TEST DRIVE 001

[phantasmods]

Hello, and welcome to the first 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.

(In the future, characters who are in-game can also earn themselves an extra item of loot for tagging in to top levels on the test drive, to be distributed with the rest of their loot upon dungeon completion.)

This first test drive is based in the Fissure nearest to the Station, and comes with three potential options, all with a distinctly watery bent -

OPTION 1: MAROONED

Hey, uh... What's that maroon film distorting your vision? And how did you get on this beach, anyway?
So long as the sun is shining, there doesn't seem to be a problem out here on the beach, aside from the strange maroon tint to everything. But when clouds pass over, the tint grows darker, and darker, and the water grows redder, and redder...

That... can't be blood, can it?

Characters who remain beneath the patchy cloud cover will find themselves filled with increasing anxiety that the ocean is made of blood, until either the cloud passes or they check the water for themselves. The bad news is, that while it isn't actually an ocean of blood, contact with the red water will drain characters of energy very rapidly, causing sudden fits of exhaustion as though they were suffering from anemia. By itself, this isn't particularly dangerous...

...Except that the return of the sun doesn't mean the return of that lost energy, and if you've waded out too far, the shifting sand and pull of the waves underfoot can easily pull you down and under.

OPTION 2: LANDSHARK

You really hope that isn't a shark fin moving through the sand. That's just not possible, right?

(Yes, yes it is.)

Landsharks are amphibious, predatory creatures just as at home in the sand as below the waves, and always hungry. They track their prey via disturbances in the sand or water, but fortunately, you can track them the same way - they're large enough to be easily visible in the relatively clear waters near the beach, and their bulk causes a patch of shifting sand above them as they roam for more terrestrial prey.

As a result, they're most dangerous near the waterline, where the shifting sand is hard to see due to the motion of the waves (though they can, of course, pop up further up the beach). Fortunately, they're not large enough to swallow a person whole. Unfortunately, they're still between nine and twelve feet long depending on the individual and easily large enough to take a good chunk out of you.

Like any other shark, they're vulnerable to being sliced open with something sharp, kicked in the gills, or punched in the snout to establish dominance. On the magical end, they have a particular weakness to electricity.

On the bright side, if you're hungry enough, the landsharks are very edible once cooked (or, you know, if you like sushi). For some reason, the meat tastes faintly of chocolate...?

Drops: Meat, shark teeth, candygrams.

OPTION 3: JUST IN TIDE

A bit further down from the beach, the water comes up to the base of the rocky cliffs, leaving numerous nooks and crannies to climb over and explore. In fact, they're practically begging for it.

What might you find? Well, there's the usual beach refuse, for a start - sand, seaweed, shells and fragments of shells, and big barnacles and mussels tucked into the cracks. However, other debris finds its way into the cracks, ocean-going refuse from a thousand worlds... There's also a number of pointy blue-green crystals that tingle to the touch and remain wet no matter how characters attempt to dry them.

And finally, there's a bunch of bottle crabs - overlarge hermit crabs that look more at home in half-broken beer bottles or soda cans at their size than they do in shells (though they'll live in anything that seems protective enough - the largest seem prone to making their homes in rusty helmets). The crabs are not aggressive unless you harass them first, but they can give a nasty pinch if provoked.

...Did you lose track of time out there among the rocks, or did time lose track of you?

Either way, you're now stuck out as the tide comes in. If you can swim, good for you! You probably won't have too much of a problem, at least once you're far enough from the rocks that you aren't at risk of getting thrown against them and having some important swimming limb broken...

On second thought, maybe it's better to stay here and wait it out, whether you can swim or not. Hope you're ready for a couple hours stuck on a rock with some weird-looking, too-big hermit crabs and...

Who is this other person, anyway?

Comments

1

[founderinglight]

[Hey you know what's great about winding up in another world?

Yeah, hey, there's weird pink aliens with maroon hair and no horns who see you go down on your butt and come over immediately, the picture of concern.]

You as well?

[Hey do you need a hand up because he's offering a hand and not at all realizing quite yet that those horns are real. It retracts, just a little, when he realizes her skin is grey, but he's made the offer now and can't take it back.]

The sudden exhaustion from the blood water isn't natural...

[That's as much to himself as her.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

[If he'd wanted to withdraw the offer, he would have had the chance; Jetshard looks up at him with a mixture of caution, embarrassment, and not a little annoyance for a moment before accepting the aid. If the weird alien is going to turn hostile, she might as well be on her feet, although honestly she's pretty sure that she's going to need at least another moment or two to recover before she's in any shape to fight anything. It's not a comfortable feeling.]

If it took you the same way, I'd agree. I think it's unlikely a toxin or pathogen would have identical effects on both of us, whatever you are.

[founderinglight]

[Hostile, no, not unless she goes for arms first. More likely to be spooked, it looks like.]

Human, and quite agreed. A magical one, perhaps, but I was able to fight off most of the effects by resting for some time.

[dubiouslychthonic]

That's a relief. [She glances away, back up the beach, and then back to him; her eyes are green against yellow sclerae, but the tinted lenses on her glasses make it difficult to make out exactly which hue of green they are.] I think if it's all the same to you, I am going to move away from the shore a little now.

[founderinglight]

[His are a bright, clear blue, lighter than you'd see in a troll, against off-white - and he nods agreement. The exact hue of green wouldn't mean anything to him anyway.]

Likely for the best. The sharks don't seem prone to coming further up the beach, either.

[dubiouslychthonic]

...Sharks would also be a concern, yes.

[She hasn't seen any of the sharks up close yet, but let's be honest, aggressive sharks that can get you on land aren't really all that outlandish by Alternian standards.

Ok, right, going up the beach a bit. Her steps might be a little unsteady - whatever caused the sudden exhaustion, she's not nearly recovered - but she's doing her best to cover it.]

You have a name, or do aliens not go in for that sort of thing?

[founderinglight]

It's Izunia.

[Which damn near works as a wiggler name, funnily enough.

He sticks close until they're further up the beach, just in case she needs a hand. Hasn't bitten him yet, so she's probably safe...?]

And yours?

[dubiouslychthonic]

Jetshard. The Sawbones Jetshard, if you care to stand on ceremony, but I don't see a great deal of reason for that at this juncture...

[She manages, at least, to not collapse again, although once they're well above the tideline, she does stop and lean heavily on an outcropping of rock that juts out of the sand.]

[founderinglight]

[Weird name, but then, alien by her own admission. He should probably be glad it's a name he can say.]

No, not much point in that. It's almost a refreshing change.

[Even if it does, you know, feel entirely strange after so long.

For his part, Izunia sits on a similar spit of rock that sticks more out than up.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

[After the last few perigees, which have been remarkably full of young adults bickering over their new titles in her general vicinity, Jetshard is honestly just as glad to set that kind of formality aside.

She smiles, tightly.]

I'm not so much of an invalid that I need watching, you know. Not saying that I don't appreciate the company. But if you're simply watching to see if I collapse again, I think the danger is past.

[founderinglight]

Not at all, though I confess I wouldn't be able to do much if you did beyond offer a handful of steel to anything that might try to eat you.

[He waves a hand, vaguely.]

Call it simple curiosity. Most of the others I've encountered on the beach so far are human, or at least pass for it. You, on the other hand...

[Are obviously not.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

Me, on the other hand.

[She lets that hang for a beat.]

The answer to the question you're not quite asking is troll.

[founderinglight]

I appreciate it.

[Politics smile.]

Truthfully, I'm surprised at how similar we appear to be. You'd think that we'd at least have differing numbers of fingers, or eyes, or some such.

[dubiouslychthonic]

It is odd. How many legs does your species' larval instar have?

[founderinglight]

...Ah.

[Blink, blink.]

Only surface-deep similarities, apparently. That's a... quite different development path.

[HE'S A MAMMAL.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

Is it?

[Genuine curiosity, but not any particular shock, honestly. The Alternian Empire has totally obliterated made contact with enough alien civilizations that the idea of strongly convergent evolution isn't a totally unfamiliar one to a troll of a scientific bent of mind.]

[founderinglight]

Well, if you have life stages that can be called 'larval,' I'm assuming your species isn't exactly mammalian.

[dubiouslychthonic]

Ah. No. Insectoid pseudo-chordates. [Which isn't an exact translation of the perfectly precise Alternian word she uses, but somehow while "mammal" is a perfectly familiar concept to her, the class of organisms to which trolls belong does not have a close parallel in the taxonomy of most worlds from which humans come? Sorry Izunia, she's a weird bug from space.] Which doesn't actually do anything to explain the significant similarity in adult body plans, I guess.

[founderinglight]

[To be fair, Alternian probably lacks all of the distinct categories of primate that human languages tend to have.

...Which doesn't actually apply to Izunia because he's from a bizarre JRPG planet that doesn't appear to have monkeys that are not part plant but you know what whatever.]

Agreed. Insects and mammals are probably about as far apart as you can get while retaining any kind complex nervous system.

[He should probably be grateful that they have a concept of mammals.]

...What's your in-species variation like? Humans would look much the same to alien eyes, I imagine, we tend to only have small color variations, but I wouldn't want to assume.

[Hey NERD only you would think to ask that.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

[What isn't troll in-species variation like, honestly. At least Jetshard paid attention in the biomedical schoolfeed sections.]

Visibly? Mostly variation in size, horn shape, and some pigmentation that's mostly visible in the eyes unless something's gone horribly wrong. A very small percentage of the population is fully amphibious, and an even smaller number manifest wings.

[founderinglight]

[One would hope that basic biological knowledge is required for being a Troll Medic.]

Humans vary in height and build a bit, but not terribly much. From about here - [Gesture at about five feet from the ground.] - and up; I'm on something of the extreme end of the upper range.

...Actually, my hair color is fairly unusual, too, so perhaps don't take me as an average representative. We definitely don't have any winged or aquatic individuals, though.

[dubiouslychthonic]

[One would most certainly hope.

She tilts her head a little to the side, thoughtful, as he indicates the range of human sizes.] The low end of our range is similar, but it's not uncommon for highbloods to reach double that, not including horns.

The wings are very rare, to be fair. To my knowledge, I've only ever met one winged individual.

[founderinglight]

I'm sorry - highbloods?

[That almost sounds like an indicator of some kind of rank but - biological castes, maybe?]

[dubiouslychthonic]

Trolls with hemopigmentation in the blue to purple range, with the associated longer lifespan and greater inborn psychic resistances.

[She shrugs, and continues a little ruefully -] Some of my compatriots prefer to say "coolblood," but maybe I'm not quite young and idealistic enough to find using slightly less loaded hemospectral terminology to be the most effective way to signal my politics.

[founderinglight]

[No back up a minute.]

Hemopigmentation.

[He repeats the word as though tasting it, considering the implications. Then he nods at the sea, which, for now, is still simply water.]

Human blood is all of the same red.