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The Mods of LifeAftr ([personal profile] lifeaftr_mods) wrote in [community profile] aftr_ooc2017-12-14 08:45 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 006 )

Test Drive Meme #6
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 December 17th! Due to the holiday season, Applications will be opening on December 26th, with an app period shifted to end on January 2nd instead of the usual timeframe!

Two important notes:
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.

United We Stand
This particular month, Mu has seen fit to recreate the strange, dichotomous island of Monsun. Most of the information regarding this peculiar land can be found in the informational post linked, but as a quick rundown: Monsun's western side is a hot wasteland of a desert prone of disasters and mishaps, but will affect your character's emotional and psychological state in a positive sense, while its eastern side is a verdant forest filled with endless resources...as well as a tendency to bring out the absolute worst of your character.

The western region blazes with a vengeance, the imaginary sun roasting overhead. The psychological effects of this area of island will shine far more kindly upon you than the sun does; your character's best qualities have been brought to light, and the longer they remain here, the more profound those qualities will become.

This is probably a good thing, too. Because those cactus plants on the horizon seem to be moving closer...and closer...

In fact, they aren't really plants at all.
Those who squint may find themselves thinking of another, cuter version of sentient cacti found on other worlds, but the mutual relation to a certain desert plant is where the similarities come to an end. Walking cacti are silent predators who prefer to slowly approach their prey, avoiding being noticed by their targets until it is too late.

Luckily, these creatures do not rely on projectiles to attack. Rather, their needle thin spikes can extend up to one foot out of their bodies in a fast, powerful motion - more than enough to puncture flesh and muscle. If you've ever wanted to try death by acupuncture, these are your kind of monster... but if not, a sharp weapon or fire will certainly help whittle down their numbers.

Regardless, all of your best qualities will come to light quickly in a fight, whether it be courage, diplomacy, compassion, earnest hope, or whatever other positive traits you might bear. Such is Monsun's boon to you.

Divided We Fall
The east, on the other hand, is the polar opposite to that desert wasteland. The sun shines evenly through the thick spread of deciduous canopies, which shade you from the worst of that unforgiving heat. The verdant greenery is perfectly temperate and even tranquil.

A pity that you'll soon find your worst qualities manifesting at a rather rapid rate. The proper Monsun generally gives you a twenty-four hour window before your most despicable traits start to flourish, but Mu, it seems, has sped up the clock significantly.

Scattered across the rich landscape, a herd of deer can be found prancing eagerly about, seemingly oblivious to their potentiality as a food source. In fact, they hardly seem to react to the approach of foreign entities at all. They're quite placid, and content to sit idly back until attacked - at which point they'll do little more than flee at a brisk pace.
What an ideal set of circumstances, truly. But should anyone else impose upon your peace, you'd better hope they don't mind encountering you at your absolute worst.

Don't Fear the Succ
You wake on a boat. It's a very nice boat, make no mistake, weatherbeaten and worn as it may seem, but it's still a boat, and you're still surrounded with lapping waves, as far as the eye can see. Or as far as the eye can sea.

Still, no reason not to make the best of this, right? Just sit back, relax, and let the wind take you wherever it may. You hardly need to eat or sleep in the regular sense in dreams, and this might be a good deal more picturesque than many of the dreams you're probably used to. All told, this is really quite a nice diversion -

Hold on. Did something just bump up against the hull?

Yes, in fact. Something did. Something with long, long, reaching tentacles that will soon snake over the deck to try and grasp your vessel in a death grip much like that of a boa constrictor: designed to crush and destroy.

It seems you've run afoul of that legendary creature of the depths; the one that every sailor most fears.

A kraken.
Hope you're not averse to a little hentai.

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
hyperresonance: (you're a special one)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-27 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you know some place we'll be safe--?!

[ Really, he's never even MET this girl, let alone know why she's helping him. Then again... that feeling is pretty familiar too, isn't it? ]
attheclocktower: (doll ♡ 8)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-27 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sorry. Time for explanations will come later, when they don't have little needled terrors.]

A lot of us have a camp set up over by the river.

hyperresonance: (where was your god to steel you through)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-27 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
A ca-- wait, where am I?! Am I really alive? Is this Auldrant?

[ Let's be real, cactus monster is not out of place. ]
attheclocktower: (pic#4640508)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-27 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[She hadn't gotten a chance to actually... see his face yet, to tell the truth. Too busy running and preventing sneaky monster attacks. It's at that familiar name that she glances back for a second, slightly startled. Shit, of course, his voice had sounded familiar, hadn't it?]

No, it's not. [It's hard to talk and run.] It's... I don't know the name yet. But you got brought here, we all did.

[... now that she thinks about it, if he's new new, does that mean this isn't Monsun? It's that other place?]
hyperresonance: (shoot for open skies)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-27 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
... what an afterlife. Er-- pretend I didn't say that, okay? When you're just spirited away somewhere, you kinda assume...

[ Liar. Luke got shot across his planet by accident and didn't question whether or not he was still on Auldrant, but nonetheless he sticks to his lie and follows her as dutifully as he can. ]
quietknight: (Stand back and watch)

[personal profile] quietknight 2017-12-27 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
She realized around now she didn't know his name, but it felt too awkward to ask now.

"That's...Is there something good about the barren desert, at least, or are we just doomed?"
ohnehalfte: (103)

Divided we fall off a cliff

[personal profile] ohnehalfte 2017-12-27 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[This is Newt's first time really exploring Monsoon. Sure, he's been expecting some weird shit, but watching a dude hurl straight off a cliff and into the river was not one of them. Newt can't help but stare for a minute--before he's running forward, hopping over logs and stones]

Hey--hey, dude! Holy shit, are you okay?!
attheclocktower: (wince ♡ quiet thought which then)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-27 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Okay, that makes her trip for half a second. Not enough to fall, but enough to stumble.]

S-sorry.

[Don't think she isn't filing that away for further consideration, though.]

We'll talk more once we lose 'em.
hyperresonance: (but soar so high)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Right!

[ And they escape back to the camp, with a few close encounters... despite their constant pursuit, something inside Luke feels... good? Considering his situation before, that's a stark contrast to how he was feeling back home. ]

... haa... I didn't even get your name!
proficienciesouttheass: (06)

Re: Divided we fall off a cliff (goddamnit I didn't think of that)

[personal profile] proficienciesouttheass 2017-12-28 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ He's fine! He's okay! He's just...ow.

He pushes himself up to his hands and feet and he's spitting out water and rubbing his head. ]


Okay. Bad idea. Check.
attheclocktower: (pic#6872583)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-28 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Xion's a bit out of breath herself, hands on her knees for a moment as she pants, before finally standing back up.]

Xion. It's Xion. And I didn't get yours.

[She knows it, sure, but it felt... rude? To just act like she knew.]
hyperresonance: (big dreamer)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
... Luke. It's nice to meet you. Thanks for snapping me out of it back there, I mean-- I've fought monsters and all, so I didn't really... know what I was doing.
doodlebuginette: (Default)

[personal profile] doodlebuginette 2017-12-28 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry! I-... My friend is constantly doing that, even though I tell him not to.

[If she was honest with herself, Chat's logic was just as sound as Roy's, but that didn't mean she had to like it. In fact she hated it.]

You're right, though. I didn't mean to make light of it. I know it's the right thing to do...

[She's just blinking at that.]

Oh. My mistake! A fighter, then.
attheclocktower: (pic#4824890)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-28 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
It's all right. Getting here is... strange, like that. I'm glad you're okay.

[Glad she got there in time. Glad that his arrival didn't hit him as hard in the wrong ways like hers did.]
hyperresonance: (you're a special one)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
Where is here...? I don't recognize any islands like this from home, and by now, I've been all over the world-- I-I shouldn't even...

[ He gives her this pitiful look like he's not sure if this is some secret info or not. He's on his own, though, he can make his own choices in what to tell other people. ]

I shouldn't even exist.
bloodyashes: ([F] That's because...)

hey buddy

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2017-12-28 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[Luke's attention might be focused on the cactus... But he'll hear a loud sigh from behind him that's clearly intended to be heard.

It's also a really familiar sigh.

Followed by the tingle of a thunder arte going off.

At this point Luke is probably inclined to turn and look, which will reveal Asch - his hair pinned up by what are unmistakably spikes from these very same cacti - kicking over the electrocuted remains of the one, looking a little winded as he pulls his sword free of it.]


Don't bother. They're not reasoning.

[It is... strangely soft, given that it's Asch saying it. Most of the bite Luke might expect is gone.

Not that it'll stop him from sending another Thunder Blade into the one Luke had been facing, mind.]
attheclocktower: (concern ♡ and follow the Light)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-28 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Well she hadn't meant to tackle this already but...]

Is that what you meant, earlier? When we were running? Did... you die, back home?

[Shit. Asch never mentioned that.]
hyperresonance: (otherwise why leave you here to die?)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
...

You were dead.

[ Luke's words are choked and stuttered. Is this where they were headed as they faded away into notes and frequencies? Lorelei sending them somewhere else as... something, for some reason. His best traits are out, but the shock of seeing Asch okay almost overwhelms him. He died for him. He died for the world and Luke only saw him after he paid that price and he followed with the rest of it.

He wants to hug him...

So he does. Or at least, he'll try to, before Asch pushes him away. It's not a hug out of 'I'm so glad you're okay' or even 'You idiot, how could you die back there?!' It's an attempted hold of 'my gods, we're alive when we should be dust, help me, I don't know what this means'. It's overwhelming, because Luke's compassion is amped up and he can't shake it. ]
hyperresonance: (shoot for open skies)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
I... keep it a secret? But yeah, I... bit the dust, so to speak.

[ He dissolved, as most RPG deaths love to do. Goreless, painless, as your atoms disperse. ]

Don't tell anyone I said that, okay? [ He's suddenly worried from her reaction that it might not have been the right thing to say... ]
bloodyashes: ([F] Sorry about him)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2017-12-28 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
...Yes, I'm aware.

[Good fucking news, Luke - you are not getting immediately pushed away, because Asch: Monsun Desert Edition is like, five hundred times as patient with literally everyone's emotional garbage, including his own.

Instead he's just going to stand here as awkwardly as it is possible for a human being to stand.]


...Can you let go, I need to make sure the second one's dead.
hyperresonance: (you cannot escape)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. Uh... sure.

[ He steps back, kind of surprised that he's unaware of his own surroundings like this-- of course, confusion is a side effect of rising from the grave, so he does kindly step back to let Asch finish his work. Pain is still tugging at him in a strong way. The loss of a world was a loss of every familiar face you ever knew or could know.

But not Asch.

Thank Lorelei, not Asch, not after what he'd done. ]
Edited 2017-12-28 02:48 (UTC)
bloodyashes: (Totally not pouting)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2017-12-28 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[Is there a face any more familiar?

The cactus is, in fact, trying its best to get back up - which just makes Asch roll his eyes and finish it off with a bit of quick swordwork. The blade goes back into the sheath at his belt and he sighs.]


...I don't actually know what to say to you.
hyperresonance: (you fall so low)

[personal profile] hyperresonance 2017-12-28 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
I know if I say I'm sorry, you'll punch me in the face.

[ He half smiles at that? Other than that, he almost... has nothing else to say either just yet. It's weird seeing the person you were bound-by-fate-and-death with again. Like everything's normal, except the setting. ]

... Where are we?
bloodyashes: ([F] I just got up :l)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2017-12-28 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
...The border island, I would assume, imitating the desert on the other one.

[This probably explains jack and shit to Luke.]
attheclocktower: (blank ♡ when it's over)

[personal profile] attheclocktower 2017-12-28 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
I won't.

[Kind of... a hard thing to keep secret, though?]

Well, it's not the same story for everyone here. Sometimes they're just... brought here. Even if they were in the middle of something. Some of us even came from places like this, before.

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