aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 018 )

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*test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 018 )

Test Drive Meme #18

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 December 17th! Due to the holiday season, Applications will be opening on December 26th, with an app period shifted to end on January 2nd instead of the usual timeframe!

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.

Upsy Wars: Revenge of the Lift
Over the past sixteen months, adventurers have adjusted to the sight of a wide variety of odd and fantastical creatures, some friendlier than others. Of the more ferocious, it's wise to consider giving them a wide berth - from the indomitable fustercluck to living black holes to the deadly contagious quartzalcoatls. However, only one predator has gained the dubious title of "that weird flying mouth thing."

Invasive to LifeAftr, Upsy the elevator is not satisfied with haunting the memories of those who encountered it during its arrival in July. Now it's here to haunt your dreams, too! While capable of speech and some style of sentience on its home world, it seems LifeAftr has yet to agree with a machine that is equal parts flesh and metal. Driven to silence by whatever forces this world has exposed it to, Upsy is driven by one, basic instinct, and one alone.

To give you a lift, whether you want it or not.

Upsy’s attacks are abrupt and immediate. Swooping down from the sky, it will collect as many living things in its mouth as can fit, before closing its doors and soaring away. Want to leave? Don't worry; Upsy has no intentions of keeping you, or digesting you. Release from that fleshy mouth prison is as immediate as the initial attack. We hope you enjoy flying, because Upsy can spit even the heaviest of creatures a good hundred feet away from itself, at any altitude. Do look out below.

The Emoji Movie
Communication on the islands currently consists of Stones of Far Speech, a relatively adaptable system that is open to requests and suggestions for improvement. One such request has been met with a small bout of confusion, however; as adaptable as the Storyteller attempts to be, you kids with your mobile phones and your texting and emojis get a little beyond them, sometimes.

Beyond Mu as well, it seems.

When you asked for emojis, this is what you wanted, right? Exclusive to Mu, Emojees come in a variety of shapes and sizes; from knee-high yellow orbs with rows of sharp teeth that simply cannot stop laughing, to horse-sized poop emojees that - well. One can guess. Numbering in the hundreds and intending to convey their meaning by any means possible, it's a good idea to avoid prolonged contact with these happy little abominations.

The taller, more objective emojees will simply try to absorb those attached to them in an effort to become even larger, but the smaller infect their prey with the emotions they portray, influencing them into the perfect emotional state for consumption.

In hindsight, this is probably not what the children actually wanted...

Close enough.

Let It Go Snow
LifeAftr may be primarily tropical, but that doesn't mean some of its creatures don't appreciate a good white Christmas - and a white rest of the year, at that.

Gelfs are one such species. While they may be visually reminiscent of Santa's Little Helpers, these small creatures aren't about to start handing out presents. Having snuck onto Mu's metaphysical shores at the beginning of the month, these little critters have immediately set about doing what they do best - spreading ice and snow across the island, in increasingly hazardous quantities.

As the influence of the gelfs settles across Mu, it's quite possible that the abrupt cold snap will lead to severe consequences for any adventurous guests, unless you enjoy the prospect of an avalanche waiting to happen Now may be the best time to hunt these gelfs down, before such disaster can occur.

For those uninterested in massacring a local creature population (again), you may as well enjoy this winter wonderland while it lasts. Ice skating, snowball fights - and for those in the know, the time-honored competition to create the best dabbing ice sculpture. If you're lucky, you might even find a container of piping hot wassail - spiced apple cider - laying around.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of course.

[ It's obvious, and Lucretia frowns, annoyed with herself at having had to be told. The stranger must already think she's helpless enough, caught out here unprepared for the cold and reduced to begging for help. ]

Don't worry - I can keep up.

Okay.

(She won't push it. The both of them are doing the best with what they have, after all, and it was not so long ago that Yasha woke up in the middle of a field on an island she had never been to, with a stampede of wild animals almost on top of her. So. She gets it.)

Whereabouts is home for you?

[ It's an innocent enough question, and likely meant to be an easy one - idle chatter to keep them both awake and alert as they make their way through the snow. Unfortunately, it's anything but easy for Lucretia.

Where is home for her now? The Bureau? Faerûn? Either would be the obvious answer, but neither is really true, despite how long she's been there.

The Starblaster?

Almost involuntarily, she looks up towards the sky. There's nothing there, of course. No artificial moon, no spaceship hovering overhead. Only the blinding white of the snow. ]

Somewhere...somewhere a very long way from here, I'm afraid.

[ The words come out softer than she means them too, more melancholy, and she swallows past the sudden lump in her throat. ]

(That answer is the same for Yasha, for everybody who has come to be stuck here on the islands, but the weight of the woman's words put a different meaning behind it entirely. She glances back at her. She is looking up at the sky.)

It's not so bad here, (she says, feeling a little guilty for bringing up what seems to be a sore subject,) it is... usually warmer than this too, you know? I have never seen snow here before now, so it cannot happen often.

[ Lucretia smiles. It's a little sad still, but she recognizes that the other woman is trying to make her feel better, and she's grateful for the effort. ]

Have you been here long, then?

[ The thought of being here long enough to see the weather change is...not a great one, but she supposes it's better than dying in the snow. ]

No. Only two months.

(They have gone by very quickly, actually... a lot has happened.)

But... I still don't know how to leave.

...I'm sorry.

[ She is. A little alarmed and concerned on her own behalf to hear that leaving this place won't be as quick or sudden as arriving had been, but...she is sorry, thinking of this woman being trapped here in a strange land for so long, presumably without anything or anyone familiar to bring her comfort. Swamp or not, she clearly does miss her home, if she's still trying to get back.

But. Only two months. She swallows, trying to keep the tremor from her voice. ]

There are others...who have been kept captive here longer?

Yes. Some people I know from home were already here, when I arrived.

(It's clear from her tone that she doesn't really understand that.) And I have talked to other people yet who have been here for years.

(She might not have said it if she had realised it was making the other women uncomfortable to think about it, but Yasha is simply walking and talking. These are the facts. She hasn't decided how she feels about them just yet.)

[ Lucretia still doesn't understand the mechanics of being pulled into this world from her own, or the likely reason behind the other woman's confusion. If one person could be brought from Faerun, or Xhorhas, or anyplace else, why not more than one?

But it's what she says next that really hits home. Lucretia stops in her tracks, heedless of the snow and the cold, her eyes going wide as her heart sinks right down into her toes. ]

Years?

Yes.

(Oh, that struck a very wrong note, didn't it. Yasha pauses as the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow behind her abruptly ceases, glancing over her shoulder. The woman looks very shocked by this news.)

I'm... sorry, (she offers, hesitant. She isn't really sure how to go about comforting somebody over this. There's not a lot she can do to change the situation, after all.) If there is a faster way to leave this place, I don't know of it yet.

I can't stay here for years.

[ She's talking almost to herself, a look of faint horror still on her face. It's been years. It's been years, it's been far too long already, and she can't afford this kind of delay. ]

There are people -

[ Peope waiting for her? Well, no. Not exactly. That would require them to know there was anything out there to wait for. ]

...There are people who need me.

I know.

(She doesn't know this woman's specific situation, per say, but she can relate to it, at least in its inverse. Yasha doesn't know if she has anybody at home that needs her to come back, but there are people there that she would like to return to very much.

This thought seems to have stalled the other woman entirely. Yasha trudges back over to her, and rests a hand lightly on her shoulder, squeezing.)

You can't go back at all if you die here in the snow. (Blunt perhaps, but the truth.) Come on. We have to keep moving.

[ The bluntness is exactly what she needs right now. Lucretia's never had the luxury of feeling sorry for herself before, and the same is just as true now. More so.

She takes in a deep breath of air cold enough to make her shudder, lifting her chin and nodding at her companion. One step at a time. Get out of the cold, make sure she doesn't die, and deal with the rest later. ]

You're right. I'm - I'm ready.

(Yasha is silently relieved that that actually worked, she would have had no idea what to do if the other woman had reacted badly instead. She's a lot stronger than she looks, this human.)

Okay.

(And off they go again. Yasha lets the silence hang for a beat before she asks:)

What's your name?

[ There's a pause before she replies, one that could easily be chalked up to the heavy snowdrift they're currently struggling through, Lucretia raising her legs up high to step carefully into the footprints the other woman leaves behind.

She's been so careful about giving her name out these days, mostly in her effort to maintain a professional facade - leading the Bureau is a bigger project than she's ever taken on alone, and she lies awake some nights, convinced that the organization she'd built from scratch would crumble away to nothing, all the authority she's worked so hard to build slipping away overnight, if the people working underneath her had the slightest idea of how lost and alone she really feels sometimes. Part of it, too, had been the need to keep Merle, Magnus, and Taako in the dark. There's no reason why hearing her name should trigger any of the memories she'd erased, but just controlling her own expression had been hard, the first time Magnus had called her by name at Candlenights, and...

None of that applies now, though. There is no Bureau here, no Director, nothing to conceal. ]

Lucretia.

[ She looks up, squinting at the back of the woman's head through the snow. ]

What's yours?

(Yasha almost writes it off as having spoken too quietly for the other woman to hear her. After all, she is facing forward and the snow tends to muffle sound, especially when you are concentrating on making your way through a drift. That's okay, she can ask again later when they're settled; she answers then, just as Yasha has decided this.

She likes the name Lucretia.)

Yasha, (she replies. Overall, this has been a strange meeting, but she doesn't begrudge it.)

If you need to stop and rest, let me know.

Yasha. [ Lucretia repeats the name slowly, testing the way it feels in her mouth. ] What a beautiful name.

[ She is starting to feel tired, maybe the very beginning of a headache. She should eat, pretty soon. Drink some water? Do they even have anything to eat? But no, they can't stop and rest again. Shouldn't, because if she sits down she doesn't know if she'll be able to get up again.

She doesn't say any of this to Yasha, of course. ]

Thank you. I will.

(It's a good thing she has her back to Lucretia, she doesn't have to work any harder to hide her instinctive fluster, the awkwardness of her expression.)

... Thank you.

(It is not often that people find Xhorhassian names beautiful.

The silence that falls after this short exchange is welcome. It is easy for Yasha to simply walk and think about things. She has a lot to think about it, and it is starting to get quite cold... she pulls her furs in a little tighter, and continues to lead the both of them dutifully through the snow.

The appearance of a little cabin off in the distance provides a staggering relief. Yasha stops and lifts her head a little more, squinting through the snow fall.)

Lucretia. (She lifts an arm to point it out to her.)

[ It's a long time between the two of them falling silent and Yasha calling Lucretia's name again. Or at least, it feels like a long time. Lucretia's been spending all her energy just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, fighting to match Yasha's pace despite the cold and the biting wind and how very tired she is. She hums vaguely at the sound of her name, though it takes her a few seconds longer to actually drag her head up and focus on what Yasha's pointing at.

She stares dumbly for a moment, mental acuity made dull by the cold, and then it clicks what she's looking at, and she gasps, struggling forward the last few feet to stop at Yasha's side. She's shivering hard, even under the thick fur Yasha had loaned her. ]

Is that...a cabin?

... Yes.

(She's picked up the pace, invigorated at the thought of having found a place to shelter and now that they're closer she can confirm: it's a goddamn cabin. She sighs, relieved, and her breath expels from her mouth in a puff of cloud. It is very, very cold now. She's impressed that Lucretia is still going, quite frankly.)

Come on. Let's get a fire going.

(She has a tinderbox with her, thankfully. The cabin door is jammed shut, but that proves no problem to Yasha and her big ol' plus three to strength, she all but rips the door off its hinges in her haste to get out of the wind. She'll still pause to usher Lucretia in first, though. She doesn't look so good, she is shivering quite a lot.)

[ A fire. Why hadn't she conjured a fire to keep warm? She doesn't have her staff. Had she ever had her staff here? Had she lost it in the snow?

She can't think, even about how awful, how catastrophic it would be to have lost her staff somewhere in the blizzard. It would ruin everything, all of her plans, but right now, the possibility's just too terrible to face, and she's so cold she doesn't even care. She stumbles past Yasha and into the cabin, and has just enough dignity left to collapse blindly onto the first piece of furniture she sees, rather than right onto the floor. The cabin isn't anywhere near warm, but at least she can breathe without feeling like she's sucking down knives, and so she does, taking deep, shuddering breaths as she wraps her arms around herself and just appreciates not walking for a moment. ]

Hang on.

(Her shuddering breathing sounds awful, like she can't get enough air into her lungs. Yasha feels momentarily helpless; she is no healer. She has a single, healing cantrip and she's not sure that will be much help in this situation. All she can do for now is take her layer of fur off- as much as her bare skin stings in reaction to the cold air inside- and bundle her up in that too while she gets the fire started.

Her hands are numb. She fumbles with the flint, dropping it once before she can get her fingers to hold it properly. There is a little pile of logs hunkered up beside the dusty fireplace and she stocks it with a few, coming in close to light it. They take on the first go: the wood must be very dry. At least that means the cabin won't leak.

Lucretia is curled in an old armchair. Yasha holds her hands in front of the little spark of flame, watching it slowly light the logs and when she can feel her skin again she stands, rubbing her arms, and gets up to shift Lucretia's chair closer to the fire. Hopefully that helps. It's the most that she can do, right now. She takes a seat next to the armchair so she can be close to the fire too, and shivers as she hunches up in front of it as best she can.)

[ Lucretia falls into a bit of a fugue state as Yasha moves around her, kneeling in front of the hearth, struggling to get the fire lit. The next thing she knows, she's being bodily dragged across the room, chair and all. It's a move that reminds her so strikingly of Magnus that she has to laugh, a small, weak chuckle with no obvious catalyst. ]

You're very strong, [ she murmurs, as if in explanation, her head falling heavily back against the chair. She's so tired. But between the furs and the fire and the windbreak the cabin provides, she's also growing warmer by the minute, her breaths evening out and her head starting to clear as the seemingly-unending pain and misery of the cold outside finally starts to subside.

She blinks, taking in her surroundings for a moment. The fire's big enough now to be giving off real heat, the flames crackling brightly. What little of the cabin she can see from this vantage point is fairly bare, obviously abandoned. God, she hopes there's some kind of food here.

A movement in the corner of her eye catches her attention, and she looks down to see Yasha, on the floor beside her chair, arms bare and pressed up as close to the fireplace as she can comfortably get. Lucretia frowns at how cold she still looks, and reaches a hand down - to brush against her shoulder, to take hers, just to get her attention, she doesn't know. ]

...Thank you.

Yes.

(It's not the first time somebody has pointed it out and it won't be the last, either. People love to point out the obvious when it comes to Yasha's strength. She lets it rest there, though. Lucretia seems almost out of it, still shivering in her furs, and Yasha gathers she probably needs a good couple minutes of silence in order to gather herself. Fine with her, she's good at sitting still and quietly thinking about things.

She's rewarded after about ten minutes; Lucretia's fingertips, brushing against her shoulder. Yasha starts, tearing her eyes away from the fire, and glances across and then up at her. Oh, she looks much better now. The colour has come back into her cheeks, where before her skin had been dull from the cold.)

How do you feel?

Alive. ...Maybe a little frostbitten.

[ She sighs, snuggling a little further into her furs, and manages a weak smile. She's not exactly ready to run a marathon here, and there's a telling, unpleasant tingling in her fingertips, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it could have been. She'll recover, with time.

For now, though, she's content to enjoy the warmth of the fire, and to gaze down at Yasha at her side. She's still a little glassy-eyed, but after a moment her eyes soften, her expression growing sober. ]

I wouldn't have made it without you.

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sorry for the slow reply!

no problem!! i'm enjoying this thread

yay me too! your lucretia is wonderful

asklfdj thank you!

np :-)

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