TEST DRIVE 003

[phantasmods]

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.

Comments

[founderinglight]

...So long as this world is without the Scourge, there is no prophecy to fulfill.

And I more than anyone pray that it remains - far and away from taking anything I love away from me again. That is the only thing I will ever pray for again.

[Ignis is not the only one who bears a deep anger towards the gods. That much is carried in the end of his words.]

[promittere]

[Taking anything I love away from me again.

It's not hard to figure out who Izunia means, and perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that once upon a time Ardyn loved and was loved in return.

He wasn't born a monster and that knowledge drags his shoulders down with the weight of it, even more than the relief that Noctis is safe could lift his heart.]

I'll pray for that as well. [Does that make them selfish? They pray for the world to be safe but only because they're afraid of what could be taken from them? There's a huff, something that's not quite a laugh. It's far too bitter.] What good it will do, I'm not sure, but if the Scourge does reach these stars...

[He shakes his head, not wanting to even entertain the idea, but anything is a possibility and you must be prepared for that.]

There will be ways to deal with it beyond what the Astrals say what must be done.

[Whether that's more to reassure himself or Izunia doesn't really matter, does it?]

[founderinglight]

I assure you that if it does, you'll be the first to know. ...Likely because you'll hear me screaming or something, admittedly, I have a bit of a phobia.

[He is perfectly well adjusted this is fine.]

I'm sure they'll both be glad to see you.

[promittere]

I'll keep an ear out, just in case.

[It's not a fear he could blame him for, necessarily. Not after everything that's become of the man and his family.]

And I'm sure they'll be glad to have someone keeping them out of trouble.

[He can't keep the fondness out of his voice, or the smile from his face. He's glad that they're here.]

[founderinglight]

I've been doing my best to keep them fed something other than instant noodles, at the very least. Though Prompto isn't entirely hopeless in the kitchen, unlike some of the other people in the Station - I apologize for what your nose will no doubt suffer, though I'm likely getting ahead of myself by doing so.

[promittere]

I hope you've had more luck getting Noct to eat his vegetables than I have. Goodness knows he's stubborn...

What do you mean by that? Getting ahead of yourself.

[founderinglight]

...Not even a fraction of an ounce.

[Rest well, vegetables.]

You probably haven't gotten the full lecture on the nature of this place, I imagine?

[promittere]

A pity.

[Someday. You can't escape proper nutrition forever, Noctis.]

Prompto mentioned that areas like this are called "Fissures", but I haven't learned much else.

[founderinglight]

Yes - unstable swaths of reality. This is the second we're trying to stabilize. I won't force you through the technical details, the magitek involved is over even my head and I once had the equivalent of a degree in it.

[Where did Niflheim's meagitek come from? Starts with an 'A.']

One of the main effects of this one seems to be that it's locked in eternal twilight, but there's also a thick silver mist hanging about. Additionally, I can't say how long I've been here, except that it's long enough that I should have needed a nap by now and have not.

[promittere]

[He's quiet, taking in Izunia's explanation. It's bizarre and almost something that defies believe - but they're both here, now, in a way that should be impossible.

So it's the truth. There are cracks in reality that need to be patched.]

You're incapable of feeling tired?

[Now that he mentions it... It does seem strange that Ignis feels like he's been here for ages, but he's yet to feel the need for a boost or some rest.

Hm.]

One would assume it's because of this endless twilight.

[founderinglight]

I'm merely human flesh, now, I feel the exhaustion of the family magic as keenly as Noctis or any of the rest. It just manifests as a tendency to nap at all hours rather than one to sleep into the afternoon. Normally, at any rate.

[He shrugs, invisible to Ignis but perhaps audibly with the rustle of clothing.]

I can't say I especially mind the chance to do things without exhausting myself, though.

[promittere]

[Well that's a fast way to get Ignis' concern. His brow furrows, and perhaps it was foolish to hope the Lucis Caelum's could be entirely free of their burdens.]

I understand, of course. [And he does. He's seen it with Regis and then Noctis, heard stories of the rest.]

Enjoy this time as you have it. [He shouldn't pry. What Izunia will choose to do with his time isn't any of his business.] And perhaps this could be emulated in some way, on this Station?

[There. That's not nosy at all.]

[founderinglight]

[What he's gonna do is like, run around for nearly a day straight looking for Ardyn, so it's probably better Ignis doesn't ask.]

It's probably some effect of the Fissure, but also, going without sleep long-term is probably not good for any of us.

[promittere]

[Yeah, that's not exactly something he'd want to hear.]

You're correct, but...Perhaps something more mild, to at least soothe the exhaustion you face every day. [He's speaking more to himself than Izunia, mind whirling away, trying to come up with some sort of satisfactory solution when he doesn't know what cards are in play.]

[founderinglight]

It's not intolerable. I keep a chair and a blanket in my Armiger, I'm well enough equipped for sudden bouts of exhaustion, and I don't sleep especially well at any rate.

[promittere]

[His lips press into a thing line, disbelief clear on his face.]

Bandaging a wound isn't enough when it requires stitches. Accepting something as the truth when it can and should be changed is no better.

[And good fucking luck trying to change his mind.]

[founderinglight]

[Oh good lord. He's not prepared for this.]

Are you genuinely attempting to take care of someone close enough to a hundred times your age?

[promittere]

It seems you need to be taken care of.

[Obviously.]

And clearly you will not do it yourself, even after centuries.

[founderinglight]

I've only had a body again for two months, cut me some slack. I count myself lucky when I know what hour of the day it is.

[promittere]

[Slack isn't a word he's familiar with.]

Yet you've already accepted that you should not try to better the body you have again?

[You should also invest in a watch, maybe.]

[founderinglight]

[He's got a phone, he's fine.

Sigh.]

Gods, and to think Ardyn thought I was ever a nag. He'd not last an hour under your care.

[promittere]

[No he's not!]

I cannot fathom needing to care for Ardyn.

[A pause.]

And I'm not nagging. I'm concerned.

[founderinglight]

Yes, well, some distinctly unfathomable age ago he was as bad about his vegetables as Noctis, stayed up just as late, and was prone to working himself to the bone besides.

[It's said with all the fondness you'd expect of a twin brother who carried that love alone throughout the ages.]

[promittere]

[The fondness is arresting, but perhaps not as much as how Ardyn is described.

More than anything, it's a reminder he had once been human. It's strange how often he's had to remember that.]

...I'm sorry.

[His voice goes soft, like he's not quite sure Izunia would even want apologies or if it's Ignis place to offer them.]

But that's all the more reason to take care of yourself, or to let other's care for you.

[founderinglight]

[To be fair, Izunia is the one person in the world who does remember that Ardyn, before everything.]

No one has done much of caring for me since I was younger than you are now.

[Why is he even surprised that Ignis is like this? No, it's more that he's surprised to have it directed towards him.]

...You are truly one of a kind.