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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...
promittere: (Default)

[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-20 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
Don't hesitate to ask for help.

[It's an offer that he would make regardless of whatever history Asch has with him, and it's not something he feels obligated to because of that history he's not privy to.

The admission gets him to pause, though, brows furrowing, if only for just a moment. Then, with a soft laugh and a quirk of his lips-]


That's quite the ringing endorsement for you, isn't it?
bloodyashes: ([F] You saw NOTHIN)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-20 06:38 am (UTC)(link)
[...Oh, damnit.

At least Ignis won't see the particular way he glances off to the side.]


I'm trying to make a point to not just treat you the same. Quit making it hard.

[Local obvious tsundere is... obvious...]
promittere: (Default)

[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-20 06:49 am (UTC)(link)
[It's so obvious even Ignis can see it.]

Not my intention in the slightest.

[His tone is chipper - he does feel awful for the confusion and how it must feel, but, well. He's not not a little shit.]

But I don't mind, if it makes it easier for you. I'm sure we would get along swimmingly even as strangers.
bloodyashes: ([F] You saw NOTHIN)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-20 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
[There's the faint sound of flesh-to-flesh impact as Asch presses his hands into his face. Ignis, why are you, universally, like this?]

Being strangers would be a pain, anyway.

[There, he said it.]
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[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-20 07:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Because he is, without a doubt, meant to be this way.]

So we won't be.

[Not that he's smug or anything. He reaches into the armiger for his own water, before stretching.]

Now then, we probably wouldn't want to linger in one spot for too long. We aren't alone down here.

[Which in this case means both that there are other people, and things that probably wanna snack on them.]
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-20 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
I figured probably not.

[They're both experienced JRPG characters, they know there's going to be beasties.]

Is there any sort of camp where people have a watch set up? We'll need to sleep eventually.
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[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-21 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
One of the station androids have established a base camp.

[He nods his head in a direction, completely confident he's motioning towards where the camp is. Losing his sight hasn't taken his sense of direction from him, at the very least.]

They have accounted for that very fact.

[Even though he's prepared to stay up all night. Finding canned coffee in bulk was a blessing he would not have anticipated.]
bloodyashes: ([D] Hybrid)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-22 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Smart.

[He looks Ignis over thoughtfully, and then after a brief hesitation, adds - ]

Don't think you'll get away with not getting adequate rest, either.

[Honestly... Mom friends know their own kind.]
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[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-24 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
[There's a moment of surprise, before Ignis lets out a chuckle.]

Duly noted.

[And it's not going to be ignored - at least not right now. Maybe not for a while. But Ignis is called to his duty like a moth to a flame, and he will burn just the same.]
bloodyashes: (Default)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-24 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
[And Asch knows a thing or two about burning until you don't have anything left. Given permission to not be strangers - permission to care, in a sense - Ignis isn't going to get away so easily from someone else who knows exactly that feeling.]

Let's see about getting to that camp, then.
promittere: (Default)

[personal profile] promittere 2018-07-28 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
[Ignis straightens up, brushing off his pants - though they're still immaculate, somehow, despite all the ash and soot around.]

It shouldn't be too hard to find.

[He turns, mentally retracing his steps.]

I'm sure we'll be able to hear everyone there before you get a chance to see it.
bloodyashes: ([F] You saw NOTHIN)

[personal profile] bloodyashes 2018-07-28 11:53 am (UTC)(link)
[This literally does not surprise Asch at all. He'd expect no different.]

Probably. Though if people are trying to sleep, hopefully someone has the sense to quiet them down.