aftr_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME ( 005 )

Entry tags:

*test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 005 )

Test Drive Meme #5

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 November 17th and that Applications will open on November 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.

All That Glitters
The caves deep beneath the island's surface are not dimly lit; in fact, they practically sparkle with a strange, unearthly greenish light. Blame it on the crystalline growths that protrude plentifully from every nook and cranny, stalactites and stalagmites alike.

Their glow might be soothing to some, and viscerally terrifying to others, but one thing remains absolutely certain: based on the creaking, groaning noises of shifting rock and the high-pitched tinkle of breaking shards of crystal...

You aren't alone down here.

The deeper in you venture, the more the thicker clusters of the things begin to move. And eventually, it will become plain to you that it isn't the crystal at all that's moving, but rather the thing inside of it - something vaguely humanoid shaped, bipedal, with arms and legs and the dull, pale glimmers in the region of what might almost pass for a face.

Formed entirely from crystal.

Upon spotting a living creature, each of them will begin to lurch closer and closer, arms outstretched. Every one is slow and cumbersome and even fragile enough to be smashed, if you dare venture close enough. But once they've trapped you, there is no escaping whatever fate they have in store for you.

And rest assured, it is not a pleasant one.

[The above prompt is a version of our Crystal Clear event from October! Feel free to give the event write-up a read for more information.]

It's High Tide
When you initially wake on the beaches of this strange island with its bleeding, dreamlike edges, you might notice that something seems deeply amiss...something like the fact that you're lying in a whole mess of seawater. Assuming you're not thoroughly soaked already, you'd better figure out a way to get to high ground, because the water level is rising very rapidly. Pretty soon, there might not be anywhere safe to go besides the trees, and even those might not be safe the longer this goes on.

Fortunately for you, if you can find them quickly enough, the island of Mu has helpfully provided some assistance for those who don't feel like doggy-paddling for the duration of the dream.

Better hurry and hang onto them before you drown! Unless you'd rather doggy-paddle the whole way out, that is. In which case, we're sure the water feels great.

A Crappy Endeavor
In your travels on this strange new land, you might start to notice something following you. Something...oddly shaped, like a lot of dirt and clay that's consolidated into one great awkward moving lump of a creature. What lies beneath is far more like the common beetle...just much, much larger. And unfortunately for everyone involved, they have a very specific appetite:

Your poop.

Mu has produced a very close approximation of the creatures known as f'rshaymes, animals that go beyond merely being useful for disposing of all that nasty waste. Doiing so comes with significant benefits, as the combined process of mud and excrement as it goes through a F'rshayme's digestive system leaves behind pure clay for the...brave.

Often found in small herds of six to eight individuals, f'rshaymes are extremely docile and would be very easy to turn into a herd of your very own. How nice!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ~~I was never dead, Batter. Just waiting for the next game.~~

He glances up at the Batter, a cheery looking face painted on his mask. He peeled the apple finally and tossed it to the Batter, having memorized his dextrous skill for catching anything he was ~~programmed to~~ thrown. He intends to share his goods with new and old friends alike. ]

No currency. Hm, hm... guess that's on me.

[ How does he know that? Because if there was currency, there'd be society. ♫ Here in this Crystal Kingdom ♫, there was nothing of value. A crystal mine of this size would have people coming in and out of it...

... if there were anything of value inside. ]

I was always alive.

[Just as Zacharie predicts or just knows, the Batter catches it easily. He doesn't eat it though. Perhaps it was a product of rarely if ever showing emotions on his own face, but he knew a cheery looking face painted on a mask doesn't mean there was anything cheery about the person. Enoch was always smiling, after all.

But that's none of his business. Not right now.]

None.

[It might have just been idle commentary as Zacharie tended to do sometimes, but it may be for the better to just say it to confirm it. And moving on.]

The switch was flipped off. Everyone is gone.

[The Batter knows this place brought back the dead. Seeing it apply to someone from his world that wasn't himself, however, was really making it sink in.]

[ And his voice counts for nothing? Tut tut, Batter, he's always been friendly and generous to you. Perhaps right now, more than ever. He's offering a bribe. ]

That's a shame, but you can always fix one up. People need, after all. As long as people need, there'll never be an end to currency!

[ So cheerful... he feels his flesh with a genuine curiosity and fascination. So this is what the other person on the screen felt like. Even the little hairs on his arm feel gentle. No wonder they felt like they had so much power and so little restraint. No wonder Batter is the way he is! He borrowed not even a fraction of it. ]

I'm afraid your good amigo knows the script from the beginning to end, so I never truly die. The game is unplayed for a while, but it is played again.

Inevitably.

[ He slices up his apple and shoves the pieces through the hole in his mask. ]

But enough of that! Autonomy, my friend! I can feel my bones and my heart beating. No strings on my back! The world in every shade and color-- thank goodness the mask filters some of it out! [ He opens his arms for a hug. ] I bet you haven't even been hugged yet. Come here.

[ Zacharie finally knows his shape! Shorter than the Batter but strong, more hair, darker skin. This is so much nicer than lifting five pixels worth of arms around someone's shoulder. He lifts him in a friendly hug despite their size difference, them promptly lets him go. ]

And just with that, I can't wait to see what the things I mimed actually felt like!

Edited 2017-11-14 06:01 (UTC)

[Now the Batter remembers how much Zacharie liked to talk. Not nearly as frequently or as verbose as the Judge is (was) but he was a chatty person. Also he's touchy. Why.

The Batter doesn't return the hug, but he doesn't push Zacharie away either. It helps that the other man doesn't hold on for too long. He's tempted to take a step back just incase he tries again once the merchant lets go but doesn't. There's your free hug Zacharie. Don't do it again.

He's also not going to address that 'inevitably' comment. There's to many things to say to such a loaded statement.]

It feels no different. There's just more color.

[It's blinding, yes. And there's the urge to drain the colors away again. It's not stopping.]

You have no idea how it feels for someone who mostly only stands in fixed positions and teleports.

[ He squats and does a full body stretch, various joints crackling along the way. He feels alive! He is alive! For the first time in the universe, he is alive and breathing. The only thing he's missing is-- he slips his hand up behind his mask. Yup. This place probably couldn't change that. ]

You have no strings, do you, dear Batter?

[ He sounds a bit pitying, even if his mood on that is thank god. ]

There's no prompt for you to say something back to me. You just say what you feel! That's an amazing step for you, I'm proud. I bet you can't even name who your God was anymore.

[ A compliment and a dig, because when your game has been played millions of times and it all ended one of two ways too late, your blacklist is thousands of miles long. ]

I look forward to meeting the true you.

Edited 2017-11-14 06:34 (UTC)

[He doesn't. The Batter was always moving. The only time he wasn't was when the Puppeteer wasn't controlling him, so he slept, or when he was dead and then permanently dead.

"The switch is now on OFF." Only not.

But Zacharie raises a good point. The Batter looks down at his hands. He can still see the snapped threads wrapped around his limbs. In a sense, yes he no longer had the strings of the Puppeteer in him but they were still - physically, mentally and metaphorically - there.

Can he put a name to the being that once controlled him?]

██

[...apparently not, if the fact the Batter can't answer. It's not like the Puppeteer ever went by one name, but running through them all was an exercise in futility. Again.]

That is conversations. Answering what others say.

[Says the person who is terrible at even small talk. But it's not a glance into anything new or exciting about the Batter. This was his true self in its purest form.

Nothing more, nothing less.]

Edited 2017-11-14 06:56 (UTC)

[ Zacharie already wants another hug, despite the fact that it's the Batter. Because who knew hugs were so important? Wow. He's going to learn about a lot of important things. ]

I know you have an identity, the Puppeteer didn't speak your words most of the time... but with the strings fully cut, now you have to maintain it on your own. Outside of a script! That means you will change and so will I.

[ He shoves another apple piece between his mask. So juicy! Real food, instead of the rotmeat that he sold at his booth. Zacharie never entreated himself to corpse sugar, either, so this was really nice... ]

That is the most exciting of all. Watching your earnest self, in incubation inside of the script, grow.

[No. Hug him again and he'll toss you into the ocean. We'll see if a not!cat can swim.

Once again, Zacharie had a point. The Batter's words had been his alone, that much was true, as was the end goal. The Puppeteer had allowed him to get up again and again after each death and drove him forward. Keep going.

But now the Batter had to get back up on his own after dying. And with no point to his existence...]

It doesn't matter to me.

[If Zacharie wanted to, fine. But for the Batter it's safer inside of a coma.]

It doesn't have to matter to you.

[ Sinisterly: ]

It's just going to happen to you, as all living things.

Let's take a walk on the beach!

[ He takes the Batter's forearm, and tugs him along as if nothing matters. ~~Really, he's testing his limits as an NPC, seeing if he is able to guide someone against their will. If he loses, all the better!~~ ]

I've heard lots of things about beaches. They're nothing like plastic at all. There's sand and shoreline and it's nice and quiet, perfect to have a discussion about home or what you've been doing since you got here. You have the smell of this island on you, so presumably, you've been here a while.

[ blatantly: You smell like you bathe yourself with the limited resources here. You stink a bit. ]

There's even the remnants of living things that wash up, sometimes. I want to see it again. I left too soon.

[Yeah, no he's pulling away. Sorry Zacharie. Also not addressing his first comment. The Batter knows the merchant had a tendency to sound sinister or cryptic when it suited him. It was the same as last time.

"Bis Vincit, Qui Se Vincit In Vitoria." He hasn't forgotten.]

Is it still flooded?

[Because he's not touching it with a ten-foot pole if it is. Can't swim, remember?]

Not anymore, I think...

[ He'll press onward regardless, assuming the Batter will follow at his own pace. If he doesn't... he'll just turn tail and walk back towards him and insist a walk is more interesting than the crystals. ]

I just want to see it, you know? Hard to appreciate when soggy. I still can't believe I can see the world without a pixel in sight. [ Where everything is segmented into pretty little squares to make up something big. It's just-- there. All of it. As far as your eyes could see. It gave him a headache and filled him with joy. ]

You haven't made friends, probably... but have you met people who interest you? Good or bad.

Edited 2017-11-14 18:53 (UTC)

[He'll follow, since things seem dead-set on ending up at the beach. Hopefully it still isn't flooded.

The Batter doesn't quite have the same...view point that Zacharie does. As far as he was concerned this was a shift in location, from nothing to something rather then from a video game to reality. The eye-searing colors and the different shapes and sizes of those who inhabit this place were completely new and something he could half-agree on.

It gave him a headache.]

Everyone here is unique.

[Which can translate to good and bad, if Zacharie wants it to. And given that the unique people in their world could be counted on two hands, that's probably saying something.]

Edited 2017-11-14 19:13 (UTC)

[ Did Batter even know what a video game was? That was his simple reality. To be reborn and pass again through the same place, was that just the world. That meant he had a lot to teach him, young Թɑժɑաɑղ-- oh no, there goes the filter. Thank goodness this is only the test drive, and he's allowed to slip up with the fourth wall. At least, inside his thoughts. ]

I bet that must be overwhelming. Everyone has a history from a world so different from yours or mine. It's enough to drive someone insane. I, on the other hand, welcome it entirely! I just love a good story.

I wonder if they're all [ HE SUDDENLY COUGHS ] from different places? Then we'd have a lot to learn, amigo. Real people... who might've played our game. Who might've been your god.

[ Okay, lesson two is don't press the filter from this point forward. ]

Edited 2017-11-14 20:46 (UTC)

[He's used a controller before for a puzzle in Zone 3, but that was the extent of it. The idea of a game wasn't so far-fetched but it was hard to put two and two together regarding his world and a video game.

Again, there's a lot of things to be said to that and the Batter wasn't going to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Don't think about it.]

They would have said something.

[They would have. The Batter's appearance - at least according to everyone he's spoken to thus far - was striking and out of everyone, if the Puppeteer was physically here, they would have recognized him and reattached the strings.

What point would there be in interacting with him otherwise?]

[ Zacharie thinks of Sucre bleeding and almost says the cruelest thing he can: Would they really? Knowing how they were deceived in the end, forced to kill a "mother" and child.

But he doesn't, because he doesn't care that much. He just knows it could hit Batter in the chest so hard he might emote, but it would definitely get them off on the wrong start. Revenge is best served sweet. If he can pull the extra string still in his hands and make the Batter feel, against his kicking and screaming will, that's the best payback he could deliver for everything. ]

Ah, yeah. I suppose.

You said everyone was unique. Who is the unique-est?

[They both could be cruel to each other. It's something he doesn't bother with - or at least intentionally bother with - but words could hurt more then a baseball bat or a blade. It just took longer.

But there's no point. The Batter isn't a mind reader and Zacharie is Zacharie. What happens will happen, one way or another.]

I don't know.

[Everyone is unique but he hasn't been paying attention any farther then that. Zacharie certainly was one of those but the Batter knew him so (most) of his strangeness wasn't a surprise.]

You're lying. You are perceptive by nature. Strings might guide you, but not your words. The way you speak to people and understand them is immutable.

[ That was going to be the first step in Plan: B.A.T.T.E.R. (build a thoughtful, thinking, endogenous... reaper. He wasn't good at abbreviations, okay? Reaper worked just fine. ]

So tell me, who have you been taking interest in? Not as though you take interest in them as in you care about them, but who makes you turn your head and feel curious? There must be someone.

[Zacharie isn't wrong with reaper anyways, considering...

The Batter doesn't answer for a good while. A full, honest answer would be everyone he's met so far but that was due to the fact that none of them were Elsen. All unique in their own ways.

But there is someone in particular he can bring up. He's sure Zacharie will appreciate the irony of who exactly it is.]

A child. I don't know their name. But they are strong.

[Strong in their power and convictions. Strong enough to put him out of his misery, to give him a second option rather then dying from parasitic crystals or by his own hand.]

A child?

[ Zacharie sounds incredulous but he doesn't look it underneath the mask. Given their everything with Hugo and all. ]

If It's by how you define strength, I am absolutely terrified! Or do you mean strong in a metaphorical sense?

[ Either way, he made a friend he presumably hasn't killed? Maybe he has killed. Maybe resets were still in play. Either way, he would love to encourage that friendship. Or... enemies, if all reasonable possibilities are to be considered. ]

What do you feel should be done about the child?

Both.

[So very strong. Then again he doesn't know much about said child, not even their name, so what they're like when they inevitably hit a wall is probably another story.

And this time it was the other way around: they killed him. Perhaps that was just karma at work. But at Zacharie's next question he just shrugs.]

I don't know.

[This child didn't spell any sort of end. Nothing would happen if the Batter killed them. They would revive like any other in this place, just like him or Zacharie would. So...

He's got nothing.]

Ah! Confliction of the heart. Promising indeed. You have no idea how lucky you are to land here, my dear Batteur! 'I don't know' means something other than black and white. You're conflicted. You don't have a certain reason or someone to choose for you.

Choice is marvelous. I think you should get used to it, comfortably.

[ Is this just antagonizing the Batter instead of reassuring him? Possibly. Because the only reasonable feeling for the Batter to start out with is one all living beings start out with-- Fear. ]

[It's not helpful at any rate. And he has been making choices Zacharie. If someone asks him to do something, he does it if it's needed. There you go.

Seemingly ignoring Zacharie, the Batter keeps walking until they get to the beach. Good, it's not flooded anymore! Just very very wet. He's going to have to dry out his shoes again. That is, if this just doesn't turn out to be a dream again. For something that never dreamed until he arrived here, the Batter was finding the lines were starting to blur a little for him.

Concerning but not worth thinking about for too long.]

This is it.

[Have fun buddy.]

It's nice.

[ ...

...

...

...

... ]

For a video ga--

Kidding! Absolutely kidding. I don't think I'm built for a world more real than this. I feel like if I tried, all of my-- atoms, is it now? -- would float apart with nothing to keep them sticking together. This is the real world.

This is where the person that made us lives. Somewhere like this.

It's nice.

...

Batter, you must think it is a little beautiful.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject