TEST DRIVE MEME ( 006 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

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.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

hey buddy

[bloodyashes]

[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.]

[hyperresonance]

...

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. ]

[bloodyashes]

...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]

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. ]

[bloodyashes]

[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]

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]

...The border island, I would assume, imitating the desert on the other one.

[This probably explains jack and shit to Luke.]

[hyperresonance]

... I mean more in general. This... not-Auldrant place?

[ Yeah, he's got no freakin' clue, cap'n. ]

[bloodyashes]

...That's really about the best description of it.

[Not-Auldrant place - yeah that's about the shape of it.]

It's a small chain of islands. Beyond that, hell if I know.

[hyperresonance]

... Do you remember dying?

[ He has to know. Absolutely has to. Because Asch won't remember him dying, obviously. ]

[bloodyashes]

...If I didn't, that would have been a damn concerning question.

[LUKE YOU ARE... You are really not good at this like replica like original.]

[hyperresonance]

Look, I had to take a chance on asking it!

[ That would have been awful, wouldn't it? But it was the truth. ]

Because... me, too.

[bloodyashes]

...Idiot.

[It's still that weirdly gentle tone, almost completely without bite.]

I tried to make sure that at least you would live.

[hyperresonance]

It had to be done. Otherwise, your own sacrifice would've been meaningless...! To save the world, and the people we cared about in it.

[ He won't question Asch's disappointment, but he wouldn't regret his decision, either, either. ]

Everyone will be okay.

That's good, right?

[bloodyashes]

Except, of course, for us.

[He sighs. Unlike Luke - he values himself enough to be bitter about it, and in some ways, hanging around Ardyn and Ignis and everyone else telling him that he shouldn't have had to do that in the first place -

It hasn't helped. Even the desert's mood-lifting nature can't entirely erase it.]

I don't have to like it.

[hyperresonance]

[ Luke was begging for self-sacrifice the entire game and got it ever since Akzeriuth. Maybe that's why he's okay with it...? No, he's not okay with it, he abandoned his friends to save them, but they still have to go on without them.

Mixed feelings, even though he's finally accepted himself. ]

You shouldn't.

You deserved to live.

[bloodyashes]

[A harsh snort.]

If we make it about deserving, then no, I probably didn't.

But I wanted to.

1/3

[hyperresonance]

We both deserved to live! We--

[hyperresonance]

[ wait a minute ]

[hyperresonance]

... Aren't we alive right now?

[bloodyashes]

[LUKE.]

Yes, technically, we're both conscious and respirating normally, our hearts are beating, and so on.

There's not a way back to Auldrant from here, though, so it's not like that means anything as far as being alive back there.

[hyperresonance]

Well, uh-- maybe we can get back there? I mean, what if when I carried you before I-- uh, you know, it was just a giant hyperresonance?

... That...

... brought you back to life?

[ LUKE ]

[bloodyashes]

There's not even enough Seventh Fonons on the islands to pull off a decent one.

[Pause.]

Actually, you are probably the biggest source of Seventh Fonons around here.

[hyperresonance]

No, I mean... I performed a Second Order Hyperresonance. I freed Lorelei-- I caught you in my arms as everything was falling around me and all I saw was white light and--

I was here.

Maybe you really did get revived, Asch.

[bloodyashes]

...I've been here almost a month, Luke.

[A stupid long Auldrant month that's double the length of everyone else's months and he still doesn't! Know that! But whatever.]

And there are other people, from other worlds.

I don't think even a second-order hyperresonance is capable of creating Ardyn.