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aftr_ooc2017-09-15 01:58 pm
lifeaftr_mods) wrote in aftr_ooc2017-09-15 01:58 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 003 )
Test Drive Meme #3
Hello, and welcome to LifeAftr! We’re pleased that you’re expressing an interest in the game. Here, you can test the waters, gauge how your character may fare in the world of LifeAftr, and even gain some in-game incentives, if you so choose.
Remember that Reserves will open on September 17th and that Applications will open on September 24th!
Two important notes:
Remember that Reserves will open on September 17th and that Applications will open on September 24th!
1. LifeAFtr's test drives take place on the island of Mu, which exists apart from the real world and possesses a dream-like quality that characters are innately aware of from the moment they appear on its shores. No need to panic or fret. Dreams are odd things, after all - and anything can happen in them. Why would anyone question where their mind chooses to wander in its sleep?
2. Due to the nature of Mu, threads in our test drive can not only be accepted as thread samples in your application, but can be accepted as game canon as well. In fact, certain choices your character makes in Mu have the potential to bear in-game consequences, largely in the form of test drive reward items.
Don't Go into the Light
Night has fallen, so to speak - or the appearance of night has - and with it has come a curious phenomenon. All throughout the land of Mu, the odd flickering light has started to lick at your periphery. It looks almost like someone bearing a torch or a lantern, and if you listen hard enough, if you really squint...it almost feels like it must be someone familiar, calling you to their aid. Maybe it's a loved one, or a friend. Maybe it's just someone who's liable to spark your curiosity, or for those who are particularly tender of heart, the crying of a child in need of help.
Either way, it's undeniable: someone out there needs you. And the only solution is to follow the light until you find them, because surely that must be the origin of that voice and that disturbance, right..?
The island of Mu enjoys mimicking the dangers and pitfalls of LifeAftr, and your journey is liable to end in a variety of equally unpleasant ways if someone does not see fit to stop you and pull you free from your trance. Perils such as quicksand, drowning, walking off the edges of cliffs, or simply being led directly into the nest of some great predator, are more than abundant.
Better hope that someone finds you before they do.
No Swiping!
Enjoying your time on Mu? Succeeded in amassing some meager resources, retrieving some food or supplies?
Not for long you haven't!
Mu has done its best to mimic a creature found on the mainland, complete with all its annoying, scavenging tendencies. Slypers are almost foxlike in appearance, orange-red with a white-tipped tail and a long, triangular snout, and are notorious thieves. Anything that isn't bolted to the floor has the potential to be snatched should you turn your back for a second, thus rendering all your hard-earned work in hunting and gathering utterly pointless when your food or water ends up in a slyper's belly instead of your own.
They're not easy to trap or snare by any means, but if you're fast enough, you might be able to keep your belongings from being the crowning achievement in a dirty little thief's den.
Which might be easier said than done. On Mu, slypers work in packs.
What the Cluck!?
Someone on the island embarked on some well-advised exploration, but discovered, in the process, something decidedly less pleasant than what they were no doubt hoping to discover. And now Mu has taken the example of its more reality-based counterpart, and elected for devise a threat of its own, modeled after the threat in question.
The trees will tremble and the ground will shake. And drawing ever closer approaches...the fustercluck.
Initially, one might mistake the fustercluck as a hillock of some kind. A moving hillock. With talons and wings and fins and claws and teeth protruding out of it? Come to think of it, it's not a hillock at all.
(While the Fustercluck doesn't look anything like this, we still thought this gif was both topically relevant and too good not to include.)
It instead appears to be a vaguely gelatinous mass of appropriated limbs and body parts, tangled and gelled together. Thick with moss, grass, and accumulated body parts, this creature functions more or less like a katamari: propelling itself along, devouring and appropriating any living thing unfortunate enough to cross its path. Once ensnared by its many clawing, grabbing appendages, it will reel you into itself until you're thoroughly embedded in the mass, organs dissolved and digested, leaving nothing more than a collection of limbs that it will then use to carry itself across the island.
There is no known manner with which to destroy this creature. Only the foolish will engage; everyone else should run.
Though of course, on Mu, you could always try fighting it...
( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
cole | dragon age inquisition
[ This feels like the Fade. Or... not. Because he's been in the Fade, it's where he's from, but it was different, then. Still, it feels... close enough. He wonders if this is what it's like for ordinary people when they dream.
Different as it might be, he knows how this works. Even if he didn't, it... feels wrong. It goes against his instincts to ignore voices calling for him, calling for help, but he knows it's fake, false, shouldn't follow.
But other people don't.
So as you follow one of these lights, you'll suddenly be stopped, as a young boy with a very large hat is suddenly next to you. Which is funny... he wasn't just before, was he? ]
Stop. [ His voice is soft, but firm. A warning, not a command. If it takes more than that to snap someone out of the trance, he'll gently put a hand on their arm. ] You shouldn't. It's... not them. Not really.
It's not safe.
( b.
noswiping )[ He doesn't gather anything for himself. What would be the point? He needs nothing here, wants for nothing, and it wouldn't be so different if he was where he should be. But it can help others and that's enough. It's always enough for Cole.
But it's never just people who want.
The creature - the fox-that-isn't-a-fox - catches him off guard the first time. Snatching some food he'd found away and running off with it before he can even process it. The second time he waits for it, wondering if it will happen once more. It does.
The third time is when other people might see it happen. Because this time, Cole is just outright leaving things behind. Which may strike someone as odd, because there sure isn't any kind of trap set up. And, indeed, the slyper appears and rushes off with its prize with no trouble, as Cole just sits nearby, crouched, watching.
He doesn't... seem upset about this turn of events. At all. ]
( c. wildcard )
[ open to anything else you want to do, just hit me up ]
a. YOU!!!!
[At this stage, the difference between consciousness and the blurred, vague air of dreaming has become all too familiar to them. They know this isn't real; just as they know the boy (unfamiliar entirely- but more likely to repeat than this particular scenario) is.
They know it's fake, false. For those purposes, certainly, they shouldn't be followed.
Except this is a dream. And there's really no harm in doing the wrong thing in a dream.]
That is precisely why I intend to follow.
ME!
He worries, immediately, that he's doing this wrong. That he should try again, differently. But no... no, that won't do it, he doesn't think. There wouldn't be a point in simply getting the same response again.]
You do... Yes. [A confirmation of what they just told him, more for himself than anything else. Not a question, not at all.] But then... why?
YOU!!!!!!!!
A sibling who misses them.
It's the last that tells them this is a lie.]
Because it's not safe.
FLAILS!!!!!!!!!
...They're calling out the wrong thing.
[He doesn't give context for that statement. Cole rarely bothers to clarify what he means by anything unless someone asks.]
You don't want to be safe? Or... you like danger? [The frown is almost audible in his voice now. It's... confusion, but the type of confusion of someone trying to work through a complicated math problem.] ...Do you think it doesn't matter?
/keeps forever.....
All of the above and more, sir. [Why be safe when one can both discover something interesting- and potentially smother it before it becomes a threat to people worth worrying about?] Care to join me?
yes good clings to u
I...
[Join them. Keep going, keep following, and then... Something. That's the whole thing, isn't it? They don't know what it'll be. But if they find it, then--]
Oh. [Understanding, suddenly. And a nod.] Yes. I would.
ahhh, excellent <3
[Whether or not it's truly clicked, they'll welcome his company. And potential sacrifice, should the need to abandon him arise.]
In that case- which direction are the voices telling you to go?
♥
But he considers it for a moment.]
There are a lot of them. [Well, there have been, at least. The voices keep trying. He'd started to tune it out, focus completely on the people lured away. But now he listens. Doesn't matter that it's fake, what matters is where it wants him to go.] Calling out, crying, clamoring, somehow close and far, they want help, they...
[He turns. And points.]
There. That way.
♥♥♥
They give him the time he needs to consider it, attempting to catch sight of his expression as he trails off. He's astute enough, at least, to recognize a danger. Should everything go well, it's possible he could be an asset...for more reasons than just a meat shield.]
Then the voices we hear are directing us to the same place.
[At least their path is simple enough to decide upon. With a smile, they begin to walk, pausing to ensure that he does not fall behind.
Or walk behind them.]
If we are to work together, might I know the name of my companion?
no subject
That's like rule number one.]
Oh... yes. I'm Cole. [A pause. He fidgets with one of his sleeves for a moment.] You'll probably forget, though.
no subject
Well. That's one way to have a child quirking their brow at you.]
Pray tell, why would I do that?
no subject
[He says it very matter-of-factly. It's not something to be upset about - not anymore, not like he once was, when he didn't understand - it just... is. He might as well be saying the sky is blue.]
Sometimes I make them, because it's better that way.
no subject
[Said lightly- though the threat is real enough. Clearly there is some magic involved- so the question becomes which is stronger.
Magic, or Determination.]
But then, I suppose we shall simply have to wait and see.
no subject
Tense shoulders, a frown. An innocent question, but the answer wasn't what he wanted to hear, people shouldn't just forget like that. "That's not right," Blackwall said.
Cole doesn't always understand.] I can let you remember, if you want.
no subject
[It's difficult to ascertain how long they'll be walking- now is the perfect time to pry. It's almost contradictory, the manner in which he speaks of forgetting and retaining memories in the same breath.]
Might I ask why your presence affects memories so?
no subject
[They might still forget, he thinks, because this is supposed to be a dream, right? It's normal to forget those... he thinks. It's never been an issue for him.]
It's... [He hesitates on the word. Not because he doesn't want to share or anything like that, but because he has to pick the right words, to let someone understand.] I'm less real. I don't fit right.
Take out the piece that doesn't fit and they forget. I can make it happen, but sometimes it happens anyway. People don't always want to remember.
no subject
[It sounds.
Haha. It sounds positively wonderful, really. Like ERASURE, but with more choice. Picking who does and doesn't recall you, recall your actions. Is it too early to ask precisely how they achieve such a thing, themself?]
And this is an ability you were born with?
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B
[She smiles as she walks up, laughing softly.]
Well, aren't you a kind soul. Do you think they have a favorite food, in particular?
no subject
I don't know. They just want to take. Someone else had it and that makes them want it, since it's easier that way. They're not picky.
...I think one of them wanted my hat.
no subject
[She looks curiously at his hat.]
I'd advise keeping the hat, at least. It can get rather bright here at times, and it would be helpful for you to have something to keep the sun off.
no subject
[What they do with it doesn't really concern him.]
Yes... I would prefer to keep it. I like my hat. [His very, very big hat. Not the most fashionable of choices, perhaps.] And I don't have another one here.
no subject
[After all, it's his choice to spend his time and energy how he sees fit, so why be bothered if he's having fun? Besides, if they're busy with him then they aren't stealing things other people actually need.]
Well, luckily I don't think any of them are tall enough to reach it. Just try to make sure none of them climb up to get at it and you should be fine.
no subject
Do you think they would? I really hope they don't.
...Maybe I should go someplace higher.
no subject
That said, you don't appear to be having much trouble with seeing them coming, so I suspect you'll be fine provided you stay away from trees or other tall things they could jump down on you from.