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

[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.]

[warpstriking]

Do I even want to know what's on that list beyond what's likely depicted in a long forgotten an dusty painting locked up in a closet somewhere in the Citadel? [If that particular floor is still intact anyway. Also, not weird. He didn't have to know a certain fallen king long to know exactly how on brand that is.]

cw: casual mentions of execution/death

[scourgingstars]

Oh, let's see...

[He made a show of thinking and then of counting off on his fingers as he spoke.]

Hanging, don't care for it. Either it's too sudden or it takes far too long. Burning to death is certainly high on the rankings of most unpleasant ways to spend an afternoon. I'd even put it at second, but I must say crucifixion is easily the worst fate a human body can possibly suffer. Fascinating, really. I'd put what you and the Glacian did somewhere a rank above 'blunt force trauma' but below 'suffocation'.

[This is the face of a sane person.]

[warpstriking]

[He's just silent for a good few minutes before he mutters two words:]

Well, shit. [tHAT IS NOT THE FACE OF A SANE PERSON; NO LIE.]

[scourgingstars]

An astonishingly eloquent summary, Your Majesty!

[ardyn, normal people don't talk about their horrific trauma with such a chipper voice.]

[warpstriking]

Most people don't talk about their trauma so cheerfully. Just saying.

[scourgingstars]

Most people haven't two thousand years of madness to contend with.

[warpstriking]

Fair enough.

[Well, he had to give him that one.]

[Ardyn: 7 | Noctis: 0]

[scourgingstars]

[that's okay noct we all know you'll win when it counts.]

So. Welcome to the charming little extradimensional archipelago that has formed my current personal hell.

[warpstriking]

[W o w. He just got burned and he has <10 years before Ifrit will. Just. W O W.] At least it's roomier than what you probably had back home.

[...Listen. He's not heartless, like he could argue a certain someone is.]

[scourgingstars]

...Meaning what.

[do you want to fight, noct]

[warpstriking]

Just saying you have plenty of things for target practice down there.

[nah, he'll pass old timer.]

[scourgingstars]

[that's what the fuck he thought]

Really, now. Do you think I'm just running about killing things out of sheer boredom?

[warpstriking]

No, though you did have one very persistent admirer.

[He's going to take that mental image of Ardyn getting almost nommed by a giant bush to the throne.]

[scourgingstars]

I don't know if you've noticed, but the wildlife here is a constant annoyance at its best.

[warpstriking]

That's an understatement. [And not even the one of the century! Someone's aiming so low there, and his name is Ardyn.]

[scourgingstars]

Oh, these are hardly so bad by comparison. You should see half the other nonsense we've dealt with in the past-...year or so? Certainly sounds right, but heavens know I'm not one to keep track of time.

[warpstriking]

Not about this sort of thing, anyway. [He makes a face at his ancient uncle. Really. Are you seriously baiting him?

Screw it, he'll poke at the bait.]Hm, do I really want to know, or are you just going to pull my leg again.

[Repeatedly. While it's caught within a bear trap. By the attached chain.]

[scourgingstars]

Well- [oh no] There's always the subterranean crystal golems shambling about in the cave systems, looking to create more of their kind at merely a touch. Or the concentrated gravisphere out in the wilderness for no apparent reason. Or perhaps you'd like to know about the terrible monsters that appeared in the few days the sun went out--not my doing this time, mind you--and vanished with its return.

It is not, shall we say, the safest of worlds.

[warpstriking]

[Ardyn Lucis Caelum—

No, really. He can't believe that actually worked.]

Wow. Not taking the blame for daylight vanishing? Pinch me; I'm actually still dreaming.

[Yes, he realizes the irony. He knows this is a dream and he could just as easily wake up back inside the Crystal. Shh.]

And you're telling me all this because...?

[scourgingstars]

Oh, I actually quite enjoyed the break from all this tropical sunlight. Hurts my eyes something terribly, I must admit. But no, that one had nothing to do with me.

[A shrug.]

And I'm informing you because I quite simply don't care, Your Majesty. Secrecy is of no consequence to me now, and I've nothing to lose by not bothering with the lies of omission.

[warpstriking]

Get some sunglasses, then. Or ask for some.

[A shrug back. Though he's not quite sure what to make out of that other than, well. He blinks back the surprise written all over his face.]

It's finally over for you.

[Back on Eos, that is.]