TEST DRIVE MEME ( 004 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #4

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.

Remember that Reserves will open on October 17th and that Applications will open on October 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.

Gone Apeshit
The peaceful island upon which you've found yourself is pleasant enough, isn't it? Clear turquoise waters, white sand, verdant copses of trees...it might be a little on the humid side, sure, but what's not to love?

The answer will come in the form of some decidedly simian ululations and howls that will inevitably start echoing through the trees, paired with the occasional loud, firework-like bang of some weapon being fired. The beach itself is safe, or as safe as beaches can possibly be, but setting foot into the jungle proper will prompt immediate, firepower-based retaliation from the group of monkeys that have elected to live there.
That's right: monkeys. Monkeys wielding rudimentary technology, no less, the most prominent example of such being the cannon-like, primitive firearms that shoot coconuts at interlopers. While their precision is not excellent, a direct or indirect hit can cause incredibly serious injury. Sure, you could opt to stay on the sidelines...but without any resources on hand, your only remaining solution is to either risk starvation or exposure, or to confront the gun-toting monkeys directly.

A pity Jumpman isn't here, huh?

Motherclucker
Congratulations! After who knows however long you might have spent exploring this strange new land - be it hours or eons or days or mere minutes - you've finally stumbled across some resources that may be viable! You've encountered a flock of bludroc, their nests brimming with speckled eggs that would surely taste delicious sucked raw or fried on a stone.

Unfortunately, this is a rather vast flock of the creatures, and they do not part with their offspring easily. While they lend themselves easily to domestication, these bludroc are quite wild, and quite unwilling to be beset upon by complete strangers. So if you encroach upon their territory, beware...for you may find yourself set upon by an abundance of pecking, flapping, screeching, colorful creatures.

Tick Tock
Mu's world is a curious one, no doubt. Its creatures often bear a strange resemblance to those in the world of LifeAftr proper, but some fauna can be found on no other landscape, in no other context, besides the dreamlike dips and peaks that only Mu can emulate.

One of those creatures is the clockroach.

Today, they seem strangely intent on flocking around those who have crossed into the lands of Mu for the first time; the uninitiated of LifeAftr. Their shapes are indistinct, to start with, but the click-whisper of rustling, mothlike wings almost sounds like your name, being uttered over and over...and over...and over...

They have a curious look to start with, make no mistake. But the longer you look, the more those forms start to solidify into a shadow to mirror your own, devoid of color or feature, but unmistakably resembling your general shape. While their edges are softly blurred and out of focus, their forms rapidly begin to solidify the more you interact with them. Speaking to them, touching them, even acknowledging them by looking their way, failing to ignore them utterly, will gradually start to bring them into greater clarity and focus. They do not speak. They merely follow - a shadow of your very own, unattached and allowed sentience.
Once they're solid enough to touch, you'll begin to hear a sound. A low, repetitive tick-tick of a timepiece, moving ever closer to some unseen deadline with terrifying regularity. It starts quietly, at first, but begins to grow louder, louder, until it drowns out all else.

The apparition may soothe and speak all it likes, but the artificial dread worming in your heart refuses to be shucked away. Everything else is a shadow hostile, a creature mistrusted. The fog is a tripwire that will surely trap you; that person approaching from over that hill? Doubtless here to kill you, and see that your invisible clock winds to an end.

But that dark storm boiling in the shadow behind you? Surely that has nothing to do with it...

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Fran | Franken Fran

[frankenfran]

[Apeshit][CW: non-graphic dismemberment]

[There's bound to be causalities and all with something like this. Not everyone can come out alive every time, right? And some poor soul has been apparently torn limb from limb or something, if the random arm dragging itself around the beach is any indication--

Wait what?

Yep, that sure is a slender arm dragging itself around. It pauses and the hand writes 'come quick. Bring thread' into the sand and waits. Do you follow it??

If you do decide to follow the arm (or pick it up and carry it and let it point out the way to go, which is the quicker method honestly) and manage to dodge the primate gunfire, you'll come across one Fran.

Well, what's left of Fran. Various body parts seem to be flung around the ground, but Fran is still sitting with her upper torso propped up against a tree, her head seems to be perched rather precariously on her neck, but she's smiling cheerfully]

Oh, good, someone came! Did you bring the thread? I have a needle but I ran out of the thread when I was sewing my head back on!

[This is fine.]

[Apeshit 2.0]

[Are you fighting some nightmare monkey? Worry not, Fran is here to help!

...By standing on th sidelines when she stumbles upon the scene and cheering you on!] You can do it! Oh, but, if you can, try to save some body parts, please? I'd like to save a limb or two or the whole corpse of that creature, if you can resist destroying it!

Oh, if you lose something, don't worry! I have spare parts too, I'll stitch you back up!

[This is reassuring] I'm a doctor, so everything'll be okay~

[Motherclucker][CW: non-graphic eye horror aka someone's lost an eye]

[Fran didn't ask for this, okay? She wasn't even bothering the birds, trying to figure out a way to obtain a breeding pair to study when something or someone (MAYBE YOU?) startled the birds nearest her.

The results were not pretty, which is how Fran's lost an eye now, one hand clamped over the side of her face, but... She doesn't seem particularly disturbed by it as the birds calm down their frenzy after a bit]

I don't have any spares! [That's the true lament of this and why Fran is shuffling around on her hands and knees, trying to figure out which bird took the eye back to which nest.]

Even if it's damaged a little, I can probably fix it-- Ah, excuse me, coming through... [Just gonna crawl around whoever's in her way. Don't mind the blood dripping between her fingers, surely everything is great here.]

[Wildcard]
[If you want something else with Fran, she can be found around elsewhere, typically trying to study animals or even taking notes on physical/health attributes of anyone else in the vicinity.

Don't mind the doctor squinting at you and then furiously taking notes. A peek at them will reveal scarily accurate body measurements and speculation on blood type...]

Apeshit

[onemanstrash]

[Okay monkey problem, whatever-- There is an arm moving by itself on the beach?! Tell him that is not that coolest thing ever. What a fantastic treasure to find just crawling out here in the sand!

The message it writes goes completely ignored as Keaton instead watches. And waits. Waits the whole time it crawls back through the sand, into the jungle past all sorts of angry monkeys he needs to duck and dodge around. This is like poetry in motion to him okay. Gross, dismembered arm styled poetry.

Eventually, having left the arm to crawl all the way back by itself, he finds Fran.]

Whoah, you've got like a whole body here! Least I think you do, let me check. Got another arm over there, there's a leg... No foot though, think we've lost the foot-- Nope, found the foot!

[Did Fran say something? He's too busy picking up all these new treasures body parts. To help get her body all in once place! Yeah. That's it.]

[frankenfran]

[Fran laughs pleasantly, watching Keaton with open glee. How nice to find someone else as excited about body parts as she is! If only Adorea was here...]

Having fun? If you bring them all together, I can start putting myself back together again! ...Did you bring any thread?

[That's the most important thing here. Her arm crawls back to Keaton to grab at his pants leg to get his attention]

[onemanstrash]

Huh, did I bring any what now? Thread?

[Oh. Shoot... He really should have read what that hand wrote in the sand before.]

... Uh, so hey. I don't usually look at messages in the sand written by hands that are doing their own thing. But next time? I'll be all over any sand messages. [Not that next time really helps for now. But wait!] Gimme one sec and I can probably get you some thread! Lets see here.

[Once he's happy with how he's got this lovely pile of body parts, Keaton starts picking at his shirt with one of his claws. The thing was kind of ragged anyway, he has no problem pulling the threading of it apart.]

[frankenfran]

[Fran waits patiently, humming to herself as her arms begin to pull themselves together--more or less. One makes its way back to her, while the other crooks at the elbow, hand extended to accept the thread.]

I'm sure we can find you new clothes some time. I really appreciate it! What a good boy~ [Dog...Wolf... boy?? She kind of wants to study that tail and ears and all. Were they real or surgically added? If she dug under the skin a little--

Ah, but there'd be time for that later, right?]

You're handling this pretty well too. I'm impressed!

[onemanstrash]

[He goes through all this effort wrecking his own clothing only to have the "good boy" card drawn on him? Typical.]

Aww, and aren't you a good girl?! Pulling yourself together like that.

[There's a roll of his eyes as he speaks, tone dry as anything... His tail seems to be wagging pretty quickly though, since the good boy comment actually. Just ignore it. It's what Keaton tries to do.]

I've seen way worse than you before. Think blood spurting out all over, that kinda deal.

[He's got a nice sized hole in his shirt from pulling it apart like he is, but thankfully he's soon able to drop a few uneven strands of thread into her hand.]

[frankenfran]

I try. [She actually blushes like he just paid her a highly flattering compliment and flutters her eyelashes.]

Hmm, I have too. Blood and parts and everything in-between strewn about... It's such a waste sometimes. But usually people are a little more scared.

[The arm crawls back to Fran and she begins looping the thread through the eye of a needle, before getting to work sewing one arm back to her shoulder.]

Oh-- I'm Fran, by the way. Those monkeys got a little out of control, but thank you for helping me~

[onemanstrash]

[... Why is she blushing?? That's just weird. He wasn't even trying to flatter her! Ugh.]

Oh yeah, guts all over the ground, that too! See something like that enough times and there's nothing scary about it... Don't think I've ever been scared of this kind of thing though.

[Shrug. It's all just a part of being a wolfskin really. He's killed so many humans after his pack for their pelts no amount of gore could faze him.]

I'm Keaton. Don't thank me, I was just following your arm 'cause I thought it would make a neat treasure. [The thanks does nothing for his tail though, making it swish about even faster as his ears bob up and down slightly.]

[frankenfran]

What an exciting life you must lead to see all of that! [She hums and nods as if in agreement with her assessment and gets to work on attaching the other arm.]

Pleased to meet you, Keaton. Normally I have plenty of extra body parts hanging around, but coming here seems to have robbed me of all but the basics... But if I find myself with some extra limbs, you're welcome to have one. Are you partial to arms, or would any do?

[Next her leg... She grabs it, and then pauses, looking at Keaton with a pointed stare] You should turn around for this.

[onemanstrash]

Heh, I guess. It can be pretty exciting, killing all the humans after your pack. [He nods along. Plenty of guts and gore involved in defending his people.]

Anyway-- You'll seriously give me one of your extra arms? You're not yanking my tail?! [Just like that he's gone from talking about killing people to getting excited.] Doesn't have to be an arm of course! Could be just the hand, or a foot! Anything works!

[And for a moment he just stares at her, tail wagging enthusiastically while his head takes a moment to catch up with what she's asking. Turn around? But it was cool watching Fran sew herself back up, why is it- Right. Her leg. Okay, quickly turning around now.] ... I'd take a leg too. So long as it moves and does stuff by itself like your arm. [Just saying.]

[frankenfran]

Pack-- Oh, so you're a wolf hybrid? I was trying to figure it out, but I didn't want to be so rude as to just ask outright.

[She looks a bit sheepish--it probably would've been better to just ask though. But she hums in response to the question, answer slightly muffled as she bites into the thread to finishing knotting a section of her arm in place before fully moving onto her leg. Once she's sure he's not looking she can hike up her skirt to work on connecting the leg--torn at mid-thigh--back together.]

If I'm not using it, it' just go to waste, right? Might as well give it to you. If you want some extra moving limbs, I could always give you any I can find... Making then animated again doesn't take much, really.

[His admission of taking a leg though makes her pause] A leg man...? I guess some guys are more into that. [She's teasing. Probably.]

[onemanstrash]

Who cares, should've just asked! Not like I care if you just wanna ask stuff... But uh, yeah, I'm not a wolf hybrid. I'm a wolfskin.

[As a proud wolfskin leader its important to get that distinction down.

There's some slight temptation to look back. Less because of the position she's in, more because he wants to see more of that sewing. It reminds him of the stitching on the Faceless back home... But nope, he keeps looking dead ahead. Which as just as well really given his cheeks are about to get a little pink.]

Who wouldn't be a leg man after seeing a leg like yours? [... Wait.] One that moves and does stuff on its own! It doesn't have to be yours or anything. [Smooth.] Or even a leg in the first place! It's the moving that's important.