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.

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[ She doesn't have to be told twice. The... odd figure in her dream frees her leg, and Zelda scurries away as soon as she's able, looking back at CT while checking that other, hungry vines aren't snaking their way toward any of her limbs. ]

T-Thank you. [ The princess exhales, eyes still wide with shock. ] Should we...?

[ But her question is left unfinished, considering that she isn't sure what to suggest. Should they run? Hide? What sort of shelter can you find in a place like this? ]

What sort of plant was that? [ She decides to ask, brows furrowed in worry. ]

The kind that's trying to kill us.

[ Does it matter, beyond that? CT nods in response to the girl's - woman's? - question, gesturing in the direction that seem to have the least amount of vines. ]

We have to keep moving. Try and find - I don't know, higher ground or something. [ Someplace where the vines aren't. She glances back at her companion, forgetting her urgency for a moment as she stares, noticing for the first time her delicate features, her small frame -

And those ears. For a moment, all she can think of is Merrill, looking wide-eyed up at her. CT shakes herself off, resisting the urge to reach out and guide her along by the hand. ]

Okay?

I did see that much... [ Her jaw tightens as she suspects that this person believes her to be simple-minded... but, the stranger had saved her, so she says nothing. Yet. ]

Some flint would do us good, too, I think. [ Zelda murmurs, whether more to herself or to CT. ] Plants are weak to flame, sentient or otherwise...

[ For now, though, higher ground. She's content enough for the moment to let CT lead on. ]

[ Flint. Not matches or a lighter or some technology beyond even CT. It only serves to strengthen CT's theory about who this girl is.

No fire magic, though. Too bad. ]

Flint would take too long. By the time we got a flame big enough to hurt it, it'd be too late.

[ It's not a bad plan, though. She rummages in her armor a moment, and pulls out her own lighter. ]

I've got something better, though.

[ And she pops it open and flicks it on, letting Zelda see the flame. ]

But - [ Before she can make more suggestions of her own, the stranger produces a small flame from a... box that she holds in her palm. Zelda's eyes widen with surprise, and delight, having been shown a new and wonderful technology. ]

Oh! [ She wants to grab and study it, but doesn't. Instead, the princess settles for leaning in a bit, examining the mechanism as best she can from a short distance. ] Can you-... [ The sentence fades as she recalls their situation, so she amends: ] ... Once we've moved someplace safe, can you tell me more about that?

[ She blinks. She'd assumed the elf would just assume it was fire magic, that she would've seen much more impressive tricks from dozens of mages in Thedas. But...well, there's no time to worry about that now. She nods, closing the lighter and tucking it away again. ]

Uh...sure. But we have to move now. C'mon. And watch your step.

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 012 )

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i'm dumb and can't remember my own backstory ignore me

ALL GOOD

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