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aftr_ooc2019-10-26 07:21 pm
lifeaftr_mods) wrote in aftr_ooc2019-10-26 07:21 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ( 028 )
Test Drive Meme #28
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.
Reserves and Applications are always open, and are processed every Sunday, EST.
Two important notes:
Reserves and Applications are always open, and are processed every Sunday, EST.
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.
Hard to Swallow
It's a little dark when you wake, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that you might be in a cave of some kind. After all, the ceiling is high and curved, and it's more than a little damp underfoot, and there doesn't seem to be any natural lighting. Touch the walls, and you'll find them slick with some kind of substance. Water, maybe?
You'll find that you've been provided with a complimentary light that will never go out, which is quite a useful thing. Hold it up, and you'll get a good look at the premises, and learn firsthand that, unfortunately for you, you're not inside a cave at all. You're inside something else - but fortunately, this specimen is long-dead. It can just be a bit startling to look up and realize that the smooth architecture of this cavern has a lot to do with the massive, curved rib bones...and that the moisture greasing the walls is probably a lot less sanitary than simple water.
But, hey! At least you're not being digested in here! The massive dragon you're inside has long since departed this world, after all. You just have to figure out how to get out of it. Cutting, phasing, or otherwise blasting through the thick, meaty texture of the walls will prove to be...just about impossible, really. Looks like the only way out is to look for the, ah, natural exit. We recommend moving uphill - you're probably going to want to exit via the mouth than the alternative route.
If that wasn't bad enough, it seems that this beast's health wasn't all that great to begin with. This thing, as it turns out, has a flurry of pests plumbing its, uh, plumbing, if you get our drift. Flesh-eating monstrosities the size of small dogs have been skittering throughout its digestive system, and now that their host creature is dead, they're starving for some real food. They can be easy enough to dispatch of, if you know how to fight, but they can be fast, and they don't tend to retreat once they have a target on lock.
But if you're able to brave all these horrors, eventually you'll be rewarded by a thinning passageway as you scale the creature's esophagus, and finally the jagged fangs of its mouth...its closed mouth.
Ever tried prying open a giant dragon's mouth from the inside? It might take a bit of work, but we're confident you can do it. Or that you can enlist a little help in the effort.
There's Something in the Water
There's something peaceful about being in a boat at night. The open expanse of the starry sky, the gentle rocking of the waves, the smell of the salt and the spray...it can be very peaceful. Calming, even. There's nothing, on first glance, to really worry about, either: the boat is sturdy, large enough to house plenty of people, and the skies are clear. No storms on the way. It's a bit quiet, but of course it would be. You're in the middle of the ocean, after all.
That's when it'll probably occur to you that, as it is nighttime, it should probably be a bit darker than it is. And the waters around your boat, well...they seem to be glowing. Or, more specifically, what's in them.
Jellybrights are jellyfish-like creatures that lump together in massive swarms of well over a hundred, and exhibit a natural bioluminescent glow that actually manages to be quite pretty. It's just that most jellyfish don't tend to start climbing onto land - or, in your case, climbing aboard without an invitation.
And if you do? Well, that's when they decide that they're here to hurt you. Their gentle, bluish glow will immediately switch over to a glaring red, and they'll promptly sting you in retaliation. It hurts quite a bit, though the site of the attack soon starts to go numb afterward.
The good news, if it can be called that, is that the level of punishment is directly proportional to how badly you misstep. If you only tread in the wrong spot once or twice, you'll have some fresh welts to rub at and maybe some newfound paranoia regarding jellyfish, but will remain otherwise unscathed. If you stomp all over those eggs without any regard for their well-being...well, that's when you might want to try swimming, because your boat's going to get awfully unsafe for you in the near future.
Walking With Water
The ocean floor can be a scary place to be. It's dark, uncharted, and full of things with an awful lot of teeth that would be happy to take a bite out of you. So it might be something of a relief to not be truly underwater, even while you're stuck down here.
How is that possible, you might ask? Well....
The waves to either side of you are high - impossibly high, reaching almost infinitely skyward. The water streams down freely in a seething, jellied mass to either side of you, but it's as though it's all being held back by some massive, invisible force. The ground beneath your feet is silty and faintly spongey, clearly quite damp from having been, until recently, submerged, but it's stable enough to walk upon, though jagged bits of rock poke up and out here and there.
What this allows you is a beautiful panorama of the deep-sea ocean life as it all flows idly past. The odd fish might even occasionally breach the tremendous walls of water and lie flopping, gasping on the ground. You yourself can easily stick your arm into the water with no consequences, or even swim through it...though we don't necessarily recommend that. That's a lot of water pressure over your head, after all.
If you're especially lucky, you might find that, along your way, a very special type of coral has been left bare to the dry air. Its vibrant coloration will almost certainly catch your eye. While it can make for a useful light in a pinch, it's more useful if it's...consumed. It might run counter to common sense, but you can trust us on this one: consumption of this coral will render the user capable of swimming through deep waters for up to twelve hours at a time. They'll find themselves quite able to swim very fast, find themselves immune to water pressure, and will breathe as easily as if they had sprouted gills.
That also means that anything down here that's carnivorous won't have any reason to hold back on this strange, potentially edible intruder that's come swanning in through its waters. So watch out for sharks - and for tigersharks. And yes, we mean that literally.
All in all, it's much safer stay on the dry land down here.
( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
Hard to swallow. Enter the dragon!
What on Earth...?
There's beach and sand and oceans everywhere. The humidity of the island isn't what he's used too. He woke up alone on the raft. Wei Wuxian and the donkey isn't anywhere to be found. He went to looking for them.
He explored the island, trying to get information from the temples. All he gets is that he's on the island of Mu and he woke up from one dream to the next. He slept again from exhuastio and woke up inside of the dragon. With the lantern, Lan Wangji searched his way out, while tolerating the conditions of the dead dragon's rotten insides, taking care to avoid the dripping acid from overhead.
Meanwhile, the pests can be taken care of with a slice of his sword, but he scowls at the icky mess it left on the blade. When he was being attacked by a sizeable swarm, he moves quickly with quick reflexes, whipped out Wangji, his guqin, and with a pluck of his strings, he more or less, chord assassinated the creatures with a crushing sound wave, destroying the swarm, and clears the path.
He hold up a lamp and he turns a beam of light to shine on him.
"...Wei Ying? Is that you? Are you here too?"
<3!!
He's heard it once or twice over the years, along with others, but he's never answered. There hadn't seemed to be much point; he already knew his old classmate hated him. Everyone did and rightfully so. The tragic mistakes he'd made in his youth could never be undone and the damage he'd caused so many others could never be mended with a simple apology.
The sight of the chord assassination technique laying waste to the insect horde pulls him out of his daze, snapping him back to attention. He turns around and starts running back the way he came, uphill toward that familiar presence. However, the 'ground' beneath him is slippery and uneven; in Wei Wuxian's haste to escape the bugs, his foot shoots out from underneath him, causing him to stumble hard to his knee.
In the old days, back when before he'd lost his golden core, Wei Wuxian would've been able to recover with grace. It's not until this moment that he realizes that there's something wrong with this body, too, it's weak, but he simply doesn't have time to think about it right now.
More bugs are coming up behind him so he looks up at the snowy robed figure in the distance and starts scampering toward him again. The words are coming far too late to have any meaning but Wei Wuxian shouts them anyway.
"Lan Zhan! I'm here!"
<3
Staring at the creatures cooly, Lan Zhan sees he didn't get rid of all of them. There's seem to be more and too many of the insects are coming to charge at them. With a swing of his sword, exuding blue energy, he sliced them in half through the tough exoskeletons shells.
"Get behind me!"
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Lan Wangji's always been strong, stronger than him, and his faith in his ability to take out the rest of the bugs is rock solid. As much as Wei Wuxan chafes under the realization that he's defenseless right now, he'd only get in his way. Maybe even get him injured and then they'd both be in the same trouble.
"Okay, keep taking them out and pulling back. I'll look for an escape route."
Maybe later, they'll have time to talk properly but for now, it's clear to Wei Wuxian that getting them both out of here takes priority.
"It should be safe enough. I didn't see anything except ribs and blood that way."
As weak and clumsy as Wei Wuxian is in this new body, he's determined to make himself useful somehow in this situation and not just be a burden. He'd dropped his lantern back where he'd first fallen so he'll just have to make due with his other senses unless he somehow finds another one.
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"Wei Ying. Wait. I can clear the path by killing them. Don't go anywhere. I had tried Inquiry. The way to get out...is out of the dragon's mouth. Which is this way." Which is moving uphill.
Because the other exit, the other way around at the end of the dragon is certainly not recommended.
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Now that he knows the way out, he should be trying to flee. But Lan Wangji's holding the only light source between them, now that he'd lost his own. Even if he had stumbled into the darkness, he'd still have had a hard time opening a dragon's mouth on his own in this body and the only things he has on him are the clothes on his back - no tools or talismans of any kind. Sigh.
Suddenly, he makes a quick grab for the lantern. Very briefly, the crisscrossing cuts on his wrist might be visible in Lan Wangji's peripheral vision.
"At least, give me the lamp so I can hold it for you. You might have an easier time fighting them."
Wei Wuxian's not going to run off and leave him fighting alone in the dark, even if he doesn't really understand why Lan Wangji is protecting him in the first place. Shouldn't he be out for his head like everyone else? Also, is it just his imagination or does his old classmate look older now?
Dreams are so bizarre sometimes.
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He handed him the lantern. "Okay. Hold it." Lan Wangji couldn't see anything. Other than where the beam of light lands in this dark place. So he didn't see the wounds on his arms.
"I think the path is clear for now, so we can move forward." However, he didn't sheathe his sword as he predicted they can be attacked at a given time. "Let's move ahead." And hopefully, Lan Zhan can figure out a way to get out of the dragon's mouth by the time they arrived there.
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"Did you see anyone else in here? I haven't. Once we've secured the way out, we should search where we can to make sure no one's left behind."
He's fairly sure they're the only ones in here but he can't leave without checking first in good conscience.
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"Mn. No, I have not seen anyone so far. I woke up alone. I'm glad I found you. It's good that you're safe."
So far, no sight of a living soul, but they did find some skeletons being littered on the floor. Tattletale signs that those poor unfortunate souls are unarmed and didn't make their way out. Or if it's a dream, part of the illusion of this nightmare then.
It's only then when they traveled through the thin passageway scaling the creature's esophagus, and finally, they will see the jagged fangs of its closed mouth with creaks of light through the closed fangs of its teeth.
"There. Through there we'll make it outside." Lan Wangji said, and without hesitation, wanting to make his escape with his sword, using the sharp point, he stabs at the wall of gums to find the weakest point between flesh and teeth. "If I can weaken it, then I can kick one of the teeth down."
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"The dragon's been dead too long to force its jaw open. Knocking out a tooth or two should give us enough room squeeze through."
He keeps glancing back into darkness, still straining his ears for any voices calling for help or skittering legs. Despite being no stranger to death odors given his time in the Burial Mounds and his path to cultivation, Wei Wuxian will glad to get out of this reeking corpse himself. Given his natural curiosity of the unknown, he's eager to escape and see the world that lay beyond this stinking, rotting husk. Amazing how quickly almost getting devoured by giant insects can kill the wonder in a situation.
As Wei Wuxian watches Lan Wangji work, he wishes for the first time in a very long time he had Suibian with him. He may not be able to do much with his sword anymore but he could have helped out with the gum chiseling, at least. Oh, well, Wei Wuxian can keep providing conversation and light.
"Thanks for helping me out, by the way. Didn't have the chance to say it back there."
Wei Wuxian still isn't quite sure why his old adversary isn't just leaving him to die here but he's grateful he's not. Dying again so soon after being reborn would just be such a waste.
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Lan Wangji searched for a weakness in the teeth, keeping in mind that the dragon's blood is acidic. He really values that sword, it's one of the kind, but still using the point to poke at the gumline. He found the front teeth on the bottom row is loose from cavity and decay.
"Stand back." He unsheathed his sword back to his hip. He wrapped several layers of his sleeves around his hands. Without hesitation, he raised his arm, curled his right hand tightly into a fist, and literally punched and kicked the fangs to knock the teeth out, thereby creating an opening. Of course, his knuckles got bruised, but Lan Wangji is strong enough to punched a tree before and snapped it in half.
Thick dragon blood squirted out in the gum hole in slow molasses. But it's a matter of waiting for the blood to clot that it's safe to scoot through the opening while minding the top row of fangs.
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Wei Wuxian glances up from the slowly clotting blood and over at Lan Wangji. He's sure his hand is fine; he'd actually been present during the tree-punching incident. Even so, he feels he should ask, it only to keep the awkward silence at bay a little while longer. It not that Wei Wuxian doesn't have other questions to ask; it's just he's reluctant to ask about them here and now. And there's that the whole suddenly not being dead and inside a dead dragon with a man he hasn't seen in thirteen years thing he's still trying to process.
"How's your hand?"
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"Hm? My hand hurts, but I'll be fine." The knuckles were bleeding from the harsh impact. Dragon enamel is harder than trees, but it's brittle and rotten from death and decay. "Just go through."
Behind them, down the dark passageway, there's a faint skittering sound. They were being followed by the swarm again. "Wei Ying. They're coming back. I'll hold them back from following us."
Lan Wangji withdrew his guqin and position himself in an offensive stance to protect him. The "ground" of the dragon's leather tongue is slippery, but some parts were leathered dry.
Though it's probably helpful if Wei Ying holds up the light so Lan Wangji can see while he prepares his attack to chord assassinate the swarm and crush them as a group.
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The corpses they'd seen on the way had looked to be in pieces, too deteriorated to be of much use to him, especially without a flute. Under different circumstances with proper tools, he might've been able to do some assembly work but this wasn't those. On the off-chance, Wei Wuxian found one intact enough to raise in order to lend Lan Wangji a hand, he'd have to be much closer range to it than this. He'd have to whistle or issue commands directly and his control would be tenuous at best.
"Be careful, Lan Zhan. Break for it as soon as you can. I'll follow you."
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"You go and I'll follow you." With the targets destroyed, he bought them enough time to make their escape. "I think that's it. Let's go, Wei Ying. Just watch your step."
It's a matter of scooting low enough through the opening gap between the fanged teeth while avoiding the gap of acidic blood and stepping over.
Something good does come from being careful. A relief of fresh air and dry land greets them on the other side...and each other as they made it out alive.
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However, first things first. Wei Wuxian drags the broken shards to dragon teeth and starts plugging in the gaps as best as he can. Should anyone else find themselves within, they should be able to move the rubble aside to get out. The bugs hadn't seemed sentient, driven more by instinct than intelligence. He doesn't think they'll have the sense to undo his little barricade but just in case, it'd be best if he and Lan Wangji got as far away from the dragon as they could.
As soon as, Wei Wuxian's task is finished, he looks around a ltitle bit before turning to look at his old classmate.
"So now what? Have any ideas what to do or where to go next?"
It's a brave new world and Wei Wuxian's still coming to terms with just being alive. He's in no state to be giving anyone any sort of direction right now. Though now that they're outside and in actual sunlight, those criss-crossing wounds on his wrists are way more noticeable than they were inside the dragon. So is that ghastly ghost makeup he's wearing. A search for a clean source of water might be in order.
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That would be best as they walked further away from the dragon as far as they could.
Being out in the sunlight, Lan Wangji noticed the state of his classmate and he becomes curious as to what happened and finally took notice. He'll ask questions about it later as he is pressed to find the basics such as food, water, and shelter.
"Find shelter. There are houses in the north of the island. I saw it earlier the other day. We can move into those." At the very least, it should be a temporary shelter until they can figure out their next move. There should be clean water since there are farms and water walls where those houses are at.
"Wei Ying...are you all right? Can you walk with me to the north?"
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This place seemed very confusing to Wei Wuxian. Or maybe it's simply him that's confused. After all, he doesn't understand what this dream's about or why it's so different from the others. Sure, he's dreamed about Lan Wangji before but they'd never been in a place like this before. It'd always been someplace like the Cloud Recesses or the Burial Mound or Mt. Baifeng, places they'd actually been to before.
Wei Wuxian's willing enough to follow his old classmate, chattering away a mile a minute like he did in the old days. If Lan Wangji was going to kill him, he would've done it inside the dragon, he thinks. He should be safe enough if he stays with him. Wherever they are seems pretty far removed from either Yunmeng, Gusu. Lanling, or any of the other places he recognized.
"I don't suppose you saw any water on the way here? Or could we stop by the shore first? I think there's something all over my face. Some kind of makeup."
Not to mention that Wei Wuxian still hadn't actually seen his own face. Or rather, the face he seems to be borrowing for the time being. Really, whose body was he even inhabiting now? Wei Wuxian had so many questions burning inside him right now.
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Of course, Lan Zhan already find it alarming if one simply sleeps and end up in such a place. This displacement means reality on this island is malleable and ever-shifting. Such an occurrence can be unpredictable. He must be diligent of the dangers of this island and with Wei Ying here that means protecting closely him as well.
"Water? Wei Ying, the water at the shore is seawater. If you need to clean...let's look around. I remember there's a spring around here."
Lan Zhan recognized Wei Ying as he came from a future time, though probably a shy few months after his awakening. After some time of considerable amounts of walking around and exploring, Lan Zhan found one as they came upon a spring hidden in the jungles.
"Here's a spring, Wei Ying if you need to wash."
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Once Wei Wuxian's scrubbed his face as clean as he can manage, he sits back on his heels and just studies his reflection in the water or rather what he can make out of it. A handsome face, maybe somewhat similar to how he'd once looked from an outsider's perspective but still different enough for Wei Wuxian for to really sink in hard that he's in somebody else's body. And that he has no clue who that somebody could even be. Whoever he'd been, he'd looked young, perhaps around the age Wei Wuxian had been when he'd died. It's hard to judge the age of a cultivator by appearance alone though given his spiritual weakness, it seems like a fair estimate.
Though seeing this for himself adds yet another burning question to the growing pile in Wei Wuxian's mind and he turns his head to look sharply up at Lan Wangji. This entire situation is just so weird and surreal, even for a dream, that he just has to ask.
"Lan Zhan? How did you know it was me?"
The moment his classmate had spotted him, he'd called out his name. But how can that be when it's not even his own body that he saw?
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He scrubbed his face and hands clean, and he started to feel a little better. He noticed Wei Wuxian looks very much disoriented and he's curious about what is he feeling.
"..." At first, Lan Wangji is reluctant to answer as Wei Wuxian had asked this before and decided to be evasive on the subject, waiting for the right time to reveal the answer. But he thought of the right answer for the time being. "I had seen you at the inn last night."
But then a thought struck him since when they first met, Wei Wuxian doesn't seem to recognize him when they first met. Hopefully, being out of the dragon, they are calmer to check in with their memories.
"What did you last remember, Wei Ying? Do you remember me?"