The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2015-04-24 06:34 am
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Test Drive #8.

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.
chalicejoker: (Suspicious)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-04-30 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
"Tarot..." Hajime still doesn't sound comfortable with this idea. Mostly because he knows good and well someone could just as easily consider him a Fool even if he's technically the Joker. "So what happens if we don't do what we're 'supposed' to do?"
darkhourdear: (Pharos [The end is coming])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-04-30 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
(You're not allowed to be the Fool, Hajime. There are way too many Wild Cards here already and Phillip doesn't want you to be a door even though that's not actually how that works.)

"Liminal space usually tells us, though I'm not sure if anything bad happens to us?" It probably does. Phillip just doesn't know for sure yet. "But, um... there are some things that we want to succeed." Like not summoning Hastur. They sort of managed that??
chalicejoker: (Skeptical)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-02 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
(All he knows is how this works around Undead from his other self's world, man...why is this all so complicated)

Hajime sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "Yeah, that's...let me guess, the stuff that you'd want to succeed would be even worse than getting yanked across universes for no apparent reason." He sighs. "Powerful enough to yank people around, not powerful enough to do their own damn work..."
darkhourdear: (Pharos [The end is coming])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-02 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
Phillip nods, more than a little solemn. He doesn't want to talk about Harrogate, but... with Hajime he could tell him some of it. If he asked for examples. It wouldn't take long to get across how awful that whole thing was.

"Yeah. And, um, in the Jaunts, you can either remember who you are and know you're there to fix things, or the Trumps will give you a bunch of different memories and make you think you've always been there. ...That's happened to me a lot." It sucks.
chalicejoker: (Uneasy)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-03 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
"So how bad did it get?" But Hajime is quickly distracted by what Phillip says next. Distracted enough that he won't notice if the first question goes unanswered. "Different memories?" There is a definite note of aw, hell no in his voice there.
darkhourdear: (Pharos [idk my bff Minako?])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-03 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
He will take the opportunity to not answer that, then! "Yeah," he says, frowning, "So, there was one where we were in a computer or something? It was called the Grid, and if you infiltrated then you thought you were an actual computer program." That is actually the one Phillip has the least trouble talking about right now.
chalicejoker: (Uneasy)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-03 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"How could you think you were a computer program?" This is weird, Phillip. Please explain it in a manner that makes it less weird. Hajime hopes this can be made less weird. He is not terribly optimistic as far as that goes.
darkhourdear: (Pharos [idk my bff Minako?])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-04 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Phillip honestly doesn't have any idea how to explain it. "I don't know. I just- the world we were in was in a computer, so each of us was an individual Program in the system and since I was infiltrating I thought I was one."
chalicejoker: (Perplexed)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-04 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
"That's...really strange." Really, really strange. "When did you realize you...weren't? Like that this wasn't what you really were?"
darkhourdear: (Pharos [The end is coming])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-04 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
"When the Jaunt ended and I wound up back in Liminal Space," Phillip says, sounding more than a little put out, "I think if you die during the Jaunt, then when you come back you remember, but." He's not sure that's even an option for him.
chalicejoker: (Shock)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-04 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"...die? So you can die here?" He looks around the area. "Or...I guess I should say, what happens if you die in the Liminal Space place?"
darkhourdear: (Pharos [idk my bff Minako?])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-04 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"Why wouldn't you be able to?" Such a weird question, Hajime. "In Jaunts, you get brought back into Liminal Space, I think. If you die here... I 'unno. I'm not sure that happens very much."
chalicejoker: (Sad)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-06 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
"I...it's just...planning for the worst." Can he even die anymore? He doesn't know. He doesn't think so. Why should he worry...aside from worrying about everyone else? But the kid's not too disturbed by it, which is...good? Kind of? "I guess that's good to know, even if it looks weird as heck here..."
darkhourdear: (Pharos [The end is coming])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-06 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
Hajime, it's Phillip. Of course he's not going to be too bothered talking about death. "It really is weird," he'll agree, shuffling his feet a little, "But at least pretty much everyone's nice?"
chalicejoker: (Amused)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-08 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
Hajime gives him a smile. It's pretty good to see him at his own baseline level of normal, given the circumstances. "Yeah, that's always a plus."
darkhourdear: (Pharos [idk my bff Minako?])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-08 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
Phillip nods. "...I think there are some other people from Locke here, too. Um. Mr. Lyall?" He never talked to him much, but-- "Oh, but if you see someone who likes look Toushirou here, it's not him. It's, um. The guy he gets some stuff from." You know what that means.
chalicejoker: (Well that is a mild surprise)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-09 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
"Lyall's here?" Hajime sounds like he's torn between concern and regret, really. But that second bit. "Seriously? The...other guy?" Well, now. That's a whole new set of things to worry about.
darkhourdear: (Pharos [I don't remember])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-09 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
...Oh. Phillip didn't know Lyall that well, so that kind of response surprises him. "Yeah. Are you guys friends?" That seems like the best possible guess, after all. "But... yeah. There a couple people here like that, but I don't know if you'd know the rest. I just try to check to be safe."
chalicejoker: (Contemplative)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-10 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
"He was my high school science teacher," Hajime said with a little laugh. "Pulled me out of a couple of fights by my collar...but yeah, I guess we're friends now." Hajime nods. "Nothing wrong with checking to be safe. Things could probably get awkward fast."
darkhourdear: (Pharos [idk my bff Minako?])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-10 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
"Really?" The thought of 'he's that old???' remains unsaid. Phillip has some tact. "Yeah, that's... kind of what I've been going with. From Locke, so far it's just you, and me, and Mr. Lyall I think." (He doesn't know about Nick.)
chalicejoker: (Standard Expression)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-11 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, really." Hajime gives Phillip a nod, bemused by this reaction. "That's still kind of more than I'd have guessed, honestly." He looks around the area. "Then again, I guess no one's got as much luck getting into weird crap as Numbered."
darkhourdear: (Pharos [I don't remember])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-11 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, me too. But sometime people from the same world show up here. ...And then sometimes people who are from the same kind of world but different and then it gets really confusing." He has no idea what's going on with everyone from Naoto's home anymore.
chalicejoker: (Standard Expression)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-12 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Considering that just thinking about these possibilities is kind of making my head hurt, I can imagine." Hajime grimaces.
darkhourdear: (Pharos [I don't remember])

[personal profile] darkhourdear 2015-05-12 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah..." Phillip sighs. "D'you need to know other stuff? I've been here a while, so..."
chalicejoker: (Huh)

[personal profile] chalicejoker 2015-05-14 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
"Is there anything else you think I should know?" Because it's hard to know what to ask about, really.

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