TEST DRIVE MEME ( 007 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

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:

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. Ice sharks sound like something out of a sci-fi B-movie and probably are something out of a sci-fi B-movie, but rest assured: they are still quite dangerous. Fragments of undersea ice animated to suit a particularly sadistic shape and size, ice sharks almost look like delicately worked sculptures of glass or diamond, right up until the point where one of them gets their jaws around you. Their preternatural strength and tenacity allows them to "swim" through ice as easily as water. In fact, that happens to be one of their hunting tactics, as they tend to circle a target and break at the ice around them until they're surrounded by icy water, with no means of escape.

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. A massive clay pot of piping-hot wassail steams temptingly at the island's heart, nestled between the crags of rock. Just looking at it, you can know that drinking that heated, blissful drink of cider and cinnamon will surely chase away the unforgiving winter chill, and warm you from your bones to your toes.

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.
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of ropes or branches one might grab onto for purchase, once stuck. You'll have to ask passersby for a helping hand, and hope they're feeling charitable...or just drag them in with you, if you're that sort of person.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Isabelle "Izzy" D'Oro | OC | 13th Age

[dralchemist]

[1. Ice Sharks]

too cold, too cold, too fucking cold, oh good gods it's way too cold out here

[Thus mutters Izzy, repeating herself, teeth chattering against each other incessantly, arms huddled around her cloth tunic, trying to retain some manner of warmth. For as humanoid as she is, she's still cold-blooded, which means that staying out of the heat for too long could very well be deadly for her.

Not to mention the ice sharks. She hasn't even noticed the ice sharks yet, rolling through broken floes around her, almost circling to close off the area around her. Her only thought is to try and get to drier land and set up some kind of fire before she freezes up out here.] too fuckin' cold, too cold, worst fucking day not to be red, bet i'd be able to handle this better then huh.

[2. Quicksand]

[Here, now, Izzy is stuck waist deep in the sand, looking really unamused. Browridge furrowed, arms crossed, huffing angrily at nothing in particular.]

Yeah, mother nature! This is hilarious! Fucking... incredible. Can't even-- rrgh! [She tries to push herself up out of the bubbling, liquid sand and fails, ending up dropping another inch or so into the ground.] You'd think being tiny would give me an advantage but nooooooooo, physics just has to go and screw me over. Great!

[She's ranting loud enough that her voice echoes across the landscape, hopefully alerting some altruistic passerby to help fish her out before she ends up slipping further in...]

[3. Wildcard]

[Got any better ideas? Feel free to throw them at me!]

2

[lightlessfuture]

[ Speaking of being tiny, here comes someone even tinier to respond to Izzy's calls. At first sight, it looks like some kind of monster.

Then it disappears back into the foliage - but it swiftly returns with a rough coil of rope, one end of which is deftly tied around a nearby tree.

The knight judges the distance as best they can, and then concludes that they need something to weight the rope a little. As strong as they are, there's only so much they can do about tossing ropes.

A rock is scouted out, procured, and tied to the other end. The knight spins it, somewhat inexpertly, and throws.

Izzy will experience the perhaps slightly terrifying sensation of a rock whizzing way too quickly past and almost hitting her in the face, but hey, there's a rope to grab onto now. And the little bug is hanging onto the part of the rope on solid ground, ready to pull. ]

[dralchemist]

[Being the first thing that Izzy has seen actually moving in her vicinity (besides herself), she yells out towards the Knight, trying to catch its attention.] Hey? Hey! Hello! Get me... out of... [Okay. The little bug thing gone now-- no, it's back, and it has rope. And... now a rock. And now it's twirling the rock, and--]

AUGH FUCK [She does her best to try and bob out of the way, but she doesn't have a whole lot of clearance, considering that most of her points of articulation are buried under sand. It just barely grazes the side of her head, her eyes wide.] Good gods, give a little warning next time you try doing that, huh?

[Even as she lets out this admonishment, she's grabbing onto the rope... then looking skeptically back up towards the Knight. Uh. Okay, she's like 120 pounds wet but still... how is Tiny Bug going to drag her out?]

[lightlessfuture]

[ The answer to this mystery is provided in short order as the knight begins to pull, with surprising strength, and the quicksand yields to them. They could probably haul Izzy out unaided, but it'll certainly go faster if Izzy can do a bit of the hauling herself. ]

[dralchemist]

Oh, shit-- [Alright, she can work with this. With one hand on the rope, the other is pushing against the sand, her feet kicking as she visibly strains to get out of the vacuum action. Slowly, she starts to wiggle her way up, like a cork being pulled out, before being pulled out entirely.

In a mad dash, she scrambles on all fours towards solid ground, and thus towards the Knight, ending up flopped on her stomach, trying to catch her breath.]

Okay. Okay, okay. Uh. Credit where credit is due, you're way stronger than I expected. Uh, thanks.

[lightlessfuture]

[ The knight gently pats the bigger creature's hand - apparently some kind of reassuring gesture - and works busily to undo the rope. No point wasting it, after all.

Up close, they're even smaller than might have been expected. They're the size of a child, and a fairly small child at that. ]

[dralchemist]

A'ight. [Izzy has no idea how to react to the hand pat. It takes her a solid 30 seconds for her brain to calm itself down from the adrenaline rush, and her gaze turns on the silent little helper.]

Sooo... what's your story? [Already, the gears are turning in her mind, doing a quick analysis. Tiny but strong... dense muscle? General bug motif, pincers reminiscent of a beetle... little bit of depth to the eyeholes but nothing visible underneath. Mask? But there's no mouth hole. Cloak and mask suggests either practical coverings or wanting to hide their form, and--

She's just staring. Sorry, Knight.]

[lightlessfuture]

[ They're used to the staring. It's a common reaction, as people try to place them, identify them - figure out what they are.

They take out their sword, writing busily in the ground.

a vessel .

voiceless .

you are new ? It's always a good question to ask. A reliable question. ]

[dralchemist]

[Izzy takes a moment to look at the words being written. Huh. Okay.]

Premises 1 and 2, confirmed. [She instinctively reaches for her notepad and graphite, flipping to a free page and starting to scribble. Notes about the Knight, a little sketch. She stops, looking up (or down, as the case may be) towards the 3rd line, the little figure's question.]

Uh... New to... where? [Actually, hold that thought] Where am I? I don't... huh. [She taps her graphite against her chin, thinking.] Did I lose more memory this time, or... no. Last thing I remember, I was asleep on the boat, and then...

Oh! Got it. Cool. This is a dream. So, no, not new, because this is happening in my head.

[A beat.] Most likely.