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synodiporia_ooc2015-12-18 08:28 pm
powersthatbe) wrote in synodiporia_ooc2015-12-18 08:28 pm
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Test Drive #13.
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?
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?
no subject
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. ]
no subject
[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!
no subject
I'm not from here. [ He gestures with one hand at the cramped corridor. ] Are you?
no subject
[Well, at least they've got one little bit of something in common.]
So where are you from?
no subject
[ Not for the first time, he regrets not taking note of more people before they came here. ]
Are you from Earth?
no subject
[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.
no subject
[ 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...
no subject
[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
... 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. ]
very appropriate response
[That crouch he's sitting in as they have this discussion cannot possibly be comfortable, but he doesn't seem to mind.]
Only thing we've got like this is...I dunno, the Space Shuttle? But didn't they stop that...Mars rover? Probey things here and there?
Do they have these things on Eden?
he doesn't understand.
[ It's easy explaining Sign abilities to people who already know an equivalent, but he doesn't know if Jules does. ]
I was wondering if you knew a way we could make ourselves useful here.
somehow, no one does
[And, after a pause, he adds,]
Unless you need a fake ID. I'm pretty good at hooking people up with those. But otherwise, nah, I'm just getting out of the way and preferably out of the certain death zones.
amazing
So... nothing about this place, then?
[ Cecil has a feeling that he should at least try to do something, but he hasn't had the slightest idea of what and how. ]
no subject
Wasn't my choice to come here. Kind of like I won a really shitty mandatory vacation. I mean, I've had worse, but I still never wanted any part of this.
no subject
Oh. Me too, actually. I'm sorry.
[ He had so many things to do back home and none of them involved coming here. ]
So we'll just survive until we can go back.
no subject
[He shrugs.]
Survive until you can go back, hope you don't end up with any additional body parts.
no subject
Oh gosh. That sounds terrible... but I don't think they'll do it to us here.
[ He's hoping. ]
no subject
no subject
I'll try and protect us. It'll help a little.
[ But his lack of confidence in himself isn't exactly helping... ]
no subject
no subject
[ Cecil opens his hands again, and his previous shield from before turns more opaque. The shield glows light blue, and appears to be perfectly uniform with no irregularities. ]
I'm good at shielding, but - I'm not good at fighting. That's.... the problem.
no subject
[And sitting really still in weird positions. He still hasn't moved from that crouch.]