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

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-24 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
John Watson. Doctor, Sin-Eater, and friend of demons.

[No one expects the last two.]
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-24 03:22 am (UTC)(link)

Harriet blinks. "The, ah, I didn't know about the last two...but like, everyone's heard of Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Very popular right now. I can think of three TV adaptations in the last few years. Um, credit for your work is usually assigned to a novelist named Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, though, and you're considered a fictional character of his invention. Holmes too. Uh...sorry."

hairpincurves: (are you in the shadows?)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-24 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
Reckless idiots seem to be the most common.

[A snort.]

There's a lot of folks who worry more about other people than themselves... [She's one of those but shhhh.] Some of the people here are like... they're definitely book-smart! But then they do things that really make you question how smart they actually are...

[...]

We have enough people who enjoy fighting that we have a regular enough fight club.

[She's not much of a blood knight as some people here but she's not about to turn down a chance to sharpen her skills.]
fifthreplacement: (Thinking)

[personal profile] fifthreplacement 2018-07-24 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
Why am I not surprised there's reckless people?

[The kind of place where hero types were common? It would be his luck]

Figures though...people I'll probably be avoiding, mostly. I don't understand those kinds of people.

[Keep it in nerding type talks or military type talks, and Sync is fine. As soon as it get more civilian normal talk, he's lost. He looks up a little at hearing about a fight club though]

A fight club sounds weird, but if it's a place to train, it sounds like something I'd be interested in. I don't want to get weak, even here.
joyinastrangeplace: Jude Law as John Watson, holding a cane over his shoulder (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] joyinastrangeplace 2018-07-24 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
[That explains some of the surprise that he has noticed from others, then. He supposes he would feel the same way if he came upon Edgar Allen Poe's creation.]

My literary agent, you mean? In my world, he is mainly known for his historical writing and the military service which earned him his knighthood.

Would you be a fiction to me, then?

[Everyone? How much has he... will he write? Or, how much does Doyle write?
Despite her clothes, she must not be from too far a future, relatively speaking. He cannot have endured so much. Holmes, of course, will be remembered for the ages, but John Watson--John Watson is nothing.]
hairpincurves: ('cuz for every broken promise)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-24 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
You'd think people would have better self-preservation and yet...

[She shakes her head. Still though, she's noting that other comment about the types he'll be avoiding and filing that away. Tamp down on mom friend tendencies with this one, got it.]

It's definitely a place to train. Sparring against people, getting lessons or pointers from someone more experienced... It's seriously helpful.
fifthreplacement: (Standing)

[personal profile] fifthreplacement 2018-07-24 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Self-presevation seems to be something a lot of people don't seem to understand when it comes to having a chance to help someone. Whether that someone wants the help or not.

[Hero-types. Sync doesn't get them]

Sounds good to me. It'll be interesting to see how other people fight.
promittere: (Default)

[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-24 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
[There's a moment of surprise, before Ignis lets out a chuckle.]

Duly noted.

[And it's not going to be ignored - at least not right now. Maybe not for a while. But Ignis is called to his duty like a moth to a flame, and he will burn just the same.]
hairpincurves: ('cuz for every broken promise)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-24 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
[... Bad experiences with those types? It's something she can't help but wonder, but she won't voice that.]

Right? And a bunch of different fighting styles from different worlds... it's a little exciting to witness. I've definitely started learning some new stuff just in case I'm ever cut off from using my Personas somehow.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-24 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Why would your team think that?

[That makes no sense to her.]
fifthreplacement: (Lost in thought)

[personal profile] fifthreplacement 2018-07-24 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
It sounds it. I know a large amount of the fighting styles on Auldrant, but learning others...it'll make fighting different, but I'm alright with that.

['Fun' is the word you're looking for and not using, Sync]

I should probably do something similar, in case I can't use my artes...I can fight without them but I've never had a situation where I've not used them.

[Ponder. He's damn good at fighting without artes, but they still make up for when he's having trouble against some foes. He might have to think on this]
hairpincurves: (we're knocking at your door)

[personal profile] hairpincurves 2018-07-24 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
[She nods.]

Luck favors the prepared and all.

[It's actually why she's specifically learning hand-to-hand. She's not comfortable with the idea of being left helpless if she's disarmed and cut off from her Personas...]
fifthreplacement: (Standing)

[personal profile] fifthreplacement 2018-07-24 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
Good words, those. Reasons I never bothered learning to fight with a weapon, it's too easy to be disarmed.

[It's funny, but Sync's actually mildly relaxing at all this talk. Having someone who kind of speaks his language has made dealing with the nonsense of this place easier. Definitely makes forgetting what happened up top not that long ago much easier]
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-24 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
That's true. And when you find enough wrongdoing in one place... You can usually find someone profiting on it.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

Re: Day 2

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-24 09:41 am (UTC)(link)

"Uh...maybe. Do you know what a--no, you probably wouldn't." Harriet sighs. "In my timeline, starting in the 1930s, magazines containing stories in multi-page cartoon form--uh, I don't know whether that term was in vogue in your era? Drawn caricatures, like Punch, but forming a narrative--anyway, comic books, they're called, but most of them told adventure stories of various kinds, not comedy. Anyway, comic books got popular in the 1930s. In my world they were mostly about pirates and gangsters and monsters, but it seems like in a lot of other timelines people like me are considered to be fictional and mostly relegated to comics?

"Uh, I'm a superhero. I fight crime using abilities impossible for normal human beings to match."

To demonstrate, Harriet concentrates and summons a sloppy non-light caricature of Basil Rathbone in a deerstalker cap. "The game is afoot," it tells Watson, then shoots about a hundred feet into the air and explodes in a shower of multicolored sparks.

"Only I could do that to your head," Harriet finishes.

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

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-24 09:49 am (UTC)(link)

"The circumstances under which I left," Harriet answers. "Long story. Tee ell dee arr is, we were in a battle against...my arch-nemesis, there was every chance I'd be destroyed even if we won. We won and it kicked me out of the universe as a parting blow. I wound up here instead. They probably think I was just...deleted."

Harriet blinks away tears. Zoƫ...

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

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-24 10:19 am (UTC)(link)

Harriet gratefully accepts the victuals and demolishes them in short order.

bloodyashes: (Default)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-24 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
[And Asch knows a thing or two about burning until you don't have anything left. Given permission to not be strangers - permission to care, in a sense - Ignis isn't going to get away so easily from someone else who knows exactly that feeling.]

Let's see about getting to that camp, then.
bloodyashes: ([D] Transformation)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-24 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
Mm. Could be gods, could be something else outside the realm of whatever knowledge we have between the two of us, could be...

[He trails off, glancing to the side.]

...I'm not the only one who keeps thinking I see flame sparks in the corner of my eye, right?
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-24 11:32 am (UTC)(link)
I can probably handle an explosion or two, but I'll keep my eyes open anyway.

[I mean, Jail did just see him atomize half a bottle.]
bloodyashes: ([D] Transformation)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-24 11:48 am (UTC)(link)
Something like that.

[If Astolfo could read social cues at all, he'd figure out that this is kind of a Don't Want to Talk About It. As it is, he's just treated to the sight of Asch getting rather aggressive with the meat on his own skewer.]
mutation_is_great: (melia happy)

[personal profile] mutation_is_great 2018-07-24 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
The dried meat has a curiously mildly spicy flavor to it (very mild) while the dried fruits are a mixture of sour and sweet purple color, sweet orange color, and savory pink color. Some of the nuts are star shaped.

"Eat away, eat away. I also have some wine and dried eyebeast. The wine should be fine, it's mostly water." She proffers a waterskin and some kind of clear and white wafer shaped food.
thecompletionofthings: Head-and-shoulders shot of actress Q'orianka Kilcher from 2005 (Default)

[personal profile] thecompletionofthings 2018-07-24 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)

Harriet has never drunk from a waterskin before, and makes a bit of a mess at first, but gets the trick of it quickly. The description of "dried eyebeast" doesn't throw her--who knows what delicacies are savored on Melia's home planet or whatever? But that thought makes her wonder briefly about biocompatibility and whether she's just poisoned herself.

Oh well. She continues eating.

darkcure: (011)

[personal profile] darkcure 2018-07-24 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[!!!

Elize immediately brightens. She did a good!]


Oh, you're welcome. I'm just glad I could help!

If you get injured again, you can just come to me. If you want to, I mean.
nor_iron_bars: Enjoy such liberty (Default)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-24 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail appreciates this.]

Dunno 'bout you, but I'm thinking now's a good time for dinner and a nap, so heading back to base camp's not a bad idea. Think we've both seen enough shit for one day.