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...
darkcure: (016)

[personal profile] darkcure 2018-08-07 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I get it. You'll just need to practice, then.

Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it.

[Elize believes in you.]
shipoutofluck: (007)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-07 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Izunia.

[So that's the connection here. He was wondering about the specifics.]

So he's like your vessel. I can't say I care much for words like "master" and "servant", but I understand the importance of that much, at least.
shipoutofluck: (047)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-07 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
...You have a concept of restraint. That's refreshing. Then I'll change it to four stars.
class_struggle: (Default)

[personal profile] class_struggle 2018-08-07 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
My friend had trouble leaving the rift with his power - likewise entering it. But there are subways that connect to yours that he CAN connect to.

I'm getting Marco to send us both over. I'll meet you soon. Stay put for now, be safe.

Should I bring my own restoratives for you, in case of the worst?
dralchemist: (Default)

[personal profile] dralchemist 2018-08-07 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Whatever you've gotta do. Sounds like you already have a safer spot in mind, so I'll let you lead on.

And I've got a stash of leftover restoratives with me. Limited supply, but as long as there's any half-decent workshop I can get back to, I can make more.
have_hat_will_travel: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-08 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
I guess? I mostly just feel like saving my best for storytelling is more appropriate for my class, is all...
von_uberwolf: (Find him)

[personal profile] von_uberwolf 2018-08-08 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
Never trusted technomancy that much.

[That was the commander rubbing off on her.]

What I trust even less is how there's no one here but us. This is a big city.
Edited 2018-08-08 07:27 (UTC)
dralchemist: (frantic scribbling)

[personal profile] dralchemist 2018-08-08 07:30 am (UTC)(link)
... that's a new one. "Technomancy". I'll have to remember that. [And in between flipping a few kabobs and talking with Angua, Izzy pulls out a pocket notepad and scribbles in it. What can quickly be seen on the paper definitely isn't in English (or Common, as it were), and there's very little blank space to be found.]

And yeah, I noticed that. It looks like one day the entire population just up and left. The population, the wildlife, most of the greenery... even microbial processes, considering how pristine some of this food is. It's unsettling.

Though I will say that it isn't just us. There are a few other interesting people I've run into, but... well, like us, not locals.
von_uberwolf: (Find him)

[personal profile] von_uberwolf 2018-08-09 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
[Certainly not Morporkian, which is conveniently identical to modern English.]

Kind of makes you feel like we're not supposed to be here, doesn't it? What did they know that we don't?
dralchemist: (i promise i didn't poison your drink)

[personal profile] dralchemist 2018-08-09 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think that's the case. From what I've seen, everything's been abandoned too hastily for this to have been a planned evacuation. It's more like everybody in the whole city just... vanished.
riderofcharlemagne: (i eat stickers all the time dude)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-08-09 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
You've met him? When? How'd it go?

[He pushes his face perhaps a little too close into Eizen's with the barrage of questions.]
moarlazersplz: (Pet the Carby)

[personal profile] moarlazersplz 2018-08-09 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Good point. I can only set up parties of eight people at most - I'm not actually sure how to organize an Alliance, which would be twenty-four people. Everyone outside the party might still have problems.

[At the news of an actual camp, Ruto perks up. Yes, someplace to actually rest!]

I'd appreciate a chance to rest too - it's definitely been a day.
shipoutofluck: (003)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-12 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Aye, I met earlier, when he teleported the both of us away from the flames. It was a... surprisingly lucky encounter.

[When can he actually use that word sincerely...?]

I recognize you from some pictures he showed me, too.
byanyother_name: (There is ONE thing...)

[personal profile] byanyother_name 2018-08-13 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
That's essentially correct, though we're seemingly a bit more 'pulled' than 'thrown' as far as we can tell at the moment. We're based elsewhere, at Keystone Research Center.

[Kurama leans back a little bit, briefly pressing his water bottle to his neck. He handles heat reasonably well but there's heat and then there's a city erupting into an inferno.]

I keep meeting people in situations where there are more important things to say than names at first. I'm Kurama Minamino Lucis Caelum.
bloodyashes: ([F] You saw NOTHIN)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-08-13 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[Miraculously, he does not react to the second last name. This is an incredible stroke of luck that is frankly unbelievable, what the hell, Sidekick.]

...Asch. No family names.
riderofcharlemagne: (i eat stickers all the time dude)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-08-14 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
[He grins.]

You'd always be lucky to see him.

[Perhaps their inseparability is due to his high luck rank...]

What pictures?
shipoutofluck: (048)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-15 12:48 pm (UTC)(link)
On his... [what did he call it again?] ...phone.

Your appearance is pretty memorable.
riderofcharlemagne: (Default)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-08-16 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course, who could forget such a cute face?