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

rest in prince

[priforprince]

Hmph. No butler of mine would lead us astray.

[ Hibiki picks a fork at random and begins heading for it. She raises a hand. ] A path trodden once loses half its luster. I'm taking this one.

[ "Hibiki-sama, may I be so bold....?" ]

....What's wrong, Ando?

[ Ando takes a deep breath. He is working up the courage to admit to something

rather embarrassing. ]

rest in pepperonis. also lmk if this tag isnt okay!

[nocawsforconcern]

[She just. Sighs.]

Cawwwww. Enough. I can see where this is going.

[Butler is going to admit that he doesn't know the directions. Hibiki is going to start screaming again.]

Hercules.

[The wolf and dog vanish. A small glow suffuses Enna for just a moment, before she just. walks over. picks up Hibiki. hoists her over her head like Link carrying a pig. and starts walking in the opposite direction.]

it's just fine!

[priforprince]

WHAT?!

[ Hibiki suddenly finds herself freight!

Ando looks at the spot where Hibiki was, then at Enna, then back at the spot. then back at Enna. "Ah....ah....Hibiki-sama...."

Looking thoroughly lost, he trots after them. Hibiki-sama! Don't go! ]

[nocawsforconcern]

If that way's no good, then we go this way. Obvious.

[she just. keeps on, not even caring about Ando or Hibiki's words.]

You can be put down when you can behave. Caw.

[priforprince]

I will not be hauled about as mere luggage! Unhand me! Immediately!

ANDO!

[ "Yes!"

Ando puts on a sudden burst of speed, sliding up beside Enna without seeming to have moved any hooves. He reaches for his maa-ster, hoping to liberate her. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

Perseus.

[Wings seem to sprout from her ankles, and she starts walking into the air. Which... is not that useful in a closed tunnel, but.]

Ando. You're a servant for this idiot, right? Is your task to follow the idiot's orders, or to keep them safe?

I'm going to keep you both safe, but if that means I have to tie you up with Andromeda's chains and drag you out, or knock your heads together until you're both out, then that's what'll happen.

[priforprince]

[ The question strikes Ando, who falters for a moment. Then, he puts on a determined face and draws out a golden lasso. Which he begins twirling over his head. So as not to be rude, however, he shall explain his reasoning:

"Hibiki-sama's dignity is like air to her! Robbing her of it any further may itself become dangerous!!" ]

ENOUGH EXPOSITING, GET ME DOWN!!

[ "Therefore, while utilizing this tunnel may be the correct option - my hoof is forced!!"

And Ando attempts to lasso his maa-ster. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

Okay.

[She's just. gonna chuck Hibiki like a sack of potatoes at poor Ando.

Then she's gonna move to pick them both up.

I'm so sorry for her. ]

[priforprince]

[ "Ah!"

Ando moves into position to catch Hibiki, but his sense of direction has been sacrificed to the caves. Hibiki, thus, hits Ando's head with her head and they go over in a tangle of limbs and a jangle of goat bell.

That should make them easier to pick up, at least? All in one spot. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

[Enna is just. Very pleased with herself. In her defense, she did explicitly warn that she would do exactly this!

But she's absolutely just going to pick up the both of them and start walking up the tunnel.]

I wonder if I could just blast a hole out of the mine...

[priforprince]

You are a singularly obstinate individual.

[ Hibiki has a headache now. And not just from colliding with Ando. Who is silent, perhaps in solitary despair in having been unable to save Hibiki-sama. ]

When we're out of this, stay back from me.

[ One never knows. Idiocy might be contagious, and Hibiki is fairly sure she's not the idiot here.

She doesn't realize one side of her cutphones has come knocked off her ear, though. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

Obviously. Someone weak-willed can't save the world.

[She shrugs, which... might not be comfortable for the people she's carrying. At least this one is unintentional.]

Gladly. Who are you, anyway?

[priforprince]

W--

[ Hibiki slams her mouth shut as a few crystals in the ceiling wobble. Very well. Even enlightening you as to her drive and her will - the will to Revolution - would have no effect. On that point, for the sake of temporary safety, she shall remain silent.

Introducing herself, however, Hibiki can do. She snorts. ] My name is Shikyoin Hibiki. The goat is Ando.

[ Ando does not seem to mind being called a goat. And Hibiki does not appear to be facetious. Both of them may have forgotten something important. ]

Ask for such niceties before you manhandle people.

[nocawsforconcern]

I'm Enna. Captain of the Argo Minor.

[She shrugs.]

Name's not important. Just dunno how else to recognize you to stay away. I don't like you either. You act like a snob and it's annoying.

[She had been talking about herself with the weak-willed bit- Hibiki had called her obstinate, and she agreed, because in her mind, her stubbornness was a good thing.]

[priforprince]

Hmph!

[ Hibiki occasionally, shall we say, jumps to conclusions.

She also doesn't have much to say in retort to that - nay, she daren't dignify it with a response. So she heaves as suffering a sigh as she can in her current position, resigning herself to a much more absurd case of "someone doing everything for her" than she would like.

But this does not mean she is not still in control of the situation. ]

And? How much further until the surface?

[ Ando was not kidding about the whole constitution-sensitive-to-stupidity thing. Merely being in this position is giving her a stomachache. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

How should I know?

[now she's pouting.]

I mean, I could blast my way to the surface with a mountain, but I don't wanna. That would be bad. So you're gonna have to deal with it.

I can let you down if you're willing to act reasonable.

[priforprince]

The only unreasonableness here is this position.

[ This probably means she'll cooperate. Probably.

Ando nods, and clasps his hooves in an entreating gesture. Please! Please, save Hibiki-sama from this dire fate! ]

[nocawsforconcern]

[Well.

She just sort of. Unceremoniously drops them. ]

... You're as bad as those people on Draco. Stop looking down on people.

[priforprince]

[ Ando turns them as they fall so Hibiki-sama will land on him instead of the dirt. Hibiki seems to take this as her due, standing and waiting to be dusted off. This follows shortly, complete with a feather duster made of what appears to be ostrich plumes. ]

My worth is infinite. There's more shame in refusing to admit the obvious than accepting it.

[ Hint hint. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

A person's worth is from their actions. You haven't done anything worth two coppers that I've seen.

[She lifts her hand to flick Hibiki in the forehead again.]

I hate people like that. People who think their dignity is more important than their safety, and look down on other people for it.

[priforprince]

[ HER FOREHEAD IS A DELICATE AND LONG-SUFFERING SOUL, THE SEAT OF HEADACHES AND SUCH

WHY MUST INDIGNITIES RAIN UPON IT

To keep one of said headaches from sprouting, Hibiki averts her eyes. Fine. So be it. There are some people whose limitations simply cannot be helped. In that case, the highest-quality decision is - ]

....Let's just exit this cave quickly.

[ - to stop conversing and start trying to take the lead position on their journey. But at least she's headed the right way this time. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

Fine.

[She grumbles, but. At least she's walking? And heading in the right direction, even.

That said, now that she's got her hands free again, she's drawing both of her daggers, just in case something happens.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki spares a glance for the drawn weapons, but then turns to face ahead again. None of her concern.

Ando, meanwhile, nearly walks into another wall - but then figures his best ploy is to stop trusting his own sense of direction and follow Hibiki-sama's back. This is more appropriate for a butler and maa-nager, as well. ]

There's no end to this....

[ Mused to herself. Who is there to speak with, here? Her new acquaintance is an idiot, and Ando is a goat. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

[rude, hibiki

not wrong, but rude]

It can't be too long. See, there's no branching paths anymore, so we're probably getting close.

[priforprince]

I don't need reports on every little detail.

[ Such trivialities are Ando's concern. And he does look impressed with this deduction. If ever he and Hibiki-sama become entrapped by a subterranean labyrinth again, he will be able to be of more use to her now....!! ]