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

Yukino Mayuzumi | Persona 2 | veteran

[razorblade_empress]

55

You'd be forgiven for thinking that the unfamiliar woman looking around Liminal Space with no little chagrin was a newbie. Certainly, she looks like one, and chagrin is certainly not an inappropriate reaction here. But there's also a notable lack of surprise in her demeanor, which is somewhat less usual. Yukino crosses her arms over her chest as she surveys the chaos. "Wow - who got pissed off this time?"


56

It's really too bad they don't have access to any of the rumormongers from back home (or rumor-spreaders, since apparently the Kuzunoha they have running around already doesn't do that); otherwise, they might have been able to use that to their advantage. On the other hand, the problem with living somewhere where rumors always come true is that every rumor comes true, so it's probably for the best that they don't. Yukino's not sure this place could take something like that, anyway.

She's not one of the people heading up the mountain; instead, she's sticking around the capital for now, keeping an eye out for other Travelers and generally helping out where she's needed. Mountain-climbing is... not really a thing she relishes these days.

55

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"No idea." Ariana looks up from the small handheld technical device that she was using to try and get a reading of this place and pockets it. "I can't say it constitutes a big change, though. This place is still chaotic as hell."

Re: 55

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino grins. "'The more things change...'?"

She glances around again, taking note of those Travelers who don't happen to be in pits right now. The ones she can see in this lighting, anyway. "Do you recognize anybody?"

[conspiraciiiiiiiiiiiiies]

"I guess so." It certainly does not help that the natives of this place seem to have an extremely unstable concept of reality, and very few of the travellers bring with them experiences of an even remotely safe world.

Her eyes follow Yukino's and she frowns. "No. None at all.

...Wait." She points across Liminal. "That guy looks familiar."

[razorblade_empress]

It's Yukino's turn to follow Ariana's gaze. "Oh, yeah - I remember him." She frowns slightly. "But this seems like a really high turnover, even for them. Just how long have we been gone?"

[smokeandcarbs]

56

It's a little game he plays to spend the time and find some grounding in all this insanity. He will watch people and, once in a while, spot infiltrators, as they seem to be called. Some are quite obvious, some not as much. A lady crosses his path in the busy market for a second. This one is actually very good. Experienced is the first word that comes to his mind. Tough is the second.

For the lack of better things to do - no, he will not venture up the foreboding mountain, thank you very much - he starts following her at a leisured pace. He makes no effort to conceal himself. Just a fellow traveller in the crowd, browsing the market goods with mild interest. He's so busy focusing his dispassionate eyes on the whole world around him that he doesn't notice what a sitting duck for pickpockets he is. Maybe the silver on his cigarette case attracted their attention. Maybe Jean just made things way too easy for them. Whatever the case, there it goes, carried by some street urchin who moves unreasonably fast.

"Wait!" he shouts weakly. Oh no, not his cigarettes. He starts running with no small degree of clumsiness towards the glimpse of silver. "Wait please, I need those!"

Turning into a quieter cul-de-sac , he finds the urchin and his whole gang waiting for him. Sadly, the other members are much taller and rougher. Different species too. Jean steps back, hands in his pockets. If Syn is an hallucination created by his most likely deranged mind, he can't help but fault his subconscious for the unsubtle message.

"Yes, yes, I know smoking is bad for me."

He takes one more step back and practically stumbles on someone behind him.

[razorblade_empress]

She notices the guy tailing her - between her... less respectable... days and her time spent fighting demons, she'd gotten good at that sort of thing, and besides which, he's not exactly being subtle - and is about to try hailing him over the network, but then the pickpocket strikes and her 'tail' suddenly has other priorities. Which she gets, but he's going to run headlong into trouble if he's not careful. He's probably going to need backup, whether he realizes it or not.

And sure enough, when she catches up to him he's in trouble. "I think that's the least of your problems at this point," she notes wryly, eyeing the gang as she does so. She and Durga could probably take this crew with a couple of well-placed spells, but that could potentially kill them and draw attention they really don't need at this point.

[smokeandcarbs]

Alas, Jean Otus is a bit of a trouble magnet.

"I'm not sure about that..."

After all, God knows when he will find proper cigarettes again. That said, Jean is not a fighter, or a magician...he's not even a proper runner. However, there are not many options as far as he can see. Especially if he doesn't want to inconvenience his companion traveller any further, imaginary as she is.

Without taking his eyes off the thugs, he asks sotto voce:

"Run, then?"

It feels like the most practical choice. Live today. Smoke tomorrow.

[razorblade_empress]

She keeps running into those.

"Are you really attached to whatever they stole from you?" she asks, equally sotto voce.

56. For sheer empressception giggles.

[rebellioninbloom]

While Haru doesn't entirely mind the prospect of a mountain expedition, exactly how one goes about planning for one is something that's very much out of her experience. (Maybe if her school had done camping trips?)

She's looking more than a little stressed as she checks an enchanted map, biting her lip slightly. "Am I reading this right, would you say?"

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino cranes her neck to take a better look. "Are you headed for the mountain?"

[rebellioninbloom]

"If I can find a group for one..." she says, with a slight uncertain swallow in her tone. "I want to be able to do something. And if that's what it takes..."

[razorblade_empress]

"I can tag along, if you want." It's not like she's getting all that much done around here, after all.

55

[otomechapilot]

"Chariot AND Tower," Sara grumbles from her perch counting grains of rice by hand. "Two of the three that wouldn't know the meaning of the word 'relax' if they were forced to."

She's very not happy and showed up battle-scarred from the last Jaunt. "Stupid Greece. Stupid Spartan overlay."

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino grimaces. "My condolences."

[otomechapilot]

"Yeah. Seriously. Just my luck that my first time is what everyone agrees was The Worst Jaunt," she says.

She shakes her head then looks up at Yukino. "Huh. You weren't working with the Titans last Jaunt, were you? I didn't see you around and there wasn't a walkabout."

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino would take issue with that assessment, but she wasn't here for this Jaunt, so for all she knows it could have overtaken Moebius for that title. "I actually just got back from... somewhere." The details have mostly slipped away from her by now. "And so far I don't recognize anyone here, so either there's been an extreme amount of turnover in a very short time or I've been gone a while."

55 - Double Vet Madness

[alloutofmight]

The man slinking out of the shadows behind her is also unfamiliar, in a general sense; but she might just recognise him, if she remembers anything about Moebius.

"Hard to say for sure, really." He lifts a hand to his face and coughs into his fist, wiping a spurt of blood away. "Can't be one of the ones that likes us."

[razorblade_empress]

She does, in fact. "Yeah, this is a bit much for 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.'"

[alloutofmight]

"Doesn't narrow it down all that much." Sunken eyes look disapprovingly over the area. "Still, avoid the holes and it can't really get too bad."

[razorblade_empress]

"Unless you're prone to migraines, maybe." She's pretty sure this Liminal could induce them in the really unlucky.

Re: Yukino Mayuzumi | Persona 2 | veteran

[highsteaks]

"Both of 'em," the short-haired girl replies. "We figured out early enough that we were supposed to help overthrow the Olympian gods, but this dumbass demigod kid named Percy threw a shitfit and went over to the Olympian side and thanks to him the Olympians won."

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino grimaces. She knows enough mythology to know why you'd assume the Olympian gods needed to win, but... "What happened after that?"

[highsteaks]

"They dumped us here," Chie says. "We're pretty sure they're pissed off now."

[razorblade_empress]

"They're generally not subtle about that kind of thing," Yukino replies. "And this is definitely not subtle."