aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 030 )

Test Drive Meme #30

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 weekend.

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.

Polar Opposites
Adventurers in the waking world have had to contend with the temperamental island of Monsun, which has recently undergone some rather drastic changes. These changes have now become all the more evident in Mu. You see, upon waking here, you're likely to end up on one of two sides.

The east side is a frozen wasteland, rife with glaciers and beasts that you could expect to see in an ice age - woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, and dozens of others besides. While they're not innately hostile creatures, you should probably keep your distance...unless your idea of a good time is getting into a brisk fight with one or more of these beasts. Nothing like a good brawl to warm up the blood, after all!

What's more is that your body may also begin to reflect physical properties inherent to the region. This can be as simple as a thin layer of semi-permanent frost that settles over you, and as complex as sprouting icicle horns and spines all over your body. These changes can be slow to emerge or extremely painful, or relatively painless and immediate. If you get the odd ice-based power to shoot icicles out of your hands or slick the ground beneath you with frost on top of it, well...that's just a bonus, isn't it?

On the other hand, you could wake up on the western side of this recreation of Monsun. Things here are just as dangerous, but in a rather different sense. This place is a blasted, scorched wasteland of volcanic corruption. The parts of the land still traversable are little more than seared patches of coal and rock. All around you, rivers of magma seethe in haphazard, highly volatile tributaries. At irregular points, parts of the land detach seemingly at random and drift into the air, as though decoupled from the island's gravity. Heavy chunks of charred rock hover in midair, though it's not clear how it is they remain suspended. The land is periodically rocked with earthquakes that spurt fountains of lava into the air in burning arcs and further fracture what little solid ground you have, causing more of it to break away from the ground and bob listlessly in the empty air.

You can also expect to be pursued by the odd monstrous entity on top of these environmental hazards - so tread carefully!

There are benefits to this, however. Just like with the east side, sticking around on the heat-blasted part of this world may cause your body to reflect physical properties inherent to the region. Whether it's a fiery shimmer bathing your silhouette, your skin becoming blackened and veined with magma, or any other variation besides, is up to you. These changes can be slow to emerge or extremely painful, or relatively painless and immediate. And, of course, if you pick up a fire-based power or two in the interim, that's just a bonus. Maybe you can shoot fire from your hands now, or make whips of lava out of thin air. Pretty badass, right? Totally makes this potentially traumatic transformation worth it, right?

Well, we thought so.

Can't Let It Go
It is in the thick of winter, and while the tropical islands on LifeAftr are only intermittently reflecting this, the dreamworld of Mu is the exception here. You'll have to be careful when braving these thick, high-piled snowdrifts, however. You might see the occasional lump of snow that looks like someone nearby has made a couple of snowmen. That's nice, right? A good sign of civilization?

Not so. These are, in fact, creatures known as snowgoons, and they are very much hostile. So not only is it very cold, but you're being hunted by terrifying snowmen on top of it. They are intrinsically hostile, incredibly lethal, and what's more? They are relentless.

It'd be bad enough if these things only wanted to rip you limb from limb, but they don't. What they really want to do is turn you into one of them. They primarily accomplish this by stalking you and hounding you more or less nonstop until you essentially collapse from exhaustion or no longer have any means to fighting them off, and then packing snow around you. Assuming you don't freeze to death, you can still get free as long as they don't get to your head. Once they've covered your face, there's no coming back.

The best way to deal with these creatures is to keep them at a distance as much as possible; snowgoons are only really effective at close range. They can be picked off fairly easily from a distance, though we recommend figuring out some kind of way of generating heat to keep them at bay. These things, true to their appearance, despise fire and heat.

Hope you brought a flamethrower!

Mistletoe? More Like Mistlefoe
Ah, mistletoe. A long-standing wintertime tradition, often used to facilitate all sorts of romantical shenanigans throughout history. This isn't necessarily requisite, or forced, fortunately. In this wintery wonderland, most mistletoe is in its uncut, untendered state - little more than a parasitic fuzz clinging to the branches of the trees overhead.

You have a roughly equal chance of running into two different types of mistletoe. There is, of course, the conventional mistletoe, wherein you will more or less immediately experience the urge to express affection to whoever else is nearest. This can translate to romantic, familial, or platonic affection - cuddling, kissing, hand-holding, hugging, or just plain being nice to them, as per your comfort level. This may be a mutual affection...or it might not.

There is also the other type of mistletoe. Instead of a one true soulmate, this type will select your one true foemate.

Upon crossing paths with this type of mistletoe, you will be seized with the immediate and overwhelming desire to fight whoever else is nearest. This sensation might be mutual, or it might be wholly one-sided. This can translate to an unthinkable, murderous bloodlust that obscures all other reason, or it might relate to a polite request for a formal duel. This parasitic plant has selected your government-assigned nemesis; are you really going to run from that?

Unfortunately for you, these two types of mistletoe are virtually indistinguishable from one another. It's entirely possible for one person to be affected by the former and another person to be affected by the latter simultaneously.

Good luck.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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[There it is, words he didn't want to hear. The words that of course she's saying, but that hit him harder than her punches ever could.]

No. [He says, in a rush as he turns to face her, to make sure she understands.] That wasn't your fault, you didn't do anything wrong.

[His hands move in front of him like he's half-thinking about reaching for her, but he can't touch her, that would be crossing a boundary he absolutely can't pass right now. He hurt her. He hurt her so much and he's just going to keep hurting her and he needs to apologize, take all the blame and make sure she understands it wasn't her, it was entirely him.]

Shiemi-san, please don't feel like you messed up. You didn't do anything wrong. [He doesn't go further. He can't spill everything, can't lay his faults bare in front of her. That would be cruel to her.]

[ She quietly clutches the fabric of her kimono despite the ice crystals that dance across it with that contact. She doesn't understand, doesn't know how he can say that. She was afraid. She's afraid of how far away he might go after this, that he doesn't know, that he doesn't think of her as a friend at all, and some friend she is! She wants so badly to understand, to be the friend he needs. She wasn't the same as she was at that time in the distant past, and yet she couldn't do anything for him. She couldn't do anything for him and he'd gone so far away.

She feels so small and her voice is so small. She tries to stop that moisture from gathering at the corner of her eyes, but she can't. ]

I don't know when I'll see you after this, Yuki-chan.

[ If this is a dream, if he returns to 'somewhere else' when he's already been gone far away for so long... ]

Th-this feels like then. When you left, all I wanted was to find you. I never want you to feel like you're alone. I am your friend. I'll always be your friend, Yuki-chan.

I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you, I just... [it was months ago. He's gotten away from that, stepped back and had a chance to breathe, and it's still just as sharp as it was. He's terrible. He's hurt her (he's hurt Rin, he's hurt Shura, he's hurt everyone who's ever reached out a hand towards him to help).

All I wanted was to find you.

He's the worst sort of person.]

I'm sorry.

[ I didn't want to hurt you.

Those words, punctuated by his apologies, stick out to her. Does he think...? She doesn't want him to misunderstand. She takes a small breath and shakes her head gently as she tries, again, to stem the flow of those tears. She's afraid and she's worried, but she has to stop crying. She has to be strong and properly talk to him while she can. ]

I never thought you wanted to hurt me. [ Not once. ]

I... I was [ am, she still is ] afraid because I knew so little. It seems like I really don't know anything at all, but I know that and I'll always be here to help you. I'm not the best friend, but I am yours, okay?

But I did hurt you. [He's thought through it, the things he needs to say, the things he needs to apologize for.

But he never pictured Shiemi apologizing to him. He doesn't even understand it, has to fight back against it.]

You've been nothing but a good friend, [he isn't looking at her, not really. He's looking at the space between them, the snow and the distance that no one will ever really be able to cross] and I've just...

I'm sorry. I've just been cruel to you.

[ She doesn't wholly understand that, what he's saying. That moment, certain admittances are still so very fresh for her and the weight of them seems that much more with the things he's told her. To hear him call her not just a friend, but a good friend so soon after he'd told her he had none in the world feels as surreal as this dream they're sharing. More than that alongside those apologies, but... Yuki said he'd been away for a year hadn't he?

She's quiet for a moment, looking at him, where his eyes seem to fall. ]

I don't feel like I've been a good friend. You were hurting, [ Is he still? After a year away, ] and I... [ couldn't do anything for him, but ] I really want to help you.

[ She's listening, trying. She wants to understand him so badly. ]

[You were hurting.

He's still hurting. It's dulled, but it hasn't gone away. He still doesn't want to go home.]

Shiemi-san, that isn't your fault. [He doesn't want to do this. He doesn't want to have this conversation. He's still hurting, and this is going to just pull it back to the surface when he's trying not to think about it again.]

... we can talk more once we find somewhere warmer, all right?

[ Shiemi looks at Yukio, then turns her eyes to the seemingly endless expanse of snow and ice in front of them. She hasn't seen a place that's looked warm since she's woke up in this dream, and it's... a dream, isn't it? ]

Is... is there really a place like that here? What if we wake up?

[ And he's gone again and she doesn't know. ]

There should be. [And if they wake up... he doesn't want that.]

Let's try and find it before that happens.

[ She looks back at Yuki again, worrying the bottom of her lip for a very brief moment. If he says there's a warm place, then... ]

Un!

[ She's determined. She takes a second to swipe at her eyes, nodding. ]

Let's find that place and then properly talk together! If it's with Yuki-chan, then we'll definitely be able to do it!

Let's go west. This is the eastern half of the island, so going west should bring us somewhere warmer. [It's a safe conversation, a normal one, he can just bring that wall of politeness up around him even though it feels really brittle right now. Don't push him, Shiemi. Don't get too close.]

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 030 )

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