TEST DRIVE MEME ( 014 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #14

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 August 17th, and Applications on August 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.

One Magic Night
The waves are aglow. That might not be the first thing you notice when you wake, but it will probably draw your attention at some point: the way the sea foam glistens with an effervescent light as it rinses the beach in a crystalline, deep blue shimmer. Further out, lurid explosions of color ripple soundlessly beneath the waves - an underwater fireworks show. The atmosphere is peaceful, a blissed-out calm to suit the lazy lap of the surf-spray against the sand. Maybe turning around will shed a little more light on the situation. What this is, in fact, is the echo of a celebration that was held on Ensō back in June. Torches and campfires crackle with a merry, companionable blaze, and there is food and drink in abundance - including some of the alcoholic persuasion, for those of you who are over the age of twenty-one.

There is, naturally, all sorts to do in a celebration like this. Friendly sparring matches have sprung up along the shoreline; beach cushions and blankets decorate the party site; coconut shells laden with bioluminscent body paint can be dipped into at will, if you fancy shining like a glowstick throughout the artificial night.

Just because you've got no idea how you got here doesn't mean you can't enjoy a good party while it lasts, right?

Growing Pains
The island you've ended up on today is very, very beautiful, particularly if you're a botanist: it's covered in flowers of all sorts. They grow in rich clumps, seemingly at odds with any sense of convention. Here, you can find common dandelions flowering alongside tropical strelitzias, snowdrops spangled beside water lilies. No matter the impossibility of it, despite the discrepancies of seasons and temperatures in which these specimens should be blooming, you'll find that nearly every species can be found represented, flowering in tandem. It's gorgeous. Breathtaking, even.

There's only one problem.

That problem being that the flowers are growing out of you as well. As might be obvious, this is not exactly a pleasant sensation. There is, in fact, a full list of rather painful symptoms that has been very well-documented of late. All you have to worry about in particular, however, is what has caused these flowers to take root in you in the first place:

Lies.

Is there something you need to get off your chest? Some confession that's aching to be made? Some guilt or regret that you've repressed, that's been dragging you down for years?

Then you'd better get to it. Those flowers aren't leaving unless you spill. And if you'd rather not, well...they're more than happy to fertilize the earth with what's left of you.

Hoo Ha Ha
Stop us if you've heard this one: you and some stranger wake up on a boat. There are no landmasses in sight, and nothing as far as the eye can see but lapping waves and a peaceful, periwinkle, cloudless sky. It's good weather for sailing. Perfect, in fact. There's even a tight breeze that might helpfully guide you along.

The punchline, of course, is the fact that you're surrounded by sharks. Sorry, did we say sharks? We meant tigersharks, of the most literal sort possible. Part fish and part feline, these dual-headed beasts are summarily more naturally carnivorous and more aggressive than your bog standard tigers or sharks. They're wickedly fast in the water, and just as lethal on land.

And they're currently trying to climb aboard; armed with four sharp-clawed legs, they're more than capable of doing exactly that unless you can fend them off.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

Rei Ayanami | Rebuild of Evangelion

[youngmother]

[This isn't the ocean of her time. That much is immediately obvious--even aside from the stark difference of color she's nearly overwhelmed by the smell of life. The smell of rot, of waste, of living bodies is inescapable, just like it had in the facility that Kaji took her and the other Children (and children) to. There she had felt something like a kinship, but here...]

You aren't like me at all.

[Still clad in her plugsuit, she can't quite feel the clear water as it rushes past her ankles, the glowing bits and pieces clinging to her as it recedes. Very carefully she kneels, reaching out to let her fingers skim the water as it ebbs and flows, seemingly fascinated by such a simple process. She has noticed the presence of others by now, of course--it's just that she hasn't bothered to really look just yet.]

[forwearemany]

(They recognize this: the party from their first month of arrival.

A time long past. A dream.

They wander the edges, until they spot someone unfamiliar.

They stop and watch her, chattering.)

[youngmother]

[She doesn't pay much attention at first, too fascinated by the concept of an ocean full of life, but after a minute or so Rei turns her head slightly to regard the robot. She hasn't seen a humanoid robot of this size before...or really at all, to be honest. For all the obfuscation surrounding the Evangelions, there's never been any conceit beyond a surface level that they are anything but biological.]

[So for now she does the same as Legion: silently observing, waiting to see what action they will take.]

[forwearemany]

(She has noticed them. Their headflaps ripple briefly, before consensus is reached.)

Greetings.

(She is a child, and does not appear hostile.)

[youngmother]

Hello.

[So it speaks. She can feel...something from this machine, a pressure like she's used to feeling around others, but only in a vague sense. It's strange, and she's not sure if the difference is within herself, or the other.]

[She doesn't stand, however.]

What are you?

[forwearemany]

"We are Legion, relict of the Geth."

It is their typical answer to such questions.

"Yourself?"

[youngmother]

[The names mean nothing, but the implication is there: an artificial intelligence, created by Lilim alien to her own kind. Odd, to be certain, but everything about this place--about her being here--is.]

[But now...what she is? It's a question she's pondered many times, despite having several answers already depending on the criteria given. A clone, a girl, a weapon, a person--who is Rei Ayanami?]

I am myself.

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged.

(They headtilt.)

Designation?

[youngmother]

Rei Ayanami.

[Simple and to the point. She can appreciate that.]

What is this place?

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged, Ayanami-Rei.

(Legion is odd about names.)

It is a dream. The location represented is an island known as Enso: this party took place shortly after our arrival.

[youngmother]

[Lucky for them both, translation means that Rei doesn't notice any difference! (Not that she would voice an objection or care at all, but, you know.)]

A dream?

[She frowns, looking back down at her hand. Some of the glowing things have stuck to her, outlining the curves of her palm, almost like a brand.]

Whose dream is it?

[forwearemany]

Uncertain.

(Their headflaps ripple.)

Perhaps it is the island's.

(Can islands dream? Given what they have seen, it is entirely possible.)

[braceforimpact]

[Kaworu knows her--he knows her, and remembers her words to him in the hall; the same words, nearly, that she is saying to the fish now in the ocean.

We are not the same.

He frowns, watching her stare into the water, bend down to play with it. But he's mostly confused, not critical.

What is she doing?

From his vantage point above the ground, he may be less noticeable--

Then again, with an AT Field like his.... maybe not.]

[youngmother]

[Most certainly not. Where others might exert a pressure, Kaworu's AT Field is closer to a smothering blanket, something impossible to ignore and overbearing in it's presence. She shows no outward reaction, but it's enough that she turns to look over he shoulder at him.]

[The only other thing that had felt anything like this were the Evangelions and the Angels, but he looks human. Or at least as human as herself--his pigmentation doesn't escape her notice, and eerie red eyes lock gazes.]

[She says nothing.]

[braceforimpact]

[They make eye contact. He's almost surprised--not really, because they are the same, no matter what she said back in the hall.

But if she had any awareness of her AT Field, she'd been hiding it before. He steps off the tree branch, doesn't bother to obey gravity. He hovers there, even with the limb before lowering himself to the ground.

Mostly.

No words are yet spoken, though.]

[youngmother]

[There is an action she should take here. She's sure of it. The feeling of his presence...it means something, but she can't be sure of what. He looks...human. No, he looks like her, his coloration just as unnatural, but she had been the only one. The only one needed.]

[So who made him?]

[...should she care?]

[Uncertainty holds her still, her mind racing as she tries to decide what she should do, what Gendo would want--]





[Abruptly, she realizes something quite terrifying. She is free.]

Who are you?

[braceforimpact]

[His reply is equal parts helpful and unhelpful--arguably less so considering that as far as he is concerned, he has had this exchange with her already.

But that's just it.

They had this conversation already.

It somehow doesn't occur to him to respond any differently.]

The same as you.

[youngmother]

[Her eyes narrow, and the line of her lips tightens--an echo of the past, though she doesn't know it yet.]

No. We are different.

[Even with a similar source...they are not the same.]

[braceforimpact]

[It's Kaworu's turn to look unimpressed, and his own mouth tightens into a wider, thinner line.]

That's what you said last time, too.

[What's so different between you and him?]

[youngmother]

[Uh.]

Last time?

[But the previous Rei...she had died as a child. And surely if she had met another like her, NERV would have known...?]

[braceforimpact]

[.....]

......in the hall?

[Come on, First. He knows you're not this stupid.]

[youngmother]

[She's definitely not, but also:]

I've never seen you before now.

[There is a long pause before she continues in an almost hesitant tone.]

Was I younger, then?

[braceforimpact]

[.....?]

I assume so.

[That is how time works. Then again--]

But maybe not.

[youngmother]

[She is silent for a few long moments.]

If I was, that was a different me. But if not...

It may still have been.

[She's always known she was replaceable.]

[braceforimpact]

That doesn't matter.

[Kaworu is very factual about it. He isn't even fazed. Maybe it's because he is made of the same stuff as she is. Maybe it's because he doesn't expect any other way to be. They are the same.]

Anyway, if I'm here and so are you....