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.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Ice to meet you... Not!

[of_depravity]

When he wakes to cold, his first thought is of death. Having been exposed to the vastness of space, the isolation of the void, and struggle of impending suffocation, he is near certain he's reached the afterlife. The ice surrounding him, however, is comforting and familiar, and he can feel his magic twitching under his skin as the environment stings him. It's a welcome pain, and while dreamlike, feels far too real for death.

Judar struggles to push himself to his knees, and then once more to his feet. He's completely drained of energy from his previous fight, which means his magic will be difficult to make use of. Shit. He bites his lip. He doesn't want to linger on the past, not when recent events are still so fucking sore. He needs to focus, maintain a level head, and find a place of shelter. With what little strength he maintains, Judar knows he'll only be able to use ice magic, which while good in combat against humans, is practically useless in surviving an icy climate such as this.

He's not given much time to contemplate his options, however, as a crack in the ice breaks his silence. Eyes wide, Judar looks up just in time to see an aquatic ice creature leap into the air and disappear back into the hole it had broken. Oh. What the hell?

Without further thinking, he bolts, running across the ice with practiced ease, albeit not very quickly. He'd never been a very fast runner...

He nearly crashes straight into the stranger whilst looking over his shoulder, and instead skids to halt, loses his grace, and falls forward, face smacking hard onto the ice. It's definitely going to leave at least a bruise, if not worse, and he glares up at his new companion. "Thanks for standing in my fuckin' way," he sneers. "My face is ruined now, on top of this bullshit cold-"

Grumbling nonsense to himself, he once more stands, placing his hands on his hips and cocking his head to the side. "Never seen anyone dressed like you before..." A crackle in the distance makes him tense, and he continues, "You know what, never fucking mind. There's something out there, never seen anythin' like it before... Don't have magic to fuck it up right now. So-!" He claps his hands together and gives the stranger a cruel smirk. "Either run for your miserable life or be a meat shield. Preferably the latter!"

[sorewatopsecret]

This had to be some sort of dream. Even if it was a bit too realistically cold to be a dream, that was the only way to explain how Takane suddenly found herself here, standing in some vast arctic wasteland, with some foreign-looking stranger who had just gracefully greeted the ice with his face. She merely stared at his sorry state with an unreadable expression, and continued to do so as he got up and started ranting at her profanely.

"... My most sincerest of apologies," she replied as she gave a solemn and brief bow. Though she wasn't sure what else she could say aside from that, she really did mean every word of it. "The injury does not seem that grievous, however."

Goodness, this young man loved to talk a lot. So much that it almost distracted Takane from the final thing that made her reluctant to doubt this was a dream: The glistening fin that belong to a large creature swimming below and threatening to engulf them at a moment’s notice.

“That is a shark made of ice,” Takane advised oh-so-helpfully. “I’m afraid I’d be a rather ineffective shield, good sir, and being eaten is a rather undesirable outcome for me... So I suppose I shall run, then.”

Or at least, attempt to. Ice was never the best surface for sprinting, but she’ll do her best. Yes, Takane was pretty much ditching him in her most earnest and sincere effort to follow his directions. Keep up or eat up, little buster.