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

Re: Day 2, this is Merry's canonmate

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-17 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[He doesn't turn around.]

Anything.

[He sighs.]

There's just... nowhere to begin.
Edited 2018-07-17 23:03 (UTC)
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
That explains a lot, Lin-taichou. But, this isn't an apocalypse. Do you believe in magic? Or other worlds?
ax_iom: (But I'll believe in you)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[She laughs again.]

I was in the middle of trying to change things.
joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-17 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[He bows. It's sincere.]

Dr. John H. Watson, former military doctor, now minister to the unquiet dead.

You might have noticed, but there are many of those around here.
hotshot_momma: (:smile:)

[personal profile] hotshot_momma 2018-07-17 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[Lin-taichou. That's adorable, she can't help but laugh.

...she's a lot more serious at her other words.]


Say I believe in sufficiently advanced technology and in subdimensional spaces. I never told you what I piloted. So Kyouko, if you've got an explanation, try and sell me.
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I've noticed, yeah.

... Lily. Nice to meet you, I guess. I can't help with the dead, though, unless you need them re-killed.
dubiouslychthonic: (Skeptical)

[personal profile] dubiouslychthonic 2018-07-17 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Fair enough. I haven't any idea how it actually works, anyway. But it's reliable enough.
joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-17 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope that will not be necessary.

[Ghosts generally don't need rekilling.]

I am uncertain if there is anything I can do. He is not happy about it, certainly.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko's brow twitches a bit at that laugh, but she'll let it go.]

This world's got a bunch of holes in it, and things from other worlds are slipping through. Ever lost something and never been able to find it no matter how hard you looked? It ended up here. Recently people began to show up too.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Intentions matter more than you might think.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
So do I. But killing is my only skill.

[she just sounds so resigned?]
hotshot_momma: (:confidante:)

[personal profile] hotshot_momma 2018-07-17 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Bleedthrough. Like the water back home, like the Dream, only more so.

...Okay. That's as good an explanation as any. And, what, there's bleedthrough from an inferno here?

Can we stop it? Do you know people who can.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I was trying to save the world.
hotshot_momma: (Default)

[personal profile] hotshot_momma 2018-07-17 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a big mood. She takes a puff, thinks about it, then drops her spent cig and crushes it underfoot.]

Here's two places to start.

Where is everyone else?

And... no offense... how old are you?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I think reality is just messed up here. The city goes back to how it was before in the morning. I know a few people who have the tools to make it not as bad, but I don't think they can outright fix it.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Why? So there's still be a world to live in tomorrow? To be a hero? Because you felt it was your responsibility? Intentions matter even here.
dubiouslychthonic: (you did not just say that)

[personal profile] dubiouslychthonic 2018-07-17 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, my world doesn't, to my knowledge, have a magical state of the art," she admits with a sigh. "I came through a fissure myself, about twenty weeks ago. I'm still catching up in a pretty significant way..."

Jetshard's not really best pleased about that, honestly, but there's only so fast a person can pick up a totally new field of study, and anyway she's been prioritizing "human medicine" over "magic."

"Generally you're correct, although this particular mission is more of a search and rescue than most of our fissure-stabilizing missions have been. We've been getting support from a small research team based out of an outpost on the coast, and there's another research station in this city that's been out of communication with our hosts for a few weeks now. We came as soon as we had enough of the stabilizing devices to make a dent in this fissure."
hurt_comforting: (Default)

[personal profile] hurt_comforting 2018-07-17 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[So she doesn't. Merry's not offended; she's seen all kinds of scars.]

I've no more idea than you. I do know we should get food and water while we can. Medicines, tools, and seeds if we have time. I don't know how long we'll spend before we find an exit.
ax_iom: (Default)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Because it's the right thing to do.
hurt_comforting: (Default)

[personal profile] hurt_comforting 2018-07-17 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, this certainly spooks the Bad Dogs. They have no idea what to make of it, and run, yelping, with their tails between their legs.

The girl, however, shrieks in fright herself, scrambling away.]

[[OOC: It's a shame I don't have the icons to show her terrified.]]
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
What do you mean, find an exit?

[she's still very new]
hurt_comforting: (wahahah - wait wrong drillhair)

[personal profile] hurt_comforting 2018-07-17 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[I mean, so is Merry: she's just not clinically depressed about it.]

I don't know. I don't think this is in the Dream - for one thing, I can read the signs here. It could be a similar sub-space. It could be a remote place somewhere else on Earth.

[Wait, back up about that 'dream' part.]

It's just that as long as we're not under any immediate threat, why not prepare for the worst and hope for the best? There's plenty of food and medicine, a fair amount of arable land, empty houses. If we need to, it seems we can live here comfortably while we try to affect escape or await rescue.

Just pack canned food and dry rice and beans as well as raiding the ice cream parlor. There is an ice cream parlor, by the way - what's your favorite flavor?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
So you're the sort who does things because they're the right thing to do. A noble, but dangerous type. What do you do when you don't know what the right thing to do is?
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
... I wish I knew.
zweihandler: ([makes sword swinging motions])

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-17 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh.

So, like, Canada?