TEST DRIVE MEME ( 011 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #11

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 May 17th, and Applications on May 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.

Damn It, Todd
The island breeze is cool and pleasant, temperature-wise. The sun is beaming cheerfully overhead, and the waves lapping up against the beach are a crystalline aquamarine. The place may as well be a postcard, with how picturesque it is: from the thick copses of palm trees to the soft white sand, it's a truly gorgeous, becoming setting.

It makes up for the chaos of its inhabitants. Mu has adopted what promises to be a highly frustrating backdrop for its dreamers, this fine evening. The island looks normal enough, seems normal enough, but for whatever reason, the physics and general behavior seems oddly...glitched.

We don't just mean in the general sense, either. At random intervals, you may find yourself being launched several feet in the air by an invisible abuse of physics, or clipping through trees at breakneck speeds. Maybe you're walking around several feet above the ground, or your hands are much larger than the rest of you. Regardless, the possibilities are virtually endless and promise to be, for the most part, quite harmless for those afflicted - just very annoying. Whether you're swimming in the air, repeating the same lines of dialogue over and over again, or stuck halfway through the ground, it's not clear how one is meant to undo these glitches once they set in.

You could always try helping each other! Though that may simply make things worse; who can say if these glitches might bleed into one another and complicate things even further?

(Oh, and they do. They absolutely do.)

This is Dragonna Suck
When you wake in a lovely, tranquil woodland, it perhaps seems too good to be true. The trees are dense with canopies flowering overhead, and the grass has formed a thick, plush carpet on the forest floor. There's the sound of birds chattering happily in the branches, and the rustle of forest creatures in the undergrowth. That's around the time that a loud, angry roar splits the silence, and something very large and very green barrels into the clearing you occupy with large, barklike claws. This, dear adventurers, is a rootwyrm. While undeniably draconian in appearance, the effect is offset by the fact that the rootwyrm's skin is more akin to the texture of bark than it is scales. One can generally discern the age of these creatures by counting the number of rather stubby legs that support its ample middle - the youngest will only have two, while the oldest will have as many as twelve.

Rootwyrms move slowly, thanks to the turtle-like shell that sits astride their back in lieu of wings, but they make up for this by hitting quite hard in a fight. Instead of breathing fire, rootwyrms spit a caustic, stinging acid if they can't get close enough to their prey, though they'll be more than happy to try and dispatch you the old-fashioned way: with an extremely large set of reptilian jaws.

Did we mention they don't like trespassers? And that you're standing square in the middle of their territory?

You're Pollen My Leg!
The open spread of the grasslands allows for a clear view of the cloud-scudded sky. This particular setting is that of a meadow, vast and seemingly infinite, hosting a sweeping expanse of rolling hills. The wind's rippling over the fields of rich green and buff-colored grass lends itself to the impression that the hills are in constant motion, as if you're standing in the middle of a verdant ocean.

Naturally, such is not the case. As you roam the landscape, you'll probably notice the dollops of color sprinkled here and there: flowers growing in bright clumps amidst the tufts of grass. They're not ordinary flowers. Why would they be? They're in full bloom, meaning that thick spores of pollen have begun to waft freely into the air. Careful not to draw too close, because this pollen, when inhaled, ingested, or otherwise interacted with in any nonspecific capacity, will have a variety of...side effects, depending on which particular plant's spores you've just unwittingly imbibed.

There are five variants you may encounter in your dream-travels, each of which will have a different result, depending on the color.

[ ♆ ] Blue flowers will induce short-term amnesia and general confusion. Forgetting your sense of identity, difficulty discerning the difference between right and left, and an intense sensation of vertigo are all common side effects.

[ ♆ ] Red flowers will make you intensely and inconsolably angry at just about everything. You know that guy who chewed gum behind your ear that one time? Fuck that guy! That person over there, with the yellow shirt? Fuck their shirt! Yellow is a stupid color, and you're stupid for wearing it!

[ ♆ ] Green flowers will induce a loss of one important sense - sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing - though loss of powers is also known to have occurred.

[ ♆ ] Purple flowers will induce silence. We hope you aren't very talkative by nature, or that you can communicate exclusively via rude hand gestures, because now you can't speak at all.

[ ♆ ] Orange flowers will fill you an indescribable terror regarding just about everything. The slightest motion, the most innocent hello, the most harmless small animal - all will tap directly into every primal fight-or-flight response to danger you have.

These status effects can and will stack, by the by. Maybe start up a little game of pollen bingo, and see how many fanfiction tropes you can rack up in one day.

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Comments

[counterblows]

[You're saying I don't?]

[He doesn't say it. It's far better for an enemy to underestimate him than the alternative. That's one of his defining traits at this point - people assuming that he knows less than he does. All things considered, clamming up has its uses.]

That's assuming we can. If it was teleportation, we're pretty much screwed unless we can figure another way off.

[craterwave]

If if was teleportation, [Jack rounds on him, gone from cold to hot right away,] then we could be on a deserted planet with no civilization, no ships, no people! There won't be a way to get off!

[She grits her teeth and her fist glows blue as she punches a hole into the tree to her right, splintering the wood and spraying chips of bark all around. She's trying not to think about this possibility, okay. She doesn't want to waste away on some nowhere planet for the rest of her very short life.]

[counterblows]

Well, bitching about it isn't gonna get us outta here, so just be prepared to account for a Plan B, all right?

[There's a mild spike in his tone, but all told, he's far from the same level of outrage that's spiking off Jack like a swath of brambles. He's worked with people with anger issues before, which means that, as usual, it's his job to keep the level head.]

Bottom line, we need more information before we can make any sort of judgment.

[craterwave]

[Jack grits her teeth and clenches and unclenches her fists. She's still learning how to deal with being pissed off and not being able to kill things to solve the problem, okay.]

Could use some more dragons right about now.

[Muttered, through her teeth. She continues onward, if only because that's the only productive thing that can be done in this situation.]

Fuck teleportation and fuck this overgrown jungle!

[counterblows]

I refuse to believe this is the worst situation you've ever been in.

[Just being frank there; nothing about her disposition suggests that she's not been hardened by some pretty heavy stuff over a period of time. So she prefers to live in the moment. Fine.]

But if you wanna be realistic, I doubt there were only three of these things on this entire planet.

[craterwave]

It's not, but it has potential to be up there..

[Which is probably a lie. Jack doesn't exactly spend her time ranking the shitty things she's been through. The tattoos are enough.

At least, the ones that have more meaning than "why not".]

Killing dragons doesn't exactly solve the problem, but at least it would make me feel better.

[counterblows]

Well, there's plenty around, probably. You wanna waste your time doing that instead of finding a way off this place?

[Christ, this is Chorus all over again. Only this time they're even deprived of the basics of a comm tower that's feasibly fixable, and whenever he tries to access inter-team radio, he's met with nothing but a squeal of waterlogged static. Fantastic.]

Be my guest.