TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

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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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

[witty pun about mimics here]

[scourgingstars]

Get off, I am nowhere near in the mood for this—

[Well, someone didn’t seem to care all that much for the risk of using fire in the jungle. Ardyn was having trouble with a carnivorous bush of his own, or he was until he called up a small burst of flames with a snap of his fingers. Meh, too low-level a Fire spell to damage much. Probably.]

[Looking thoroughly inconvenienced in a way very unlike him, Ardyn straightened out his hat and dusted off his coat, frowning at the scorched ground where the mimicry had been.]

[...Weird, he could have sworn he heard someone familiar just now.]

[annoyed response that includes another witty pun about mimics here]

[warpstriking]

That makes two of us— [Wait, what? He knows that voice. It would be hard not to, with how much of a thorn in his side makes you wiggle and writhe he’d been. His eyes narrow at the glimpse of a fire spell not far off; likely just further down the path.

Just as he feels vines wrap around his ankles. Screw potential forest fires.] Get. Off—

[Well, that sure is another weak fire spell to join yours, Ardyn. How does that make you feel? Because he may or may not be highly irritated.]

[scourgingstars]

[as a matter of fact he doesn’t like it!]

[But once he was reasonably out of range of the creeping vines, Ardyn tossed a dagger into the nearest tree and moved from ground to branch in a trail of magenta sparks. Surely he hadn’t just heard who he thought he did, right?]

[warpstriking]

[Then, again, makes two of them!!

Noctis follows suit with his sword, noting the magenta sparks going in one direction and leaving blue going the other. Surprise, Uncle. It wasn't the wind. As though it were much of a surprise with the particular fire spell that still left embers in its wake.]

[scourgingstars]

Oh, spectacular. As though I needed things going from bad to worse.

[...He certainly seemed a little more irritable than usual, gods only knew what was up with that.]

[warpstriking]

Was about to say: throw in some giant bugs, then it'd be worse.

[That is interesting, though; if he took a few moments to focus on that rather than, well, shit. Of course it would be Ardyn he comes across in a creepy forest. That parsed for just about everything else.]

Nice eyes on that tree of yours.

[scourgingstars]

Oh, don't tell me the Chosen King is afraid of bugs.

[Ardyn rolled his eyes and sat down on the branch he'd warped to, mindful to stay out of Noctis' immediate reach for presumably obvious reasons.]

[Behold, for Ardyn's entire demeanor is that of a man who left the window open specifically for every last fuck to fly the coop.]

Life is indeed a long series of inconveniences, if I'm to run into you actually by chance for once.

[warpstriking]

Nah. Pretty sure someone else has the market covered on that one.

[And heights, and cramped places, probably saws and monkey wrenches now; thanks.

Presumably obvious reasons notwithstanding, he's perfectly fine staying out of reach of a certain ancient family member as well. Alas, his field of damns were still not ready for harvest. Try next year.]

Guess that's just your luck, then. [Or his. Or both of theirs, really. But, again, look at this barren field of damns.]

[scourgingstars]

How terribly unfortunate.

[he hates everything more than usual today]

So do humor me--just where on the timeline might you be? It's so very hard to keep up, you see.

[warpstriking]

[He blinks at the question, and not-so-subtly flips him the bird. before warping slightly higher in the tree and sitting on that branch.]

And yet you did so well earlier.

[Why the hell did Ardyn think he'd tell him?]

[scourgingstars]

Don't make me cut that branch down, nephew dear.

[yeah we're just. real sick and tired of everything lately, aren't we.]

[warpstriking]

That implies being able to keep up, Ardyn. Or is it uncle Ardyn now?

[Well, enjoy your hint. There are!! plenty of names he could go with!! But Ardyn's the one who started with the familial ones, so why the hell not?]

[scourgingstars]

[The reaction and lack of questioning what in the hell Ardyn was on about did, at least, narrow it down quite a bit.]

It's quite a bold claim to presume age has slowed me down, you realize.

[warpstriking]

[Look he got to sit through both a Certain Someone's little tale and then Bahamut's. It's been a day. (Week? Month? Who the hell knows in that crystal.]

You were the one complaining about it earlier. [Different reason for it, but still.]

[scourgingstars]

I'd call that informing, really.

[Ardyn tilted his head, almost looking amused.]

...Do tell me, how is the Draconian these days? I'm afraid he's never returned my calls. I wonder if he lost my number.

[warpstriking]

[WELL, IF HE WASN'T SEETHING BEFORE...]

Huh. Told me he blocked yours. Thought about a restraining order, but don't let me get in the way of your little spat.

[Except he's totally expected to. Sigh.]

[scourgingstars]

Ah, typical. Always getting someone else to do his work for him.

[warpstriking]

Really does just like floating there, dropping others like hot potatoes, doesn't he?

[scourgingstars]

They all excel at that. You've finally noticed?

[warpstriking]

I don't know. The Glacian excelled far better at turning a certain someone into a daemonized ice statue.

[scourgingstars]

Yes, and then she gave you an excessively long lecture while dropping Solheim History 101 directly in your lap. Regrettably, I was very conscious for that part.

[warpstriking]

Aaand now I have no regrets about shattering that statue. Again.

[scourgingstars]

You were starting to have regrets? [Ardyn pressed a hand to where a heart should probably have been, mockingly flattered.] Oh, I'm so touched.

[warpstriking]

About shattering you? Nah. [Please fall out of your little perch, elder cat. It'll be amusing.]

[scourgingstars]

Oh, just as well. Being flash-frozen and shattered was a new one. I keep a list, you know.

[Weird how Ardyn could sound like he was joking and entirely serious at the same time.]