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...
zweihandler: (hey ladies. swords am i right.)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-13 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
As opposed to not that.

[ S q u i n t. ]

Why wouldn't I talk to her, anyway?
einherjarista: (distracted by nothing)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-13 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. [ She could explain Verndari and the afterlife but, you know. Fuck that. Too much work. ] I don't know.

So what's a Key?
zweihandler: (to ever fail women's studies)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-13 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
A–

[ Erina blinks like Singe's just skimmed a hand past her face and then frowns. ]

Are you yanking my chain? Do you live under a rock?
einherjarista: (done but in gold)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-14 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ Said completely straight and with a straight face despite being a useless lesbian, Signe answers- ] The biggest fucking rock.
zweihandler: ("shes here to steal our girlfriends!")

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-15 10:51 am (UTC)(link)
Huh. Fair enough.

[ Even if this lady is bullshitting, there are few things Erina likes more than talking about swords. So! ]

You at least know what a Synchronic is or do I need to back all the way up?
einherjarista: (distracted by nothing)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-15 02:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah I've never heard of those either. Let's go back all the way.
zweihandler: (WITH A SWORD)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-15 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh God, don't ask me to give a history lesson, I'm garbage at history.

[ Erina is, in fact, better at history than she lets on but she's still far from the ideal exposition fairy. ]

Right, where do I start... so basically, couple hundred years back before I was born, big load of magic space rocks smash into us and scramble everything up. It was pretty not great, as far as I know.
einherjarista: (done but in gold)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-15 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Magic. Space rocks.

[ Deadpan. ]
zweihandler: ("shes here to steal our girlfriends!")

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-15 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Listen, do I look like a fucking scientist? I don't have a clue what they're made of, so I'm calling them magic space rocks.
einherjarista: (distracted by nothing)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-15 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah no you don't.

Keep going.
zweihandler: (i'm gay and i love swords)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-18 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Right, cool.

So space rocks fall and a bunch of people die, and all the animals get jacked up on space rocks and the humans are like "oh shit, this is bad, actually". But then it turns out a bunch of the humans got jacked up on space rocks too, and that's how Synchronics happened.

You with me so far?
einherjarista: (walking disaster)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-18 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ So these meteor...ites? Caused some power development of some sort. Probably similar to how Arendal had become a hot spot of spiritual activity thanks to Yggdrasil, but on a maybe larger scale. Yeah, she can get that. ]

I think so, yeah.
zweihandler: (literally wielded a sword)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
Cool.

So everyone's jacked up on space juice, and then it turns out Synchronics have some funky connection with the bits of space rock that caused this whole damn mess and people start making weapons for us to use with bits of space rock.

That's what a Key is.
einherjarista: (distracted by nothing)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-19 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
And you can talk to the space rock swords.
zweihandler: (hey ladies. swords am i right.)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

I mean, they talk back. I'm not a crazy person.
einherjarista: (walking disaster)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-19 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
I mean, of course they do. They have their own soul.

Which is actually. Very weird, if it's just supposed to be a space rock.
zweihandler: (literally wielded a sword)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
I think they strap a whole load of other shit onto it when they turn it into a Key? I actually have zero idea how it works, I just know there's some space rock in there and a whole bunch of other bullshit.

I seriously can't overstate how much I'm extremely not a scientist.
einherjarista: (why are you like this)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-19 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
I mean, I doubt they just strap souls into a key-sword. It's a real one, not synthetic. [ She has experience with mod souls. She's actually carrying one on her right now. ]
zweihandler: (UPDATE: WE WILL BE HITTING)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ Erina visibly bristles. ]

Uh, yeah, she's real, I could've told you that. What, you got a problem?

[ there are very much some wires being crossed here but Erina very clearly doesn't care about that. ]
einherjarista: (done but in gold)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-19 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, a little bit. Dealing with wayward souls is kind of my deal, begrudgingly.
zweihandler: (and spawn 372 swords around me)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
Well, begrudge the fuck over yon horizon and keep your damn mitts to yourself. Zwei doesn't need any old rando dealing with her.

[ this is fine ]
einherjarista: (distracted by nothing)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-19 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
It isn't like I have a problem with you. Or... Zwei. [ Signe seems entirely nonplussed by Erina's reaction, carrying on like she doesn't really notice her irritation. ]

More like the problem is where she came from, and you don't even have an answer for that.
zweihandler: (swords are wlw culture)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-19 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Are you seriously trying to psychoanalyze me about my Key when five fucking seconds ago you didn't even know what a Key was?
einherjarista: (Default)

[personal profile] einherjarista 2018-07-20 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
What does psychoanalyzing have to so with anything?
zweihandler: (but I will not hold back in combat)

[personal profile] zweihandler 2018-07-21 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You tell me!

[ an unfortunate truth: Erina Estival doesn't actually know what psychoanalyzing entails, it's just a big word that sounded like it meant something ]