Test Drive #13.

[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 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 December 18th-31st. Our next Jaunt, Escape from Junkworld, is a space opera romp where humans, aliens, and androids work together on mysterious scavenged, malfunctioning ships to outrun an interstellar disaster. Our next Walkabout (a more casual alternative event, for those not interested in the Jaunt) will revisit Heartbreak Academy, a shoujo anime setting where high-schoolers use Social Technology to bring shoujo special effects to life, from glitter to roses, transformation sequences to sad rainclouds, these cartoony powers are at the height of education for those who want a career in media or diplomacy, or some other means of big-stage self-expression. Both Jaunt & Walkabout will begin January 7th & run for approximately six weeks.

Prompt #37 is set in the Escape from Junkworld jaunt, as an advance taste of the fun available there.

Prompt #38 is set in a created landscape within the Telepathic Network all Travelers can access, and features characters facing their inner demons and traumatic memories together.


Prompt #37

The Coronation's coolant system has sprung a leak somewhere in its kilometers of pressurized tubing - near enough to the diagnostic centers to short out the readouts, meaning half the crew is up to their elbows in the decking, ceramic floor plates scattered along the corridors like loose shingles, making traveling between workstations like a game of holy grail hopscotch between the tiles and the potholes they left.

Besides that, the leak leaves the entirety of the ship smelling like a cross between pond scum and burned espresso, and set the radiation alarms to a distracting buzz - not enough for klaxons, just a constant, low-level warning that set the teeth on edge.

In the ship’s simulator chambers, anyone visored and gloved to work in virtual space can ignore it - but the computer environment may experience glitches in its programs, whether functional or recreational. On the bridge, other systems are experiencing occasional failures - from sensor shadows hinting at unreal pursuit and activating automated combat routines, to the translators in the comm system shorting out and creating a momentary babel.

Meanwhile, between evacuating irradiated areas, crawling through the conduits looking for the problem to fix, or quietly shooing smuggler-snails full of contraband out of the way of the search parties, there’s something for everyone to be doing...


Prompt #38


Sometimes someone’s issues lead to them being swallowed by a dungeon in Liminal Space and forced to confront their darker side, their repressed issues - but you can’t always wait for an arbitrary interdimensional force to kidnap you. Here in the Mind Palace, the world is simply a vast, blank white space, and glittering glass cubes float in the air, each holding within it a freeze-framed memory of a traumatic moment, something you’ve chosen to face here together with your companions. Maybe only one of you is going through this gauntlet, or maybe you’ve opted to face your fears together, but whatever this captive image is, you’ll have to explain it or let it play out, and come to grips with what it means to you - whether a happy memory you’ve lost, something that makes you sad or afraid or angry, or even a piece of your past that had been buried or forgotten until now - there it is, in front of you, waiting.

What happens next?

Comments

[virtuedlight]

[ Jules' sudden arrival isn't taken well at all. The youth stumbles backwards, and the blue glow from his hands expands into a full shield as he presses himself against the wall in a bid to avoid being hit.

However, given his speed (or rather, lack thereof), it might not have done enough to get him out of the way completely. ]

[failgoyle]

Well, sure, she could try cuffing him if she wanted to deal with possible tears...as though the panic isn't bad enough. He still wilted back from the bared teeth and the flared spines. "Trouble's that way, I'm hoping the escape pods or whatever are this way."

[failgoyle]

The accent, the general demeanor...Jules has encountered people like this at Court, and he didn't like them then. He can't say this encounter is doing much for his levels of like and dislike now. (Plus, he should be able to see through this guy's Mask, and he's not, so what gives? Is this really not some kind of ogre?) "Life boats, they've got to have some kind of escape pods or teeny little spaceships that could get us to...I dunno, Space Jamaica!"

[failgoyle]

[Jules gives a yelp at the blue glow and flings himself to the floor at the last second in order to roll out of the way of whatever horrible attack is surely to come.]

[virtuedlight]

[ Like Jules, Cecil also had a hand over his face in case something tried to smash his shield. However, the expected impact did not come, and he opens his eyes hesitantly.

There is someone on the floor. Surely they couldn't have run against his shield? ]

... please don't hurt me...

[ This is said in a very small voice as he draws his shield closer to his person. ]

[failgoyle]

[...okay, Jules is lying on the floor on his stomach like some kind of slug in a terribly misguided attempt at self-defense, and he's being asked not to do any hurting? What is this madness?]

...if you don't hurt me, then cool, cool, we're cool, everything's all cool here, sure.

[And he's getting to his feet.]

[failgoyle]

"Je--" Wait. Wait. He knows what that is, even if it's from a very different place than what she's thinking. He's got his face in his hands now. "Please tell me you don't really think you're a Jedi."

Because that's just what he needs here, a kid caught up in a very thorough game of make-believe.

[virtuedlight]

[ Cecil doesn't relax, nor put down his shield. ]

... who are you?

[chalicejoker]

"So they have a lot of these things where you're from?"

[failgoyle]

I'm Jules. Who are you?

[He's just staying there flat on his stomach until he deems it safe enough to move, no big deal. Dude looks like he could lie motionless in that awkward position for days if he had to.]

[senpaidol]

"Oh wow that's adorable! I didn't know they could get tiny!" Rise says, pleased with this development.

"Well...I think if you had the same relationship with me that Souji-senpai did, you've probably seen everything I see here...oh, unless this stage one was my last show."

She gestures in the direction of the darkened-audience glass. "Wanna go for that one?"

[virtuedlight]

[ That sure is an uncomfortable position, but he isn't about to comment on that. ]

Cecil. [ First names only, right? ] Are you one of them?

[ The investigators, is what he's trying to get at, but he isn't the most obvious of people even on good days. ]

[failgoyle]

...depends on what you mean by "them."

[He would have frozen if he were not already frozen in place. He's still not moving at all. The first "them" he's jumping to is "changeling," but maybe not?]

You've kind of got an unclear antecedent there to that pronoun, you know? Them could be referring to a whole lot of different things. Just one of the vagrancies of the English language!

[virtuedlight]

[ He's not good at this. Perhaps the hint wasn't strong enough... but then again, he doesn't know if the Investigators have a common code at all. ]

I'm not from here. [ He gestures with one hand at the cramped corridor. ] Are you?

[failgoyle]

No, I'm not.

[Well, at least they've got one little bit of something in common.]

So where are you from?

[virioncomplex]

Generally, one would prefer not to be harmed, but Faed has in a way forced himself not to care. He doesn't think very highly of himself and there's part of him that figures he deserves it, especially since he can't actually die.

"I'm not from your planet, idiot." He starts kicking for all the good it does him. This is so humiliating. What the fuck is even going on with his life anymore.

"Let me down!"

[virtuedlight]

Eden. Not that... it means anything to you, I'd expect...

[ Not for the first time, he regrets not taking note of more people before they came here. ]

Are you from Earth?

Re: haha no worries <3

[forcechanic]

"He'll probably be on the bridge." At least if he's a good captain. He had certain responsibilities when there were malfunctions like this. He shouldn't just be delegating to the first mate, off shift or not. He needed to oversee the engineering efforts and evacuation himself. That meant bridge consoles.

Finding him wasn't really going to be the hard part. "The real trick's going to be that passengers probably aren't allowed up there." And she couldn't count on the crew being weak minded enough for her to pull Jedi mind tricks. They didn't seem to be deeply conditioned enough to leave them vulnerable.

[failgoyle]

...unless your name is Adam, it probably doesn't.

[Still not moving, still lying there like some kind of weird statue. Weirdo.]

Yeah, Earth! I mean, I could get more specific than that, but Earth is an excellent start.

[virtuedlight]

Adam... right, the Genesis. [ He's read that part of scripture. ] Eden is named after the Biblical garden, yes. But it's not the same.

[ Jules' talking style is throwing Cecil off a little, but he tries not to show it. ]

If you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask...

[failgoyle]

Oh, well, there are worse places to name other places after.

[Perfectly normal conversation, yep. At least he's sitting up now, even if it's in sort of a weird crouch at this point and he's still not moving once he's in the weird crouch.]

And Earth isn't a bad place, just a big one. Like I'm from America, which is a country...well, actually, that could refer to a couple of continents but in this case I'm just using it to refer to one of the countries on those continents...

I think Cecil's entire response to Jules is this icon

[virtuedlight]

[ Cecil knows where America is, and he can guess. At least this is some sense that he's getting. ]

... you talk like an American. [ He concludes that this is probably why. ] I don't suppose America in your time has invented these sorts of things?

[ The youth indicates the air around him, referring to the station. ]

[virioncomplex]

Faed slides neatly into the alcove, the open wall panel making it easy for him to practically disappear. Scrambling around, he peeks back out to watch the battle as it progresses. At first his mind is a buzz in trying to find a way around them so he can keep going, this isn't the sort of thing he'd get involved in. At least, until the redhead spoke.

There are precious few things that will get him to act. Rape would be one of them, and violently so. To say he as issues is putting it kindly. Glancing around, he disconnects a length of wire from inside the alcove, and waits for the right moment to strike. Once the large man had his back to him, he darts up and leaps up, using his clawed feet to rip into him, hauling himself up so he can wrap the wire around the bastards throat and lean backwards. He's not very strong, but luckily you don't need a lot of physical force to make this work, just the right amount of leverage.

His mandibles snap out and he hisses, pulling back as hard as he can.

[virioncomplex]

"I live on one." He likes his ship better than most people. Hell, he's hard pressed to come up with more than one person he may actually like more. At least Bodan knows when to shut it's non existent mouth.

[bluejade]

That was useful information. Not that she knew what an escape pod was, but Jules couldn't know less.

"Here. If you stop screaming, I'll help you get out. Some of the places here are impassible thanks to people tearing the place apart to look for the problem."

Between flight or climbing, Jade could pass through most, and for all of Jules's excitability, he had more of a clue than she did.