aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 021 )

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*test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 021 )

Test Drive Meme #21

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.

In conjunction with our monthly Test Drive Meme, Reserves are now open! Applications will open on March 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.

Come to Ink Of It
Mu is a strange land, and one that seems to take a conscious interest in the activities conducted upon the waking world. This month, its fixation takes an almost childish delight in emulating the ink-spattered wars and hazing that have occured on Ensō's shores - which is to say, Mu would absolutely enjoy a charming little game of Splatoon.

When you wake, it's in a labyrinth of soft, stonelike material that manages to be the rough consistency of foam. If you take the time to inspect it, you'll discover that it's as good at cushioning blows as it is serving as adequate cover...and it appears to have been shaped into plenty of buildings and barricades, threaded throughout the cavernous room in which you've found yourself. In fact, the whole place looks very much like a battlefield of some kind.

In case you didn't get the picture, the paint gun in your hands should give you an inkling. Colors may be up to personal preference, but the rules are simple - solo, in a team, or as a double agent, your goal is to paint the town red, or blue, or purple, until victory is tasted in the form of aesthetic domination.

Do keep in mind, however, that battle cries may be a double-edged sword in this scenario. Unless you wanted green teeth.

I AM THE SHADOW, THE TRUE

-looks at smudged writing on hand-

...SHELF

What's more trouble than the true manifestation of all your darkest fears, desires, and secrets? The manifestation of all of the above that's just - not very well-made. In order for a shadow, a true self, to appear, one really should know themself somewhat consciously. Of course, this also applies true to the world in which they're standing; an effort Mu is willing to make, but not quite hitting the mark.

And by "not quite hitting the mark," we mean egregiously.

"Shadows" are an off-brand simulation of what one might expect during a typical shadow event, though their attempts at acting like the character they should be are closer to emulating the opposite. Whether based upon a looser definition of canon, a fanon-style iteration of what your character might have been in worse hands, or simply going in a direction that veers into the territory of edgy Harry Potter OCs, your "Shadow" is here, and ready to be a nuisance.

Unlike ordinary Shadows, a "Shadow" cannot be accepted and dissipate as one would hope. Respite from these garish versions of who you really are will come only upon waking. So until then, enjoy attempting to explain just what, precisely, is dogging your every step, and probably refusing to shut up all the while. Though granted, if they share any of your powers - grossly magnified or otherwise - you might be grappling with them in far more ways than one.

A Bug's Eye View
The lush, verdant shores and the peaceful population of newly-arrived island of Cahypdo have been noticeably present on the minds of the islanders lately. Mu has shifted to reflect those thoughts, but as with many things Mu reflects, things have become a little...skewed. For, you see, the native inhabitants of Cahypdo are the Roaka, and as tree-people, they tower over much of the current inhabitants. They range from six to twelve feet in height, generally, but it seems that their heights have left a....very marked impression.

The Roaka certainly tower over you now, even more than before - but so does everything else. Wherever you find yourself in the verdant, fertile valley that houses much of Cahypdo's plantlife - whether it's rich jungles or well-tended farmland - you'll be met with the same undeniable height difference.

Trees are dizzying heights to be scaled the same way a mountain might. Blades of grass and colourful flowers you might once have trodden on without a second thought are like a forest unto themselves. And the fields of crops you might have known from the waking world, like sweetcorn, peas, and tomatoes? Even a single ear of corn or a solitary tomato is now a much, much larger obstacle.

Just pray you don't run into any of the native creatures here, as even ordinary beasts can become potential dangers when they're all the size of giants relative to you, and can stamp you to jelly without so much as a second glance. Snaplings might regard you as a tasty little snack, tigerlilies might think you make for a fun little toy, and worst of all, the native Cahypdo entities known as hydrac, warped hybrids of sharks and dragons, might very well decide that you'd be a fine addition to their hoards.

There's a lot to look out for, when you're this small and the world is this big.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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A: Come to Ink of It

"Heeeeeeeh...." Bakura grinned, looking around him. A game world, huh? Excellent~

After a brief debate over what color he wanted, he's loaded up with blue link and grinning like a doofus as he runs around, looking for any of his friends (or really, anyone unsuspecting~) to blast away at. He's absolutely garbage at hiding (that massive poof of white hair sticks out so very much against the ink splattered background) but is fully prepared to wind up a multi-colored mess, so long as whomever gets him is prepared to get splattered in revenge~

A little while into the game, however, he does get a little sneaky, and a small white arctic fox may be spotted scurrying around from cover to cover. He can't carry around his squirt gun this way, but he can leave it places and lure someone back towards it~

B: The true... shelf?

There being two Bakurae would not be an unfamiliar thing. Bakura's close friends back home were far more aware of the Ring Spirit than the teen himself was, and while Traveling, the Doppelganger he had bonded with had made his ability to mimic Bakura's form known to his new friends while pranking them on a walkabout.

But that one of them is cringing and all but sobbing as he hides behind his hands while the other looks frankly puzzled... That wasn't what would be expected by anyone. Including Bakura himself.

"Mou, BatBat, what's the matter? This isn't like you..." the puzzled one fretted, moving closer to reachout to his double.

"I'm sorry! Don't hurt me..." the double sobbed, curling up tighter.

Bakura blinked. Then blinked again. "Hurt you?" he repeated, head tilting curiously. "You're not still mad at me for yelling at you when you were being mean to Pinya and everyone, are you?"

The response was a pitiful whimper.

"Mou..." Bakura sighed, shoulders slumping. He'd never had much luck understanding his Doppleganger. The bat-like creature had always just vanished for months at a time and when he did show up again, it was normally to make snide commentary and to cause trouble. Acting like this didn't make any sense at all...!

Edited (When there is an A you should follow up with a B....) 2019-03-18 00:37 (UTC)

[Asriel is very good at this game. Very, very good at it, for someone whose only experience with a gun was... rather unusual. It's almost like he's played something very similar before.

He's shooting everyone he sees, dive rolling out of the way, when he sees... a fox? He wasn't expecting that.

Curious, he follows it behind cover, keeping his guard up and his gun trained for anyone else who might come barging in.]

[[The fox peeks over its shoulder before grinning and scurrying quickly across a small opening before leaping behind another low wall.

If Asriel's curiosity gets the better of him, when he looks around behind that low wall, there'll be a grinning teenager with a mess of white hair flopped on the ground with a squirtgun ready and aimed at him. And about 3 seconds warning before Bakura lets loose.

...and also plenty time for a counter attack, as while Bakura has thought out his cunning plan to lure someone in and get a cheap shot in, he hasn't thought about what to do after. ]]

[Asriel is pretty quick to react. When he sees the grinning, white-haired teenager behind the wall, he's confused at first (where did the fox go???) but three seconds warning is more than enough time to take a step backwards and dive behind the other side of the wall. A shot hits him, but just barely.

Asriel cocks his paint gun and takes no time preparing for a counterattack. He climbs over the cover and drops down from above, attempting to fire on his way down. If Bakura hasn't moved, or doesn't predict Asriel's attack, Asriel would almost certainly just land right on his head.]

[[There's a bit of a scramble as Bakura attempts to get out of the way, but despite being a fairly agile, he's not really that athletic (and transforming back to fox form takes a bit more concentration than he can pull up so quickly!) and he barely manages to scramble out of the way of being squished. Giving a laugh, he raises up his arms to block the impending ink attack from hitting his face, taking his loss with good cheer]]

Aaaa, you got me, you got me!

[Asriel grins at his victory. Another point to add to his total! He laughs - this almost makes him feel normal again.

But... being normal again means he should try to make friends, even if he's not entirely trusting of humans yet. This human seems good so far, so he lowers his paint gun and extends a goopy, paint-covered hand.]

That was fun. What's your name? Mine's Asriel.

Bakura! [[The goopy hand is accepted with a warm shake (and a bit of additional ink mixing in. Bakura's gotten hit a few times so far, but really, what was the point of playing with ink if you weren't going to get messy?)]]

Nice to meet you, Asriel!

[[and it's about now that he finally notices that this person isn't a typical looking human and he perks up, grin growing bigger.]]

Heeeeh, haven't seen anyone that looks like you before! What world are you from?

Bakura! That's a cool name.

[Asriel smiles awkwardly at the question. Isn't this just a weird dream he's having?] What... world? Uh, the Underground. I guess. The Kingdom of Monsters?

[[Far as Bakura knows, this is another Jaunt world (even if the network seems broken and he can't reach Dakki. She might just be infiltrated again. Or on the wrong side of the Jaunt. That seemed to happen an awful lot...)

Still, that answer just makes his face light up all the more]]

The Monster Kingdom?! Aaa, that's so cool! Back home, that sort of place is only in games and stories and things like that! So cool to hear that there are places that it's all real!

[[At this rate, every game and book he loved would wind up being real, and that was the best thing ever.

... well. As long as Hellraiser didn't turn out being real too...

... ~~looks at the camera~~]]

[Asriel is... at a complete loss for words. He just stares at Bakura with a very confused, very unconvincing smile, while internally thinking "what the heck is this guy talking about." Of course the Underground is real! Did they make fiction about monsters on the Surface?]

Uh... yeah. OK.

[Time to change the subject.] So you, um, you're from the Surface, right?

[[You'll get used to that feeling, Asriel. ~~Especially if Bakura starts talking about card games.~~]]

Aaa-- un! You could say that! Though we don't really call it that! [[a small laugh as he rubs the back of his neck]] Since being above ground is just pretty normal, everyone just says which town they're from and things like that! Or what world, when we're Traveling. But that is a little different...

[Asriel nods.] Yeah, I guess that makes sense. People don't really know there is an Underground, right? So you wouldn't call it the Surface - that's just what monsters call it.

Traveling to worlds? You mean, through outer space? You can DO that? [Because THAT definitely interests him.]

Mmm... I don't think it's outer space... Though one of my friends comes from there! [[A huge grin.]]

It's more like... sort of like colliding into alternate realities and sometimes on impact you fall into another person and get to live as them for a month or you just fall into the world and get to live there as you for that time and normally there's something really cool going on like a wizarding tournament or that one where there was that really cool aurora borealis and everyone got to turn into animals and there were these government agent guys who thought we were all aliens--

[This is... a lot to take in. One of Bakura's friends comes from outer space? Alternate realities? Literally everything else Bakura is saying?]

Whoa, whoa! Slow down! [Asriel rubs his temple.] You're giving me a headache...

[[Whoops. He stops, shrinking in a little and scratching slightly at his cheek.]]

Sorry...

[He immediately feels bad. Damn it. He never was good at socializing with others, but he should at least try to act normal. He tries to smile again, but it's so small it can barely be called a smile.]

It's... it's OK.

But... you're serious, right? You're not just making this up? Humans do all that stuff?

Un! It's completely true! [[He's back to all smiles as he nods]] Most people don't get to do that sort of thing, though! I was super lucky I wound up in that place!

[[Even though he's really not sure how. But really, he was fairly used to just winding up in strange places like that that he didn't really question it.]]

[Asriel smiles too, more sincerely, less awkwardly.]

Wow. I know we were trapped underground for a very long time, but... that's really incredible that humans can do all that. I haven't heard of any of the things you were talking about before.

I hadn't either, until they happened! [[Such a huge grin. So huge.]] But that's sort of the way with these things, really! If everyone knew about them, they wouldn't be fantastic, right?

[Asriel's smile widens.] You're absolutely right. The majority of people wouldn't believe half the things that have happened to me either.

Had some big adventures of your own too? [[He's looking all eager and hopeful and curious now.]]

I suppose you could put it that way.

[Asriel frowns. He shouldn't have brought it up. Those memories are anything but happy for him... seeing as he was the villain in that little "adventure."

He quickly plasters on a very fake, hopefully disarming smile and scratches the back of his head.]

Um, I'm sorry, but I don't really want to talk about it.

...That bad?

[[There is a definite sympathetic note in his voice, despite the slight curiosity. That someone had amazing things happen to them that turned out to be amazingly bad...

There is the faded outline of a messy looking scar on the back of the hand that Bakura has up by his chin, a reminder of his own... less than pleasant encounter with the fantastic.]]

...Yeah.

[He notices the scar. He doesn't want to comment, but it looks really bad.] Your hand... does that hurt?

Eh?

[[He blinks, looking down at his hand before looking utterly sheepish and rubbing the back of his neck]] Aaa-- not any more, no! One of my Traveling friends healed it for me! It used to ache and get super stiff before, especially when I was carving figurines, but now I forget the scar's even there!

[[He laughs before pausing, blinking down at his hand again]] ... Strange, there was that Mark there before... [[A small, thoughtful frown as he peers at it, squinting as if trying to see where the Mark had gone]]

Ryou Bakura | Yu-gi-oh! (original series, manga) | CRAU via Syn

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