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

[praetears]

[NO SHE CAN'T TRUST HIM ANYMORE!!

There's a brief pause where Eleanor is sure Guren is dead to her, but then a convenient cold breeze blows over her and, well. It's cold. She's a virgin and a prude and easily scandalized, but she knows that sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to survive. Short of peeling off your clothes like an exhibitionist!! (will she ever get over this)

She takes a deep breath and... peeks.... over at Guren, who has pants on which makes things miles better already.

. . .Eleanor waits just in case this is some kind of exhibitionist trick, but finally!! finally comes on over and sits down nearby. U can relax now, guren motherhen. She puts a few more chips into the little pile of flamestone, and with great dignity.]

...I'm warning you. If you try taking your pants off again for any reason that isn't an emergency, then I will react accordingly.

[She'll STAB HIM!!! jk she'll start screaming again, probably. She tries her best to look foreboding, and it's almost working, then she sneezes.]

[swordfucker]

Yeah, yeah.

[He almost says "but what if I have to take a piss," but he decides it's not worth the pain that will be her yelling about that and possibly moving away again. He'll keep his pants on and his legs will freeze. But really, stripping out of the rest of his soaking clothes should be enough to help. Hopefully. That, and this warmth...

He turns his eyes back to the stone. It's different than what he's seen used before, but he's not ready to ask any questions when they could all be returned. This place is weird.]

What's your name? [He doesn't even introduce himself first right now...]

[praetears]

[HAVING TO PEE COUNTS AS AN EMERGENCY GUREN, eleanor will understand... maybe.

She does give him a Look at that, but does she expect him to have first-rate manners after all this time, no. She won't even really hold it against him. It comes with traveling with a group of rude sinners.]

I'm Eleanor Hume, an exorcist of the Abbey. And you?

[give her ur name guren so she doesn't think of u as 'that naked guy' henceforth]

[swordfucker]

[Exorcist, huh? What abbey. He pauses, but decides he'll give his full introduction anyway, after she gave hers.]

Lt. Colonel Guren Ichinose of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army.

[He is not "that naked guy" now, thanks. He looks over at her.] I don't know what you mean by exorcist of the Abbey. Where's that?

[praetears]

[THE ABBEY, OBVIOUSLY.

Eleanor looks similarly confused, though she decides to take his word for it. She is in a world with ice sharks, after all. That, and she's not sure what his fancy title means either.]

It's in Midgand -- the country I'm from. The official name is the Exorcist's Abbey of the Church of Midgand. [How would saying the official name help him understand.... but Eleanor can't help it. Protocols are in her blood by now. She'd explain further, but...

Her eyebrows furrow. WAIT]

Did you say demon army? You're part of an army of demons?

[She doesn't say it like she doesn't believe him... actually she sounds a little suspicious?? DEMON ARMY]

[swordfucker]

Ahaha, no.

[He'll leave out many details there, since it's sounding like she's not even from the same area. He doesn't recognize those names at all.] We're military, working to kill the vampires who took control of Japan.

[praetears]

[Huh, that sounds surprisingly... honorable?? dutiful??? She can gather that Japan must be the place he's from, so if he's trying to protect it... Eleanor then remembers that she saw Guren kill an ice shark all by himself, right, he's a warrior!! when he's not taking off his pants]

I can't say I've ever heard of vampires before. [She'll at least readily admit her own ignorance.] Are they demons? Or maybe spirits?

[When you're from a world where there's only both and also rabid animals tbh.]

[swordfucker]

Really?

[He can't believe he has to explain what a vampire is. Is this really a dream after all?] They're not demons, though they can turn into them. They're immortal beings that feed on the blood of humans. Pointed ears, red eyes, fangs, that sort of thing.

[He rests his chin on a palm, quietly thinking about this difference.] To them, humans are just food.