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...
ax_iom: (My life for what?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
You didn't hear him!
daughterofthemark: (22F. Denial on pain of death)

Night

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-17 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
[What? Exploring is great. Exploring rocks. Even if it does wear you out after a while, making the idea of resting by a campfire sound appealing.]

Might I join you?

[Arianna is deliberately not looking at the fire. She's beaten up several of those dogs herself, but that didn't involve staring at their faces after they died.]
redmeguca: (The hell?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
[And that's when a spear comes out of the ring she's wearing to point at Lily's face.]

Hands off. And I was being serious. Well, mostly.
ax_iom: (My life for what?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
-- What are you doing? Stop!

[Not... that it helps. She's chasing after Mai, hammer ready.]
theosophomoric: (my head in a bag)

[personal profile] theosophomoric 2018-07-17 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
[She nods.] Well, we've only so many of the stabilizing contraptions and I honestly haven't a clue how they work, so for this fissure it's probably best if you just keep your wits about you and be ready to return with us when we're done. You'll want to get underground at nightfall, unless you're a good deal less flammable than you appear.
nojohnyouare: Confused. (you are the morning)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-17 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
[The dog growls, but Mai takes a deep breath and holds her sword out.]

Dog-san...

[It snaps and grabs hold of the very plastic blade in front of it -- just as the blade suddenly isn't plastic anymore. Yowling from the pain of biting metal, it lets go and recoils.]
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
[A wince.]

I'm pretty sure I'm just as flammable as I look.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
[She doesn't even seem surprised at the spear. She just stares at the tip, exhaustion in her face.]

... A magus? I shouldn't be surprised.

[She's... not moving her hands...]
thinkingwithmahous: (On the run)

[personal profile] thinkingwithmahous 2018-07-17 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
No, but...They're the bad guys, Lily.

[He's gotten most of the shouting out of his system by now, at least.]

They're wrong, but they have a lot of practice in convincing people they're right. It's all head games.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
[So Kyoko will move them for her, yanking them off her face.]

Mahou Shoujo, actually. We probably come from two completely different magic systems.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
[Lily barely looks up.]

Sure. Do what you like.

[lily be nicer]
theosophomoric: (my head in a bag)

[personal profile] theosophomoric 2018-07-17 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Most of us are.

[The wince is noted. Ok, no spontaneous combustion wisecracks around this young lady. Sonja will keep that in mind.]

Do feel free to lift whatever looks useful, though. The rest of us are. The city's well and truly abandoned, what with the nightly fires and daily resets.
redmeguca: (Want some?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
Already was, but good to have permission. Now nobody can say I'm stealing this time.

[She'll take two packs of Pocky out of her jacket pocket and hand one to Sonja.]

You want some?
daughterofthemark: (06F. A dancing blue vortex)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-17 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
[Arianna sits, carefully positioning herself to continue avoiding looking at the fire.]

With what is transpiring above, it seems a bit strange to have a campfire.
ax_iom: (My life for what?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
[She rolls her eyes, but lets her pull her hands off.]

How different can it be?
redmeguca: (What're you gonna do about it?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Is your magic part of a plot by an alien species to delay the end of the universe?
fistsofchange: (I don't know what that means)

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-07-17 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
I'm just fine. My name is Bai Lin.

[And since he's being so formal, Lin follows suit and bows politely.]

I think I've seen Afghanistan and England on old maps, but I've never been there.
hairpincurves: (we're knocking at your door)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-17 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
[The sooner you get used to thinking 'this may as well happen,' the better, really.]

The short version is that this world's covered by these big... stretches of unstable reality, called Fissures. People and things kind of get pulled in through and magic runs rampant... Though the whole getting pulled through is a pretty new revelation. Nobody's really sure what's doing it, just that it's doing it.

There's a research station on the other side of a lake and forest called Keystone Station that's been housing the people that've turned up because of these things. A lot of us have been helping out with going out to these Fissures and setting up stabilizers to kind of get the places to... calm down, pretty much.
ax_iom: (I am the villain of this story)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
What am I supposed to do, then, Marco? What is waiting for me? What kind of life can I possibly live after this?
ax_iom: (You gave me something)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
... Well, there were aliens involved. But I don't think so.

It's kind of hard to know for sure what anything about it is.
redmeguca: (What're you gonna do about it?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
Will your magic turn you into a monster if you over use it?
thinkingwithmahous: (Alone)

[personal profile] thinkingwithmahous 2018-07-17 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
I...I don't know.

[He falters.]

I don't even know what MY life is going to look like from here. But there's got to be something for us out there, better than "Good job but we don't need you any more!"
hairpincurves: (is a desperate cry for war)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-17 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
If you got the basics, that's definitely enough for now.

[She's not about to waste time explaining if Eizen already knows enough. She tilts her head to one side as she considers his question.]

It depends on how many show up, honestly. I'd be fine on my own against a smaller number, but I'm a little lacking in area-of-effect abilities if a whole damn pack decides to come at me.
theosophomoric: (migrate to the slaughter)

[personal profile] theosophomoric 2018-07-17 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
["This time." Sonja smiles, just a bit. A kid after her own heart.

The offered snack is unfamiliar, but she doesn't hesitate to accept anyway.]


Oh, thank you.
redmeguca: (Food is more important than you.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko opens her pack and sticks one in her mouth.]

It's a lot like a popular snack in my own world, Rocky.