In Spirit Pulse, there may be periods of IC time where the main plot will not (or cannot) advance until a certain amount of time passes. The time between these 'main plot' events are known as "Free Phases," and reflect how your character spends their time in their normal everyday life, or at least...
As normal a life as a Spirit Tamer can actually have...
Free Phases are split into two sections, an Off-screen Section -where AP are spent on various off screen actions- and an On-Screen Section, where EP are spent on more intensive scenes, such as notable bonding events with other characters, optional boss fights, deep investigation of an area, etc.
Much like how hero handled it in Kiseki, AP are spent on the character taking certain actions during the off-screen phase. These actions generally cost 1 AP each to participate in (although they can be taken multiple times/more can be put into it to boost the effect) and represent more mundane actions that a character might take that don't require heavy player input; the amount of AP one has is limited, and can change the options available to them in the On-Screen phase, so put some thought into how you spend them.
The following are the "normal" Off-Screen Actions. Some extra ones might appear to certain characters due to perks or faction allegiances (and if players have a more customized idea they might want to implement I'm open to it to a degree) but generally speaking they go as follows:
Patrol: Spirit Tamers are essentially magical police, and thus it is in their nature to patrol their respective areas from time to time, interacting with the civilians, stopping magical crimes in progress, finding strange items lying around, meeting someone new, or becoming aware of potential rumors that might be worth looking into... Out of all of the actions this is the one that has the most varied results, and can potentially result in a number of things. Can be done by oneself or with someone one knows, but seeing as how it is effectively work -and pretty intensive work at that- link progress with that character is typically much slower through this action than others...
But some things are only able to be uncovered alongside other people; likewise, some things are only able to be discovered if one wanders around by themselves. At this point in the RP only the character's own faction area is able to be patrolled at this time, but this may change in the future depending upon how the plot unfolds.
Hang-Out: Spend time together with someone you know, or a group of acquaintances. In Persona terms, these hangouts would be the ones that happen between Social Link ranks, where the problems of the other characters aren't a normal focal point, and it is simply a -hopefully fun- time spent between friends. As this action is representative of the PC asking their friends to go out somewhere the activity can be determined by them, and doing things/going places the others might enjoy may result in faster Link progress, which could lead to gifts from them as well as their Character Events appearing more often during On-Screen Phases.
Spell Study: Work on learning new spells, or mastering them to draw out more power from existing ones. The presence of teachers/friends, the amount of time available/how much AP you put into it, whether or not it is a custom formula (one being made directly by you) or one whose recipe you own, the location chosen for training, and the rank of the spell itself will all effect the results one manages to achieve in a single phase.
Progress carries from free phase to free phase however, so don't worry if you are unable to achieve it in a single phase.
Material Search: Enter the Demonic Server in search of higher quality crafting materials -for your own use, or for the use of others-. Runs the risk of running into powerful demons whilst inside the Server, and potentially becoming "damaged" at the end of a Free Phase due to a battle or encounter going wrong. "Damaged" characters will have certain debuffs applied to them at the start of their next few on-screen battles, depending on what they were unlucky enough to run into and not be able to defeat.
Work Order: Make a request from the more technologically inclined members of your faction for COMP repairs (if they become damaged), as well as item replacement. COMP repairs are prioritized and will always be done by the end of the current Free Phase, but due to having to prioritize that sort of work -from all of their Faction's Tamers- above all else, other requests that might be made by the character may take more time for them to complete.
While simple enhancements (such as adding elemental affinities to secondary weapons) do not require materials to be provided by the character, things like enhancement of one's COMP functions do require special materials that -due to their rarity- must be provided by the User in most cases. If the character possesses materials capable of that sort of thing, they will be made aware of it at the start of a Free Phase.
Request: Ask another character to do something notable for you, such as searching for items in the Demonic Server or having them upgrade your gear themselves to get it done faster. Because this is more akin to requesting a favor from them than them doing their job, success depends on how strong your relationship with that person is, or how willing you are to do something for them in return if they need it...
In the case of equipment upgrades, the character will probably have to supply the materials themselves.
Purchase: Access to the faction's equipment and spell formula shop, located in the local LOVELESS Mall. Offers a variety of common but useful and 'must-have' formulas, as well as basic Tamer-approved equipment. Formulas must be trained before they can be fully utilized, unless one has already done so in the past. Everything on display is common and available to all but... A good enough relationship with a certain shopkeeper -or high enough Renown- may enable one to get a peek at more... Rare formulas or items.
Higher value purchases will require more AP, and are representative of the character working enough to pay for the purchase in question. If one lacks the money, they can convert AP they have now into MP (Money Points,) and carry that on into the next Free Phase.
MP can only be used for purchases however, and cannot be turned back into AP.
Secret Shopping Channel (Only Available with Tanaka Perk): Look at Tanaka's chosen wares at the special time, and dial that number as fast as you can-! Things that appear on the secret shopping channel are typically at the extremes of rarity -really high or really low- and all those with the perk will get a chance at any one of the items on the list. However, due to it's nature as a bidding service, the actual winner of the items won't be revealed until the end of the Free Phase. If multiple people want the same item, it will typically be the one with higher AGI who gets it (due to being able to call faster) but occasionally, things might go oddly due to SEN, or even having a faster friend make the call for you...
Yeah... People take this channel pretty seriously...
Originally Posted by Tsukiko
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: She took it easy on me. All this time and I still can’t catch up to her. 
: All that and I still couldn’t get a good shot in on her. That gap year of hers sure didn’t rust her defense at all. 
: Still, she didn’t try very hard with all of this, did she? Last I checked, Sarah’s the straight-A no play breaks the ceiling when the teacher says to jump type; this was a solid Ds Get Degrees performance right here. She even left behind 0°C. Whatever she’s doing over there, she’s not exactly sparkly about it.
: I couldn’t. I can’t go past 100% without you, Amelia. 
: You can’t even color-coordinate without me, Logan. 
: I was wrong, Amelia. It’s not that I can’t catch up to her. It’s that I haven’t caught up to her. Next time around, we’ll surpass her. 
: Without a doubt!
: Amelia, can you send Astra a message? 
: Sliding into DMs, are we now? What manner of sonnet shall I put to page, Lysandre?
