The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2015-08-28 06:41 pm
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Test Drive #11.

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 September 1st-7th. Our next Jaunt, The Lightning Age, a postcolonial steampunk romp with a hunt for a fugitive disordering a peaceful flying city, will run September 12th-October 19th, and an alternate player-driven setting, or Walkabout, will be available (but the specific setting has yet to be voted upon).

Prompt #33 is set in the sometimes Mad-Max like post-apocalyptic academia of the Ivory Tower jaunt, where an isolated school works to restore civilization decades after a brutal war destroyed it. But off-campus, things can get a little rougher…

Prompt #34 is set in the world of Heartbreak Academy, a shoujo high school world where Social Technology, or S. Tech, allows the physical conjuration of emotions - sparkles, roses, soundtracks, emotes and rainclouds. Heartbreak Academy teaches elite students how to better master their S. Tech - and as you could imagine, this makes practical exams… very interesting...


Prompt #33: Pop Quiz.

There are chlorine bombs in the library, and snipers outside.

To be more specific, the library is an open-air market set up in a suburban French high-rise parking garage, one of the few buildings on this side of the city to survive intact, and a good place for gatherings that might need a quick getaway. Academics from across Europe use it as a trading post - bringing old books, or bringing computer printouts collected in three-ring binders, driving up in dune buggies or armored trucks, landing on the ceiling in helicopters, conducting a rapid swap of the valuables, and leaving.

But this time, the warlords knew they were coming. On each floor, among the parked cars, there’s a truck or van with deflated tires and an empty gas tank, in which an oil-drum and a detonator have been mounted. It’s overkill, but worse is the fact that in half-demolished buildings to either side are snipers. To the west, they only have crossbows, but the raider on the northeast has some sort of pre-War antimateriel rifle, and he’s already scragged a buggy in the exit ramp and shot a chopper pilot on the roof.

So now, it’s up to the academics. Those who study environmental sciences are trying to find ways to neutralize the chemicals. Engineers are working to disarm the detonators or fix the vehicles enough to safely transport the bombs. The history and humanities students are given the job of finding some way to stop the snipers, and stop raiders from getting in to steal any of their texts or other resources.

And some, of course, are caught in the fine traditions of academic debate, and may need Travelers to steer them to more decisive action… but of course, there might be Travelers among the raiders, too.


Prompt #34 Partner Exercise

The exam is simple. Each of you’s been given a spare, teacher-monitored Moe-Meter and left alone in the exam hall. Using S. Tech - not just fancy manifestations, but your words and actions, your persuasive skill and acting ability, all the skills that make you effective with S. Tech - you and your partner for this exam have to bury the needle. The problem is, you have to do it in both directions - positive emotion, maxing things out with cuteness, fondness, or warm feelings - and negative emotion, hitting empty on the meter through sadness, anger, or fear. Any sort of against-the-rules physical contact is an automatic F (if your partner reports it), but apart from that, it’s up to your imagination. You have fifteen minutes - that’s like Seven Minutes In Heaven and Seven in Hell, with one minute of cooldown in between.
bypartisan: (by(ped))

34 (also investigation)

[personal profile] bypartisan 2015-09-01 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
Byerly quirks a sardonic eyebrow. "Really, Sakuraba, weren't you listening? Our dear instructor wants us to demonstrate our emotional range and our experience manipulating the emotions of others. To bury the needle on both sides, as it were. I can see we'll be having a bit of trouble where you're concerned."

He sighs dramatically. "I, of course, am very familiar with how to accomplish these things chemically, but unfortunately, the last time I brought any of these helpful little items to school, I was threatened with expulsion from the host club and after I'd just managed to claw my way in. Most unfair."

Some people enjoy getting into character a little too much.
Edited 2015-09-01 10:56 (UTC)
needsmorezippers: (Neku [Fuck this shit])

[personal profile] needsmorezippers 2015-09-04 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, look, it's the totally uncalled for Joshua replacement. This was pretty much the only way this situation could have been worse, and so of course it happened. Let's see how long it takes to want to punch him in the face. That'll probably 'bury the needle' in at least one direction, right?

His entire spiel gets treated with a crossing of the arms and a raise of an eyebrow. "What a shame," he says, his tone as dry as humanly possible, "So do you know how to do this or not?"
bypartisan: (by(plane))

[personal profile] bypartisan 2015-09-04 08:46 am (UTC)(link)
Joshua replacement? By would be wounded if he a) knew what Neku was thinking about him and b) knew who Joshua was. Since neither of the above are true, Byerly merely sighs dramatically and folds his hands behind his head. "I'm afraid they didn't have those at my old school," he says airily, "but our dear instructor said they'd respond automatically. No, it's provoking an honest emotional reaction out of you that'll be difficult. Tell me, is your face stuck that way?"

By smirks at him, as if he's asking to be punched. In truth, he's deliberately trying to set Neku off. It'd be the easiest way to at least get half-marks for this exercise.
needsmorezippers: (Neku [Fuck this shit])

[personal profile] needsmorezippers 2015-09-06 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, if that's Byerly's plan, then it's... kind of working. The negative vibes coming off of Neku are pretty intense all ready, and the Moe Meter is heading in that direction in response. That doesn't mean Neku isn't picking up on the tactic, though. "You're just being a dick on purpose, aren't you?" he grumbles, arms crossed. ...But yeah it's not stopping it from working.
bypartisan: (by(plane))

[personal profile] bypartisan 2015-09-07 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
"You wound me, Sakuraba. You positively wound me."

Yes, yes he is being a dick on purpose. If nothing else, that smug smirk on his face is making that pretty clear.