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

Castor Westmoore | Final Fantasy XIV | A Warrior of Light.

[littlemhigan]

s h a d e s

It... No. It can't be.

Castor is, for once in her life, stock still, watching in rapt fascination as the Shade in front of her gestures animatedly. Her eyes, glassy with unshed tears, wander from the base of his feet, to his brilliant face a full fulm above her own head. She marks the dark green and gold colour of his mail, and the bright blue-silver of his hair.

"You're dead," she whispers, not trusting her voice to rise any louder. "I watched ye. I saw ye... Haurchefant..."

'Come now,' the ghost of a man whispers, reaching to put a hand on her shoulder, 'there's no need for tears -!'

Castor recoils from his touch and takes a step back. Her face is growing angry, but her breaths are not so even, and her knuckles are white as she wills her hands into fists so they don't shake. "Fury's tits!" She spins on her heel to face away, but can't bring herself to start walking yet. The man steps to close the gap, and rests his hands back on her shoulder and - oh, they're warm. A long moment passes before she brings her hands up to rest over his...and slowly pushes them off.

"Leave me be," she whispers, "please."




r a i n b o w s

"Twelve keep me!" Castor is already calf-deep in the water when she spots the rainbow moving beneath the waves. For a moment, the sight of it completely overrides her sense of panic at the otherwise unfamiliar beach and the strangers upon it. "Do ye see this?!" Is she talking to you? Probably. The wonder on her face is almost childlike; completely enraptured by the sight of the underwater aurora. "What's causin' it?"




w i l d c a r d

[surprise me.]

raaaaaainbows

[thegoofball]

The beach is beautiful - all beaches are beautiful - but the kaleidoshells make the beach and the water even more extravagant. Lance missed the little guys (or not so little guys, in some cases) and he's glad to see them back.

Also, hello, stranger. "It's those weird turtles - their shells are reflective." He squints out over the sea. "Pretty cool, right?"

[littlemhigan]

"Eh? S' critters doin' that huh?" Castor pushes up onto her tiptoes trying to see better, but they're all a ways out still. "Aye! I've never seen a thing like it. I don't...what sea is this?"

Because she was in Doma before and this is absolutely not Doma and she's trying very hard not to think about it.

[thegoofball]

"Yeah. Don't know what they're called, but they're beautiful." Especially from a distance, when the colors just blend together like this. Lance tilts his head, turning his face into the ocean breeze. "I don't know if there's a name for the sea, but this is...Mu? Something like that."

It's a weird dreamscape. But it's nice!

[littlemhigan]

"How does a sea not have a name?" She asks, barely able to tear her eyes away from the sight. "How're ye te know where ye are? Or where ye've been? Ye'd think a sea with a show like that'd be known far and wide!"

[thegoofball]

"I don't know!" Even though that's...a really good question. Hmm. "It might have a name, but nobody's told me it! The islands are more important than the sea, anyways."

[littlemhigan]

"I guess it's not like te be on a map, huh? Is there a map? Or anywhere te chart a ship, for that matter; this ain't where I fell asleep and I need te get back..."

Reality is beginning to set in for her - this isn't anywhere immediately recognizable in Othard, this certainly isn't anywhere near Gyr Abania, and there isn't an Aytherite in sight.

[thegoofball]

"There...might be? Someone might have made a map, but I don't think we exactly have any cartographers running around." Lance certainly doesn't know how to chart anything. He knows how to navigate, sure, but that's a different thing entirely.

He scratches the back of his neck, giving her an apologetic look. "You're pretty far from home, and there's not a lot of control over when you'll get back. Sorry."

[littlemhigan]

Much of the levity leaves her all of a sudden, as Lance's words sink in. "Come again," she asks around a growing lump in her throat, "What de ye mean 'not a lot of control.' De ye not have Aetherytes about?"

[thegoofball]

"What?" He has no idea what that word she just said is. "I mean, there are the mana pools, but they only take you between the islands. Getting home is...pretty impossible."

Shades

[thermalwind]

"The only way to make them go away is to endure and ignore them." A lantern's light cuts through the shadows and hides the face of the man holding it. He lowers it. His features are all hard lined and sharp. His eyes telegraph someone who had been through life's grinder and came out the other side damaged. His dark hair does little to dull of the fierce gaze now fixed on her.

"They're crafted from memories of loved ones. They try to lure people to their deaths." He adds as a massive blue wolf rises up out of the brushes and sits at his side. He clips the still glowing lantern of glowing fluid to his belt. "Welcome to the dreamlike realm called Mu. I'm Keith. It sucks here at times but you won't be alone."

[littlemhigan]

She looks at Keith like a drowning man might look at land; and she trots over without a second's hesitation, ignoring the pleas of the m--the ghost behind her. "How long? How long 'till he pisses off back te The Fury's halls? I don't....how do we get out've here?"

[thermalwind]

He's seen people greatly affected by the shades. It makes his hands curl into fists every time. How dare this land mess with people like this. His wolf rises to his feet and studies her with his unblinking stare.

"We can lose him. You can always ditch a shade if you know how. Touch my friend, and he can port you away. We can follow some trails I know."

[littlemhigan]

Castor hesitates a moment, studying the wolf as it studies her, but that hesitation gives her shade - the tall man with silver hair and large ears and a larger smile - the moment it needs to close the distance between them again, and it takes her hand with a surprising tenderness.

She pulls away before he can speak more sweet words to her, drawing her hands in close and staring back at him. Emotions war on her face, still - hurt and love and grief and joy all tied together and conflicting.

"Ye should rest," she whispers, taking another step towards Keith and his wolf, one hand reaching to make contact with fur. "Ye earned it."

[thermalwind]

Her words pull at his heart. It doesn't take a smart man to realize what it means. Whoever she's seeing either died or has suffered a great deal. Keith stays still as her hand makes contact with Kosmo's fur. The pair vanishes before his eyes as he turns and runs. He cuts a path to the left to circle around to where the wolf took her.

There's an obvious rustle in the bushes to announce his approach. He comes part way out of the shadows and beckons to her. "This way. There's a back trail. We'll circle around and keep going north."

Keith shuts off the lantern. They'd rely on the moon and his own knowledge. "Mu turns things around but I've been scouting this copy of Enso island."

[littlemhigan]

To her credit, Castor hadn't yelped at the sudden teleportation, but Keith will find her leaning against a nearby tree, one hand on her chest to calm her breathing and the other still tangled up in Kosmo's fur like she's using him as a lifeline.

She says nothing at his approach but stares for a few seconds like she's mentally debating following the strange boy further, but eventually peels herself off the tree with a deep breath and stalks after him as quietly as she can manage.

"What's Mu?" she asks, keeping her voice low. "Where are we?"

[thermalwind]

"Mu is a dream like world that's between realities. It reflects the events of the reality I'm in. I'm here in my dreams but you're probably here physically." He keeps his voice low as he opens himself to his other senses. Compared to pitch black things aren't quite so dark here. Kosmo takes up the rear as he leads the way past the forest's edge to curve around to a temple.

He recognizes the familiar three walls that might as well be two and a half partly covered by vines. The sounds of the sea flow in as he mounts the steps and slips into the entrance.

Just like the real thing a calm steals over him. He finds a good spot on the floor and sits down. "We had shades of people we cared about a few weeks back. They tried to get us to go to places that were dangerous. Eventually, they just went away."