The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2015-08-28 06:41 pm
Entry tags:

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.
leftbehindagain: (special headquarters)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-01 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, trying is a start, at least.

"Not everyone, no. There's... five or six timelines' worth of Inaba represented here, so it all depends on who you ask. In most cases it seems like I wasn't involved, but who else would Kanji start with?" Who else did Kanji have to start with? At that time, the answer was pretty much 'no one.'

But Naoki would've been there for him regardless, and never mind his Shadow's opinion on the matter ("you don't miss her at all, you little shit").

"I do. It'll at least keep you from getting hurt worse."
permastubble: (Look at me rambling on.)

[personal profile] permastubble 2015-09-01 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"Timelines. Like in those science fiction movies." He believes it because he has to but it's still hard to swallow and that difficulty comes through in his voice.

Ryoutarou goes somber in the next moment though. He remembers before Tatsumi met his nephew. He's not really sure what the statement means, exactly, but the lack of friends before was clearly apparent, and Ryoutarou was just a kind of distant observer back then.

He barely gives the offer full consideration at first. "If you think it will help, go for it. Otherwise, don't waste the SP."

There's a flicker of a smile for a second, like Ryoutarou's pleased he remembered something correctly.
leftbehindagain: (oh good)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-01 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, they can give the Wild Card thing full consideration later. The various timelines are going to take a while, as well as the fact that Dojima-san has two nephews and a niece hanging around...

Naoki snorts. "It never hurts to try, and it's better than sitting around injured indefinitely."

He summons Koga Saburo and makes with the healing in short order. (...Please don't ask about the whole snakeskin footie pajamas thing. Naoki isn't sure either.)
permastubble: (You were a cute kid.)

[personal profile] permastubble 2015-09-02 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Ryoutarou raises an eyebrow at the snakeskin motif, but he's really not one to judge, considering that his looks like he wandered out of a period drama, with some strange anachronisms, like the hat.

"Huh. Mine's got a fox look going on. Sort of." Ryoutarou closes his eyes for the spell, because sometimes it's better not to wrack his brain for how it's happening.

When the spell is done, Ryoutarou looks pleasantly surprised. "My headache is all but gone. I wonder--"

He reaches to feel at the cut, and the stitches and the bandages are still there, but he really shouldn't be surprised at that, should he? It doesn't hurt as much to touch, at least.
leftbehindagain: (inconsequential)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-02 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
"I can't get rid of stitches or whatever, but that should help with the worst of it, at least. I'm... guessing getting hurt and getting a Persona went hand in hand, from the looks of that thing?"

It's as good a place to start the timeline discussion as any. And at least with the worst of everything right there on the TVs, the most painful parts don't need to be said.
permastubble: (You were a cute kid.)

[personal profile] permastubble 2015-09-02 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. I realized Nanako was going to be taken and got these trying to stop it. I ended up having a long chat with my shadow instead, and then right after getting out, we had to go back in to get Nanako because the door was locked to me, and the fog was coming that night. Huh, I wonder if they didn't get better before because in the fights it was reaching its limit just keeping me on my feet."

That's possible, he thinks. Ryoutarou makes a thoughtful noise; he'd have to ask Amagi or Teddie to know for sure, probably.
leftbehindagain: (planning squad)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-02 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
"It's possible. Kanji wore us all out trying to get to Naoto in one shot, and I sure didn't feel like I was doing much good for any of us by the time he finally collapsed and had to call it a day." And then they had to wait a few days before they all felt well enough to go back in. Needless to say, Kanji learned his lesson.

"What... when is it, for you? That'll help narrow down some of the timeline stuff, but I think yours might be different from everyone else's. It's definitely different from mine and Kanji's, I can say that much."
permastubble: (Detecting something here.)

[personal profile] permastubble 2015-09-02 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
He'll have to remember to ask around. Maybe there's an answer. It's interesting to think about, at least.

The current question is more important, anyway. "The date is December 4th, last I checked. We realized Namatame wasn't the only culprit and spoke with him today and we were planning on doing more tomorrow, but--"

Ryoutarou looks around, frowning slightly. So much for that, unless... "How do we get back?"

It's a long-shot, because he can't imagine anyone staying here longer than necessary, but he has to ask.
leftbehindagain: (sorry about that)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-02 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
...Damn, it took them that long to realise it wasn't just Namatame? The lag's almost justified in Adachi-san's timeline, since the case was such a clusterfuck, but seriously. (Did no one think to revisit the victims' families, or did Kanji just luck out that there was someone in his group who knew Saki didn't leave the house with a delivery guy?)

But now's not the time to get into that. "It was late March for me and Kanji. I think around the same time for Naoto and Souji-san, almost certainly for Yua, I'm not certain on Adachi-san, and... I haven't talked to Seta-san enough to know for sure about him. As for going home, I have no idea, but I don't think Nanako-chan will even know you're gone."

It's small comfort, especially with her fresh off a kidnapping and all, but it's all he can give.
permastubble: (Dammit Adachi!)

[personal profile] permastubble 2015-09-08 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
“What do you mean she won’t know? Is there going to be some kind of— of robot or something taking my place?!”

Ryoutarou winces immediately after, because yelling really wasn’t is intent, but just the thought of Nanako being cared for by some fake (all he can think of is his shadow) makes him feel panicked and when he panics, he gets angry. Something he’ll need to work on, he knows, but now’s not the time.

“And who are those others, I recognize Shirogane, Tatsumi and Adachi, but…” Souji sounds like a boy’s first name, and Yua is far too close to his nephew’s name, except probably a girl’s? And who the hell is Seta?
leftbehindagain: (planning squad)

[personal profile] leftbehindagain 2015-09-08 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
He only flinches a little at the shouting (a cop shouting at you is never a comfortable circumstance). "Not like that. My best guess is time stops at home while we're here."

He sure as hell hopes that's the case, anyway.

"Souji-san, Seta-san and Yua are all variations on the theme of your nephew. Well, niece, in Yua's case. I don't know what's up with the name either."