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

37

[failgoyle]

[There is no answer. Only screaming as a lanky guy yelling his head off comes tearing around the corner and not watching where he's going too well.]

Out of the way! Out of the way!

[virtuedlight]

[ Jules' sudden arrival isn't taken well at all. The youth stumbles backwards, and the blue glow from his hands expands into a full shield as he presses himself against the wall in a bid to avoid being hit.

However, given his speed (or rather, lack thereof), it might not have done enough to get him out of the way completely. ]

[failgoyle]

[Jules gives a yelp at the blue glow and flings himself to the floor at the last second in order to roll out of the way of whatever horrible attack is surely to come.]

[virtuedlight]

[ Like Jules, Cecil also had a hand over his face in case something tried to smash his shield. However, the expected impact did not come, and he opens his eyes hesitantly.

There is someone on the floor. Surely they couldn't have run against his shield? ]

... please don't hurt me...

[ This is said in a very small voice as he draws his shield closer to his person. ]

[failgoyle]

[...okay, Jules is lying on the floor on his stomach like some kind of slug in a terribly misguided attempt at self-defense, and he's being asked not to do any hurting? What is this madness?]

...if you don't hurt me, then cool, cool, we're cool, everything's all cool here, sure.

[And he's getting to his feet.]

[virtuedlight]

[ Cecil doesn't relax, nor put down his shield. ]

... who are you?

[failgoyle]

I'm Jules. Who are you?

[He's just staying there flat on his stomach until he deems it safe enough to move, no big deal. Dude looks like he could lie motionless in that awkward position for days if he had to.]

[virtuedlight]

[ That sure is an uncomfortable position, but he isn't about to comment on that. ]

Cecil. [ First names only, right? ] Are you one of them?

[ The investigators, is what he's trying to get at, but he isn't the most obvious of people even on good days. ]

[failgoyle]

...depends on what you mean by "them."

[He would have frozen if he were not already frozen in place. He's still not moving at all. The first "them" he's jumping to is "changeling," but maybe not?]

You've kind of got an unclear antecedent there to that pronoun, you know? Them could be referring to a whole lot of different things. Just one of the vagrancies of the English language!

[virtuedlight]

[ He's not good at this. Perhaps the hint wasn't strong enough... but then again, he doesn't know if the Investigators have a common code at all. ]

I'm not from here. [ He gestures with one hand at the cramped corridor. ] Are you?

[failgoyle]

No, I'm not.

[Well, at least they've got one little bit of something in common.]

So where are you from?

[virtuedlight]

Eden. Not that... it means anything to you, I'd expect...

[ Not for the first time, he regrets not taking note of more people before they came here. ]

Are you from Earth?

[failgoyle]

...unless your name is Adam, it probably doesn't.

[Still not moving, still lying there like some kind of weird statue. Weirdo.]

Yeah, Earth! I mean, I could get more specific than that, but Earth is an excellent start.

[virtuedlight]

Adam... right, the Genesis. [ He's read that part of scripture. ] Eden is named after the Biblical garden, yes. But it's not the same.

[ Jules' talking style is throwing Cecil off a little, but he tries not to show it. ]

If you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask...

[failgoyle]

Oh, well, there are worse places to name other places after.

[Perfectly normal conversation, yep. At least he's sitting up now, even if it's in sort of a weird crouch at this point and he's still not moving once he's in the weird crouch.]

And Earth isn't a bad place, just a big one. Like I'm from America, which is a country...well, actually, that could refer to a couple of continents but in this case I'm just using it to refer to one of the countries on those continents...

I think Cecil's entire response to Jules is this icon

[virtuedlight]

[ Cecil knows where America is, and he can guess. At least this is some sense that he's getting. ]

... you talk like an American. [ He concludes that this is probably why. ] I don't suppose America in your time has invented these sorts of things?

[ The youth indicates the air around him, referring to the station. ]

very appropriate response

[failgoyle]

Well, yeah, I talk like an American. Makes sense, since I'm from there!

[That crouch he's sitting in as they have this discussion cannot possibly be comfortable, but he doesn't seem to mind.]

Only thing we've got like this is...I dunno, the Space Shuttle? But didn't they stop that...Mars rover? Probey things here and there?

Do they have these things on Eden?

he doesn't understand.

[virtuedlight]

We do. But... it works differently.

[ It's easy explaining Sign abilities to people who already know an equivalent, but he doesn't know if Jules does. ]

I was wondering if you knew a way we could make ourselves useful here.

somehow, no one does

[failgoyle]

...I hate to break it to you, but I'm the last person anyone ever comes to if they need anything useful.

[And, after a pause, he adds,]

Unless you need a fake ID. I'm pretty good at hooking people up with those. But otherwise, nah, I'm just getting out of the way and preferably out of the certain death zones.

amazing

[virtuedlight]

[ That's... honestly, extremely not assuring. ]

So... nothing about this place, then?

[ Cecil has a feeling that he should at least try to do something, but he hasn't had the slightest idea of what and how. ]

[failgoyle]

No, nothing at all.

Wasn't my choice to come here. Kind of like I won a really shitty mandatory vacation. I mean, I've had worse, but I still never wanted any part of this.

[virtuedlight]

[ They're definitely on the same boat, then. ]

Oh. Me too, actually. I'm sorry.

[ He had so many things to do back home and none of them involved coming here. ]

So we'll just survive until we can go back.

[failgoyle]

That's the way these things usually go, yeah.

[He shrugs.]

Survive until you can go back, hope you don't end up with any additional body parts.

[virtuedlight]

[ Additional body parts... ]

Oh gosh. That sounds terrible... but I don't think they'll do it to us here.

[ He's hoping. ]

[failgoyle]

I dunno, you never know with these things...