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

Arianna Wakasa of Caledonia | Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold | Airlocked CRAU

[daughterofthemark]

1A

[A misty forest isn't the usual setting for Arianna's dreams, but she's not complaining. It's pretty! And unlike some forests, it doesn't seem to be full of murder deer or anything like that!

The scenery popping up around her isn't very consistent. Tall bookshelves past what could ever be practical to reach, lots of flowers, a smaller shelf that seems to be some kind of store display for metal helmets, pillows, barstools, a ball return from a bowling alley, it's a bizarre mishmash.

Eventually Arianna finds herself crouching down to talk to the vague image of a little boy. They both seem pleased to see each other.]

...and I'll protect you!

You will? Why, how noble of you!

1B

[...but Arianna's dreams have been worse recently than they were for most of her life, and it's not too long before the imagery here follows suit. The weird mishmash scenery has faded, and now Arianna finds herself looking at a body. This isn't how she was dressed, that time, and when Arianna falls to her knees to take her hand, she finds no blood on it.

It's just different enough to make her think it's real, and leave her sobbing.]

3

[Well, this sure looks familiar. She's never seen puddles in the Auburn Thicket, but other than that, this area could easily be the second Stratum of the High Lagaard Yggdrasil. Maybe this is a dream after all?

It would certainly explain the figure she sees in the distance, as ghostly as the first time she saw her. She stares, unsure how to react.]

...Lady Violetta?

1B

[misanthropicprinciple]

Arianna! Arianna--shit.

[When he sees Clarith there, Junpei blanches himself. Not again... but. He shakes it off, comes up to Arianna, and puts his hand on her shoulder.]

Arianna, listen to me. It's not real. That's not her, all right?

[daughterofthemark]

Junpei.

[Arianna's eyes don't leave the image in front of her.]

If this is not her, then where is she?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Either back home safe, or around here looking for you. ...Maybe having the same kind of nightmare.

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna closes her eyes.]

...I've seen Touko here. If Clarith is still at home...

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Then she's still got people to look after her until we can all get back where we belong. None of us are totally alone, not ever again. Right?

[daughterofthemark]

Yes. Of course. Perhaps Dame Mikaela is accompanying her.

[She doesn't open her eyes. It's not like she needs them for this particular sight.]

Junpei? Could you lead me?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah. No problem.

[He puts one arm gently around her shoulders and the other on her arm and steers her away from the Clarith's dream corpse. He kind of wants to disperse it--hit her with something so Arianna doesn't have to see that--but that doesn't seem respectful to Clarith. Not after everything.]

So far, I've found you, Yuuri, Dad, and Heart. Some strangers, too, who seem to have been here longer.

[daughterofthemark]

Nearly the entire Kingsglaive, then...

[Hm.

She follows, taking slow, careful steps to avoid tripping over anything.]

I have met some strangers as well, including one cat.

3

[newlawtolight]

[There is someone walking besides her, looking at her beneath sunglasses.]

Do not fear it. It's just a dream.

[daughterofthemark]

I am not afraid.

[It's the truth.]

But... I do not understand.

[newlawtolight]

You're in a dream world, dear. The lady in front of you is as corporeal as the mists. Go on, try to touch her.

[daughterofthemark]

[She takes a few steps toward the Force ghost figure, who moves away.]

You say this is a dream world?

[newlawtolight]

I do, for it is.

[She looks down at the younger girl with a smile.]

Does this surprise you?

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna smiles back, but weakly.]

Less so than I would prefer.

[newlawtolight]

I see. Perhaps we might find the source of this tear together, then? If you are amenable to it.

[daughterofthemark]

Certainly. But, pray tell, what do you mean, "tear?"

1A

[founderinglight]

[At first glance, it's easy to mistake this man for another part of her dreams - save the fancier coat (and the bruise on his jaw), he's nearly the image of the Ardyn on the Fantasy Sweet.

The voice is the same, too, as he pauses to watch Arianna and her friend.]

Ah - good to see that at least one person has pleasant dreams for this place to show.

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna takes the little boy's hand, so he can "protect" her. She can't have herself wandering off or anything. Yes, she's doing this entirely for the benefit of someone she knows damn well can't possibly actually exist. Don't think about it too hard.

She recognizes the voice first, and is unsurprised to see the face.]

They are not all pleasant, but--

[Well, until she sees it in more detail.]

--Father, you're hurt!

1/2

[founderinglight]

[Blink. Blink blink blink. Blinkity.]

[founderinglight]

...You're not one of mine, they were both redheads.

[Pause. Ah.]

I do believe you're my niece, instead.

[daughterofthemark]

Redheads? Niece? I... that would be acceptable, but my understanding was that you had approved...

[founderinglight]

You're speaking of Ardyn, if I'm not terribly mistaken.

[He smiles warmly, but also like he's bracing for a blow.]

I'm Izunia. We're twins.

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna does not punch him.

She does, however, stare at him for a while. Her friend tries to jump in front of her protectively, but she tightens her grip and he fails.]

...I see. You are his brother.

[founderinglight]

[Well, that's super refreshing! He could get used to not getting punched, you're his new favorite.]

The one and only, yes.