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

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: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
[... She just. Starts laughing?

It's not a pleasant laugh. It's probably not something funny at all! That's very rude and not an answer at all, Lily.]
redmeguca: (The hell?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
Tch. I've seen people like you. Don't you dare say you're already a monster!
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
For you, yeah. You can do so much. Your portals can be used for so many good things.

But I can't do anything but fight.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
What should I say, then? You not liking it doesn't make it not true.
redmeguca: (The hell?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
How many people have you killed in cold blood?
ax_iom: (What is it you want me to be for you?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Normally, Lily would refused. She's moral, she doesn't want to steal.

But this place is abandoned...]


... Fine, but only if you explain.
ax_iom: (What is it you want me to be for you?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Are we only counting humans?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Anything sentient and not already trying to kill you.
nor_iron_bars: Alone that soar above (Keep doing what you're doing)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-17 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Sure. ...Which part?

[And operation: distract Lily from her current worse-than-normal levels of overwhelming despair is a go.]

There's kind of a lot.
ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
I don't like the dark.

[... she doesn't seem to be feeling talkative.]
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
... As ridiculous as it sounds, we're also going to have to clarify 'not already trying to kill me'. My life has been kind of... a problem.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
How... Nevermind. Anyone who wasn't able to fight back properly.
ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
... You should finish it. Don't be cruel.

[it's less cruel to do a murder, right?]
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Everything?

[She sighs.]

What is this place?
nojohnyouare: Standing and holding her sword. (they're all around me)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-17 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
...

[Mai shuts her eyes and slices the creature in a way that normal swords definitely don't do, except in very unrealistic movies. Especially when they look like they might start melting. She turns away, not looking at the flame dog or at Lily.]

I don't know why they're hostile.
ax_iom: (I am the villain of this story)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[She's... actually having to think about this...]

... I'm not sure. At least five?
redmeguca: (What're you gonna do about it?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Now it's Kyoko's turn to laugh unstably.]

Pfft! O-only five?! And you think you're a monster?!
ax_iom: (What do you want from me?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
I don't know either. Probably, they were made that way.
nojohnyouare: Full-body shot in the hall. (i need to make it right)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-17 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
Made... Artificial? Like a simulation.

[Please don't tell her they're in another one of those.]
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
[She snorts.]

Do you really think killing someone is the worst thing you can do to them?
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Do those things look natural? Look at them.

[she gestures at the fire that they're made of...]
nojohnyouare: Turning around. (you can't choose what stays)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-17 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
Magical. This place... Magic mutated the people. They developed powers they couldn't control. Before they all went into stasis. That's what we were told. So it could have mutated normal dog-san.
redmeguca: (You wanna go?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, but if you regret what you did, you're not entirely gone. I must've killed dozens of people, maybe even hundreds. And you know what the worst part is? I can't really bring myself to care about people I didn't even know the names of.

[A vicious smile spreads across Kyoko's face]

So if you're a monster, what does that make me?
daughterofthemark: (20F. An eternal winged war)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-17 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
I see.

[Obviously Arianna just hasn't hit on the right subject yet.]

It can be difficult to navigate, after all. Have you had any trouble?
ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
[She hefts her hammer for a moment, looking like she's about to start attacking...

But then the hammer drops back down to the ground.]


... If I had to guess... You're a kid who's seen some terrible things.