Test Drive #8.

[powersthatbe]

Welcome to the Synodiporia Test Drive Meme! Below the cuts there are three new prompts, and here are the prompts from previous test-drives, which you’re still welcome to use in this post. When you comment, be sure you specify what prompt you want to play with, and please put up your own threadstarter - it makes for a much more friendly environment that a forest of bare toplevels! OCs are especially welcome!

Our upcoming app round runs April 24th-30th, after which we’ll be introducing new characters into the middle of our ongoing plot, The Digital Frontier, a story of exploration and revolution inspired by the TRON franchise.

Prompt #26 takes place in Liminal Space, where a strange purpose is at work shifting the landscape and summoning phantom images.

Prompt #27 takes place in the current Jaunt, the Digital Frontier, inside a computerized prison.

Prompt #28 gives new players a chance to imagine their characters as long-time Veterans of travel between worlds.


Prompt #26: The Garden of Images
Liminal Space has taken the form of a greenhouse, with a few notable exceptions. The plants are forked radio antennas, the lianas and creepers fiber-optic cables, plots of stage-lights and orchards of microphone-stand saplings alternating with pumpkin patches of speakers and subwoofers.

And, of course, instead of panes of transparent glass, the greenhouse is made of television screens. Some are dim, some lit, some blue or staticky - but on others, there are images of other Travelers, elsewhere in the garden, long departed, or yet to come, engaging in conversation as if they were there right now. Vivid memories from past Jaunts are replayed on the screens, and Travelers who stand close to one of the camera-trees may find their own image displayed there, green-screened into some sort of re-enactment.



Prompt #27: Living in a Digital World
The walls are glossy black, lit by green grid-lines defining energy conduits, and projecting flickering laser-grids over the doors to the cells. While the lights flicker, the power failing in this ancient relic of a building, the security systems are still live, and they’re not friendly - bursts of power that shove people into cells and activate the doors, needles of flickering blacklight that sweep along the hallways, herding strays and cutting anyone too slow into neat squares - dark chambers that play white noise until the mind goes blank and then begin implanting new programming with bright pulses of binary code pouring light into the retinas.

Explorers are just as likely to be caught as inmates, and every faction inhabiting the Grid has representatives trapped here - green-lined Cryptos who have been trapped in this prison for centuries, purple-flickering Automata, mad viral program-people little better than vampires or zombies; paranoid red-coated Defenders seeking to stamp out threats on the Grid; curious blue Miners, either here to excavate the prison or hide from the System that oppresses them… and of course, the Variables - Travelers who know they’re Travelers, lost and trying to blend in.




Prompt #28: The Boys Are Back In Town
From one world to the next, they’ve been through the wringer - the blood-soaked, amnesia-inducing night in the tropics and concrete bunkers that made up Moebius, where Travelers were slaughtered, autopsied, and revived again with the scars to show for it, time after time. The decadent techno-pleasure dome of the Spark, where the Travelers all but started a civil war, and ended by sending the last remnants of humanity falling towards the surface of a harsh moon in a colony ship that was beginning to fall apart around them. Belljar Island, where they were used to Travelers, and sick of them, where their very presence triggered first discrimination and then riots. Hell, from one world to the next - and everyone who spoke out in rebellion vanished.

But they didn’t vanish to nowhere. Instead, they find themselves in an Escher-like maze, where each room is a riddle, a zen koan made real. A chamber where there is no sound, and the doors can only be unlocked when a bell is rung. A room with no doors whatsoever, and a carpenter’s workbench in the middle. Corridors and tunnels where you must climb or turn just so at the intersections - up two ladders, down two staircases, left and right through two zig-zags, through two doors labeled with Greek letters, and then back to the beginning to do just the same all over again. The maze is maddening, and every puzzle can be solved a dozen times, and time itself hardly seems real - it passes with no breaks for sleep or meals. But through it all, the Travelers still have one thing they can rely on - one another.

Comments

Labrys | Persona 4: Arena | #28

[unit031]

[ It was hard, sometimes, to see the good in others. And as Labrys had lived through this newfound hell, being tossed from one horrifying world to the next, she had begun to believe that maybe it didn't exist. Life was like that, sometimes. Good didn't always beat evil. Girls didn't always grow up to be women. And people like Labrys, forced to fight for even the right to exist since the moment of her creation--

She didn't get the chance to grow up at all.

Her once sleek finish is scuffed and battered, some of her gears grind in the wrong way. Her uniform is in tatters, and the look in her face is one of fury and sheer frustration. How long had she been here, in this maze? Time didn't work right here, her mental clock was useless, and the axe she held in her hands couldn't open anymore doors than her fists alone. Hope seemed impossible. Everything seems impossible. It's impossible so why doesn't she just--

She slows, the thought almost taking root, before she shakes her head and keeps going. No. Not today, not ever. She was alone and she would fight her way through it, just like she had everywhere else.

Above her, she hears a bell and she instantly looks around, spotting a door. There, there--! She runs forward and swings it open. Labrys may not have much in the way of hope, but she had more than enough in sheer determination. ]

[clairenado]

Nope, no exit here. Just a sand garden and a very frustrated teenage girl with a rake.

Claire hasn't encountered this particular puzzle before, and it's starting to piss her off (not that that's hard, but still). How the hell is pushing sand around a box supposed to help anyone get out of here?

(OOC: If you want to say they've met before, go for it!)

[unit031]

[ Thought Labrys is unhappy to be still stuck it does feel weirdly exhilarating to see another person in this hell hole of a maze. Especially one that she already recognizes. ]

Claire! [ Labrys darts forward to the edge of the sand, careful not to possibly mess up what could be a puzzle. ] Oh jeez, its so good to see another person right now, you don't even know.

[ The relief in her voice is incredible. ]

[clairenado]

"Oh, I might have some idea." Claire's grumbling, but that's about par for the course with her; she's pretty much always a little frustrated.

This damn maze isn't helping matters at all.

"I think the sand's supposed to be in a certain pattern, but I have no idea what."

[unit031]

[ Labrys carefully walks around the sand, not especially eager to ruin any of Claire's work. ]

A certain pattern? Huh. [ Labrys looks around, eyes on the look out for anything that might be well-- helpful. Imagine that, something helpful in this frustrating place. How outrageous. ] Maybe there's a clue around here somewhere.

[clairenado]

Claire snorts. "A clue? Since when is there anything helpful in this stupid maze? We'll probably figure it out right when we solve it, if we don't fuck everything up and oversolve it."

Labrys might know enough warning signs to know that defusing Claire sooner rather than later would be a Good Thing. Otherwise, there's a risk there won't be any sand left in the puzzle to solve it with.

[unit031]

[ She could see the signs. They were like blaring neon signs, flashing above Claire in bright patterns. ]

Well-- maybe you should take a break then. The more frustrated you get, the more they win, you know? After ya take a breather, we can try again. Two heads are better than one, right?

[clairenado]

Claire sighs, and drops the rake with a clatter (fortunately, it doesn't disturb the sand).

"Maybe. I doubt it." But at least there's... somewhat less danger of her making a mess.

[unit031]

Nah, trust me. You need a break. You look wiped, sit down, have a breather. The puzzle ain't going anywhere.

[ At least, it shouldn't. Had things started moving yet? Labrys would keep an eye on it, just in case. ]

[clairenado]

"Yeah, sure, have a breather when time means nothing and they can run us around in here with no food or rest in sight. And then what, stare at the sand some more? You probably know more about sand gardens than I do, and--" Even now, Claire knows better than to pull out 'and you're a goddamn robot.' Labrys is trying to help.

It's just that there's this thing in her head that won't shut up.

"I don't get it. We told them it was bullshit so we could get a chance to do better somewhere else, and this is the thanks we get?"

[unit031]

Aw, hey, don't be like that--

[ Labrys sets her axe down carefully and walks over, gently setting her cool hand on Claire's upper arm. ]

I know, its the worst. It's frustratin', and all you wanna do is take a break and charge on up but gettin' real down about it ain't gonna help. Believe me, I've been there. We can't let 'em win. Bend, don't break, and muscle on through. Alright?

Now sit down, and breathe. And that's an order, missy.

[ Straight from the Steel Council President herself. ]

[clairenado]

Claire sighs, but she knows better than to argue with that tone of voice. Labrys is one of the few people around, even here, that it'd take considerable effort on her part to seriously hurt - an effort she's not sure she can actually produce, with the way the Trumps screw around with that kind of power. Their lock on the bursts might be flimsier here than it was in Liminal Space, but it's still there.

So she sits, and she breathes, even though what she really wants to do is find a Trump and put that damn rake through their eye. (If... they have eyes...)

[unit031]

[ Good. Good, Claire. Way to follow instructions.

Carefully, Labrys follows. She can't feel aches and pains the same way Claire can, but she knows that she's exhausted. Its like-- she's out of power, in desperate need for a charge, but her body keeps moving anyway. She figures that's another thing the Trumps can do. Assholes. ]

That feels a lot better. [ Metaphorically, anyway. No actual feeling here. ] Feels like we never get to stop movin'.

[clairenado]

"We don't. If we ever get out of here, I'm gonna nap for a week and then eat as much food as I can get my hands on."

[unit031]

I think I'll-- Hm.

[ Labrys hadn't thought about the possibility of getting out in a long time. She wraps her arms around her knees, a somewhat distant look in her eyes. ]

I'll hug my sister. Yeah. That sounds about right.

[ She missed you so much, Aigis. ]

[clairenado]

Well, Claire more meant getting out of the maze - the Trumps aren't going to make it that easy. But that works too.

"Sister hugging is a plan I can get behind."

Maybe even brother hugging, if Joshua ever comes out of his teleportation-research ivory tower.

[unit031]

[ Labrys is a dreamer, she likes to think big. ]

You got a sibling back home? [ Labrys glances over, a curious look on her face. ]

[clairenado]

Claire nods. "Two. Older brother, he's in college, and a younger sister. They're both a hell of a lot smarter than me."

[unit031]

[ Labrys smiles. ]

I got a younger sister too. She's way smart, and super high tech. She got reactivated way before I did so she's-- she's kind of like an older sister too. [ Labrys could feel that sickly feeling that preceded a good cry crawling up her throat. Oh yeah, this is why she didn't think about home. ] I miss her a lot.

[clairenado]

"Sounds like she and Claudia would get along great. Claud repaired her first computer when she was five - she's seven now and she's all over tech stuff."

Wait, is that actually a smile? Holy shit.

[fridgeninja]

[ The room before her was a mirror of the room behind her, with a single notable exception - the weary person standing in the doorway with a weapon over his shoulder wasn't her, although the school emblem on his uniform was the same, and the grey hair and determined look in his eyes matched as well.

But there was something important missing - recognition.]

[unit031]

[ This was not what Labrys was expecting when she walked through that door. That tight feeling she had all the time was lifted slightly as she trots forward, axe lowered and face bright. ]

Oh my god-- Souji? Souji!

[ And then, for what felt like the first time in years, Labrys smiled. ]

I can't believe you're here, I mean, its not great given the situation but--

[ And then she realizes that he has no idea who she is. ]

--oh. Um.

[fridgeninja]

[Souji pauses for a moment, frozen in surprise, and then, slowly, smiles, and holds out his hand.]

I must be from a different timeline than the me you remember, sorry. Still - I'm really glad to meet you.

[unit031]

[ Labrys was incredibly embarrassed. She reached out and shook his hand, immediately bringing it back to herself once she had fulfilled her polite obligations. ]

Yeah, maybe. [ She did her best to smile back, though she was still completely mortified. ] Timelines are pretty out there, right? Never know where you're gonna end up on 'em with this place.

[fridgeninja]

Under the circumstances, that's pretty hard to argue.

Mm... I'd like to know your name, though. Whatever timelines we're from, I'm sure we can still be friends.