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

[pseudologist]

"I'll leave that part out of the book," Varric assures, though the abrupt checked movement in past-Asa's direction when she falls makes a lie of his easy tone. It's just a memory, but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier to watch without trying to interfere.

"We sent out search parties," he adds after a moment's silence, and there's something just a little apologetic in his voice, that out of everyone who'd escaped from Haven, none of them had found her in the cold and the storms. She'd stumbled across their path in the end, on her own.

[galvanizer]

"... We made it out okay though," she says, putting a hand to Varric's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. No apologies needed. Ever. "I almost lost my staff on the way though. Good thing I didn't, or Harritt might not have spoken to me ever again."

[pseudologist]

Varric lifts his hand to briefly cover hers, solidarity and gratitude both, and allows himself a low chuckle at the thought of the smith's likely displeasure at the loss of one of his designs. "Now, Inquisitor," he says. "He'd have to talk to you at least once. Have you ever tried to yell in pantomime?"

[galvanizer]

"... I'd give good gold to see that," she says with a grin. "He might hurt himself if we put Dagna in front of him though."

[pseudologist]

"She'd probably just give pointers," Varric notes, not without a hint of fondness in his voice. Dagna might be prone to delving into the weirdest corners of magic possible, but her knack for artificing and her willingness to leave Orzammar behind her make her all right in his books.

"We might actually see the first ever case of a human spouting lava without having been possessed by a rage demon first."

[galvanizer]

"He'd never need to light a fire in his forge ever again," she adds. "We'd just have to get him angry enough and he'd be off!"