TEST DRIVE MEME ( 027 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

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.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[lesbeau]

[Oh, it's-- water? What's in the--

Her thoughts cut off as her head turns, and spies a watery dragon climbing from the edge of the waves. Once again, she forgets not to curse around this child.]

Ah shit. C'mon, stay quiet, gogo--

[Beau's shepherding Kiri further inland, trying to find some sort of cover- or if they're lucky, another member of the Nein so she can trade off babysitting capability. In the meantime, she's trying to get them both to creep away, but it might just be time to cut and run.]

[mockiri]

[You don't need to tell her twice. She clasps one feathered hand over her beak as a reminder and creeps along with Beau, following her movements as quietly as she can manage.

and rolls a mighty 9 on stealth]

[lesbeau]

[She's a good girl and is doing her Best. And frankly, she does better than Beau, who sure did get a nat 1. She ends up so busy trying to shuffle Kiri along that the monk doesn't realize where she's going, and runs spectacularly and loudly into a tree. The dragon swivels it's head immediately, letting out a shriek as Beau stumbles backwards holding her head.]

Ow, fuck--

[And then turns, sees the dragon, and panics a little.]

Oh, fuck!

[Beau crouches and just scoops Kiri up before setting into a dead sprint literally anywhere but here as the dragon begins to give chase.]

Do you know anywhere to go or-- forget it I'm just gonna go!!!

[mockiri]

[Wh- OH THEY'RE RUNNING okay. Okay, this is fine. Kiri squawks in alarm as she's grabbed and hefted up, and clings tightly to Beau. Despite being jostled about, she lifts herself up enough to lean her head over Beau's shoulder, staring down the dragon chasing them, and does Jester proud: she flips it the literal bird.]

Go fuck yourself!

[Quit being mean, dragon.]

[lesbeau]

[Even in a potentially perilous situation, Beau can't ignore a well placed swear, and yells without looking back.]

That's right! I've got-- I've got a bird and I'm not afraid to use it!

[Oh man, she can teach Kiri to make gun noises, that's going to be fantastic. Right now she's focused on movement, and thankfully her dex isn't failing her now with a clean 18. She leaps over obstacles, one arm still around the little bird, though it might be a bit of a bumpy ride. There's a structure up ahead though, and she barrels for it at top speed.]

Yell something if it's about to bite us!

[mockiri]

[Beau is quite fast, turns out. Much, much faster than she's ever been on her bitty legs. Which is a good thing, because large dragons with huge legs - or even dragons that slither about like snakes - are also quite fast. Which means even with how nimble on her feet Beau is, the dragon's right on their tail.

Kiri watches it, eyes wide, as it gets closer, and closer, teeth bared-]

Something! [She gives Beau's left shoulder a meaningful slap, the direction the attack seems to be aimed towards. That's what she meant, right?]

[lesbeau]

[Yeah, that was about as much as she expected. It was likely to either be that or a loud, shrill shriek, so either goes. Thankfully she's an easy horse to pilot, and instinctively she weaves down where Kiri hit her, hearing the sound of jaws closing much too close to her head for comfort. She swings around with the momentum of the turn, delivering a solid kick to it's jaw and burning a quick two ki to drop away and start bolting again. Not the best, with her reserves much lower here, but necessary.]

Keep doing that! I think I see something!

[Beau's aiming to do a big ol leap, Kiri held increasingly like a sack of potatoes but at least with two hands this time.]

[mockiri]

[The shriek may come, too, especially with how close those teeth were getting to her face. Still, it worked the first time, so she continues to guide Beau along as needed, giving her shoulder a smack any time it looks like the dragon gets too close, and in between yelling whatever cuss words the Nein or those in Hupperdook have helpfully taught her. It's probably not great, how much of her vocabulary is devoted to said cussing, but there's no helping that anymore.

This tactic works well enough until the dragon pauses to heave a breath, something blue swirling at the cusp of its mouth. She has no warning she can offer for an impending water blast attack (at least, she assumes it's something like that), so she offers the next best thing-]

Fire! Fire! Fire!

[lesbeau]

[Look, if anyone's going to correct the sheer number of uses of the word 'fuck' that Kiri knows, it's not Beau and it's certainly not now. She ducks and winds, barely dodging the thing tailing them, but a yell of FIRE isn't something she can just narrowly avoid. They're so close, so damn close, that she just squeezes Kiri as a response.]

Hang on!

[She shifts her ki, the determined footsteps hitting the ground as she activates Step Of The Wind, doubling her jump and leaping up in a flip through a hole in the wall. They land in a crouch and immediately after the water blast goes straight through the hole, but... the dragon doesn't give chase. Beau can hear some chattering, but it doesn't seem to be coming in. With the time she has, she's gonna look down at Kiri.]

That wasn't fire.

[mockiri]

[She chirps innocently and shrugs her shoulders, giving her feathers a good shiver as the adrenaline rush winds down. That was quite a chase.]

...You know.

[No one's taught her to say "water", what do you expect?]

[lesbeau]

[What does Beau ever expect, to be fair. It's fine, she can fix this. She points to a puddle remaining from the blast on the floor nearby.]

Water. Waaaater.

[She also mimes a drinking motion, not really thinking about those implications of telling this girl to basically drink a dirt puddle.]

[mockiri]

[Kiri's response is the best shit-eating grin that a bird beak will allow her to make, and says nothing. Yeah, that sure is water, isn't it.]

[lesbeau]

Oh come on, you get it.

[Save someone's life and they won't even say a word. GOSH. (Get her, Kiri, get her.)]

[mockiri]

[She chirps and gives Beau's shoulder an affirmative pat.]

It’s stickin’!

[No worries, she gets it. Thank you for the new word, she'll be sure to annoy you with it later.]

[lesbeau]

[It's cool Kiri, you just get Beau's patented :/ face as she has to cope with being zagged on by a 4 year old. In the meantime, she'll cross her legs and lean her back against one of the walls.]

Just hang out, okay? Wait for that thing to pass and then we can get out of here.