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.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

[skelepun]

[Peering out over the rock outcropping, Sans listened to Papyrus plan his next phase of friendship attack with the distant interest of someone genuinely curious and deeply preoccupied.]

Oh yeah, I'm full of it. [Good ideas, that is. Of course, Papyrus's question about being here jogs his attention back towards his brother.] Uh...

Not gonna lie, bro, it's got me stumped. Did you make dinner last night?

[It would explain the weird shared hallucination, even if Sans found it strange he couldn't remember...]

[fontofkindness]

[ Papyrus is similarly distracted by the scenery. He's only been one year on the Surface, after all. That's not long to get used to the wider variety of environments the world has to offer, and so a completely new place on top of that means he's raring to run everywhere and explore.

Not that he will, of course, that would mean leaving Sans behind. But he's thinking it. ]

Uh. I don't think so?? [ He might have asked "wait, are you saying my excellent spaghetti causes realistic dreams?" or something like that if he was paying more attention. He steps up a bit onto a rock and glances around. Cliffs, crags, more cliffs... ] I've heard of dreaming about places you've never been! But this seems a bit too absurd, even if you're here too!!

[ Of course Sans would be in his dreams, because that's his brother. Why would he not dream about him? But all this seems a bit...realistic...? He usually has weirder dreams than this. ]

[skelepun]

[Sans nods, thoughtful, through Papyrus's musings. He had a few salient points, specifically how little sense it all made to either of them. The advantage of dreams is that you didn't question them.

He slumps down a little, ensuring they were hidden from the golem's eyeline before looking up at his brother, darting out a hand, and pinching him hard on the right radius.]

[fontofkindness]

[ Papyrus is far too busy observing the cliffs to notice Sans' sneak attack, so his sudden yelp is unsurprising. ]

SANS!! [ He flails about from this surprise attack. ] What was that for??

[ It's sort of a redundant question, because Sans is his brother and likes playing pranks on people and That Is What He Does. But he still asks, every time. ]

[skelepun]

[Experiment concluded, Sans shrugs in affable response.]

Just double checking something. I don't think we're dreaming, bro. I'd have you pinch me too, but, y'know.

[Y'know.]

So if this is as real as it seems, we better get moving. I don't know any shortcuts here, you cool playing leader?

[fontofkindness]

[ He definitely know.
He knows how it is, because that's always how it is.

It's why he has to look out for Sans. Especially now that they're in a strange place. But it's time to get moving! ]

Of course!! [ When is he ever not happy playing leader? Well, when Undyne's around, because Undyne's better at it. But still!!

He vaults over the rock in a swift movement and begins to carefully stride over the slowly downward-sloping ground. He can see green not so far away, so maybe there will be something new there? ]