aftr_ooc | 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.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ On it. ]

Jester.

[ Fjord bows his head to be able to better try and catch the shorter woman with his gaze. Between her accent and the speed of her babbling, Fjord barely catches what she's saying. Bunny, island, and Beau are about as much as he gets.

Time for a redirect to break the deluge. He can circle back later. ]

Why were you callin' for soap?

[Jester has been around Fjord (and the others, really) long enough to know when Fjord needs her to dial it back a bit. She instantly stops in her tracks, expression sobering slightly.]

Um...

[Right, the soap.

She glances back at the, uh... veritable paint explosion on the wall beside her. That she definitely, definitely got caught causing, her punishment being to clean it up.]

Well, some person made a big huge mess, so I volunteered to clean it, and I started running out of soap so I needed more...

[She puts on her most "I'm so innocent and cute and how could I do anything wrong" face. She wiggles the soap he brought her.]

Thank you, Fjord. It's a big mess.

[ Dream or not, Fjord wants to make sure their priorities are straight. It's not like he disdains Jester for her tangents - in fact, he often enough finds himself amused by them - it's just that it can be a lot all at once when she gets on a roll. In his mind, he's looking out for them both by asking the practical questions. Sure enough, she's got some sort of chore, just like him, to do in this place.

Now, he's known Jester for a while too. Enough to know that this exuded innocence from the tiefling means she's anything but innocent when it comes to this 'mess'. If she were truly without blame, he expects she'd be pissed and petulant; he doesn't think she's ever had a hard day of deep cleaning to her name ( some mild tidying of her childhood room aside ) in her life. Sure, as a warrior and a cleric, she's proved herself and that's nothing to spit at. But that's different from tedious labor.

Anyway, Fjord's dutifully playing along, 'mmhm'ing and nodding as if sympathetic. ]

Well, I'm just about done with my own mess. Any chance you'd be amenable to helpin' me out so I can assist with yours? Or is it a sorta rush order?

[She doesn't actually know if there's a time limit. If she wanders away, she might get in trouble? But she doesn't actually... care about that.]

Oh, I can do this whenever!

[She grins very wide. She's so glad to see Fjord here. Jester had been the last new addition to the island from the Nein for a while. She was starting to wonder if any of the others would ever come.

And, well... She might be able to figure some things out now, maybe? That's a big maybe, and that's if Fjord ends up on the island.]

I'll help you if you promise to go to the island with us after you wake up.

[That'll do it.]

Deal.

[ This is a dream, so he can't really be held to a promise, nor does he need to know about this 'island'. Right? Right. The only dreams that matter are at the black bottom of the sea, where glowing yellow eyes and the black coils of a monster rule over all, including him. ]

Grab a mop and a bucket. I'm in room... that one.

[ Fjord points to the aforementioned room he'd come hustling out of down the hall. That being said, Fjord moves to hustle right back to it. Who knows when the next patron is going to need the big private bath? He understands it's important to get it as ready as possible...

Also, he kind of wants to see Jester busting her ass on some menial work. What the hell would that even look like? ]

[Hell yes. *This action will have consequences. Jester grins wide like she just actually trapped him into some kind of contract here.]

I'm on it!

[She rushes off to go find a utility closet of some kind. She's been hiding in a few of them, so the nearest one should be...

A few minutes later and she bursts into the room he pointed to with a mop holding two full buckets of soapy water held across her shoulders. She heaves it up and over, the buckets splashing as she places them down.]

Sooo... What first, Captain Tusktooth?

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 023 )

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