phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] phantasmemes2018-07-12 11:56 pm
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TEST DRIVE 005

Hello and welcome to the fifth 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.

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 time, the Test Drive takes place in Incendia - a less-ruined-than-expected city that has been abandoned for over a century, due to the magical effects of the Fissure (unstable reality region) that have made it impossible to live in. What effects are these, you ask?

Well...

BY DAY

By day, the city is lovely, if oddly empty. The sun shines down, and magical lights along the sidewalk - the equivalent of power lines - flow energy throughout the city. It's possible to think that the little sparks you sometimes see at the corner of your vision are related. After all, there's a great deal of magic in the air...

But in spite of this, the city lies abandoned, for no immediately apparent reason. You might have found yourself in a wide-open shipping yard, where large metal containers levitate about, moving without any help or oversight from human hands. Be careful; these containers changing positions make it easy to get lost for quite a long time, since few of them have much in the way of identifying traits over than color. Didn't you already pass that arrangement of two red ones on top of a blue one before...?

Or perhaps you're in the massive park in the center of town, with its blatantly magical fountain (a half-dome of water just hanging in the air) and the tents of an abandoned festival. Two stages and a long line of street food booths stand empty - surely no one will mind if you use them for something, right?

Or perhaps you're just suddenly on the streets, among stalled-out taxis and cars that go nowhere and lack the familiar smell of gasoline. There's apartments and shops all around, with little gardens spilling out over balconies... Maybe if you go knock on some doors, you'll find people.

Wherever it is you are, surely there's got to be someone around who can tell you what's going on, right...?

BY DUSK

As night falls, rather than dropping the way you might expect, the temperature begins to rise. And then the sparks in the edges of your vision are very much more than simply at the edges of your vision. They catch first on the plants, the papers stuck to the now-lit magical streetlights, the trash cans... And then, increasingly so, on the buildings proper, the shops, the skyscrapers, the cars in the street.

Within half an hour, an inferno is starting to build, and it's clear that there's not going to be anywhere above ground safe from it. But fortunately, there's safety beneath the level of the streets - if you can make your way fast enough to an underground station.

BY NIGHT

In the remains of these subway tunnels, lit mostly by the dim glow of magical energy lines, you're at least safe from the inferno above. Unlike the aboveground parts of the city, however, the tunnels are in an obvious state of disrepair, with broken concrete, rot, and mildew. The stations might have once been clean, but they quite transparently are not now, and the tunnels themselves are as bad or worse.

Thankfully, no trains run anymore, so you're not at risk of being run down on the broken tracks. There's also not any full-on collapses blocking the way, and the tunnels seem well-enough made that there's probably not risk of a cave-in.

Less pleasantly, you aren't the only thing taking shelter in the tunnels from the firestorm above. And the magic of that flame has touched the feral dogs that rove the tunnels, turning them into barking, howling creatures of as much flame as flesh themselves. And then there's the occasional patch of mold, mildew, and slime in the darkest parts of the tunnels, where even the magical circuits have gone out, that moves to douse any light that comes near it...
joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-30 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[He sighs, running a hand over his face.]

No. I merely as though I have put you on the defensive, and I am uncertain why.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-30 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)

"Hah. No, I was—the bull thing, that was a joke. I'm no bodybuilder, and I appreciate your pointing out that I was biting off more than I could chew. So to speak."

joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-31 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Well, then. Where do you wish to go?

thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-31 12:54 am (UTC)(link)

"I should probably hit the pharmacy, pick up some supplies. Shark week waiteth on no man nor dimensional rift… Uh, that's a euphemism for menstruation." Watson's a doctor, he won't get all weird about any mention of gynecology, right? Harriet hopes not anyway. "Then…I don't know. Wander. Look for somewhere to spend the night."

joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-31 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I know what menstruation is.

[He seems amused, mostly, and not terribly non-plussed. The same would... not be the case for other Victorians but he is a special weirdo.]

A problem I used to have before I died.

Shark week... now that is an excellent euphemism.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-31 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)

Harriet looks a little nonplussed herself, both at the revelation that Dr. Watson is trans--is there support for that in canon?--and at the revelation that he's some kind of...revenant? Is that the word? She's not sure. Certainly not "zombie." But she rallies quickly and smiles. "I don't think I'd die to get out of that, but ask me at the right time and I might say differently."

A few boxes of menstrual supplies later, her backpack is definitely full, and the sun is getting low in the west, with all that implies in Incendia. Time to go beneath.

[OOC: Given that the test drive doesn't count for activity check AFAIK, maybe we should end this here?]

founderinglight: ([my place plz])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-08-01 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
Ah - do excuse me, I had no idea there was someone else on the line.

I'm perfectly capable of handling myself,
miss, don't concern yourself on my account.
moarlazersplz: (Oh noes!)

[personal profile] moarlazersplz 2018-08-01 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I've still got my usual gear with me-

[She's patting what look like small pockets or pouches, eyes unfocused as she mentally rifles through her inventory.]

But all of my extra stuff, all of the things that I've gathered and collected- I can't summon my retainers here. I've hired five of those guys! I have so much stuff!

[It's an absolutely pathetic whine.]
moarlazersplz: (Pet the Carby)

[personal profile] moarlazersplz 2018-08-01 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It's just Party chat, right...?

[Hmm, that was a concern that she hadn't thought about. The paladin hadn't seemed to entirely now how a party worked, and so maybe the chat wasn't as common as she'd assumed.]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude if this was supposed to be private!
have_hat_will_travel: (Huh)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-02 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
... Yeesh. Yeah, that's... A downer.

I lost all my gear except one sword and my storage ring, so I do know how you feel...
darkcure: (011)

[personal profile] darkcure 2018-08-02 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nice to meet you, too.

You're new, right? I don't think I've seen you around before...
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-08-02 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that's right. Have you been here a while?
byanyother_name: (Mostly harmless)

[personal profile] byanyother_name 2018-08-02 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I can never assume anymore, to be honest. Eos alone has an incredibly different selection of flora and fauna to my worlds.

It's fascinating, really.

[The rest of the plant dwindles away to a tiny cutting in Kurama's hand. He hides it back away in his hair and takes a drink of his water.]

How much have you found out about the situation you're now in?
bloodyashes: ([D] Transformation)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-08-02 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
A decent amount. Lots of people from different worlds, thrown together into a mess, trying not to die.

[He wipes the knife, gently as to not cut himself, on the side of his burned hand to remove the gel from the tip. Waste not.]
riderofcharlemagne: (i will smack your face into tiny little)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-08-02 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
That's another thing this can do?

Well, it's not like we've said anything that needed to be kept private, so don't worry about it.

[Not like he has high standards of what should be.]
darkcure: (020)

[personal profile] darkcure 2018-08-03 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
A little while, yeah. Um, definitely at least a month now.

It's scary at first, but it gets better really quickly, I promise!

[She has to! Reassure! The newbie!]
bloodyashes: ([F] Lovely but still stupid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-08-03 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[But what kind of month, Elize. What kind of month.]

Don't worry. I don't get scared that easily.
shipoutofluck: (001)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
...Right. [He did have a feeling about her.] Daemon, then?

[That's what this feels like, at least.]

I'm not too concerned about convincing anyone. I'll figure things out.
shipoutofluck: (009)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Boy, okay, he was not prepared for that, actually. It's a level of enthusiasm he's not really used to. He tends to get the opposite reaction from most people, honestly.]

...You're very excitable, aren't you?
have_hat_will_travel: (Curious)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-03 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
No, Daemons are Neutral Evil and tend to be eternally unhappy. Er, at least where I'm from.

I'm a Demon. Chaotic Evil and I can actually have something resembling a healthy overall emotional state.
shipoutofluck: (008)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
...

[...give him strength]

You're out of the fire. Think about it now.
shipoutofluck: (009)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[??????]

Those both sound like daemons to me.
have_hat_will_travel: (Bothered)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-03 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Remember what I said earlier about different worlds? This is that in action.

Where you're from, there may not be such a separation. Where I'm from, not knowing the difference between a demon, a daemon, and a devil is a very, very fast way to die horribly.
shipoutofluck: (015)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[internal screaming

You can bet Eizen is all over that, carefully examining it. Emphasis on carefully, of course.]


A shame that is, because it's a fine blade. It's stunning. [And, most importantly, ancient.] Such an elegantly designed crossguard is an ingenious use of the wing motif.
shipoutofluck: (008)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
...Is it that important? They're all dangerous. Not letting your guard down near any of them seems wise to me.

Present company included, of course.

[No offense.]