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phantasmemes2018-07-12 11:56 pm
phantasmods) wrote in phantasmemes2018-07-12 11:56 pm
Entry tags:
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...
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...
Re: CW man on animal violence
Your concern is appreciated, but utterly unnecessary.
[As long as they're not trying to kill the dogs outright, he keeps the sword as is.]
Now, I believe I can scare the dogs off, but I would prefer not causing you to run as well.
[Is she police? Watson has never met a mundane policewoman before, at least not one who admits her gender.]
[[OOC: Watson has a gheist, a spirit that lives in his head and can manifest itself and gives him powers. I have no idea if that would scare the dogs, and I also don't want to step on any toes, since last time I rped with any frequency there were people who had a habit of godmodding other people.]]
Re: CW man on animal violence
I'd like to get out of here without blood on my hands... that said, I'd also like a pony, and that's not happening.
[In other words, "do what you must and I won't blame you."
The other lunges, too close for comfort; the woman - no, young lady - sidesteps with obvious terror in her eyes but tracks the gun and fires down. At this range, though, it's a miss, and it bounds back and up. If he's offering help, now is the time.]
Re: CW man on animal violence
[He sounds distracted, and the sword has vanished, replaced by a battered looking black medical bag. He looks at it, gripping it just a bit too tightly.]
Control yourself.
[Solid shadow manifests itself behind Watson, an almost man-shaped Thing with a hooked, beaklike protrusion on its head, a wide, heavy coat and the idea of a wooden stick clutched in a hand. It steps through Watson, and waves the stick at the dogs, hitting one across the snout, seemingly unbothered by the flames. It is very old, and does not look entirely present.]
Shoo!
[The voice is Watson's, but in that moment, is not entirely his own.]
no subject
The girl, however, shrieks in fright herself, scrambling away.]
[[OOC: It's a shame I don't have the icons to show her terrified.]]
no subject
[Now, this is what he was afraid of. At least the dogs are gone.
He asks the plague doctor to disperse, and it does, if begrudgingly.]
I will not hurt you.
[He looks... almost normal, now, nice clothes a little bit singed but otherwise not terribly unusual. He is merely... a man with a medical bag. A doctor.]
no subject
[This is snarled... and then she looks down, shakes her head, pulls herself up.]
...that's not what it is, is it? And not fair to you. I'm a stranger here, why couldn't you also be from elsewhere? And the physics here are wrong.
no subject
[She isn't going to shoot him, probably. That's good.]
And it's more complicated than that. I owe the plague doctor a debt.
no subject
I'm one of the soldiers fighting them. Rear echelon, quartermaster and Anchor, but still.
...I don't believe we've been properly introduced. [She sighs, and belatedly offers her hand to shake.] Meredith... Meredith Odetta Baker. Of the Treasure Island ANIMa Corps.
no subject
Living Nightmares, you say?
[Her comment brings him up short. A soldier? She's... a child, especially to his eyes. Then again, has he not seen younger fight for the British, or drafted by their families into supernatural frays beyond their knowledge?]
Dr. John Watson.
[He shakes the hand.]
Sin-Eater.
[It is the closest thing to an accurate title. He has not been a Fusilier in years.]
no subject
[She sensed that hitch, and her face is... her smile doesn't reach her eyes, as if to acknowledge that, yes, she is too young for her duties.
And then he says his name.]
...I may have read your works. Or those of who you would have been in my world. Concerning a police consultant?
[Let's not bring up Doylist concerns, and politely stick to the, well, Watsonian for now.]
no subject
You mean A Study In Scarlet and the rest? I wonder, how much I have written?
[He sighs.]
They are for the most part true, you know, though I hide my nature and those of my friends.
[How many versions of him are there out there?]
no subject
[She smiles a little at his clearly missing Holmes, despite herself. Shippers everywhere will rejoice - if she makes it back.]
You never did mention anything at the edge of scientific understanding, no. Just your own and Lestrade's!
no subject
[He misses Holmes so much.
There are things he won't mention, however. Why would he assume this strange place is any safer than where he came from.]
no subject
I've no idea what a Sin-Eater is, though I could guess. And you've likely none of an Anchor.
So then, Doctor, what do you make of the fires above?
no subject
no subject
I wonder what it will look like in the morning, topside.