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.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Temperance Brennan | Bones

[whosamacallit]

To Dungeons Deep And Caverns Old

[ A heavy sigh and a very extra eyeroll are her first reaction. Buried alive. Again. At least this time it's in some massive cave system where she (probably) doesn't need to worry about running out of oxygen. The tremors are a little much, but this is dreamlike anyway, so it makes sense. What's one traumatic experience turned up to 11, right? Dreams are weird. She hates them.

There's nothing for it but to head for the light, so iff Brennan goes at a walk. The seismic waves, or the shockwaves from collapses in the caves, cause her to stumble now and then. One time, the sound of ricks cracking overhead makes her dive to save her limbs - sorry if she dives into you.

Or, if you prefer, she finds you at a dead end and looks up, at the light coming from above. ]

I can see what's up there if you give me a boost.


Worth A Thousand Words

[ If she draws a skeleton, will it come to life? Scientific curiosity almost gets the best of her. Brennan stands there, hands dusty with discarded charcoal. This place doesn't belong to her. She won't change what's here, even as it changes on its own.

A dolphin catches her eye, playful and energetic at her feet. She crouches down to get a closer look. ]

Not very realistic. Like cave paintings. More sophisticated than that. [ She talks like she's teaching. To a class, to an intern - or maybe like she's recording case notes.

Who's there? She looks up and talks to you. ]

What can you tell me about this place?

[ Brennan you can't just assume people know things. But in a dream, anything's possible. ]


Wildcard

[ Will match format too. She's from end of season 3 if you're canon familiar. Throw whatever at me or pm to drum something up. ]

[veracus]

[Vera flinches when the strange woman approaches her. She just stares at her, her arms tightly clutching her sketchbook, wondering if this is a "bad person" or not, wondering if she should say something to her.

She's too scared to, however. She's too scared to even take a step backwards. Even in a dream, which this clearly is, she doesn't like being approached by strangers.]

[whosamacallit]

[ Lucky for this girl, Brennan is significantly less cold to anyone who looks like a scared kid. She's been that kid. She had bad foster parents. She got bullied in school constantly. ]

It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. [ Maybe her voice doesn't sound too much softer, but her gaze goes from intense and focused to warm(er) concerned. ] I'm just looking for more information. I don't know much.

[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?]

[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... ]

[veracus]

[A doctor? That's even scarier. She hasn't seen a doctor in a long time, at least before she was poisoned, but she hates doctors. They were always giving her shots and diagnosing her with things. Always giving her medication. Always trying to "fix her." Maybe this is one of those kinds of doctors.

She responds by rapidly sketching a drawing in her textbook of a crying face and showing it to the doctor.]

[whosamacallit]

[ Okay so she was wrong. Hmm. How to proceed? ]

Can you understand me?

[ It seems like she can, but Brennan would rather be sure. ]

[veracus]

[Instead of simply nodding, she draws in her sketchbook again. This time she draws a happy face. Her actual expression is completely blank.]

Worth A Thousand Words!

[syntheticmemories]

[The man standing beside her isn't a man at all upon closer inspection. He appears to made of plastic and metal, for one. For another, a mess of wires and a metal "skeleton" are visible through large holes in his synthetic skin around his face and neck. The hand holding his lit cigarette is entirely skinless, pure spindly metal. He glances over at her, eyes black and bright yellow and not even remotely human.

Nick never knows how people will react to seeing him, but it's not polite to just leave her hanging, so he flicks some ash from his cigarette and answers as best he can.]

No clue. [He sounds exactly like one would imagine an old-timey detective sounding.] Nowhere in the Commonwealth, that's for damn sure.

[whosamacallit]

[ Honestly, she's seen weirder both in dreams and in waking life. Corpses in various stages of decomp, bones in all sorts of material... not much fazes her. ]

Which commonwealth?

[ Let's be specific here. 'Commonwealth' narrows it down, but precision is key. ]

[syntheticmemories]

The New England Commonwealth.

[She must not be from the Boston area, he notes, if she isn't familiar with the name. As far as he's aware, it's the only commonwealth intact in the country. There weren't a ton of organized areas that were still livable back home. That said, humans could survive in the damnedest places. Just look at the Mojave Desert. That place, if the stories were true, was not meant for people to live in. Period.

Nick takes a drag from his cigarette and watches a picture of a tree swaying in an invisible breeze. Brings up a little bit of nostalgia for the old times, before the war. Back when he was still Nick Valentine and not a machine pretending to be Nick Valentine.]

What's left of it, anyway.