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...
comesaround: (▷ falling so flawlessly)

[personal profile] comesaround 2018-07-13 08:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ If anything, Karma's thankful for the presence of someone else and he easily cracks a smile along with a soft chuckle. ]

Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

[ An amused glance is cast upwards, humming softly in thought for a moment. ]

I suppose it's in part to all the magic that's around here, i'd guess. It's bound to act up sooner or later.
deicidii: (we are the saviors of the world)

[personal profile] deicidii 2018-07-13 08:43 am (UTC)(link)
No kidding...

[Idly, he rubs at the mark on his cheek.] Doesn't help that magical fires are a pain in the ass to deal with.

[His hand drifts down to the back of his neck, resting there as he cracks it.]

Could be worse, though. I'd say we were lucky as hell that these tunnels seem safe enough. [A beat.] From the fires, at least. I've faced scarier than a few mutts.
comesaround: (▷ good times i cherish)

[personal profile] comesaround 2018-07-13 09:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ That comment is enough that it catches his attention, raising a curious eyebrow. Even after his experience in another world, hearing about what it's like for other people always did intrigue him. ]

You sound like you have a lot of experience in that department.

[ Really. He does want to ask more on that in due time. ]

It's something of a saving grace, isn't it? Though I feel compelled to ask, now. Just what have you faced that were worse than dogs made of flesh and flame?
deicidii: (and i will not be ruled)

[personal profile] deicidii 2018-07-13 09:56 am (UTC)(link)
Something like that.

[There's no way that fire at Camp Ichigaya's natural, after all.]

Some pretty nasty demons, a few angels. And Lucifer himself...

[NANASHI, DON'T JUST SAY THAT SO CASUALLY--]
comesaround: (▷ to work underneath me)

[personal profile] comesaround 2018-07-13 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's just a moment in which he seems to let that sink in before he just starts laughing. Not in a bad way there, Nanashi. Just the way you speak so casually of things like that is just so entertaining. ]

Now that sounds like one hell of a world you've got there. Almost wish I could see it for myself now.
deicidii: (breathe in rust)

[personal profile] deicidii 2018-07-14 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
Hell sounds about right. [Tokyo's pretty bad at least.] Everything worth seeing's either crumbled or caught fire by now.

[He pulls out a couple of sodas and offers one to Karma.]

There's a few places still standing close to the underground districts, but it's not a lot.
comesaround: (▷ so red like roses)

[personal profile] comesaround 2018-07-17 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ That just has him raising an eyebrow before an instant smile forms out of pure interest. ]

Sounds to me like you come from a pretty interesting place.

[ He accepts the soda with a nod, opening it and taking a drink without a second thought. ]

Beats where I come from by a longshot.
deicidii: (an apocalypse)

[personal profile] deicidii 2018-07-18 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Interesting's one word for it.

[He's not really sure he'd wish Tokyo as he knows it on anyone... But... things had to improve now, since Lucifer and Merkabah were defeated, right? And the Divine Powers are gone too...]

... Nanashi, by the way. [... Who the hell names their kid "no name"?]
comesaround: (▷ i'll work to kill you)

[personal profile] comesaround 2018-07-19 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
Then perhaps I could say it doesn't seem boring from what you've said of it.

[ Tapping a couple of fingers against the can in his hand, he tried not to look as amused as he felt when he heard the other's name. He knew what that name technically meant, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. ]

Karma. It appears the both of us have some unique names, doesn't it?