TEST DRIVE MEME ( 015 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

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:

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. If you're not careful enough, the scribblets will fasten a peculiar tether to you. It looks very much like it is made of the same materials they, resembling a sketchy line of crayon, drawn into the third dimension. Their intent, tonight, is to tie you to something that will make your life difficult - binding you to a tree trunk or to a branch far above the ground, tying your hands together...or even tying you to someone else. These bonds will only grow progressively denser and heavier the more you struggle against them.

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? "Attention," chimes a pitched, automated voice, doubtless issuing from one of the many automatons that have begun to stir awake, one by one. "Potential host sighted. Quarantine breached."

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. While the scenery of the quiet countryside may be ideal, the state of the farm's buildings and and fences is far from it. For the curious creatures such as popo, there really isn't much to keep them in one place for long, wide stretches of fenceline ruined by fallen sections. Meaning that these massive, shaggy creatures can simply step over the crushed regions and start plowing their way contentedly in the direction of the fields of grain - fields that were certainly not intended to end up in some silly beast's stomach.

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.

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Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yeah?

[He pauses mid-step, whipping his head toward the voice and letting the critter toddle off a few more steps. Though it's not seen, those talented in reading blank visors for emotions might be able to get the impression of...scrutinizing. Narrowed eyes.

He knows of the Freelancers. The things he knows are the things Tex had told him (no, wait, that's not quite right, is it?), names and stories, and he'd briefly met a few before he got assigned and she got Omega (no...no that's not what really happened), so he gets the impression of something familiar about her.

But whatever he thinks he recognizes, it passes by as he remembers the animal he's supposed to help corral back to the herd.]

Ah, shit, you wanna give me a hand? Can you make like a lasso or something?

[uptightness]

[There might have been more that Carolina would have said, but at that moment, she turns back towards the creatures, and curses mildly under her breath. That... Is a fair amount of animals he's let wander on his watch.]

Does it look like I have something to make a lasso?

[That mild exasperation in her voice. It's not like she really came prepared to deal with oversized animals. Where's Caboose when you need him, because he'd been able to befriend dinosaurs.

... well, she might have her grappling hook, but she's not entirely certain that it is a good idea.]

I think we need to make the gap bigger to drive them back through. I might be able to use my grappling hook as a tether so that we can gently herd them back.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Wow, put all the blame on him!!!]

I dunno, you're here same as me, maybe you picked up some god damn rope with your fencing supplies. How do you drive cattle, don't you need like...dogs and horses?

I don't think they're listening to me anyway.

[He gingerly pats a lumbering beasty on the flank.] I say this as if I don't recognize I'm trying to talk to a woolly mammoth in the middle of farmland that as far as I know came out of nowhere.

[uptightness]

[Hey. Who's the trained soldier here. Can you feel that look behind her visor? Can you?]

We're not trying to drive them across the prairie. Just back across the fence.

[Right? Common sense, or Carolina sense, says to just start... Heck, she doesn't know. Waving your arms or clapping your hands behind them? Approach them calmly so that they don't stampede them to death?

... push them?]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Why don't we just...this is gonna sound really stupid, but why don't we just move the fence?

I mean! They're gonna stop moving and start eating at some point, or just get tired of walking around. And then we pick up the posts, slap them down wherever they stop, and fix the rest.

[uptightness]

[In all honesty, she was expecting something a lot more stupid than that with how he started. It does make her pause, looking back in the direction that she had come from, and there the fence starts up again.]

That... Might actually work.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[The Reds and Blues are stupid. Nobody is going to contest that. But as individuals? There's potential. And Church will defend to the (even more) death that his plans are good plans, they just never have enough time to BE good plans until it all goes to shit.]

Who's gonna notice? I mean...I mean, wh--why are we even here? I don't reme--[He does? But he doesn't. He definitely agreed to someone at some point, right?] I mean I agreed to watch these fucks. And that's what I'm doing. I'm watching them walk away. We move the fences around a little, hey, someone's got a little more room than they did before.

C'mon, let's grab some supplies. Hopefully these giant hairy eyesores don't go very far.

[uptightness]

We can put it back after they've moved away from it.

[If they do. No point in leaving a job half done or done in a less than professional manner. At least that is Carolina's thinking. She is the type that puts things back where they belong so that she knows exactly where they are the next time that she goes looking for it.]

Give me a few.

[As her supplies had been left further up before she had meandered down towards him. They don't seem to be in a rush to go anywhere, so hopefully nothing spooks them. But, she is efficient, back in a few minutes with the materials that she had.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Sounds like a lot of work. [Not that he's Grif. But also. Grif doesn't always have the worst of ideas.

Like, Church could also go get some supplies. Or. He could just continue to keep an eye on the herd. They're kinda...hm, cute isn't the right word, but they're all right, and he gives a smaller one a scratch. When Carolina returns, there's a fuzzy trunk playing with his helmet.]

Hey--I think they like me!

[uptightness]

No point in leaving things not where they're meant to be...

[A small shake of her head as she moves off, expecting him to do the same with whatever items he had, which is why she is a little surprised that he's still in the same place he'd been before she left.]

Did you even- [But no, no, just let it go.] Then see if they like you enough to follow you, back in to their pasture.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Maybe they like shiny things. Or they just like scritches. Huh? Do you like scritches, boy? Yeah you do. You can't scratch for shit under there.

[And he is, in fact, scritching one of the beasties. And when he moves back a few steps, the creature does seem like it wants to follow him.]

...This is gonna take forever if I do this individually.

[uptightness]

Maybe they'll follow the leader.

[As in the creature he's petting, not him.

But that does seem too easy, doesn't it? Although, they do seem to be herd creatures, not straying too far from each other... Maybe they'll get a break? Carolina's going to wipe that thought away before she jinxes things.]

Just keep walking and doing whatever you're doing.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I'll lead 'em around, you just...do fence things in the meantime? [Which seems like an unfair imbalance of workload. But one that he's a-okay with. He keeps walking back toward the field they're supposed to be watching and working with, occasionally stopping to pet and rub and treat these critters like they're just...like really big dogs or something, and then walking back again.]

Is it just me, or is this whole thing just really stupid?

[uptightness]

[Ya... Why isn't she surprised. Then again, Carolina can get shit done, and would likely get it done faster alone than she would with said partner.

She does work on the fences, moving them outward, and in a bit more make-shift of a design, because yes, she doesn't intend to leave it there but to do it properly once all the shaggy critters are on. Glancing in his direction.]

You'd be surprised the amount of stupid things I've seen...

[All within the last year or so of her life. Heck, just in her 'retirement'.]