aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 010 )

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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[Normally Naomi would apologize for bumping into someone. Normally Naomi would be apologizing profusely for knocking someone over. This was not normal, though. The terror had a hold of her and if it wasn't for the fact Ignis had wrapped around her to protect her from the fall, in a way retraining her, she would be up and running again.

As she couldn't do that, she settled for hiccuping, the frightened tears falling.]

The-They're gonna get us, w-we gotta [hic] gotta go!

Easy, my dear, easy. You needn't worry. I won't let anything harm you, but first I need you to calm down enough to tell me what's chasing you.

[As he speaks, Ignis carefully pulls them both into a sitting position, hands resting on her shoulders, kneading them softly to try and calm her.]

You're safe with me. It's all right.

[She shakes her head frantically, looking around for the cloakroaches, phone clutched against her chest. Her shoulders are tense, only relaxing minutely as he kneads at them.]

I-I donno, they looked li-like shadowy monsters 'nd there were lo-loads of 'em 'nd they were chasin' me 'nd, 'nd, 'nd!

[She gulps down a breath, turning this way and that with her flashlight to try and spot them again.]

[Shadowy monsters? No one has mentioned anything like that yet and nothing has attacked him so far aside from...

Wait a minute.]

Do you mean the clockroaches?

I-I-I donno.

[She couldn't see anything in the shine of her light, at least nothing yet. Naomi sniffs, rubbing the heel of her hand to her eyes before pushing some blonde-and-black hair back.]

What're those?

They seemingly are the only permanent residents of this place, and are similar in look to cockroaches if you have those on your world.

[He can't look for them like she is, but Ignis does listen for them, and for the moment at least, he hears nothing.]

The big difference is they have the ability to increase the fear you're feeling. I've felt it myself and I suspect if they increase the fear far enough, they may make you see things that aren't actually there.

I hate bugs.

[The words were mostly muttered, but given Ignis' hearing he no doubt heard them. After a few more scans with her flashlight proved to be clockroach-less she felt her speeding heart slowing slightly. Her shoulders relaxed minutely. She nodded at his explanation, even if she wasn't sure she believed him fully. They'd been terrifying.

She turned to look at the stranger now, eyebrows drawing together.]

Where are we? What d'you mean they're the only permanent resident?

Sounds like you'd get along just swimmingly with a friend of mine.

[Why, she and Prompto could talk about hating bugs all day!

Now that she's calmed down some, Ignis releases his hold on her, letting her settle herself as she wishes. As she does, he thinks over how best to answer her question.]

This place is something like a dream world, ever changing. The landscape, the dangers. One can never really know what to expect when Mu pulls them to its shores. Aside from the clockroaches that is.

I believe this is some sort of staging ground, to be honest. Most people who come to the island stop here first, though not everyone who comes here ends up there.

A dream? But I wasn't asleep... I was going to get ice cream with Bridget after school.

[She settled down into a bit of a pathetic seat, still holding her phone at the ready in one hand while continuing to wipe her lingering tears away with the other. Soon her attention refocused on the man she'd bumped into, focusing on him rather than the darkness and potential bugs. If she stayed focused on him and this conversation maybe she wouldn't spiral into another panic.

But his explanation only made her frown.

Granted, a dream would make sense, sort of. Plus it wasn't like this was her first adventure into another world. Still, there was something that didn't sit well with her.]

Don't tell me I've been kidnapped. 'Cause Kou's gonna be so ticked off if I went 'nd somehow got myself kidnapped to some other world again. [She paused for a second, before quickly adding on as she realized clarification might be needed.] Not that I really let myself get kidnapped the first time 'nd it was only for, like, a day tops before I figured out how to escape.

[Ignis opens his mouth to make a joke about how she's actually been 'borrowed' instead of 'kidnapped,' but the joke slips away as soon as he processes the rest of her statement.

Why does all this almost seem like it's normal to her?]

Pardon? Are you saying this kind of thing has happened to you before?

[Granted, he's heard of other people being pulled to different worlds now that he's been on the island for a while. Xion and Shion at that terrible tower, for example, but somehow her encounter sounds as if it's very different than that. Hopefully, she will explain a little more.]

Nooooot exactly? I mean...

[She trails off, a small frown tugging at her lips. It wasn't so much as it was normal, but strange things have happened to her in the past. One strange instant being getting transported to a different world on occasion.

Her hands fidget with her phone, shinning the light around them again. It feels as though their being watched. Maybe that was to be expected. Talking about the Mirror World meant remembering her boogie man.]

Um, does the name Markel mean anythin' to you? It's okay if it doesn't. 's probably better if it doesn't. But he's... Kinda really, super rude 'nd evil dude who sorta possessed my brother for a bit? 's complicated. [She winces. Oh what if he thinks she's crazy?] I still don't get it but he could drag people into this other world... Maria explained it where it was like a subplane of our world? Something like that. All I know is we called it the Mirror World 'cause everything was the same, but deserted and you had to find a mirror door to get out. So I kinda got stuck there once.

[Ignis shakes his head to let her know he doesn't recognize the name, but says nothing else at the moment so that he doesn't interrupt the flow of her explanation, especially since she seems to be having some trouble putting it all into words. Not that he can blame her. Were he anyone else, her experience would likely sound like some kind of crazy dream, however, what can he say when he is traveling across Eos with his soon-to-be king collecting covenants with Astrals? If nothing else, Noctis' explanation of what it was like within the Crystal gives Ignis some basis of comparison.]

Is your brother all right now?

[Obviously she escaped, so Ignis is going to ask about the next most important thing in that story. He can't even begin to imagine how terrible it would be to have a loved one possessed by such an evil person.]

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 010 )

Here lies Cat, killed by Ignis going 'darling'

Pet names are yet another about Ignis that should be registered as a deadly weapon.

you're not wrong there

Do you know after all this time, I JUST realized they are 'clock'roaches and not 'cock'roaches? X.x

I honestly keep having to check to make sure it isn't cockroaches lmao

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