phantasmemes | TEST DRIVE 006

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!test drive

TEST DRIVE 006

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It will take Talcott some time to break years long habits of calling everyone 'sir' or 'ma'am' things that his grandfather had reminded him of near daily. Always be polite, always show respect. These people are nobility, son. Not like him.

"If you ever want an extra pair of hands in the kitchen I..." A slight shrug. "I've been helping Ignis for years so I know how to do most things."

And it was something to do, something to keep him occupied.

"Develop magic?" Oh that... that was dangerous. He thought back to that conversation with Red. He'd just wanted to protect people but then maybe she'd been right not to trust him. "That sounds fascinating and dangerous."

"And hilarious." Okay the idea of Prompto failing as hard with ice powers as Lance had with fire powers was just perfect.

"I'll gladly accept a hand whenever you feel up to it. Though I should warn you that I don't keep to a particular schedule the way many other people do - my way of handling the family's fatigue problems is a somewhat chronic napping habit."

Can't catch him, circadian rhythm.

"I've developed a few altered abilities myself - " He gestures at where the orb of light still hangs, at least not needing to see that to know where it is. " - but apparently it hits the younger people harder. Probably something about how your bodies are still developing."

Circadian rhythms tend to work best with light which is something Talcott hasn't had much of in his life.

"That's fine... I'm up most of the night, anyway." And most of the day. What is sleep?

"Or maybe we're more open to the idea of changing so it's easier for the magic to affect that change." Like how their gigai can change to reflect their souls. Like Floe deciding she wanted to be a boy. "Still that's really interesting."

"And.. the crystals?" Is the cool fidget toy magical or is Izunia magical and therefore can use the cool fidget toy?

"Oh - these, or the ones in the mine?" It is a crystal mine, after all. Izunia flicks his fingers and the circling crystals grow wide, bobbing up and down in an alternating pattern as they continue their circuit. "This is just something to do with my hands - bit of a toy I came across, but they help to keep me grounded. Anything to touch does - it seems to be something that human minds need at my age, because Ardyn fidgets nearly as much now."

If anything could leave scars in one's soul, after all, the Starscourge surely qualifies, even beyond everything else. The crystals glitter in the light before shifting to a figure-eight pattern.

"As for the ones in the mine, they seem to be this world's version of elemancy deposits, though there's a wider variety of energies represented. I've learned to make use of a few of them in a similar way, in fact."

Talcott watches the motions, how gestures feed into what the crystals do, utterly fascinated. "It is really cool for just a toy."

"It is, perhaps, less age and more experience. There are studies in some worlds about certain imbalances that are better focused with the ability to play with something but sensory objects also sometimes help with people who have experienced trauma." And it sounds like he's paraphrasing something out of a book, a little bit distant and detached. Why he'd be researching coping mechanisms is not something he's going to freely elaborate on though.

He glances over Izunia's shoulder, back into the mine proper, taking a few curious steps. But wandering off, getting distracted by new mysteries to unravel isn't going to help anyone. So he circles back around to the table, to sit back down and sip at his coffee. "It must be fascinating for you, at your age, to have new elements and magics to work with."

Not like he thinks it'd be cool to be able to use magic and is jealous or anything. He's totally not leaning on this table with his chin in his hands staring wistfully at Izunia because gods dammit why couldn't he be royalty? Or at least have earned his way into the Glaives.

It's okay, Izunia can guess without further detail that it's not something to like at. "Especially when those traumas often have a general theme of helplessness from a lack of body, it's true."

Another small gesture snaps the figure eight into a spindle shape, the ten crystals taking a one-four-four-one arrangement with the clear at one end and the black at the other.

"Anything new is a delight when I encounter it, not just this sort of thing. It's one of the reasons I'm glad to be here."

Talcott laughs at that, something dark and a little distressed.

"Two thousand years I-" He swallows hard, still watching the play of the crystals, they really are mesmerizing.

"How could you bear it?" It had only taken him three weeks to completely lose it. To try to end that strange half life they'd been trapped in. "I don't know how you're..." still sane enough to hold a conversation? Hardly the polite thing to say to the Founder King.

Gods he'd barely been able to make sense of anything when Sol turned on them, certainly not to make idle conversation like this.

"Coherent, functional on a day-to-day basis, capable of passing for sound mind?" Izunia doesn't beat around the bush; he's also not going to make a claim of full sanity any time soon. That ship sailed off centuries ago.

"Sometimes I can't, and it pulls me under. But when that happens... 'There are people who need me.' 'There are people who love me.' 'The worst is already over.' Those are the ropes that I built to pull myself up with. That," and in spite of being sightless, the wink he throws in Talcott's direction is perfectly aimed. "And a healthy dose of spite. I refuse to let what the Draconian did to my life control my life any more than it already has - I refuse to let that control my future, when so many other, better possibilities exist."

He smiles, faintly, a little ruefully. "Anti-depressants help, too."

"It's good you've found things to pull yourself together with." Affirmations, as they'd been called in a number of articles he'd read online. They'd all seemed so foolish at the time. He'd even written one of those very things on a post it note and put it on the bathroom mirror. It had lasted perhaps two hours before he'd ripped it off and torn it up. Mitsuru and Marisa didn't need to deal with his issues and it was bullshit anyway. Every time he convinced himself that the others needed him he'd messed everything up so badly.

"I... didn't expect..." He blinks in surprise at that last bit. "You to just... admit that." Even if it was true he was royalty. Surely he couldn't just freely discuss the fact that he took some sort of medication.

He's retired, Tal.

"What do I have to gain by hiding it?" The question is genuine, though a bit amused. "My image? That's not worth even a sheet of paper to me. And when knowing that they aren't alone is sometimes enough to let others seek the help they need - how could I value some nebulous sense of image more than that?"

"I-" He's quiet for a moment, swirling his fingertips along the edge of the coffee cup, lifting it to take another sip and then going back to toying with the mug. At least it kept him from tearing up his cuticles more.

"O-of course. I'm sorry I didn't mean to... make it seem like." A sigh as he slumps forward, leaning on the table and shoving his hands in his hair. "Forget I said anything, sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. I know well enough the stigma on such things in many worlds." Including their own - Insomnia was not a beacon of mental health at its height, and he can readily admit that. And it was probably only harder for a child who grew up in the dark. "That's one of the things about this place that does allow people to heal. There's no prevailing culture, no expectations - as long as you're a decent person and keep most of your clothes on, everything will be well with those already here."

"No canoodling?" Muttered under his breath, soft and amused however dark the joke is. Even though he knows Izunia won't understand. But it gives him a moment to think about the rest of what he's said, the implications behind it.

He's glad now that the redhead can't see him, fingers coming up to curl in the green scarf at his throat, knowing what lies beneath it.

"And if you're not?" A rush of breath as his stomach plummets into his toes at the question. "A decent person...?"

"Keep it to your rooms unless explicitly invited otherwise. You're a bit young for the adult parties, if another one should happen." Sorry, Talcott, you're a small and the Founder King is, in spite of everything, one of the responsible adults.

And the way he looks at Talcott - the boy would be forgiven for forgetting that Izunia is still blind, so stern and level the gaze. "Exactly what defines a decent person varies. Here, it means not intentionally provoking people into trauma responses, not resetting the murder counter, and helping out where you can. Anything else - anything you might have done, anyone you might have been before - that matters so much less than who you decide to be now."

Hey he's eighteen now! He's an adult, really.

"Sorry it... was a rule in Camp." Probably for the best. How much worse would things have been if he and Nine had actually... Then again maybe Nine would've stopped him where Ichigo didn't. Or-

The look Izunia levels at him is enough to make Talcott hunch down in his chair a little, feeling for all the world like he used to when he was a kid and Cor or Cid had to remind him of his place. It's so stupid and he knows it but for one hysterical moment he feels like he might cry.

Who you decide to be

But how is he supposed to know without anyone to guide him anymore. He's been told what to do and who to be his entire life, the prospect of suddenly having so much freedom is terrifying, especially when that freedom was precisely what got him into trouble in camp. Every choice he made, even if it was with the best of intentions, blew up in his face and got people hurt.

"I'll... do my best." Even if he knew that would never be good enough.

And Izunia's expression softens instantly. Perhaps he pushed too hard - it's so damn hard to tell without the visual cues. "That's all anyone can ask. You'll be fine. And if you're not, there's always support if you need it."

Talcott is just a little extra sensitive to judgement from authority figures. He doesn't have family, not really, he has mentors, people of authority that he looks up to, and he's spent the last two months telling himself how much he's failed them all, how disappointed everyone would be in him.

It almost feels like he just has a whole new set of people he's going to be disappointing now.

But Izunia is trying to be supportive, at least? He's just not sure he'll ever be able to tell someone when he's drowning. He should be able to be better than that.

"Thank you, s-" A sigh. Gods he can't even get that right. "I appreciate that."

The attempt, at least, gets a smile.

Living's a work in progress, even at his age.

"Well, I don't think I have it in me to head back into the mines again for at least some time, so if there's anything else you'd like to ask, I'd be happy for the conversation." There's only so long he can stand of the absence of vision, and he really is nearing his limit.

He has to think for a moment, trying to find a topic that isn't going to bother either of them. In the end he decides family is probably the safest option, if the fondness Izunia's shown so far is any indication.

"Tell me something about him? Your brother." Curious and he can't help wishing he had his journal with him to take notes. "A happy memory. Maybe a time you got into trouble together or something?"

Something to make them both a little more human and less imposing. A living legend.

I mean if he wants a journal, Izunia is also carrying some nonzero amount of an office supply store.

"Together? Ha. More like Ardyn dragging me - he was always the troublemaker, and I'd come along to make sure he didn't burn off his eyebrows or something." There's a definite amused fondness in his voice.

"He snuck a chocobo chick into his room once - one of the black ones, even, I still don't know where he got her. Or why Gil didn't put a stop to it - then again, he was always weak on telling Ardyn 'no' about anything - but the point is, that I walk down the hall going to bed and I hear a chick's cries and my brother furiously trying to shush her. And when I open the door, he's got the bird snuggled down in his bed..."

He shakes his head. "The row we had over that... Even once she was grown, Ardyn would let her sleep in his bed if he thought he could get away with it. Gilgamesh couldn't deny anything to Ardyn, and Ardyn would die before denying anything to Philomela."

How could he possibly ask the Founder King for something as trivial as a notebook?

Talcott grins at the story though, chuckling softly and leaning more comfortably on the table. "Sounds like something Prompto would do... and there's no way Ignis would have the heart to tell him off, either."

A small, thoughtful hum. "Gilgamesh... the... Blademaster? Um his spirit is tied to the Tempering Grounds in Taelpar Crag, right?"

"It's hard to imagine him as... a regular person, I guess. He's kind of a legend." A small huff of breath, not quite a laugh. "Then again so is the Marshal."

"Is that where he finally fucked off to?"
Izunia's sense of propriety has long since gone out the window, but that particular turn of phrase is more than likely still surprising. "If I ever run into that man again... Oh, I have many strong words for him."

He doesn't seem willing to let that interrupt the better mood, though, and quickly moves on. "Prompto actually has a chick at the station, and I'm genuinely not convinced he hasn't been letting Sunshine sleep in his bed. She's starting to get a bit gangly now."

Talcott blinks, a little startled by the phrasing, yes. Okay... so, Gilgamesh was a touchy subject. Duly noted.

The fact that Prompto is not only here and a hilarious disaster of ice powers but has a chocobo only makes him grin, though. "Prompto has a chocobo?!"

"I'm sure he is letting her sleep in his bed. I- gods I'd love to meet her. It's been so long..." The enthusiasm wavers a little, the sting of knowing how much the long years of darkness has potentially damaged the ecosystem.

"Well, I'm sure you will. You're likely to be here for quite some time, if the history of people appearing here so far is any indication."

He smiles softly. "When he was on his own, certainly, but Ignis might well have put an end to that. He's the most sensible of the lot of us, myself and all of Ardyn's glaive included."

"I'd like to stop... Shuffling between places, eventually. Not that this station doesn't sound nice and all."

A soft sigh but he does smile at that. "Ignis is always the most sensible person in any room.

... I've missed him."

TEST DRIVE 006

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