"You become a better person." Despite her ire a few minutes ago, she was trying her best to let it all come slowly. She had a habit of falling into speeches because that was what Captains were good for when there wasn't fighting going on: rallying groups of people. She also didn't to hurry through just because she didn't want to deal with one attitude.

[bastardofipswich]

"That's it?" He arches his brow. "What is this, A Christmas Carol? I've got to pull an Ebeneezer Scrooge?" He leans closer to the bars, lips pulling into a frown. "What about my magic?" The most important thing here.

[gimmethemap]

She laughed a little, partly because thanks to places like this, it was a reference she understood. "Not in a single night. People change over time, based on experience, so that's what you'll get here. You become part of the community, help run the ship, and when we put in to ports you'll have the odd mission to fulfill, with guidance and protection. Over time your magic will be restored."

[bastardofipswich]

"How much time?" He shakes his head. "You don't understand, my magic is a part of me. I need it." What it is, of course, is a drug. He can't fathom a life without it, even if it's only temporary.

[gimmethemap]

"Then you will want to earn some of it back quickly." Morgan didn't have magical Inmates, so this was never a challenge she had to face, herself. "That will be up to whomever is assigned to you. However...sometimes the ship knows you're trying."

[bastardofipswich]

Chase crosses his arms, thinking over this for a moment. "So my options: work on this ship, be a 'better person,' and earn back my magic, get a second chance... or take a gamble and face death and see what happens." Well, this sounds like a no brainer. He's not about to go for oblivion. No, Chase is a survivor, even if survival isn't looking particularly pretty right now.

[gimmethemap]

"That's the short version, yes. You can ask whatever questions you wish." Because there were way too many twists and turns this voyage could take for her to lay them all down without waiting to hear what it was he needed to know, first.

[bastardofipswich]

"You mentioned someone being assigned to me," he brings up. "What's that, like a case worker?"

[gimmethemap]

"We call them Wardens. When you go off-ship, they're meant to act as a guide, but it's also their job to keep you safe. Here, they advise you and are your first line of communication if someone does something wrong to you. They also have first and final word on how you are disciplined if you make trouble. If you have a problem that involves your Warden, you report it to the 1st Mate and Quartermaster. If you die again, they're the only one that can bring you back."

[bastardofipswich]

"What do you mean die again? How often do people die again?" That, at least, is concerning. Perhaps more concerning than the fact that he's going to have a warden assigned to him, in charge of his every action or whatever. Dying once was bad enough. Chase isn't up for trying it more than once.

[gimmethemap]

"A lot of people don't -- I've had a few nasty ones myself -- but being alive again comes with that risk, you know. The point is that it's not permanent so long as you're here." She might have exaggerated on how few people experienced death again, or even for the first time, on these ships.

[bastardofipswich]

"So I'm effectively immortal here?" Now he may be taking the wrong message from this.

[gimmethemap]

"Unless you're really good at making your Warden hate you, or a jury overrules them and condemns you? Almost. It doesn't make them less unpleasant, however, or a sacrifice less meaningful."

[bastardofipswich]

"Okay." He nods. "Say I take you up on your deal here. What's next?"

[gimmethemap]

She doubted he wouldn't. She'd never sent a soul back yet. "You'd start working on the main deck. A Warden is temporarily assigned to you to look after your interest until you get a permanent one. You work where you're placed to start, but if you find a job you think is more suited to your interests, you'll be given a chance to try it out. Do that quickly."