“You cheated!” Jake huffed, pointing at the pieces that put him in checkmate for the dozenth time. “The pawn can’t move like that, not how the game works,”
“I do not cheat!” Madeleine giggled, “You’re just not very familiar with the more advanced moves in this game!” The cruise had been on the move for half an hour now and the majority of the facilities in the vessel had been opened up for business, however, Jake spent his time with Madeleine, she was a pleasant person to be around, and made Jake’s trip better than it was initially. Though, it wouldn’t hurt to do something else, he was getting slightly bored of the chess. “Do you want to explore the ship?” Madeleine had read his mind, “Yeah sure, where do you want to go first?”
“Let’s go to the upper deck, I want to see the ocean”
“Uh, yeah sure, let’s do that,” they both got up from their seats and made their way to the Upper deck talking with each other as they walked down the elegant hallways of the A.U Voyager. “Can I try on your glasses?” Madeleine asked, Jake thought about her request for a moment, before taking them off and handing them to her. She put them on, and looked back at Jake, “They suit you, you look good in them,” he smiled, “merci beaucoup!” Madeleine giggled, making poses with the shades. “This ship is so modern yet so... Archaic,” Jake said. “Yeah, mother and my uncle both put a lot of emphasis on traditionalism with this cruise, it was to pay respect to my great nana, Trixibelle Garnier, she lived for the seas, and I want to be just like her!”
“Well, have you ever met her before? She seems like a cool person”
“Sadly, non, she passed away before I was born, my mother and her brother rebranded the business to be more luxurious. A.U stands for Alexander and Urielle, if you were wondering”
“I see.”
“Yeah, the priority of gold is a direct reference to her version of this boat but look at it now!” She twirled around taking in the beauty of the cruise “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It's quite an amazing ship, I’d love to stay here as much as you do, I don’t think I’d ever get bored,” Madeleine laughed again, Jake simpered. They took the elevator to the top floor, taking in the cold breeze of the night, Jake scanned the upper deck which was concealed by the darkness and dimly lit by lanterns, that flickered subtly. Madeleine allowed the wind to let her hair flow, she took in a deep breath. “Isn’t this nice, Jake? The sea is beautiful,”
“I can see why you like it so much, it’s great up here,” Jake looked up, at the sky, it was dotted with little white, blue and yellow circles that lit up the sky, he looked in awe at the beauty of it all. “It’s a starry sky today, c’est merveilleux!” Madeleine smiled, lying down on the floor and looking straight up, Jake followed her actions, with his arms on the back of his head as he looked up at the starry sky, “Me and my brother used to do this all the time back in the days, you know,” he said.
“I have no siblings to do this with, that’s why I appreciate you, Jake, you’d make good friend, I have no doubt,” Madeleine replied, Jake frowned at this statement looking more crestfallen, she noticed his dejected demeanour, “what's wrong? you look upset,” she frowned.
“I don’t think I'm that good a friend, I have people out there who hate me to bits, I don’t want you to be disappointed by that too,”
“You know, Jake, you’ll never be able to please everyone you come across, there will always be people that hate you, but you should never stop trying to make everyone happy, it's better to try than to not try at all, people will notice that you try to change, and who knows, you may become likeable in their eyes,”
“I guess so,”
“I know so, you seem like a good person in my eyes, and if you can show me that side of yours, I'm sure you can show it to others,” they contemplated each other for a moment before giving each other a warm smile and returning to their stargaze.
(...)
“This is some good spaghetti,” Magnus said through a mouthful, in the couple of hours that followed their departure, they had helped themselves to some of the perks that came with being a VIP, the restaurant was now available to them, free of charge. “Eat with your mouth closed, that’s gross” Cynthia sighed “I don’t want to see what’s in your mouth,”
“he’s not wrong though, this is some high-quality food, considering that we are on a boat,” Lucia chimed, sitting back on her chair “I’m having a blast here,”. The restaurant was filled with passengers in suits and dresses talking to each other, mothers to their husbands or children, and dining, the cruise would arrive in England in 6 days, they had time to settle down and enjoy themselves, the sun was finally beginning to rise, and the ocean could be seen more clearly, gently rippling against the break of dawn. Aiden took the time to look outside the window to get a closer look, pressing his face against it in awe. “I think I know the ins and outs of this notebook, something about it is so oddly familiar, but I just can’t seem to put my mind to it,” Lucia said, “I feel like it was made for me, I don’t know,”
“Technically, it was, you were the one who got it as a gift, not us,” Cynthia mentioned. “Fair, it’s special in one way or another though,” Lucia was playing with her eyepatch, she had gotten used to it in the couple of days she had it for; Aiden was right; It was authentic. When she played with her eyepatch, the brooch that sat on it would shine a more mesmerising glow, which would derail her train of thought completely, something unique about the brooch was enticing to her. Orbiting her mind like planets around a star, she hadn’t quite figured out what it meant, or where it came from, but she never let it out of her sight. Magnus had been given the compass, which he attached to a necklace, which swung around his neck like a pendulum as he moved. And Aiden was given the alarm clock, an insulting gesture, but one that he overlooked, a gift was a gift. As they sat down and ate their meal, a familiar face had joined them and sat down in a vacant chair near their table. “Oh, hey Jake, glad you could join us, we hadn’t seen you in a while,” Magnus started, he was the only person who seemed pleased to see Jake, the others glared at him, ignoring his red-haired companion who had a quaint smile, overlooking him. He cleared his throat awkwardly before sliding a gift to Lucia, from the other side of the table, Lucia narrowed her eyes in scepticism, spurning his friendly smile, Madeleine whispered in Jake’s ear, to which he nodded, “I would like to apologise for my naive behaviour with this gift I bought, I hope you like it,” with a raised eyebrow, Lucia picked up the gift and shook it, slowly opening it.
“Really? A perfume bottle?” She asked, irked,
“Do you like it? It cost me a pretty penny to buy,” Jake laughed, beaming with pride at his present.
“Oh, you think you’re so funny, do you?”
“What?” Jake didn’t see Lucia’s arms, but he could tell that she was clenching them, Magnus and Cynthia flicked their chins, silently begging Jake to stop continuing.
“I mean, I don’t think it's because of the bottle I chucked at you, like you’re beyond that, or when I threw your gift at the window? Surely not, right?” He continued, disregarding Lucia’s reddening face. “I think that you’re mature enough to move past these things, but I did figure I ought to buy you a little offering for your troubles,” he threw a meatball from Magnus’s plate in the air and caught it in his mouth. “Well, what do you think?”
“Screw you, Jake,” She hissed, getting up and leaving the restaurant, Jake looked around the table, Cynthia was shaking her head and Magnus was facepalming. “What?” He asked through his meatball, “I thought that it was a pretty thoughtful gift,” he looked at Madeleine who just shrugged at him “Maybe she doesn’t like perfume?” She asked. Magnus, Cynthia and Aiden went and followed Lucia out of the restaurant, “Surely you can’t be that dense,” Cynthia muttered on her way out.
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(...)
Lucia sat in the lounge chair, looking over the notebook once more to blow off some steam, the sun had fully risen now and light could be seen through the windows in the private lounge, Aiden and Magnus decided to play some tennis in the Playing Quarters and Cynthia decided to read a novel or two in the bedroom; she couldn’t care less where Jake was, as long as he was far away from her. As she read, she noticed something that she missed, before, she looked closer, she noticed that two pages had been stuck together, carefully, she tried separating the pages without damaging the two sheets, it took some time and precision, but she finally got the two pages separated, it was a sketch of an entire city, it was brutalist architecture with hints of modernism and futurism with neon lights and hovering cars. It had beauty hidden behind its peculiarity, the 2nd page was filled with sketches too, of different weapons and machines, each thoroughly annotated with a description of each, there was also anatomical images on this page, however, only the brain had annotations behind it. A lot of annotations. Signed underneath was the initials Dr. F. Lucia read more into the weapons and their functions, not that she could understand the ins and outs of the designs, it was all very alien to her. She had to meet the creator though, she had many questions for him about it. In that moment, the brooch glimmered once again, brighter than before, and before her, the sketches on the pages came to life, each individual car drifting across the air elegantly, crossing traffic lights and dropping off miniature people, the streetlamps flickered, and the civilians talked between each other, each in their own bubble. Lucia blinked heavily, rubbing her eyes. She didn’t believe for a second that the page was moving, she opened her eyes once again, it was if the pages never existed in the first place, they had vanished without a trace. Lucia flicked through the pages once more to make sure that she didn’t misplace the page by accident, but she couldn’t find it. “Maybe you should go to sleep, your eyes are playing tricks on you Lucia,” she mumbled to herself, getting up and making her way to the bedroom, the jumped into the bed and closed her eyes, closing them harder and harder, trying to shake the image of the mysterious city from her mind, with the hovering cars and the neon lights, it stayed burnt in her mind as she tried to sleep, “Nightmares?” Cynthia asked, from across the room, “Not quite, I just have something on my mind”
“Oh? What's that?”
“I saw this page of sketches in my notebook, but I could’ve sworn it was moving, I saw it moving,”
“What were the sketches of?”
“It was a strange city, but it was picturesque, there was an odd beauty behind it”
“Let me see,”
“I can’t the page seemed to have vanished out of thin air, can’t find it anywhere?” Cynthia scratched her head, strange indeed. “You probably are just tired, I’d take a rest too, if I were you!” She laughed, Lucia grunted as she turned to sleep, pulling the blanket over herself, “I'll try to, see you later”
“Sleep well,”
(...)
The sunset was beautiful, Jake looked out the railings in the upper deck, watching the sun drift into the sea, beyond the horizon; its setting causing a gradient of peach to an elegant purple to coat the sky; mirroring the deep blue of the ocean, that seemed to go on forever, bright enough to light their faces, but dark enough for Jake to notice the schools of fish gleaming with phosphorescence on the surface, shining with brilliance, each in different colours and hues looking to be a pelagic rave in the eyes of onlookers. He looked onwards with a pensive expression, deep in thought, Madeleine was her usual exuberant still wearing Jake’s sunglasses, she never seemed to show any signs of losing that happy mood anytime soon, life was too beautiful to be sulking every day, for her perhaps. “The air is nice, it’s good to let the breeze flow sometimes, it helps clear me of any worries I have about the past, present or even the future,” she started, he gave an indifferent shrug, he continued to look out into the distance, leaning on the aureate railing. Madeleine twisted her head, looking at him with undefiled curiosity, “I wonder,” she started “It’d be cool to be a fish, you know, you wouldn’t have to pay to live, and you’re free to explore the limitless nature of the sea, wouldn’t that be something?” Jake turned to look at her, still unsmiling, but his interest piqued regardless. “There’s only so much you can see on the surface, like, we’ve only seen 5% of what it has to show you, what if there are deeper depths than the Mariana trench, out there? With different unheard of creatures that we’ve never come across,” she continued, rubbing her chin. “Like... There’s so much out there for us to explore, why would I want to stay here and do nothing, knowing that? You know?” She reached into her rucksack, and pulled out a pair of headphones, and handed one to Jake. he placed them on, Intrigued. “When I wonder about the world, or anything really, I just put these on, close my eyes, and let the music answer my questions,” she said, she pulled out his phone from his pocket and started to play some music. He looked over at Jake who was still looking out onto the distance, still invested in his own thoughts, she tapped him on the shoulder, “There are some questions that music won’t answer, like the true meaning of life, those are things that we figure out by ourselves, though it comes at a later time, I guess,” Jake nodded, taking in the words that he was being told, there was something special about Madeleine that he couldn’t quite understand. “When you try to give life meaning with materialistic things, it becomes desolate, I think that it’s more of a spiritual thing, beyond our physical bodies, our experiences and our emotions, that’s what shapes life, in my opinion,” she said, Jake didn’t quite know what to say but to listen with intent, she spoke with so much solidity, and there was so much complexity and substance in her words. As the sky shifted from amaranth to damson, they contemplated these questions, Jake didn’t like overthinking, but there were moments where he’d tend to himself and his thoughts, he allowed himself a smile, “Can I try your beret?” He grinned, they both exchanged smiles before madeleine handed him the beret, Jake placing it on his head, making sure not to make it fall off, Madeleine helped him adjust it. “You look, incroyable!” She laughed, she looked back out into the distance again, thinking, she returned back to Jake “Let me show you something,” she started.
They made their way back to the captains’ quarters of the ship, on a separate deck, off limits. “Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” He asked, “yeah, of course, why not?” She asked, pressing the elevator button, “it’s my mother’s room, I see no harm in it?” The elevator stopped at the 4th level, the private layer of the A.U Voyager. It was very elegant, with marble floors and rose carpets that spread across the room, it was dimly lit by lanterns and chandeliers, not unlike his own quarters, the walls were simpler, mainly consisting of black and gold highlights, there were servers portraits on the walls of different oceans and sea life, there was a picture of a young woman with long black hair and visors, she had deep brown eyes and a charming smile. She was standing on a vessel with a bag around her shoulder, it felt as if the portrait was looking at Jake, “That’s my great nana, Trixibelle Garnier,” she pointed out, looking at the picture, Jake could see the resemblance between the two, they both had quite similar defining features. As Jake scanned the room, Madeleine called out to him, “Here it is,” pointing to a sheet of documents that lay on a table next to the king-sized bed, she picked up the documents and began to read them out loud “The A.U Voyager’s most frequent client was a man by the name Phillip, Phillip Filmore. He was a very open man and was good friends with my mother and my uncle, he would tell us all about his life and his endeavours and he was an interesting person in general, I quite liked him actually. He had a son, I can’t recall his name, though, he was very invested in his work abroad, never really talked with his father or his other family members, until he went completely insane and vanished completely, research was conducted on his disappearance but nobody could find out where he went, so the investigation was stopped,” Madeleine was reciting the contents of this documentary, “This was 7 years ago you know? There were some documents that were retrieved from his estate, which had mysteriously been taken also, without a trace, it’s strange really?”
Jake was fascinated by this information, but he didn’t quite understand why Madeleine was telling him any of it? “That’s interesting and all, but what does this have to do with me? Or you even?” He asked, “Well, from these documents, it’s evident that this man knew a lot about the meaning of life from a spiritual sense, he tapped into something that we would only wish to find out about, I had always wanted to find him, or atleast find out about what he knew, because maybe I’d have a sense of completion in my life with that information, and now that I’ve found someone who’s shared that same desire, I feel even more compelled to find out about it,” Jake nodded, considering her words carefully. “Perhaps you could call your friends? We could solve it together,” she asked, “Well, I wouldn’t call them my ‘friends’ necessarily…” He interrupted, Madeleine frowned, “Please, for me?” She pleaded, “I don’t know if I can do that…”. Jake was stubborn, but it seems like Madeleine was even more stubborn, she gave him puppy doll eyes, in a desperate attempt to change his mind. “What are you doing with your face? Don’t do that,” Jake snapped, though Madeleine never stopped, she still committed to the face, Jake grimaced. “Alright FINE, I’ll ask them if you can tag along, but you owe me one for doing so, talking to them is like talking to a pack of frightened dogs, you provoke them and they go feral,” he sighed, “I’ll pay you back for this one Jake, thank you so much!”
“You better,” he mumbled.
They both burst out laughing.