TEST DRIVE 006

[phantasmods]

Hello and welcome to Phantasmal Rift's Test Drive Meme!

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 Telovia Mines, an extremely abandoned magical crystal mine and the town and infrastructure that one supported it. The tunnels are in reasonably good condition and would be reasonably navigable... Except for one thing.

ONE MINOR THING

The magical effects of the Fissure cause those within it to lose something when they arrive - for most people, it's a sense such as touch or hearing, but it's also possible to lose a more esoteric sense (such as your sense of balance or temperature, but NOT things like "sense of morals" or "sense of style"), the ability to speak, or the ability to recognize faces. As a general guideline, whatever characters lose should be non-supernatural in nature, and something they would have taken for granted as a part of their ability to function.

ODDS AND ENDS

Just because the mines are empty of people doesn't mean that they've gone still. While for the most part, the carts full of crystals remain in one place, the huge amount of magic has left more than a few of the miners' abandoned tools still going through their motions. Rusted pickaxes swing at the walls, and dead lanterns swing from the ceiling. Crystals occasionally free themselves from shards of rock to pile into bins, which then empty into already-overflowing mine carts.

As long as you leave them to their jobs, everything will be fine. If you try to stop the tools (and it is the tools themselves, for anyone who might be looking for ghosts) from doing their jobs, they'll chase you down until you leave their general vicinity.

Of course, the eternally working tools don't care much about the structural integrity of the mine tunnels...

THEY ALL PILE UP

...And so, inevitably, there are cave-ins.

Most of them are fairly minor, and you can see them (well, if you can see) enough to just work around them. Some of them are big enough that you're going to have to dig through them first, if you can.

And then there's the handful that block passages entirely. But don't panic! The tunnels are designed around the possibility of this happening - rather than coming to an end, the majority of them loop back around to the main arteries of the mine.

E... ventually...

But you and whoever is stuck with you on this side of the cave-in might be wandering for quite a while before you get there. Hopefully one of you still has a sense of direction, assuming either of you ever had one in the first place.

Comments

not so minor

[hairpincurves]

[If she's being entirely honest, she doesn't like this Fissure. Doesn't like these mines. It's less for having something taken away from her and more that she just... doesn't like this place.

But, well, she signed on, no backing out now. She's just making her way through the tunnels when she spots someone leaning against the wall. Nobody she recognizes... well, better make sure he's okay before launching into the newbie spiel.]

Hey... hey, are you alright?

[seekingsunrise]

[His head jerks up, bouncing against the wall again and he flinches, taking half a step away from the wall. One hand drops down to hover over a series of knives strapped to his thigh.

For a moment he hesitates, eyeing her uncertainly, appraising her outfit. Definitely not associated with the Foundation.]

Who are you?

[hairpincurves]

[Her hands fly up in what's hopefully a placating gesture, just about immediately. Whoa there, sir.]

My name's Akira Kurusu... I can give you a general rundown on what's going on?

[seekingsunrise]

[First of all he doubts she really knows what's going on here. No civilian would

And then he registers her name.]

Akira Kurusu... you're a girl!?

[hairpincurves]

... Ah.

[... At... least she seems more amused than anything?]

In at least one universe, yes. I'm not the only one with that name around here, and the other one's a guy, so. I'm guessing that's the case for whichever version you're familiar with, too?

so how much 4th wall breakage are you okay with?

[seekingsunrise]

They pulled more than one version of-

[He trails off, the sentence fading into a low grumble of frustration under his breath.]

No... I mean yes, he's a guy but-

It's complicated.

[hairpincurves]

[OOC: mild 4th wall breakage is fine, but I'd rather avoid the whole "hey by the way you're fictional and I've seen the game your guy self's from," if that's okay?]

... Yeah, okay 'it's complicated' seems to be the story of my life at this point. Probably goes for everyone else that landed in this world too, honestly.

[She rubs the back of her neck, glancing off to one side.]

... Nicknames are fine if that'll help avoid too much confusion.

[seekingsunrise]

((OOC: Gotcha! It makes sense for him to keep that part quiet. Just wanted to check with you though.))

[She has absolutely no idea but considering the damage certain knowledge did to everyone's morale in Camp he's not about to say anything to this girl he's only just met. And then she looks aside like that and it's such a familiar gesture it's almost unsettling.]

Landed in this world?

Mind telling me where.... or when? this world is? Or whatever you can.

[hairpincurves]

I couldn't tell you what this world's called, but it's covered with these unstable cracks in reality called Fissures--we're in one right now, even--and something's been pulling people and things in. Magic also tends to run rampant in Fissures...

The people who get brought here have been staying at a research station. There's some androids running it who've been pretty nice to everyone stranded here, and we help them out by going on expeditions to stabilize these Fissures.

Uh... hm. I've probably missed some stuff, so if you've got any questions, I'll try my best to answer.

[seekingsunrise]

A research station for the stabilization of tears in reality.

[He doesn't sound doubtful, he's just restating the information presented to be sure he understands what she's telling him. It's... hardly the strangest thing he's heard of in the past few months. Still it takes a moment for him to determine ways that the Foundation might already be involved in this.]

Is there an organization running this research facility? People that these android work for?

And is this a version of Earth or another world entirely?

[hairpincurves]

I don't know the details offhand, but until people started being pulled through Fissures, humans haven't been around for a century. They're all in stasis or...

[... Well.]

It's another world entirely. I can say that much for sure.

[seekingsunrise]

In stasis.

[That is... definitely some unfortunate news, isn't it? He nods, understanding what she means when she trails off. Of course she doesn't want to say it. She's not a soldier any more than Ren is. She's probably not used to things like this.]

Has anyone in the group recognized this world?

[hairpincurves]

Not as far as I know. There's a lot of us and even as much as I socialize, I can't talk to everyone.

[seekingsunrise]

A lot...?

[He's expecting this to be like 20-25 people.]

How many are we talking? And how many of you are civilians?

[hairpincurves]

Definitely more than fifty. I think it's closer to sixty?

[There's so many. It's why she mostly keeps track of who she considers her main circle at this point...]

There's a lot of civilians here--or what might pass for 'em at least, but with at least some form of fighting ability. There are definitely at least a couple military types here, though, as far as I'm aware.

[seekingsunrise]

Sixty?

And only a couple military types?

[hairpincurves]

Well, I said at least, there could be more. It's... difficult to keep track of everyone, you know? And some of them I don't really... feel close enough to pester them with questions about it.

Sync-san definitely is, but he's really the only one I've talked to at any length about that sort of thing...

[seekingsunrise]

[They should be tracking who comes in, where they're from, when they're from.

Next of kin...

Maybe it was better no one had thought of such a thing here. His hand lifts habitually to rest over the dog tags tucked into his shirt.]

I see... That's a lot of people to keep track of.

[He'd had Lenka and Mitsuru's help, at least.]

[hairpincurves]

Yeah, and we're already not exactly an organized lot. Our only real rules are "don't maliciously poke at people's trauma" and "don't have sex in the hot tub," if that tells you anything.

[AKIRA]

[seekingsunrise]

[lbr that sounds on brand for his Ren, too.]

H-how long have you people been here?!

[He's going to end up play archivist all over again, isn't he?]

Not that those aren't good rules but... that's it!?

[hairpincurves]

I've only been here like... three months by now? Around that. It's been six or seven since people started showing up. There're the unspoken rules but they kind of generally fall under the umbrella of "we're all stuck here together in a relatively small space, let's not make coexisting any harder than it has to be." But from what I can tell, it's worked? Mostly.

[seekingsunrise]

Six months and there's no formal record of arrivals? That just... seems sloppy.

[Sorry Akira you're not Ren but he's disappointed in you. Which is so unfair but honestly, how can you find patterns if you don't have accurate records?]

[hairpincurves]

The room signups and the medical records are probably the closest we'd have to that...

[Look, she's not in charge here, she figures the people who've been around longer have it locked down better than she would. Not to mention her friends run her ragged enough.]

We have someone staying on top of keeping track of things like food and medical supplies at least...

[seekingsunrise]

Well... that's a good thing, at least?

[He's a little neurotic about this sort of thing, can you tell? Especially for someone so young. But it was the only useful thing he could do for the Hunter camp for so long.]

I'll have to see if I can help with that. At least until I can get back.

[hairpincurves]

If nothing else, I imagine it'll be appreciated.

[She smiles sheepishly.]

And, hey, it'll be something to fill the hours, right? Because you're looking at a lot of free time now...

[That was honestly the most jarring thing about coming here for her. Of course, when your first experience in this world is getting turned into a mermaid, you learn to say "this may as well happen" about the strange stuff really quickly...]