TEST DRIVE MEME ( 012 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #12

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 June 17th, and Applications on June 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.

There Goes the Neighborhood
Today, you're not merely waking up on an island. Oh, no. You're waking up in the world's most perfect suburb, complete with perfectly-trimmed lawns, white picket fences, and a uniformity that borders on the absurd. Not a fleck of paint is out of place, and not a blade of grass is out of line.

Mu has attempted to imitate the sort of fabricated happiness that adventurers dealt with in the month of May, but without the full power to shape fantasies to the whims of each individuals, has opted instead to attempt for a blanket, painfully generic alternative. It's a cheap attempt to mimic something that was already a falsehood to begin with, rote and uncommitted. Thus, much of this world is patchworked with palpable holes, both visible and otherwise: neighbors are featureless specters performing daily routines with robotic precision, entire swathes of the neighborhood are perfect replicas of the same painfully generic family, and, of course, there's you.

You obviously don't belong here. The framework of the narrative is so structured that it's not hard to realize things are amiss. The more you think about it, the more it seems like this entire fantasy is deeply, deeply amiss.

But then again, maybe not. Maybe you buy into it, completely and utterly. Maybe you're so eager to escape whatever life you lived prior to this one that you're all too eager to live in this Stepford-esque facsimile. The degree to which your character adheres to this structured world, and how much they remember from their true life, is up to you.

Do it for the Vine
This next scenario is far from pleasant, though it is much more real. The thick, tropical woodland might be difficult to traverse at first, but don't worry - it's about to get much harder. Do you like earthquakes? How about massive, twisting vines that swarm out from the undergrowth to attempt to snake up around your ankles and shins and root you in place, perhaps smother you in the dirt? Isn't it fortunate that you're being left to contend with both at once? Mu is compensating for the events of May, it seems; commemorating a god whose demise tore an island apart by mimicking with precision efficiency how that must have felt for everyone to bear dramatic witness.

The good news is that while the vines might be both eerily cunning and vast in number, they still are just plants, and plants can be easily pruned or burned. The subterranean rumbles of the ground as it cracks and ruptures underfoot might be less easy to contend with.

To that, our only suggest is simply to run. Good luck!

Taken for Granite
This particular brand of landscape is striped with cliffs and crags, a lifeless mountain range crooked along the horizon with rock the color of fired clay. And not far off from where you've stirred awake is...a rather eccentric rock formation.

By "eccentric", of course, we mean "moving". And by "moving" we mean "it is extricating itself from the ground like some unholy tectonic zombie and it's coming right at you RUN".

Formed entirely from an amalgamation of earth, rocks, ore, and valuable gems, the earth golem is surprisingly territorial for a glorified lump of mud. Approximately fifteen feet tall and half as wide, this lumbering creature has only one concern: the eradication of anything that steps into its territory. It is sensitive to vibrations in the ground, and is thus very difficult to hide from for those moving on foot. However, it is nearly blind and very stupid, preferring to wallop anything within reach using its massive, boulder-sized fists rather than employ any sort of strategy. Still, unless you're looking to travel to the other side of the area via the Golem Express, avoiding this creature's warpath may be a wise choice. Especially given its talent at re-assembling itself upon destruction.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

Alexstrasza | World of Warcraft

[lifeblossom]

Do it for the Vine.

A muted roar rises over the rumbling beneath the trees. Something immense and furious makes its fury known to all within miles of its quandary. Those far away will make out the beating of wings and crackling wood. Those closer will see the shame that has become of an otherwise noble creature. A ruby dragon, strong and immense, struggles to free itself from an abundant snare of vines. They wrap tightly around her feet and restrict her movement. A swift breath of fire and they would be burnt to dust, but a second look reveals the dragon is in deeper trouble.

In an effort to chew the vines away from her front feet, the dragon inadvertently sentenced her muzzle to a similar fate. The flora constricts her snout closed and denies her any chance of freeing herself. The dragon beats her wings to achieve enough lift to break herself from this perennial trap, but she cannot accomplish her goal. Debilitated, all the dragon can do is huff and puff hot smoke through her nostrils and release a shriek dampened by her clamped lips.

Were she free, her fire breath, carrying capacity and flight would make a fine addition to anyone's arsenal. Rescuing this dragon might be the key to rescuing others as well.

[sunsound]

The roar is unlike any pokemon he's ever heard, but that's not what gets Ray's attention first. Wherever he is, whatever this bizarre forested land has to offer, the sound of someone - something - in distress tugs at a deep instinct to help. And so he sends out his companions, Decidueye and (Alolan) Raichu, to search for the source of the sound.

It's not hard for them to locate the dragon. Alexstrasza may be confused when a 5'3'' tall leafy owl lands on her snout to examine the vines before darting off into the canopy at an alarming speed, but just a few minutes after it disappears from sight, a small boy emerges from the brush with Raichu floating by his side.

"Wh-whoa..." He'd compare her to a Charizard, but she eclipses even the largest ones he's seen. "D-Don't worry! We'll get you loose, just stay still!"

With all three of them tearing, pecking, and gnawing at the vines around her muzzle, they've got to make some progress, right?

Jowan | Dragon Age

[worstmage]

cw: he's a spider. he's a spider man with spider parts. sorry. tell me if you have a phobia
There Goes the Neighbourhood
There have been previous times that Jowan has gone into...some sort of hibernation where he dreamed of losing himself again to Tranquility, but this...is a strange thing to wake up to. The roads are...that strange level of paving like Bavan, the houses small like a village but identical, reaching down the length of the road.

He comes awake sitting, as best he can, on the steps in front of one of the houses' front doors. As best he can, because he's still, in fact, an arachne. He's crouched up the entire slope of the stairs, in fact, front limbs braced at the bottom and human body slouching back towards his spider abdomen.

"Well, hi there, John," says a man next door (his neighbour? what is going on?), shutting down his lawnmower and smiling. Actually, he's just smiling. His lips aren't even moving. He's somehow just talking through his teeth. "Lookin' forward to seeing you at the barbecue!"

"What?" says Jowan. "The...who are you?" If being a spider wasn't already enough, his British accent marks him as an additional outlier in this aggressively Middle America neighbourhood. Being a spider is probably enough, though. It generally is for people.

"Haha, you joker!" says the Neighbour. His mouth still doesn't move. He doesn't blink. He starts mowing his lawn again. Jowan stares at him as he manages to keep making smiling, friendly eye contact, even as he starts mowing facing away from him. This is......

Maybe he's still asleep? He honestly can't decide whether this is better or worse than Ryslig.

Either way, without looking away from the Neighbour, he edges his way down the steps and starts to back away, slowly down the street. He doesn't want to make any very sudden movements, just in case that kicks something off.


Do it for the Vine
Conversely, here, all Jowan could do was run. It's really his one skill, right now, as an arachne--that and feeling the direction the vines were coming from every time he touched the ground. Eventually, though, after running endlessly, he'd started to run out of steam, and the earthquakes made things confusing and now...

He's not super strong, and he's definitely not a fighter without his magic, so as things are, he absolutely gets wrapped up in a growing quantity of vines, binding him to the ground with his legs out flat. Thankfully, they're having a confusing time working out how to smother him, what with the positioning of his face in relation to his lower half. Jowan struggles, and wallows in personal misery for a while, but eventually decides that potentially getting stabbed for being a monster would at least prevent his slow suffocation, especially as the vines are starting to work out the angle they need him at.

"Hello?!" he yells, and twists his head sideways out of the way of some vines trying to gag him. "Help?!"

CW: nudity

[braceforimpact]

The problem with illusions is that, frankly, it requires some level of imagination to be fooled--or at least a shared frame of reference. Kaworu Nagisa is possessed of neither, and so is frankly just confused.

He's never seen houses like this--individual units spaced out along a road, with grass and pavement alternating in an inefficient kind of grid.

On a simple level, he understands what's going on--this isn't where he was earlier, but it is where he is now. But he didn't grasp what about it was wrong. The gigantic spider-human combination doesn't actually tell him what is wrong, but it's definitely not right.

What Jowan, moving backwards, bumps into is and isn't technically Kaworu. It's Kaworu's AT Field, a solid barrier in geometric pattern--and when Jowan turns around he'll see the last hexagonal ripples of it between him and the butt-naked Japanese teenager standing in the middle of the street.

Normal!

Ray (Sun/Male protag) | Pokemon Sun/Moon (Games)

[sunsound]

Do it for the vine.

[Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, you may hear a strange cry echoing through the trees. The huge bird-like creature that approaches you moments later looks rather leafy itself, if a little distressed. It ruffles its wings urgently and pecks at your clothes. Once it feels it has your attention, it flies to the nearest branch and repeats its mournful cry.]

[You get the distinct feeling it wants you to follow.]

[The lush woodland is beautiful, for all its difficulties. Ray would appreciate it much more if it didn't have him by the ankles, dangling upside down from a vine-wreathed tree. He's already sent out Decidueye for help, but there's no telling where the nearest town is. For now, all he can do is occasionally struggle to curl himself upward enough to stop the blood from rushing to his head.]

There goes the neighborhood.

[Ray has never seen a town like this in Alola.]

[It's hollow and empty, despite all the people trimming their hedges in eerily perfect unison. Even he can feel the deep sadness of falsity beneath the veneer of peace and calm. His pokemon can clearly sense it too. Decidueye circles above, casting a great winged shadow over the impossibly green lawns. Raichu sits restlessly on her tail, floating alongside Ray as they walk down the length of the street.]

[Normally, he'd carry his pokemon in their pokeballs, but this place makes him extremely uneasy.]

[At the first sign of someone who isn't a carbon copy of the same next door neighbor, Ray breaks into a run towards them.]

Hey! Hey! What's going on here?

Wildcard

[Hit me with whatever, or reach out to me through this journal or plurk (azazelbunny) for a prompt!]

Do it for the Vine

[yallstupid]

[It must be a cold day in hell if Decidueye spotted this asshole and thought he was a good choice to offer help. Thankfully, the bird doesn't have to get too close for Guzma to spot - it is a fairly large pokemon, and a pokemon that he recognizes right away...given it's a local species from his home region. He's startled when he first sees it - no one else he knows has pokemon here and--

...Wait. Didn't the kahuna's grandson have a Decidueye? Guzma blinks, scowling as he chews his lip in thought. It's right around the time newcomers start to appear, and these dream-like scapes start to occur like crazy. He curses under his breath and begins the trek through the wild, overgrown forest. That malasada muncher was always a bit clueless...and in a place like this, being clueless can get you killed. He puts two fingers into his mouth and whistles loudly to get the pokemon's attention - he sees you there, Fly Guy, lead on.

Following the ghostly owl's shadow at a run, vaulting over felled trees and rotting logs, Guzma slaps ferns and branches out of his face until he reaches the small clearing where Ray is held aloft by the tree's vines and branches. That is definitely not the kahuna's grandson, and Guzma doesn't even recognize the kid in the slightest. Some random, no-name trainer? Why the hell would anyone just grab Joe Shmoe here out from Alola? Whatever...this place never made any sense regardless. Snorting as the kid wriggles about like a Wurple on a hook, Guzma begins to laugh as he strides forward.]

Keep moving like that, kiddie Caterpie, and y'all will attract something ready to take a tasty chunk outta ya.

DO IT FOR THE VINE

[holdmyhand]

[ a....a Decidueye? Luna's eyes lock onto the hooded bird, wind knocked out of her for a second-- this is already pretty disorienting. Is she hallucinating? Probably hallucinating. Yep. Yip yop yup, obvi--

Decidueye flies back into the forest and Luna is immediately ducking and rushing around leaves and branches and thick brush to follow it. W-wild Decidueye is not a normal thing. They're not just-- they are, but--

Suddenly, Ray is hanging above. a small swing and sway in the grasp of the tree, and Luna waves to him, just to make sure he's okay!! Gray eyes dart between a worried pokemon and what appears to be his trainer. ]

Heeeeyy! [ she tilts her head around until she's as upside-down as she can be without falling down herself. ] Are you doin' okay?

[ something about this guy...strikes her as strange. But he's no one that she recognizes from the island. Maybe she's just dehydrated. ]

Papyrus | Undertale

[fontofkindness]

A.
[ Papyrus is PRETTY SURE he knows what human villages look like now! And he is PRETTY SURE that humans aren't copies of each other with no real features, doing the same tasks over and over!

....But it's Papyrus, so he's going around talking to the eerily generic carbon copy families anyway. ]

Wowie! You sure are dedicated to mowing that grass! It sure is green! And short! And orderly!!

[ ....He's going to keep attempting small talk until he encounters someone else, isn't he. ]

B.

[ Well this sure isn't anywhere he's been before, but he knows where he stands with something that clearly wants to fight. The great Papyrus, run from a CHANCE TO GET TO KNOW A NEW FRIEND THROUGH COMBAT? Absolutely not, oh boy!! ]

Do you like...gardening? [ He dodges a clumsy wallop from the golem, but since he's basically stomping around it's not hard for it to swivel around to face him again. ] Or...flowers?? [ Papyrus why are you talking to it. ]

You're making it really hard to be friends with you...You haven't said a single word!!

But I think I know why that is!!

.....You must be shy!! Anyone would, meeting someone so great!! But don't worry!! I'm a great person AND a great friend!!

[ Someone stop him jfc ]

C. WILDCARD

[ do whatever you like im up for anything ]

b.

[holdmyhand]

[ ........who?????

A skeleton-- a skeleton. With really cool outfit-- what the heck? Amazing...and he's just--

The golem swings at him, and the dodge is so effortless that Luna can't help but watch and be transfixed by this conversation. But he's just chatting, and seems like he's having a nice. Shy? Probably not, but...even with the impending danger (sorry, Guzma!) she calls out to him. ]

Ask him if he likes nice blankets!!

[ rock-paper-scissor joke. She grins happily from afar. Not wise to get <>i>too too close, but...gosh. How can you not be this close to such a a cool skeleton? ]

b.eautiful I love it

[achievementhunter]

[There is someone here who likes both gardening and flowers; spoilers, it's not the golem? It's not the golem. Are they surprised that this skeleton, in particular, would be so- what is even the correct description, here? Admirably? Idiotically? Incapable of reading the situation for what it really is? No. Not even slightly.

There is a significant lack of friendliness pellets here, which should be the first indication of genuine aggression. Those fists also happen to be the size of Papyrus' entire body which--

How has he survived this long without any minor amount of caution? How.]

Excuse me, sir! [A jovial call as Chara trots forward, seemingly unconcerned by the tilt of the golem's head in the direction of these new vibrations.] I'm afraid our friend here is in need of some critical personal space; they've had a very rocky day, you see.

[So how about considering not standing right next to it?]

B.

[mamaterasu]

[Ammy...really isn't sure what to do with this. Her first, knee-jerk reaction was to throttle in there, guns blazing, and rescue this poor, hapless sod from danger, but...well? He seems to be doing pretty well on his own. Is this a new form of martial art she's not aware of? Is that flattery or humiliation tactics? Either way it seems to be going swimmingly, and after a bit of anxious pacing, the wolf sits, then lays herself down, her head moving to and fro as she watches from the sidelines, ready to move as needed.

...As needed, though she thinks there may not be a need at all. Yawning, the wolf licks her nose and sniffs, laying her head down on her paws and watching only idly, though her attention is still on the battle before her. He's got this, and what a relief, she's due for her fourth nap today...terribly overdue, actually!! This is a small blessing. Perhaps another ten...mm, five minutes of watching and she can allow a brief doze. Yes, that sounds reasonable.]

a.

[unsansified]

[ Sans is (pretty predictably) napping on a lawn chair. Maybe he should be more concerned about suddenly ending up in human suburbia, but from what he's seen of the place it's been pretty harmless. Kind of creepy, yeah, but harmless. It helps that the NPC people of the town mind their own business. (Even if that business is mowing their lawn at all hours of the day. Nonstop. Forever.)

It's impossible not to hear Papyrus practically shouting at said neighbors, though. Not that Sans is about to complain. In fact, he's about to go goad on these shenanigans. ]

Guess you could say it's a good mow-ning, eh Paps?

[ Badum tsh. ]

B

[skelepun]

[Blinking awake in an unfamiliar mess of rocks and dirt wasn't exactly unheard of for Sans. Add in a late night at Grillby's and you could practically call it Wednesday. Still, the thundering steps were new.

Sitting up, Sans rubbed at his eye socket just in time to glimpse a large muddy foot come down mere inches from--]

'Sup, bro. [Sans wasn't sitting anymore, suddenly at Papyrus's side. It was a talent of his, looking half asleep even as he rushed into action. Action, in this case, meaning gently pulling Papryus a foot (hah) to the left before the creature's next stomp dusted him.] You make a new friend?

[Considering the setting, his casual tone seemed comically out of place. Still, there was no hiding the few beads of sweat starting at his brow bone.]

morrigan ( dragon age ) ota ; will match format

[altarwolf]

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

[To Mu's credit, Morrigan wakes up in a bed and doesn't instantly realize something is wrong. She's sharp, experienced with illusion, and most of all paranoid as fuck, and for a moment, she thinks this is a very normal day.

Then she exits the room, realizes she should be at an inn, and scowls. She then marches outside of this eerily perfect house, looks out at all the perfectly manicured and freaky mirrored buildings, and grabs her staff from her back and pounds it into the asphalt of the street below her. As she does, a ripple of blue energy bursts from it and flows out in a radius around her.

Nothing happens. She sets her jaw, and then shouts at the sky.]

Demon, you do not fool me! Show yourself now and I may hear your offer!

[She, like, won't, she'll totally kill whatever demon, but if she just shouts "hey I'm gonna kill you so come out here" that definitely won't work.

But nothing appears before her.]

THE GRANITE

[There's a black cat currently making the golem look like a complete fool. Cats are incredibly light on their little feet, you see, and every time this one jumps onto an arm or knee, the golem just strikes at it, missing and harming itself.

The cat is making quick work of the creature, as it's already lost an arm from the elbow down to the feline's wiles.

neighborhood

[tuskenlancer]

I don't think it's a demon.

[ Meet your new neighbor. CT's sitting on the porch of the house next door, watching the neighborhood. She's wearing bulky brown armor probably completely unlike anything Morrigan's ever seen, though her helmet is nowhere to be seen. She looks up at Morrigan curiously, pushing her hair back from the side of her face. ]

Why? Do you...have demons where you're from?



( ooc note - CT is from a CRAU from a murdergame jamjar where she met and eventually started dating Varric Tethras. Post-game, she ended up going back to Kirkwall with him for a couple of months before coming to LifeAftr, so she kind of knows Thedas and, if you're interested, can be familiar with Morrigan on a scale from "he maybe mentioned you once" to "actually met her." Or she can never have heard of her at all. Hopefully this isn't too weird, she'd be super excited to meet anyone from back "home" though! )

thor odinson ( mcu ) ota ; will match format

[asparkle]

NEIGHBORHOOD

[This is Theo Olson. Theo is a very normal man. He wakes up early every morning to walk his little Yorkie, Mjolnir. He doesn't work -- what's work? Work has no place in a peaceful, idealistic life. Mjolnir's poop scoops itself. It's basically the perfect life in a perfect suburb in a perfect neighborhood.

And what a perfect day it is. The sun is shining, not a cloud in sight. Theo is admiring the mild day as he walks Mjolnir, when thunder crackles in the distance and clouds start to form over his head.

Well, darn. There goes the perfect weather. Golly.

Only the clouds seem to be localized over Theo himself. Rain starts to pour, and within seconds he is drenched, though Mjolnir remains completely dry. Theo blinks through the water in his face and holds out a hand to feel the rain, which suddenly stops.]

...That was quick. Oh, hello, Mr. Lundquist! Strange weather we're having!

[He gives a pleasant, wet wave to a completely faceless man who is mowing the same section of his lawn in a circle, while the remaining Lundquists stand perfectly still on the driveway, almost in formation as they face the street silently.]

VINE

[Jungle is not a terrain Thor is intimately familiar with. Every few minutes, the earth starts to crumble and shake, not leaving him much room to grow accustomed to his surroundings. From his blindside, a fact of his vision he is still not used to, a vine snakes up and grabs him by the arm.

Alarmed, Thor gives an unwarriorlike yelp, and pulls away from the vine, but it only grips tighter. It starts to strain and snap, until he is left with a very nice vine bracelet. He doesn't much appreciate it, peeling it off and tossing it to the floor.]

Odd.

GRANITE

Well, well. What have we here?

[Thor has felled beasts like this mountain giant before, but it's certainly always a welcome event when he has the ability to fight without holding back. He looks up, and up, and up, sizing the creature up. It's large enough that he's not sure if he's killed larger -- at that scale, comparable size gets much more murky.

Then, the earth giant seems to be distracted by something else.]

Uh-- Giant? I'm right here! I am Thor, son of Odin, god of thunder and king of Asgard! I will strike you down where you--

[It raises a fist as Thor threatens, but it doesn't bring it down on Thor. It brings it down on someone else, who Thor only just realized was here. In a crackle of thunder and lightning, Thor stops grandstanding and leaps over above them, straining to catch the giant's fist before it can connect, electricity coursing through his body. Smaller rocks crumble and fall from the earthen fist.]

You may want to run!

He has his Granitude

[hot_handed]

Bastard.

[Said saved person hisses from under his shelter, crouched down. He had the golem right where he fucking wanted them, and while this badly dressed, inflated ego'd "god" was rambling on about his parents and so and so's parents and other stuff he didn't give a shit about, he was going to use it as a distraction.

Instead of running, a light starts emanating from his hand. It's mystical. It's beautiful.



It's an explosion made from his own nitroglycerin sweat, and it's aimed right at his rescuer's face.]

Stay out of my fucking way! This win's for me!

Captain Janeway | Star Trek: Voyager | Will match format!

[captainkathrynjaneway]

A : Won't you be my Neighbor?

[This isn't the first time she's dreamed of Earth, and it won't be the last. At first, the only thing that seems strange is that the dream seems to be set in a late 20th or early 21st century suburb, when she grew up in 24th century rural Indiana. She's a science teacher in this dream, which would be a pleasant holo-deck program - she will always be a scientist at heart, of course, and teaching the next generation's brilliant minds is a noble calling. However, the whole thing is quite marred by the facts that none of her students have faces.]

[Kathryn dismisses the class, and the faceless children file out, eerily quiet and organized. She follows them, careful and alert. Some species can only communicate with humans through their subconscious, so she should probably be cautious, even if this is just a dream. she watches as the children file into one school bus- apparently her class was the entire student body - which drives into the neighborhood next to the school. If this is a dream, her subconcious must've been in a creative slump tonight.]

[You find her wandering through the sidewalks, her red and black uniform standing out like a sore thumb amidst the pastel and beige houses. If she sees you first, she will approach you with a winning smile.]

Come here often?

B : You're Growin' on Me

"Janeway to Voyager, come in, Voyager." A pause, and then her comm badge repeats the message back to her. "Damn," she hisses.

"Damn," agrees the comm badge.

She's already wandered deep into the jungle when she feels the first tremor. Her tri-corder isn't working either but she can tell something isn't right. Before she can put any thoughts together, the ground splits to her left. She jumps to the side as another jolt racks the land. A vine strains for her as she moves away. "What-" Another rumble and the earth opens up under her, a vine shooting around her ankle as she falls. She jerks her leg away, tearing the plant as she struggles to get up. Another rumble and the distinct feeling of a vine moving over her shoe is all the encouragement she needs to start running.

When she hears a call for help, she charges towards it without a second thought, changing directions immediately. "I'm coming! Keep talking if you can so I can find you!"

C : Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[It has been a long... day? night? For the captain, which has accumulated in her back against a large cliff with a massive stone creature closing in on her. The cliff is too steep and smooth to scale unassisted, and the monster is simply so large it blocks all possible routes of escape. She braces herself as the thing rears its fist back....]

[...And misses her entirely. Its fist pulls back a good 6 meters away and far too high on the cliff. At the end of her rope, Janeway begins to laugh.]

Is that all you got, you big oaf?!

C!

[tenthstreetbred]

[Shepard has been having more potent dreams lately, it seems. Mu has been bringing her in more often and while it's strange, at least she's meeting interesting people. Getting to fight interesting things too, as she looks ahead and sees a giant rock monster getting ready to punch the hell out of some random woman. At first Shepard thinks she's too late, but the beast's fist misses her and Shepard re-doubles her efforts to get there.

And when she does there's a flash of blue and white light and a roar as she Nova's the rock monster back. It stumbles a bit, seemingly confused by this small creature that just punched it with the force of a bomb. In the few seconds it takes to compose itself for another attack, Shepard looks back to the woman.]

Are you ok? Are you hurt? I can distract it to give you a chance to run for it.

Héctor Rivera | Coco

[vagabone]

There Goes the Neighborhood.

[What a strange place he's found himself in. Identical lawns and bland houses as far as the eye can see, and the living (are they?) don't seem to notice he's... not. No, he's just a humble barefoot skeleton, dressed in rags and held together by duct tape.

It really does fix everything, you know.

The house behind him is empty of everything, even furniture. The 'people' don't seem capable of having real conversations. And a dead man can't just stand around, that's never gotten him anywhere. So he picks a direction and starts limping his way down the street.

And he walks.

And walks some more.

Eventually it's obvious he is not, in fact, getting anywhere. Wonderful.]

¡Oye! Are there any real people out there?!

[My, he's loud for a guy who doesn't have lungs.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Ah, how nice to see a friendly face- if an unfamiliar one. Good day to you, sir.

[The woman who answers his question certain appears to be far more real and aware then the odd dream-people around them, but she's also very obviously not human. This may be more or less unsettling, depending on how you look at it.]

[She's just happy to find a skeleton monster, or so she thinks.]

Katsuki Bakugo | My Hero Academia | Will match format

[hot_handed]

There Goes the Neighborhood.

[Faceless clones surround him, but treat him as if he doesn't exist. It's enough to make anyone go mad, and Katsuki isn't sure if he already has because he doesn't remember life before this. It's easy for the days to blend just as much as the carbon copy homes, but one day in a surge of anger he accidentally discovered something he could do. He left the counter damaged with singed hole, the only reminder that this place wasn't real. He wasn't sure what this place was. It was almost like a prison, built by some...what? Villain?

Those only existed in comics.

But he's practiced since then, and none of the fakes seem to notice or care because he avoids them. He stands somewhere he estimates to be the center of the place, giving it one last l--]

Fuck this shit, I'm out.

[The explosions flare up, building in power, as he throws them in every direction of the godawful suburb without discrimination. Clearly he's not taking any bystanders into account. Why should he? They're not real. Nothing in this place is.]

Do it for the Vine.

I'm glad these weeds are real. It makes murdering them that much easier!

[Grabbing onto the vine that has shot out to restrain his leg, Bakugo places his palm on it, the plant tissue bursting apart into a charred husk and ashes. Before the next one can grab him, he's flown up in the air, hovering over the crumbling land. The area's dense, making it hard to discern where the beach begins, but that's where he's headed, so he picks a direction, taking higher ground and vaulting over branches as he does a weird mix of aerial parkour to avoid the vines.]

Troupe Master Grimm | Hollow Knight

[fireindreams]

Do it for the vine

[So who's got two thumbs and doesn't appreciate being rudely grabbed by vines when he wakes up? This...bug? Yup, this bug really doesn't like it.

Grimm has rarely been in the position of being caught off guard prior to this point and the call to other words lesser so. The vines are certainly new and he doesn't know who called him or the location of his Troupe members yet. However Grimm knows his main objective is to get out of this area.

This new dance is interesting to a point. He has things to do after all. And if these vines must burn? Then they will burn.

Dodging, weaving and outright teleporting when the vines get too close, Grimm cuts a path through the attacking vegetation. The smell of burnt plants follows the tall bug as he makes his way to what's hopefully the exit.]

This is an interesting dance, to be sure. A melody of fire and earth sings as we move together. However--! [The Troupe Master opens his cloak and three bats of fire charge out to greedily feed on the few vines that launch themselves at him.] This is a dance to be cut short. My child is waiting.

[And we can't wait forever, now can we?]

[EXCITED YELLING]

[lightlessfuture]

[ The Knight is still somewhat bereft of familiarity in this world. Everything is strange to them, even if they've become accustomed to it; at best, there's only passing similarity.

They're exploring the island as usual (dreams are odd things; they've had more than ever since they came here) - it seems to shift every time - and are cutting their way through the vines with their usual dexterity when they hear a familiar voice.

(It's impossible to mistake, that feeling of fire in shadow. That heart of flame. Their nature is drawn to it in strange kinship.)

They cut their way through the vines more hastily, almost tripping in their uncharacteristically fumbling attempts to reach the source. They burst through the undergrowth and stop short, angling their head to stare up at Grimm.

(It's been - a while. Since they saw another they recognised. But at least he'll understand their lack of voice.) ]

Sans | Undertale

[unsansified]

A

[ The place is almost perfect. Almost. It certainly tries very hard to be, with the picture-perfect lawns and literal cookie-cutter people, but it all feels very...empty. Fake. In another version of this place, full of the people Sans cares about, he'd be perfectly fine there. After all, being able to relax is nice. The sun is nifty. Everything is bright and full of (bogus)promise.

Sans does enjoy himself for a very brief time. He naps a little, laying out on the lawn in a literal lawn chair, enjoying the relative peace of the place. He cracks some jokes at the people around him. He doesn't get a response, but they make good sounding boards. But eventually, he gets bored. Bored and tired of hearing his neighbor mow the same patch of lawn over and over again.

So, he decides to take a casual stroll, bony hands in the pockets of his hoodie. Every so often he'll stop in front of a mailbox, to stick a post-it note with a bad pun to the metal surface. Sometimes he'll stick one to a fake person, too, or maybe even you.

He's got nothing but time and nothing to do with it, so might as well, right? ]

Wildcard

[ Hit me with whatever! If you have an idea you wanna run by me first, feel free to hit me up on my plurk heartstringing! ]

A. (I'm not late hush)

[achievementhunter]

[They don't believe Mu is trying hard at all. When Bliss truly had them snared, it was... harder, to distinguish what was and wasn't real. In comparison, there's nothing here to sway them. Suburbia doesn't suit Chara at all. And these gardens are tacky.

So they wander- in and out of houses, pinching chocolate bars to rip open and idly chew on as they let the wrappers collect in the gutters of otherwise immaculate streets. The sun is shining. The birds (out of sight, unsurprisingly. Probably not there at all) are singing. It is the perfect day for a game of catch.

Or, once they've rounded the corner to enter yet another ridiculously pristine street and spotted one, post-it note leaving skeleton, a good day to go right to hell.




Wonderful. This is fine.


This is absolutely not fine. Ignoring how- numb, everything feels, Chara takes off after him, eyes straying to post boxes and blank-faced people with yellow squares stuck to their face. Feeling punny, Sans? How good for you.

Curiosity gets the best of them. Veering off course, they're going to read- at least one.]

princess zelda | the legend of zelda: breath of the wild

[wisdomspring]

002. do it for the vine

[ Everything is so intensely verdant that the young royal can't help but to stop and gaze around in awe. This place is like Faron in many ways, so much so that she wonders if her brief travels in the area have inspired this particular dream. Her lips part in a wondering smile, fingers reaching out to take a leaf between her fingers to better examine it.

Just then, a great rumble shakes the ground beneath her feet. Instantly alarmed, the princess starts, looking around for the source of the commotion. Her first guess is that this is an earthquake, though it could also be a stampede of some sort, and-... well, though it's a dream, the fear is still very real.

Zelda wraps her gloved hands around a nearby branch, waiting anxiously for calm to return. When it does, she sighs aloud with relief, hands moving instead to clutch at her front as she works to still her fluttering heart. ]

Goddesses, what was - [ Just then, something takes hold of her ankle. Alarm shoots through her afresh, and she sees before long that some kind of vine has wrapped securely just above her left foot. With a cry of alarm, she stomps on it with her free foot, and, when that does nothing, ducks down to try and pry the thing free. ]

Is anyone there?! Please...! [ Comes her plea for help, panic rising. ]



003. taken for granite

[ Someone else might run from the earth golem, or fight it. Princess Zelda, however, is crouched a short distance away, hidden from the beast's sight (for the moment), and sketching it as it sways in place, as it moves a step or two before settling back into the ground. ]

Fascinating... [ She breathes, eyes wide with enthusiasm as she takes notes on the creature, drawing its form. Zelda is behind cover, stealing looks at the golem when she can while taking care not to alert it to her presence. She seems thrilled at the chance, face alight with this discovery, worrying at her lip as she tries to get everything right in her records. It looks much like a Talus, though... a bit more humanoid, with other changes here and there. A cousin, perhaps?

This will make an excellent addition to the kingdom's bestiary, without a doubt! ]

2

[tuskenlancer]

[ CT had thought she was done with earthquakes. At least for awhile. Bad enough that the island she'd woken up on had been in the middle of shaking itself apart, had been under the sea entirely not hours after her arrival.

Now it's happening again. And maybe it's that very memory that's inspiring the earthquakes here - though given that dreams can apparently be shared here (and does that make them real, or not? Does it matter?) maybe not.

In any event, there's someone else here, and though it's not Wash this time, she obviously still needs help. CT wrests her own armored leg free from a vine seeking purchase and dashes forward, pulling her knife out of its sheath as she does. ]

Move! [ She's already focused on the vine wrapping itself around the girl's ankle, just waiting for her to move her hands out of the way. ]

varian | tangled: the series

[alchemistakes]

i. do it for the vine

[Okay. Okay, Varian will admit? This is less than ideal. Vines doing their best to keep him trapped and, uh, not showing any signs of letting go. It's fine! This is fine. It's aaaaaaaall under control!

The raccoon clinging to his shoulder chirps in alarm, but he shakes his head, looking through his bag.]

Okay Rudiger, yes, this seems bad, but I've got something in here that'll get rid of these vines no problem! [He pulls out a vial.] See? Now, if I just mix this with some--

[But right then there's another rumble and the earthquake causes Varian to lose his balance. He manages to get himself staying upright, but the vial falls and... is quickly covered up by vines.]

...Right. N-Now we might be in trouble, yeah.

ii. taken for granite

[Rocks moving isn't exactly new, but this is different. Other than the slight familiarity of rock that seems to have a mind of its own, there's no way to mistake this... this being for the black rocks he knows. For one, less spiky. And way more massive, more hulking, and...

Fascinating.

And that's how you get one very reckless kid who's actually going closer to our friend the golem here. He vaults over some other rocks, intently looking at the massive creature in front of him.]

This is amazing! It's-- It's like the ground itself has come to live! Oh man, I need some paper and-- [Of course, as he keeps walking forward, the golem notices - duh - and goes to slam its fist down on the ground.] Whoa!

[Varian just barely manages to rush out of the way in time, narrowly avoiding being squished. He gulps and laughs a little nervously, but stares in amazement all the same.]

Oh, getting a sample from you is not gonna be easy, huh?

1

[forall]

[ Moving vines are a new and exciting turn of events that Cassandra would rather not be dealing with right now. At first, it was kind of fun. It was a challenge. A way to further hone her fighting skills.

Now, it's just kind of annoying. They keep popping out of the ground like there's no tomorrow, and she's starting to run out of steam.

She quickly slices through another round of them, only to almost slam into someone. ]

Varian? What are you doing here? [ Not that she really knows how she got here, but still. She hadn't really expected to run into him in the middle of all this. ]

Venom Snake | Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain | Will match format

[venomahab]

Neighborhood

[Jack. That is what he was called here. It was a good name. It felt right. He didn't want to wake up. Not yet. It was late in the morning, he had gone through most of the daily routine, apart from occasionally bumping into things that were to the right of his periphery vision things were great. Maybe he needed to get his eyes checked. His eyes checked.]

[He had everything a man could ask for, a quiet wife, his cat Occy. A house in the suburbs. There's a tingle in his fingers. He has the day off, one of the few precious days of from the jewelry company he works at. He went to the bathroom to wash his face.]

[He looked into the mirror, he splashed water on his face. A different face looked back. He was familiar. His fingers tingled. The fingers on his left hand. He touched his left hand with his right, the cold sting of metal greeted his fingertips. The phantom arm faded away, his prosthetic replaced it. He felt the phantom pain in his finger tips. He looked back into the mirror. A metallic horn jutted from his head. He wasn't Jack, only his Phantom.]

Kept you waiting, huh?

[He moved to the bathroom door and edged it open, peeking out of it, checking his corners. This was a sneaking mission. He quietly stalked down the hallway until he reached the living room. His quiet wife was watching television. A repeating feed of some commercial jingle. He reached his kitchen. He withdrew a knife from it. He felt the weight. It felt right.]

[The front door was too conspicuous, too obvious. He sneaked to the side door, pushing it open and glancing through. It was clear. He began to make his way to the front yard, taking advantage of the elaborate shrubbery for cover. He evaded the eyes of the stiff 'patrols' easily enough. Anyone else with a mind, though, might catch a glimpse of the man stalking through the neighborhood]

sans | undertale (OTA!)

[skelepun]

there goes the neighborhood;

[When it came to dreams, Sans walked the familiar caverns of the Underground most frequently. And while that place had its fair share of picket fences, he couldn't recall one that was quite so protractor-straight as the one he found himself in front of now.

The more variable details of his life -- the places he may have traveled in or outside his dreams, the memories repressed or otherwise -- were nothing more than a distant fog. What was left behind was a more base version of himself. Sans Classic, as it were.

But even Sans Classic knew the Underground didn't have a bright blue sky. Not even his wildest dreams had that.]

Huh. [He flicks at the tip of the fence, as if it might warp into nothing when pressure was applied.] Lemme guess, this your place?

[A man -- completely nondescript aside from the word human -- moves past him as if on a track. Good morning! he replies, in a booming gregarious voice. Sans' sockets follow him on his morning st(roll), watching as he offered the same morning greeting to the next house. And the house after that. Like a recorded playback.

As Sans moves down along the cul de sac, more of those human specters appear. One was dressed as a milkman, another tried to sell him a paper, a figure in a dress told him to have a be-YOO-tiful day. Just like that. With the YOO right in the middle, sandwiched like mayo between two pieces of white bread.

Suffice to say, the first person Sans comes across without a glassy eyed stare catches his immediate attention.]

You. [He says, suddenly. The figure he addresses is turned away, but there's a solidness to them that sticks out from the manicured lawns and people. Whether the conspicuous skeleton caught their attention before it, y'know, spoke... well, maybe that's a normal occurrence in the dreams of this stranger.] I dunno if you've heard yet, but word on the street is it's a good morning.

you better be relaxing too gosh

[achievementhunter]

[And here they were, attempting to take exit, stage right. Watching him come down the street is a slap of reality that makes everything else seem downright tawdry, as if it hadn't already. He stands out- unshakeably real in the midst of a laughably unreal dream, eyelights flicking towards the nearest, new voice and away as soon as an assessment has been made.

Unshakeably real. They'd almost take the judging stare of the humans if that's what it took for things to be the other way around. That's not how this works.]


Oh? [They force a smile on their face, turn around. Resist the urge to search for any indications of recognition on his skull- because he'd notice. He was-- astute.] I don't know, sir; some people are still on the fence about it.

[A wave of their hand across the street, where they'd deliberately closed the gate of some of those protractor straight picket fences. The specters didn't quite know what to make of that, aside from continuing to run right into the gates, over and over.

They had to entertain themself somehow.]