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.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

[pitifulscion]

[Well. He couldn't say he expected that reaction. But it wasn't a terrible course of action; the roots reaching upward made them easier to cut apart in rapid swings of the thin blade in his hand. Combat support was clearly asking just a little much in this situation, even is he was almost sure Karako was some sort of vampire himself.]

[Almost.]

[hurricane_clown]

[A vampire? At his place on the hemospectrum?

No, Karako is a motherfucking clown, and like any clown worth his Faygo, he lands on both feet--thanks in large part to Alucard's swift bladework, if we're being honest.

The part where he has a knife in both hands by the time he lands is all him, though, and so is the part where--thanks again to the part where Alucard has a much longer blade and knows what to do with it--he leaps directly into the mimicry with honks of raw fury, burying one of his knives to the hilt in the mimicry's right eye.]

Honk! HOOONK!!

[pitifulscion]

[...Huh. Well, color him surprised. And highly confused, because Alucard was very sure his dreams rarely took such a turn as all this.]

[But never mind that. So long as this was happening he may as well have rolled with it, lunging forward to plant his sword directly in the mimicry's other eye.]

[hurricane_clown]

[That's probably because his century hasn't invented cold medicine yet.

The good news is that if mimicries have brains, they're probably behind the eyes somewhere, and if they don't, something important is back there, because this one shrieks, splattering blood and ichor and sticky strings of saliva as it spasms its last under their efficient blades.

Karako ends up wearing most of it, because he's small and knives are short. Also, he's still stabbing, and keeps stabbing as it dies, only stopping when the Mimicry is absolutely still--then he looks up, blinking the rage out of his eyes and offering Alucard an appreciative (if confused) smile.

Thank you... uh, whatever you are!]

[pitifulscion]

[excuse you his mother invented penicillin]

...Are you hurt?

[What a surreal dream this turned out to be. Alucard returned his sword to the sheath at his belt, glancing over Karako in something almost resembling uncertainty.]

[Like damn, dude, what even are you.]

[hurricane_clown]

[Good question. He doesn't think so, but just to be sure, he checks himself over, patting at his arms and vital organs as though to make sure they're all still there.

Good news: they are!

No new holes or anything. That's a motherfucking win if Karako's ever had one. He looks back up at Alucard and confirms that he's fine:]

Honk!

[...which is followed by a second, more questioning honk, his head tilted to the side. This guy doesn't look hurt, but he also doesn't look like a troll, so.... really, this honk is a lot of questions all at once.]

Honk?

[pitifulscion]

[Adrian Tepes spoke several languages, many of them lost to time for the average person. 'Honk' was not one of them, and he was half-wondering if Sypha would have known what to do here.]

[(Probably.)]

...My name is Alucard. [He pointed to himself with a gloved hand, with an imperceptibly slight raise of his eyebrow asking about six hundred more questions in turn.]

[hurricane_clown]

[Alucard. Well, at least now he has a name, so he doesn't have to go around thinking about him as "the tall yellow motherfucker."

Not to be confused with the small yellow motherfucker, or the tall white motherfucker. There's also a small brown motherfucker, because absolutely everyone is allergic to giving Karako their motherfucking names. It's a real problem!]

Honk!

[He gives Alucard a big toothy smile before pulling the big pendant off his neck--or rather, pulls it up over his head and weirdly huge horns.

Or rather, tries to do this, because it gets stuck on the horns and then it gets tangled, and--]

Honk--!!

[It's stuck!]

[pitifulscion]

[...yeah, okay, this might as well happen.]

You're liable to break that.

[Sure, let's help the odd little demon-vampire-trombone get the pendant off his horns.]

[hurricane_clown]

[Yes, that's why he's upset about it!

Tat and the fact that having a bunch of string and a heavy pendant all wound up in your horns is pretty inconvenient and pretty embarrassing. Luckily it was mostly just twisted around the one horn, but when your horns are on top of your head and you can't see them, it's hard to untangle that kind of thing.

Once freed, Karako is visibly relieved and Alucard is rewarded with a chance to read the flip side of the pendant, which is inscribed as follows:

KARAKO PIEROT

If lost, call BRONYA URSAMA]

[pitifulscion]

...I see. 'Karako', is it.

[shit just keeps getting weirder, but alucard handed the pendant back all the same.]

I'm afraid I've no idea where this friend of yours might be, however.

[hurricane_clown]

Honk!

[That's okay, it probably would have been weirder if you did.

Karako takes the pendant from Alucard's hands, and even manages to hang it back around his neck without getting it tied up in his horns.

At which point he hesitates, not completely sure what he's supposed to do. This Alucard did help him, though, so--

He thrusts one hand out to shake, sticky with mimicry ichor.]