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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 007 )
Test Drive Meme #7
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 January 15th, and Applications on January 24th!
Two important notes:

Remember that Reserves will open on January 15th, and Applications on January 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.

Ice of You to Drop By
The winter has well and truly settled in, both on LifeAftr and here in Mu; when you wake, you may discover that it isn't on dry land at all, but on a thick crust of ice. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any land in sight, in any direction - just ice, stretching on and on for as far as the eye can see.
Assuming the chill doesn't get to you first, you'll find that there are much more pressing matters than frostbite. One of those things will start cutting to the chase rather quickly in the form of a wickedly pointed fin, glinting beneath the weak winter sun, shearing through the mantle of ice like a hot knife through butter.

Much like real sharks, they can smell blood, and will set upon it eagerly. Unlike real sharks, they are also innately hostile. Anyone who looks like they might be an easy target will be quickly zeroed in upon by several ravenous, but nonetheless quite pretty, of these glittering creatures.
With Our Wassailing Bowl
The rest of Mu might be more forgiving in terms of setting, but that does not mean you're safe. Waking on dry land is generally considered preferable to waking on nothing more than a layer of ice, even if said dry land is nothing more than a jagged spurt of dark, coastal cliff. It's obvious from the start that nothing truly lives here. The island itself is simply some fragment of rock, eroded away from its mainland until it is all that remains.
The island itself isn't special, no. What is special is what is at its center.

Really, the only problem here is that everyone else wants it too.
The second you lay eyes on that treasure, you'll be seized with an instinctive, inescapable need to have it. No one else can be allowed to partake; it is yours by right. You saw it first, after all, didn't you? You'll have to race with your peers to seize it before anyone else does, and you might even have to start fighting dirty to claim your prize. Sure, you could fight that initial instinct, but where's the fun in that?
Dig a Little Deeper
It's not as though actual, real dry land is out of the question for Mu this go around. It's just that there aren't very many desirable options, evidently, when it comes to the manner of islands that resemble those in the proper archipelago. This island in question might be a bit cold, brisk as the winter air is, but it is otherwise quite ordinary. In fact, one would not be remiss in thinking it bears more than a passing resemblance to the island of Chol.
Unfortunately, it's also chosen to emulate a rather unpleasant, if rare, aspect of Chol's landscape: quicksand. No getting out of this one, we're afraid - Mu has dropped you right smack in the middle of a patch of it.
The myth that one can "drown" in quicksand is largely without much scientific bearing. Indeed, the most prominent danger is that one will start to sink and quickly become mired in the stuff, but eventually they'll cease to properly sink at all. No; the real peril lies in the fact that, once stuck, it is nearly impossible to get out of it. Most victims of quicksand risk death by dehydration or starvation, though we wouldn't fault you for fearing death by, er, sand. Who doesn't hate sand? It's coarse, it's rough, it's irritating, and it gets everywhere.

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
Meredith Baker - OC - Bliss Stage
This being a dream doesn't reassure Meredith in the slightest. If it were a dream of home, sure, but dreaming of the middle of an alien and icy landscape is no reassurance at all. She's supposed to be shaping dreams, damn it, not in one herself.
The cold is manageable; she isn't usually bothered by it and just curls her scarf (in dark blue and silver) around her tighter, bundling her hands in it's tails. Walking on ice is trickier, but she's got a cook's polymer-toed shoes from the inventory - she manages to get some traction.
It's the sight of the fin cresting through the ice that gives her pause. She gives it half a second before her assessment of the situation:
"Oh, for God's sake," she groans. And runs. For a rock, any landmark, any person, anything. It never occurs to her to use the pistol on her hip; just once, she'd like to fight a Nightmare that wasn't immune to small arms fire.
When she finds a person, she says between breaths: "Nightmare after me -" deep breath. "Draw a weapon -" Huff. "Or - help me slow it down!"
2 - Buck And A Quartermaster
Well, the fun in resisting that impulse is, first, that it will help to prevent a fistfight, and second -
"There is clearly more than enough here for everyone. Settle down, y'all." Still, she is moving towards the pot - channeling that impulsive greed towards becoming Acting Quartermaster. Again.
She was sick of petty resource squabbles before the apocalypse, and she's only gotten more sour over the idea since.
3 - Cool heads under water
Quicksand? Really? That's the worst this dreamscape can offer?
That's a simple matter of calmly and slowly undoing her scarf, tying strategic knots, throwing it over to solid land, and fluttering eyelashes at some passer-by.
"Pardon me, but I seem to be in a bit of trouble. Would you be kind enough to, ah, hold the other end of my rope so I can extricate myself from it?"
4 - Anchor was never so literal
Once that's done, she's going to be returning the favor, throwing her improvised rope to folks in trouble.
"Keep calm," she says, low, soft, reassuring. "And grab hold. You'll have to haul yourself out, I'll give you the leverage."
Ace of Aces
(This prompt for rent. Come up with whatever!)
1
Of course now there's a woman running towards him and... some kind of glass shark fin? Oh, you have to be kidding.
"I can do that," Zelgadis agreed. "Get clear."
Because fire magic seemed to be the obvious counter, and whether this thing was immune to fire or not, it was going to blast the ice shell open.
Re: 1
She gives him a brief thumbs up before moving out of his direct line of sight, then drops prone and covers her ears. Downrange cleared. Fire when ready.
Re: 1
Which was going to lead to an impressive gout of steam and wave of warm water when it hit the ice. It would be enough to take out a regular shark, but who knew what sort of magic animated an ice shark. Zelgadis didn't, and was going to start briskly backing away because it probably weakened the ice all round him.
3
"Excrement? Are you poopin' lady?"
Re: 3
"EX-tri-CATE," she says, muffled by her hand. "Help me get out of here."
no subject
And inhumanly stretches an arm over the the sand, wiggling his fingers for her to take.
"hold my hand!"
no subject
...What the hell, this is a dreamworld, whatever. She'll take his hand and give it a squeeze to show she's ready, and -
"On the count of three? Three. Two. One."
- Step up.
no subject
"there! Now you're not swimming in sand!"