phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] 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...
redmeguca: (I... am truly alone.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-21 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
["Well, one must first overcome one's physical limitations. My Sebastians take care of that, they tear converts to shreds splendidly. Once their soul has been released from it's confinement, I bring it to salvation as another one of my Sebastians"]
nor_iron_bars: With unconfined wings (Roaming the streets)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-22 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail winces, but continues translating for Kyouko's benefit.]

Aaaand if people maybe don't wanna get shredded, then what?
redmeguca: (I... am truly alone.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
["All my converts have come to me eagerly once they have received my Kiss. They come to me begging for salvation."]
nor_iron_bars: Alone that soar above (Keep doing what you're doing)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-22 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmkay, and your Kiss is...? Guessing we're not just talking 'bout locking lips, here.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko's the one to give the explanation here.]

A Witch's Kiss is how they attract their prey. It messes with people's heads and makes them think what the Witch wants them to think.
nor_iron_bars: Our careless heads (Stumbling but yeah)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-22 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail sighs.]

Yeah, I was afraid it was gonna be something like that.

[Looking back at Elsa Maria, she continues on in the tone of someone patiently trying to explain to a small child why they can't play with knives unsupervised.]

Look, Elsie- can I call you Elsie? You gotta understand, there's a real important thing about consent, it's gotta be given freely. If somebody really, really wants to get torn into pieces and transcend their physical form, okay, that's their call. But they need to be making that choice on their own, not just 'cause someone got into their head and twisted things 'round a little. You get what I mean?
redmeguca: (I... am truly alone.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-22 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[The shadows writhe at Jailbreak's words.

"My salvation is far too important for such meager concerns! I distribute salvation equally to all, and I will not be swayed by the words of a heritic such as yourself!"

Meanwhile, Kyoko sighs and looks up at Jailbreak.]


Look, Witches can't be reasoned with. They're all in their own little worlds. It's impossible to convince them to do anything against their nature.
nor_iron_bars: And in my soul am free (No that ain't your style)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-23 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I'm getting that vibe. Normally I only get called a heretic this much by angry guys on streetcorners with pamphlets.

[She turns to the Grief Seed one last time.]

Welp, Elsie, it's not looking like you and I got a lot to say to each other, 'least not stuff that'll make the other one listen. You wanna talk again someday, we can, but I'm thinking we're done for now.
redmeguca: (Default)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-23 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Kyoko puts the Grief Seed away before Elsa Maria can retaliate, and looks back to Jailbreak.]

So, what now?
nor_iron_bars: Enjoy such liberty (Default)

[personal profile] nor_iron_bars 2018-07-24 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jail appreciates this.]

Dunno 'bout you, but I'm thinking now's a good time for dinner and a nap, so heading back to base camp's not a bad idea. Think we've both seen enough shit for one day.
redmeguca: (If you say so.)

[personal profile] redmeguca 2018-07-24 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Jail, that's the best idea I've heard all day. Lead the way.