aftr_ooc | 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.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Futaba?

[ forget the beach, forget the fish. futaba is here. ann runs up to her and immediately wraps her arms around her friend. ]

Futaba! You're here! [ she missed her small tech gremlin friend so, so much. ]

Ah-!

[ Her gut instinct is to panic because don't scare a girl like that but thankfully it takes all of like two seconds to realize who it is. ... still kind of leaves her mentally reeling otherwise, though. ]

Ann-! You're squishing my spleen!

Sorry, sorry! [ she pulls away, but she's grinning cheekily. her eyes are a little teary, too. ]

It's been so long... I'm just so glad you're here.

[ well. not glad she was dragged here against her will. ]

[ Okay. Okay. Taking a second to breathe. And take stock. And... a... long time? But. Hm. The oddly misty sort of feeling to the world around her is making it hard to pin all the pieces down and together, but something about that feels... weird?

Easier question then. ]

Y-yeah... just, uh... where exactly is here?

This island specifically's called Mu.

[ yep. that's right futaba, there's an entire chain of them. welcome. ] It's one we only just discovered, so I don't really know a whole lot about it yet.

[ ... ] I've been here for at least three months, now. And I've missed you guys so much.

[ This is admittedly helping in sharpening her thoughts a bit. In retrospect she's not sure if that's a good thing, because now she's got a sharp pit of anxiety in her stomach, thinking about what she'd last remembered before... falling asleep, apparently? ]

Whoa, wait, back up. Three months? But... what about the rest of us? The plan?

[ She's... pretty sure she would have noticed if Ann was gone. Especially that long. That was almost longer than she even knew Ann anyway. This... what???

Well, at least they're at the same point, relatively speaking. ]

I know. Confusing, right?

[ yet she sounds so casual about it? like she was expecting this kind of reaction from futaba. ]

When we get pulled here, it's as if no time's passed back at home. None of you knew I left. I don't even think I remembered being here when I went back home.

[ ... ] Akechi was here for a little while, too. And Akira came and left before I arrived.

[ There's. Hm. There's a few seconds as she just. Stops and parses that. Picks it apart to try to get whatever from it that she can. And it's... she gets what she can? But so much of it just plain... sounds like something out of a game or an anime or something.

Akechi's name makes her face darken like a thundercloud. Softens again when she hears Akira's. ]

Well that's.... a lot? [ There's a lot she could ask. A lot of those questions aren't ones that Ann can probably answer. A lot of them probably aren't even relevant yet. ] There's... no easy way back, is there?

Not that we know of.

[ her voice is serious. they've been through so much here, and she's still one of the "newbies". but she hasn't given up hope. if anything, returning back home has only given her more of it. she's determined to stay strong--for futaba, if she winds up here--for the others she's met. ann may be one of the younger ones here...but she's no less capable than everyone else.

speaking of returning home... ]

But there's gotta be a way, because somehow, I got transported back home for a few days. It wasn't too long ago. And... [ wait. if futaba isn't from the same time period as her... ]

What's the last thing you remember from before you came here, Futaba?

[ The look she gives Ann is nonplussed, and yet... she can feel a certain gravity to the question. She can tell it's a serious one. Maybe not the best one to blow off. So instead she sets her shoulders. ]

The news announcement. [ What else? ] The one we knew they'd make. Have to make sure the public knows the Phantom Thieves aren't a threat anymore, right?

[ The mix of feelings in her voice is... complex. She'd been checking. She'd been checking the location of Ren's phone, finding out where it was - he was. If everything had worked as it should. The plan seemed to have worked, and she'd been making sure that the final piece - the most important one - was safe and on its way to where it was supposed to be.

Not a moment she was thrilled to have been taken during. ]

[ thank god. so she and futaba are from the same timeline. there's no spoiling her for her future or vice versa. ann breathes a sigh of relief and nods. ]

Yeah, same here. It was the last thing that happened before I blanked out and wound up here again.

[ she'd also really, really like to have seen akira once more before winding up here again to just confirm that he made it out in one piece--but if there's anything that being here taught her, it's how to carry on in the face of hopelessness. she has faith that akira's okay. ]

I'm pretty sure we're in some kind of dream right now; it feels like we're in the dreamscape. But if you wake up and you're here, I'll find you. Promise.

[ Huh. That has a lot more straightforward things to pick up on. ]

And... where's here? One of the other islands?

[ She said this one was called Mu. She also said they were in the dreamscape (something like the Metaverse, maybe?). So either Mu and the dreamscape were synonymous, or it'd be somewhere were the border was thin, maybe? Or maybe Ann would clarify.

Though damn, that meant Ann didn't know if Akira was okay either. It was something Ann had made her peace with, as much as one could. But Futaba was... nowhere near that point yet. Especially with Akira, probably the person she trusted most in the world right now. ]

Yeah, the real thing. Not everyone who experiences these dreams ends up on the islands, for some reason. Don't ask me why.

[ there's probably a reason. she just has no idea what it is. ]

Anyway, I know you have a lot of questions, but it's seriously been a while since I saw you last, Futaba. And I miss you guys so much.

[ So... probably not the best time to ask them, huh? She's... she's not the best at social things. Definitely no Akira. But she can get hints like that. ]

Y-yeah... [ What... should she do? ] So.... now what?

[ Continue turtle-watching maybe? She doesn't know. She really doesn't. ]

Well...

[ turtle-watching doesn't sound so bad. ] Why don't we just hang out here? Maybe I can answer any questions you have, or I can tell you about the other people here.

There's a lot of great people here. They've helped me out a ton.

Okay.

[ And so she just... lowers herself to sit on the ground, not sure what else to do if they're just going to hang out. Not... really certain about herself in a lot of ways. But Ann's here. They'll figure stuff out? Or at least chill out, she supposes. ]

Who else?

[ Who are these others? She knows it can't be any of them, since Ann had already mentioned Akechi and Akira. ]

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

double rainbow

Re: double rainbow

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p5 spoilers ahead!

so many spoilers

SO MANY!

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