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...
shipoutofluck: (008)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-13 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[Eizen has his arms crossed and just looks at Church a moment.]

...You're free to go back above ground, if you prefer. Nothing's stopping you.
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Honestly the smile is at least as weird as anything, though there's a bit of a blink at the name. That's definitely not either of the names he was expecting -

Well, whatever. He just nods, also slightly awkward.]


It's a pleasure, I guess.
bloodyashes: ([F] Sorry about him)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[Asch watches with... What might seem to be a surprisingly intent gaze, until the healing is done. He flexes his hand after, making sure the motion comes without pain.]

Definitely. ...Thanks.

[It's said in the tone of someone who isn't really used to thanking strangers.]
bloodyashes: ([F] Sorry about him)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's really the best policy, Church.]

What it's supposed to.

[Asch takes a few steps over, bending to pick up the bottle and give it a closer look. Sorry that he's... not offering the best explanation.]
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-13 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a gift.

[They're pretty much at the subway entrance, too, so he lets go once he's sure Eizen has his balance back. Let's get underground before the fire makes anything worse yeah?

We'd best get below, though, I doubt the shelter up here will last much longer.
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Be really pretty? I mean, it sure did that, yeah.
motherfucking_ghost: (you're way too sure of yourself)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, fire is stopping me. The raging inferno is literally stopping me.
daughterofthemark: (08F. Fire-cloaked demon's den)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-13 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I--

[WHAT IS HAPPENING]

My apologies!
bloodyashes: (The chibi has a map -)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[A shrug. He's gonna come back your way to grab his bag, Church, don't mind him.]

Well, nothing exploded, that's success enough.
shipoutofluck: (001)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-13 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
So you're better off here.

There's going to be dogs further in as well. If not something worse.
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't tell if a rainbow grenade would be awesome or tacky. Donut would love it, I'm sure.
redmeguca: (You wanna go?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-13 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko lets go of Arianna's neck and picks her spear back up.]

Just as long as you remember to never try to use compulsion magic on me again.
Edited 2018-07-13 18:31 (UTC)
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I would like to point out that nobody actually knows what's down here besides what happens when nature actually has a chance to take over what mankind's hubris built.
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
The explosive form is usually just white.

[No, he's not going to demonstrate. This bin is for trash, yeah? Bye, practice bottle.]
shipoutofluck: (006)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-13 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm.

Eager to try your luck, are you?
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought it wasn't supposed to explode?
shipoutofluck: (006)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-13 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[If he didn't know any better, he might say that this is pretty lucky.]

I'm surprised it's lasted this long. Down below, then. [He's already going, he's not waiting out here for whatever the fuck else can go wrong.] I guess I can't say I'm not getting a warm reception.
motherfucking_ghost: (you're way too sure of yourself)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Well.

We've got numbers.

And a lotta people that can fight and use magic and all that shit.
daughterofthemark: (06F. A dancing blue vortex)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-13 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Arianna rubs her throat gently, then pauses in mid-movement, now understanding the problem. We have bad smutty fanfic to thank for this prompt realization.]

Oh! You need not worry. I actually have no abilities of that nature.
bloodyashes: (The chibi has a map -)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-13 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Not unless I want it to.

[Sometimes explosions are useful! Like for killing people.]
founderinglight: ([my place plz])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-13 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah well, your luck sometimes just attracts the other goths, Eizen.

At least the wordplay draws a chuckle out of Izunia.]


The crowd's positively alight.

[Oh no.]
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-13 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh?

[Kyoko's looking pretty confused]

What other kind of magic puts power in your voice like that?
motherfucking_ghost: (really shouldn't add to my confusion)

[personal profile] motherfucking_ghost 2018-07-13 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Magical exploding rainbow road. That's...different.
theserpentsmiles: (Do you ever wish you weren't a prisoner?)

[personal profile] theserpentsmiles 2018-07-13 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well screaming is certainly getting his attention- he shoves his notepad in his pocket and leaves his guidebook on the ground for now.]

Are you alright? [...And then size up the containers. About...nine feet tall, maybe? Not exactly generous with handholds, either. He's more accustomed to forest than building, but it's not like urban usage wasn't covered in class.] ...Yeah, I think we could. Especially if we can predict how they move.
shipoutofluck: (009)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-13 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh, this is happening.]

Yeah. They're really getting caught up in the heat of the moment.