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

Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan - The Vorkosigan Saga

[theadmiralscaptain]

37 - Investigating

Damnit.

Cordelia is not an engineer- not that that would likely help, because she's not sure how much the methods of space travel are similar to the ones she's familiar with. But she does fully grasp how dangerous the situation is for them at the moment, so she will be doing what she can, which is mostly evacuating the affected areas. Which isn't made easier with have the ship being torn up looking for the problem.

"Come on," she says to whomever she's getting out of the area at the moment, "This way- we need to get out of this area as fast as possible." Maybe the radiation isn't that bad yet, but it easily could be.

38

Honestly these things have plenty of things to pick from, even if they just restricted their choices to the last couple of months. Cordelia's not sure why they're bothering showing things to her, honestly- she hasn't forgotten. She's not sure she can forget.

The one it's showing right now is particularly fresh, to the point that she not only hasn't gotten over it, she hasn't really had the time to deal with it yet. There's a scene in a beautiful room, Cordelia standing there with a young woman and a rather ugly man. They're surrounded by guards, a clearly aristocratic man and woman in front of them. This is not a good starting point, but Cordelia hands the woman a small shoe, which she takes almost in awe as the redhaired woman assures her than 'Gregor' is still alive. The woman begins to pull away from the man, who is trying to deny Cordelia's claim, but she continues to deny him and pulls out a weapon, she's killed instead by one of the guards.

As the memory ends, Cordelia just turns away. Kareen has been avenged, at least. But that doesn't make her feel much better.

you can choose whether or not cordelia and byerly already know each other

[bypartisan]

"That was her, wasn't it?" Byerly says, quietly. "Princess Kareen, I mean. I've seen her in pictures and recordings, of course. I was too young to remember otherwise."

He'd been a mere toddler when Vordarian's Pretendership had happened, after all.

[theadmiralscaptain]

"Yes," Cordelia says, with a soft sigh- though whether it's over the memory of the princess or the reminder that Byerly is not all that much older than her son in reality isn't clear, "She was always a very reserved woman, so I wasn't expecting her to visibly turn on Vordarian that quickly. But... in hindsight, I should have known better." A mother's love can drive one to desperation, as she knows only too well.

Asaraanda Adaar | Dragon Age: Inquisition

[galvanizer]

#38

The Qunari mage is no stranger to the Mind Palace... but that doesn't mean she's happy to be here or to see her memories laid out and contained in each of those floating cubes.

Staff heavy against her back, she slowly walks up to one of her memories, fingers brushing over the glass but not 'loading' it yet, she brushes back heavy braid from her shoulder and asks her companion(s), "Are you sure you want to go through this? They aren't... pretty."

Jules Thibault | Changeling the Lost OC, info in journal

[failgoyle]

[37]
So. Radiation leaks. Really, there was only one thing that such a fine, upstanding member of this crazy little traveling repair brigade Jules had found himself sucked into could do.

Pay no attention to the man running through the corridors of the ship and away from the irradiated areas, screaming at the top of his lungs. He doesn't really handle pressure well.

If he should happen to slam into someone else, there's barely a yelp of "Sorry!" before he'll try to scramble off and away to somewhere that is hopefully less likely to make him glow and/or grow extra body parts; he's got enough of those already. Not that anyone else can really see that.

[anothercoldwar]

Nikolas was heading towards the irradiated areas--it might have seemed foolish, but it was really the least he could do to help out--and was not quite prepared to instead be involved in a whole-body collision with a screaming person.

Most people might have sworn, at that point, but Nikolas just tries to steady him back on his feet, arching an eyebrow slightly.

"Are things really so bad?"

He was going to continue on his way, regardless, but it would be good to know if, say, there were murderous aliens or something as well as radiation.

vague acc spoilers

[bypartisan]

"The quiet sort can surprise you sometimes." He thinks of Lady Vorkosigan suddenly--the one from his time period, not the one in front of him. She'd been reserved too. Sadly, he'd been too busy being interrogated by ImpSec to be there when she'd finally surprised everyone, but Dono had told him about it later.

[theadmiralscaptain]

The only reply he gets to that is a soft hum of acknowledgement- seeing that memory does rattle her, and she needs to get her own expressions under control. These aren't really things she wants to address with herself in front a distressingly familiar looking stranger. "Is this normal, for this place?" she asks instead, taking the conversation away from the painful reminder.

[anothercoldwar]

37

A malfunctioning spaceship was not so terribly different than a malfunctioning spacestation, apart from size and general maneuverability, and as such was giving Nikolas a very strange sense of deja vu. He'd already given up on trying to work out how or why, exactly, he was there, and he was actually feeling a little bit of relief at having something to do. He wasn't particularly fixing things that couldn't be beaten into submission, granted, but radiation? Well, that was something he was well suited for.

Which was why he was not brushing his way past techs warning of the danger, taking an unconcerned stroll through the contaminated halls and, eventually, glowing a very faint blue.

[failgoyle]

"Things are radioactive!" Jules is looking at Nikolas like the man is crazy for heading towards the radioactive doom. "I'd say that's pretty bad!" He's so focused on trying to get the hell out of there, he barely registers that attempt to get him on his feet again.

He's also barely winded from the impact; he's got enough adrenaline and enough stamina that it takes more than slamming into someone to slow down the panic train for long.

[anothercoldwar]

Ah, was that it? It hardly seemed worth the panic. Granted, he was personally in zero danger, but still.

"It's a minor inconvenience. I was about to take care of it. Besides, they are not even playing the serious alarms yet."

Jaina Solo | Star Wars (Legends) | My timing is perfect.

[forcechanic]

[Prompt 37]

Jaina's never been particularly good at holding still. But that goes double when there are warning alarms going off and the problem seems to be mechanical. She's sure she can do something about this problem. She's never met a spaceship malfunction she couldn't handle, after all.

She dashes down the hall, using every sense to find the source of the leak. The sounds, the sights, the smells and of course, the Force. "This way." It's more a feeling than anything else. But she sounds confident that she knows what she's doing and that counts for something.

[Prompt 38]

This was spooky. This was... kinda like the sort of thing Uncle Luke said happened with Master Yoda, actually. But she had to face this. Calmly. If she'd learned nothing else in her training, it was that drawing a lightsaber on a test of one's personal issues never helped.

And sooner or later, it was inevitable that there would be a black armored figure. Raspy breathing that she never heard in life. "A Jedi knows no fear..."

But it sure was trying to introduce itself to her right now.

[bypartisan]

"My dear Lady Vorkosigan," Byerly says, "absolutely nothing is normal about this place. I have been trapped in maze inside a ball full of rats inside some odd Old Earth game called a pinball machine. I have seen a hellish brain-shaped highway full of hostile cars. This is rather par for the course."

[failgoyle]

"Wh--waitwaitwait." Jules didn't seem to like that revelation. "Serious alarms? They're alarms! They're already serious! What could get more serious than radiation?" He groans. "Don't tell me, it's going to come with radioactive tentacled hellbeasts rising up from the nether. Great! Wonderful! Gonna get attacked with radioactive tentacles! That's not how I wanted to go!"

37

[failgoyle]

"What do you mean, 'this way?'" Why, no, no, that way is the exact way Jules doesn't want to go. "'This way" is a way to certain radioactive doom, thank you very much!" He's now insistently pointing in the opposite direction. "But that way means away from certain radioactive doom. It's much better, really. I bet they even have, I dunno, cookies or something. Puppies, even." That's how you try to get a kid to stop trying to be a hero, right? Heroes get killed. Jules has no interest in getting killed.

He also probably feels a little weird in the Force. The magic that's clinging to him is strong enough to make him look perfectly human, even if he isn't anymore.

Pod - The Dragonlord Trilogy

[wolvering]

Prompt #37 (investigating!)
Pod is at more than a little bit of a loss. All of this is so strange that it might well be magic. It isn't, and she knows that, but she's capable of doing things with it about as well as she could cast a mage's spell. She was very confused at first about what was even happening, but now that it's explained what the spell means, and what could happen if the leak isn't found, well!

She and Kiga (a very large wolverine to other investigator's eyes, at least) are pretty good at finding things as a team. Kiga is not happy about tracking down the smell, and his grumpy noises testify to that, but his person wants to find them (it's important too), but his nose is better than anything here. And he's proud of that fact.

Pod, trailing behind the wolverine, offers encouragement and helps him navigate where claws and stout legs can't give him much purchase on slick tile. She's just a little nervous about behing herself for once, but offers a cheery smile and wave at anyone else in the corridors.

Prompt #38
There is a tiny girl that might be thirteen, and might be younger, standing near a cluster of cubes. Her hair is white as snow, and she's dressed in brown and green clothes that look medieval. Beside her is a massive wolverine, snarling quietly at the cubes. She puts her hand down to calm the wolverine, and then turns her head to look at her current companions. Her expression is turned down in discomfort, and what's probably embarrassment.

"You needn't look; I've no idea why these appeared."

There are several of her memories freeze framed, but the two closest show very different portions of her life. In the first, there is a tiny, tiny malnourished child, no older than four at the very most. She's dressed in rags held together by grime, with skin just as covered in muck. Under the dirt there are numerous cuts, oozing sores, and harder to see, bruises. Her hair is so thickly coated with filth and so very tangled that it's impossible to tell the color. It's probably never been cut. Her eyes and the way she holds herself are so full of wariness and fear that it could almost cut like a knife, and crouched before her is a young (and quite exhausted looking) man in brown and green, an expression of horrified pity on his face as he stretches out his hand like one would try to calm a hurt animal. At that man's back is another that might be a mercenary if his height and very large sword is any indication, looking quietly furious at another crowd far in the background. Those people are well dressed, looking like some servants and a representative of a minor noble family. Not a one of their frozen expression has any reaction to the girl, only concern and perhaps fear and frustration directed at the men.

The other, Pod is recognizable as her current age, but clearly been having a hard time of it. There's dirt and tears and cuts in her clothing and on her skin, probably from trekking through a forest, or running, and her face looks like she's trying with all her might to open her mouth and scream with at least some defiance, but her body is held very unnaturally, as if forced to stop moving mid-motion and held that way by some invisible force. Another girl with a splinted arm is next to her, looking terrified and equally helpless, and a man with crazed eyes and a very, very sharp knife has been caught mid-bound over a wide stump of a recently cut spruce.

Around the group are vile gray mushrooms that look downright evil demarking a wide clearing with the cut tree in the center, flowers the color of fresh spilled blood, scattered from a torn pack, two hand-whittled spears, and further out a forest that looks subtly wrong, like it's sinister and means ill to any who pass through.

[anothercoldwar]

"It is only a little radiation right now." He holds up his hand, thumb and forefinger held slightly apart to illustrate. "I was about to clean it up."

By which he means absorb it, and save it for punching things later on, if necessary.

"I have heard nothing about hellbeasts. If they're around, I'll take care of those too." Although he really hopes there aren't. That's an adventure he would very much not like to repeat.

[forcechanic]

Puppies? Boy does he ever have the wrong twin here. Not that she disliked puppies, but they were a far more effective bribe for Jacen. "I mean 'this way' is the one where the problem actually gets fixed."

She gives him a slight puzzled look at what she senses while trying to figure out what's got him so on edge. "I'm really good with machines." It definitely explains her plan here.

37

[forcechanic]

Jaina, on the other hand, seems quite at home in this environment. Not quite comfortable, because of course there's something wrong, but she doesn't seem out of place. She's pretty sure she can figure this out.

She returns the smile in kind. "We're getting close to the problem now." She's very confident in that.

Rommie | Andromeda

[doesntrunfromafight]

#37 - Investigating
Rommie isn't one to judge the technological advancements of other cultures. It kind of doesn't do her any good. But there's a part of her that is immensely glad that The Coronation isn't her. That the only time she has ever looked this bad as she navigates corridors is after a fight with the Magog or the Drago-Kazov fleet. And she's done both in the last year and she is incredibly grateful for Harper's ingenuity and genius right now.

An while she's hearing snippets of conversation about a VR interface to monitor and repair the ships computer system she's hearing nothing of an AI inhabiting the matrix to control the ship. Which isn't strange either, a lot has changed since the fall, but even the Maru has some level of interface for Becca and the crew to interact with to get things done.

Bottom line Rommie is perplexed. One minute she's assisting a would be informant evade capture on Mobeius and the net minute she's here getting flagged into the trenches as it were while leaking conducting fluid from her abdomen and upper back thanks to taking several gauss gun rounds while fending off four highly trained members of the Mobeius military in Kim's apartment. Meanwhile Rev. Bem, Harper, and Tyr all sinking to the bottom of the ocean. She doesn't have time for this distraction, but it seems like the quickest way to find answers to what she's doing here is strip off her trench coat (she's keeping the force lance strapped to her thigh) and help find the leak they're all searching for, with her sensors and hope she gets back in time to keep the others from drowning or being crushed in the Maru.

Faed pa'Varuun || Original Character

[virioncomplex]

Prompt #37 - GOD DAMN PAKSHIT STUPID SHIP

Whoever designed this ship needs a swift kick to the tenderest parts of their alien anatomy. To be fair, Faed tends to think that about any piece of machinery he didn't make. If he didn't build it, he doesn't trust it. At least not until he's crawled completely around in all it's vital areas so he knows he can fix it if something goes wrong. That's all well and good, but being thrust upon a dying ship in the midst of its own meltdown puts him outside both of those prefered scenarios, leaving him to deal with someone else's mess.

He's a bounty hunter. He's supposed to be saving his own, green plated ass, not everyone else's. Luckily for them, saving his own ass will have the added benefit of saving everyone else in the process.

Faed is tiny, easily mistaken for a child. Until it comes to the attention that not only is he tiny, but he's also green, foul mouthed, and also a giant, walking, humanoid bug. The fact that he actually has four arms is hidden by the fact that he keeps two of them strapped down under his jacket. Across the back of his shoulders is perched a robot that looks like it was built around the skeleton of something akin to a large rat.

Wandering through the fray, he seems to be completely unconcerned about the dangers around him. It's not that he's being brave in the face of danger, he just doesn't appear to have much in the way of self preservation. If nact he seems to blatantly ignore warnings like he doesn't give a damn.

His antennae twitch overhead, and he'll occasionally lift a hand to turn the dial on one of the large headphones he has plugged into his ears. When he's not ripping something apart in an attempt to figure out how to fix it, he's ripping something apart in an attempt to salvage things he can use.

[theadmiralscaptain]

"Great." Because the headache of being transported to another world within worlds wasn't bad enough, apparently. At not all of them will be this particular brand of emotional turmoil. (Though maybe that should wait to be seen.) "Par for the course is what I was asking after, but I'm not sure that answer makes me any happier about all of this."

[bypartisan]

"They're better, sometimes," he says. "There was an underwater theatre once. With water you could breathe and paper squid that exploded into candy. And a factory that assembled campsites. They included marshmallows. It was quite cosy, actually."

[failgoyle]

"Look, I don't care how little radiation it is, I don't want anything to do with it!" Relative units of tiny spaces held between thumbs and forefingers mean nothing to Jules right now. "I really don't need to grow extra limbs or whatever right now, thanks. And how do you clean that up? It's not like there are hazmat suits and little radiation mops and buckets anywhere."

He supposes he shouldn't be surprised that someone's willing to take care of any hellbeasts even though he's kind of hoping the only hellbeasts around are the ones in his imagination. There are people like that out in the world, though he thinks they're all crazy. "How would you do that? They're radioactive hellbeasts!"

[failgoyle]

"Machines are one thing, dying's another, why go running towards certain death!" So the idea of maybe fixing things before everyone dies is not one that exactly resonates with Jules. "Let someone else fix it."