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.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

[warlorded]

[The call to get his attention has Zarkon rounding on Keith, quick and alert, hand hovering over the black bayard on his own belt. It takes a moment for him to catch the rest of what the young man says. A sigh that is barely a step away from being a growl but his stance relaxes a little.]

Any information you can offer would be most appreciated.

[Carefully formal, he doesn't remember how he got here and he can't identify where here is exactly. If he can't guarantee he's in friendly territory it is best to be courtly about this. He approaches slowly, very aware of how much larger he is than the other and not wanting his approach to seem too intimidating. His holds his hand out, as neutral as he can.]

Emperor Zarkon of Daibazaal... [The slightest hesitation, a mental reminder that this may not be as true as he would like after his behavior recently. But it's so much a part of him, a part of the introductions of centuries, that he can't leave it off.] Paladin of Voltron.

[thermalwind]

[He waits for the introduction before he steps out of the shadows and accepts the hand with his own. His own Paladin armor is marked with red. He keeps his expression neutral.]

Yeah. I know you who are. I'll start off with the most important details. We're outside of our time and reality. People can come from the same reality but at different times. You're from ten thousand years into my past. I'm Keith Kogane, a Paladin of my time.

[He releases the Emperor's hand and steps back glancing over the beach with narrowed eyes. Nothing unfriendly comes out he keeps listening anyway as he turns back to him.]

This is a dream world between our worlds and another one. I've been here several times. I don't always remember it when I wake up in the one tied to it. And you definitely won't remember it if you find a way back home. I've been guessing it is a rift. But...it doesn't operate like one. We're not being corrupted by proximity.

[warlorded]

[He steps into the light and Zarkon's eyes go wide for a split second, fear and anger carefully shielded behind diplomacy. This boy wears Alfor's armor! The only indication of his inner panic is the tensing of his jaw, the slightest shifting of the scales that protrude there as the muscle clenches hard.

The explanation sounds so absurd that he doesn't want to believe it at first. 10,000 years? But if they've found a place outside reality, a pocket of space where they are unaffected by the ravages of time. The things they could learn from such a thing. Honerva and Alfor would be thrilled.

Honerva]

And how does one return? I must get back immediately.

[And then he seems to catch up with the last snippet of what Keith said, eyes narrowing, tilting his head slightly. Answer this carefully, Keith.]

What do you mean corrupted?

[thermalwind]

It's so much power it starts to overload the senses and shift the mind. Without Allura seeing what was happening when we were inside the rift... [He falls quiet. Bringing it up reminds him of how it felt. The power had filled his veins and gave new meaning to riding the lightning. He'd barely noticed his subtle shift from defeat enemy to victory or death. Keith spreads his hands apart.]

You can believe me or not. That's your choice. I don't know how to get back, but you might go back on your own. Not everyone I meet here ends up on the islands.

[He will be returning to the islands. He knows it. It's not so bad. He wants to get back to the team.]

But if you do. You won't be the only Paladin around.

[warlorded]

[Inside the rift

He's quiet for a long moment, considering this information. Surely it must be a different rift, it must be something entirely different after so many years. Curiosity burns in him though he'd have no idea what to do with the information. Still collecting information for his precious alchemists has become second nature.]

There are others... from your team? [It's a guess but he also has to hope that someone from his team might be here as well. How else would they know who he is 10,000 years in the future?] If anyone from my team was here, I'm sure they'd be able to tell you that's not how the rifts usually work, at least not from what knowledge we have in my time.

The rift has much to teach us and invaluable resources. [Anything that can save Honerva is invaluable.]

[thermalwind]

[He's so tired it only belated occurs to him Zarkon could put the pieces together about the rift if he says too much.

Oh boy.

Luckily, he's so exhausted he doesn't give himself away by tensing. Black has always taken the most of out of his pilots. He's never been grateful for that until now.]

It's possible it's a different rift. [The fuck it is, but he isn't about to tell him his fate. Why be cruel to a guy that hasn't done the things that will come to pass?] I'm not our technical expert. And yeah, it's members of my team.

Anyway, let's talk about the present. There's a lot to know. Some of it...you'll get explained if you run into Storyteller. That's a spirit trying to help us. Or not. I'm not sure. The surest thing I can say is they have their own agenda and their limits are murky.