TEST DRIVE MEME ( 019 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #19

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 January 17th, and Applications on January 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.

Let's Be Heroes
Back in December on the recent island of Maati, the Trial of the Brave was intended to challenge those who approached life with hesitation; the timid, the uncertain, and those who trend too easily toward inaction. Mu, of course, has a habit of neglecting the finer details. And thus...here you are, whether you need the intended lesson or not.

Armed with nothing more than a torch, a short sword, and the clothes on your back, you're sure to enjoy the scenic view of labyrinthine stone walls, low-hanging ceilings, sharp corners hiding all sorts of secrets, and a thick, foreboding darkness. Your light, and the torches of others making their way through the dark, are the only breaks in the seemingly uniform dark.

Those and the lights of the eyes of the other things down here with you, of course. Hidden throughout the maze are scattered innumerable creatures, all of them happy to take advantage of those wandering about on their own. Nighthooks are fiendish, shadowy monsters that appear in the shape of a long-fingered hand. While they cannot physically hurt anything, they specialize in slinking out of the darkness to snuff out any light source they can find...like your torch, for example. Also abundand are the grimlings, hulking, dog-like creatures composed of a seaweed-like blackness and glowing coals for eyes. Should you come across one, several more are bound to be nearby, as they travel in packs. And they are always hungry.

For those lucky enough not to stumble across these creatures? Enjoy your stumble through the dark. There's an exit around here somewhere, if you look hard enough. Probably.

The Waiting Game
The second trial Mu has appropriated is the Trial of the Patient. This test was named for those who exhibit the very antithesis of patience, initially intended to draw in the brash, the reckless, those easily incited into action, and so on. Instead of a dark and lengthy maze, Mu has instead concocted a brightly lit room to test your patience, and lack thereof.

So you should have no trouble at all seeing the entirety of the expansive, gaping void that stretches between you and the only way out.

Stranded on a singular ledge, the space in which you wake is white and seemingly infinite. No ceilings or walls are visible, and peering over the edge of the small platform reveals no flooring below to catch you. The only distinct characteristics to this room are the door opposite you, positioned some couple hundred feet away. There's nothing for you to grab or cling to in order to make your way over there faster. In fact, nothing else seems to help, either. Flight, teleportation, gadgets, you name it - each attempt will inevitably fail, and give you just enough time to contemplate all the ways you went wrong as you go plummeting down (or is it up?) into that endless void. What a shame. Luckily for you, this dream is happy to give you a second chance! And a third, and a fourth...and however many it takes, really. Those who fall will, just as the initial adrenaline shock starts to run out, abruptly find themselves standing right back on the platform where they started. Once again, they'll find themselves staring at that infuriating, impossible-to-reach door. Seems like you may be stuck where you are, for the time being.

We say "for the time being," because the other distinct attribute of this loosely defined room is a second platform, drifting steadily from the doorway to your position. Once it reaches you, you'll be able to climb aboard, and be safely ferried across the room to the exit you so greatly desire. Once it reaches you. Once it...well, it seems to be taking some time. A few minutes. An hour. Something in that ballpark, maybe. Got a good book on you? No? Guess you'll have to find some other way to wile away the time.

You, and whoever else you happen to be stuck with.

Water Rising
The island of Ensō is a relatively flat island, aside from a lone, steep mountain to the north. Mu is less so. It tends to mold itself to whatever shape best suits it, and in this case? It has chosen Ensō. And so that is where you find yourself - positioned at the base of its mountain, no less, only several feet up the beginnings of its slope. Unfortunately, there's not much time to take in the new scenery. Stretched out along the island's coast is a beach of glittering white sand. Further inland, the green sprawl of a jungle blots the horizon. But there's also plenty of ocean. And therein lies the problem.

Creeping through the treelines and rapidly pooling about the mountain's base, said ocean levels are rising quickly. Very quickly. Those who wish to stay and enjoy the view of an island underwater are welcome to it. For everyone else, the only other option is the obvious one: to climb.

To climb very, very quickly. As luck would have it, the rising waters aren't the only danger present. Those too slow to escape its wrath will surely drown, but the higher up you go, the thinner the air becomes, and the more searing the heat. To the west, a crop of dangerous creatures known as lungblossoms claim the wooded thickets that offer reprieve from the intense and unrelenting rays of dream-sun. A confrontation with these living plants may expose you to hallucinogenic spores fit to fill your senses with horrific, nightmarish visions, so tread lightly...but not slowly.

At the mountain's very peak, an empty temple awaits those who can make it to the end of this terrible and impromptu gauntlet. It will provide shade and a space for the exhausted survivors to congregate. Tend to yourself and others, if you like- or head back out to locate those who haven't had such luck in reaching this haven.

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

GREETINGS SMOL PRINCESS

[somedummiesarecute]

[ Plumeria's eyes stop on her. Stops on the blonde haired Alolan Princess. Stops on the scars, on the intensity and roughness of her eyes, like an eternity of torture has passed since their last meeting, which...was not that long ago. A few days?

Certainly, the way she carries herself now...she is not the same as she was before. Plumeria's cheek twitches as she hides a smirk. There was always a soft spot for her. Not a spoken-of softness...but Plumeria's always liked cute things.

The fact that the cute, naive princess can hold such a bold look makes a laugh well up in her throat. Hoarse, from Plumeria's own ragged breathing. The tightness of her arm, bleeding into her tanktop. She wants to laugh at it all. Who the hell brought her here? To this dump? To be face-to-face with this runt-- this cute little pipsqueak? ]

You won't get an apology. [ a tendril of pink hair curls out from where it had been slicked down with god knows what kind of hair gel. She's exhausted. Tired. Keeling over sounds like the best idea that she's had all day. ]

[flower_of_innocence]

I don't want one.

[Lillie nods solemnly in agreement with the sentiment. An apology? Goodness...she hadn't even thought of that. If there's one thing she's learned from Guzma by proxy, it's that the world isn't sorry for what it does to you. It's up to you to take it as it comes and process it on your own.

And she has thought about what she'd do if she ever got the chance to confront Plumeria again. Things she wants to say, warnings she wants to give about how it won't be so easy now. But all that anger melts in the face of this exhausted, bleeding woman in front of her. Her breath comes out in a long sigh. Survival, even in the dreamlike haze of Mu, comes first.]

I have things to say to you, but you're hurt and tired, and it's hot out in the open, so...Come into the shade. I have cloth for bandages and fresh water, if you'd like.

[somedummiesarecute]

[ she is skeptical. Of course she is. Like a cat that can lick her own wounds, she looks back out at the restless and bitter ocean. She doesn't want an apology-- then what does she want? Those eyes speak volumes-- understood volumes, but are libraries of knowledge and experience that...weren't there before. She looks back at Lillie. There's some distrust in the shadows of her eyes. In the shadows under her eyes. When was the last time she got a good night of rest?

Probably before Guzma jumped into that honkey-tonk portal made by the little princess' sweet and kindhearted mother.

Psychotic. Sweet, and psychotic. ]

Who are you? [ a little warrior, in the body of a little princess. Plumeria won't show her weaknesses, but she'd get to the bandages and water if she had to break an arm trying, because she knows that she needs it. And honestly? She's ready to. her fingers tighten around her own wrist and she sucks in a breath, exhaling and trying to will her stiff and angry muscles to calm. No point in getting flustered. ]

[flower_of_innocence]

[Lillie blinks. There's no way she doesn't remember...unless she's from sometime before everything went off the rails. People show up from different points in their lives, sometimes. But even then, she had denied Lillie an apology right out the gate. So she must know.

In deliberate and easy to follow movements, she starts to fish the water and cloth from her bag. She suspects Plumeria won't want to wait for aid, even if she won't say it out loud. Best to have these things out and available, and discussion can come afterwards.]

Lillie, the same one you kidnapped and terrorized back in Alola. I know, I'm a little different than you remember...Guzma and the islands have changed me a lot.

[somedummiesarecute]

[ "Terrorized." It's odd to be remembered that way. She won't deny it, though. Won't deny that she put some unneeded pressure on the young woman. She says it all so blatently, and so calmly, as if she'd accepted this fact a million years ago.

Hopefully, she'll forgive Plumeria for being a bit behind. Before she started climbing that wall, she was waiting for Guzma to return. She was waiting for the kids to come back from the ultra hole. Waiting, heart beating in a furious rhythm, anxieties crawling through her mind and behind her eyes, but compressed deep inside her mind. The only way to not worry about them was to not think about them.

Yeah.

And so that's what she did. She didn't think about it-- she thought about Guzma, and what an idiot he was, and how much his family wanted him to come home, and he's just a pig-headed sort who wouldn't recognize his family if it gave him a wedgie and pulled his underwear over his head. ]

Guzma. [ she repeated, the fury of her pulse reminding her that she has a heart. That Lillie, too, has a heart. Did Guzma adopt her? Where'd the other girl go? Weren't they inseparable? ]

No kidding. [ just...just go with it. For now, anyway. ] That guy has a bigger heart than people know. 'm surprised he showed it to you. You must be... [ the corner of her lip curves into a smile. ] ...more than the girl I kidnapped and terrorized. [ she grips her arm. ] Back in Alola.

[flower_of_innocence]

He's a good man. [Lillie agrees, a little softer this time. Of course, Plumeria knew this far ahead of her.] And a good teacher, if you have the stomach to listen.

[And she hadn't always had the stomach to listen. Unfortunately, when flowers and thorny vines curled deep in the pit of her gut, made those scars on her arms with their protruding buds, and locked her body still, she lost the ability to choose. But this isn't the time to throw a self pity party. She'd almost died. He'd almost died. Through sheer stubbornness, both of them pulled through. Lillie won't forget what she learned then, but she won't dwell on it anymore.

Lillie holds the water out to Plumeria. There's no cup to drink from, just a large plastic jug filled with clean water. A little lukewarm from the heat, but probably refreshing enough after the climb she's had.]

I'm...me, now. I know what my mother did and I've given up on forgiving her for it. She doesn't define me anymore. [A slight pause, to confirm mentally that her next words are true. They aren't entirely, but she wants them to be.] Nobody does.

[somedummiesarecute]

... [ The word "good" isn't a word that Plumeria would have thought up when it came down to Guzma. That little girl, and the kahuna's son, and this princess...they're good. Where good is a side, they exist like super heroes, driven by their impulses to be Good. Guzma isn't evil, surely, but...he would never call himself 'good,' and Plumeria knows it. Misunderstood? Maybe...

With a small realization, she realizes that Guzma's never really fit into a label, besides the one he made for himself. Not "Good." Not "Evil."

Big, bad Guzma is here.

...she favors her right leg, leaning and looking at a nearby pebble. She wonders how he's doing-- what he's been doing here in Ultra Space. If hanging out with this kid alone on an island has made him mad, or...if he's happier here. She can't stay-- there's a group of little dummies who need a big sister to keep them out of trouble, but...if he's happy, he could stay. Not that she could decide that for him.

Whatever the case, she brings her gaze back up to Lillie. She won't release a thing. Ice and poison are shields behind her eyes, as if she were silently asking Lillie not to trust her. ]

You've always been you, princess. [ her eyes shut. ] Anyone who can take that from you is weaker than you, and wants that strength for themselves. Don't let them.

[flower_of_innocence]

[Lillie doesn't say anything at first. What can she say to that? There was a time that she was not herself, but it seems silly to correct Plumeria there and have to explain her sob story. She doesn't need to hear it. But she hadn't considered herself stronger than anyone, ever. Even her mother, awful as she was, had confidence that she did not. But these are words and thoughts that this woman, in all her devil-may-care glory, will not want to hear.

Caught somewhere between agreeing in hindsight and accepting of the way things are, she closes the distance between them a bit and presents the jug of water forward again. If Plumeria's eyes are ice and poison, Lillie's are rock and ground. Solid and stable. Defiant.]

I won't.

[The words are soft but final.]