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

[suspecteverything]

Jullien doesn't need to hear all of that to know it sounds about right. "Damned" and "stubborn" are enough. Besides, whatever Ignis called him it won't even register on his scale of insults. He's been called worse by his own family. When he was under the age of ten.

"Then I don't make it prolonged!"

Not retreating into something that could be a trap and not putting some unknown factor with weapons at his back were also matters of survival. To Jullien, he had much more of a chance to live out here with thin ice and sharks than he did in the other scenario. Everyone stabbed him in the back or led him into a trap.

[shatteredlenses]

If he could roll his eyes, Ignis would, but since he can't he focuses himself on more important things. He's not quite sure how this particular skill will work in his place, but focus is at its base and focus he has in spades. For a moment, he falls into complete stillness, reaching out to his surroundings with all his available senses. Only when he can all but see the movements of the sharks around them laid out over the darkness of his sight does he suddenly start moving again, hitting one shark after another at blinding speed. His last movement brings him to stand almost face to face with the other man, expression deadly serious. Despite he sunglasses covering his eyes, almost anyone can guess from the scarring peeking out around them that Ignis is either blind or at least partially so.

"I've skated on thin ice to help you so far, but I have no intention of becoming an ice fisherman should you break through. We have but moments before they start to swarm again. Come on!"

And, without waiting to see if the man will follow, Ignis turns to dash back toward solid ground.

[suspecteverything]

Well fine then. Go ruin all the fun. Irked or not, Jullien isn't going to argue it while he's still at risk of dying. Ignis makes it sound so simply to get off the ice, but he's human. Two steps in Jullien realizes it's not going to be as easy for him. The ice is thin enough were the sharks were that his near 400 pounds will break it for sure. After a quick investigation of the ice nearby, he discovers there isn't anything more solid for a long way.

There's another way out of this, but that comes with risks too. Teleporting would leave him exhausted and vulnerable. Not only that, but he could land on a portion of ice just as thin as the strip in front of him - he couldn't tell from where he was what was truly solid and what wasn't. Taking a swim after teleporting could easily be a death sentence. What choice did he have though?

With no good options, Jullien analyzes the ice ahead, picks what looks like the strongest spot, and teleports over. Thankfully the ice holds. He ignores the twinges of a headache and keeps his guard up. People don't ever help him for free.

[shatteredlenses]

Ignis is torn between being curious and irritated when he doesn't hear the man's footsteps following him, but then he hears the sound of something--someone it must be--coming down in the ice in front of him. Irritation is pushed to the side and replaced full on with curiosity. How had the man done that? Can he warp like Noctis can or is it something else completely?

Questions for later, for sure. Considering the sound he made when he returned to the ice, he's probably built like Gladio or even heavier, which means the ice is even more dangerous for him than Ignis first suspected.

"If we can stay ahead of them, the ice should get thicker from here," Ignis motions in a forward direction, signaling that that's the way the man should continue heading be it by running or whatever other manner he chooses to cover the distance in.

[suspecteverything]

Well, at least he hadn't fallen through and frozen. Definitely a step in the right direction. The ice seems a lot more solid under his feet here too, so maybe he'll be alright. Or he won't, which is more his luck.

"Technically all I have to do is stay ahead of you."

Not that Jullien is really going to try to do that, but he can't help being a bit of an ass. It's his default mode, and it comes out even more when he's in a bad spot.