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The Mods of LifeAftr ([personal profile] lifeaftr_mods) wrote in [community profile] aftr_ooc2019-09-16 08:57 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 027 )

Test Drive Meme #27
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 September 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.

Eye of the Storm
Unlike the calmer waters of other dreams, this particular one is in a frenzy of activity. The sea thrashes and roars and crawls hungrily up the shores of the unassuming island upon which you've found yourself; it assumes the shapes of tridents, swords and, most notably, the snapping heads of serpents.

The sea isn't acting rough for no reason, it turns out. Right now, it's seething in conflict with torrents of fire that seem to have, however improbably, assumed the shape of a three-headed dragon. Whether the serpent is simply coated in fire or it is fire isn't clear. You don't really need to know the specifics. All you need to know is that, at present, there are two dragons furiously crashing against one another in a dichotomy of fire and water. They issue rushing plumes of steam whenever they connect, scourging deep furrows into the earth.
Adventurers will find themselves thrust into a veritable maelstrom of conflict upon waking. Unlike the case in the waking world, everything is simply too indistinct to grasp or engage with in all but the most oblique manner. All you can do is hold on and try not to get lost - or separated - in these new, wild conditions, and seek shelter as these two behemoths ruthlessly duke it out.

The clash of the elements isn't the only thing you have to worry about, either. Little tails of fire and water will occasionally unspool from the giant wyrms and decide they want a taste of something with a little more body. Though their shapes are indistinct due to their elemental makeup, it will still be evident that these are smaller dragons with a taste for destruction. You can dispel them easily enough, and largely through application of common sense - flame-dragons can be reduced to steam by water or blasts of cold air, and water-dragons can be vaporized by heat and fire - but there happens to be a lot of them, and not very many of you.

There is shelter, however, as a respite from all this. Ruined buildings dot the landscape, impervious to both the water and fire and surrounded by a sense of eerie calm. Though they're long abandoned, as long as you hide in such ruins, nothing can touch you there. Not even the smaller, scuttling dragons can breach those walls, held back by whatever unique arcane constraint lives in the smooth, cool stone.

All you have to do is reach one.

Echoes of the Past
Don't be alarmed if you find yourself waking on the floor of a ruined house in a ruined city on a deserted island. Don't be alarmed, either, if it looks like the edges and corners of most of these buildings, built of simple stone and clay and mortar, look as though they have sustained an awful lot of fire damage in the past. That doesn't have to mean anything, you see.

The houses and buildings here are of an unknown purpose, but the signs of civilization are writ large in stone and on the landscape. And yet, no matter how much you might search, there doesn't seem to be anyone else around.. Abandoned and broken, exposed to the elements without proper care, it's clear that the inhabitants of these places are long, long gone.

Wandering between the buildings will certainly help avoid the heat of the day, and as the day winds on, some thought might be put into gathering the necessities to make it through the night - water from barely recognizable wells, or vegetables scavenged from overgrown gardens that have long since abandoned any semblance of order or restriction.
Still, even devoid of their original owners, the contents of those broken structures might well be interesting in their displays of lives left behind. The blocky, square buildings show a sense of efficiency over articulation, with ornate mosaics carved into the walls as a sense of decor. You might even find piles of strange, smooth stones with speckled patterns decorating their exterior, hard as rock and curiously similar in size. Their function can only be guessed at, but they're quite heavy.

...at least, until they shudder and start to crack beneath the pressure of something moving around...inside of them?

Give it five minutes to an hour, and those stones will prove to not really be stones at all, but eggs. To be specific...?
They contain these little guys. Tiny, baby dragons, newly hatched and eager to imprint upon the first venturing hand to give them the time of day. They can vary in size from barely nine inches in length to just over two feet, and their coloration can be just as diverse. However, it will become clear within mere minutes of meeting your new, scaly charge that they're just the same as any other baby animal: they're needy, demanding, curious, and hungry.

It's advised you go looking around for something to feed them. These dragons are omnivorous creatures, and will eat anything from berries to meat, but either way, they're going to be looking to you to care for them.

A warm congratulations to an unsuspecting parent may very well be in order.

The Sound of Sirens
The idyllic setting of a tropical island might seem perfect for a vacation getaway...or it would be, if this place weren't populated. You aren't here for very long before you hear it - a loud, shrieking siren, shrilling out over the trees. And then another. And another. And another...

Followed by the sound of gunshots.

It turns out you're not in a happy little island getaway at all, but in the middle of a turf war. Stay in one place too long, and you'll realize that you can start to make out blurred, shadowy silhouettes crouched in the underbrush and huddled behind boulders, issuing indistinct shouts as they charge one another with spears and harpoons, or shoot explosive bursts of scattered buckshot with rudimentary firearms.

At first, these shapes merely pass through you. You are but a spectral spectator, lingering on proceedings far removed from you. But as the conflict escalates, you'll find that you're not as immune to this as you might have first thought. The shapes start to sharpen, and before you know it, you'll start to feel those weapons piercing you for real - and they will hurt just the same, too.
But getting caught in the crossfire isn't the worst thing that could happen to you - oh, no. See, if you're not careful, you might find yourself wanting to join them. It might start as a small ember in the pit of your gut - this feeling of displaced upset, that one side of this shadowy war has truly and personally wronged you. Or it might be out of self-preservation, because someone shot you or stabbed you and it hurt, and before you know it, one of the dark, featureless shapes is handing you a weapon for you to pay them back in kind.

There are ways to break out of this, of course. A good shock is all it takes to jolt you back to your senses, though it won't render you immune to the effects of this battle. You'll still have to figure out how to get out of this mess without getting shot or blasted or bled out onto the floor.

Or maybe you can embrace the chaos instead, and decide to wreak a little havoc on the other side. Who are they? Doesn't matter! They're not one of you, so you can make them suffer to the fullest extent, right? Besides, who knows how they might take it if you try to disengage entirely?

One thing is for certain - you won't be getting away from this conflict and out of the battlefield without a fight.

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
catpiper: (who gonna get murdered)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-10-05 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Look, Ren isn't a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination and who is she to judge the jerky, lanky movements of a sentient robot? But it's immediately apparent that there's something that must not be connecting, or connecting too much, or whatever. She has no idea. It's just loud and as she steps forward to stand beside the mechanical lady, so she has some support if she falls to the ground, the dragon starts hovering near her feet and-

The woman is in front of her, landing unperturbed on the rough ground. That's fine. That's whatever. She's apparently doing okay? Enough to care about the dragon over her well-being.

So she kneels down in turn, letting the creature sniff its way through the dirt in her palms, trying to wiggle her fingers to urge the bugs out of hiding. Guzma wouldn't be pleased, probably.
]

Maybe it likes to chew on fire too. We should make some.
missfunction: ((Lost all my aim to rotten thoughts))

[personal profile] missfunction 2019-10-07 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Ren, please don't try and catch the automataon if she glitches and ends up crashing to the ground. As noble as that would be, she would absolutely crush that sweet fleshy body of yours. Metal's real heavy, baby.

Rabbit's copper claws jab into the earth just as the little dragon turns it's attention toward Ren and the smorgasbord cupped in her hands. It's speckled tail lashes out as the creature trills in excitement, it's pink tongue thpping out at the air between them. And then suddenly it's scuttling forward and digging it's scaly little nose right into the dirt. Time to dig in and find some fat worms.

Considering Rabbit's only just found the dragon herself, she stutters out a motherly tut of pride at the sight.]


There ya g-go-go! Eat up, l-lil' guy!

[And she seems content to just keep digging for worms until the dragon is completely full until Ren plants a whole other idea into her head. The automaton's photo-receptors go bright, glowing green and blue eyes, just before her rusted browplate arches up in delight.]

Ya-ya-ya think? Do dragons gotta refuel their f-fire breath by eatin' fire? Could be worth a s-shot!

[The robot's jaw drops open, but this time instead of words, there's the quick flash of something metal inside of the woman's mouth and then the immediate whoosh of flame. Rabbit tips her head away from Ren and the dragon just in time before they both get roasted by her flamethrower, the burning hot flames scorching the ground uselessly instead.]
catpiper: (pic#13117580)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-10-07 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ren's playing a dangerous game with this dragon, as it it nibbles around her wiggling fingers in search of actual food. The little bites are a reminder this could go bad fast and she's prepared for that. These creatures weren't kind to them over the last month.

What she isn't prepared for-

Is the robotic woman agreeing with her fire assessment and then acting on it instantaneously. She thought there might be some flint involved here. Maybe a match. Maybe magic-that's something people can do, apparently.

And that magic spews out of her mouth. The hot flames don't touch her, but she can feel it from where she's standing.

This is happening-that's fine, that's whatever. She's a pokemon-one she hasn't seen in Guzma's dex yet. That's all. Or a different kind of wizard. Or maybe an oven. Or maybe a dragon.

Maybe this is how she knows the baby eats worms. It's all coming together.

Either way, she points towards the scorched earth in front of her, dropping all her dirt and waving her fingers to get the dragon's attention on this wild display.
]

Hey, hey! Your mom is feeding you-you have to come eat this stuff. She's a dragon too.
missfunction: (Consultin' with the rain)

[personal profile] missfunction 2019-10-09 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
[Ren isn't the only one surprised by the automaton's sudden burst of sizzling flame. The little dragon, it's head nipping at the younger girl's fingers, about to bury it's scaly snout right into her palm, starts at the robot's fiery breath, scuttling away quickly to curl around Ren's ankle, peeking out at the scorched earth Rabbit's left behind.

It only just hatched, holy fuck. Give it five minutes to adjust to living, Rabbit.

But the automaton just looks proud as the flames die out and her jaw clanks shut, Ren calling her the critter's mom and saying she's a sick-ass dragon. Rabbit likes this kid already.]


C-c-c-c'mon, TunaMelt! [The dragon has been named apparently. It's been decided.] Come f-f-fill up! Ya know how grumpy ya get when yer bellies empty. Ya get r-real hangry, just like yer uncle.

[The dragon scuttles out from behind Ren after some coaxing, approaching the dead dirt and the tiny bit of leftover flame that's there. It's just gotta try and eat that fire. Is this what dragon's do???? Is this how they eat? I don't even know.]
catpiper: (the end came for my ass)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-10-13 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[These two should have never been allowed near a living creature without supervision. The robot's ability to Commit gives Ren a sense of pride, not because of her acting, but because she's now under the firm belief that she was right. The lady was the dragon's mom the whole time. A weird one. A robotic one. That's fine. Maybe this is how dragons, you know, go through the circle of life.]

Good job, good job! You're doing very good, TunaMelt. The fire is spicier over here-

[And why is it spicier? Because her dream pockets are always lined with some nasty shit from her constant hoarding. Part of that being delicious spice residue.

So she rubs her palm against the inside of her pocket, collecting lint and all kinds of questionable hell, and immediately smacks her hand against the scorched ground. Still kinda hot-that's how stuff cooks though. It's fine.
]

Right there. You don't want to be 'hangry'-that's what your mom says, so eat this part too.
missfunction: (pic#9474001)

[personal profile] missfunction 2019-10-19 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[am i going to be banned from this game for torturing a baby dragon????? This is like Two Children bullying One Baby.]

Yeah! S'what I said! G-g-gotta eat all that spicy f-fire up! Just try not-n-n-not t' get bad heartburn, also just like yer uncle.

[Even when he's not here, Rabbit must make fun of her brother. It's somewhere in the fine print of the Law of Robotics.]

Look at us g-g-go! We're a really great team, huh? Co-parentin' or s-somethin'.

[The dragon is probably in Hell, but look, it's dumb and just born so it's going to just sniff at that spicy ground and like, thp curiously at it with it's tongue. Someone save it.]
catpiper: (but damn i look good)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-10-20 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Co'aunting. We're doing very well. It looks very, very happy.

[It doesn't at all? Not one bit? It looks like it regrets ever being born, even as she reaches forward to lightly pet the back of its baby dragon spine.]

Eat slow, slow. If you get heartburn, it's okay. We'll throw water on you and it'll go away.

[That's not. That's not how this works.]