The Powers That Be (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
powersthatbe) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
synodiporia_ooc2016-08-24 12:40 pm
powersthatbe) wrote in synodiporia_ooc2016-08-24 12:40 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive #15
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 August 24th-31st. Our next Jaunt, Lightside/Darkside, takes place in January, a clockpunk city on a hill, home to a unique, fey, fairy-tale culture. The Lightsiders and Darksiders live on the same streets, but every day, at sunrise and sunset, one group flees inside to lock their doors, and the other takes to the streets to conduct the day or night’s business. Each group faces unique challenges and mysteries in their separate but overlapping cities--and what they do not know about one another could serve to either unite their society or tear it apart. The Jaunt is scheduled to begin September 9th & run for approximately six weeks.
Prompt #41 is set in the Bando Peninsula from the Code of Dishonor Jaunt, a martial arts fantasy where ninjas, spirit summoners, peasant armies, scheming nobles, and the monastic Sun Guard all recently came together to depose the Shogun who ruled over them.
Prompt #42 is set in the supernatural princedom of Sarmatia, home to vampires, werewolves, and the corvigers who serve them in order for their own shot at immortality. During the Children of the Night Jaunt last fall, the Travelers help Sarmatia hold its first free elections.
Prompt #41
Since the True-Named Empire first started dumping its political dissidents in the Bando, the people of the three provinces have celebrated the annual Spirit Festival from the 8th to the 15th Days of the Cycle of the Hungry Ghost. Normally, it would be celebrated in smaller festivals all over the Peninsula and indeed those festivals are still happening. This year, however, a special Spirit Festival is being held in the burnt remains of the Shogun’s Palace, while representatives from the three provinces meet in a palatial tent to discuss Bando self-government going forward.
For everyone else, there’s the festival.
Hastily erected stalls line what used to be corridors and grand hallways. There is every kind of festival food from octopus balls to meat on sticks to shaved ice brought down from the mountain and flavored with fruit juices. There is rumor that later tonight there will be fireworks. Right now there is a double-ringed Spirit Dance in the remains of the throne room, where the living form the outer ring and spirits made visible by Sun Guard summoners form the inner. In the center of it all, the irrepressible Sun Guard spirit Sai leads the dancers in the ritual chants.
With such a huge crowd, it shouldn’t be too hard for Investigators to fade into it.
Prompt #42
The thumping backbeats were enough to wake the dead. Luckily, the dead made up a good portion of the audience. The top of a burial mound might seem to be a strange place to hold a concert, but Britpop boyband sensation NOIZE liked the spooky atmosphere and had been willing to pay a considerable fee to rent the Kurgan for their concert. Given the unfortunate state of Sarmatian finances after the most prominent banker in Colchis ran off to Brazil with half of everyone’s money last December, this was simply an offer the two co-princes could not refuse.
(Even if it meant they weren’t holding court tonight from their usual spot inside the Kurgan. Too noisy. Much, much too noisy.)
To the Travelers, this might seem like a fairly standard loud pop concert from the tail end of the twentieth century. But when some of the concert-goers show a bit of fang or seem rather hairier than most people--and when some of them might even turn to you and offer you immortality in exchange for serving them--it’s suddenly apparent that this is a different kind of Eastern Europe than they’re likely used to.
Our upcoming app round runs August 24th-31st. Our next Jaunt, Lightside/Darkside, takes place in January, a clockpunk city on a hill, home to a unique, fey, fairy-tale culture. The Lightsiders and Darksiders live on the same streets, but every day, at sunrise and sunset, one group flees inside to lock their doors, and the other takes to the streets to conduct the day or night’s business. Each group faces unique challenges and mysteries in their separate but overlapping cities--and what they do not know about one another could serve to either unite their society or tear it apart. The Jaunt is scheduled to begin September 9th & run for approximately six weeks.
Prompt #41 is set in the Bando Peninsula from the Code of Dishonor Jaunt, a martial arts fantasy where ninjas, spirit summoners, peasant armies, scheming nobles, and the monastic Sun Guard all recently came together to depose the Shogun who ruled over them.
Prompt #42 is set in the supernatural princedom of Sarmatia, home to vampires, werewolves, and the corvigers who serve them in order for their own shot at immortality. During the Children of the Night Jaunt last fall, the Travelers help Sarmatia hold its first free elections.
Prompt #41
Since the True-Named Empire first started dumping its political dissidents in the Bando, the people of the three provinces have celebrated the annual Spirit Festival from the 8th to the 15th Days of the Cycle of the Hungry Ghost. Normally, it would be celebrated in smaller festivals all over the Peninsula and indeed those festivals are still happening. This year, however, a special Spirit Festival is being held in the burnt remains of the Shogun’s Palace, while representatives from the three provinces meet in a palatial tent to discuss Bando self-government going forward.
For everyone else, there’s the festival.
Hastily erected stalls line what used to be corridors and grand hallways. There is every kind of festival food from octopus balls to meat on sticks to shaved ice brought down from the mountain and flavored with fruit juices. There is rumor that later tonight there will be fireworks. Right now there is a double-ringed Spirit Dance in the remains of the throne room, where the living form the outer ring and spirits made visible by Sun Guard summoners form the inner. In the center of it all, the irrepressible Sun Guard spirit Sai leads the dancers in the ritual chants.
With such a huge crowd, it shouldn’t be too hard for Investigators to fade into it.
Prompt #42
The thumping backbeats were enough to wake the dead. Luckily, the dead made up a good portion of the audience. The top of a burial mound might seem to be a strange place to hold a concert, but Britpop boyband sensation NOIZE liked the spooky atmosphere and had been willing to pay a considerable fee to rent the Kurgan for their concert. Given the unfortunate state of Sarmatian finances after the most prominent banker in Colchis ran off to Brazil with half of everyone’s money last December, this was simply an offer the two co-princes could not refuse.
(Even if it meant they weren’t holding court tonight from their usual spot inside the Kurgan. Too noisy. Much, much too noisy.)
To the Travelers, this might seem like a fairly standard loud pop concert from the tail end of the twentieth century. But when some of the concert-goers show a bit of fang or seem rather hairier than most people--and when some of them might even turn to you and offer you immortality in exchange for serving them--it’s suddenly apparent that this is a different kind of Eastern Europe than they’re likely used to.
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
"Oh, like the Count. Comte."
... definitely going to psychic message Alcuin about this because. Thorne's figured out why she's so familiar. This lady really does look like an older version of the Melisande from his dungeon that they'd all had to fight. And she's pretty sure Alcuin would have had to know the names of most of the big families for his old job.
"Sorry. It's Thorne. Like a thorn, but with an extra E on the end. I think I said it before, but you were probably confused. You're new to all this, right?"
Keep smiling, Thorne. Stay friendly. She might be really who she says she is, after all, and you might be jumping to conclusions. Maybe she's just Melisande's Siovalese cousin or something. (Ugh, Alcuin, why did your brain make her your dungeon boss?)
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
Thinking back, she realized Thorne had mentioned her name earlier. It was sloppy of her to have missed it, even if she hadn't heard of the name before. Perhaps her years in the temple had dulled her skills more than she realized.
"What an usual name," she said. "Is there a particular reason behind it?"
She ignored Thorne's question, hoping her own would distract from it until she could determine what precisely 'all this' referred to.
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
(Especially since she's pretty sure most of the d'Angelines in liminal space still think computers are full of tiny people.)
"I like it?"
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
Except this wasn't normal circumstances, not in the slightest. "You said you would bring over the other D'Angelines. Do you know how long that will take? If the child you speak of is the same poor boy that I know, I would like to see him without delay, in case I may offer some comfort. There really is nothing quite like a face from home."
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
Was it just her or was 'Edmée' kind of fixated on Imriel? Which, okay, wasn't that bad if she really was who she said she was... but if she was really some Melisande from the future, that didn't sound good at all.
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
In which case, Thorne must be mad. And in her madness, she was wasting time that Melisande might have spent searching for Imriel.
"I am sorry," she said, her voice suddenly cold, "but I believe I shall be going now."
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
For one thing, thanks to all her time in Liminal Space, she actually can do magic and talk to people with her mind.
(Sadly, Melisande seems to have shown up during one of the infrequent lulls in public messages on the psychic network, so it's not like she'd know that is feasible.)
"Um, if you're sure?" Thorne says, hesitantly. "Uh, if it's anything I said or did..." She's not sure what it could be, unless 'Edmée' had somehow learned to mind read already and in that case if she really was Melisande they were boned.
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
But just in case there was some truth, she didn't start walking away immediately. "if these other D'Angelines are really here and you actually speak to them, please tell them where I have gone." Even the damn Cassiline might be useful to her right now.
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
Should she try to keep her here? But if she were really Melisande and not who she says she is, that might be dangerous. Fuck. No, better to let her go and then tell Alcuin and Joscelin and everyone what direction she's headed in and then they can form a posse or something and deal with her.
"Uh, good luck?"
Re: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel | Kushiel's Legacy
She paused once she was out of Thorne's sight, her heart pounding despite her attempts to remain calm. She just did not understand what was going on. Where was she? How had she arrived in this place? Was Imriel really here? There were just too many questions, too much uncertainty, and it was making her erratic, almost irrational.
She had to focus on what she knew. She was here, in some unknown location. It felt far too real to be a dream, though that did not mean it wasn't something in between that and reality. And somehow she just felt certain that her son was nearby - it was too much of a coincidence that she should meet someone who knew of him, even if that person was a madwoman.
It was so little to work with but she'd done more with less. And never before had the stakes been so high.
Several more minutes passed but finally she felt collected again and began her search anew.