Test Drive #13.

[powersthatbe]

Welcome to the Synodiporia Test Drive Meme! Below the cuts there are two 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! Please take a quick look at our Directory & familiarize yourself with the concept and setting of the game before you jump in.

Our upcoming app round runs December 18th-31st. Our next Jaunt, Escape from Junkworld, is a space opera romp where humans, aliens, and androids work together on mysterious scavenged, malfunctioning ships to outrun an interstellar disaster. Our next Walkabout (a more casual alternative event, for those not interested in the Jaunt) will revisit Heartbreak Academy, a shoujo anime setting where high-schoolers use Social Technology to bring shoujo special effects to life, from glitter to roses, transformation sequences to sad rainclouds, these cartoony powers are at the height of education for those who want a career in media or diplomacy, or some other means of big-stage self-expression. Both Jaunt & Walkabout will begin January 7th & run for approximately six weeks.

Prompt #37 is set in the Escape from Junkworld jaunt, as an advance taste of the fun available there.

Prompt #38 is set in a created landscape within the Telepathic Network all Travelers can access, and features characters facing their inner demons and traumatic memories together.


Prompt #37

The Coronation's coolant system has sprung a leak somewhere in its kilometers of pressurized tubing - near enough to the diagnostic centers to short out the readouts, meaning half the crew is up to their elbows in the decking, ceramic floor plates scattered along the corridors like loose shingles, making traveling between workstations like a game of holy grail hopscotch between the tiles and the potholes they left.

Besides that, the leak leaves the entirety of the ship smelling like a cross between pond scum and burned espresso, and set the radiation alarms to a distracting buzz - not enough for klaxons, just a constant, low-level warning that set the teeth on edge.

In the ship’s simulator chambers, anyone visored and gloved to work in virtual space can ignore it - but the computer environment may experience glitches in its programs, whether functional or recreational. On the bridge, other systems are experiencing occasional failures - from sensor shadows hinting at unreal pursuit and activating automated combat routines, to the translators in the comm system shorting out and creating a momentary babel.

Meanwhile, between evacuating irradiated areas, crawling through the conduits looking for the problem to fix, or quietly shooing smuggler-snails full of contraband out of the way of the search parties, there’s something for everyone to be doing...


Prompt #38


Sometimes someone’s issues lead to them being swallowed by a dungeon in Liminal Space and forced to confront their darker side, their repressed issues - but you can’t always wait for an arbitrary interdimensional force to kidnap you. Here in the Mind Palace, the world is simply a vast, blank white space, and glittering glass cubes float in the air, each holding within it a freeze-framed memory of a traumatic moment, something you’ve chosen to face here together with your companions. Maybe only one of you is going through this gauntlet, or maybe you’ve opted to face your fears together, but whatever this captive image is, you’ll have to explain it or let it play out, and come to grips with what it means to you - whether a happy memory you’ve lost, something that makes you sad or afraid or angry, or even a piece of your past that had been buried or forgotten until now - there it is, in front of you, waiting.

What happens next?

Comments

[wolvering]

The first thing Faed notices is probably sound. There's a grumbling sound, animal and probably a complaint, just from the tone, and a light, cheery answer in a girl's voice.

"It smells awful to me too, boy, but it's important that we--"

It's at that point that the pair rounds the corner. The first is a wolverine, bounding along on short legs with long claws ticking on the tile. The second is a small human girl in brown and green, with pure white hair. She smiles, expression curious and open, while the animal at her side has more interest in the rat-robot.

"Are you trying to find the leak too?"

[virioncomplex]

Faed eyes the animal first. He has no idea what it is or what it can do, and he doesn't like it. Last thing he needs a limb to torn off by some kid's pet. It doesn't matter if he can regrow it. It's awful going in either direction.

"No." He says, his voice sounding like a whisper that he's forcing to be louder than it is.

"Species: Human. Female." Comes a tinny voice from the skeletal rate as it clings up on Faed's shoulder. It's tiny, lens-like eyes turn down to the wolverine. "Species: Unknown."

[wolvering]

Kiga shifts up onto his hind paws, sniffing at the rat-bot, and making inquiring crooning noises. Pod is equally curious (is that a skeleton? It doesn't seem alive as such.) but the wolverine's non-hostile reaction goes a long way to helping her stay calm about it. If it were dark magic, Kiga would know.

"We're not interrupting, are we? You're definitely doing something that looks important!" Pod thinks so, at least. She can't make heads nor tails of it herself, which is why they were looking for the source of the leak anyway. At least a smell they can find, and then tell someone who knows there it is to be patched up.

"Kiga is a woods dog, though!" Pod addresses the rat-bot. "They're shy creatures, and rarely seen."

[virioncomplex]

The robot is definitely made out of a skeleton, but definitely not made out of any magic, dark or otherwise. It blinks down at the wolverine, nonplussed. "Update." It tilts his head, and after a brief moment complies, "Species: Woods Dog."

Faed just gives a soft snort and turns back to his work. If he's going to get mangled he's not going to be able to stop it anyway. He's in the process of reassembling something he'd recently pulled apart. Technically he's putting it back together more efficiently (even if it looks more haphazardly rigged for the time being.

"I'm makin sure the rest of this ship doesn't fall apart around our asses so yeah, I'd call that important." It's mostly due to his own paranoia, but it still gets the job done.

[wolvering]

Pod peers at the mess with obvious curiosity. She knows it probably makes perfect sense to him, but not to her, and maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn a little while she's here.

"That is important! I wish I knew more about these things, but I'm only a 'prentice Beast Healer. My name is Pod, by the by. What's yours? And your friend's? If he's a friend, and not some kind of... construct?"

Pod is very puzzled about the moving-talking skeleton. Her concepts of robotics is basic at the very best. It's obvious that this was made, but that's about as much as she's gleaned from looking.

[virioncomplex]

A veterinarian? He's only known a small handful of humans but still, none of them talked like she does. She's coming off as even more primitive than they already are. At least she has the wherewithal to not automatically assume he was some sort of animal as well.

"Don't quit your day job." He mutters. Luckily for her he's choosing at the moment to focus his energy on actually fixing upgrading things where he can.

"I am Wotto. And I am indeed. A construct." The rat chimes in, tiny, robotic voice sounding almost proud of that fact. "But that does not mean. I cannot also be. A friend."

[wolvering]

Pod is not entirely sure what that phrase means exactly. Because she's away from the chapterhouse she doesn't have any of her daily chores to do, and most jobs would have to be done during the day anyway. Well, unless it was an emergency, or helping with a birthing or--

Strange! She wrinkles her nose a little and shrugs, Wotto having effectively distracted her from the phrase anyway. "Well met, Wotto! You sound like a fine friend indeed. Perhaps you can tell me your friend's name. I fear he's a bit busy and has forgot his manners."

There's a lilt to her voice hinting at a little bit of friendly teasing, and Pod ends it with a little laugh. She doesn't really blame the strange man (what is he, she wonders!) for not paying much attention to her, but the rat-construct doesn't seem busy and he's talkative!

[virioncomplex]

"Faed does not care. About manners. " Which is very true. He actually does know them well enough to some degree, at least enough to get what he wants when it comes to bounty hunting. There are many races in the universe and tripping up in the wrong place can be a huge hinderance when hunting.

As if to punctuate the rat's point, Faed chucks a hunk of metal, wires, and blinking lights over his shoulder where it crashes down amidst the already existing mess. An inch or so in the other direction and it might have hit her square in the knee.

[wolvering]

"So I see," Pod says dryly as she shifts a little out of the way of the thrown part. "It's a good thing I'm not one of those who thinks manners is everything!"

Kiga isn't quite so amused about the near miss, but only makes a chrrring sound that sounds remarkably like a cross parental scolding. He holds his place otherwise, because he doesn't get any malice from the action, and so doesn't feel like he needs to protect his person.

Pod clasps her hands behind her back and rocks on her feet. "Did Faed make you, Wotto? I've never seen your like before, that's for certain!"

[virioncomplex]

Faed rolls his eyes at the girl's continued perseverance. He's fairly certain that the moment any of these people catch wind of what sort of species he'd the honor of being hatched into they'll either toss him in the brig or kick him out an airlock. Not that he's done all that well to be personable to begin with.

"Affirmative. He made me out of salvage. And death."