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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...
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)

"So these devices can anneal the fabric of Nirvikalpa and repair the fissures. Nice trick. Who built them?"

fistsofchange: (Talkin')

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-07-23 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Androids. They live at the station. They were actually the original inhabitants, but they've got a lot of space so they let us crash there."
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)

"They're lucky it's me and not Wrench Wench or A-A- who showed up here, then." Harriet half-chuckles. "Damn. I miss my team already. It's like…Nirvahara kind of took advantage of them? But I liked them. Well, I more than like Zoë… Listen to me ramble about people you'll never meet, if they're lucky." A pause. "Do you come from a place with superheroes? What's your home like?"

thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Night

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"Showy," comments a voice from behind Marco, "but apparently effective."

The speaker is an indistinct humanoid form shrouded in tangible darkness stained by flickers of deep red. From the voice, the height, and the way the non-light sheath hugs its wearer's body, it might be a teenage girl?

"You look like it took a bit out of you. Don't worry, there're plenty more hellhounds where those came from."
fistsofchange: (Yang Wei shot someone)

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-07-23 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, we've all got friends we miss." A wistful sigh, as Lin indulged in nostalgia for a few seconds.

Okay back to the conversation: "The big difference between my home and most other peoples at the station, I've figured, is that in my world a nuclear war destroyed most of civilization about eighty years before I was born."
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)

Harriet blinks. "I'm…sorry to hear that," she offers tentatively. "I guess with eighty years there's been some rebuilding, though? I met someone else whose world melted down a lot more recently than that."

thinkingwithmahous: (This is stupid)

[personal profile] thinkingwithmahous 2018-07-23 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Marco twisted back at the sound of a voice, and blinked her unusual appearance. He'd seen some weird shit, though, so he didn't freak out and hide behind a wall like some other people might have.

"Oh good. I definitely don't have anything better to do than waste my day fighting mutant dogs."
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)

"Stick with me, then, I'm pretty good at blowing shit up. Just don't let the flaming guts mess up your nice jacket." The figure walks over and holds out a darkness-swathed hand to shake. "Harriet Miller. I guess you're new here too?"

fistsofchange: (Talkin')

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-07-23 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"It was before I was born. I didn't even know it was unusual until I came here. That's just how things were." She said, with a shrug. "Older folks say the early years were REAL bad. Now...life is hard, but most people aren't in danger of starving to death or getting attacked by cannibals anymore. That's progress."
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)

"I guess so!" Harriet says. "Never had to deal with cannibal attacks myself. I mean, I heard of a villain who does that—Spectre? Lector? something like that—but it's not like we ever tangled with him, I just read about him in the papers once when he escaped from prison."

ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

2

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
On it.

[Lily is... odd. She's got long, red hair, mismatched eyes, and she is wearing an elegant midnight-blue ballgown that looks like she should have come here from some sort of fancy royal party. What doesn't seem to fit the rest of her look is the giant hammer she's carrying- As tall as she is, the hammer's head seems to look even heavier the more you look at it.

Despite the weight it should have, she hefts it up with ease and swings, crushing the pavement and asphalt below them to make a hole to the subway below.]


This good enough?
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)

In answer, Harriet gauges the length of the drop and flares a parachute-like construct of non-light into existence. Clinging to the straps with one hand, she beckons to the newcomer with her other hand. "Come on!"

ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[She doesn't take the hand. Instead, she just... jumps in?

It's fine. She's fine.]
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)

Harriet shrugs and jumps into the hole too, gliding to a safe landing. The parachute dissipates.

"So hi," she says. "I'm Harriet. Are you, uh, from around here?"

ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Showed up about a couple hours ago.

[Lily... does not look like she's doing well. The hammer rests on the ground next to her, making a small crater around it just from its weight.]

I'm as in the dark as you are.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)

"Nice hammer," Harriet says, changing the subject to anything at all instead of how they're both stranded in an unknown, spooky, dangerous place. "It have a name?"

She doesn't ask the other girl's name. Presumably that will come when she's ready.

ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Huh. Does her hammer have a name? It does, sort of, but that's... probably worrying to say out loud. It would be awkward.]

It doesn't. It's not my normal weapon.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)

"What do you usually fight with?" Harriet asks, feeling a little inadequate at the task of making small talk. It's never been her best skill.

ax_iom: (What is it you want me to be for you?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[Lily's normally better at it, but, well. She's a bit mind-whammied from her last fight still.]

... Lasers, I guess? I've never thought much about what to call them. Beams?
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)

"Cool," Harriet says. "I mostly just...detonate things. I mean, I could go into technical detail but no one ever seems to understand what I'm talking about." She rubs the side of her nose, an odd gesture for the darkness-shrouded humanoid form. "Not even at home, unless you count brains like Tachyon."

ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, you lost her already.]

You make things explode. That's all I really need.
joyinastrangeplace: (Smirking)

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-23 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Constantly. Demon or no, he can still overextend himself, and the body he inhabits is for the most part human.

[Laughter is good. Laughter means she's not as freaked out, or as likely to attack him.]
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)

"I mean, I can do other stuff," Harriet protests, feeling somehow on the defensive. "It's just...blowing stuff up is really easy. And kind of satisfying."

She decides to press her luck. "So, uh, what's your name?"

ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-23 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Lily.

[That's... all you're getting out of her on that front.]

If you're here for me, then make it quick, I have things to do.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-23 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)

"Huh?" Harriet is beyond confused for a moment, but then it clicks into place. Lily's a villain. She thinks Harriet's on the clock, might want to throw down.

"Nah," Harriet says after a moment. "You don't get up in my grill, I'm inclined to let bygones be bygones."