aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 014 )

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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[And she's already entirely fine besides the massive amounts of blood on her clothes. But she's distracted by the scent of blood and cinnamon, edged with something gritty and unnatural that doesn't quite fit with anything she's sensed before.

She hates how much she wants to taste it.

But there are more urgent bits of blood to taste at the moment.]

Give me your sword. I want to try something.

Do you want the one I'm not using? [He balks a little, keeping a hold of the radiant golden blade as he goes for one of the carnival glass ones.] I'm a bit attached to this one right now.

[And he can't let it go or else he'll lose the rite. He'd rather not, thanks.]

[She gives him a look.]

No, I want the blood on the one you're currently holding. You can keep holding it if you're going to get separation anxiety.

[It's not separation anxiety if he'll have to bleed on it again to activate it.]

That's really weird, but... sure. [He holds it over to her and with his free hand, he points at another tiger shark trying to climb in and hisses something in Infernal that sounds absolutely guttural and terrifying... But, in reality, he's just reciting a grocery list. The tiger shark flinches back, pawing at its head and falls back into the water bleeding.]

[He thinks that's weird, well, just wait until she runs her tongue up the bloody side of her blade and sits back, sorting through the red film of memories the blood lends her. Lucien, she hears, and the viciousness of battle, and the sort of ruthlessness that seems different from the man in front of her--

No, wrong memories. That's Molly's (Lucien's?) memories, and not what she's here for. She pushes past them to the ones that smell of fish and hot jungle.

The tiger sharks aren't evil, just hungry. And angry that their territory's been invaded. And... confused. This isn't natural. This isn't balanced.

And Toby can do something about that.]

She opens her eyes and draws her dagger, slicing open her palm. "Head for shore," she says, then licks her hand. "I have a plan."

Did you just- [He doesn't know which part of that is more weird- the licking blood off the edge of his blade or her licking the blood off her cut palm, but it brings about a certain edginess to him that he hasn't felt since Cree came out of the ether.

Which means he's more than happy to adjust the sails a bit to catch the wind and give them a little bit more of a push if only to avoid thinking about it. It means dismissing the rite as he sheathes his blade, but if little miss creepy blood powers over here has a plan, then maybe he won't need it.]

Unless I get out and push, we're not going anywhere quickly. [Sarcasm, thy name is Mollymauk.]

Quickly isn't a requirement.

[In fact, it'd actually make certain parts of Toby's plan more difficult. She moves to the side of the boat holding her knife out, thumb pressed against the blade to keep it bleeding. The cut on her palm is already gone, and she needs fresh blood for what she wants to do.

When the next tiger shark tries to climb, she grabs it by the ruff of it's neck, stabs down, and latches her mouth to the wound she's made.]

[He glances over his shoulder and sees.... all of that. And suddenly the sail doesn't seem all that important.]

You have officially crossed a threshold far beyond weird, dear. Do you and the catfish need some privacy?

[Just focus on your job, buddy. Toby's too busy to snark back.

It's only a few moments on the outside, but for Toby, and the creature she's latched onto, it feels like much longer. She makes it choose. And when she lets it go, a shark falls back into the water, clear of any tiger parts.

Well, for the most part. She left the barest trace of tiger blood in it, just enough to give it whiskers and the ability to breathe on land. Just enough that she can turn it back later, if it comes to seek her out. She doesn't want to be entirely cruel, and while she will do what she has to to survive and keep herself and Molly alive, all this creature is guilty of is hunger. It doesn't deserve to be crippled forever for it.

The other tiger sharks back off hurriedly when they see what she's done. Toby wipes her mouth with her hand and looks back at Molly.]

Land. Now.

[Molly looks like somewhere along the way he became part fish given how he's gaping wide-mouth and, just a little bit, shook. He blinks it away, holds up his hands in a placating "okay crazy lady" gesture and goes back to focusing on getting the wind to catch the sails enough to push them towards land and away from the sharks.

As soon as the little boat hits the sandbank, Molly lifts up his coat so it doesn't drag in the water, and sloshes up to the drier shore.] What the hell was that? What did you do to it? That is... I'm not an expert but I've never seen anyone do a Polymorph by biting something.

[He's actually never seen a Polymorph spell period. He only knows what they are because he's surrounded by arcane users, but he feels like he would have been informed there was biting involved. That's a hell of a thing to forget.]

I didn't polymorph it. I just shifted the balance of its blood.

[Her jeans are soaked with salt and her shirt and worse, jacket are soaked in blood. Nothing unusual there, but it's still highly frustrating. She grimaces.]

I think I have fur in my mouth. I need something to drink.

Oh, was that it? [His accent goes significantly more Irish when being sarcastic. It is known.] Glad you cleared that up. I'd offer my blood, since that seems to be what you have a taste for, but I sorta need it.

Ha ha. [She grimaces.] Just because I'm very good at blood magic doesn't mean I like the taste of blood. I want coffee.

That's doable. Maybe we can find a place that does that and ale. [He swipes at the blood congealing on his neck from where he had to cut himself earlier and tries to make himself look presentable. There's a noble art to bleeding without getting any on your coat and Molly seems to have mastered it.]

[Yeah, Toby definitely hasn't mastered that art. She glances at his coat, then down at her own, battered leather jacket. At least she has a lot of practice getting blood out of leather.]

Oh yeah, one of those cafe breweries that serves everything. Think there's one on this island?

One way to find out. We're going to find whatever seems like civilization with lots of people around, we're going to step into the middle of that, and then we're going to say- [and here he claps his hands around his mouth like a megaphone] -"Oi! We're looking for the best bloody pub that serves everything that you've got in this place."

Edited 2018-09-03 17:10 (UTC)

[That gets a half smile.] I mean, assuming there is anything like civilization around here.

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 014 )

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