aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

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*test drive meme

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

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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.]

I'm not asking the worthless deity in charge of this realm for anything more than necessary. I'm nowhere near that stupid.

[once bitten, twice 'fuck gods'.]

...It is.

(ooc: I'm still waiting to see just how poorly the new expansion set up goes. She agrees wholeheartedly on the 'fuck gods' mindset tho.)

Suit yourself. [Does Noctis blame him? No, and as much as he hates the man across from him; as tempting as it is for him to continue snarking back and forth.]

I'm sorry, then. Hoped you'd be able to rest in peace this time. [And he means it. Ages of being enslaved to the dark because of his calling... alone. Y i k e s.]

...You said as much, yes.

[Ardyn frowned, yellow eyes narrowing sharply at Noctis.]

Why.

[Does it surprise him that he'll say the same in the future? Not really. He stares back, unflinching. Does there need to be a reason? He'll die trying to free him from his curse and save their Star. For him to end up here.]

I hate you for what you've done to our world and so many within it. What will await when I wake up to finish this. [He sighs.] But no one goes around and takes even a "tiny" menace upon themselves because they're told to by unforgiving gods. There had to be some good in you once, Your Highness.

[...]

Is that meant to be a joke? I don't take very well to mockery, Your Majesty.

[Even after so long on the islands, Ardyn still had no ability to comprehend something as impossible as 'compassion without an ulterior motive'.]

If such a thing existed, it's long since ceased to. It no longer matters. [Even if, in more recent days, part of him had almost begun to want it to.] That healer died in darkness, and this is all that remains.

Edited (redundant at shit o clock am) 2018-11-19 06:24 (UTC)

No, it isn't. You've been in the dark too long, uncle.

[Poor, poor Ardyn. He almost feels pity for you.]

Yet you took the time to warn me. Again. Without any ulterior motive this time. [None that he could see.] Well, except maybe so I wouldn't kill you.

...And yet you're still enough of an idiot to think that I care at all about living. I thought you smarter than that, Noct. But you still don't understand at all, do you?

This was never about winning or losing. Darkness would have fallen regardless of what I did myself. Yes, obviously I wanted vengeance, but I think I always realistically knew it was preordained that I was hardly going to be the last Lucian standing.

No, it was only ever about the ending, and burning down everything on the way there just because that was what the world and my brother deserved. His line in ashes, the world in ruins, and me finally getting what I wanted. A Chosen King who could despise the vessel of darkness so much as to finally kill me.

I only ever had one ulterior motive, and that was your sword in my chest.

Well, I am twenty.

[How many men his age does he think has their shit entirely together? He shakes his head.]

Why else goad me to the point any time I saw your smug face, my vision went red. Neither of us will be standing at the end. I know it, you experienced it.

[Yet, for all the hatred he should feel right now... All the anger and rage, all he feels is a tiredness that went beyond the lingering lethargy that has plagued him since the attack. He wants it to be over just as much as Ardyn does, but not solely because he despises what the other's become.]

You'll get the first, but the world will continue. Those who survive us will rebuild. There will always be a future, and I will die on the throne to give it to our people.

And you don't even care, do you? You'll just play directly along with the Astrals' grand plan without complaint or even regard for yourself.

[Which was something Ardyn found he knew a little too much about, and he didn't care for it.]

Pathetic.

[Something about that sets his teeth on edge, and it's not hard to pinpoint what.]

No. I do care. Yet what choice do I have.

[Die and save his people? Or, sit back and watch all hope be consumed by eternal night? ...He can't do the latter. It's not in him to sit back and watch others suffer and die because of him. Too many already have.]

...Could always ask your advisor. He seems quite set upon going against the preordained, for all the good it's not likely to do.

[... What the ever loving fuck? He raises his eyebrows at Ardyn. Well, he didn't expect that. He stands on the branch, shaking his head. It feels weird to even consider thanking the man after what he's done, but... Maybe this instead.]

I wasn't kidding by the way. Tree to your left. It has teeth.

What-

[That knocked the smug look off Ardyn's face right quick, the red-toned Blade of the Mystic immediately appearing in his hand to be swung directly into the offending tree.]

[Well. That was fast. And, true to his word, the "tree" attacks. Noctis soon joins him, blue-toned Sword of the Father reappearing in his hand as he moves to help. Look, they may hate one another and themselves enough that they should probably see a family counselor, but "death by rabid tree" is likely not high on either of their bucket lists.]

What's with these things, anyway? [Said with the bored cadence of someone just out for a stroll, nbd.]

I don't know, I don't care, but immortal or not, I'm not very interested in being eaten by plantlife.

Not exactly high on your list of deaths by, huh.

[Look, he made the comment earlier. May as well joke about it.]

That would be a new one I am not remotely about to research, thank you very much.

Can't argue there. [Point-blank warp-strike on three?]

[Two, one-]

[ LINK STRIKE ]
---
[Ardyn]

[The pair of blades collided with the tree in streaks of blue and red, but Ardyn seemed less than thrilled by the apparent victory. He scowled and rolled his eyes, launching into a tangent that sounded almost admonishing.]

It's bad enough you're a half-baked replacement, I don't need you mimicking my combat style next. And that aside, do you really think I needed your help, Somnus, because I can assure you I neither needed nor wished for it. In fact, I'd rather have been eaten by the damnable tree than accept your assistance.

[Ardyn Izunia was a very healthy individual that definitely, assuredly, could not possibly have misspoken without noticing it.]

[...It may have been a very, very long year or so on the islands.]

[Of course he isn't thrilled, but hey. He still wanted to. Though he can't help but pause at what comes out of Ardyn's mouth. Well. good to know the family resemblance doesn't change much over the ages.]

I wanted to, and pretty sure I'm not the Founder King.

[He's the last in the line. Teeny tiny difference, uncle.]

Then you're an idiot, and I've no idea what you're talking abou-

[. . .]

...Oh, now your hearing's gone too. Did Bahamut yell at you that much, what a pitiful shame.

[Or you're going even more mad than we thought, he almost points out, but then shrugs.]

To be fair, his voice does echo. Should have snagged some earplugs from that last vending machine.

[Then he wouldn't have heard your sorry tirade, either.]

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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 017 )

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so fun fact I was thinking in a few months bringing a FFXIV character who ICly makes sunglasses.....

oh my god.

i love you, Nao? 💖

[x] doubt

rude

cw: suicidal ideation

cw: suicidal ideation and depression

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