aftr_ooc | 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

Thank you.

(She's not sure of what else to say. She isn't so keen on the casual contact either, but she isn't going to push Lucretia's hand away from her knee because she knows it is a gesture born from kindness. Besides, Lucretia exists in the weird space between a stranger and a friend, and so she is granted the gift of Yasha's patience, as thin as it may wear sometimes.

Eventually however, she shifts, and moves her knee out of reach.)

I haven't needed to find a job here. My friends and I do a lot of exploring instead. Sometimes fighting.

[ Lucretia doesn't keep the contact up for long, pulling her hand back the moment Yasha shifts her knee. ]

Exploring?

[ When the weather is warmer, she can only assume. She returns to her stew, scooting close to the fire and snuggling comfortably into the fur around her shoulders. Storytime. ]

What have you found?

Several different islands.

(If only Lucretia had been trapped in here with Mollymauk instead of her... oh, the stories he could have told. Yasha doesn't have a lot of narrative prowess about her.)

... We fought a giant, once. It nearly killed us.

[ But if Mollymauk were here, they couldn't have Big Gay Cuddling later on. Just a thought.

Lucretia nearly drops her spoon into the stew, rescuing it just in time. She'd been prepared for stories of maybe a few tavern fights at most, not near-death encounters with monsters. ]

A giant? Here?

(Oh, well in that case.

Yasha, who had said the thing about the giant and then regretted it in case it frightened Lucretia at all hastens to explain herself.)

Not- here, it was on another island. And we nearly defeated it, before we had to run away.

[ Yasha rushes to reassure her, and Lucretia feels her cheeks burning in response. She can hardly blame her, but just how fragile must the other woman think she is? ]

I wasn't - I wasn't frightened.

[ Even if she should have been, maybe. What would they do, if a giant attacked them now? ]

Just, ah. Just surprised. I didn't realize this world was so...populated.

Neither.

(At least she has that. Even when the adversary is too much for her to handle, at least Yasha doesn't frighten. Her battle rages don't allow for much to get in her way.)

What do you mean 'populated'? (For Yasha, giants aren't... well, they aren't welcome but they certainly aren't surprising. She's seen them around before, she knows that they exist.)

Uh -

[ She hesitates, shrugging her shoulders. ]

I guess I just...Well, I haven't seen anyone else here. [ Besides Yasha herself, she means. ] I didn't know how much, uh, diversity this place had.

Oh.

(Well, that makes sense.)

There are... a lot of different people here. And animals, too. I'm always discovering new things I didn't know existed.

Animals?

[ It reminds her of being on one of the planets during the cycles. New people, new animals, a whole new environment.

She wants to hear more. She really does. But between the fire and shelter from the cold, and the hot stew filling her belly, Lucretia's starting to feel warm and relaxed and sleepy. She yawns hugely, quickly lifting a hand to cover her mouth and swallowing the yawn back. ]

Tell me...tell me about them.

Okay.

(Where to start... oh, yes. Yasha knows a good place. She leans back on her palms, and seeing Lucretia stifling a yawn makes her yawn too, her head tipping back a little.)

Hmm. I... met a dog, that isn't a dog. I think. She's a wolf, but she understands what I say when I talk to her, you know?

(Not in a 'I love my fur baby' kind of way, but in a... deep, true understanding way.) She... can draw with her tail.

A...sentient wolf?

[ Lucretia raises an eyebrow, and leans a little closer to Yasha, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. ]

Like someone trasmuted themselves? Or maybe they were cursed to be a wolf?

(Yasha sits up a little straighter, nodding.)

I thought it was that too. But when I tried to talk to her about it she... laughed.

(Have you ever seen a dog laughing before, Lucretia? It's pretty weird. Yasha makes a face for a moment in memory of it.) So now I am back to square one.

[ Lucretia doesn't laugh, but she does bite back a smile at the expression on Yasha's face. Her brow furrows as she thinks. ]

I've never met anything like that before. Or...anyone?

Is she a - a native? Are there more animals here that are...that can talk?

I have, but...

(Well. Caleb has impressed upon her that Frumpkin is a very real cat, but she has seen him disappear and reappear and change into other animals. It's still real, he's still doing it, but Yasha is fairly certain #notallcats can do that.)

It's a bit different. There are other animals around, but none of them speak. Or seem human. The wolf came from another world, like you, and like me.

Hmm.

[ There had been the Animal Kingdom, of course, but they hadn't spoken human language. Maybe on another plane, things had developed differently.

Lucretia rubs her eyes, shifting a little on the hard floor. ]

What's your world called, Yasha?

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 018 )

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