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

Alastor | Viewtiful Joe/Devil May Cry

[superstylishsquid]

[Don't Be Such a Blowhard]

[A powerful and dignified demon does not panic when he finds himself waking up in a new location. A powerful and dignified demon gets annoyed when he finds himself waking up in a new location. Unfortunately for a powerful and dignified demon, the windy caves don't care what kind of emotions travelers are feeling.

As Alastor grumbles and wipes flecks of dampness from the cave floor off his visor, what was a faint breeze picks up into a loud wind, whistling through crevices and tugging at his wings. It's a bit loud for his tastes, especially when he's trying to think, so he holds up a hand and flicks his wrist in the opposite direction the air is blowing in.]

Quiet down, would ya? Stupid wind makes it hard to think...

[Well, the wind does quiet down...but it doesn't stop like he intended it to. The lighter breeze still tugging at him earns a frown of frustration...which only causes the wind to pick back up.]

Hey, I said quiet down!

[It turns out, getting angry at his magic not working properly only causes the wind to howl more, pushing him back half a step from the unexpected force. But at least that brings the crystals in the walls to his attention, and he snaps off a chunk of one of the blue-green ones.]

Concentrated wind magic? Are these things actually overpowering my own powers? Yeesh...talk about the power of rock.

[Do You Sea What I Sea?]

[Nighttime finds Alastor sitting on the beach, perched atop a gathering of large rocks. His tail flicks behind him in irritation as he stares out at the ocean. The middle of nowhere isn't his favorite location at the best of times, but add not knowing where he is and not being able to get where he was by teleportation? Even worse.

He's muttering frustration to himself when the sun sets and a glow in the water catches his attention. Are those...?]

Sea serpents? Huh...Toto, I don't think we're in a superhero movie anymore.

[Okay, he already figured that. This doesn't even feel like Movieland at all...but glowing sea serpents, especially ones that don't seem like demons, aren't something he expected to see.]

Re: Alastor | Viewtiful Joe/Devil May Cry

[have_hat_will_travel]

A... What?

[It was easy to miss the wing-flaps of a flying person if you weren't listening for them. Pidonus didn't mean to sneak up on people, but for a succubus like her, staying in the air was the safest way to get around - only landing to fight or investigate things.

Like new people.]

Welcome to the Rift...

[superstylishsquid]

[Flapping wings are something Alastor's used to keeping an ear out for, not to mention demonic energy...even if something feels a little off. It's still enough for him to tense a bit, knowing his reputation among his own kind can't exactly be great.]

A superhero movie. I'm guessing you aren't exactly up to speed on modern human culture?

[have_hat_will_travel]

Careful with the 'Modern' word around here. We've got people from a massive array of tech levels and such.

Mine just happens to be from a lower-tech world, though, yes.

[superstylishsquid]

So expect some sci-fi mumbo jumbo, got it.

Now what's this about "the Rift"? Is that supposed to sound ominous, or...?

[have_hat_will_travel]

Well, sort of.

[Pidonus shrugs.]

Pieces from various worlds are getting caught in them, which leads to people - like you and myself - getting trapped in them. Which leads to, in this particular case, you and me, on this beach, where there's stuff going on. Chance for loot, sure, but it's probably safer to start getting you towards the Station sooner than later.

[superstylishsquid]

Safer. Sure.

[He sounds a little skeptical.]

Are there a lot of demons at this 'Station' of yours?

[have_hat_will_travel]

I actually think you'd be only the second, though there's some other weirdness going on for sure. Mostly humans and various other races in the humanoid spectrum.

[superstylishsquid]

[That gets him to tilt his head, looking her over through his visor.]

Uh-huh. And you're just...running around like that? Do we have a bunch of stupidly brave humans, or just plain stupid one? Or are you just not worried about them being terrified of you?

[matchmakes]

[He's been watching for a bit. That little struggle with the wind might have earned a soft chuckle, though Robin's only just now making his way over. A gloved hand traces along one of the yellow-green crystals.]

I don't think I've seen anything like this before... [Or if he does, he doesn't remember it. Hopefully Robin's relative calm will get the wind to calm down as well.]

[superstylishsquid]

Neither have I, but magic can do funny things. Even an experienced sorcerer is gonna run into something new once in a while.

[He huffs, tossing the broken crystal up and down in his hand.]

I'm just annoyed these chunks of rock managed to overpower me. It's embarrassing.

[matchmakes]

Yeah, that's fair. [He debates trying to break off the crystal he touched, but decides against it for the time being, lowering his hand.]

... That wind's going to get annoying. [He's helped direct battles in worse conditions, but... ugh. The wind picks up a bit in response to Robin's silent irritation.]

[superstylishsquid]

That's why I tried to stop it.

Our best bet would probably be to find the way out of here. Outside at least has fewer surfaces for these things to grow on.

[matchmakes]

Right... [It's also gross and damp in here, which Robin is all for getting out of.]

The way I came from's a dead end. [He picks a direction and starts walking, one hand on the wall. If they can't find a way out, maybe they can make one...]

[superstylishsquid]

Then I guess we go a different way. Normally I'd say to head upwind, but we can't actually be sure the wind's coming from anywhere.

[Translation: he's good with picking a random direction. He's not above blasting his way out either, if they can find a wall that's directly between them and outside.]

[matchmakes]

Yeah... Who knows where that'd take us in this case.

[He's telling himself things could be worse--at least there's no Risen to contend with in here--but that doesn't make the situation any less annoying. No fighting just means he doesn't have anything to take his mind off of it.

... More worrying is that he hasn't spotted anyone he knows, but at the same time... well, it means they didn't get caught up in whatever this is. His sister and the Shepherds can take care of themselves, he knows that and he can relax, and yet...]

[superstylishsquid]

Hopefully a dead end at worst. Not that that isn't bad enough...underground isn't exactly my style.

[He spreads his wings for emphasis...to their 'impressive' 4' span.]

[Sea at night]

[founderinglight]

[And, here along the beach, a somewhat different flash of light -

And then another, which concludes in a tall man - human? looks human - standing just a few rocks down from Alastor. He twirls a single dagger before letting it vanish in a spark of the same blue that marked his teleportation.]

Good evening!

[superstylishsquid]

[Looks human, but reeks of magic. Then again, mortal sorcerers do exist, so...eh.]

Evening. That's a fancy looking trick, short-range teleportation?

[founderinglight]

Via thrown objects, yes. Family talent.

[Just going to climb up to the next rock and sit there with his legs swinging.]

[superstylishsquid]

Sounds fun, but I think I prefer long-range portals.

So, you one of the locals?

[founderinglight]

Don't make any decisions before you've tried it.

[Warping is real fun once you're used to the sensation and not at risk of getting sick.]

Not exactly, but I've been here longer than you, I imagine.

[superstylishsquid]

Well, considering I've been here for all of a few hours, that doesn't exactly say much.

[founderinglight]

A few weeks, perhaps a month? I don't tend to keep perfect track of days at my age, I'm afraid.

[superstylishsquid]

Well, you don't smell like a human that's been sleeping outside for almost a month...please tell me that means there's somewhere with a roof, bathroom, and maybe a kitchen nearby, and not that another of your family talents is magical showers?