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

[campnope]

[WHATEVER YOU COULD BE STICK-LEGGED UNDER ALL THAT ARMOR. YOU COULD BE WEARING STILTS. HE DOESN'T KNOW.]

Max. Who're you?

[counterblows]

[There is no answer to this question that isn't going to garner a witty response. He has already resigned himself to it.]

You can just call me Washington.

[campnope]

What, like the old president? Cause man, I'm not great at history, but I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered if the Revolutionary War was fought in weird space armor.

[counterblows]

More like the state.

[Not that he hasn't fought wars of his own at this point. And...wars of another planet's too. A lot of people's wars, as it turns out, needed fighting.]

Just "Wash" is fine.

[campnope]

That's not better. That just sounds like you really care about hygiene.

[You can't win here.]

[counterblows]

It's a nickname, kid. Don't overthink it.

[You kind of have to get over people's names when the callsigns of your paramilitary intergalactic alternative combat and research op founded and backed by the UNSC, a sprawling interstellar organization meant to represent Earth and all her numerous colonies, is named after the fifty states of the country of America.]

[campnope]

Whatever. It's a dumb nickname. But I guess I've heard worse. It's better than Space Kid. Or Tabii with two i's. Or Jermy Fartz.

[counterblows]

Those are all very specific.

[He doesn't think he wants to know the specifics, but he's also pretty sure he's going to be getting them.]

[campnope]

Well, duh. They're all actual people. That I know. [A beat.] And Jermy Fartz isn't actually even a nickname.

[counterblows]

When you put it like that, I don't think you can get on my case over "Washington."

[You gave me my new name.]

[Disregard it, Agent Washington. It's not important. Not anymore.]

[campnope]

Uh uh, it just means I get to get on their cases even more. That sounds fair.

[Come on, like he's gonna pass up a chance to mock someone.]

Hey, unless you want to be called Space Kid too! You know, I can really see the resemblance. He wears a fishbowl on his head too.

[This comparison would be far too complimentary to Space Kid for Max to ever say it to him, of course.]

[counterblows]

[If Max thinks this is a fishbowl of a helmet, he should see the E.V.A. config.]

I don't think you're in any position to be calling me kid.

[campnope]

Whatever you say, Spacekid 2.0.

[Now that he knows it's annoying, he sees no reason to stop.]

[counterblows]

[There's a brief pause that suggests Wash has just blinked at him. But the helmet very handily masks anything in regards to his expression.]

Let's see about washing off this paint.

[campnope]

[Max scowls.]

For a guy in space armor, you sure are lame.

[counterblows]

I'm not sure what else you'd expect from a guy in space armor.

[He unclips a water canteen from the mag-strip his thigh - can't remember when it got there or how, but he also isn't in the mood to question it - and tosses it.]

Catch.

[campnope]

I guess I was hoping for more Han Solo than Spock. [He fumbles because he's a noodly armed nerd, then picks it up with a scowl.] You know it's not permanent, right? Next time it rains, or when the tide comes in, it'll be gone anyway.

[counterblows]

[Wash simply looks at him, nonplussed.]

You know what henna is?

[Because this glow-in-the-dark paint is less like paint and more like that.]

[campnope]

[Max, always a hair trigger temper, takes a (not so) menacing step towards the massive armored space soldier.]

Wow, you're asking me that?

[counterblows]

[ s i g h ]

Yes, I am, because not everyone does.

[campnope]

Oh.

[Is assuming he doesn't know also offensive? Assuming in either direction is probably bad, but this guy isn't assuming, he's asking. Max crosses his arms and slouches back, still angry (he's always angry), but not really sure what to do with it.]

...I know what henna is.

[counterblows]

[Either it goes right over Wash's head, or, more likely, he simply decides it's not his problem and he is therefore not going to bother pursuing it.]

Good. Because this stuff is kind of like henna in that it tends to stick around for a few days unless you try and get it off while it's still wet.

[campnope]

[Max stares, eyes widening, and his mouth drops open.]

That's awesome.

[And he pours the canteen out on the sand. Like he's gonna wreck his artwork when he knows it's gonna be here for days!]

[counterblows]

[Sighing intensifies.]

You really want to test the guy with the heavy barrel service rifle?

[campnope]

You gonna shoot an unarmed kid, asshole?