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: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
... Right.

[how old are you, kid]

Probably. It's not like you'd miss the fire.
nojohnyouare: Looking to the side. (to say it to you)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
...They can take care of themselves. But new people... Did you appear above ground? Or down here?
ax_iom: (You gave me something)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
Me? I was above...
nojohnyouare: Turning around. (you can't choose what stays)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
Then others might be up there too. [Which is probably why she's still walking, following the signs in the tunnels.] Unsafe.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
... Unless you're fireproof, you should stay down here.
nojohnyouare: Angry glare. (would you leave me)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
I'll recover. They might not.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
You should stay down here, because I am fireproof, and I can go.
nojohnyouare: Feeling self-conscious. (you are the nighttime fear)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
You don't need to be the only one.
ax_iom: (Default)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
To which I ask again: Are you fireproof?
nojohnyouare: Full-body shot in the hall. (i need to make it right)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
...I don't need to be.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, you do.
nojohnyouare: Victorious with a kendo stick. (through the crowd i was crying out)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[She finally looks back at her. If the scar that's barely visible over Mai's heart with her top didn't look fatal, the claw mark scars on her neck sure do.]

I can handle it. More than one person can protect everyone.
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Let me rephrase.

[She slams the end of her hammer's shaft into the ground.]

You need to be fireproof, or else I will keep you here.
nojohnyouare: Full-body shot with the sword. (in plain sight)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-18 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I can handle it.

[Wow, that's probably a record for the fastest someone can get Mai to emote. She's trying to keep it down, maybe recognizing that she's still angry about the dog-san, maybe just knowing what it's like to think you have to do everything yourself. So she doesn't snap at Lily, just makes herself quiet and calm.]

If I have to.
ax_iom: (This hidden war)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-18 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
You don't have to. And I won't let you.

Do you know what the first rule is when someone's drowning?
nojohnyouare: Wary and angry. (and would you leave me)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-19 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
Throw a life preserver. Because if you go after them, in their panic, they drag you down. But that has nothing to do with anything.
ax_iom: (Default)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-19 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Don't add to the victims." It's relevant.
nojohnyouare: Hair dramatically blowing in the wind. (you want to get it right)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-19 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
...

[She keeps a grip on her sword, but points it at the ground.]

Not fireproof. I'd agree with you. But I can survive. ...I don't want to fight you. Just to help.
ax_iom: (I have nothing to give in return)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-19 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
If you want to help, stay down here and set up a base camp.

[She's done this before, experience assisting in evacuations taking over...]

We'll need a wide area of clean, flat ground to put anyone wounded. Clean water to treat burns. Cloth for bandages. And a perimeter to keep the monsters away. Can you do any of that?
nojohnyouare: Hands clasped like in prayer. (we are one and the same)

[personal profile] nojohnyouare 2018-07-20 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
["You really don't think I can." Mai holds that back; it's easy enough for her. She nods, grip tight on her sword.

She knows she can go up there and live. But getting in a fight over it won't help anyone. If it comes up again, she'll have to prove it then.]


Fine. I know we'll need those. So I'll try that, too.
ax_iom: (My penance)

[personal profile] ax_iom 2018-07-20 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks.

I'll be back soon.