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

[thoroff]

So I'm not the only one the blasted things have gotten one over? That does make me feel a little bit less foolish, at least.

[She says this with a wry smile, but after a moment the expression turns more sincere — accompanied by a sparkle of curiosity in her deep brown eyes.]

Still, my thanks. I must say, that was quite an impressive trick...

[founderinglight]

Not at all. They keep attempting to make off with heirlooms, at that.

[He tosses the rapier in his hand again and - lets it vanish in another array of those blue sparks.]

It's nothing particularly unusual for me, honestly, but it does look impressive when one's not familiar with it.

[thoroff]

[She watches him do that, also taking note of the weapon itself. A rapier, eh...]

Perhaps not for you, but I haven't seen anything like it before.

[founderinglight]

[And a rather fancy one, too.

He just shrugs.]

My family has quite a bit of magical talent. Your mount is just as foreign to me.

[thoroff]

[So it runs in the family? That would add up... Wren's got no reason to pry into the personal affairs of a man whose name she doesn't even know, but she quietly files the information in the back of her mind.

Instead, she addresses his second statement, quirking a brow.]

Really?

[founderinglight]

Quite so. The closest we have is spiracorns, but they're quite a bit larger, horned instead of winged, and highly undomesticateable due to their violent natures and tendency to rampage.

[thoroff]

Interesting...

[A monstrous, rampaging horse? ...A certain ally's steed comes to mind. Still, what an odd creature. There are horned pegasi, and they can be temperamental, but an experienced rider can tame them just as well as any other.

Something about that description bothers her, and once it hits her, her other brow promptly rises to match the first as she gives Izunia a look of naked bewilderment.]

Hold on. Pegasi are one thing, but do you mean to tell me you've never seen a common horse?

[founderinglight]

[Completely deadpan:]

What's a horse.

[thoroff]

[Okay, she's flabbergasted.]

...Seriously?

[founderinglight]

Yes?

[Flat stare continues.]

We're most likely from entirely different universes, it's not all that surprising in that context.

[thoroff]

[Wren's baffled expression gives way to one of contemplation, and her next words are said quietly, more to herself than anything.]

So this is an outrealm...

[Not that she hadn't suspected, but outright confirmation is good to have. Yet his wording suggests that he's not native either; so people are being brought to this world from multiple realms, all against their will? That is worrisome, to say the least. Frightening might be a better word.

She is familiar with the concept of other universes, though, so at least Izunia won't have to deal with that kind of confusion.]

Well, I'm curious now. If your own realm doesn't have horses, what sort of animal do you use as mounts? As beasts of burden?

[founderinglight]

[Outrealm... Good term for it. He's going to stick that in his vocabulary right alongside captchalogue, thanks.]

Chocobos - large terrestrial birds. Give me a moment here...

[He pulls something out in a flash of light - a sketchbook, this time. He flips through it before settling on a young man curled up beside a saddled black bird nearly twice his size, both asleep leaning on each other.

...A keen eye might spot that the young man somewhat resembles Izunia himself.]

They're largely flightless, but excellent runners.

[thoroff]

[Wren examines the picture intently, taking in every detail. Her eye is indeed keen, but again she feels no need to pry.]

I see! [She giggles a little.] It's quite cute.

[Certainly cuter than a horse, she must admit, as much as she loves her pegasus with all her heart... Well, she supposes it's only fair that she return the favor.]

A horse is... well, my mount is a pegasus, a winged horse. Pegasi are rather picky about their riders — they'll usually only allow women to even approach them, much less tame them — but common horses don't have such strict standards, and like your chocobos, they run well.

[founderinglight]

Philomela here - [He taps the picture with a finger.] - was a black chocobo, and they could be similarly picky, though not on the basis of gender. The common variety is a bright yellow.

[thoroff]

Oh! Black pegasi are also a rare breed; most are white. [What are the odds, huh?] Horses come in all sorts of colors, but they tend towards brown hues.

[founderinglight]

It's possible to modifying a chocobo's plumage based on diet, or with dyes, but I don't know of any other naturally occurring colors.

[He folds the sketchbook closed and dismisses it.]

Then again, I'm hardly an expert on the subject.

[thoroff]

That's fine, horses aren't exactly my field of study either.

[She watches him magic the book away to... wherever it goes.]

...Ah, all this and it just occurs to me that we haven't even been properly introduced...

[founderinglight]

...I find that happening more and more often lately when I get caught up in a discussion. Izunia Lucis Caelum, at your service.

[thoroff]

A pleasure to meet you, Izunia Lucis Caelum.

[There's a playful, though not insincere, lilt to the words that indicates that yes, she's doing that on purpose.]

I am Wren.

[There, on the other hand, her voice hitches ever so slightly, as if the name doesn't quite feel right rolling off her tongue.]

[founderinglight]

Please, no need for formalities. Wren it is.

[He heard the hitch, but doesn't give it any more acknowledgement than that. Whatever her reasons for changing her name, if that's what she's done - they're her own business.]

[thoroff]

Very well, Izunia.

[She smiles for a moment longer before her face returns to a neutral, though slightly questioning, aspect.]

You seem to have a far better grasp on what's going on here than I do... and where "here" is, for that matter. May I trouble you for an explanation?

[founderinglight]

No trouble at all. This shoreline is a piece of a sort of unstable reality - part of the instability is that it pulls people and things in from other places, including, unfortunately, us. This area -

[He waves a hand.]

- is called a Fissure, one of the particular regions of distortion, and a group of us are running around with an assortment of magitek devices at the moment trying to stabilize it. There's a research station up on the cliffs that serves as our current home base... Though it may be a bit small for your friend.

[thoroff]

[She listens closely to Izunia's words. There's a lot to unpack here — what in the world is 'magitek', for instance — but Catria's safety is her first concern. It's good that they have somewhere to stay, but...]

Surely there's someplace safe that I can stable her? I can't just leave her in danger...

[founderinglight]

We don't have anywhere that's exactly suitable for large animals at present, but I'm sure we'll be able to work something out. The androids who are in charge of the station are fairly accommodating.

[thoroff]

The... what?

[There we go.]