Test Drive #21

[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 than 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 September 16th–26th. Our next Jaunt will be Night Falls on Yensid, a fantasy Jaunt taking place in a formerly magic kingdom whose history went awry when other Travelers failed to properly complete a previous Jaunt there, one of the many forgotten Jaunts from before Synodiporia properly began as a Dreamwidth game. There will be no Walkabout run alongside this Jaunt.

Prompt #55 takes place in a punishment Liminal Space for a Jaunt that the Travelers failed to solve.
Prompt #56 takes place during the first Jaunt the Travelers made to the Kingdom of Yensid, during its Golden Age.

#55

It’s difficult to make out the shape of this Liminal Space, at first, thanks to the decor; it’s somehow both pitch black and eye-searingly bright at the same time, the pulsing rainbow patterns cutting through the darkness making it all but impossible to properly judge distance. The truly persistent, or those who manage to abuse Liminal ‘down is relative’ gravity without hitting a pitfall for long enough, may eventually determine that it seems to be a giant egg. More so than many iterations of Liminal Space, it’s completely closed off.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be very difficult indeed to figure out. It’s not just the impossible coloration that makes navigation difficult; there’s a terrible storm raging, and the whipping winds and cracking thunder make it all too easy to stumble into a pitfall by accident. And those pitfalls don’t exactly want to let go of anyone they ensnare, either. Errant Travelers may find themselves supporting an impossibly heavy overhead weight, or pushing a boulder eternally uphill, or trying to catch an ever-lowering drink of water, or pouring water into a tub riddled with gaping cracks, or any number of other seemingly endless, pointless tasks. They can be escaped with help from another Traveler, or one person can be released from the task when another stumbles in.

The only respite from this - the colors, the storm, the punishments - is in the form of Travelers’ created spaces, but those are as difficult to get to right now as everything else. Good luck.

#56

It's a chaotic time for the Kingdom of Yensid. The Amulet of Yensid, that fabled magical artifact that must be rejoined each lunar year so that the kingdom's three races can continue their peaceful magical coexistence, has gone missing. Two-thirds of it, the humans' fragment and the Forest Folk's fragment, are nowhere to be found. The capital city is just as bustling as ever despite this, with reptilian Stonefolk flitting from place to place in their usual parkour-like fashion, small animal-like Forest Folk hawking various potions and crafts, and humans making all sorts of deals.

There's an undercurrent of urgency to the day's business. Small groups of three or four of various species move through the city with enchanted mirrors, dowsing rods, fishing lures, and all other manner of magical items designed to aid in the act of finding something, but so far, no one's turned up anything solid yet. A few of the stronger magicked items are leading their owners out towards the foreboding Birdlime Mountains, but that's the most promising lead anyone has.

Comments

*Hyun-ae | Analogue: A Hate Story

[hatefuldays]

-56-

*Hyun-ae steps out into the city for the first time, and gasps. There are stars in her eyes as she spins around, trying to look at everything at once.

"This place is AWESOME!" She laughs in disbelief, not sure which part is most exciting. "I've finally made it planetside!"

From the marketplace (are those aliens?!), she turns her gaze upwards. So that's what space looks like through an atmosphere... they DID say it was supposed to be blue. In that case, that incredibly bright thing must be...

"Hey, hey, that's the sun, right?" Anyone nearby will do, she has a lot of questions and most people can probably answer them pretty easily. "I had no idea it would be so beautiful from this close!"

[haremtrap]

Kohaku blinked. Was she messing with her? She didn't SOUND like she was messing with her...

"Yup. That's the sun alright. Just like yesterday. Or the day before."

[hatefuldays]

Ahh, shit. It occurred to her right after her outburst that she was probably supposed to be keeping a low profile, so time to backpedal.

"Oh, uhh... Sorry about the weird question, sir!"

Let's see, how do you figure out whether or not someone's an Investigator? "So, er, are you... from around here...?"

[haremtrap]

"No, actually. I'm something of a traveler."

It sounded innocuous, but was a pretty big giveaway to anyone of their little band. Unless they were incredibly dense or incredibly confused.

[hatefuldays]

"Right, okay, I thought so." Glasses adjust. It's kind of fun being part of a secret organization sometimes.

"This will probably sound like a weird question, but is this what Earth looks like?"

[haremtrap]

"That is a slightly weird question" she confirmed.

"This is...pretty similar to my version of Earth. We don't have animal people running around."

She had never been one to worry about the whole conspiracy angle of being a traveler too much.

[hatefuldays]

"Aha, I really wasn't sure about that part. That would be a pretty big thing to just never mention."

To anticipate the next question: "My parents were born on Earth, but I've never been there, so everything I know about it is second-hand."

[haremtrap]

"So does that mean you live in space? That'd be pretty cool."

It'd be like Gundams! Or Star Trek! Maybe she had a laser gun!

[hatefuldays]

"It's probably less cool than you're imagining. Somewhere like this is way more interesting, if you ask me. There's so much space, and so many different kinds of people all interacting with each other."

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"It is. This is also a jaunt on which people would typically recognize it and space doesn't seem to be acessible, from what I can tell, so to not alert people to the presence of dimensional travellers, you should not announce to the world and ask any stranger that you've never seen it from planetside."

Ariana crosses her arms over her chest, thankful that the clothes the jaunt provided her with somewhat resemble her usual preferred attire, and gives the younger woman a judgemental look.

[hatefuldays]

"Sorry, sorry!" Quieter this time. Apologetic look. "I know, I just got really excited and kind of forgot in the heat of the moment..."

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"Those moments are what get us in trouble or killed. Or worse." There are reasons why rules aimed at hiding who they are exist.

"...So you've never been on this side of an atmosphere? Why?"

[hatefuldays]

"I was born in space, I've never even been near a planet. I know the basics, but this is my first time standing on one."

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"...why were you born in space?" She tends to have a good level of distrust towards space, and everything that comes with it, and no amount of travelling has managed to change that yet. She keeps it out of her voice, though.

[hatefuldays]

"Uh... because my parents were in space when I was born?" She's not sure quite how to parse this question. "We were on the Mugunghwa, a colony ship headed for another planet. That's like a three thousand year trip, though, so I was never gonna come close to seeing the far end of it."

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"...That's very far out there." She knows that there are different complications and different danger levels when leaving Earth in the different universes, but her kneejerk reaction still is way too far. "Were you supposed to live lives of regular length on that ship until your descendants would arrive?"

[razorblade_empress]

"Weather really bad where you're from?" You really don't want to be advertising you're not from around her, she adds psychically. Not without knowing how the locals will take it. Some of them can be real touchy about outsiders.

[hatefuldays]

"Er... yeah, something like that." It won't happen again, I promise! I've just been trying to get to Earth for a really, REALLY long time, so I lost my cool for a bit!

[razorblade_empress]

It's okay - just be more careful from here on out. "So I take it you're new to the city?"

[hatefuldays]

"Right, I'll be sure to--" Right, I'll be sure to--

Wait, heck. "...Geeze, It's harder than I thought it would be to keep the channels separate like that. Do you get better at it with practice?"

[razorblade_empress]

"Eventually. It takes some getting used to - I had trouble with it too, at least at first."

[hatefuldays]

"I'll have to work on that later." OK, uh, new approach: Vague double-meanings.

"Anyway, yeah, I'm definitely new to the city. I've been living out in the country my whole life, so everything here feels so different that I'm not sure what to look at first."

[razorblade_empress]

"Yeah, I get that. I was the same way once I started traveling in earnest." By which she means Traveling in general. "Everything was new and different."

since everyone's had an investigator comment enjoy this infiltrator

[otomechapilot]

Talluah raises an eyebrow at the newcomer - but not her shield or sword. She doesn't seem harmless, but she doesn't seem inclined to do harm.

"Bright and warm as it ever was," she says. "What mine were you trapped in where the light of Eloi doesn't reach?"

[hatefuldays]

Oh heck, it's a local. Let's see, how can she explain this that doesn't have to sound crazy?

"Oh, er..." What did that other woman say? "...The weather's really bad back home, so... it was a joke...?" Nailed it.