TEST DRIVE MEME ( 001 )

[lifeaftr_mods]

Test Drive Meme #1

Hello, and welcome to our very first test drive! 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 July 17th and that Applications will open on July 24th, in preparation for the game’s official opening on August 3rd!

But first, two important notes!

1. The island of Mu 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.

Shipwrecked
The white sand of the beach ridges the island’s edge, even if the clear water soon becomes murky the further out you look across the horizon until the turquoise gleam of the tide disappears in a coil of surrounding fog. Indeed, your best prospects may very well be to strike out among the trees or the crags looming out over the foam-capped waves. There’s lumber to be found and made from the palm-like trees, potentially fruit or edible tubers of some kind if you forage about some. The further you travel, however, the more of your surroundings will reveal themselves in a steady unspooling of curiosities.

One corner of Mu’s current construct drops away into a sheer cliff, initially too dangerous to brave for all but the more daredevilish, but if one starts to scan the sharp rocks below, you might catch sight of what appears to be sodden planks of wood - a wreckage tossed up against the rocks. And a little further...a bobbing, shattered wreck of a lifeboat’s remains, potentially bearing supplies that might yet be salvageable.

Fashion what you can from the wood and stone around you or scavenge from the ruin of the land, if you like. But you can’t simply stand around and wait forever. It’s going to get dark sometime - and if a creature of unknown terror doesn’t catch you, the elements surely will.

Storytime

There’s a sense of camaraderie in this cove, you think. As the sun hangs low over the horizon, the world cast into orange hues, long shadows dispersed by roaring fires that dot across the beach.

That’s right, folks: it’s storytime.

There’s no one to preside over this meeting of the minds in Mu. Call it a vague recreation of things to come, if you like, some vaguely fatidic dreamlike state where you may find yourself drawn to the heat and company that awaits you by the fire. And from there, compelled to default to that old instinct that most of intelligent civilization has revered since they were advanced enough to paint geometric shapes on cave walls.

You tell a story.

Perhaps it’s a tragedy, a tale of woe and of personal loss. Perhaps it’s the sort of thing you’d break out after a few rounds of your alcoholic beverage of choice, clapping hands to your knees as you try to bite back your mirth long enough to spill the punchline. Perhaps it’s an adventure of some sort, some unbelievable rendition of your past exploits. The only common thread to be had, as those gathered around the fire share their tales, is the fundamental rule of a ritualistic sharing of stories such as this: its truth.

But how one chooses to define "truth" is, in its own way, another story entirely...

Dance, Sucker, Dance!
The beat of your heart in your chest is difficult to ignore. It judders with a pulsing, rhythmic quality. If you’re one of those that lacks a heart, the beat is still omnipresent and all-encompassing, until your entire body is unwittingly bobbing in time to a metronomic tune that seems ingrained into your very soul. It’s inescapable. You can’t seem to move unless it’s in time to the rhythm that’s now singing in every atom of your being.

But rest assured, you’re not alone in this musical curse. Everything, from the swaying trees to the waves against the beach, jumps in time to the music. And so do the monsters approaching you, that - wait a minute.

Monsters?

Oh, yes. Did we mention those?


It seems you’ve encountered the wrath of the Boogieman, who curses you to only dance to his infernal beat. If you wish to best him, you’ll have to either evade or destroy the blobs of greenish slime that serve as his minions, all in time to the hard beat of the tune in your head. Clear the radius of his curse or risk an open confrontation, if you dare. Don’t worry if you look foolish; chances are anyone else caught in the Boogieman’s thrall feels just the same.

Mu isn’t pulling any punches to start with. It is a flighty creation, after all, and seems to revel in displacing people into new and uncomfortable situations.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet shakes her head, and explains:]

I can control what it sticks to and when. Magic's useful like that.

[ichininyaanshi]

Ah, really... I see. Nice.

[No, he doesn't get it in the slightest. He seems relieved, though; it's not like he's grossed out by spiders or anything, but nobody likes dealing with the misfortune of getting cobwebs stuck on themself. Either way, he nods and waits, figuring she'll demonstrate when she's good and ready to.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet spins out another long line of purple webbing between one pair of hands, and holds it out for him to take, using another hand to lift her own line in preparation to toss it at one of the crates.]

Ready?

[ichininyaanshi]

[He looks at it sideways, takes it slowly, like someone might reach for a dog they aren't confident won't snap at them. When Ichimatsu lifts it from her with both hands, he rubs it back and forth between both sets of thumb and index fingers. Huh - weird. It's kinda just similar to yarn. His cats back home would love the stuff... man, now he's kind of jealous that he can't make something like that whenever he wants to.]

[She questions him, and he looks a bit startled.]

O-oh, yeah.

[Hastily Ichimatsu hikes up one sleeve and twirls one end of the webbing into loops around his forearm. Without waiting for any further prompting, he winds up and lets loose with the coil, watching it sail towards the nearest crate. Ah... good. Looks like all that baseball that Jyushimatsu dragged him into paid off. It would have been embarrassing if he'd missed after all that.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet throws her own line out, hitting another crate a bit to the left of Ichimatsu's, and nods in satisfaction.]

[She makes a pulling motion with one hand, and the threads slowly begin to shorten, dragging the crates they're stuck to back in to shore along with them.]

[ichininyaanshi]

So that's magic... looks useful.

[Ichimatsu watches quietly, his heavy lids lifted a bit higher in interest. And here he thought he would have to expend energy and effort pulling the crates in, too... no, no. He should probably be at least a bit helpful. Ichimatsu wanders down the shoreline until the tide nips at his toes, ready to intercept the first crate and drag it onto the shore as soon as it beaches itself.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Honestly, I've always been rather impressed that the average human just gets by without it. My people use it for almost everything, in one way or another.

[Crate number one scrapes slowly along the sandy bottom of the shallows and reaches the shore.]

[ichininyaanshi]

[A bit of awkward fighting against the tide later, Ichimatsu hauls the crate up with both arms, sand and seawater dripping from his sleeves. He rattles it experimentally - it's definitely not hollow, though given it's small and light enough for him to carry, he's not holding out for anything spectacular. Regardless, Ichimatsu backtracks to drier sand and sets it down with a grunt. Then back out to repeat the process with the second one.]

So you're really not human at all...?

[Really, that should have been obvious.]

Well, don't be impressed. Humans aren't that great.

[prettypurpleparlor]

No, just your average magical spider monster from under a mountain.

[What, you don't get those all the time back home? Maybe you don't live near the right mountain.]

[Once the second crate's been reeled in, Muffet walks over and examines them carefully, looking for a way to pry the tops off. She could just try hitting it with bullets, but that seems kind of risky...]

I've found it tends to vary from person to person, myself. Sometimes you get truly lovely, wonderful souls... and other times you get people who try to dine and dash at your bakery on Discount Cupcake Day.

[She's very serious about that last one. You do not fuck with Discount Cupcake Day.]

[ichininyaanshi]

... yeah. Only real garbage would do something that shitty.

[It's not as if Ichimatsu and his five brothers dine and dash, several times a month, at their acquaintance's oden stand.]

[Except they do precisely that.]

[It's okay though, Ichimatsu holds no delusions of himself or his siblings being anything close to "lovely, wonderful souls".]

[As for the crates, he seems to have no such reservations; he moves to the smaller of the two, examining it with blank intensity for a few moments. Then he draws his knee up and sharply drives his heel down, caving in the damp wood with a splintering crack. Ouch, ouch... that hurts. It did the job, though. Ichimatsu tenderly shakes his foot and kneels to the sand, tossing aside a few broken planks to get at the contents in the crate.]

Alright, let's see.

Am I allowed to decide what's in the crate?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[As long as they don't fuck with Discount Cupcake Day. Stick to the oden stand, it's just not worth it.]

Are you all right? That sounded unpleasant.

go ahead! <3

[ichininyaanshi]

Yeah, it's fine. [He's wearing sandals, so that definitely smarted, but Ichimatsu would rather suffer a few splinters than waste time thinking of an alternative. Finally, he manages to wrest the last few strips of wood out of the way.] 'kay. Got it.

Okay, hope this works. :D

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet peers cautiously into the crate, and...]

Oh, that's useful.

[It appears to be about half full of hunting knives- the vast majority of them are broken, rusted, or otherwise completely ruined by the seawater that leaked in, but there's still a small handful in usable condition.]

[Muffet reaches in and carefully pulls one out to examine it.]

Some of those trees look like they've got coconuts, perhaps this could crack one open...

[ichininyaanshi]

[Knives, huh.... nice find. A smile curls Ichimatsu's mouth for the first time since they've met, and he mirrors her action by selecting one and running his finger along the blade. It's not sharp enough enough for that action alone to cut him without adding any pressure, but it doesn't look dull beyond functionality, either.]

[Setting his current prize aside on the sand, Ichimatsu carefully sifts through the remaining pile in hopes of finding something a bit more versatile -- and portable -- like a switchblade.]

If that's all you want, you can smash coconuts against a rock. These have plenty of better uses.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[...Welp, that's creepy. Muffet cheerfully ignores this, on the grounds that if he tries to stab her to death it's not going to help if she panics, and if he doesn't then there's no sense wasting time worrying. She's just going to burn that bridge when she comes to it.]

Right, there's always cooking. I wonder if any of these broken bits are shiny enough to be reflective? I've never had much of a talent for fire magic, but I've heard you can burn wood by reflecting sunlight to get it hot enough...

[ichininyaanshi]

[Ichimatsu gives up and pockets his first knife. No luck with a switchblade, but it's hard to be disappointed with a find like this. In fact, it may seem like he isn't even paying attention to Muffet as she talks -- but he answers her fairly quickly.]

Cutting vines and stuff, too.

[Totally straight-faced. What, did he give off a weird impression or something?]

[Getting to his feet, Ichimatsu nods towards the second, slightly larger box.]

Ready for that one?

You can decide this one if you want, so it'll be even. :D

[prettypurpleparlor]

Right. Fairly useful for this, too.

[Muffet selects one of the broken knives that still has a couple inches of solidly intact blade near the hilt, reasoning that it's better not to risk damaging one of the usable ones, and carefully uses it to pry the lid off of the other crate.]

gotcha c:

[ichininyaanshi]

[Look at that non-human ingenuity at work. Ichimatsu was just gonna kick it in with his other foot. He moves to join her, jamming his fingers into the opening and tugging hard once she's gotten some torque into it. The lid breaks free with a snap, allowing them to slide it off cleanly, and Ichimatsu peers inside. He's curious -- of the two, this crate was definitely the one he struggled to carry all the way to shore.]

[The reason why is immediately apparent, as Ichimatsu reaches in and picks out a glass jar filled with... flour? Sugar? Co...caine...?]

[No, it's probably flour, judging by its consistency. He holds it out towards Muffet in an offer with one hand and uses the other to sort through the rest of the haul, glassware and tin cans plinking softly under his ministrations. Flour, sugar, canned fruits, pickled vegetables, even a few packs of jerky... it only fills out the bottom layer of the crate, but there are enough basic food supplies to feed a person for a week. Or his family for like, one meal.]

[All of the packaging was clearly done to prevent water damage, too. Looks like someone had foresight.]

<3

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Definitely flour, judging by Muffet's smile of absolute delight as she takes the jar. It's very cheerful, despite the worryingly sharp fangs.]

[Flour, fruit, knives- she's well on her way to being back in business here.]

Ah, wonderful- I can certainly do some cooking with these. Do you have a favorite flavor?

[ichininyaanshi]

Me...?

[He looks up from his examination of a can, dubiously eying Muffet. That dangerous-looking smile... shit, it's right up his alley. She's too cute for a spider. More than that, he's taken aback by the question -- is she seriously asking Ichimatsu what flavor he likes as if she'd ever make something for him? He's a NEET, he's never had a girl cook for him in his life other than his mother. That's how the world works.]

[She must be making fun of him. Or just being nice. Yeah, she looks genuinely happy about their find, so probably the latter.]

[His ears and a good portion of his face are dusted red again by the time he answers, eyes hyperfocused back on his can of olives.]

... p-pears.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Well, yes- you did help me pull this in, after all. And I can't really just go off what I like- the whole point of baking is that I like everything I make, otherwise I wouldn't be using that recipe.

[Muffet rummages thoughtfully through the crate, and manages to come up with a can of fruit cocktail- which includes, among a mixture of cherries and oranges, pears.]

I can work with this... What do you think- cider, or cake? There's not enough for much, but I should be able to manage a little.

[ichininyaanshi]

[Come to think of it, this is the second time now she's mentioned cooking. If she's not an idol, then maybe she's some kind of chef...? That's a pretty useful skill to have in a place like this, he guesses. Even for spider people.]

[He's still finding it hard to believe she'd waste the effort, but she isn't one of his brothers, so he won't call her out on it. The best thing to do in this scenario would be to play along until they go their separate ways. He makes a low, thoughtful noise in his throat.]

Either one is fine. [....] I've never had non-alcoholic cider, though.

[prettypurpleparlor]

It's not too difficult- it's actually a shorter process than making the alcoholic kind, because you don't have to wait for the fruit to ferment.

It'll be a little harder than with fresh fruit, because there's not as much juice in them, but still pretty workable.

[ichininyaanshi]

[To be truthful, he's sure he'd probably like non-alcoholic cider better. He's not much of a drinker; hard cider is just a bit more palatable than beer. He shrugs again, picks up some jerky and gives it a cautious sniff.]

Do whatever you want. You can take everything, for all I care. I'm fine with just the knife.

[Of course, he then proceeds to rip into the jerky and shove two entire strips into his mouth.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet just smiles.]

I think we can probably split it half and half- after all, I'm going to want one of the knives for cooking things anyway.