aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 012 )

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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. ]

[Is there a word for someone who seems familiar, but only in concept? A face you're sure you've never seen, a voice you're positive you've never heard, but a person you might know none the less?]

[Decidueye lands heavy on the branch from which Ray is suspended, bouncing the branch and swinging the small boy back and forth as a consequence. For all the world, he looks like a distressed piñata. But that distress lessens when he sees the help his companion has found. Ray folds his arms across his chest in an attempt to look more collected than he is and beams down at the girl.]

I mean I'm stuck, but the view's pretty nice! Think you could help me down?

[ she listens to him and can't help but grin at his optimism!! What a good bean!! Her palms land on her hips and she nods eagerly!! ]

Yeah, sure! I don't think Incineroar's tall enough to reach you, but I bet he could catch you! [ Luna-- wait, maybe there is a better-- } Incineroar, come on! Think you can blast that vine with a little fire??

[ And Incineroar, without skipping a beat, lands with a loud thud on the ground. He crouches, bringing his giant arms across his chest and hunkering down, then thrusting his belt in the direction of the vine that has ensnared Ray. The rude vine releases him with a huff of smoke...a lot of smoke.

And Incineroar makes ready to catch the little pokemon trainer. All in a days work. Set the fire attached to the trees on fire to release a little stuck human. ]

Hey, wAIT -

[Mercifully, Incineroar's flame is precise enough that it doesn't set Ray's legs on fire when the vines catch. Not as much can be said for the tree branch, he notes, as he lands in the pokemon's large arms. Decidueye takes flight with an alarmed cry, trying to get away from the spreading fire as quickly as possible. The dampness of the jungle humidity does make it harder for the flames to catch the thicker pieces of wood, so it's slower spreading, but the leaves aren't slick enough to avoid their fate, and that fuels it well enough.]

Th-thanks, miss - you, too, Incineroar! But we should maybe, uh. [He points enthusiastically towards the jungle, away from the fire.] Skedaddle?

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 012 )

DO IT FOR THE VINE

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