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

[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.]