driftfleet | At least there's no elevator music...

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At least there's no elevator music...

[At least two weeks have passed since the Drift Fleet passengers woke up on this strange wing of the Marsiva... Some new passengers have even joined the group instead of being Shuffled off to a fleet ship! The large monitor in the central room remains quiet for now, so how is everyone holding up?

Have you been relaxing? Enjoying the Earth media? If you can even remember them, how have Calibrations been treating you? Has anyone started getting a little stir-crazy?

Don't worry... This ship has no shortage of mysteries, and you'll be seeing a few more soon.]

ooc: here's another mingle for the current game event! players can start or continue threads here from any point during the event. the additional setting information is still being postponed due to sickly mods, but y'all are welcome to post additional topcomments for reactions and investigation once it's up!

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[ The young man in the straw hat turns his head, rounding his eyes at the stranger.

It's funny sometimes, fate. He's been caught in a deathtrap in ancient ruins with one of her teammates, has had numerous interactions with another, but it's Weiss he's never seen before. A hundred thousand thousand threads of interactions and acquaintances that lead to chance encounters like this.

And all Luffy can say is: ]

Have you seen this?!

[ A fingertip is jabbed at the glass, and his other hand beckons her. ]

Look at that one! The way those stars kinda curve around like that? Doesn't that look like a giant t-bone steak?!

[ Sigh. ]

[ fate truly is funny that way. weiss would have never, not in a million years, guessed that the captain of the man she's crossed swords with (all three of them) and the man whose mouth-watering cuisine she'd had the pleasure of tasting... could be the young man standing right before her, so engrossed in the sights of space that he hadn't even heard a word she'd said.

she huffs a little in disapproval, but it's hard to not feel a touch of endearment over such excitement. his bubbling energy reminds her a little of lee, really, but she tries not to dwell in lingering wistfulness for too long.

instead she steps forward, shifting her gaze towards the stars he's pointing out.

...or. she's at least trying to. ]

I'm not sure I see what you're talking about.

C'mon! Haven't you ever looked up at clouds and thought, 'hey! that one looks like a strip of bacon!'

[ Are you seeing a pattern here, yet? And no, it's not the scarcity of actual meat products that has him so obsessed -- he's... always like this. ]

It's like that, 'cept for... no clouds. Use your imagination!

[ For all anyone knows, he could be remarking on anything reflected on the glass itself, too; in any case, she's more interesting than anything outside their enclosed atmosphere now, as he turns to put his back against the glass, arms folded up behind his head.

He's waiting.

Apparently on her, judging from his expectant grin where others might feel the pressure to fill the silence with hasty introductions. ]

[ she hesitates when he turns to her, eyes so wide and expectant that she feels a sudden pang of anxiety over the simple gesture. what is it? she wants to ask, but her pride prevents her from doing so. flustered, and caught off-guard, weiss hastily turns back to the glass behind him, the space full of stars beyond that.

another step closer, then another, until she's inches from the glass herself, unconsciously nearly mirroring the very thing she'd tried to admonish him for just moments earlier.

she squints, straining to do as he'd said and — and use her imagination. ]

I... I suppose that cluster there looks a bit like an — an apple?

[ Eventually, the tip of Luffy's finger presses against the glass just past her nose. ]

Right there..?

Yeah, that does look kinda like an apple. Man... [ Luffy straightens up, eyes a little wide with wonder. ] I don't remember how long it's been since I had an apple! A real one, I mean, not something printed.

[ He remembers the gift of an orange, a real one, at a birthday party and how they'd been completely floored by the generous gift. They were rare, where he was from, on a dead planet where nothing grew. ]

I'm Luffy. Who are you?

[ at the sudden intrusion of her personal space, she jerks back out of reflex. a flutter of lashes and a mildly affronted expression later, she's turning to him with a sharp reprimand ready on her tongue. it dies, however, the moment she catches that wistful look in his eyes, and her expression softens into something — almost sympathetic. perhaps even on the verge of pitying.

—although she's soon wondering if that means he'd actually eaten a printed picture of an apple. luffy pls??? ]

Weiss, [ she winds up responding, shifting a step back to grant them a semblance of proper distance. ] Weiss Schnee. [ once upon a time the name had meant something, but she's been away from home long enough that it doesn't carry quite as much weight on her tongue anymore. ]

...you know there is a kitchen here.

[ Food printers. Ask him about it sometime. Amazing invention, and he would argue it's still a hundred thousand times better than the gross, squishy blocks of protein solids and viscous gels they get to eat here. At least it can print you a steak, fully cooked, with sauteed mushrooms! Sure, something about it just doesn't quite have the magic in it that Sanji's cooking does, but it's practically real enough.

They need stuff like those here, though... not the problems that come with pretty much everything else from that planet. ]

Yeah? You wanna give me the grand tour, Snowy?

[ He smiles at her, boyish and guileless and toothy, shaving years off his already young face and two decades behind him.

Snowy, though?

She just gave him her name! Nicknames already?! ]

[ her expression flattens slightly — just on the verge of being unkind. ]

It's Weiss, [ she says, rather patiently. it's less cheesy and saccharine than "snow angel," for sure, but it still ruffles the metaphorical feathers.

(though she can't quite tell if she's bothered because of the nickname itself, or because he'd already dared to give her one. it certainly implies a level of familiarity, doesn't it? the latter can perhaps explain the faint dusting of pink on her otherwise pale cheeks.) ]

And I suppose I can. It would give me a chance to test how well I've memorized this ship's interior.

[ normally she would demand a "please" from him (manners, luffy!), but since he's essentially giving her a chance to quiz herself, she'll let it slide. just this once, though.

nerd alert nerd alert. ]

But snow's pretty, and you're pretty, while Weiss just sounds... I'unno. Like ice, and it's cold and hard and I don't really think you're half that bad, even if you try sometimes.

[ Oh sure, Luffy.

Don't uh, hold back, or anything.

It's not unkindness, just a lack of tact. ]

I.

[ but how does one even respond to that? she cycles through flattery and indignation and even a little bit of embarrassment, but in the end she settles for plain ol' befuddlement, and perhaps it's just better they move on, or she might spend the rest of the day just being confused at him. ]

The kitchen should be this way—

[ she makes a sharp turn of her heel and starts down the corridor, the hastiness of her actions perhaps spurred by the sudden warming of her cheeks. ]

Oh!

[ That's half exclamation and half agreement, peeling himself away from the windows as he trots along in her wake, lacing his fingers together at the back of his head and just beneath the brim of his straw hat. ]

Hey, I met a girl here who said she'd been here a whole year. Is that normal?

[ weiss' lips purse, but all she can really do is lift her shoulders in a shrug. ]

I can't say. While I've been taking elsewhere before, and have met many others who have been through these situations longer than I have, it's hard to tell what constitutes as "normal" here.

[ It might be telling that he takes this as a positive sign. Perhaps only one person wins, but maybe not everyone lasts the whole game. Maybe they just quietly send other people away because they're not interesting -- or entertaining -- enough?

Which might mean that if being more entertaining doesn't work for him, he might try being too boring.

Hahaha, yeah right, Luffy. You couldn't fly under anyone's radar if you tried really, really hard. ]

Hmm... okay. But what do you mean by taken elsewhere?

I was in a place called Cerealia, before this. Taken by some organization who'd told me that my world had been destroyed. [ she rolls her eyes. she'd known they were lying this whole time! ] Though I can't say I appreciate being told to be someone's source of entertainment, either.

Me neither.

[ And there's a very loud but in that beat of silence. ]

'Cept there's something I really gotta get back to, and soon! ...They told you your home got destroyed? Was it true?

Of course it wasn't, [ she scoffs, though there's a rather loud maybe at the end of that sentence. she's 99.9% sure, due to various contrasting accounts from other people in her situation, but as she'd never experienced going back to her world herself, she can't say for sure.

and while she'd like to say she's also got something very important to return home to... she's not sure a school dance is quite along the same level of whatever it is luffy is thinking about. ]

Regardless, I wouldn't trust most of any authority says in these situations.

Guess not.

[ That's practically 100% sure!

...A school dance surely would feel like the fate of the world is hanging in the balance at a certain age, so... yeah. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Luffy's just worried a dead planet might run out of energy that could potentially send everyone home within a year, and everyone's too busy wasting time and effort on infighting and politics and classism to do anything about it. Also slavery and massive surveillance state? Seriously, some Fahrenheit 451 shit.

But yeah! A school dance could, in fact, be about as devastating as total extinction! ]

So how long have you been here?

[ SHE WAS IN CHARGE (well, half in charge) AND THERE WERE DOILIES AND FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS TO ATTEND TO—

but uh... yeah... definitely not along the same lines as his problems.

though flower arrangements are pretty high up there. ]

Only a few days, admittedly. I wish I could say I won't be here for very long, but... [ another shrug. it's clear she hates not being in control of things. ]

[ It wasn't just his problem, either. It was his friends, and their friends, and everybody's. ]

She said you gotta be the most entertaining.

[ His earnestness means his expression's wide open, receptive and honest. ]

Any idea what that's supposed to mean?

[ she's not really used to having someone's full attention like this (most of the time, people's eyes glaze over when she gets ready to voice an opinion) so she's a little caught off-guard by such blatant earnestness tbh. ]

That's... hard to say. Entertainment is pretty subjective, after all. [ idly, she smooths her hands over her skirt. ] I mean I happen to think books are very entertaining, but not very many people seem to agree, so.

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At least there's no elevator music...

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