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

All that glitters is a knife in the back.

[Well lit spaces are the bane of any stealth mission. Keith crouches behind a cluster of crystals with his hood pulled over his face. His dark armor won't help him here. He'll have to put his own skills to the test. He'd come into the caves on the trail of other people. People mean information. Or, as a Voltron those that need to be safeguarded.

He sticks to moving from cover to cover, pausing only to collect bits of cloth or the stray scrap of supplies. His own pack has been stowed away near the cave entrance. He'd go back and retrieve it once he was done.]

A - Successful dex roll

[The deeper inside the caves he goes the more he's sure there's something off about them. He can't quite put his finger on why he has a bad feeling. On either side of the crystal covered cave walls, the ruins of a civilization stretch out. Tools and houses, marred by the green crystals that glow like a forest of stars. He finds it beautiful if a little unsettling. Keith moves silently among them while taking care not to touch anything.

When he's crouched up against the edge and peering down he sees them. Tall, bi-pedal lumbering figures that move like humanoids. He moves slowly, edging along the wall to keep attention off him.] What the hell? ...they look like sentries...

[He needs to know what he's dealing with. He picks a small alcove in a wall to hunker down inside and watches them. When he catches people straying too close he drops down and reaches out while calling in a soft voice.] Hey. Back up, you don't want to go that way.

B - Failed both rolls

[He'd moved too fast and too much, one of the lumbering crystal beasts spotted him. Or maybe they spotted you. Whichever it is he spins to face them, drawing his knife and sending it spinning through the air. It curls through the space between him and his target striking home with the hiss of hard metal meeting crystal. He shouts,]

Hey! Get a move on, we need to go! [The knife has a string attached to it. He rips it back and calls again.] Did you hear me?! I said move it!

[Keith notes the speed of the crystalline monsters and if you're still not moving, closes the distance and grabs for you.]

I'll say it one last time. We. Need. To. Go!

It's high ti-GET ON THE BOAT!

[Cold water cuts through the haze like a steel scythe through wheat. He'd just surrendered to- Keith clears his mind and stares up at the clear blue sky. Patience. He can think about what happened after he gets out of the water. He turns with a deep breath in and dives under the water. The first objective, dry land. Second, access his surroundings for threats and information.

He can see what he can find out about getting in contact with everyone else and what happened after all that is achieved. It chafes. He wants to make sure they're all alright. But, if he rushes this it will take even more time he can't afford. Damn it!]

C - Help is on the way

[Struggling? Really need help? One swam floatie is coming your way at all speed thanks to a while timed kick. Its flat expression might be staring right into your soul. Hey, at least you won't sink.

If the floatation device misses you, don't worry. There's still help. Someone is there to pull you up to breach the surface or steady you. Dark armored and frowning, he reaches out to draw the floating swan...thing a little closer.] Keep kicking or you'll sink. I'll get you out of the water before the sharks come back.

D - Have you heard about frog man?

[The rising water has reached the rocks near the temple. Something dark moves through the waves crashing against them like a dark arrow. A black armored hand thrusts up out of the water and seizes hold of you or a rock and is followed by the rest of a person. Their face is covered in a mask, two glowing purple eyes might be fixed on you. They could be just staring straight ahead.]

Wait a minute, [A distorted voice issues forth and the mask drops away revealing a human face. Keith sucks in great lungfuls of air.] Don't leave. I need to ask you questions. [He transfers his grip completely to the rocks and hauls himself up out of the water.

He glares back at the sea behind him and turns his head to breathe. It had been a tiring time to get people out of the water and he still doesn't have a single clue where he is and why. He holds up his hand when his breath comes back.]

This all feel weird to you? I can't remember how I got here. Can you?

Insert something witty/Wildcard
[The wild option, pm me to plot it out and I'll write you a special top-level.]

Edited 2017-11-15 05:14 (UTC)

[ Terra had been standing at the steps of the temple, watching the water rising worriedly, watching the water for stragglers, or for sharks getting too close. A small frown changes her expression after a moment - she can sense -someone- out there, or at least something, but since she can't see the figure yet, she isn't sure if it's an person or a shark. ..being tired kind of messes with her perception. She ventured down a little closer to the water, only to let out a small shriek when that hand emerges from the water to grab her ankle.

In her surprise, she raises a free hand, flames immediately springing to life and ready to burninate whatever creature is att-- oh. Wait a tic that's a person. W H O O P S. She quickly dismisses the spell, shaking her head a little. ]

Are you all right? [ She starts to reach out to help him as he hauled himself out of the water, worriedly watching as he caught his breath. And the question... she hesitates a moment, but shakes her head. ]

Everything does, if I were completely honest... [ Lacking all of the everything to draw on half the time tends to do that. ]

I don't know how I got here either, though and I don't think the Storyteller understands it either. But I've been here for a few months now. [ She studies him curiously. Odd armor he had. ]

Were you hurt?

[He waves off her help. He’s completely fine just tired. The words settle in his head and he latches on to the name. It has to be. That or a title which could be true too. His brows come down. Time to get to business..]

Storyteller? [He pulls his hood down off his face. The wet material is already starting to dry.] Just where is here anyway?

[He looks back over his shoulder and low and behold there is another floating swan giving its disturbing stare. He still isn’t sure what to make of the stupid things.]

[ She relaxes that he was unhurt. ]

The Storyteller.. I don't know much about him, but he seems to be a sort of God here. [ More or less. ]

He's been 'helping' us here, but some people don't trust him. And.."Here" is... [ She hesitated, not really sure what kind of an answer he was looking for. ]

It's an island. Enso. This is.. it's the main area we've seen so far, but there are several other smaller islands nearby that other people who were brought here as well, have been living so far. You can reach those through the mana pools.

What do you know about this, ‘god’?

[Helping isn’t always a good thing. He pops his shoulder and relaxes that arm. He’d banged it on the rocks on his way in. Probably going to be sore later.]

...anything you can tell me. I want to know what we’re dealing with.

Not a great deal - he doesn't show himself in person often. [ Ah, she winces inwardly at the sound of that pop, but soldiers on as she thinks. Most of what she knew she's heard from other people who might have actually spoken to him but... ]

I think the general opinion of him is rather divided.. some think he's genuinely trying to help, and just doesn't know how to interact with mortals properly, and others... think he's only claiming to want to help and is actually trying to get everyone killed.

There..was an incident last month...the Storyteller said he needed our help investigating the depths of a cavern that blocked him from going inside because of some magic seals. He didn't know what was in there, and he didn't -ask- us...even if we would have willingly cooperated. We just woke up in the caves one day and ...and it was bad. People died - they were killed by some kind of crytalline abomination.

[ A pause as she frowned through that memory, then glanced at Keith again. ]

Then they were revived a few days later - the people who died. [ What else... ]

A month before that, there was a compound of creatures armed with cocount guns - I'm told they resembled things called monkeys. They invaded the islets while we were asleep and managed to drag us away to their compound to.. I think they meant to eat us. [ Gross, right? ]

But we managed to escape from that. I'm uncertain if the Storyteller had any involvement with that - but.. I doubt it. But some people blame him for what's happened all the same. [ She was... on the fence about it. A lot of what people said made sense, but at the same time... eeh. ]

Wait. Repeat that bit about raising the dead? [What the Quiznak? It had all seemed mostly routine right up until that tidbit. There's only one thing he knows that is capable of that and what he knows is...fractured information at best. Is it true or? Either way, before he tracks down Team Voltron he has to investigate this.]

That shouldn't be possible. Did anyone see them revive? [Where the hell is he? He checks to make sure his knife is still in its sheath as he tries to puzzle out the jumbled mess.]

I thought I saw some caves along the edge of the island. [Part of what he's hearing makes him pause and study her. If people are showing up here was it really the monkeys invading? It isn't important right now but...he'll be thinking about it.] Was it those?

Well... I didn't actually see it happen. But once the seals were broken the Storyteller was able to teleport everyone out of the caves to safety, and we found out that some of the people who went in were..killed. But we saw them again a few days later, so... they must have been revived. [ How else could they be walking among them then? And Raise spells weren't new to her -- well okay it was a different kind of mechanic than reviving someone from the dead, but still. ]

Those are the ones, yes. They were sealed off again afterwards...for a while. [ Buuuut since some people are winding up in there somehow, they must have gotten open after all, in some way. ]

[They may or may not be the right caves. Still he will have to check it out.]

Thanks. Is there anything else you think is important for newcomers to know? [A lot of this still doesn’t make sense to him. He pulls the hood back over his head as he prepares for the investigation ahead. He can stash the pack that had been floating on a swan boat at the edge of a cave.

Seals.]

Wait. What do the seals look like? How many did you find?

[ It's probably rule of thumb that whatever's in any of the caves will suck for everyone, though. ]

Um... [ Important for newcomers to know... she should mention some of the dangers, things to avoid like those bloody fusterclucks. And the mana pools. ]

Well..it's been a little difficult to find resources around here, with so many people arriving, but we found some strange animals recently that are edible. And we can still fish, so it should be fine a little longer.

Then there's the fusterclucks.. and the mana pools.

[His thoughts come to a screeching halt. He blinks and stares at her unsure if he heard the last words right.]

...repeat that last bit again?? [He's wrong, right? She didn't say-]

[ Oh! She forgot to show him what the seals looked like. She draws her sword from its sheathe, aiming the point at the ground. ]

Um, and the sigils... looked like this .. most of them were behind crystals when we destroyed them. [ She carefully drew her sword through the sand to make the sigil from memory. ]

I've lost count of how many we came across though. I think we destroyed them all... I Hope. At least, enough to allow the Storyteller to retrieve everyone. [ She blinked. ]

The.. the last bit? Do you mean the part about the mana pools..?

No. The...clucks. [He pauses, his words a bit stilted. Wait she'd drawn on the ground. He draws his own knife and copies the symbol in the sand. He'll remember it.]

Edited 2017-11-17 20:40 (UTC)

Oh. Have you heard of them before? [ Maybe he knows how to destroy them! ]

They're currently one of the most dangerous threats on the island. They're a mass of limbs and body parts, and whatever they come in contact with they absorb into themselves. So far no one has been able to find a way to destroy them, yet, so it's advised that we avoid them whenever possible. [ Don't go being a hero and trying to kill it Keith. ]

[Suddenly the bad word he heard in the name doesn’t matter anymore. He climbs to his feet and stores his knife. Even before he wouldn’t have risked something like that with as little equipment as he has.

His hand scanner is on the fritz.]

What are the other dangerous threats? Tell me about each one.

[ And here Terra has no idea there was a bad word in it! ]

Well... there's the tiger sharks.. in the ocean. You've probably seen those already..? And.. the centipuppies, and lungblossoms..

The centipuppies are like.. large furry bugs? Doglike bugs. The lungblossoms are ...well, plants, but they still can attack you if they're threatened. [ Fire fungus. Yikes. She luckily has managed to avoid getting targeted by the hallucinogenic gas though. ]

How do they attack? [He'll focus on the rest when he learns more intel. He nods once, yes he's seen the sharks. He'd planned to go after one before nightfall. He doesn't have rations on him.]

(no subject)

esper_magic - 2017-11-18 21:02 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

thermalwind - 2017-11-21 23:44 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

esper_magic - 2017-11-22 00:35 (UTC) - Expand

[ By now, Yuka's starting to get used to this place - weird as it is, fighting monsters in underground labyrinths isn't exactly unfamiliar territory.

She reacts quickly at Keith's warning, crouching down in the alcove next to him. ]

More of those monsters?

About three of them. They’re probably looking for anyone that passed by. Or they just might be wandering.

[He pulls his knife from the sheathe at his back and flips it in his hand. He’d have to move out from the alcove along the wall or expose their hiding place.]

I can’t make any sense of their lumbering around.

[ Yuka glances at Keith as he flips the knife. He looks like he's about the same age as her, but at the same time he seems much more used to extreme situations like this. She files that under things to ask about once the immediate peril is over. ]

If it comes down to it, I think I can handle three of them. I'd feel a little better if we could get past them without a fight, though.

[He points at the ledge that leads away from the alcove. A series of ledges and paths form a walkway to a tunnel through the upper part of the cavern.]

If you can move quietly we can take that route. It puts us up over them. I've checked it out. Next step is a little tricker.

[ Looks like it'd be a tricky climb for an ordinary person... good thing we got us a couple of coolkids here. ]

What's the next step?

We jump to a lower ledge. Looks like it used to be a natural bridge between the two sides of the cavern. [He studies the way one more time. How are they going to do this? Actually.]

I can go first to catch you if you slip. [He pauses.] Unless you got a better plan.

[ She watches Keith quietly as he studies the route. He looks a little worried about it. ]

...I don't know if this will help or not, but I can temporarily enhance someone's speed and strength. I could do that for you while you make the crossing, then catch up afterwards.

[A booster? He looks at the way with new eyes. If they had com units he'd feel a hell of a lot more comfortable but they don't. Keith nods to her.]

Okay. That changes things. We'll move up into the upper cavern and go from there. I'll leave it you when to boost my speed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME ( 005 )

Keith | Voltron: Legendary Defender | Will match formats

KYAAAAAAAAAA! FROG MAN!

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

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

A

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject