phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] phantasmemes2018-03-01 07:08 am
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TEST DRIVE 002

Hello, and welcome to the second test drive for Phantasmal Rift!

Test drive threads are assumed to be game canon for accepted characters unless otherwise noted, so don't feel like you'll have to introduce yourself a second time to everyone you meet! As an added bonus, participation in the test drive comes with the chance to earn up to two items of loot for your trouble! Characters who are accepted can earn one item for having a top level, and one for tagging out to someone else's top level! Your SWEET LOOT will be included with your acceptance notice.

Additionally, characters currently in game can earn themselves a piece of bonus loot for the dungeon by tagging people's top-levels on the test drive! Existing characters get their bonus loot along with the rest of their loot at the conclusion of the dungeon.

This test drive is based in the Fissure nearest to the Station, same as last time! But this time you're coming at the shoreline from a bit of a different angle...

If you really want, though, you can reuse prompts from the first test drive! In particular, there's still landsharks around the new area of beach. Otherwise, here's three new prompts!

OPTION ONE: OCEAN BREEZE

The cavern you find yourself in smells of the sea... And looks like it, too. Large crystal formations, usually in blue or a light yellow-green, glow along the walls and ceiling of the cavern, providing more than enough light to see by. The whole place is damp and a little chilly, and occasional pools of water rise and fall with gentle waves - some outside tide flowing in through underground passages.

More chilling, though, is the wind that flows through the caves, never ever quite going still but varying wildly in intensity. In fact, characters will discover that they have some control over the intensity of the wind - or perhaps some lack of control, depending on their exact response to waking up in an unexpected place. Strong emotions of any sort make the wind stronger in turn; while calm leaves the wind gentle, panic will send it whipping around corners and drive already-distressed characters to take whatever shelter they can, lest they get blown into some cavern wall.

Other than the wind and the crystals, the caverns seem mostly normal for a place that's clearly underwater at least part of the time. The lower reaches of the caverns are full of barnacles, mussels, and other shellfish that await the rising of the tide for their survival, as well as the occasional crab (some of them surprisingly large, up to about the same of a man's head), and bits of seaweed catch on rocky corners.

OPTION TWO: SAY NYA

What's that sound? Is it... a cat?

... No, it's not. It's a meowing seagull, for some reason.

Except for their strange vocalizations (all feline in nature), the seagulls found outside around the cliffs and beaches are all reasonably normal. (Specifically, anyone familiar with the Gulf Coast on Earth will find that they look much like Laughing Gulls in their black-headed plumage.) They're normal-sized and not at all afraid of people...

In fact, they're so unafraid of people, that they'll come right up close to you and nick your stuff! And not just food, mind. Anything they can carry that isn't attached is fair game to be taken and winged up the cliffs to their roosts. Magpies have nothing on these guys.

Good luck chasing them down for whatever it is they've taken, or climbing up the cliffs to get it back. It belongs to the seacats now.

OPTION THREE: ALL THAT GLITTERS

This gravel beach is absolutely splendid in the sunlight, looking like someone shattered a thousand stained glass windows and left the wreckage to sparkle. Protected from the worst of the waves by some rocky outcrops in the distance, the water here is gentle and doesn't disturb the beach much.

Luckily, the glitter does not, in fact, come from glass. Close examination will reveal that the gravel of the beach contains an impressive number of fragments of some kind of hard scale - about a third, if one's going by volume. They vary in size from a large thumb-nail down to nothing, and most transparent in every color imaginable. They're quite hard, and more likely to break into fragments than they are to be ground down by the sand.

But what is it that these scales come from? The answer can be found only at night, when the sun's light disappears. Then, large reptilian-looking creatures - somewhere between snakes and fish - make their way out of the crannies hidden in the rocks around and across from the small beach. In many different colors, they glow beneath the waves, some internal light filtered through their skin and scales to make each appear a different color.

The serpents aren't violent, at least for now, but given that the largest of them is at least twenty feet long... Perhaps it's best not to hassle them.
photoshooter: (PUNCH 📷 You hold. I'll punch.)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 11:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Somehow, he looks even more confused.]

I, uh... If she is, I wanna know, too! You mean Iris Amicitia, right? This tall-- [He holds his hand at roughly the level of his chin.] --about your age?
shiritai: (vi03025)

[personal profile] shiritai 2018-03-03 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ ... and so does Violet. There's something a little softer about the line of her mouth that betrays a bit of disappointment. ]

No -- Miss Iris Cannary. She is...

[ There's a pause, while Violet works something out in her head and then, in imitation of Prompto, she holds up a hand at the approximate level of her own Iris' height. ]

This tall. [ a beat. ] I'm unsure of her age.
photoshooter: (RAIN 📷 Noct...)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 12:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohh.

[Well, that clears it up. It's a case of mistaken identity. With a gusty sigh, Prompto deflates like the world's saddest, loneliest balloon, but then shakes his head and does his best to rally.]

Heh, sorry, guess I jumped to conclusions. It's just, if the Iris I know was here, I'd have to go look after her, you know? I didn't mean to make things more confusing.

[After a moment, he realizes he doesn't recognize this girl, like, at all.]

You're new here, aren't you? My name's Prompto. [He sticks a hand out to shake.] Can I help you with anything?
have_hat_will_travel: (Huhwhat?)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-03-03 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
... Yes, I have it, and yes, I can return it... But please breathe and calm down a bit. Tripping like that could've severely injured you.

[Pidonus walks over and offers the brooch with one hand, as her gaze turns down to the woman's legs.]

Unless you've got damage reduction or something, the wrong twist could severely screw up your ankle...
nightcure: (nox aeterna)

[personal profile] nightcure 2018-03-03 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
..... Yeah. What the hell?
nightcure: (valse di fantastica)

[personal profile] nightcure 2018-03-03 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Huh. He watches Prompto a while, and as he thinks about Ignis and Gladio not being there... the wind picks up. Whoops. ]

No. ... They didn't. They've gotta be back on Eos, then.
nightcure: (somnus)

[personal profile] nightcure 2018-03-03 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
That's pretty awesome. What's Nevercold?

[ He pauses. ]

Yeah, others can--but they've gotta be picked by the king.
newlawtolight: (Default)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Its a special brass, forged in Hell. I'd offer you a hold of it, but that would be cruel to you when you're not equipped for it.

[That gull. It's nearby and there's a sizzling burn where the urumi cut it. Ouch.]

The king? I know of many rulers, but none capable of such a power where I come from.

[Ah, a king from another world. Perhaps even a different Law.]
newlawtolight: (abstraction)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, but you give yourself too little credit. Helpfulness is a wonderful trait for someone to possess.

[Oh but it is so true. Not simply fascinating - more than that. His soul is very bright, pure, laced with stories and importance...and, her instincts pointed out, still in his body...

An excellent mark for abstraction, and for a New Sequence.]


I should like to get to learn more of this magitek from your world, perhaps, when the time permits. But, perhaps I should return the favor and speak a little of my own experience as we go?

[She picks up a scale, rolling it between her fingers.]
photoshooter: (GUILT 📷 Sorry about the car)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh.

[The wind sounds so high and lonely, doesn't it?]

Yeah, I guess so. I mean, they might be somewhere around here if we look, but... but people fall in from all different worlds, apparently. It's probably too much to hope for more than one of my best friends to come find me at once, huh.

[He offers a weak smile, then shivers against the windchill and tugs his jacket on tighter.]

What is up with these caves?
photoshooter: (IGNIS 📷 I can be smart!)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's easy to please, too, if the little smile her compliment earns is any indication.]

Oh, yeah, if you want! That seems fair, I wouldn't want to be that guy doing all the talking. You sure you're up to it, though?

[Easy to please and quick to compassion.]

I know I didn't want to talk about myself much when I just got here. Too much to adjust to, you know? So it's okay if you just want help finding a place to sit down and get your head around everything.
newlawtolight: (speak to you)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[An all-too-perfect combination for someone like her.

She gives him a nod.]


I suppose I'm just used to strange things happening, myself, with where I come from. Law is softer there, more malleable. More...forgiving.

[She pauses.]

A little like this place, even if I don't understand the Law here as fully. My being here is enough to inform me of that much.
Edited 2018-03-03 21:15 (UTC)
photoshooter: (ATTENTIVE 📷 Don't know but I do care)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
The... law?

[He tilts his head to one side, like a bird or an attentive, but confused dog.]

What do you mean by that? I haven't heard about any laws here. I mean, it's pretty much just a ton of crazy, uninhabited beaches so far, not much in the way of government and stuff.
newlawtolight: (exile's rose)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[A soft chuckle.]

Ah, I suppose you wouldn't have. The Law is a very sensitive subject in my world, after all. A tricky thing to meddle in, and an even trickier thing to master without consequences.

[She leans down and takes up another scale.]

But, I may be getting a little ahead of myself. Silly of myself to talk so carelessly - I do apologize.

[She certainly sounds genuine enough. She is not. Your curiosity is necessary.]

I reside in a place called Fallen London, though it is not where I am from. If you haven't heard of it, then you are almost certainly not from a world that should be known to one like me.
Edited 2018-03-03 21:42 (UTC)
founderinglight: (Default)

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-03 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Not terribly surprising, considering that I'm standing here in front of you, but it does make one wonder.

[He glances briefly at the hand he'd worn the ring on only a few minutes ago. It would be one thing if Noctis was from the same time, but this younger version...? How odd.]
photoshooter: (EUGH 📷 THAT'S your plan?)

[personal profile] photoshooter 2018-03-03 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I... can't say it sounds familiar.

[He can't say it sounds friendly, either. The name of the city is ominous enough, but the way she says "one like me" is enough to make his skin prickle a little. A whole world that isn't supposed to be known by one like her...]

Um. If it's okay to ask, what exactly makes it... "fallen"? ...Was it attacked?
newlawtolight: (touched by god)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, no, nothing terrible like that. It's all very well-known what happened.

[She does laugh a little, at that. A reassuring action, to show it isn't so awful!]

A deal was made for love, and as always a city was the price of that deal. So it was taken down from the Surface of the Earth, into the Neath below as a Fallen City, with the changes that come with that. Just like those before it!

This time it was the city of London, so now, it is called Fallen London. That's all.
Edited 2018-03-03 22:26 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (uwah)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-03 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Well I've heard of regular London, unless something happened to it...

[Wait-]

You're from Hell?!

[How does that work?]
newlawtolight: (abstraction)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course I am. Surely that isn't a problem?

[A calculated blink.]

It depends. Did it Fall in your city?
riderofcharlemagne: (guh)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-03 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Doesn't that mean you should be dead?

[He's more confused than he is afraid, at this point.]

I think London was pretty intact, last I remember... [Intact enough for the Mage's Association to plant its roots there, at least.]
newlawtolight: (speak to you)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Fallen London is still intact, quite intact. It simply Fell.

As for myself? I am a devil. I simply do not die.

[Not like humans at least but...he doesn't need to know that.]

[She watches his reaction to her admission.]
Edited 2018-03-03 23:46 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (uwah)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-04 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
How could it fall but still be intact?

[You're losing him here.]

A devil? [This is an absurd situation even to him, and he has barely an idea of how to react.] Should I be scared of you?
newlawtolight: (the art of beauty)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-04 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
I see you are not familiar with the concept of Fallen Cities.

[In due time, then.]

Oh, hardly. We're mostly harmless! Not at all like what the claptrap used to say about us having horns and the like.

[She scoffs at that word.]
Edited 2018-03-04 00:17 (UTC)

Julian Kinsella | Original Character

[personal profile] part_time_person 2018-03-04 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
1. Ocean Breeze

[The air was calm and undisturbed as Julian made his way through the caverns. Even if he wasn’t laid-back by nature, the fact of the matter was that he was at home in caves on an instinctive level; that soothed over what little fear he initially felt, since he knew he could always scale the walls to the ceiling if the tide rose. Footsteps silent as a ghost, he made his way through the caverns with a sort of cold curiosity, confused but unworried.

In fact, his expression was so blank as to appear unnerving, but whether or not that was shock or just an extremely good poker face, he’d let the person he met decide.]


Hello. Do you know how to get out of here, by any chance?

2. Say Nya

[Of course one of the seagulls grabbed his earring when he took it out briefly to rub at his ear. Under any other circumstances, he wouldn’t even try to get it back. Julian has a fascination with shiny things, but he’s normally not a jackass about it. Unfortunately for the seagulls, they just took one of the earrings his mother gave him for his birthday and he is a momma’s boy to the end, so there really was only ever one possible response for him to this outrage: climb the cliff.

That would take forever and a day if he tried to do it as a human or spider. Looking around to check first that no one was around, he shifted into his in-between state; four arms and four legs afforded him more purchase and cling climbing, his elongated hands seeming to almost stick to the rock of the cliff as he climbed upward, keenly annoyed. The seagull, unaware that it had crossed the one person present capable of going after it, was tending to its’ nest full of miscellaneous crap when, silently, Julian reached out and bit it. The bird dropped in a limp fall straight to the ground as, unconcerned, the blonde half-human reached into the nest, shifting through the crap to get his damn earring back.

Only when he’s back on the ground does he belatedly realize that just because he didn’t see anyone on the way here or on the beach when he started climbing doesn’t mean no one could have come onto the beach and seen him. With inhuman speed, he whips around, staring directly into the eyes of the nearest person.]
...how long have you been standing there?

[He’s got a normal amount of limbs again, but for a second his eyes were inhumanly, brightly green, and his voice had an echo to it, as if it were inside the other person’s head for a moment.]

Intro

[personal profile] part_time_person 2018-03-04 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
[The caverns had been, so far, empty, so it was something of a relief to hear somebody else's voice, even if Julian didn't recognize the voice. Silent and quick, he made his way towards the sound, exhaling a sort of half-sigh when he sees Violet. He didn't know her, but at this point he didn't care.]

I haven't seen anyone else, [he volunteers quietly by way of greeting,] but you're not alone, at least. Did you just wake up here too?

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