TEST DRIVE MEME ( 022 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #22

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 April 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.

To Dungeons Deep And Caverns Old
Caves are usually natural structures, though the one you find yourself within shows signs of manual influence. Brackets set into stones hold odd, glowing plants that illuminate the darkness with almost neon tones. Slightly sunken ceilings appear less threatening with the addition of great, wood beams to brace them upright, and traversing the more heavily inclined passages becomes far easier with the addition of roughly carved stairwells, worn smooth by the passage of many feet that have passed this way before you.

If it weren't for the way the ground tremors and rumbles underfoot, it would be a strange but otherwise pleasant scene. As it stands, that clamorous shaking only worsens the longer you stand here, rumbles like thunder vibrating through the stone in dense waves. An earthquake? A volcanic eruption?

...a cave-in? Regardless of the cause, that final option is becoming more likely to occur in your general vicinity, the longer these tremors continue. It's time to go - and quickly, before that option is lost to you entirely. To the left, or right? Up, or down? If you look up, if you really squint, a few shimmering rays of sunlight glimmer far, far above your head from a natural skylight, if you think you can survive whatever's happening on the surface. Or you can keep forging your way downward, deeper, and hope that there's a stable little alcove set somewhere in the stone where you can wait this whole thing out. There really are innumerable options in this labyrinthian underground - and what awaits you around the next corner could be your salvation or your downfall.

Your very long downfall. So watch your step.

What's My Age Again?
Last month, adventurers found themselves dealing with the aftermath of a volcanic eruption... and the odd, transformative effects the volcanic ash seemed to have upon them. Ever curious of what occurs in the waking world, Mu has once again sought to emulate this oddity, reshaping its visitors to fit the images of their past - or even their potential future. Waking up in your preteen body is the nightmare of many, but hardly the greatest oddity one might come across in a dream. Fifteen years younger, thirty years older - either way, you seem to be a tad displaced from who you are in the now. Those aware of this may find it something of a challenge, with vocal chords cracking for the first time in years, or creaking bones that don't move quite as fast as they used to. For others, however, nothing appears to be amiss at all; mentally or physically. Your memories may have leapt up to follow suit with these radical changes...or maybe you're an adult mind trying to cope with a toddler's body.

Perhaps this dream is precisely the chance you've been looking for. It's time to relive your childhood, or experience your golden years in peace. The calm, resort-like beachfront you find yourself upon will hinder neither. You could always go looking for answers - where you are, why this is happening to you - but there's no guarantee you'll be successful in locating any.

Maybe you'll get lucky, though, and find someone who believes you.

Worth A Thousand Words
The Chamber of Glyphs is a unique feature to LifeAftr, resting on the border between the waking world and Mu itself. An immense room of seemingly infinite length and height, every space, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, is occupied by images scratched into stone with chalk and charcoal.

The drawings themselves also appear to be- unique. Beams of light from a chalked-in sun mingle with illustrations raindrops to create a shimmering rainbow. Roughly drawn animals leap away from those who approach, startled out of stillness, and ancient battles play out in never-ending loops upon the floor. Everywhere one looks, drawings seem to shift upon the walls, disappearing and reappearing elsewhere, or mingling with images that had not been there prior. A basin of endless chalk sits next to a firepit in the center of the room, ripe for the inspired artist to take to whatever blank canvas is available in the architecture - and there is always space available. If you're bored of watching the charcoal rabbits leap away to hide in green, chalky grass, perhaps there's a drawing of your own that's ready to come to life, a permanent fixture to the walls about you.

Or not. Take care with just what you decide to draw, as some images may not be content staying glued to flat surfaces. Outliners are perhaps exactly what one would expect them to be, and exactly what they sound like: something that's both out of bounds and out of line. Rogue outlines of chalk, charcoal, and paint, they break away from the surface upon which they were initially spawned to shamble after the living with often awkward shambling. Very few have been given the gift of depth, a fact that leaves most paper thin and prone to crumpling into scribbled heaps.

Though not the greatest of threats, it's best not to let them touch you. Those without depth or dimension may be quite eager to steal yours - and once you find yourself drawn into the two-dimensional spaces across the walls and floor, returning to normal will prove near impossible.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[devilarmory]

Don't remember anyone cutting your arm off, though I guess it wouldn't really shock me if you just turned around and sprouted a new one.

[look he's been impaled, he walked it off, arms are clearly a much different logical leap of stupidity!]

Whatever. Not all that interested in running around without a shirt, I'd probably catch hell from Kyrie. Not to mention Nico'd probably laugh me out of the car.

Caverns

[shatteredlenses]

Blast it, Mu! Can you make this anymore difficult?

[Ignis slides his hand across one wall, trying to get some kind of mental map of the cavern, and even as he does, there is more rumbling sending rocks scattering to the floor around him. He braces himself until it ends and turns blind eyes up at the ceiling.]

That was not an invitation!

[An annoyed sigh slips from his mouth and then Ignis sets himself back to his task, pausing when he hears another voice call out. He pauses, not because there is someone else there--of course there is--but because somewhere deep in the back of his mind, mixed in with feelings of desperation and pain, a memory floats just close enough to the surface to make him think that voice sounds familiar.]

Who's there?

[devilswordme]

I cut my brother in half once. Didn't take, obviously.

[ How many times did he cut you, Dante?? This younger look really is making him nostalgic. Though the bangs are kind of annoying, Dante fusses with them, trying to part them down the middle. ]

That's just cause you weren't rocking a six pack at 18.

[ He's shredded, thanks. Though honestly he's a lot skinnier than the Dante Nero knows. ]

Something tells me she'd have a field day with your little emo look, too. The bangs really bring out your issues with authority.

[devilarmory]

[Flatly:] I noticed.

[thanks for the giant murder tree, dad.]

...You're not gonna tell her, are you?

[whosamacallit]

[ She can deal with 'The Archivist' - though in her world, someone with a 'the' in front of their name tends to be a murderer. Maybe he comes from a small town, and he's the town archivist. It happens.

Then, as she's taking in a breath to introduce herself, he says her name, and sure, this is a dream, but it doesn't stop her feeling a chill go down her spine. A figurative chill, a warning sign from her instincts to the rest of her: danger, get ready to run or to fight. In a dream, she could win or fail at either of those. ]

You must be an archivist from the future. [ Neither fight nor flight, not yet. She'll stall. Stalling has saved her life before. ] I'm sure my work will be studied in forensic anthropology courses and journals for decades, maybe even centuries.

[ How else would he know? It's the only logical explanation, even if time travel is strictly theoretical at best where she comes from. ]

[veracus]

[She absentmindedly lifts a hand to her mouth and chews on her fingernail - an old habit she can't seem to stop, even though it almost got her killed once.

She says nothing to the strange woman right away, but she seems, at least, to be... somewhat calmer?]

[devilswordme]

[ Dante chuckles. Whatever, sometimes your brother tries to end the world, it's happened before!! He plucks Rebellion off of his back and stakes it in the ground, leaning against the pommel. ]

Tell her what? [ He grins, mischievously. Who's the adult here? ] That you used to be an angsty teen with anger issues? It's not like things have changed.

[merimna]

[Without looking up:] I... don't know? Maybe?

[Then he looks up and sees the person speaking is in... thick, powerful-looking battle armor. He squeaks.] Oh... god. This is a nightmare.

two | drakengard 3

[sandsister]

A

[The possibility of a cave in doesn't scare her-she's built of tougher stuff than that and the Land of Sands has ebbed away any weakness that might've remained. She can dig, dig, dig her way out-

Once she finds Cent.

And it really doesn't matter, honestly, because he's so cool, so strong, so tough-he's probably canvasing the area like the hero she knows he is, making sure no one's going to be caught in the crumbling cavern before he escapes with her.

He's just so amazing-incredible! Wonderful! She can barely stop the lovestruck sigh that escapes her, but the sound of it is probably buried by the rocks falling to either side, one hitting her square on the shoulder. Not that it phases her any. She dusts off her bare shoulder, like it's an annoyance. Which it is. This dream sucks. Why can't she think about taking a vacation with her sisters? Or hanging out in the Cathedral City? Or having a nice dinner with Cent?

However the presence of another person does pull her out of her thoughts and she eagerly, almost happily, waves them down.]

Heeeeey! Look over here! You need a hand? I can help you get out. Just stick close to me, okay? Oh, and look out for all the rocks. They'll leave a bad bruise.

B

[For however many times the kids have persuaded her to watch them draw, she's never taken the opportunity to doodle with them. Her strength is getting harder to control-the chalk is easily crushed in her grip, no matter how gently she wraps her fingers around it. It takes too much concentration and she simply played it off like she wasn't artistic enough to compete with their drawings.

But sometimes she would try-would hold the chalk in between her fingers, take deep breathes and wish she didn't have this ability and-

Inevitably, she could never keep her fingers steady long enough to scratch out a few lines.

But she tries in the dream, finding it easier to make waves, arcs, curves along the chamber walls with all the glee of someone in the midst of making an incredible piece of art.

And just as she's writing her letter to Cent on the walls, mumbling a few words aloud about how incredible and smart and amazing he is-

Something pulls itself outta the wall and she immediately reaches for the large broadsword that rivals her own height to her side.]

Oh hey! Come on, you don't wanna fight, right? You're just a cute little drawing. Go back into the wall-scat! Go on!

[She doesn't like wanna attack this weird thing unless she really has to?? It's not like One said to kill it. Just go away ya dingus drawing.]

worth a thousand words

[holysapling]

[Ohhh.

Farina's made her way into the Chamber, head cocked back as she takes in the nigh-infinite width and height of it; she doesn't seem to be looking for anyone or anything, though her ears twitch a little at the sound of her own footsteps echoing through, at the skittering of small creatures that she can only just hear at the edge of her senses. This place is different to anywhere she's been before, and she lets her hands trace softly along the drawings as she goes, tracking their implied movement and smiling vaguely to herself.

The sprays of flowers catch her attention well before the girl that drew them, and the rabbits not long after; she isn't wary of the living creatures as she approaches - she should probably be wary, these aren't things she's at all familiar with, but she's always the sort to be curious before afraid. She crouches down near one of the rabbits, head tilting from side to side and the veil in her hair rustling gently as she takes everything in - the fur, the whiskers, the ears and eyes - and after a moment she seems to come to the general conclusion that it probably looks like a friend.

She doesn't quite know where this thing came from, but you did good, Vera, goodness.]

worth a thousand words

[antepone]

[ Luckily, there's someone who does notice. She isn't sure what it is; she hasn't experienced anything like it, but it can't be good. ]

You should probably get up and walk away from the thing that's behind you.

what's my age

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael, to be honest, does not immediately notice Chidi. He's read that file a billion times, sure, but that's not the same as seeing the actual child version in the flesh. And he's also a little distracted by the fact that he's dreaming. That doesn't normally happen to him, and it's perturbing.

So right now he's kinda pacing up and down the beach and yelling at the sky. As one does.]

Hey! Rabbit thing! Turn off the stupid dream already, it is so boring!

scusi. let me love you. ( dungeons deep etc. )

[fourgasm]

[Yeah, okay, Klaus happens to be one of the siblings who doesn't do so well in tight spaces. So sue him! Though Ben, for his part, happens to be the one most intimately familiar with Klaus' usual reaction to that certain feeling of being trapped. And Klaus, meanwhile, is probably the only Hargreeves who would be unsurprised to see Ben around.

How convenient.

His arms are crossed tightly over his chest as he nervously, hesitantly, slowly steps through the cavern, through stalagmite and rubble, frankly looking like he expects a ghost to pop out at any turn. Which he sort of does actually. It's a thing.

When Ben appears, though? Klaus initially freezes up, but recognizing his brother, long dead as he may be, he relaxes considerably.

It's like how the Ghostbusters kept Slimer around. Ben is basically Klaus' Slimer. Only not completely insufferable. Most of the time.

Klaus sighs.]

Christ, you know I don't like it when people sneak up on me.

[He tries to peek over Ben's shoulder.]

Did you find an exit? Don't get me wrong, you know I love a good... live burial, but uh, I'm actually kind of hungry? I never did get to finish that burrito.

[Translation: God please help me get out of here.]

all of us without kid icons like SHRUG!!!!

[fourgasm]

[Oh yeah, survival skills. That's definitely what's going on right here.

At the very least, Klaus is not easily annoyed, per se. What he is is extremely unused to dealing with kids his age that aren't superpowered weirdos that are legally related to him. He blinks up at the girl with wide eyes, pausing in his work.]

Are you a snitch?

[She's probably alive, since she seems to be at least baseline worried about getting set on fire. So there's that at least.]

[evergonnahaunt]

Seriously? You're gonna die and you're thinking about food?

[Key word: you're. Obviously if Klaus is here and nobody else is here, then Ben is still dead and nothing in here can harm him. Nevermind that he's weird tired from wandering around. It happens sometimes, when Klaus is too fucked up to see him or Ben can't find him in a crowd. They came here via Five's powers (probably? maybe?) so there's some kinda science junk to be said about it. It's not Ben's thing, teleportation and time travel.

Five barely understands it, from what Ben gathers, so he doesn't feel bad about the fact that he doesn't really get it at all.]

I should just leave you here.

[Rolling his eyes, Ben turns the direction he came from and starts walking. In fairness, it is the direction of the exit because Ben is nice like that. Also because he's pretty sure it's easier to get Klaus to follow him that way instead of just telling him where the exit actually is. Telling Klaus things directly is a crapshoot sometimes.]

[the_archivist]

[Jon sighs and reaches up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. Really? Is this how things are going to be from now on? He hadn't even noticed until he'd said it and he hadn't pulled it from her head, at least he doesn't think so. He'd just known it, like, in retrospect, he'd known that Gerard - Gerry - had been working with Gertrude before his death.]

The future? No. I don't think so. It's... 2017. I think.

[How long since the Unknowing had taken place? That apparently is something he can't know.

He shakes his head and gives a sheepish smile.]

Sorry. I don't really have much control over it yet. It's a bit... sporadic about what I can Know.

[a_shadow]

It'll be a nightmare if you don't get moving.

[ Tex comes closer, offers her hand. She'll carry him if she has to, but she needs to see if she has to first. ]

[whosamacallit]

[ Progress. Brennan is... not great at this, but something about this girl strikes a chord in her. ]

I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan. [ PhDs are comforting, right? Brennan would feel safer around a PhD. ] We're gonna be okay as long as we figure this out.

[ Such comforting... very people skills... ]

lmao tbh

[whosamacallit]

[ You hear that? It's the sound of subtle peer pressure. ]

No. [ She's not lawful good yet. ] It doesn't matter, though, right? We're not doing anything wrong.

[whosamacallit]

I don't understand. [ Plain and simple. There's no shame in admitting that. ] i don't think I'm supposed to, since this is a dream, but...

It's 2008, from what I remember. No one can control history, but I also can't "turn off" my brain. I can't control it that I can learn so much just from looking at bones. What you're saying sounds different.

[the_archivist]

No it's-

[Jon shakes his head and tries to think of a way to explain it that isn't utterly horrifying. Unfortunately his entire life is utterly horrifying and it doesn't look like it's going to get better anytime soon.]

I'm... the Archivist. I sometimes just know things, knowledge that I have no way of really knowing. It's just drips right now, but there's an ocean of it, barely held back.

[whosamacallit]

[ Okay. She's going to try here. ]

If I accept that you are... some... figure out of myth, then I can begin to understand.

[ YouTried.jog, Brennan. ]

Should we get out of here? You said I wouldn't like whatever's behind this.

[the_archivist]

[Jon makes a face at that, although possibly it's not entirely inaccurate.]

I'm not a mythological figure. I'm not... Cu Chulainn or Perseus. I'm just Jon. It's more like... I have a patron. And I'm it's... avatar. It's all sort of a mess really.

[Getting out of here does sound good though. It reminds him of Mike making him fall and fall through endless sky not knowing if he was going to be allowed to stop before he hit the ground.]

That would not be a bad idea. I had a not so pleasant encounter with the Vast recently and I'm not keen to repeat it.

arthur morgan | red dead redemption 2

[yeenaw]

i. dungeons deep

[God damn, but does he hate caves. Only took him about two days of miserable living out in the tunnel system below Beaver Hollow to decide that. And the last memory he has of one, too - at John's heels, pulling himself up ladders with gunshots blowing chunks of rock from the walls behind him - don't turn him any fonder.]

[Never mind he's got no idea where the hell he is. Or how the hell he got here.]

[Arthur thinks maybe his lantern was one of the things he'd handed over to John, can't quite remember, but if it was then he's seriously regretting that decision. He's never met a cliff he'd tried climbing in the dark that didn't end in him falling on his ass. Either way, Arthur has never been a man of indecision - or a decent sense caution, anyway - and so he mounts the first set of ledges he can get his hands and boots into, his spurs clicking against stone as he pulls himself up and through. Up seems to be the directive, here.]

[If he has to shove at rocks and beams to move them out of his way, toppling them into the tunnels below, that's just how it's got to be. If he's somehow found himself some other den of degenerates, he'd be right pleased to bring the whole place down on the collective lot of them and himself.]

Goddamn Murfree country... [he grunts, hides a cough under his breath, and heaves a rock off the side of his ledge.] I'll shoot all of you slimy bastards.

ii. a thousand words

[Arthur never did much work with chalk. Or anything other than graphite on rough paper, except the time or two he tried out some fancy fountain pen he stole off of a guy and decided he hated how clumsy ink made him feel. The more he tries chalk out, the further away he gets from figuring out whether he likes it or not.]

[It's messy, like ink, and the lines don't seem to hold together too well, but there's something novel about the way it shows up on the gray stone. He draws a barn mouse eating a blackberry with some difficulty, then moves onto a raccoon washing its paws and discovers how much easier it is to use chalk when you're drawing big. So Arthur stays big, within reason - a rabbit, a dog, a pig. A coyote dragging a chicken across the ground, towards a pair of bushes.]

[He's getting bored and about to try his curiosity with the charcoal when something leaps past him, and Arthur jerks back, throwing his chalk at it with a loud curse. The chalk passes harmelssly through the decidedly two-dimensional rabbit he'd drawn, and it pricks its ears at him in shock before turning its white, sketchy tail and bounding away.]

[Arthur blinks and turns in a circle, scratching at his beard in wonderment.]

What the hell... ?

[Jesus, when did everything start moving?]

[whosamacallit]

[ It's the best she can do right now. Poor Jon. At least she gets those referrnces. She knows those names. It helps a little, especially the part about it being a mess. It's not the most precise descriptor, but it's easy to grasp and agree with. ]

And I'm not in the mood to be buried alive again.

[ With a glance that says "let's go" (nonverbal cues aren't always difficult for her) she starts for the exit. She's not someone who believes in "feeling the creeps" brennan oh my god it's "it gives me the creeps" or something like it but there is... a strange prickling at the back of her neck. Coincidence. It's just a dream. Never mind the dancing drawings all around them. ]

This is the third time in recent memory I'm glad to see the sky.

[ She's gonna catch you, Gravedigger. ]