aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 020 )

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*test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 020 )

Test Drive Meme #20

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.

Due to the shortness of the month, both Reserves AND Applications will open on February 17th!

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.

Hell's Fury Burns the Heart
Back in December, the island of Maati treated travelers to unique Trials, tailored to their own unique sins and vices. Of the seven possible trials for adventurers to undergo, the Trial of the Forgiving, the trial laser-focused to exploit those most predisposed to be wrathful and violent, was among the simplest. Unlike the other trials, there were very few puzzles and mazes. The Trial of the Forgiving was largely, in essence, a trial of temptation.

This Trial takes the shape of a stone-walled spiral, with trial-goers starting at the outermost point and working their way steadily to the exit at the center. The torches lining the hall as it stretches infinitely onward paints the walls with a warm amber tint, giving the entire place a much more welcoming ambiance than will eventually become evident.

Your task is simple: make it to the end in one piece. All you have to do is withstand the constant harassment from the very, very familiar faces that will stalk you throughout the entirety of this gauntlet. Each specter that appears will be one with which you hold a significant grievance - be it a personal antagonist, a long-standing nemesis, a foe you once faced, or even yourself, if your self-hatred runs that deep.

All the while, they'll be doing their utmost to incite you to strike at them. Taunting you, acting out, threatening you or the ones you love; while they cannot physically harm you, they don't necessarily need to, in order to strike a nerve.

They want you to attack them. They want you to lash out. In part because all damage you attempt to deal to them will be rebounded back onto you - and whoever might be accompanying you - instead. A poorly-timed attack or well-placed insult might very well be enough to one-shot you, or your companions, into oblivion.

It's a good thing you have, potentially, innumerable chances. Every time you're struck down, you'll simply reappear at the very start of the Trial...and have to start making your way to the end all over again.

The Weakest Link
Once again, Mu has reformatted one of Maati's Trials for its own purposes. This one is based off of the Trial of the Trusting, which focused on building bonds and connections between its victi - er, between its trial-goers. For those prone to paranoia, distrust, or simply being emotionally closed off, this would be the challenge laid out to them: a sequence of puzzles and traps requiring teamwork and faith in one another, at least in the situational sense.

Fortunately - or, perhaps, unfortunately - things here are going to be a little simpler, though you'll still be waking in a tunnel lined with dark green stone, intermittently lit by the odd, irregularly spaced torch. This Trial will make its intentions quite clear from the beginning, for, you see, you're going to be waking up with a friend.

One that happens to be chained, that is. To you.

A length of about two feet of chain links the cuffs that bind you, one wrist to another, with whatever other unlucky soul has woken up here beside you. No matter what you do to said chain, it remains stubbornly indestructible. Though you could always try breaking your wrists, or severing your hands instead, or...actually, you know what? Why don't you just try to get through the Trial with your new friend, instead? It's probably going to be at least marginally less painful!

The path that is open to the pair of you is fairly linear. Its difficulty largely stems from the back that you'll be traversing it as a permanently linked pair. Obstacles present will always be surmountable as a team - switches and levers that might involve two people to reach, doors that require dual switches or buttons to be held down, puzzles that require passing of information between the both of you to expedite progress, and so on. There's also the matter of the Rarriers - ogre-like creatures of large stature and a territorial nature. Those under the keen gaze of a Rarrier will find them impossible to attack; their front hide is as tough as steel, and attacks tend to simply glance off. Their backs and sides are of a much more vulnerable nature, however. If only you could reach...or get someone else to do it for you.

Assuming you're not both sick of each other by the time you reach the exit, you'll be rewarded with the breaking of the cuffs that connect you, symbolizing that a friendship forged is stronger than any iron! Though, by the end...maybe "friendship" isn't the word we'd use.

Well Met
This place is hot, dry, and arid - but at least it's brightly lit! The peach-colored swell of dunes seems to be limitless, in nearly every direction, with the stretch of sand fading seemingly infinitely into the dark, purple line of the horizon. The sun overhead is relentless and sweltering; if you're the sort of person who needs to self-regulate, temperature wise, you might be in for a bit of a problem the longer you're stuck out here. Could be a rough time.

Fortunately for you, there's water. Very nearby, in fact. It's the only deviation from the sea of sand: a dark, circular blot that looks very, very much like a water well. As the only landmark in the vicinity, it seems at the very least worth checking out, right? The closer you get, the less it seems like it might be a mirage, or some other elaborate ruse. It looks like a perfectly normal, unassuming well.

Which is why, of course, it isn't one at all.

Well mimics are native to the island of Monsun, and they're...well, they're exactly what they sound like. They favor dry, desert-like environments, and hunt by luring travelers and animals alike to the temptingly fresh waters they hold. Mu has been helpful enough to recreate one in vivid detail, just for you.

These creatures are largely tube-shaped animals, buried deep in the sandy earth. They suction fresh water from deep within the earth and hold it in the lowermost parts of themselves. The simple construct that travelers see - the circular, stone shape with the rope and bucket for hauling water - is, in fact, their mouth, carefully adapted to camouflage itself into something that seems perfectly serviceable. Once travelers attempt to grab hold of the rope or bucket, or even the rim of the well itself, they'll discover that the surfaces have all been slicked with a sticky substance that may very well take off a layer of your skin if you attempt to tear away without taking great care.

Once the well mimic has entrapped its prey, the "well" sprouts teeth around its stone rim, lining its rocky gullet all the way to the bottom, as well as a fat red tongue. Rope-like tentacles whip out to seize whatever poor soul has found themselves ensnared. If you don't manage to get free in time, you'll learn just how it feels to be digested over a period of twenty-four hours while your body is broken down into a squishy, delicious mulch for the mimic's consumption.

The best way to kill these creatures is by tricking it into swallowing something lethal - fire, poison, sharp weapons, whatever you have on hand. Well mimics are quite blind and hunt purely by touch, and will seize whatever touches them without any knowledge of what it is. And once it has one victim in hand, it's quite incapable of grabbing hold of another.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Threaded | Flat

trial of the trusting.
[ Yeah, this is very much not his shtick. He's at the entrance of the trial, surveying the others who have the misfortune of experiencing his presence, and he jerks his head toward the stretch in front of them. He isn't too pleased about the chain, but... ]

You wanna go first, bigshot? [ That's not how it works, but okay. Then again, he's definitely planning on letting the person he's chained to take the brunt of whatever's going to face them.

Later on, while they're making their way through the trial, Xigbar decides he's incredibly done with all of this... Obviously, the chain won't be able to handle corridors of darkness, right? Duh. Xigbar tries to open up a portal, but-- ]

You've gotta be kidding me.

[ get fucked, asshole ]

well met
Aren't you an ugly one!

[ It's a good thing Xigbar is a slippery one. It's easy to stay out of the way of the thing trying to eat him. Tough luck he's having, but it's okay. Because he actually seems to be... having fun? That's probably fine.

He's got his arrowguns, so it's pretty okay with him. Xigbar disappears, reappears just as someone--you?--stumbles upon them. ]

Better watch out for that thing!

[ Like he wouldn't push someone in front of him to save his own skin. ]

[well met]

Okay, so this isn't really what I was expecting.

[Here is one young man who could not be LESS dressed for the desert, in a long hooded black coat that quite literally came straight from Hot Topic. He frowned in perhaps a bit less confusion than the situation might have warranted, looking around at the desert and muttering to himself.]

...No way I took a wrong turn and ended up in Agrabah, right? Can't be, that's in the other direction. [He sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck.] At least I think it is. Not like I have every single world memorized.

[Life's hard, ain't it? But it was what it was, so not much to do but walk in the direction of the only real landmark available. Look, a completely normal and unassuming well.]

Edited 2019-02-14 05:53 (UTC)

i. hell's fury burns the heart.

If it were anyone, anyone else, Jester may be able to ignore them. It's pretty difficult to get on her bad side, sure. But there are a lot of bad people in the world. Avantika, Trent Ikithon, that Algar guy, that one dude who kicked a cat so hard it exploded...

She could, possibly, ignore any of those people taunting her. She knows she's not her strongest on her own, knows it's a poor idea to fight anyone with any sort of power without backup.

But Jester sees the large, imposing figure, the bald head and pale skin marked with faded tattoos marked with scars and that horrible smirk, and she... she panics.

Lorenzo, grinning toothily at her, not moving to attack but holding his oversized glaive out as if to remind her who that weapon has taken from her, drawling out in that voice that sends shivers down her spine to this day, "Looks like you're alone again..."

Jester, normally confident, feels alone. She grasps the holy symbol at her waist, tries to will it to warm at her touch, remind her of the Traveler's presence, but it remains dormant, and she whimpers, because Lorenzo keeps fucking talking.

"Breaking you will be even easier a second time," he taunts.

Jester outright shrieks like a pained animal, and she gestures and the loud, hollow sound of a disembodied church bell tolls, sending Lorenzo reeling back and covering his ears... but Jester herself recoils further, crying out and nearly falling to her knees.

She feels what must be a thick line of blood dribble out of her ears. They're ringing. Lorenzo's taunting laugh sounds almost distorted.

That's not supposed to happen.

ii. the weakest link.

[Now, Jester, for her part, has pretty much no issue trusting people. In fact, one could say she is perhaps a little too trusting, barring the few red flags she does occasionally pick up on. She generally does look for the good in people, though, and will strike up a conversation with a stranger without any real worry.

The issue, however, is prolonged exposure to her. And while some find her brand of chaos delightfully endearing, some... have a little less patience.

Let's hope the person chained to her at the moment isn't one of the latter, huh?

When her partner wakes up, they will find Jester jiggling the chain attached to both of their wrists very annoyingly. Like, there are hands being flung around annoyingly.]

Ohhh, this is just like what my mom does sometimes! This is the real kinky shit. You know, you should've asked first, but I guess I am pretty irresistible. Can I pick our safe word? I think it should be... jenga! No, wait, uh, um, what's really unsexy, um, skinky-doodie!

[Now would be a good time to tell her this isn't a sex thing.]

iii. well met.

[Jester is a little unusual for a tiefling. First of all, she's a rare brilliant blue color, something she prides herself on by calling herself her mother's little sapphire. But more importantly, her dad came from the ocean or something, and also might be the Gentleman, but that's NOT IMPORTANT right now, the important thing is she's at her best in cold temperatures and the desert is the opposite of that.

She is sweating like... well, like the Gentleman right now, which is something she's TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT, THANKS, we are focusing on the need for water and also the lack of water and why isn't her spell to Create Food and Water working. She just spent about two months traversing the ocean and making pure water and large amounts of magical food daily, and suddenly it's like she forgot the words to her favorite song or something!

She hums a tune she heard in Hupperdook the night she danced with Caleb and Nott as she drags her feet through the hot sand, just to make sure she still remembers things, even if it doesn't really solve the problem. It does make her feel a little better.

Gaaaaaaaaasp! Wait a second! Maybe she doesn't need that spell after all! (Well, she totally does, and she'll have a talk with the Traveler before bed about this, but in the meantime—) There's a very convenient well just over there!]

Holy shit. You're just messing with me again, aren't you!? You're such a dick sometimes!

[But the insult is delivered with no small amount of love behind the words, and she is grinning as she skips over to the well, an obvious gift from her god...]

1. Hell hath no fury...
[This wasn't a face she'd ever expected to see again. Not since their duel in the Landsmeet. Alyssa goes deathly still save for the hand itching for the dagger at her hip, her blue gaze cold and distant. She remembers the red heat on her hands well. How he refused to accept the reality of a fledgling Blight and caused so much grief in the land, tearing apart not only the nobility, but leading to the near-destruction of the only institute of learning for mages in Ferelden. She isn't even from Ferelden, but that Circle was her home...]

..Loghain. [There is anger in her tone, barely leashed and frigid. Yet the slap in the face comes verbally as the former regent turns to the only other person here.]

Silence. Your betters are talking, mage.

[She wants to set him ablaze, but she doesn't reach for her staff resting on her back. She could do it without, but her hands remain at her sides as she lifts her chin in disdain.]

No. You are dead, and you were never my "better"... traitor.

2. It's sand, blowing on sand in a place full of wind and sand.
[~~Bless the Iron Bull ten years later~~ Deserts are not something that this particular mage is familiar with. Ferelden is full of swamplands and mountains. So to say she's woefully unprepared in her blue and silverite Warden armor is an understatement.

And why she's so quick to fall for the trap.

She jumps back, pulling out a dagger from its sheath on her left hip and stares as the creature starts biting at her.]

Sweet Maker, what-? [Of all the things to be taken aback by, of course it's a fake well.

Well, shit.]

Edited 2019-02-14 19:37 (UTC)

I. Weakest Link

Starflight had to admit at this point he was getting sick of both caves and chains. Between growing up trapped in the cave he and his friends had been raised in, plus several stints in various prisons, he felt like he had more than his fair share of both lately. On the plus side, at least he wasn’t chained to the cave, and he wasn’t alone, which would have made the whole thing even more unbearable.

Of course, it was always possible his companion was working for whoever put them here, or there was some sadistic twist at the end. He’d read about a similar ice kingdom ritual one time, where two dragons went into a cave and only one came out. Or when Scarlet threw him in her gladiator arena with one of his friends.

“You don’t think they’re going to make us fight at the end of this, do you?” he asked cautiously, as they came upon another large door, locked of course. He started inspecting his side for any sort of hidden buttons of levers, his claws scraping gently across the stone.

II. Well Met

The middle of the desert, in the middle of the day, was no place for a black dragon. The closest he’d ever been to one was when his friends had skirted the border of the kingdom of sand and the ice kingdom, in the close highland deserts. This was completely different, and Starflight was miserable under the glaring sun. He desperately wished he had Sunny here. He didn’t know if SandWings could navigate deserts better than other dragons, but it didn’t matter. He missed her, and all his friends, terribly right now.

He was flying low over the dunes, the hot air helping him keep aloft, but despite how long he’d been flying he didn’t see anything that would offer shelter from the heat, or water. Gliding lower, he finally spotted the well in the distance and sped up, but seeing another figure nearby he pulled up quickly. Starflight considered landing, but he had no idea if this person was dangerous or not. He circled overhead at a safe distance, likely more ominously than he meant to be, a dark shadow passing over the meager water sources below.

The Weakest Link

[Zidane happens to be pretty friendly and easygoing when it comes to working with others. There are few people he genuinely hates unless they are downright evil bastards and while there are people he doesn’t get along with, he’s willing to put aside any personal feelings and cooperate to get out of a difficult situation. Whether or not that’s relevant to you (are you a snobby judgemental person?) is another question. But either way, he’s chained to you.

And the two of you have reached a dead end. Or rather not a dead end but you are in a large circular room a rather large sealed door and a few strange-looking symbols around the wall. Said symbols may or may not be a clue how to open the door. And Zidane could potentially notice and solve them if he had the patience. Which he generally doesn’t when it comes to things like doors and barriers blocking the way.]

Okay, listen up. We’re gonna move a few metres away from that door. And then on the count of three, you and I are gonna charge and knock that thing down! Got it?

[Clearly the best puzzle solver in the room here.]

Well met

[Well, he is in a sticky situation (no pun intended). Zidane, not having heard about these monsters and feeling a pretty thirsty, was one of the people who grabbed the rope and only managed to just get away by using his knife to slice off part of the rope (which is now gooey. Ewwwww). Unfortunately that cannot be the same for his leg, is caught by a surprise rope tentacle, making him fall onto his back.]

Whoooooah! Geez!

[And the monster is trying to pull him inside. The good thing is that he manages to cut the ‘rope’ and quickly scramble a few metres away, although another tentacle tries to reach out to him.

Maybe some help?

Or maybe you’re the one who is trapped and needs help. In which case, you will see a young blond-haired kid with a tail run up, a spare knife in one hand and his main weapon, a swallow blade, in the other. Stance ready, he thinks with the right aim, he can get the monster to catch and swallow it. Plus, he gets to show off his throwing skills. Especially if the person he's helping out is a pretty girl.

And……three, two, one!

And unfortunately, it misses and lands right by the monster itself.]

Awwww man, looks like I’m gonna have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Edited 2019-02-14 23:07 (UTC)

The Weakest Link
[It's not like Gabriel knows the first thing about waking up in a strange place with a complete stranger cuffed to him. Hell, he needs to jot that down as soon as possible, because it sounds like an incredible premise for a novel.]

You ever seen anythin' like this before? This is the kinda thing they usually leave to the movies.

I'm pretty good at figuring things out, but this is new even to me!

[...Yeah. He's pretty into this.]

Well Met
[Right. Sand everywhere. In the middle of the desert. When he'd been in Bavaria mere minutes ago. This is, absolutely, without question, some kind of dream.

Hopefully not a prophetic one. He's sick of those.

Fortunately for Gabriel, he is just smart enough to know that a well in the middle of a desert is incredibly fishy, and he keeps his distance, looking instead to the companion he's found himself with.]

Ain't that suspicious. You think there was some kinda settlement here? Seems strange for there to be nothin' but a well.

[The Weakest Link]

[Izuku isn't exactly the kind of person who has trouble trusting others. Really, unless someone does or says something suspicious, he's likely to assume trustworthiness until proven otherwise.

Situations, on the other hand? Those he'll distrust like innocent lives depend on it. Even dreams - especially lucid ones that involve feeling like he blinked and went from class to some kind of strange, overly-theatrical villain plot. The whole thing is just weird enough that he'd almost be willing to buy this as the mysterious joint training lesson if the person he was chained to wasn't a total stranger.

But since this is a stranger, he has more important concerns than the exact details of what's happening, at least for the moment. He can worry about "actual dream vs remote-kidnapping-via-teleportation Quirk" later.]

Hey. [He turns to give his full attention to his partner-in-chains.] Are you alright?

[Dream or not, he's got a job to do.]

[ 01. hell's fury ]

[There are no taunts, no direct confrontations, but maybe that's worse.

There are only glimpses of flowing cloth, the sound of bells and the flitting noise of loosed arrows. Here and there, when a corner is turned, a flash of a humanoid figure with a beatific smile, a sharp glint of color as the sunlight reflects off the tips of their bows--sometimes white, sometimes deep blue.

They're barely past the entrance when Cairngorm surges forward in pursuit, limbs taut with anger and fear. One of the figures stops at at the end of a corridor, as if waiting, and in its arms is a second, smaller figure. It glints like the arrowtips, but whatever color it is, you can't see, because Cairngorm slices through it with their saw as quickly as breathing.

It dissipates, and the saw instead hits the stone wall of the maze and embeds itself. Fine cracks run up Cairngorm's own arms from the impact; they don't seem to notice, and instead let go and fall to their knees, shaking.]

[ 02. the weakest link ]

[Cairngorm has never seen a handcuff in their life, but it doesn't take much examination to get the gist.

The first thing they try to do, after you both wake up, is try to see if they can tear it apart. By yanking it. And since they're literally made of quartz, they can yank really fucking hard. (In fact, it's very likely you'll fall over, while they look very unimpressed at you.)

And when that inevitably doesn't work the next step is to try and break it the chain using other means. Or their own hand off, eventually, if you're particularly annoying. It's not that big a deal, really. It'll reattach.]

Hell's Fury Burns The Heart
[Nope. Nope, nope, nope. This was not happening. Nari was not being followed by a version of herself. Except she was, and it was awful, and Nari wants nothing more than to keep ignoring the taunting coming from behind her. Every time the specter moves into her vision, she just turns her back on it.

All the while muttering how this is the most fucked up dream she's had in a while. And that Satan needed to kindly step off so she could go forward instead of spinning in a circle.]

Weakest Link
[Whoever it is that she's woken up tied to will be given the most scrutinizing look. Nari will also be sitting as far away from the other person as the chain will let her. Sorry, it might take some convincing to get her to cooperate.]

This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real...

Wildcard
[Hit me with your best shot!]

I. Hell's Fury Burns the Heart

[ Know what Maine's really good at? Violence. Brutality. Killing his enemies. Leaving behind a trail of bodies as he bulldozes his way through his missions, as confident in his strength as he is in gravity — or perhaps more so, since the latter fluctuates with the planet. He's the person that's called in when it's time to fight fire with fire. A person whose rage rises like a storm, until his hold on his temper snaps and he lashes out without care for who or what is around him.

Maine is not a person who forgives. He's not a person who can walk by his enemies without attacking. He is, in short, utterly fucked in this Trial.

For the umpteenth time, Maine appears at the beginning of the Trial. His labored breathing can be heard even outside of his armor. He clenches his fists tight and growls — a low, near-inhuman sounding thing — before he squares his shoulders and starts stalking down the path yet again. ]

II. The Weakest Link

[ There are worse things in the world than being handcuffed to Agent Maine. The massive man is clearly capable of handling himself physically: fully armored, he stands over seven-feet-tall and looks like he could throw a whole slew of cars with ease. Communicating with him, however, could be a bit of a problem.

See, Maine doesn't talk. It's not that he can't (yet), he just chooses not to the vast majority of the time. So, rather than cracking the ice, the behemoth of a man simply stands there like a monolith, staring down at his forced companion through an opaque gold visor that gives no indication of his thoughts or emotions.

So, uh. Good luck building trust! ]

III. Well Met

[ The relentless heat wouldn't be an issue if the cooling system in Maine's armor were working correctly. Unfortunately, it seems to have decided to shit itself, leaving the space marine all but cooking inside the titanium alloy.

Dammit.

Maine's helmet comes off first, revealing the face of a man who — aside from looking like an intense motherfucker — appears remarkably ordinary in spite of his sheer size. He squints against the sun, shaved head already glistening with sweat, and starts detaching more pieces of his armor's white outer shell.

Better heat than cold, he thinks. But he still needs to remove some layers (armored as they are) before he starts moving around, even if it's just to walk to what looks like a well. ]

(( ooc: maine is from a pre-injury (s9) canon point. for those unfamiliar, feel free to check out his general first impressions & permissions post. wildcards are also welcome! ))

Edited 2019-03-07 17:37 (UTC)

Threaded | Flat

xigbar | kingdom hearts

Axel/Lea | Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

jester ( critical role ) ota

Alyssa Amell | Dragon Age: Origins

Starflight | Wings of Fire | OTA

Zidane Tribal | Final Fantasy IX | OTA