TEST DRIVE 002

[phantasmods]

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.

Comments

[foolishjustice]

Whichever you'd prefer is fine.

Either way, I should probably get you moving toward the station soon. I'm sure you must be tired.

[part_time_person]

You wouldn't find it creepy? Most people don't like having their thoughts read. But I actually don't hear much if people don't actively try thinking loudly, so I wouldn't invade your privacy. Not on purpose, anyway.

A little. Thank you for showing me around and... everything else. I appreciate it.

[foolishjustice]

I'm a mind reader myself, actually. And my... [He hesitates for a moment.] Teammates use telepathic communication when we're on missions.

[He turns and starts along the beach, staying close to the cliffs.]

By the way, would you like something to drink?

[part_time_person]

Oh. [That's a relief, since it means he can't get accused of mentally eavesdropping on him. Julian breathes out, glad to have one less thing to worry about, and follows Goro along the beach. His footsteps are nearly silent, and the sound of the waves, even interrupted by the meows of seagulls, is peaceful. This is probably the nicest anyone outside his family has ever been to him.

He blinks at the offer, since it's a bit out of nowhere, before timidly admitting,] I do like chai tea lattes. But college has made me learn to accept all coffee into my life.

[foolishjustice]

I'll admit, I'm a little spoiled to a specific blend. I don't know what I'd do without this power.

[With a flourish, he produces a mug of coffee from thin air. It's black with only a bit of sugar, but doesn't smell (or taste) bitter at all. In fact, if Julian accepts it, he'll notice that it's very smooth and flavorful, clearly blended by someone who knows coffee and brewed with care.]

[part_time_person]

Your powers are beautiful.

[Oh God that sounded stupid. That was a stupid thing to say. Immediately, he focuses on the drink, taking a sip in order to avoid digging himself in further. In his defense, many a college student would kill to be able to have this kind of power, or simply coffee this good.]

...this is infinitely better than most coffee I've had in my life. Thanks.

[foolishjustice]

Not...all of them, but this one is certainly amazing.

[He conjures another cup for himself, taking a moment to enjoy the smell before he starts drinking.]

You should thank Akira as well when you meet him. This is the house blend of the cafe he works at, and based off of how he brews it.

[part_time_person]

They're a lot better than mine. I would trade all of mine for this.

[Mmm. That smell would be a great cologne, if only someone could properly replicate it. He cradles his cup close, soothed by the presence of at least one thing warm and familiar.]

He does a good job, [he agrees, taking another sip.] And you do a good job recreating it.

[foolishjustice]

Yours are far better than the only truly unique ability I had before I got this, I assure you.

[That ability, if you ask him, is absolutely hideous.]

This power is imagination based, and I've had enough of it in the past that I don't think I'm likely to forget any of the details of its flavor any time soon.

[part_time_person]

Most of the time I think would rather have no special abilities at all, honestly.

[Without powers, he could have a normal life. No fear of someone realizing what he was, no wondering if people would leave when they found out... it would have been a different life entirely.]

Are you able to make anything you remember clearly?

[foolishjustice]

Any clear liquid, though I can't replicate harmful qualities. I can also alter it based on my imagination, I create what I visualize. It can also have one of three supernatural effects, the one I gave you heals minor injuries.

[He pushes his mask up onto his forehead to get the beak out of the way of his next drink of his own coffee.]

[part_time_person]

What about things like honey that aren't quite liquids? [His father's people loved honey and so did he. His parents knew he'd had a rough day growing up whenever he drank a jar of honey, a habit that had gotten much harder to maintain on a college student budget.]

If you can't do this often, shouldn't you save it for someone important instead of wasting it on me?

[foolishjustice]

Honey is a bit too thick, that's why I was happy to find the beehive. Maple syrup is probably around my upper limit for viscosity.

And I can do this three times every twenty minutes, so I'm not really worried about using it for people who don't need the special properties. Besides, I have a much more powerful healing ability, so all I really consider in my choice of when to use it is if the person I'm offering to will appreciate it.

[part_time_person]

I wonder if you could make liquid charcoal or if that would be too thick to make work? It's handy as an overdose remedy in emergencies.

How many powers do you have? [It seemed like Goro had a neverending supply of them, at least to someone who had lived his whole life with a small, stable powerset.]

[foolishjustice]

I'm not sure, but one of the three potential effects of my drinks is to cure poisons.

[...Give him a moment, he needs to think about that.]

There's the Wildcard Persona user ability, each of my six Personas has a different set of up to eight magical or physical skills...I have two Psyches, which are psychic abilities that anyone can use if they have a Pin compatible with their Imagination...then there are the Composer abilities, such as Corvus Cantus, flight, energy blasts, and a few other things related to ghosts and managing the afterlife. Most of that last category doesn't work when I'm outside of my territory, though.

Ah, I suppose the Metaverse skills that carry over here also apply, though those are things anyone could learn if they trained themselves to think in the right way.

[part_time_person]

[Julian gives him a flat look. He doesn't know what a Persona is, he doesn't know what a Pin is, and he's fairly sure part of that was in Latin, but Goro says these things as if they're common vernacular he should know already.

So he tries to nod as if he understood that, expression blank as ever.]

[foolishjustice]

Ah, I'm sorry if that was too technical. A lot of them would take some explanation to understand, as opposed to simply listing off. Not that I would be opposed to explaining, but it might take some time.

[Beware Julian, he sounds about ready to give a college thesis on these concepts.]

[part_time_person]

It's alright. My mother is a professor of Balkan folklore, so I know a lot about nonhuman sentient species native to the region. I'd probably use just as many technical terms if I tried to explain powers and things like that from my territory as well. The only difference is that I've been told Serbian is much harder to pronounce than the Latin you just used.

[Apparently 'mrzsrde' needed more vowels, according to most people.]

[foolishjustice]

The Latin was actually just a proper noun. It's the name of my bird form, apparently it translates to 'Singing Crow'. I'm not sure what the reasoning is, but death gods use a lot of musical terminology in our names for things. It's probably something related to how a person's capacity for creative thought influences the sorts of abilities they can use.

[part_time_person]

I don't know what the terms are for my forms. If they exist, those were the kind of things I would have been taught by my non-human father, and I never really got to meet him properly. Most of what I've learned about his people, I learned from personal research years later.

[foolishjustice]

It may be for the best. The sorts of men who father children and leave the responsibility entirely to others are generally poor role models in other areas, as well. I'm fairly sure that's a constant across all species who raise young directly.

Besides, research can be fun if you find an interesting topic.

[part_time_person]

He tried to come get me. My father didn't want to leave me to the mercy of humans, but my mother didn't want me to be in contact with someone non-human, so she didn't let him. She tried to set him on fire. Repeatedly. He kept trying for five years, but... it just got to be too dangerous to make any more attempts. My mother knew all his peoples' weaknesses and made our yard a death trap for him.

And the confusing thing is, she didn't even want me. When someone same along and offered to adopt me, she was delighted. I don't... I don't understand it. I wish I did.

[foolishjustice]

Ah...that's certainly different. It may...have been less about what she wanted for you, and more what she wanted to keep from him. If she holds such spite against his kind, I'm afraid I can easily imagine someone using custody of a child as ammunition.

Have you considered attempting to make contact yourself, now that she has no more control over your life?

[part_time_person]

That is both sick and exactly the kind of thing my birth mother would have done. I guess I just don't understand why she had an affair with him at all if that's how she feels about nonhumans.

I have. My adopted parents don't want me to. I know it would be expensive to attempt, since I would have to go back to Serbia from the United States, and I might not be able to find him, but in spite of the long odds, I still want to try.

...does that sound stupid? [There's something vulnerable in his expression, if not to the degree that would be present in a human talking about something of the same caliber.] I miss him.

[foolishjustice]

She might not have known at the time.

[He shakes his head.]

I don't think it sounds strange at all. He's someone who cared for you enough to risk his life to get you back from someone who resented you. It seems only natural that you would want to at least make an attempt to find him.