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...
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-21 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
Don't be, it's got nothing to do with you. It happened a long time ago anyway, I've gotten used to it.
founderinglight: ([my place plz])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
That's certainly true. The majority of us have been melee fighters of various stripes.
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

TIME IS FAKE

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-21 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
[He just shakes his head.]

No, nothing I couldn't handle. Couple weird birds, but they're not aggressive.

[The weird birds in question would probably be the pair of flame pigeons sitting on the top of the booth he's using. One of them has a bit of the ember-glowing feathers scattered through its wings.]
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-21 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
...Sure.

[If she's a healer or something... Well, he's not going to complain. He holds out his hand, burnt palm up.]
bloodyashes: (The chibi has a map -)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-21 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
Well, everything still seems to be in working order. So hell if I know what's going on.
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-21 07:58 am (UTC)(link)
What I heard from someone else is that it gets reset each morning, after the fire burns down. That would do it, if the people don't also reset. All the ones who died in the fire or evacuated after, living the city like this.

[It's not something he's heard of happening, but when you consider the fact that fomicry data can be used ten, fifteen years after the original dies... It doesn't seem impossible to him, either. And there's more than enough of the Seventh Fonon around.]
bloodyashes: ([F] Sorry about him)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-21 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
...That works, yeah.

[Sorry about his weird selective steampunk, Jail. He does however know what a car is, for no apparent reason?]

We had cable railcars in Baticul, though, we're not that far behind.

[Though the way he says 'cable' has the connotation of 'hanging from cables' rather than 'powered by cables.']
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-21 08:48 am (UTC)(link)
Melee is a terrible way to fight.

[says the girl with the HAMMER AND CLAWS AND SHIT.]
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 09:12 am (UTC)(link)
It's not so bad when you're as difficult to land a blow on as I am.

[AS SHE'S SEEN...]
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-21 09:13 am (UTC)(link)
Doesn't make it less terrible.

[SHE WAS FIGHTING MELEE, TOO, OK, LET HER HAVE HER RANGED POWERS AND SEE HOW IT GOES]
founderinglight: ([sketchyplaceholder])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
[PROBABLY STILL NOT HITTING MUCH OF HIM TBH.]

I enjoy it more than the other, to be honest.

[Said with the casual air of someone who isn't threatened by much.]
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-21 09:18 am (UTC)(link)
[She's still too nice a person to roll her eyes, but some part of her wants to.]

You enjoy fighting?
founderinglight: <user name="owlteria" site="tumblr.com"> ([my fave actually])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoy most anything with a bit of a challenge, but you might say that combat is in the blood. Our family magic is the blessing of a god of war oft called the Bladekeeper; it is, in some ways, what we're made for.

[There will, however, be no mistaking the fact that his cheerful expression falters into one of distaste at mention of Bahamut.]

That said, I have no love for our patron and would take the whole of this power to his eyeballs had I but the chance.
ax_iom: (Default)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-21 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
I... see. Sorry to hear it.

[is that what you're supposed to say at a time like this?]

I fight to protect people, so I don't really enjoy fighting. Normally, I just try to destroy my enemies as fast as possible so there's no time for collateral damage.
founderinglight: ([sketchyplaceholder])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 09:38 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, enemies I destroy with all of the power at my disposal, certainly.

[Like, see previous violent fantasies re: Bahamut.]

But combat is also a physical and cognitive skill, and that is the part I enjoy. The same way I suppose another might enjoy racing or some other sport of danger and challenge.
ax_iom: (What do you want from me?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-21 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
... I don't understand it, but as long as you're not hurting anyone, I guess it's fine.
founderinglight: ([late with spacebucks])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-07-21 09:43 am (UTC)(link)
Only in ways agreed upon by both parties beforehand within the vicinity of a sparring ring or training exercise.

[Sports injuries happen, doubly so when your sport of choice involved sharp objects.]
riderofcharlemagne: (queen of annoying people)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-07-21 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
That's just the motivation I needed!

[As the dogs arrive, Astolfo leaps into battle. He beats most of them back with the lance, falling limp to the sheer force the hit. Those that leap towards him also find themselves impaled by the (rather ornate, but still pointy) tip.]
riderofcharlemagne: (sumanai)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-07-21 11:51 am (UTC)(link)
Moving on doesn't mean forgetting. You do good by the memory and sacrifice of those you loved - that doesn't mean suffering over it.

[He stands his ground as Kyoko draws her weapon. She's hit a nerve of sorts, and he's not going anywhere.]
riderofcharlemagne: (i eat stickers all the time dude)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-07-21 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[The horn shrinks back to its original form with a similar light to the one it transformed with, all extra parts dissipating into a scattering of small glows.]

How was that?

[As if he needs to ask.]
riderofcharlemagne: (makasete yo scoob)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-07-21 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's so close to prodding Asch for more, completely ignoring his tone, but luckily for him Astolfo is easily distracted. Especially with food. He eyes the plates as he loads them up.]

When did you learn to cook?
darkcure: (073)

[personal profile] darkcure 2018-07-21 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yep, and that's time for a healing circle... that'll take quick care of that burn. Elize smiles a little shyly as she finishes up.]

Um, is that better?
shipoutofluck: (013)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-21 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It was effective. Apply that to the dogs instead and you'll be fine.

...But try to avoid collapsing more of the tunnels anyway.
shipoutofluck: (009)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-07-21 01:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Consider it motivation to get used to it quick.

[Eizen no.]

Isn't it obvious? Any good base... needs a secret tunnel!
zweihandler: (WORLD'S FIRST GAY KNIFE)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-21 03:10 pm (UTC)(link)
... Are you telling me you punch demons to death?!

[ THE FUCK ]