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

[fourgasm]

You need food to live! Tell me I don't need to teach you how being alive works again.

[It's logical, okay! And also it's a good deflection from the fact he is fully freaking out on the inside right now.

Because, yeah, Klaus has maybe even less idea of how Five's power works than Ben does. Like, a negative amount. He does know that Five messed up the first (and second) time he did it, and this time he was doing more with it, so it probably got all screwed up. They had no other choice, but...

They should have maybe gone in with a backup plan.

Wait, wait, Ben's leaving—]

Hey, don't—! You'd leave your own brother to get buried under—

[Somewhere in the distance, thankfully behind them, he hears some rock shift and crumble, collapsing part of the tunnels deeper in. Klaus jumps and immediately starts running after Ben with a tiny, almost imperceptible yelp.]

[evergonnahaunt]

Who said I'm alive? I could be double dead now.

[Ben actually wouldn't know the difference. He touches things, he breathes, sometimes he pretends to eat stuff. It's probably because he spends so much time around Klaus, but Ben's under the distinct impression that he's a little bit different from other ghosts to begin with.]

I don't know where anybody else is. Something must have gone wrong with the.

[Ben makes a wobbly hand motion. He means "the time travel thing I don't understand we only agreed to because the world was ending, actually."]

Thing. You know.

[fourgasm]

We don't know that. What if I like...

[And he gets really serious, like he's about to say something extremely deep and meaningful.]

...have necromancy powers now. What if you're basically a zombie. Do you feel a hankering for brains? Human brains?

[Ah, of course it wasn't actually that meaningful. But he continues, whether Ben likes it or not, motormouth that he is.]

What if I, you know... manifested you permanently! Or Five did something weird! I don't know how this works either! How do ghosts time travel!

[Dumbass has a point. Klaus is glad to find something else to concentrate on, though, other than the fact that the walls are basically liable to come down around them at any moment.]

Quick, do something ghosts can't do.

[evergonnahaunt]

I punched you in the face, we're past "do something ghosts can't do."

[Nevermind the fact that he's grown up and is definitely older than when he died so there's something weird going on with his ghostly afterlife. He doesn't even know if Klaus realizes how weird Ben's always been, as a ghost.]

You want me to punch you in the face again?

['cause he'll do it, but he's pretty sure that's not what Klaus meant by "do something ghosts can't do."]

[fourgasm]

Okay, but it doesn't work all the time!

[Asking Klaus to be observant is like asking fish to breathe air. They'll sure fucking try, but it's not going to end well for anyone. He never knew how his power really worked to begin with, assumed Ben was pretty normal as far as ghosts go, and after years of trying to keep it dampened by numbing all his senses? Yeah.

And sure, ideally? Klaus doesn't get punched in the face again. But he's a little keyed up right now, so he taps his cheek like it's a target, getting in an "I'm ready to be punched now, thanks," stance. Since no one alive or dead knows what kind of stance that is, Klaus just wings it, trying to center his gravity.]

Sure! Yeah! Try it, right now. Right here. Come on. Give it a go. Really let me have it. Come on, Ben, let all that... pent-up "I'm dead" anger out.

[evergonnahaunt]

[Ben doesn't actually punch Klaus in the face, because he's nice and also he's aware that if he bruises Klaus' face then Klaus will complain about it forever. It won't even matter that he said Ben could do it, because that's how sibling disagreements are. It's just gonna be "you gave me a black eye!" every time they argue from now until the end of time if Ben actually does punch him.

But he also wants Klaus to shut the fuck up, so Ben smacks the back of Klaus' head. The blow is harder than he meant it to be, because he was kind of just assuming it would take more energy? To do the thing? It took more energy the last time he did it.

That's not what Ben's concerned about, though, even though he should maybe be concerned about Klaus' wellbeing. He's concerned about the fact that his palm stings, and that's not normal. The realization that Klaus was probably right and he's alive now sets off a chain reaction where Ben rapidly realizes he is, in fact, living again and he has to breathe but that realization makes him forget how to breathe because he's thinking too hard about breathing and doesn't remember how it works. So you know, he's having what superficially resembles a panic attack right now.

It's fine. He's fine. It'll pass.]

[fourgasm]

OW—!

[Klaus is 100% about to yell at his brother anyway, even if he didn't punch him, because Ben was completely right and Klaus absolutely wants to complain about the fact he just smacked the back of his head like he didn't just get over a concussion or whatever it was like a day ago.

Except something different happens. It's not what Klaus expects, actually. He still sort of figured Ben was dead, just... solid? You can't just. Make a ghost alive. He'd need a body to be in. And Ben's body certainly doesn't look like the guy standing in front of him right now.

But Ben is breathing, and not in a good way. In a complete and utter panic way. Klaus has had his share of panic attacks, he's been in and out of mental instituations where people mostly had addictions, sure, it was rehab, but like him they were all dealing with their own mental shit. He knows what this is.

So he does what any sensible person who recognizes his brother is having a panic attack would do.]

Oh, fuck. Oh, God. Uhh, uhh—

[He starts hovering his hands around him uselessly, horror written all over his face. Surely this will calm Ben down.]

Stop! Stop stop stop!

[evergonnahaunt]

[It weird to be on the other side of the thing. Usually it's Klaus having a panic attack and Ben telling him to be calm, which you know. He's realizing is maybe horseshit? From the other side of this? But he does remember all those pamphlets they gave Klaus about mindful breathing and whatever other sorts of thing that Klaus definitely never read and Ben only did because if Klaus wasn't going to take care of himself, then Ben would do it for him.

So once he remembers how to actually breathe, it's easy to work out how to slow down his breathing until he can shoot a look at Klaus.]

Seriously? I'm trying to remember how to breathe and your idea of helping is telling me to stop?

[He doesn't know why he's surprised. It's Klaus. They have time traveled so fuckily that it put Ben into an older body (somehow???? explain that one, Five) and Klaus' idea of helping is to try and turn Ben back into a ghost or whatever it was Klaus was actually trying to do. It's hard to tell with Klaus.]

[fourgasm]

[Klaus is used to being the one breaking down! Ben really... almost never freaks out, he's supposed to be the level-headed one. Like Klaus is supposed to keep it cool if even Ben can't??

But also, "stop breathing" is sort of the opposite of what Klaus meant. What he wanted to imply was "stop breathing incorrectly, my beloved brother," but far be it for Klaus to ever say something comprehensible.]

I— That's not what I meant! I mean... Do you... have to breathe? Are you just...

[He waves his hand around vaguely. Even he doesn't know what he's trying to ask right now.

But, okay. Obviously, we need to figure out more about all this. So Klaus just... takes a step forward, and grabs Ben's face with both hands.

He looks him over, partly because holy shit he can feel his brother's ??skin?? ghost skin?? Wow. And also partly because he's checking to see just how deep this goes, exactly.

Then he moves the back of his hand to Ben's forehead, feeling the temperature.]

Well. Good news: you don't have a fever. Bad news: I think you have blood, my man.

[evergonnahaunt]

If you don't breathe, generally you die.

[Ben just kind of. Allows Klaus to touch him, like a weirdo, because he figures that if anyone can determine if he is, in fact, alive and not dead? It's Klaus. Klaus knows how ghosts work, kind of, so that's more expertise than most people and also it's really weird to actually feel someone touching him.

Like, he's touched things? In death? But he can't feel them. He didn't feel when he punched Klaus, even though he knew it was happening, but this he feels and it's, uh. It's weird, but if there's one thing Reginald believed in it was exposure therapy so Ben figures it'll stop being weird the more people do it.]

We need to find Five so he can fix this. Or explain it.

[Those are the same thing, with Five.]

[fourgasm]

But you're already—

[Klaus just. Sighs. Okay. This conversation is getting cyclical, and Ben is right. They really do need Five to explain this, because Klaus is fully convinced it was Five that did it. They don't know how time traveling spirits works.

They don't even know where they are, so obviously something didn't go as planned.]

Yeah. Okay. Alright. We are going to get out of here. And we're going to track down the others. And...?

[He looks at Ben uncertainly. Klaus is... generally used to calling the shots with Ben, out of necessity and general selfishness. But, uh, Ben can most likely just... do whatever he wants now?

So Klaus is trying a new thing. He's letting Ben weigh in on what they're going to do. Haphazardly. He's out of practice.

He's also still totally grabbing him by the face.]