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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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

ALL MY ICONS ARE SMILES LMFAO

[ninjatortle]

[Exactly what this person's kind even are, Eska doesn't know.

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

[hyperlit]

no

[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

[ninjatortle]

[Maybe they misunderstood what was implied. To wear your home on your back is an ingrained cultural concept for a tortle, but that context wouldn't exist for someone who doesn't even know what a tortle is. One look at that big shell, and it seems pretty literal. Just means they got some real heavy bone covering them.

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,

[hyperlit]

[The people here are too disparate from what they'd come to expect in Buried Time. The concept of what is and is not fair does not apply, and never has.]

[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

[ninjatortle]

Of course. No point rushing. Must be kinda hard to forage snacks if they're several meters underwater.

[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

[hyperlit]

[The Drifter looks at them, watching them sit there in silence. They've been forced to grow better at that, at silence and patience and waiting for things to pass instead of taking action, because there is no action to take. It does not mean they're amenable to doing it, if it can be helped.]

[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

[ninjatortle]

[Restless.

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.]

[hyperlit]

[They respond without looking.]

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.]

[ninjatortle]

Um, who's Storyteller?

[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.]

[hyperlit]

local god

[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

[ninjatortle]

They sound like a very lovely deity! I have a very good friend who turns into a horse sometimes, and it really is a very clever trick. I can't say I've ever visited with a god in person, but I suppose they must long for company just as much as anyone else, yeah?

[hyperlit]

yes

[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

[ninjatortle]

The gods are everywhere, friend.

[The Eyes of Night and Day watching brightly in the sky are rarely ever far from view, after all, and the clerics and paladins sworn to the more personified, established pantheon can be found working magic all over the place. Arakosh and Evani, for example! They did magic god stuff, right?]

...Unless, um, you mean that a little more literally than I do?

[hyperlit]

yes

[Are they responding to the statement, or the question? The answer to that is: yes.]

on every island
at least one

[They say at least because there are at least...two? Here? The Storyteller, and the white wolf. Both are gods, as far as they know, and both deserve their respect and piety.]