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

[chalicejoker]

"Across the entire ship? By yourself?" So Hajime still seems skeptical.

[virioncomplex]

"I could shit out a ship better designed than this one. It's not that hard."

[chalicejoker]

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

[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.

[chalicejoker]

"Oh." Well, that's simple enough. Somewhat. "I live in a city, so this is new." Hajime shrugs.

[virioncomplex]

He's quiet for a moment before curiosity rears it's ugly head and he actually continues the conversation of his own volition. "What planet?"

[chalicejoker]

That curiosity surprises Hajime, who had been preparing to move out in search of someone who might appreciate a guy who could smash things and lift heavy objects. "Earth."

[virioncomplex]

"Bullshit." He glares over his shoulder at the other insect, antennae twitching. "I've been to Earth. There's only one developing race there and they're mammals."

[chalicejoker]

There are so many things Hajime could say to explain this away, but somehow he doesn't think the "I was a human until I turned into a bug" truth is going to cut it here. "Mammals with a piss-poor track record of properly storing their radioactive waste." So that story was still kind of full of crap. But he'd used it before; it was familiar. "Makes things get weird."

[virioncomplex]

"Right."That story is full of crap and he can smell it a mile away. "So you're a radioactive earth insect that didn't get hauled off and dissected the moment you stood up and said hello?"

[chalicejoker]

"Nah, there was a small colony of us in the sewers." Hajime shrugs. "Right next to the giant pink stone snakes." The latter which had actually been a thing on his version of Earth.

[virioncomplex]

He rolls his eyes, not believing that for a moment. "You need a better cover story than that."In his version of the universe, even backwater, underdeveloped rocks like the Earth are monitored in the event the populous actually makes it out past it's own sliver of space. Still, he's not going to press for the truth. He knows all too well that people need their secrets.

[chalicejoker]

"Considering what I'm covering for, it's not as bad as it could be," Hajime grumps. "But I really am from Earth. And it's really mostly humans--I'm the only one like me there."

[virioncomplex]

"The less complicated the better. You need to be able to keep your story straight and it draws less attention." Why is he offering advice? Who the fuck knows.

[chalicejoker]

"I'll keep that in mind." He gives a shrug. "It worked pretty well on Earth for a little while, at least. Made a guy cry once."

[virioncomplex]

"That's because humans are gullible." He says as a matter-of-factly, as though it were common knowledge. Which it isn't, but he certainly believes it to be true.