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

[founderinglight]

Hello!

[Hopefully Prompto notices that the clothes are wrong first because the voice is exactly the same as Ardyn's and please don't shoot the cheerful old guy in the fancy dress coat]

[photoshooter]

[UNFORTUNATELY,






He shoots.

He shoots Izunia's hat right off his head and immediately reaches up with his other hand to stabilize his aim, because Prompto wasn't aiming for the hat.]

You.

[His voice is shaking.]

Ardyn.

[founderinglight]

[And the hat... is blown off and hits the ground in a flash of Armiger blue as Izunia immediately puts his hands up in universal HEY DON'T SHOOT language.

Not as planned, so very not as planned. He does recognize the boy now, at least, though he can't bring a name to mind. One of Noctis' retainers, the troubled beam of sunshine.]

... Would you believe me if I said that he's my brother, actually?

[photoshooter]

[Is BLAM BLAM BLAM answer enough, Izunia? Because BLAM BLAM BLAM is what you get.]

[founderinglight]

[YEAH OKAY HE'S JUST. mcphasing through those because Lucis Caelums are really broken.]

I suppose I wouldn't believe me either.

[A flicker of blue and there's a dagger in his hand and then he. Warps a bit further out of range.

Look he's not stupid enough to stand around and get shot.]

Very well, good luck and have a nice day!

[BYE.]

[photoshooter]

[GODSDAMMIT, IZUNIA.]

Get back here, you son of a bitch! Get--give him back!

[But he's gone, and Prompto's a sucky swimmer, so he just kind of crumples where he is, forehead to the rock, and cries as bitterly as the sea is deep.

What else can he even do, when it's like this and he's all alone?]

[founderinglight]

[...Yeah, okay, even from a distance he can't. Entirely leave a guy doing the broken sob thing behind. Even one who was just trying to shoot at him.

There's a small clatter as a dagger is thrown in the general direction of Prompto's feet, lodging itself in the rocks with a Lucis Caelum's well-trained precision. Izunia himself does not follow.

...Instead, there's. Uh. A handkerchief tied to the hilt?]

[photoshooter]

[The noise startles a strangled yelp out of Prompto, and he scuttles back from the... present? And lifts his gun again. When the subject of about seventy percent of his nightmares doesn't follow, he sniffles loudly, rubs his face, and drags himself over to figure out what, exactly, is going on here.

It's a handkerchief, and a knife. It explains nothing. He unties it to see if there's a message or anything, then crumples it in his fist and calls back:]

Are you m-mocking me? 'Cause... 'cause you used to be a lot better at it!

[He throws the handkerchief down and retreats to the cover of a big rock. He doesn't even want to touch the dagger, as useful as it might be. Who knows where it's been, or to what evil purposes it's been put?]

[founderinglight]

[That's fine, it would have vanished in a flash of blue if he tried to pick it up anyway.

His sigh is loud enough to be heard over the waves.]

I was trying to help. ...Genuinely!

[This is not his day :< ]

[photoshooter]

[He puts his back to the rock, and to Izunia, and keeps his last bullet ready even though he still can't stop crying.]

Yeah, like you helped me off the roof of a train? Or helped make an army of daemon clones? Or--or helped Noct get, get sucked into the Crystal?

[Prompto considers that short list. There's more he could say, but that's a strong start.]

G-go to hell.

[founderinglight]

Again, not Ardyn. In spite of numerous historical accounts to the contrary.

[He'll risk waiting the boy out, because... Well, he seems pretty desperate. At least they're not having to yell anymore.]

[photoshooter]

[There's no answer for a while, but then his little blond head comes peering around the rock.]

You look a lot like Ardyn. And sound like him. Brothers don't usually have the same exact voice.

[Well, at least he was, uh, sort of listening to the earlier explanation?]

[founderinglight]

Identical twins plus several decades of very intense acting.

[Hey guess what if you heard a voiceclip of Verstael as a teenager you'd probably doubletake too.]

[photoshooter]

[Sounds fake, but okay.]

...If you're his brother, then what's your name?

[founderinglight]

[You think it sounds fake now? Watch this.]

...Izunia.

[photoshooter]

[Prompto makes a Truly Unimpressed face and hides behind the rock again, snrrfling miserably.]

Yeah. Uh-huh. Now pull the other one.

[founderinglight]

Don't look at me like that, he picked the alias out of spite. Probably.

[Because what does Ardyn do these days that isn't full of spite?]

[photoshooter]

[Sniff.]

Sounds like something he'd do.

[Hic. Sniff.]

...Are you supposed to be the. The good twin, then, or something? Isn't one of you supposed to have a mustache? O-or a goatee?

[founderinglight]

I suppose if you count 'not utterly consumed by a divine curse-disease' as good, yes.

[And no Prompto not when one of them has intentionally cultivated the other's aesthetic.]

I'm hardly a saint. Only another with sins too much to bear.

[photoshooter]

[After another handful of seconds without comment, Prompto leans out once more.]

Were you... warping? Just then?

[founderinglight]

...Is there a reason I should not be?

[Hey, remember that dagger from earlier?

Yeah he summons it in that familiar blue just to twirl it between his fingers before dismissing it again.]

[photoshooter]

I mean... only the kings and the Kingsglaive can do that?

[Wait. Prompto covers his eyes with the hand that isn't holding his gun.]

You're gonna tell me something, and I'm not gonna like it, and it's gonna be a thing, but you should tell me anyway because if the universe is gonna crap on me this much in one day, it might as well be all at once so I can get it over with.

[founderinglight]

I am certainly one of those things.

[Beat.]

How much do you remember of your Founding-era history?

[photoshooter]

Eehhhhnnnnn.

[Don't ask your comedy relief to be smart, Izunia.]

[founderinglight]

...Ah.

[Well he's not terribly surprised. Really, though, Prompto, you're bffs with the Prince that's relevant to your life.]

To make short of it, the Founder King ruled under the name of his brother, because that brother was the one he believed that history should remember with due respect. It is, really, only fair that he take mine in turn.