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...
daughterofthemark: (20F. An eternal winged war)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[Arianna watches this process intently. So this is a Grief Seed, the thing Kyoko needs to not become a monster.]

Was it because you were fighting?
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
...Yeah, that was it.

[She doesn't want to worry Arianna with the fact it was mostly her own emotions that did it.]
daughterofthemark: (10F. The Flame Demon's domain)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[>implying this will do anything to prevent Arianna from worrying]

I meant what I said before. We'll find a way to help you.
redmeguca: (If you say so.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
With all the crazy things I've seen here, I'm starting to believe you.
daughterofthemark: (Stratum 2: Auburn Thicket)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad to hear it.

[She takes her by the elbow to lead her away from the scene of the... scene. Let's be somewhere else.]

You seem quite skilled with your spear.
redmeguca: (If you say so.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I should hope so, I've been fighting Witches with it for two years.

[Kyoko doesn't resist, she's just fine with getting away from Astolfo.]
daughterofthemark: (04F. A soaring shadow above)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Witches?

[Arianna's picturing women in pointy hats.]
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, they're what happens when a Mahou Shoujo's Soul Gem goes completely black. They transform into a monster that only exists to spread despair and misery, with no hope of ever changing back. The only thing that can be done is putting them out of their misery. It's what's going to happen to me someday, assuming I don't die before then.
daughterofthemark: (02F. Hazardous habitat)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[Wow, yeah, that's definitely not what she had in mind.]

That's horrible. I... I won't allow it!

[arianna what are you even going to do about it]
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Then promise me, if I ever start to become a Witch, shatter my Soul Gem right there. It's the only thing that can be done.
daughterofthemark: (22F. Denial on pain of death)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Arianna nods, mentally going over all the trash she's stuffed into the Armiger. Could any of it shatter the gem without hurting Kyoko? That's irrelevant, but she doesn't know that.]

That will prevent you from changing?
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, it's the only way to stop it once it's started. Being dead would be better then being a Witch.
daughterofthemark: (31F. Darkness of paradise)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Then I--

[Wait.]

Being dead?!
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, it's my soul after all. It's the only thing keeping this body of mine moving, without it I'm just a corpse. Breaking a Mahou Shoujo's Soul Gem kills them instantly.
daughterofthemark: (23F. A crazed black beast)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Then... no...

[Arianna has to stop for a moment.]

No, there must be some other way...
thinkingwithmahous: (Hey wanna hear a funny joke?)

[personal profile] thinkingwithmahous 2018-07-22 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay fine, you wanna see my A-Game? Check this out.

[Hey Erina, what do you think about that portal that leads from the top of the water globe to the bottom of your feet?]
redmeguca: (The hell?)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko winces at that, looking away from Arianna.]

There isn't! Once you're a Witch, there's no coming back! No matter what!

[A small whisper, barely loud enough to be heard]

If there was, I'd never be able to live with myself.
daughterofthemark: (B4F. The ancestry of evil powers)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[Arianna is quiet for a moment.

She's holding out hope that this isn't inevitable--that Kyoko's soul can be put back where it belongs somehow. But she knows this isn't the reaction of someone who's ever had any reason to believe they had another option. As far as becoming a Witch goes, Kyoko's word is good enough for her.

She's quiet, too, when she finally responds.]

If that time comes, I'll do it.
redmeguca: (I'm sorry...)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
...Thank you.
daughterofthemark: (05F. The king's roar sounds)

[personal profile] daughterofthemark 2018-07-22 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
But not a moment before! If there is some way to ensure that time never comes, we shall find it!
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
It's maybe possible, without any Witches around. If something other than Grief Seeds can somehow keep my Soul Gem clean, I'll probably be good.
zweihandler: (Does Swords is Gay?)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-22 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ have you ever heard a teenage girl trying to scream fuckword after fuckword through the mouthful and lungful of water she's inhaled? WELL YOU HAVE NOW.

rest in peace erina estival, you died as you lived: being a dipshit. ]
riderofcharlemagne: (mordred is asshole. why astolfo hate?)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-07-22 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I won't apologize for what I said.

[That's how he plans to leave it, because he has to leave it. He puts his weapon away, now everyone else has.]

I only tried to help, Master.
nor_iron_bars: Enjoy such liberty (Default)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-22 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, there's high praise. Don't get too carried away or anything.

[Jail deflates a little internally, but she's not letting that discourage her. Sorry, Lily, you can't push her away that easily.]

'Kay, now it's your turn- I picked out something for you, so you get to pick out something for me.
nor_iron_bars: With unconfined wings (Roaming the streets)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-22 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail winces, but continues translating for Kyouko's benefit.]

Aaaand if people maybe don't wanna get shredded, then what?