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aftr_ooc2018-09-13 08:58 pm
lifeaftr_mods) wrote in aftr_ooc2018-09-13 08:58 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 015 )
Test Drive Meme #15
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 September 17th, and Applications on September 24th!
Two important notes:
Remember that Reserves will open on September 17th, and Applications on September 24th!
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.
Drawn to You
The forest is dark, silent but for the snap-buzz of cricket song. Nearby, the soft babble of running water threads its way between the rough-barked trunks, though the origin of said water is difficult, at first, to pinpoint.
Granted, you probably aren't paying much attention to the forest, or the water, or the darkness. You're probably more concerned about the creatures flitting to and fro in sparse groups, most of them quite small. They tend to vary in appearance - some look to be totally benign, while others considerably less so - but all belong to the same species.
Scribblets are wily beasts, dream-haunters by nature, and they seem to revel in the idle torment they inflict upon those who cross their paths. You, dear travelers, are no exception. And while they are quite easily crushed into dust once caught, they are exceedingly slippery, agile creatures that are most difficult to pin down.
Fortunately, the solution here is very simple. Like any drawing, it can be washed away if you find water. You'd simply better hope that you're able to collaborate with whoever you must in order to access said water, whether it's working alongside whoever you might be tied to, or convincing someone to lend you a hand.
You'd better hope the scribblets don't go after them either, by the way.
Quarantine Breached
Whatever this place once was, nature has long since claimed it for its own. A darkened, secluded laboratory now nearly swallowed by thick snarls of overgrowth is probably not your ideal vacation spot, particularly since there's a dearth of any decent lighting sources here. Drenched in shadow as this place was, it might have been helpful if you had thought to bring a light.
Fortunately, that problem is soon to be solved! Twin smoldering points of light abruptly ignite several yards away from you, paired with the pitched mechanical hum of engaging circuits. Another pair of lights immediately spritzes to life just beside it, and another pair, and another...and another...and...
Well, there seems to be a lot of them, doesn't there?
You must understand, traveler: the island of Umui was nothing like this. The guardian units there were conscious nurse-bots, charged with caring for the sick and dying populace of a hospice island. Most did so with as much care as they were capable. But in the initial days of Umui's exploration, a great deal of explorers' anxieties revolved around these fallen automatons, and what possible purpose they may have served.
We invite you to imagine a scenario in which this went horribly wrong.
Consider these automatons to be shadowy, overzealous mirrors of their long-dead, real-world equivalents. They have learned to become hyper-devoted to their task of keeping their patients safe; so devoted, it seems, that nothing will stop them from fulfilling those obligations. They intend to catch and sedate you so that you can be...returned...to a place of safety.
Unfortunately, this place of safety probably entails an inescapable four-walled room or a hospital bed, and it's doubtful, to say in the least, that enough of their programming remains for them to remember to care for and feed you once you've been returned to whatever passes for a quarantine zone. In a decrepit, dilapidated building like this, it's probably not pleasant.
Our advice is to simply not get caught. If this means doing some inevitable destruction to all this complex hardware in the process, well...at least there's no chance you'll be billed for damages.
The New Farm Simulator Looks Great!
It is possible that you vaguely recall being asked to take watch this evening. By whom? Oh, please, that doesn't matter! With the pleasant hum of crickets in the air, and a backdrop of paddocks and grain fields around you, there are plenty of worse ways to spend your evening than this. All you have to do is keep an eye on passive livestock. The farmer's life is a simple one, where your biggest problem is trying not to fall asleep before your shift is over.
In theory, anyway.
For others, sweet grains aren't as appealing as that sweet, sweet taste of freedom. A word of advice: once the popo are over those hills, you won't be seeing them again. And they might not be terribly fast on their own, but in a herd, they can get to be as dangerous as a stampede.
Hope you weren't expecting an easy night, because in LifeAftr, there's no CJB cheats menu to save you.
no subject
It will come soon. But for now, he examines the doodle lines binding the Hollow Knight to the tree. It would not do to leave them here. If the Pale King could not get them to wake up then Hallownest would decay farther.
He had been observing the bundles of scribbles before stumbling across the Vessel. They bound people to things or others and left them there, mere childish pranks. But he can think far enough back to when he used to write down his own thoughts and ideas before giving up on it. His thoughts came to him far quicker then he could move a quill.
Still, erasing such lines were easy. Water should be enough.]
Wait.
[The Pale King does not wait for any indication the Hollow Knight has heard him and walks off. Perhaps one should say that they would be coming back but he does not.
Not again. That would imply something he would not go back to.]
no subject
But it doesn't matter that they have no choice anyway. Their father tells them to wait and they don't question it. They don't question that he leaves, even if a part of them wishes they could say "don't".
It doesn't matter how long he will be gone or if he'll come back.
He told them to wait.
So they lower their head patiently. And they will wait, however long it ends up being.]
no subject
He could not feel the former and the latter had no point. In the darkness there was a pond and a bucket. The Pale King is slow because, dream or not, it has been a long time since he had to do physical labor.
But he soon arrives back to where the Hollow Knight waits and without prompting dumps the water over the doodles that bind the Vessel to the tree.
If the Pale King's theory is correct, it should melt the bindings. If it does not work then he will leave again to find something else to try.
He should not have to explain what why, in that case.]
no subject
They're happy. Their father came back.
They watch curiously as he dumps the water over the bindings. And, just like that... the string dissolves. The Hollow Knight takes a single step away from the tree, now free, but keeps their gaze fixed on their father.
Of course he knew exactly what to do. He always knows.]
no subject
Although it is good that this is a problem easily solved. While something challenging is often more interesting, he had things to do. A dream to leave, a seal to check. The Pale King cannot sense any change in Hallownest here but he knew the Radiance. She would take any chance to gain more of a foothold in reality and the dreaming Hollow Knight would indeed be yet another crack in the wall.
So if it means destroying this dream of theirs, so be it.]
Come.
[He turns and begins to walk into the darkness, expecting the Hollow Knight to follow.]
no subject
They retrieve their nail, once more within their reach since they were freed. And then they follow. Their pace is slow, but that's alright.
They won't lose him.]
no subject
They wander through a thick grove of trees and stop, abruptly, at the sight before them, looking between their father and their sibling.
Their first instinct is to put themselves between the two- not this one, you sacrificed them, you don't deserve to, but--
They hesitate, visibly, hand on their sword. None of this thought process shows up, of course, so all the Pale King and the Hollow Knight see is a small vessel emerging from the undergrowth and freezing upon seeing them. ]
no subject
All but one.
Still it is but a moment before the Pale King sees the tiny Vessel. He cannot recall which batch this one originated from, the memories bending the longer the Pale King stood in the Abyss and creating until he found the perfect vessel.
A hand on a nail, eyeless sockets staring at the only other beings standing in the darkness. Creator, success, failure.
The Pale King tilts his head, wondering and asking without words what the Vessel intended to do here.]
no subject
And the Hollow Knight pauses, their head lifting up. It is the best form of acknowledgement they have. But then, they look at their father, too. Expecting him to take the lead.
They're not the one who should be acting here, after all, right?]
no subject
But that would put them into conflict with their sibling. And they have always been inclined to gentleness, to hesitation. They had fought to survive, for someone else's salvation or resolution. They--
It was a long, long time ago. A memory mostly lost to darkness. A moment of hesitation, in whatever tests the Pale King had run to determine that eligibility, that marked them as a failure.
...
Instead of acknowledging the Pale King at all, they walk straight past, to look up at their sibling. Not whole. Still broken. But not filled with infection, with light, and that is enough.
They reach up for the Hollow Knight's hand. ]
no subject
It would not come from him.
But their existence was still a curiosity. A hand on a blade indicates the knowledge of its use, the Vessel confidence in movement, and most importantly their escape from the Abyss. What had been closed forever...or so the Pale King thought.
He turns and is content for a moment to watch how they interact with what they are clearly more interested in. But the moment the Knight reaches out to the Hollow Knight, the Pale King finally acts. He reaches over and places a hand over the tiny Vessel's.
There is no warmth in his touch, cold as the winds that roared through the discarded shell that was once his own body. The Knight can move away if they wish as he is not gripping their hand.
But he is standing between the two Vessels, his message clear: Do not touch them. Do not give them affection.
It would taint the seal.
(The Pale King knows why)]
no subject
The Hollow Knight looks down. Just when they do, their little sibling reaches for their hand. That's one thing.
More unexpected, perhaps, is that without thinking... the Hollow Knight reaches as well. It isn't something they realize they're doing.
Not until their father interrupts.
They pull back immediately, as if they've been burned. Because the message is very clear. Don't. And they look down again. Not at the Knight, this time. It is simply regret that washes over them, now.
Of course. They shouldn't have... And they should have realized that immediately.]
no subject
The anger that sparks inside them isn't for themselves. No, people have been kind to them - here, and before. Even before they came here, they knew the warmth of others, even if they had to learn it, even if it was fleeting and impermanent.
They remember -- that last fight, that arduous struggle against their infection-riddled sibling. There's no point to denying them affection. No point, because
they were already sick, had been sick. They had suffered, alone, crying for help and not expecting anyone to come.
(They had cried out for their father and he had never answered.)
They draw their sword and whirl on the Pale King, but what comes next isn't violence directed towards their father. Angry slashes -- mark the ground, as words.
They'd found a 'voice', by necessity. To communicate when listening did not.
THEY BROKE
THEY CALLED FOR HELP
YOU DID NOT ANSWER
I DID
They plant the sword in the ground and gesture at what they've written, sharp, angry motions in the way they move. Cloak swirling around them at the sudden jaggedness of their movement.
It doesn't matter. Does he understand? It doesn't matter any more whether they're given affection or not. Their fate is to rot in a prison, to be cut down, to stab themselves over and over in frantic, desperate attempts to rid themselves of a plague that was placed in them by someone else's hands.
They alone had to make that choice to fight their sibling. It burns them that he thinks he can still dictate such a small thing as holding their hand.
They didn't go through that entire ordeal for him to tell them what to do. ]
no subject
It would be something he would not admit but the Pale King heard that call. A loud thing that echoed across the dreams to reach him in a place that neither the Radiance or the Nightmare King could not find him. Help me. Help me.
...father...?
The Pale King does not react to the angry slashes the Knight makes with their nail. The words are more important. They were the one who answered the Hollow Knight's call. A call that would have likely ended in violence, in the destruction of what was breaking.
Here there was a change that the Pale King could fix what has broken. Made not from the Abyss but he can experiment with what this place provided. An arm replaced, a mask replaced.
He looks back up from reading the words the Knight has presented but does not move. Instead he finally speaks to them.]
An idea instilled...hope, affection.
[Do not. Push it away. Seal it away behind saws, behind spikes and thorns.]
Do not give them...what they cannot have. Do not give them hope.
[The Knight had given the Hollow Knight the gift of death by answering their call. The silence of oblivion. He did not know what happened afterwords.
But if they are still tied to the Radiance then the Hollow Knight cannot feel affection. They will break more under the strain. The Goddess of Dreams would eat away at them more and more, to consume Hallownest and this land.
It would be pure selfishness to offer affection at this stage. There is no going back.]
no subject
Why would they, after all?
But father speaks. He speaks and the words resonate deeply within the Hollow Knight. They're words they've heard before. Many times. Words spoken by their father. Words they carried with them, never once thinking about how heavy the weight really was. Words they repeated to themselves, over and over, to remember what was important.
Do not hope...
They take a step back and lower their head more, no longer even looking at the other two bugs.
Do not think.
Affection was... not for them. It is dangerous. They still have a purpose. Don't... they?
No.
That is not for them to wonder. Father clearly thinks so. That's all that matters.
They can't...
They do their best to block out what they can.]
no subject
They are an empathetic child. They have always reacted at the sight of someone's suffering. They cannot leave it alone, cannot abide the thought--
The way their sibling reacts to such words - that immediate withdrawal, that numb and tired acceptance - twists something up inside them (their heart, such as it is, squeezes painfully). It is an ache, a deep wound.
Their next act is impulsive, done without any particular thought. If they are barred, for this moment, from touching them, then-
They grab the Pale King by the hand (he hadn't said they couldn't touch him) and drag him over to the Hollow Knight for some unknown purpose. Their intention is made immediately clear when, with bad-tempered commitment to their impulse decision, they practically slap his hand down over their sibling's.
They stare defiantly over at him as they hold his hand there. They're not breaking any rules! You're breaking the rules now!! ]
no subject
However he sees where this is going. The Pale King pulls back gently, perhaps under the impression the Knight would understand that it applied to him as well as them that the Hollow Knight should not be touched. Touch implies affection, which implies love.
The Pale King damaged them himself already. It could not happen again.
But that gentle pull is not enough to stop the Knight from forcing his hand to touch the Hollow Knight's and even if he snatches it back like he had been burned and actually felt the pain, the Pale King's mind started breaking down the motions before he could stop it.
In conclusion, they were warm. They were a broken child who was still warm.]
I will not.
[Never again.]
no subject
So focused on it, they don't see their sibling moving again. They don't see them pulling their father along.
They don't realize anything is happening at all. Not until they feel it.
It's only for the briefest moment. But even in that short little window, there is... familiarity... nostalgia... longing...
Father.
They had missed--
But then it's gone again.
It's shaken the Hollow Knight from their thoughts already, of course. And they almost forget that they have to look down, now. Their first instinct after feeling that familiar touch is to look up.
It had been a very, very long time.
The pulling away, the rejection, is not something that should hurt them like it does. They shouldn't care. It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't...
But even with no voice, with no real way to show emotion... When one feels so completely lost, the emotion finds a way to be known. Somehow, it still shows.]
no subject
The words they'd heard as they'd struggled out of the Abyss, the words they had remembered a hundred times in dreams. Not for the first time, they wonder who the words had been for the benefit of.
For their sibling, to teach them about their role? Or for their father, who seemingly needed to remind himself (if that sealed, lost memory was any indication)?
They would be able to detest him more thoroughly if he had shown no emotion at all, if that locked memory had been the last of his feelings. If it had began and ended there.
But he snatches his hand away as if the act of touching had hurt him, rejects it through words, and that -- brings them pain, of a sort. Not that melancholy heartache reserved for their sibling; that is something closer and sadder and more honest, but...
Pity. Yes. They think...they can feel pity for him.
(The child he loved, the child he imprisoned -- done by his own hand. There is something to feel sorry for, in that.)
The Hollow Knight looks so terribly lost. Hurt and lonely. They cannot help but compare it to their own isolation, their own struggles. Unable to understand the world around them, adrift without any connection.
"I will not."
(Their answer to a statement that doesn't ask for it is Then I will.)
It doesn't take more than a few steps to close the distance between them. They reach up and hold onto their sibling's hand; clasping it in both of theirs in a protective, almost defiant gesture.
The contrast between them, their reactions, their growth - success and failure - couldn't be more pronounced.
And yet.
There's longing in it, too, in the way they cling. Not wanting to be lonely, not wanting their sibling to be alone.
Don't go. ]
no subject
The world of bugs was of one mind, of base instincts but it could be so much more. It could shiny brilliantly and thrive if he ruled. So he tore down the Radiance and sealed her away in her own dreams, taking the throne for himself. Hallownest was born from his efforts.
But the Radiance would not remain silenced. In her anger she inflicted a plague upon bugkind and in his desperation, the Pale King turned to the Abyss and the White Queen. He seeped his children into that black water and discarded them when they did not meet his standards. Even the Pale King could not say how long he was in the Abyss, creating and throwing away his failures until he finally, finally created the Hollow Knight.
That, he supposes, was the moment those feelings began to bloom. He personally oversaw their growth and life as closely as he could and grew to know them more then just the Vessel that would hold back the Radiance.
And one day when he was looking over his plans for the Seal, the Pale King asked himself if he truly wanted to go through with this.
(The answer had been no.)
He could not go through with that either, yet could not fight the pain in his heart. And so the Pale King sealed all he felt behind blades, thorns and his Kingmoulds. He put it where he could not go back and retrieve it, gouged a line in stone rather then sand. He withdrew all that he offered the Hollow Knight and kept their relationship distant at best.
But here they both are, in a forest with another Vessel that had somehow survived. What the Knight had intended with forcing the Pale King to touch the Hollow Knight had not gone over his head. He still could not feel but he could still put two-and-two together.
They cannot force something that does not exist, however.
(It does not exist, he tells himself.)
The Pale King folds his hands and merely watches the two Vessels together. It is not out of disapproval or he would say as such...and expect that the tiny Vessel would not listen to him. It is curiosity yet again, to see what they would do now.]