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...
ax_iom: (I have my own reasons)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
...

[what does she want to do?]

Are there people here who need help?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
From what I hear, we can use all the help we can get. Getting the Fissures to manageable levels can apparently be pretty dangerous.
ax_iom: (What else was I good for?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Tell me what to do and I'll help.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You'll want to go find Sonja for that, she's the one who explained it to me. Remember, I'm just as new as you are, I've just met the right people.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Who's "Sonja"?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
One of the other people around here, likes using big words. Ask anyone who's been here a while and they can probably point you to her, or explain it themselves.
ax_iom: (What is it you want me to be for you?)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Uses big words in the sci-fi robot way, or in the jerk who thinks they're smarter than everyone else way?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
In the "academic who's used to people understanding what she's saying" way. She knows how to simplify it though.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Good. I don't think I'd be able to keep up otherwise...
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I last saw her over there.

[Pointing in whatever direction it is she came from.]

I'd better get back to looting this place now that you've calmed down a bit. See ya around.
ax_iom: (You know me I can't be redeemed)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
... Heh.

[Calmed down, huh?

Her hammer dissipates into nothingness.]


See you around, then. Kyouko, right?
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
That's right. And remember, dwelling on the past doesn't help anyone, especially yourself. If you want things to change, you gotta go out and change them.
ax_iom: (But I'll believe in you)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[She laughs again.]

I was in the middle of trying to change things.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Intentions matter more than you might think.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I was trying to save the world.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Why? So there's still be a world to live in tomorrow? To be a hero? Because you felt it was your responsibility? Intentions matter even here.
ax_iom: (Default)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Because it's the right thing to do.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-17 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
So you're the sort who does things because they're the right thing to do. A noble, but dangerous type. What do you do when you don't know what the right thing to do is?
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-17 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
... I wish I knew.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-18 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
Then think about your other motivations. The world isn't black and white, right and wrong. There isn't always a "right" answer. You can't be a hero twenty-four/seven.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
... Why am I getting life counseling from a kid?

[She just sighs.]
redmeguca: (If you say so.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-18 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
Because your life is even more of a mess than mine?
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah. Yeah it is.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-18 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Then try to fix it. You're not in your own world anymore, and nobody knows how to get you back, so just focus on that problem for now.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
I seriously have to stay alive just so I can die in a different place... This is the stupidest thing.

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