aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

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*test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

Test Drive Meme #17

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 November 17th, and Applications on November 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.

Is Anyone There?
What initially promises to be a relaxing island getaway is anything but. The tropical backdrop is all there - swaying palms, crystalline shores, white sand beaches, the whole hog. It's as idyllic as Ensō ever gets in the real world, the waters sparkling just that much more with a polish of dream-shine.

The real problem here is that you're not alone.

While they might be little more than a misted, formless shape at first, they'll rapidly take a more solid form as time goes on: a specter of a single person of great emotional significance. Whoever you might be seeing, they're here to rouse some aspect of your life that was not fully resolved. Someone you did not mourn, someone you did not grieve, someone you loved, someone you cut ties with unkindly, someone who represents a chapter in your life that you have thus far sought to repress.

Tailing you relentlessly, refusing to be ignored or brushed aside or forgotten, this specter is hungry for your attention to the exclusion of all else. They will bring every painful association to light and rub those wounds raw, to a terrifyingly parasitic extent. They crave your attention, your love, your devotion, your fear. They are tethered to you, and cannot tolerate the thought that you might pay attention to anyone or anything else.

However they might have been in life, however fondly or not you may remember them, this shadow of them is merely that: a shadow. Desperate for your attention, and likely to grow jealous if you dare direct it anywhere else. They can't live without you. Why should you get to live without them?

In fact...why should you get to live at all? If you don't give them the attention they crave, they might start to demand it a shade more vigorously. They're only going to grow more solid as time wears on - and while no one but you can see them, they have the power to affect you very physically if they so choose.

Choose Your Own Adventure
What you have before you, dear traveler, is a very linear path forward. Deep, tropical woodland, jungle-like in texture and evening-dark, and a well-trodden path that stretches onward in a seemingly infinite, winding road. There is no way to go but backwards or forwards. Or, for the particularly brave...well, you could try moving off the beaten path, but we wouldn't recommend it. As it happens, the surrounding vegetation in this area is mostly comprised of a very irritating sort of foe.

As it happens, most traditional mimics take the form of wooden chests to befuddle and then snack upon any intrepid explorers foolish enough to open a container without checking for teeth first. Such is not always the case, however!

Mimicries are what we will tentatively dub...distant cousins of your more conventional mimic. In the waking world, most of them prefer to assume the form of bushes, waiting for an unsuspecting traveler to tread upon the roots that will then snap around their ankles and reel them in, leaves parting to reveal a row of very nasty, very pointed jaws. Tonight, on Mu, their aptitude at blending into the vegetation to prey on the absent-minded explorer is out in full force.

While mimicries are very skilled at impersonating their surroundings, there are plenty of holes in their disguise for those keen of eye. An alert enough traveler may glimpse a pair of yellow, reptilian eyes blinking out from the vegetation before they fade just as fast. Mimicries are highly hostile, prone to attacking once they feel you've drawn close enough for them to take a good chomp, and don't tend to let go of their prey until either it is dead or they are. Armed with spiny teeth and a terrier-like refusal of relinquish their grip under any circumstances, mimicries can vary from genuine danger to outright irritant.

The good news is that, despite their number, mimicries are terribly vulnerable to fire. Happy hunting!

Caught in the Rainbow Current
On the more peaceful side of things, you're also liable to wake on a much quieter island destination - and this time, neither ghosts from your past nor RPG-styled foes will be there to spoil your stay!

Instead, you can take heart in the drifting, multicolored lights that shimmer off the seafoam and flotsam. A bale of kaleidoshells are passing through this region, and they're certainly taking their time in doing so. Resembling a cross between turtles and dugongs, kaleidoshells are so named for their distinctive radiance. Their scales and rainbow-colored shells can get as large as six feet across. The shifting colors on their backs are both bright and reflective. A vast enough number of kaleidoshells can allow for the illusion of an underwater aurora borealis, which is precisely what is occurring now.

Kaleidoshells are placid and peaceable creatures by nature in addition to being unfailingly pretty to look at. As they are largely sea-dwelling, their presence in the archipelago is usually seasonal. However, despite the autumn season, Mu has elected to make an exception. Kaleidoshells are particularly slow and unwieldy on land, and thus not much of a threat, but you're probably better off not trying to poach their eggs. They do, however, make a very fine sight around the waters of Mu, especially in this artificial evening. Luminescent, their rainbow patterns glow underwater with the dim pulse of drifting mood lights.

So relax, take in the sights...or wade in to swim alongside them, if you like. They won't mind the company, and there's something singularly enchanting about getting to swim in the tide of a rainbow.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He hadn't exactly expected Yeager to be moderately helpful.

Sure, he's effectively talking about nothing, and Alexei is reasonably sure he's doing it for the sake of keeping him from snapping entirely while they're alone in a secluded area, but at the same time there are a lot of ways this could have gone - either through Yeager refusing to talk or just starting in on him too, it's a vulnerable request and he hates it for that, but just the same he's not going to argue with Yeager being strangely cooperative today.

What he's being told is easy to follow - obnoxious, surely, but "easy to follow" is probably the important part; it isn't distracting enough to keep his attention off of where they're going, just enough to keep Schwann's voice out. Not that it seems to be deterring him any; occasionally there are still things he's aware of, things that are being said that dig at him -

"I did everything you asked, didn't I? I've always done everything you asked."
"You've changed. I understand why, but I don't know if you even realize it."
"Everything you've refused to let go of... Was it worth it?"
"Was it really?"

This time when Schwann grabs for him, he isn't easily shrugged off.

His grip on Alexei's wrist is strong, biting into him even through the fabric; it doesn't hurt but it's something he can't precisely ignore, and when Schwann pulls back on him it's enough to get him to turn almost involuntarily.

"Alexei. Look at me. ...Please."

It's that final word that does it, and he's vaguely aware that Yeager is...probably somewhere but Yeager doesn't really matter anymore, not for the time being. Schwann is here and not letting go of him and this isn't really a confrontation that Alexei needs to be having right now, not after everything -

Schwann's words are quiet, but they sting.

"You didn't want to let us go, did you? We were all you had left of your dreams. So you made sure that we would stay with you.
I'm not leaving you. I won't ever leave you again. We can keep your dreams alive, no matter what it takes. Isn't that what you want?
I want what you want. The dead don't have dreams of their own anymore."

And that's when Alexei draws his sword; there's not enough room between them to do so normally but Alexei tends to hold it underhand anyway, and if he does it that way there's just enough space to press the blade up against Schwann's throat.]

Let. Go. Of me.

[It's cold, the sort of tone absolutely reserved for an order, and... The amount of threatening what's visibly nothing is likely disconcerting but he can't really say he cares right now.]

[Yeager's content to keep going - he figures he'll either eventually run out of things to say (not likely) or Alexei will finally snap and honestly, he can't really say he cares all that much if that ends up being the outcome.

That certainly is what happens when Alexei speaks up, and Yeager turns to glance back at the Commandant. There's still nothing there - no enemy, no Schwann, nothing.

He's not content to watch without commentary for long, however.]

Are you going to kill him?

[Alexei's crazy and all, but he's actually curious if Alexei would try it. If Schwann was really here and irritating Alexei this badly (and... grabbing him, apparently?) would Alexei kill him? Schwann isn't exactly working for Alexei anymore, after all...]

[He doesn't say anything immediately; his breathing is rough, and he doesn't know when it got that way, and for a long moment he tries to regulate it and calm himself down. It doesn't work.]

Tools that would turn on their master have no reason to be kept.

[It's difficult to say who he's addressing - whether he's responding to Yeager or giving Schwann one last chance to step off. It doesn't particularly matter, maybe; he's not lowering the blade either way.]

[Yeager's certainly noticed that Alexei isn't handling this very well, but he doesn't draw attention to it. He tips his head a bit at the words - maybe to indicate that he's heard, maybe in consideration - before he speaks up again.]

I don't know why you're hesitating, then.

[There isn't anything behind the words, they're perhaps surprisingly blank coming from him. He's still sort of smirking, because that's just what he does with his face. The usual level of cheer is completely gone.]

[There are plenty of responses to give to something like that, all rooted in procedure and the general trappings of formality that the Empire tends to mire itself in - the first to spring to mind is that killing Schwann now would be an execution rather than a necessity, something done in the interest of personal satisfaction as opposed to furthering the pursuit of an ideal for the greater good. One can't always have what they want, and while being Commandant has rendered him a lot of things over the years, an executioner isn't one of them.

But it's not an argument he can make in front of Yeager and expect him to understand, and so ultimately he doesn't.]

This isn't real.

[The words are difficult, but they feel right enough.]

I'm aware that nothing about this is real.

Of course it isn't.

[The answer is prompt, easy.]

Don't go thinking I'm a figment of your imagination as well, though! Then again, I doubt your brain would conjure up me of all people, unless you're feeling particularly masochistic, I suppose.

[He is very aware that he is the world's most annoying man.]

Of course you're not.

[And that's just as immediate, really.]

I've been aware of that since I first came across you.

Oh good. I wouldn't want you to start threatening me with the sword!

[That you're... holding underhand, for some reason.]

[His kneejerk response is to tell Yeager that that can be arranged if he keeps up the commentary.

He refrains from saying that. It takes effort.]

You haven't given me a reason. Yet.

[...What he comes up with isn't much better.]

Oh, of course. It's probably only a matter of time!

[Once again, world's most annoying man.

Anyway, he shrugs at that, clearly not bothered by it at all. He does incline his head a bit after a moment though, in the direction of where Alexei is presumably seeing Schwann.]

Do plan on continuing to threaten him, or shall we keep moving?

[For a good moment he doesn't move; eventually, however, the blade lowers, and he'll wrench his wrist away from Schwann's grasp.]

We shouldn't stay in one place for too long.

[Yeager nods at that, and resumes walking. Maybe he should be a bit more concerned about turning his back to Alexei, especially now that he's apparently even crazier than he already was, but it's not like Yeager's really all that concerned. If he gets stabbed, then whatever. That's just how things go sometimes, apparently.

Besides, as Alexei said, none of this is real.

Anyway, they're still being followed, but if whatever monsters are out there didn't attack while they were preoccupied, then they're probably fine for now. Venturing off the path might anger them, but the path is clear and there isn't really any reason to go wandering the jungle, so it's fine for now.]

[...He isn't sheathing the sword, but at least the imminent threat of being stabbed seems to be keeping Schwann back. Or maybe it's just the knowledge that he's pissed Alexei off enough to make him consider stabbing him; it's hard to say, really. Either way, Alexei is preoccupied with him, so that's surely a net win in some way or another.

Anyway.]

...The monsters here seem relatively docile. I was around some of them earlier with no real problems.

[Again, he was in the water with some of them and managed to keep both legs. Somehow.]

It's certainly surprising, but I'm not complaining! Not that I think anything we'd find would be any more than an annoyance at best, but it's nice not to have to fight every few minutes.

[seriously, making the trip to dahngest is suffering]

Not to be a bore, but I'll save judgement on how much of a threat they are until they decide to actually fight us.

[For all he knows these things could absolutely rip us apart, they're just intelligent enough not to until they know for a fact that they can.

...The turtles were pretty, though.]

Yes, yes, I suppose some caution doesn't hurt. Still, if they are that strong, they should be fun to fight!

[Priorities!]

[...

You know what? Yeah, actually.]

Oh, absolutely.

[That gets him to glance over his shoulder for a moment before laughing.]

And here I thought you didn't know how to have fun!

[Ehh, he's not really surprised to hear that? He's pretty sure most people don't find him terribly engaging; authoritative, yes, but engaging is another matter.]

I don't happen to prioritize it, that's all.

That's certainly not surprising. When was the last time you did anything for fun, anyway? When you were a child? Or were you just as serious then as you are now?

[It's not exactly pleasant teasing, but it's not pointed either.]

[For what it's worth, it doesn't get him to close off entirely again; of course, he isn't sure what to do with it, seeing as it's not as though anyone ever really interacts with him like this - when...was the last time anyone talked to him like this, anyway? - but he seems able to dismiss it in some way, at least.]

...I've been told that I was apparently more of a small adult than a child, which I assume is a polite way of calling me overly serious.

I'd be surprised if you had been a normal child! "Overly serious" is exactly what I was assuming. You could stand to lighten up a little, ja?

[But have you considered: no.]

I do have responsibilities that can't simply be ignored.

Of course, but I'm not telling you to ignore them, just loosen up a little! It really isn't all that difficult, I promise~!

It's hardly any concern of yours, anyway.

[For...several reasons?? For several reasons.]

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