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

[ohshitsweetflips]

You know, with wisdom like that, it's maybe a shame Merle hasn't been here from the get-go. Kind of a slow-breaking shock, that Taako needs outside instruction on how to chill, but he actually kinda hit the ground running, here? There's been some convincing performances, but he hasn't been living on island time nearly enough.

How does this shitty dwarf manage to say smart shit like one time out of ten? Those are pretty good odds, compared to the rest of their party. Taako helps himself to an entire seat, relaxing in stages. "I guess you have a point," he admits, however grudgingly.

"You'd do alright here," he concedes. Kind of ironic, actually. "Nice beaches, not much magic, so expectations would be low, even for you. Wrong on one front though, weed is still in short supply." No one's here to see except for this old horse's ass, he can resort to plant-based puns and no one has to know.

[thornyonmain]

"I still got no idea what you're talking about," Merle says like it doesn't even particularly matter, but it might as well go and get said. "I do like beaches, though. Could do with more grass, but I've always thought about retiring to an island."

Have a plant-based pun right back at ya. Taako can be confident Merle won't snitch on him, mostly because it's something Merle would completely overlook being notable and then forget about within minutes.

[ohshitsweetflips]

Still a good attitude; it doesn't particularly matter. But that's neither here nor there. Taako shoots Merle a dubious, amused look. "What do you mean, retire? Don't you gotta maybe do something first for that?"

Unfair, maybe, but he's got standards to uphold. "Anyway it's not a retirement island for me, I've been working my ass off. I do physical labor sometimes!" If anyone can appreciate the gravity of the situation, it's Merle.

"At least Mags finally got here, I can make him do most of it. Not like he had any magic to lose. Guess I know what that's like now," is not an apology.

[thornyonmain]

He doesn't have to prove his job situation to Taako, who he's shared a workplace with for a hundred and something years.

"Oh, that's unusual for you. With your delicate condition and all. Don't worry, Magnus and Merle are here to take care of things for you now." He pats Taako's shoulder, which thankfully he can reach with them both on the ground.

"The island steals magic, too? I thought that was just Pan being his usual deadbeat self." Which, Merle is certainly one to talk.