TEST DRIVE MEME ( 010 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #10

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 April 17th, and Applications on April 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.

Friends on the Other Side
When you open your eyes, it is to a shadow-tinted cityscape. The buildings are clay-built and colorless, plunging seemingly infinitely onward into the sky before disappearing into a dense pool of foglike sky. The silence weighs heavily like a mantle across every inch of this place, and no matter how you squint at them, every structure seems strangely blurred, as though being viewed through distorted telescope lens, or in the reflection of a pool of water.

All told, it's probably obvious from the start that all is not well here. From the moment you arrive in this strange nether-place, your eyelids have begun to grow heavy. Something about this city and its perpetual, misted darkness leaves you inexplicably drowsy, ready to curl up and fall asleep on the spot.

That wouldn't be a problem, perhaps, if you were alone. Mu does not boast a great deal of flora and fauna, but what it does have is a creature capable of inflicting much in the way of misfortune - clockroach. They occupy this city in swarms of wraith-like wisps, both intangible and curiously amorphous. But when they draw close, they instill a sense of terror like no other, usually igniting one's fight-or-flight response as a result. Sure, they might not be capable of actually hurting you, but why should that matter, when they have a skill for inducing a sense of utter dread in their targets?

Ever try to get some sleep with fresh adrenaline pumping in your veins?

Pretty Fly for a...Fire Guy
With indigo-blue skies, lush fields of green, and miles of rippling grass hills for as far as the eye can see, Mu has cast you into the perfect and picturesque evening. As the imaginary sun lips the very edge of the horizon and the last glow of orange fades to the purple of dusk, the fields come to life with a smattering of bright, wavering lights. LifeAftr has its fair share of fireflies native to its many regions, but this particular kind is special. They're the size of quarters, very pretty to look at...and incredibly volatile besides. It's hard to interpret what these wondrous little glow-bugs might view as a threat or not, but at least it's remarkably easy to discern as much based on the sight of them alone: they're handily color-coded depending on their moods.

While they glow a contented amber by default, those that fireflies warm to will find themselves bathed in a green-blue glow as those bulbous, organic lanterns tint with a soft, cool turquoise. A few of them might even settle across your arms and in your hair, if they take that much of a shine to you.

Of course, those the fireflies don't warm to will be able to note as such when they light up a blazing crimson, mere seconds before the insects spit a stream of glowing orange, molten-colored acid. It stings and burns in equal measure, just as likely to scald you as it is to set the surrounding fields aflame.

Flower You Doing That?
Adventurers were both wary and relieved to discover that the next island on the horizon, known as Ziziphus, appeared to be a rather vegetation-rich paradise. They were considerably less relieved to learn that this island contained predators just like all the rest of them, despite the rich green backdrop of its meadows and the promise of lush woodland at its heart.

So it is that you, too, will learn that sometimes tufts of ferns are not tufts of ferns at all...but dangerous creatures called spindlanks. What might initially appear to be a leafy hillock will very quickly prove to be something far more...mobile, if you get close enough. That clump of grass and red ferns will abruptly hoist itself up on six vine-like tendrils, crawling for its prey like a very large, mossy spider. While it's fully capable of swiping at its foes with its massive, leafy arms, the spindlank's favored method of dispatching its prey is simply to scuttle forth until it's positioned directly above you and drop down. If its weight does not crush you and choking on the clods of earth doesn't smother you, don't worry; the spindlank intends to eat you alive with a set of fleshy jaws set deep in its center.

For despite their leafy appearance, spindlanks are very much carnivorous. Their size can vary from anywhere between six and ten feet tall when their appendages unfurl entirely. They burn as easily as any plant matter would, but the size of them can make them quite difficult to topple alone.

And they are almost always hungry.

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Comments

[scourgingstars]

[...'No the hell I did not' was practically written on Ardyn's face, but only for a brief second.]

[What was he talking about? Ardyn never said anything about what happened in Altissia; even as far as official documentation of a failed military strike knew, the Chancellor was nowhere near the altar. Ignis could have told him, but then why lie about it?]

[This wasn't like the Noctis he knew, and for just a moment Ardyn felt like he was playing a game of chess where the entire board had abruptly been turned around.]

I did no such thing.

[nightcure]

Right. I forgot, it wasn't this version of you.

[ Still calm and collected. ]

There's a version of you out there that spent the last year of his life up in space, living week by week with the very real possibility of murder hanging over his head. A man who, by a stroke of luck--or maybe just love--became human. A man who took death with grace and forgave his murderer.

[ He's still looking at Ardyn, with those too-perceptive, too-expressive blue eyes. ]

He told me a lot, actually. About how Ignis put on the ring and harnessed the power of the kings in return for his eyesight. How Insomnia fell, how one Glaive was able to wield the power of the ring in order to protect the city.

There's a lot more, but I know you don't want to hear it. You wouldn't believe me, anyway. I'm not even sure you'll believe what I just told you.

[scourgingstars]

[...A lot of that sounded too insane to even remotely believe, eyes still sharply focused on Noctis as he tried to figure out just what the angle was here. Even he wouldn't make up something like that, but...it was impossible. Beyond impossible.]

[So instead, he focused on what Ardyn saw as the underlying point.]

So you're to be another one that thinks there something able to be salvaged in all of this? Why, blind stupidity is more contagious than I first thought. Perhaps all of you can get together and commiserate over some worthless shade two thousand years out of date.

[nightcure]

Sounds pretty crazy, huh?

I thought so myself, until I saw it with my own eyes. But it seems like you're pretty content to stay trapped in your own darkness and loneliness, so really, it's up to you.

[ But there's something in his expression that says he's not going to give up so easily. ]

[scourgingstars]

Oh, come now, you must think me utterly stupid. I'm sure you're to join the others in pestering me to no end. For people who claim to care, they certainly think nothing of my feelings on the matter.

[nightcure]

No, not stupid. Just in denial.

[ He says it simply. ]

Sounds to me like you found some people that care about you.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn laughed at that, a harsh and cold sound that had echoed through the halls of Zegnautus Keep a few too many times. The razor-sharp smirk was out in full force, a twisted facsimile of human amusement worn by something that didn't entirely know how to be human.]

You've no idea the depths of misguided compassion held by this world's current inhabitants. Why, it's a tragedy that even history's greatest minds could never have penned. Or perhaps a comedy...I've not yet been able to decide what suits the situation better.

Tell me, what do you call it when someone admits to falling for their sworn liege's immortal enemy? I think it quite hilarious, but I might imagine you're of another opinion entirely.

[nightcure]

[ Sure enough, it's a sound that gets him to subtly bristle. It's a sound he hasn't heard in so long, but one he can never, ever forget. Ardyn, taunting him. It's so removed from Ardyn Tenmyouji that he has to take a moment to breathe. ]

That's a pretty good question. I'd have to speak to that someone myself, get the whole story. Pretty sure you understand why I'm not terribly inclined to believe you, right?

[scourgingstars]

[Satisfied he'd regained some control over the situation, Ardyn tilted his head with a look that might have passed for interest if his eyes weren't as empty as ever.]

Were I going to lie, I think I'd come up with a better one.

[nightcure]

Don't know about that. Are you keeping secrets again, Ardyn? Because I feel like you're not telling me everything.

[scourgingstars]

Did you hit your head?

[...so much for regaining control. What the hell was going on?]

[nightcure]

Did you see me hit my head?

[ He raises both eyebrows. ]

I know Ignis better than that, and I know he wouldn't spontaneously develop feelings for you if something else didn't happen first. So. If you're not going to tell me, I'll just have to go to the person I've known my whole life, and have him explain.

[scourgingstars]

That's not what I'm talking about and you're well aware of it. Why are you acting like that?

[Ardyn gestured vaguely, waving a quick hand in the air as if to indicate how frustratingly casual Noctis was being.]

Is there a reason we're not tearing each other's throats out, or have I missed something?

[nightcure]

Because I don't particularly have a reason to tear your throat out. Back in my timeline, I settled things with you.

Unless you want me to punch you, in which case, I can oblige.

[scourgingstars]

Really. Because here I am, very much not remotely settled.

When I said I would await you, this is not what I had in mind.

[nightcure]

Huh.

[ So nonchalantly. ]

I guess there's a version of me out there who's really confused, then.

[scourgingstars]

[?????????????????????]

What.

[nightcure]

I mean that he's probably stuck in the beyond, waiting for you to show up.

Since I pretty thoroughly killed you there, at least in my timeline.

[ keep up, ardyn, god ]

[scourgingstars]

[noctis, you have definitely seen ardyn look confused before]

[this, however, is a new tier of 'what the fuck timelines']

You're--what? You're not expecting me to believe you're from after that.

[nightcure]

If I wanted to lie to you, I'd come up with a better one.

[ He crosses his arms. ]

Sure am. It's a pretty messed-up story, actually. I got brought back to life and taken to a space prison to participate in a television network's murdershow.

[scourgingstars]

[w h a t]

Now you're just mocking me. I advise you to stop.

[nightcure]

The first part, maybe. The second part, about the television show? Completely true.