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phantasmemes2018-04-12 11:09 pm
phantasmods) wrote in phantasmemes2018-04-12 11:09 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE 003
Hello, and welcome to the third 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 takes place in the Fissure known as Amesta Forest - a forest filled with silver mist and shrouded in eternal twilight, where your dreams become real! For a certain limited definition of real. This is significantly less awesome than it sounds. On the bright side, anyone within the mists will find themselves with no need to sleep, as though trapped in the same spring evening as the rest of the forest.
OPTION ONE: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
This first option might happen to you just about anywhere. From the swirls of silver mist comes a shape - or perhaps more than one shape? Who knows, it's your dream -
Well, probably. It could also be someone else's.
Those who stay too long in any one part of the mist will find their subconscious minds influencing it into shapes - the exact sort of things that appear in their dreams. As with their real dreams, the details are sometimes strange - too much detail, or not enough, depending on where your focus is. The character who 'created' the dream specter will instantly understand what it's supposed to be, but other viewers might have some difficulty with it.
Fortunately for those of you prone to violent nightmares, these dream figures are incapable of doing harm - any blows struck by them simply leave behind the dampness of walking through thick mist. A hard enough blow will similarly disperse them - or, in most cases, you can simply move quickly and leave them behind.
OPTION TWO: THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TREES
A forest filled with mist is honestly a kind of spooky place, isn't it?
Well, it's about to get spookier, when you notice that there's a tree... somewhere there wasn't a tree, before. Or maybe it's that you were looking around and realized that a tree wasn't there here there was one before, instead leaving behind only a round, torn-up patch of earth from where the roots were buried.
Either way, there's only one conclusion to be drawn - the trees are moving.
Those who pay close attention will soon realize that it's only one kind of tree that moves - an absolutely unfamiliar kind, with mist-silver bark and thin, almost translucent leaves in large handlike shapes. They aren't very tall, and their branches split low to the ground, the structure something like a less crooked Japanese maple. The Wanderwoods seem prone to following specific people, usually only moving when out of sight, though you might catch them shuffling along if you have quick reflexes for looking over your shoulder.
What do they want? Well, nothing, really. They're just attracted to sapient beings and, especially, the way the mist forms into their dreams. So while they won't do anything in particular to the characters themselves, anyone with a dream-form hanging around them might find that manifestation suddenly papered in thin, grabbing leaves... and swallowed up.
OPTION THREE: WHAT NOW IS FOUND?
Not all of the forest is trapped in eternal spring. One part of it is held in exactly the opposite - a brilliantly colored autumn morning, just before dawn, with the trees overhead colored in brilliant reds and oranges. Leaves drift down in a slow breeze, and pile up in random places among the trees (which never seem to run out of leaves to drop), and silver pools of water gather at the bases of the trees and in any other depressions, their surfaces perfectly still mirrors.
The mist is quite a bit thinner here, too, which allows you to see... What is that familiar shape in the distance, between the trees?
While dream manifestations are uncommon in the region of Fall's Heart, it's not only dreams that manifest here. Instead, characters will see the figures of those they've lost - instantly recognizable, but unreachable and nearly impossible to catch, running through the trees heedless of how you call after them. It's impossible to catch up to them by mundane means, and those who use supernatural means to do so -
- will find that, at their touch, the vision crumbles into silvery mist-water, forming another of those perfect, reflective pools at their feet.
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 takes place in the Fissure known as Amesta Forest - a forest filled with silver mist and shrouded in eternal twilight, where your dreams become real! For a certain limited definition of real. This is significantly less awesome than it sounds. On the bright side, anyone within the mists will find themselves with no need to sleep, as though trapped in the same spring evening as the rest of the forest.
OPTION ONE: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
This first option might happen to you just about anywhere. From the swirls of silver mist comes a shape - or perhaps more than one shape? Who knows, it's your dream -
Well, probably. It could also be someone else's.
Those who stay too long in any one part of the mist will find their subconscious minds influencing it into shapes - the exact sort of things that appear in their dreams. As with their real dreams, the details are sometimes strange - too much detail, or not enough, depending on where your focus is. The character who 'created' the dream specter will instantly understand what it's supposed to be, but other viewers might have some difficulty with it.
Fortunately for those of you prone to violent nightmares, these dream figures are incapable of doing harm - any blows struck by them simply leave behind the dampness of walking through thick mist. A hard enough blow will similarly disperse them - or, in most cases, you can simply move quickly and leave them behind.
OPTION TWO: THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TREES
A forest filled with mist is honestly a kind of spooky place, isn't it?
Well, it's about to get spookier, when you notice that there's a tree... somewhere there wasn't a tree, before. Or maybe it's that you were looking around and realized that a tree wasn't there here there was one before, instead leaving behind only a round, torn-up patch of earth from where the roots were buried.
Either way, there's only one conclusion to be drawn - the trees are moving.
Those who pay close attention will soon realize that it's only one kind of tree that moves - an absolutely unfamiliar kind, with mist-silver bark and thin, almost translucent leaves in large handlike shapes. They aren't very tall, and their branches split low to the ground, the structure something like a less crooked Japanese maple. The Wanderwoods seem prone to following specific people, usually only moving when out of sight, though you might catch them shuffling along if you have quick reflexes for looking over your shoulder.
What do they want? Well, nothing, really. They're just attracted to sapient beings and, especially, the way the mist forms into their dreams. So while they won't do anything in particular to the characters themselves, anyone with a dream-form hanging around them might find that manifestation suddenly papered in thin, grabbing leaves... and swallowed up.
OPTION THREE: WHAT NOW IS FOUND?
Not all of the forest is trapped in eternal spring. One part of it is held in exactly the opposite - a brilliantly colored autumn morning, just before dawn, with the trees overhead colored in brilliant reds and oranges. Leaves drift down in a slow breeze, and pile up in random places among the trees (which never seem to run out of leaves to drop), and silver pools of water gather at the bases of the trees and in any other depressions, their surfaces perfectly still mirrors.
The mist is quite a bit thinner here, too, which allows you to see... What is that familiar shape in the distance, between the trees?
While dream manifestations are uncommon in the region of Fall's Heart, it's not only dreams that manifest here. Instead, characters will see the figures of those they've lost - instantly recognizable, but unreachable and nearly impossible to catch, running through the trees heedless of how you call after them. It's impossible to catch up to them by mundane means, and those who use supernatural means to do so -
- will find that, at their touch, the vision crumbles into silvery mist-water, forming another of those perfect, reflective pools at their feet.
ii;
[He wasn't expecting to see her, here. He wasn't expecting to see anyone, here, but he has. More than he was expecting.
(Sojiro Shimada was a proud, honorable man with a soft-spot for tall tales, and his silhouette is one Genji could have never forgotten. But try as he might his father always seemed to keep out of reach - could a man who faded away like he did have managed such a thing, even in his prime?)
But Angela, she's not running from him the way his father did, or the way- the way others have. She's on her knees, with tears streaming down her face, and...
And he's not sure he's even seen her cry. It's been years since he saw her last, and it's not like they were on the best of terms when he left Overwatch, but...
He's forgiven her. He's concerned. Who wouldn't be? Someone as strong as the woman who built him piece by piece seeming so hollow...It's unnatural.]
Who are you talking to...?
[Does he even have the right to ask? They've started up a correspondence again, but...
Does that give him the right to know who she mourns for?]
HOW DARE YOU
[Angela raises her head slowly, terrified that she's imagining it. But no, there he is. Genji Shimada. Another patient she lost, in a way. Sure, he had survived the procedure, due in no small part to many sleepless nights and months of physical therapy. But at what cost to him? At what cost to her?
But he looks solid, and he's not running, and he's so much closer than the other apparitions. And he looks well. The relief that floods through her is brief but it's enough to give her the strength to wipe away her tears and clear her throat.]
Genji. My apologies, I did not expect...
[Her voice sort of trails off into a sigh. Is there a point in trying to hide it? He's already seen the tears, already knows the facade of the unbreakable doctor is just that - a false front. It's an act for his benefit, but she squares up her shoulders and forces a weak smile.]
I was speaking to...well, myself, mostly. But also to them.
[She gestures all around her, to the figures out of reach, off in the trees, staring at her even now. Can he see them, too, in this shared dream?]
<3
So it's not just him seeing ghosts in the trees, faces of people who have long since left. He's not alone, trapped in this dream of never quite being able to cross the space between them.
That doesn't make him feel any better, but it means he understands, now. Even the mighty will crumble in the face of everything that's been taken from them.]
I do not think the people you see are people who are truly here.
[His father died long ago, after all. His brother...is more complicated than that, but the ache is just the same. Perhaps it stings even more, after seeing him again.]
Or the ones I do.
[His voice is light, but it's just as much of a front as Mercy's smile.]
no subject
[She takes a deep breath, steadying the roiling ball of emotions in her chest. She pushes herself to her feet, turning to face him - could they be considered friends? She'd like to think so. Stooping down, she picks up her staff, brushing leaves from the handle.]
I am sorry that you are subject to these visions as well. They may not be real, but they are not pleasant, either, if they are similar to my own.
[There's no point in trying to dodge the initial question, though, which was "who are you talking to". So she stares at her hands, gripping her staff tight like it's her only tether to stability. When she manages to speak, her voice is small.]
I was speaking to the patients I failed to save, to be truthful. I see them in the trees. They run from me.
[The tears threaten to start again, but a steadying breath keeps her calm.]
And I see you, so perhaps I am simply seeing all that I have lost.
no subject
But the chase, the regrets, the choking feelings of regret and desperation. Is that something they should simply disregard?
He thinks of Zenyatta, of talking about the merits of accepting the discord within yourself and finding harmony in the chaos, and he wonders what he would say of a forest like this.]
I see my father. And my brother.
[He turns, giving Angela her privacy, the green glow of his visor lighting up the mist.
He wonders if out there is the man he used to be. He lost himself then, too. ]
They run from me as well, but I think that's what they'd do anyways.
[Again, his tone is light. He's a different man then he used to be. He's changed. He can see the humor in things again, and there's a small, soft laugh.]
You didn't do a very good job of losing me if I'm talking to you right now.
no subject
I simply meant that in doing what I did, I failed to save the man that you were. I felt that although I'd saved your life, I had taken something from you. In some ways that took something from me, as well.
[What was the danger of confessions in a dream? She was talking to her subconscious, wasn't she? She lets out a breath of laughter herself, amused by how forthcoming she is when she's just trying to make sense of things.]
I was a coward to do what I did to you, but I always hoped you would heal mentally and emotionally one day. It's no wonder I dream of you in this condition.
no subject
He wanted them to suffer, the people who rebuilt him almost from scratch. He wanted them to have their humanity stripped just as his had been.
But things have changed. He's learned, now, with the help of Zenyatta's stubborn sort of patience, that nothing had been taken from him. Things were just replaced in new ways.]
Angela. [Not Dr. Ziegler. Not now. This is too personal.] You saved my life. You should not be sorry for doing such a thing, even though I could not be grateful for it then.
no subject
I should have never agreed to make the modifications I did. I was so afraid they wouldn't let me help you at all if I didn't...
[Her voice trails off. If I didn't turn you into a weapon. If I didn't tear out all shreds of choice and make your body a machine for killing. If I didn't agree to irreparably warp the life I was being allowed to save.]
I am not sorry that you are alive, or that I had a part in keeping you that way, but I am sorry that I allowed fear to cloud my judgement. I put you through hell for selfish reasons, Genji. I sometimes wonder if I have done more harm than good to your life.
no subject
[Which is, perhaps, the hardest thing one can do. The past cannot and should not be forgotten, but you cannot let yourself be burdened by it.
You must accept it, accept what it made you, and find peace with that.]
You had no choice, but you did your duty to me. [And to everyone else. The world was all the better for the work of Dr. Angela Ziegler, one of the brightest doctors of her time-]
And I do not hate you for that. [Not anymore.] I couldn't. Without your work I would be dead and the Shimada...
[How strong would they have grown if they hadn't been torn down? He shudders to think of it.
They were merciless.]
Things worked out in the end. I forgive you, if you'll forgive me for how I treated you.
no subject
Forgive you?
[At that, she can't help but laugh. The motions of smiling and moving release some of the tension in her body and she settles into a sigh.]
I never blamed you for anything, there's nothing to be forgiven.
[Angela reaches out, places her hand on Genji's shoulder.]
[...it's too solid for a dream. She's familiar with sensations in dreams, her mind is an active one, and this is too solid. Recoiling, she stares at Genji, mortified. Ignoring the impossibility of the situation, if this wasn't a dream, than she definitely just confessed some serious things to this man.]
no subject
Ever selfless, she is, unable to see the wrongs done to her through the wrongs she's believed she's done to others.
Perhaps what they've done to each other is different, but that doesn't mean Genji's never done anything terrible in response.]
If you can seek forgiveness for saving your life, I can apologize for treating you terribly.
[He gives that hand a squeeze, smiling bright even though Angela can't see.]
Even if you can't blame me for being cruel, for being unkind, I still was, and I apologize for that.
no subject
[Perhaps it's the weight of realization, slowly sinking in, that this can't be a dream. That this is the real Genji, and he is really here, forgiving her for her failure. Perhaps that is what takes her words away from her.]
[Angela bows her head, wipes the excess emotion from her face, and meets his visor's gaze anew with a healthier, more professional smile.]
If I may be honest, it will be some time before I forgive myself, but I assure you, I have long since forgiven you.
[There's a brief pause before she adds, quite distinctly not as a question:]
This is not a dream, is it.