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.

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[takeusback]

Thanks, I guess there might be some fresh water further in the trees, right? [ Clementine offers the plank of wood to him, grateful though still frowning a little about that comment about shooting him. ] And I don't think it'd be fine to shoot you. Not unless you're a bad person, and you don't seem bad.

[ He's helping her, isn't he? And he doesn't seem like he wants to hurt her, or anyone, so that's fine as far as she can tell right now. That doesn't mean she trusts him, necessarily, but she's sure there's bigger threats around than him. ]

[ichininyaanshi]

[He bites down on the reflexive scoff that rises from her assessment of his character. She can think that about him since they've only just met... and she seems too young to have figured out how cruel people can be. Whatever else can be said about him, Ichimatsu isn't the type to be as harsh on kids.]

[So he holds his tongue and takes the driftwood, heaving it awkwardly under one armpit with a grunt and using his other hand to brace it. It's heavier than he'd thought, especially since it's kinda waterlogged. But Ichimatsu offered, so he doesn't complain. He glances back in the direction he came with a thoughtful furrow of his brow. He hadn't gone looking or anything, but he feels like he might have heard the sound of running water while he was wandering around earlier.]

Should be. [In response to her first question. Without waiting, he takes off into a slow gait towards the treeline.] C'mon. It's too open out here anyway.

[takeusback]

Okay. [ She isn't going to push anything, and quietly follows him into the trees instead.

Now they're in a forested area though, she's getting more nervous, and her gun is held steady, pointing out at anything that might pop out from the trees. Out on the beach they were in the open, and it's hard for things to creep up on you in the open. But now there's lots of hiding places, and Clementine is much more alert.

It's a little way into the trees that she realises something. ]

Don't... you have a weapon? [ He'd seemed a little weird around her gun, sure, but she thought maybe that's because he just doesn't like guns, or people as young as her with a gun. He's gotta have some sort of weapon, right? ] We should keep an eye out for walkers.