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The Mods of LifeAftr ([personal profile] lifeaftr_mods) wrote in [community profile] aftr_ooc2019-05-16 08:53 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 023 )

Test Drive Meme #23
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.

It's Hard Work
Today, Mu has sought to recreate the fantastic island of Io - the island where the local Avatar of Celebration resides. Io is resplendent with comforts and excitements designed for relaxation and delight, from wineries to play structures. One of the most popular draws are the bathhouses, which are massive, tiered structures of the utmost luxury. Multiple stories, hot and cold water, scented perfumes and shampoos...these bathhouses are designed for the utmost enjoyment and tranquility.

For paying customers, that is. Oh - did you think you were going to be relaxing? Not tonight. Tonight, you're on the bathhouse staff, and your job is to make those paying customers happy. Those customers, many of which appear to be nothing more than shadowy, faceless blobs of a vaguely humanoid shape, can make your life very miserable if they're unsatisfied with their care.
So...get to it! We need more towels on the second floor. The water heater is broken - who here knows how to fix it? This one needs a very exact perfumed blend to go in their water, so you'd better learn it quick. Make sure those floors are clean before anyone goes walking across them. Keep this house running, and you might just be allowed to relax with a warm bath at the end of the day as a reward.

But if you don't do a fine enough job, you might very well regret it. The bathhouse patrons, strange as they may be, have one very particular talent, and that talent is luck. If they're satisfied with their care, you might find a handful of gold coins in the gutters when you're clocking out - and they may very well still be in your knapsack if you end up waking up on the shores of LifeAftr.

If they're not, however, you'd better be especially cautious for the next few hours. Slippery patches of ground will seem to appear with far more regularity, or a precarious stack of towels may tip over right as you're walking by, or the water heater will break as you're washing your hands and scald you from the elbows up in boiling hot water.

Do a good job, and you'll be rewarded. If not...well, at least it's only for the night, right?

A Drink With Jam and Bread
Also unique to the island of Io are the tea gardens, which are exactly what they sound like. With softly glowing lanterns and thick, fragrant groves of tea leaves growing wild, the tea house is nestled at the very center of the garden. Within, all manner of kettles and mugs and strainers can be found, as well as dried tea leaves, honeys, milks, and spices. You can mix and match your own blends, pick from some of the pre-existing teabags, or even wander about the garden to pluck a few tea leaves straight from the trees.

Some of these drinks are relatively harmless. Others...not so much. And they all tend to affect people differently, too.
[ ♆ ] Black tea will fill you with energy, far more than the high caffeine content might allow. You feel like you can run ten miles - no, twenty! This may also, however, reduce your conceptualization of your own limits. You might be able to feel like you can lift one thousand pounds...but unless you've got super-strength to compensate, you might end up hurting yourself trying to do exactly that.

[ ♆ ] Chai tea will give you the ability to breathe fire, though only in short bursts about five feet ahead of you. If you try mixing different things into your chai - such as honey or milk - you might find that you can breathe different colors of fire as well. Just...take care not to set anything on fire. Those lanterns are lit by all sorts of tiny, firefly-esque bugs, and if they feel antagonized, they'll try and burn you right back.

[ ♆ ] Chamomile tea will relax you completely and utterly. In fact, it'll make you incredibly sleepy. You might start feeling tired gradually, or you might conk out right on the spot. Almost any surface suddenly feels very comfortable and easy enough to sleep on, from the ground beneath your feet to your buddy over there. Chamomile: better than the world's greatest sedative, evidently.

[ ♆ ] Earl grey tea will allow you the ability to shift in phase: make yourself and any part of your body corporeal or incorporeal on a whim. Just be sure that you don't have your arms or legs sticking into any solid surfaces by the time the effects wear off - or that'll make for some very painful removal.

[ ♆ ] Green tea will drastically increase or decrease your tolerance for pain. Either you'll feel absolutely fine no matter what kind of punishment is heaped on you...or anything from sneezing to stepping on someone's foot can feel abruptly excruciating. It's worth noting that this does nothing for one's resistance to that kind of damage. Green tea only alters the sensation behind the pain, meaning that whatever damage you might undergo is liable to be damaging, no matter how much you might be able to shrug off.

[ ♆ ] White tea will dramatically increase your sensitivity to physical stimulus. This can be either enchanting or positively overwhelming. Imagine being able to lie down in the grass and feel each blade beneath you in excruciating detail. Imagine being able to feel every air molecule flicking across your skin. Whether this improves your day or absolutely ruins it is down to how much you enjoy that sort of thing.
So take care which of these blends you sample. Some of these effects might even stack, which can really ruin your day.

We Don't Need Another Hero
Fun doesn't always go hand in hand with relaxation. Perhaps you're the sort who'd prefer to have your adrenaline pumping, grinning around a missing tooth as you lay a beatdown on your opponent. Maybe you need some excitement and some action to really feel like you're living. Sure, you might get a few bruises - but check out the other guy.

As Mu is more eager to please on this front than its real world counterpart, those keen on letting loose all their pent up energy will find a rather good area for it. Inexplicably located within the complicated twists and turns of the Honeycomb is the perfect location to hurl yourself into an all-out brawl; an almost stadium-like fighting arena. Shadowy silhouettes are piled into the seats in excited speculation - you can hear them hissing and sputtering in disappointment or delight, or erupting into cheers, whenever blood is spilled.

Or....not spilled, as it were.
Those who enter the fighting arena must pass through a curtain of clear, streaming liquid before they may take up a weapon. This will only temporarily strike you with the oddest sensation on your skin: a coating reminiscent of wax which provides the user with nigh invulnerability to even the most overpowered of attacks. Further experimentation will prove that the walls, floor, and ceilings also sport this exceptional defense. Blood, bruises, and structural damage might be off the table - but that good old fashioned brawl? It's on, like a cartoonish ape from a prominent video game series. What your audience wants is a spectacle, not a bloodbath, so you'd best give them the show they deserve.

Alongside the freedom to punch, kick, stab, and slash at one another without fear of permanent damage comes a complimentary arsenal for those who feel like getting creative. Honeycomb Sledgehammers, Cactus Clubs, and the ever popular arm holding onto another arm that's holding onto a knife are just a few of the weaponry that innocently rest at the edges of the battlefield, with a full selection limited by nothing more than your imagination.

Unfortunately, imagination is all it is - upon waking, those currently living in LifeAftr will find those weapons remain a fanciful dream...but the memories remain, nonetheless. And the aches might very well, too.

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
barnaculled: (where I cannot go)

HEY LESBRO

[personal profile] barnaculled 2019-05-23 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ Seeing who it is, Fjord perks in surprise and delight, dropping his hands and easing his stance open. The human looks like she's on her way out of the ring; had he taken so long to get down from the stands or been so distracted by his curiosity for the weapons he bee-lined ( heh ) for the rack without seeing her fight? Or had she just manifested out of the dreamscape ether?

Fjord, for his own part, looks just like Beau remembers him, give or take some more hair growth. The hair that was once shaved has nearly filled in enough to match the length along the top of his head; not a lot of time between the stress of a pirate's life and accidentally becoming Xhorhassian Dynasty 'heroes'! He's still wearing the same beat-up, old leathers, though. ]


Hey yourself!

[ Fjord's dreaming of an arena where a fight is on. Beau's here. This is the most sense one of his dreams has ever made to him, which makes the warlock briefly question whether this is actually a dream...

Naw, of course it is. They're in what looks to be one big-ass bee hive and Fjord can't remember how he got here. He knows his memory can be pretty spotty when it comes to details, but not blackout level. So right now his working theory is Jester and Caduceus chatting about bees by him had just planted something in his subconscious to blow up for him later. ]


I've seen a couple from the stands up there. There was one with some sorta weird, short cyclops creature with a glowin' eye facin' off against a human woman wearin' nothin' but some sorta goggles... But what's even weirder is both of 'em looked like they were made of metal! Like two suits of armor goin' at it except for uh-- you know, all the lady bits.

[ Yeah, that's some straight up dream shit right there. How'd he ever doubt it? ]

Then some human chucklefuck came out with a glaive and got his ass ricocheted around the ring by some half-giant lookin' sumbitch. I swear I saw that glaive stab into an eyeball at one point and it just bounced right back!

[ He folds his own arms, but lets one hand come up to rub and stroke his chin. ]

Y'know... not to come off as blood-thirsty, but I'm kinda wonderin' what the fuckin' point might be. When you say throwin' stuff, are we talkin' roses or rocks?
Edited 2019-05-23 03:35 (UTC)
lesbeau: (« [Thoughtful] am i the leader now?)

AYYYY

[personal profile] lesbeau 2019-05-25 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Beau's not as behind as a lot of them here; she's perfectly aware of the entire pirate Debacle, but hasn't quite gotten to them getting directly involved in an international war. Everyone's missing something among the squad, but Beau has chosen largely not to focus on it. There's enough going on around the islands to keep her busy anyway.

The point is, she looks content enough to fold her arms and listen to him, even if she isn't really sure when she got here or what she's seen so far. Eeh. That's a lot to focus on and she just doesn't especially care. Mostly it's just nice to see him again.]


Not everything has a point, but uh, I think this one's to appease the god around here. I mean, their whole thing is partying, but this is one kinda party.

[Or it is if you're Beau.]

And y'know, like, stuff. Honey mostly. The god is like, a whole bunch of bees, so that's probably why.
barnaculled: in the thick of it (I'm gonna wind up workin)

[personal profile] barnaculled 2019-05-28 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's probably the most Fjord's said in a while, but the strange shit he's seen so far has also made him excited to share thoughts and opinions with his friend. Beau's someone he can count on to be both level-headed ( for the most part ) and an unrepentant jock with him, so he's keen to hear what she has to offer him, even if he does think she's a figment of his dreaming subconscious.

And well, he's certainly not expecting what she has to offer! Both brows arch - surprised, skeptical, intrigued - enough the silvery scar above the one wrinkles from a 't' to a 'T'. ]


No shit?

And you uh... Have you seen this 'god' yourself?
lesbeau: (« [What] alright im lost af)

[personal profile] lesbeau 2019-06-01 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
[It's a little bit funny to watch his reaction, a grin she can't prevent over her face. She knew that would get him, because it certainly got her.]

I know, right? It's fuckin' weird. No, there's like--

[She makes a sweeping sort of gesture out towards the horizon.]

There's like a shitton of islands out here, and most of 'em just has a god sitting on it doing some dumb shit. I had a dog yell at me to fix a fence and then pay me in fruit it grew outta the ground in like 2 seconds. Nothing about anything makes sense.

[And frankly, Beau is really good at rolling with stuff like this when it doesn't make sense? So here she is doing it, just shrugging at her own explanation.]

Dunno. Guess this place didn't have any big god fight. Or we're dead, but that doesn't seem like, right.
barnaculled: cutting hand (don't let it shake your steady thread)

[personal profile] barnaculled 2019-06-05 09:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ Stupidly, Fjord turns his head about to where she directs with her gesture, finding himself rewarded with just another look at the arena and the stands instead of islands or bee gods. Back to Beau. The half-orc displays his own ability to roll with shit, folding his arms across his chest and 'mmhm'ing along with the serious expression of someone being given a totally legit run-down and not some story about fruit dogs.

He only rears his head and shoulders back slightly when Beau offers up the possibility of being dead. ]


Well I certainly hope the fuck not! I mean I know we were in kinda dire straits for a while there, but Caleb put up that dome of his and you two were sittin' watch before I PTFO'd. That thing's supposed to be indestructible.

[ He gives a sniff, turning his head back to the weapon's rack to consider what looks like a giant, plucked chicken. ]

Nah. This is a dream.
lesbeau: (« [Smug] fight me bruh)

[personal profile] lesbeau 2019-06-07 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[She snorts, frankly having no idea what he's talking about but still finding a way to agree with it.]

Yeah, probably. Lots of weird shit happens with those around here too.

[And once again, just Doesn't Fucking Elaborate. It doesn't matter if this is a dream, right? He's not here, what does he have to understand about the place?]

Soooo if it's all fake... you wanna go a round?

[This time, Beau's thumb jab to the arena should be obvious.]

If it's just for fun and bragging rights, y'know.
barnaculled: (to fight it all I will face it all)

[personal profile] barnaculled 2019-06-13 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ The lack of correction or extra detail certainly goes a long way to making Fjord feel more comfortable where he is. The 'offer' that comes is very Beau in his mind, even if the aforementioned mind balks at the idea. Outwardly, he tilts his head. ]

Hell... If this is a dream, I might actually stand a chance.

[ Fjord gives a crooked little smile, eyes casting over the armory on offer. ]

Weapons or hand to hand?
lesbeau: (« [Smirk] haha scrub)

[personal profile] lesbeau 2019-06-16 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's probably the most normal thing around here, Beau ignoring any and all weird shit and instead opting for something fun. Really, she's just accepted there's very little she can do at this point, and when in Rome, do... well, whatever.]

I guess we could go with weapons, if you're really hankering for something. But you gotta pick the dumbest looking one.

[She's only here for dumb shit in this dream. Hence why she's looking at the linked arms with a knife. It's so stupid. She loves it.]

What they really want is a show out there.