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aftr_ooc2019-01-13 08:43 pm
lifeaftr_mods) wrote in aftr_ooc2019-01-13 08:43 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 019 )
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:
Remember that Reserves will open on January 17th, and Applications on January 24th!
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.
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.
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.
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.
( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
no subject
[This stranger seems to be taking it well. It's always easiest when they do.]
been here longer
> year
no subject
[They settle down on the floor within the abandoned temple, right near the door. Lots of wall for a weary companion to lean again, a good view to spot if anyone else shows up in need of help, and enough space that this nice blue person has a clear avenue of exit, if that should reassure them.]
Does this island usually, um... get swallowed by the ocean?
no subject
[It does reassure them, actually. Eska is two for two on speaking fluent drifter, and even better, the Drifter hasn't yet realized how many of those accommodations are maneuvers being executed, to an extent. They're not thinking about the conversation - more about what they're going to do if the water level rises even further.]
[The Drifter is sweeping the area with an edged tension piled into their shoulders, picking out potential exits.]
not this badly
no subject
Well... the good news is: I love swimming! If being an adventurer doesn't pan out as a job, I think I could have a pretty successful career as a flotation device.
no subject
[Those are the only options that immediately occur to them.]
you
a drifter?
no subject
[Announced brightly and eagerly.]
But we maybe don't end up in cities all that often? The looks you get when you walk into a town for the first time are definitely something. You'd think a half-ton naked reptile was somehow a weird thing to see, y'know?
no subject
[The dissonance really settles in the more they chatter about it. Where they come from, bipedal reptilians are far more common and accepted than, say, a blue-skinned wanderer.]
not strange
the lizards lived in the south
no subject
But "not strange," right off the bat?]
That's very kind of you. Sometimes... it's nice to not be a novelty, you know?
no subject
[They're poor at words. They always have been. Even before their vocal cords were ravaged by sickness, and left them mute.]
most are human
look human
those that do not stand out
no subject
[The cities, the tiny villages, the monastery. Same basic configuration of limbs, same base details. Make it a little shorter, a little pointier, tint it green or red or gray... so many diverse and dazzlingly different races, but so many seemed to share that commonality. Jormun, kenku, tortles, gnolls... their journeys had been studded with encounters with folk who didn't fit that mold, but so often, they carried that sense of otherness. Deprived of community, stuck being the only example of their kind. Or, in some cases... worse. They recall Arakosh, trapped in a jar, atrophying away as a mere thing to be solid. Synn, hating the form she'd been given, seeing herself as doomed, cursed, monstrous. Eska...
...They aren't going to let that grief creep in.
Be sunlight, be warmth, prove you're not a monster. There's kindness in the hearts of the people who see them as alien; they just have to push through that phase where they don't understand each other yet.]
Suppose it isn't surprising that it would be the same on Soggy Island. Well, guess they'll have to get used to having a tortle about! I might not be built for blending in, but I'm definitely built for getting along!
no subject
[It doesn't burn, but it leaves them uncertain as to where they are meant to go.]
most are kind
[Unconsciously, they tug at the mantle of cloth that swathes the lower part of their face. None have picked them out as something worthy of ridicule or scorn due to the tint of their skin, which is more than they ever would have dared to hope prior to ending here.]
no subject
[Eska looks over to their companion. It's hard to suss out intent from such an inhuman set of eyes, maybe, but it's definitely not for lack of effort on Eska's part. They've kept their body language open, loose, at ease. Hard to be tense in smothering heat, even in the shade of this abandoned temple. Seems wisest to broadcast that they're not going to be making any sudden movements, so their new friend can let some of that tension slip too.]
[Most are kind. The people here are nice. They'll give you a chance. It's a thoughtful reassurance to offer.]
[...But it certainly isn't the kind of reassurance that a human or half-elf would have considered, let alone offered. If their friend is thinking of that, is vouching for the decency of these folks from experience, then maybe...?]
Has that... not always been the case for you?
no subject
[They gesture at that strip of cobalt skin, peeking out from between their helm and their cowl. A drifter's livelihood, a drifter's culture, necessitates this sort of protective garb - covering one's face is as much a requirement as it is almost customary. It had alleviated nothing, in the end. They were still far from welcome, even in those circles.]
[Given the context of their species, the history of their people, this was not surprising.]
not surprising
ALL MY ICONS ARE SMILES LMFAO
They don't think they need to put this person through that song and dance, though. What are you? Gosh, never heard of it! You're an oddity, aren't you?
There are things that are just... felt, rather than explained. A kind of hollow, pervasive ache that follows you around. The way your approach startles people, makes a noisy tavern just a little bit quieter. A newfound friend muttering to another, as if you're not standing right there, "it thinks we're friends." An authoritative voice explaining that your human friends were the only thing making you too important to shut away in a sunless cell and forget about.
"Not surprising." The writing is flat. Somehow, the absence of punctuation deadens it, drives home the... the what? Resignation? Sorrow? Bitterness?
Numbness, maybe.]
So you wear your home on your back, too.
IT'S OK BB
[It feels unnecessarily harsh, and so they amend it, perhaps quickly enough to give away that it is not meant to be a curt dismissal.]
[Wrapped into conversation with a stranger who is too polite, who is too kind, who is too eager to relate to them and perhaps dangerously easy for them to relate to in turn - this is now how they'd anticipated their day coming to pass. The danger is present is no longer something they can readily confront, which leaves them...]
[Unmoored.]
drifters live nowhere
eskas only come in one flavor and it's :3
Don't have to think too hard about how home isn't people, isn't a memory, isn't a place you can come back to.]
[...Maybe their friend is intentionally drawing a line between the two of them. Not like you. Separate. Shying away, because the home on your back can only ever fit a single person.]
Okay.
[Soft, understanding. Not hurt by the correction. Sometimes, people just need to pull back. Live on your feet long enough, and that wary fight-or-flight state becomes your new normal. That's what familiar looks like to you. And unfamiliar, as they both know, is a very scary thing for people to deal with.]
I can't claim to fully understand the experience of someone I've just met.
[Maybe their friend needs a less emotionally-loaded topic. Something more rooted in practicality.]
If you've been living nowhere this long, though, you've probably learned some pretty useful things. Seems like I'm gonna hafta worry about foraging and shelter pretty soon, so advice from an expert would be really helpful.
A FRIEND,
[The Drifter looks away, looks out at the rising sea level through the door. It does not seem to be capable of reaching this sanctuary. Perhaps that was intentional. Their hands drop back to hide beneath the heavy folds of their scarlet cloak, slightly stiff and worn from years of use, now. If the number of layers they're wearing bothers them in conjunction with the heat, they don't show it.]
when the tide drops
A WEIRD POTATO
[They fold their hands, rest them in their crossed legs. A good time to focus, draw more ki into themselves. The time for haste is over.
They lapse into amicable silence after that, trying to gauge their companion. Are they just waiting it out until they can have some alone time again? Maybe they prefer cozy silences. Maybe they'll bring something up, if they're curious. It never hurts to stop and assess where you stand. Look cheerfully oblivious, certainly, but never stop paying attention. See what pace their guest wants to set.]
FRIEND
[They walk to the temple archway. They stare at its patterning, then look out across the sea. They walk away from it. They start to move slowly around the perimeter of the temple instead, taking in their surroundings with slow persistence.]
[It doesn't really hold their interest.]
[Eventually they sit because they've exhausted all other possibilities, but it's clear that they're not terribly happy about it.]
FRIENDCH FRY
Moving. Patrolling? Searching? This is definitely someone who feels most at ease when they feel useful. Waiting chafes at them, clearly. Need something to fill the stillness - to distract.
Eska... hm. They need to think of something this person can do, then. A little bit of a tricky task, maybe. Something too strenuous is a bad idea after that draining, harrowing climb. They don't know their surroundings at all, and they seem to have misplaced most of their things, so it's difficult to come up with a sizable pool of places to go or things to tend to. Eustace could probably think of something if he was here. They've seen him do it with Cash before. He's talented at speaking other people's languages like that.]
...I wonder which deity this temple was made to honor.
[It's... it's not much, as far as practical tasks go, but the only thing they really know about their current situation is that they're at some kind of shrine. Maybe it'll be enough to investigate. Maybe if their friend already knows, it'll give them something to focus on, something helpful to explain.]
no subject
unknown
not storyteller's
[This place is not a direct, one to one ratio of the island that exists in the waking world, they know, but it's close enough. The proportions are different, the arrangement of things slightly skewed, scrambled in a way that would be consistent with the inconsistencies of a dreamscape.]
[The attempt to maintain conversation is valiant on their companion's part. The Drifter is...not the greatest at it, eve now.]
no subject
[They think it's a name, not a job. Even so, it's not one they recognize. They maybe weren't always the most up-to-date on the civilized world's pantheon, though. The monastery hadn't really covered the sort of things that most paladins and clerics of the Holy Order pledged themselves to. The sun, the moon, growth and decay, the cycle of seasons. Balance and change. The sorts of things that Eska didn't really know how to personify.]
no subject
[They glance back to the tortle, head slightly to one side. It would make sense for them to be unaware - no one enters this world knowing the deities, apropos of nothing, but it's a difficult thing to explain.]
takes shape of animals
no subject
no subject
[The Drifter raises a hand to run it along the stone grooves of the temple walls, for no other reason than to have something to do with their hands. Something...to do with themself.]
there are many gods here
(no subject)
(no subject)