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

[foolishjustice]

I'll have you know, I did.

[Putting the fish slab back on the paper and pulling his mask off to remove a bit of fish from the underside of the beak.]

I just focused on my Persona and what I'm supposed to look like when I'm using it.

[collide_scope]

[He almost protests that his try was obviously twice as hard, since he's the only one with two different shapes in the Metaverse--only to abruptly remember that Akechi has two outfits to juggle, as well. He has a little tact. Not much, but a little. Have an indignant little growl instead.]

Rrrrggh.....

[foolishjustice]

[...To be fair, the outfit is mostly dependent on which Persona he's using.]

I'd suggest practicing changing back and forth...but not while standing right in front of someone.

[collide_scope]

I'm sure it'll be fine, now that I know how to do it. Piece of cake!

[foolishjustice]

I hope so. It would be very inconvenient if you turned into a car while in the Station.

[Digging a cloth out of his pocket to clean his mask properly.]

Hmm...maybe I should just summon my Persona...the mask should be clean when it reappears, right?

[collide_scope]

Of course it'll be clean! You don't think of your spirit of rebellion as dirty, do you? Even if it were covered in a Shadow's blood, all that would be gone once you summoned it again.

[Trust him, he's learned that much from experience.]

[foolishjustice]

Not literally, at least.

[Best not to go into how he sees himself, really. But it's certainly not as covered in fish juice. But Morgana will be in for a surprise when Crow summons his Persona: it's not Robin Hood that appears, but Rangda. And then...quickly vanishes, because she's already going to give him grief over summoning her for nothing.]

Much better. Now, where did my knife go...

[collide_scope]

That would be a terrible aesthetic.

[Geez, what a basic question. Hadn't anybody taught Akechi how thoroughly everything was grounded in cognition in the Metaverse? Hadn't he read Wakaba's research on cognitive psience? He should know how these sorts of things worked by now.

That skepticism is wiped away when Rangda appears; Mona gapes for a moment, incredulous.]

You can summon more than two?

[foolishjustice]

[Morgana, does he seem like he's had anyone to teach him this stuff? Everything he knows is from trial and error, and small peeks at bits and pieces of the research.

Ah, there's his knife. Sticking blade-first in the ground, of course.]

Six, at the moment. Akira taught me how to negotiate with Shadows after...a complicated series of events that left us much more genuinely allied.

[Plucking the knife out of the ground.]

Well, so much for using this to cut the sashimi...

[collide_scope]

Not bad! Sounds like you're getting the hang of it!

[He will be your Metaverse senpai, Akechi, come under his tiny furry wing.

In the meantime, though, he'll pull his own blade out of hammerspace his inventory and toss it into the air with a flashy little flip, catching it by the point to offer over. Cutting sashimi with a tiny sword may be Extra AF, but it won't stay dirty either, unlike an actual knife.]

[foolishjustice]

[But he's been at this longer than you, and also Akira's already teaching him Wildcard stuff...]

Ah, thank you. Neither of my Metaverse blades are exactly suited to this...

[Look, Extra is his middle name, okay? In fact, now that he has a bigger blade, he's just going to toss the fish into the air and slice through it with Persona enhanced speed. Naturally, because Rule of Cool is an actual superpower for these two, the sliced sashimi all falls neatly to the sheet of paper.]

There, that should do.

[collide_scope]

[T_T Right when he thought he would get to show off how useful and cool he is.....]

I don't think it'd be sashimi anymore if you cut it with those.

[After all, a laser blade would sear the fish at the same time it cut it, right? BRB stealing another piece, now that he has some manner of hands.]

[foolishjustice]

Not if I used the weapon that goes with this outfit, no. I do have the sword I use with my other mask, but that isn't designed to make clean slices.

[Don't think too hard about what it is designed to do. Anyway, he's just going to casually flip the blade around to offer it back, grabbing a slice of sashimi for himself at the same time.]

[collide_scope]

[He remembers what it's designed to do, and he never wants to think about or feel it again, honestly. He'll take the sword back though, and let it poof out of existence once more.]

What do you do in a place like this, anyway?

[foolishjustice]

Mostly make our day-to-day lives as well as we can, with what we have. There are some movies and video games around, plus a lab for studying magic, and, of course, people to talk to. Every now and then, we go on missions into unstable areas like this one, in an attempt to stabilize them.

It's honestly not too different from being a Phantom Thief, just without the secrecy making it necessary to return to our normal lives every evening.

[collide_scope]

How do you stabilize a place like this?

[Daily life is all well and good, and he'll probably be interested in that once they get back to the station..... but he's more interested in the job before them right now. He can't just laze around in a place like this forever! He has to get back to exploring Mementos and reclaiming his humanity!]

[foolishjustice]

With these.

[He draws from his inventory an object that looks...honestly, a lot like a 3' long, robotic bacteriophage, once he unfolds the legs. And since he's got it out, he might as well set it up, planting it on the flattest patch of ground he can find before activating it.]

It takes about an hour to calibrate, and then it suppresses the magic of this area so that it becomes normal terrain. Unfortunately, it doesn't let us go home through them, but it should be easier to study the Fissures when they're not active and dangerous.

[collide_scope]

Interesting.....

[Excuse him while he examines this weird contraption literally as big as he is. So this is their best hope of getting home? Some kind of magic suppression devices? A good first step, but from the sound of things, they'd need to build something more like a magic harnessing device to really get anywhere else.....]

[foolishjustice]

Isn't it? You should talk to Up-san if you want to know more, they're the resident expert on these devices.

[And now that that's set...he's going to sit back down next to lunch, and produce a cup of coffee from nowhere while he's at it.]

Speaking of which, the Station is run by androids, rather than humans. They're the only natives of this world that I've seen.

[collide_scope]

Well, someone must have built the androids..... but I can't say I'm eager to find out what happened to them.

[Somehow, he suspects it's not a tale that ends with a Happily Ever After. Once he's satisfied his curiosity, he'll go join Akechi for more food; this is practically an invitation to freeload, right? Besides, he has to indulge while he can. The Curse of Never Getting Sushi has been lifted! Sashimi totally counts!]

[foolishjustice]

That was...a long time ago. I haven't asked, but I think the kindest option is that they just didn't have any children, under the circumstances.

[He doesn't seem to mind Mona joining him for lunch, at least. He's the kind of person who thinks of meals as a time to socialize, and sometimes that includes sharing, right?]

The Station has a vault full of samples of native plants that the androids used to start a food garden, so we at least know it's unlikely that they starved.

[collide_scope]

Let's hope they did take the kind path..... Those androids sound awfully welcoming, though.

[That's..... lucky for them, honestly. Lucky that the one space they can use for shelter has obliging masters, ones that want to help them survive. What's the catch? Since when does anything go that smoothly for them with people in positions of power?]

[foolishjustice]

They have been very nice to us. They even let us keep what we find in the Fissures, out of gratitude for us helping them stabilize their reality. I think they're also grateful for having something new, considering they seem to have the same degree of personality and intelligence as humans.

[If he got lonely after twelve years of only superficial contact with other people, he can only imagine how bad it must have been for them, with as long as it's been just the six of them here...]

[collide_scope]

What a terrible fate.....

[Maybe the catch really is just that they're victims, too? Maybe that's all there is to it. Maybe they just..... don't want to be alone anymore. But then, what would happen to the androids once they all figured out how to go home? Would they follow someone to their world?]

[foolishjustice]

It is. I honestly feel bad for them...especially since they seem well-meaning. I'd even consider one of them something like a friend.

Or, well...as much as I can consider someone that way when they don't yet know the truth about me. I...realize this might be asking a bit much, but would you be willing to keep what you know about my history to yourself? I'd rather tell individual people in my own time than have it possibly be the first thing they find out about me.