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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.
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[Ardyn didn't say a word. There was nothing he could say, hands white-knuckled on the shield of one of his brother's descendants--stars, he didn't even remember that one's name--and yellow eyes just remaining passive and exhausted.]
[Nothing he could say would fix this. Noctis deserved his anger just as Ardyn had deserved his, but he couldn't afford to die for what he'd done. So it just came down to a stalemate, in which Ardyn could do nothing at all but defend himself.]
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[ He's breathing hard, teeth gritted so hard they feel like they'll snap. Noctis isn't speaking, isn't yelling. He's practically snarling the words, and he slams his fist into the shield. ]
What the hell did you do to Prompto on the top of it?! Shoot him in the head, hurt more of the people I love?!
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[The impact reverberated through the metal, but Ardyn was stronger than a thin frame made it look; he didn't move an inch.]
I didn't kill him. He's still alive.
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... What he doesn't expect is that. ]
... Screw you. You're just trying to mess with me again. I'm not falling for it again, you son of a bitch.
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[He estimated he could easily outpace Noctis in magic capacity at this age; if it truly did come to a fight, he could phase through as much as he'd need to until the younger royal tired out.]
[So, on guard and prepared to dodge whatever came at him, the shield vanished into the Armiger.]
You're right to be angry. In fact you've more right to what you feel towards me than anyone in any world, living or dead. I've treated you as naught but the means to an end, and manipulated you for my own purposes just as every other factor in your life ever has up to now.
It's cruel, what the gods decided to ordain for you long before you were even born. Crueler still that I forced you into it. I don't...want that to continue, Noctis. I don't want to hurt you anymore.
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... He hates it. ]
I don't need your sympathy. This is just-- this is just some way to get me to put my guard down, so you can-- you can jerk me around all over again.
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[Ardyn faltered, something flickering in yellow eyes that was uncertain more than it was sympathetic.]
You don't...know yet. [The statement came in a soft realization; if Prompto had only just been knocked off the train, if they hadn't reached Gralea yet-]
[In Lucis lived a savior-]
You don't know you weren't the first to be told you were Chosen.
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[ His eyes are still narrowed, eyebrows pulled inward. ]
What the hell are you talking about?
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[Ardyn muttered that under his breath, daring to take his eyes off Noctis long enough to pinch the bridge of his nose with his left hand--upon which was an unfamiliar ring.]
Just...hear me out, and you'll have all the time in the world to punch me.
Some two thousand years ago, as the Astral War reached its conclusion, the Starscourge proliferated itself throughout the land infecting the population of the land that would become Lucis as you know it. The parasite twisted them beyond salvation, turning them into daemons which thrived only under the dark of night.
But there was a savior born of the Lucis Caelum bloodline, a man with powers divine who could heal the affliction before it took hold and fight back against the encroaching dark. He took the burden of the scourge upon himself, sparing countless innocents while bearing the corruption that would eventually claim him body and soul. But he...was chosen, you see. He believed himself the savior of a dying world, the only one who could carry its fate upon his shoulders.
[Ardyn faltered again, folding his arms as if curling in on himself. But he took a slow breath, facing Noctis as steadily as he could.]
The gods declared their chosen savior corrupted even though all he did was that which they ordained, and he was rejected by the Crystal itself--who instead chose the healer's twin brother to rule as Founder King in his stead.
My name...it was Ardyn Lucis Caelum.
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Yeah, I figured as much, considering your brother's here. [ He's still tense, eyes narrowed. ] I'd say I don't believe you, but that's a hell of a story to just make up. Unless you've just been practicing giving me this story.
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Is that why you screwed with me? Why you hated me enough to hurt the people I care about? Because of something that happened two thousand years ago?
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[His left hand went back to his head, as if Ardyn was having trouble staying entirely focused.]
I'm not...trying to excuse what I've done. It's not possible, and it would be revolting if I tried. But I was sick, Noctis--physically, psychologically, and fully a corrupted monster driven by some lingering shred of a human's desire for revenge and the need to see it all just end.
I was wrong. I've been wrong for two thousand years, you and everyone you know has every single right to despise me, but I can't let you kill me no matter how much I know it's what I deserve.
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Despite it all, he... ]
... Why's that?
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[He curled his left hand into a loose fist, sapphire in his ring briefly catching the light.]
It's been a year since I was last on Eos, and things have...changed, in that time. There are people I have to live for now, some here with me and others that I have to survive and get back to as soon as possible.
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hm. ]
... How did that happen? You finding people to live for.
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I have spent the last year of my life either fighting against or manipulated by a television network that turned me human in the course of broadcasting an elaborate death game thinly disguised as five seasons of a scripted reality show to an entire universe. It's apparently popular in seven galaxies, or was until we got the executive producer arrested.
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Huh.
So you know Touko?
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[Although...he'd have to check in with her later and make sure she was alright. She was close to Noctis, so this couldn't have been easy.]
We're close friends--family, truthfully. I wouldn't be here without her.
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[ For the moment, there's an uneasy, unspoken agreement between them... or, more on Noctis's part. It seems like he won't be sinking his fist into Ardyn's face.
... For now. ]
She seems like a good person.
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You should--I'd like it if you met the others, at some point. Junpei Tenmyouji, Yuuri Wakasa, Heart's around here somewhere, too. They're...they're good people. You'll like them.
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... And, boy, does Ardyn look like a human now.
He recovers, long enough to frown. ]
You know, it's pretty bizarre that you keep talking like you know me.
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[Ardyn suddenly looked like the feeling of someone missing a bottom step on a flight of stairs.]
I-...er...it's hard to explain.
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... You really are different.
[ Then again... did he ever really know him? ]
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It's Tenmyouji, now. I took Junpei's last name; I couldn't use my own or my brother's any longer. I'm not quite...either of those people, anymore.
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