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

they are lovely, sssh.

[pionero]

[ Defintely not something that Cal would have expected. Then again, he also wouldn't have expected leading the life he did. Or reliving lives. Or finding his mother dead in a kitchen. So, clearly, life has other things in mind for him.

Which is why he just takes a half step back when the man lands. Cal just regards him warily. ]

I don't even remember falling asleep.

[daistanbul]

No, neither do I. But it seems to be common in this place, from what I have heard from the others.

[He gestures with his thumb behind his shoulder toward the other Travelers, on the horizon.]

[pionero]

[ He is about to as who the hell the "others" are, he sees the Travelers that Yusuf is pointing to. ]

Because if everyone else says it, then it must be true. [ Cautious doesn't even begin to describe the paranoia he can have about trusting mysterious people now. ] Why aren't you with the rest of them?

[daistanbul]

[That makes Yusuf snort with laughter.] Indeed! But I know for a fact it is true, in this case.

[He looks back at the group behind his shoulder, then shrugs.] I don't know any of them.

[pionero]

[ True. He'd go on about truth and how it can mean different things, but he has the feeling the cheerful man would just make another whimsical comment about it.

In a lot of ways, this man reminds him of Emir. He didn't speak much to that Assassin, but Emir was always watching him. Other than the one time Emir threatened him about the Apple. ]

You don't know me either, yet you're talking to me like we're going to be friends.

translation for italics in hover text if needed :>

[daistanbul]

I may not know who you are, kardeşim, but I know what you are.

[There is a flash of metal at Yusuf's wrist, as his hidden blade appears, then retracts as quickly as it came. Cal also might get a glimpse of the brand burned around Yusuf's finger in the process.]

You are more of a friend to me in this place than the others. They are Innocents, as far as I know.

how did you do that? duuude

[pionero]

[ Cal immediately tensed as soon as Yusuf spoke. He wasn't afraid to fight - to kill - if needed. But, then the flash of metal catches his attention. His eyes dart down to the hidden blade. The only tell he gives is his eyes widening slightly and his shoulders relaxing. ]

I'm guessing that's how you say hello to all your brothers and sisters. [ Still, in an attempt of etiquette, Cal lets his blade loose. It is a far simply design, just the single blade that is attached to his wrist. No gauntlet with intricate designs.

And in light of the recent reveal, he feels as if he can trust Yusuf to give a proper answer: ]

What is this place?

HTML magic, bruh :D pp me on plurk and I’ll show you

[daistanbul]

[Yusuf gives a big grin as Callum shows off his own Blade, and steps forward to clasp the other’s wrist, warmly, in greeting.] Not usually, but I assumed that fireworks would be a bit much. [He nudges Callum with his other hand to show he’s teasing, then gives another belly laugh as he steps away.]

They call it "Liminal Space". [It’s very difficult to say the English words with his accent, but the Animus translation software translation magic of the space seems to manage just fine.] In my tongue, it sounded like… arasındakı boşluk, but that cannot be right, can it? The space between? The space between what?

I will need to do this yes.

[pionero]

Fireworks? You could set the whole damn ground on fire. [ He says as he awkwardly returns the notion of greeting, grabbing Yusuf's wrist. He then gives a kick to the ground they stand on as if to make his point. There is a ghost of a smile on his face. He doesn't really laugh much. ]

Liminal Space, huh. They could of tried something that sounds better. [ He glances around from under his black hood. ] The space between the borders of sanity?

[daistanbul]

Bah, worry not, my friend! It burns much slower than you think. [... just ask him how he knows. I dare you, Callum.]

Ha! Perhaps, perhaps. It certainly is a place I would not find even in my wildest dreams. Though, if it were in my wildest dreams, I would have more gold than our late Sultan.

[pionero]

I don't think I want to know. [ Not. Going. To. Ask. ]

Sultan, huh. I'm guessing it wasn't he same one I know of. [ Because, he doubts he is that lucky. ]