Test Drive #16

[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 October 25th–November 1st, but for once we’re breaking with tradition and instead of an upcoming Jaunt, we have a special, upcoming, multi-week Liminal Space event called Welcome to the World Series, which heralds the end of Phase Two and the start of Phase Three of the game of Synodiporia. Having chosen their Champions in Phase Two, the mysterious entities known as the Trumps are divvying up the rest of the Travelers--and in Phase Three they’re playing for keeps.

Prompt #43 is set in an agricultural-themed liminal space—with a bit of fabrics and crafts thrown in.

Prompt #44 is set in the dreaming realm known as Questing Country. Here, with the aid of their Animal Companions, young lucid dreamers from a variety of species (crystalline Hecatites, long-lived Elves, aquatic Vodyanoi, bone-spurred and four-armed Spartoi, scaled Gorgons with their petrifying abilities and tentacled hair, and your bog-standard humans) fight together as Champions against the monsters that arise from the collective unconscious of their species… for now, anyway. At least until they grow up, burn out, or go wrong.

Prompt #43

Right now, Liminal Space is a patchwork of farmland--a literal patchwork, as the ground under the Travelers’ feet is printed fabric, sewn together as if it were a quilt. One patch has a field of lettuce, another a printed field of corn and so on and so forth. Just about every crop is represented in quilted form, including ones that aren’t exactly… standard. Or legal.

Crocheted farm animals roam atop the fields, making needle-clicking sounds whenever they open their mouths, beaks, and snouts. Here and there lie irons, face down, luckily not at all hot. If you climb on top of one, it should be possible to ride it around like a tractor.

As for the farmhouse, barn, and silo? Travelers might be able to see the plush shape of them on the horizon, but no matter how long they travel in that direction, they’ll never get any closer.


Prompt #44

Whether Fire Mushrooms from Nuclear Winter, Men-in-Black from Conspiracy Country, Plague Vectors from the Softened Caverns, Horned Masters from the Stealing Ships, or any of the manifold Nightmares that haunt Questing Country and cause it to summon its Champions, there is one thing all these enemies have in common: they arise from the fears and worries of their world.

Some of these Nightmares are seasonal.

It’s Exam Season again on Hecate, the annual time during its longer-than-Earth year when the young people of that planet take the tests that will determine both their future careers and their very right to be regarded as adults in Hecatite society--as well as the annual practice exams to ready them for it. To be young and Hecatite during Exam Season is to be in a very stressful situation, no matter your capabilities. So much is riding on the results.

So it’s really not surprising that the twenty-foot-tall Test Proctors from the Hallowed Halls of Education positively swarm from the time that the tests begin until the day the results are posted. The Proctors work to corner any young person they can find, essaying volley after volley of exam questions at them until they fail or give up or attack the Proctor--and that’s when the Proctors get nasty.

Comments

[naturaltwohands]

"Beautiful and free," Drizzt agrees with her in gentle melodic voice, tilting his head so that one lavender orb can get a look at the woman. "It is always a joy to see her at play."

If he had been at home, he would have never let himself relax like this so much out in the open. But this is Liminal Space, and there are certain Rules that bind them. Namely that they should not kill each other. Add that, and to the fact that drow are virtually unknown to these people, and Drizzt feels safe enough. Even with this new woman he had never met, so clearly a warrior, he knows he is safe. She has no intention of attacking him based on her body language now, and she did not seem afraid of him.

[ayiyiyi]

Well. As a warrior, Xena knows full well that casual body language and a distainful look can be just as effective as fists and swords. She is casual as much because she is confident in her own skill and ability, than because she expects no danger.

But he is safe from Xena. She defends the innocent and battles the guilty. There is no need for her to fight this young man. And after a long time alone, to be in the company of her fellow travellers once more is a gift.

"Sounds like you two are good friends," she says with a smile.

[naturaltwohands]

Drizzt could really get used to the lack of fear that Travelers feel towards him. It's certainly made introducing Zaknafein to new ways of thinking easier. He doesn't want to think about how poorly it could have gone otherwise.

"We are," Drizzt stretches lazily. "We have known each other for decades."

Of course, he doesn't look decades old, but that's just splitting hairs.

[ayiyiyi]

"Really?" she says, raising an eyebrow in interest. She's trained baby warriors who look older than him. "So are you an immortal or just long lived?"

[naturaltwohands]

"Long-lived," Drizzt answers simply as he sits up, pulling back his cowl to uncover his head for her to view. "I am drow."

[ayiyiyi]

"Drow, huh?" she says. "I'm afraid I've not heard of your kind before."

[naturaltwohands]

Drizzt can't help but laugh. How many times has he heard that? Every time still amazes him, no matter how many times he hears it.

"Then you are in luck that you have come here," Drizzt shrugs with a smile. "The only drow here are goodly. Like the rest of our people, we were born below the surface, but now we live on it."

[ayiyiyi]

"Your kind aren't usually good?" she asks, a considering, almost calculating expression on her face. She's not the kind of attack without provocation...but if other drow are dangerous, she'd appreciate knowing that she needs to keep her guard up.

[naturaltwohands]

"Not normally, no," Drizzt does smile a bit sadly. "I hesitate to tell others so, especially since I have been subjected to racism as a result, but...."

He trails off with a shrug, not knowing how to say it. He's never had to tell people about drow before, as everyone knew of them back home. It felt wrong to say such things, but he also did not want people to have their guards down if an evil drow showed up. It was a conundrum that Drizzt had yet to solve.

"It is good to be wary, not prejudiced."

[ayiyiyi]

"I'll keep that in mind," Xena says. "But it seems like you're proof enough that not all drow are bad."

She might not know him well yet...but her instincts were telling her that he was a good man. And Xena knew to trust her instincts.

[naturaltwohands]

"Which is why I only suggest caution, if anything at all," Drizzt smiles to her, then turns to watch Guenhwyvar some more. "I am Drizzt Do'Urden."

[ayiyiyi]

"My name is Xena," she says, watching Guenhwyvar along with him. If Drizzt doesn't mind, she will happily sit and watch her with him in silence.

[naturaltwohands]

Drizzt certainly doesn't mind the company, and even gives her a brief smile before turning back to watch his spirit companion--not that he knows that's what Guenhwyvar has become. "It is a pleasure to meet you."