The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2017-03-24 12:01 am
Entry tags:

Test Drive #18

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 March 24th–April 1st. Our next Jaunt will be Olympus Upended: a classical myth and fantasy adventure, set in a Trojan War-era Greece full of gods, monsters, and titans. During the Jaunt, the Olympians and their chosen heroes must deal with the machinations of fate when their powers and domains begin to ebb and flow, faltering or in some cases transferring to others.

Prompt #47 features a liminal space where Travelers find themselves floating down the Tunnel of Love.
Prompt #48 features a liminal space with beds, balloons, and no ground to be seen.
Prompt #49 features a space walk set in the universe from the Escape From Junkworld jaunt. Having escaped the destruction of the prison planet Junkworld Gehenna, these refugees from the four major spacefaring races--crystalline Hecatites, psychic-but-prone-to-hallucination horned Diabolin; scaled Gorgons with their petrifying abilities and tentacled hair, and your bog-standard humans, newcomers to the stars--now finally have a moment where they can slow down.

#47

You find yourself in a boat in a long tunnel, light deliberately kept low. Oh, the sides and the ceiling glitter and sparkle and the dioramas you occasionally pass seem to glow with their own inner light, but unless you’re naturally adapted for low-light, it’s going to take your eyes a little while to adjust. Once they do--or perhaps even before they do--you’ll find that you’re not alone in the boat. There’s someone riding next to you. Maybe they’re a friend among the Travelers, maybe someone you’ve grown to love. Maybe they’re a perfect stranger. Maybe they’re even someone you hate. They’re still stuck in the boat with you.

Once your eyes have adjusted properly, you’ll see that the boat you’re both in is made of chocolate--white, dark, or milk--and carved in the shape of a swan. The ‘water’ it floats down is no such thing, but instead pink champagne. Those dioramas in the wall? They’re dramatizations of various moments of passion and romance in the love-lives of you and your fellow Travelers.

Just when it seems that you’ve been in the tunnel forever, it suddenly widens into a much larger room with a ceiling open to the sky, the underground waterway flowing through the center, constricted until there's barely water in the side, so that you can easily disembark from your swanboat during the minute it takes for the boat to glide through the room, which seems to be some sort of cafe. A ‘Group Date’ cafe, whatever that is, according to the sign. Instead of food on the menu board, there are instead lists of questions to ask your date. The floor is tiled with conversation hearts. The furniture, like the swan boats, is made of chocolate. Finally, the walls are made of valentine’s cards, addressed to initials and signed by Roman numerals, all in the same loopy pink cursive that makes up the questions menu.

#48

You find yourself in bed. In fact, each Traveler starts out in their own private bed, which is suspended from a floating hot air balloon (minus the gas burner) and both balloon and bed are decorated vaguely to the taste of the Traveler therein. It’s a lovely, comfortable bed, perfect for sleeping or just plain lazing around, and it allows a perfect view to all the other beds suspended in the sky--and the doors to created spaces as well, themselves suspended from balloons of their own.

There is no ground in this liminal space. Sky above, sky below, and the great crowd of balloons which are more or less level. Sometimes they drift close enough so that they bump together and you can easily move from one to the other, though of course they’ll soon drift away from each other.

Of course, this being liminal space, there’s no reason why you can’t walk through the thin air or even fly to the other balloons and doors, as long as you realize that’s an option. Just take care you don’t panic and forget you can, because once you forget you can fly the only thing you can do is fall. At least if you do fall into the endless sky, you’ll just have a few harrowing seconds to panic before you land right on your balloon bed again.

#49

It’s been a week since the Empress of Moths reached its destination. The planet below, with no official name, merely numerical designation referring to its star, is not exactly ideal. Its temperature is on the lower end of what humans will tolerate; its bedrock is not the best suited for Gorgon caves; there are few natural resources for the Diabolins to exploit; and its external geology isn’t quite to Hecatite tastes. It is, however, an M-type planet that will support intelligent life and has, in fact, supported a small smuggler’s base for quite some time.

Despite all these shortcomings, it’s much preferable to the radioactive slag heap the refugees formerly called home. Now that arrangements have been made with the local smugglers, most of the refugees have left the ship on outrider shuttles and it’s immediately noticeable how much less crowded the Empress is--even with a few of the local smugglers aboard after the negotiations.

But then, not everyone plans to stay planetside. There’s a sizable contingent who want to keep flying with the Empress, finding work among the stars to support their newfound home. It’s why she still hovers over the planet, instead of coming to an undignified landing on the surface. And before the Empress leaves, her new crew and any visitors currently aboard (smugglers and Investigating Travelers alike) have the opportunity to undertake a space walk together. It’s time to don one’s space suit and helmet, attach one’s air supply, and take a step outside into the beautiful, cold vacuum of the sea of stars.
thornsofmalkav: (happy (rock))

[personal profile] thornsofmalkav 2017-03-25 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
Charoite straightens up and takes Pearl's hand. "Great," she says, her voice a little mechanized over the helmet radio. "Now we just have to close the door to the airlock now. I'll do that, since you'd have to reach over your head to. The ones to outside won't open unless the inside ones are closed."

She presses a button and the interior doors slide shut.

"Let's open the outside door now!"

Charoite presses another button.
cottonshogun: (My own harem? Excellent.)

[personal profile] cottonshogun 2017-03-25 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
She does sigh a little in almost disappointment at the initial lackluster response, but her eyes light back up when he gets his tongue back under his control. Well, she can't blame him for being a little shy. They are strangers after all, and this isn't her Ooku. She'll have to approach the subject with a little finesse, is all!

"Tasty, is it? Mm, I shall have to try a bite later. 'Twould not do to be tipped into the water just yet. I cannot think on why it would be a poor idea. True, thine ornaments are a bit...much, but otherwise, thy virility and size doth speak for itself! Doth thou not find my person attractive in turn?"

That would put a damper on things, as she's aware that she's not all that attractive. Her frame is well-muscled, not soft like some women, and she is quite plain by all accounts. Still, Yoshimune isn't going to give it up without a bit of a fight.
cottonshogun: (Say that again?)

[personal profile] cottonshogun 2017-03-25 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
She doesn't quite get the idea of courting as an idea either, but she does have a little experience in more modern words and is able to put it together after a bit of puzzling.

"So a rare treat for one's betrothed, I verily understand now."

Yoshimune is just running into strange wording after strange wording. "Cool?"
otomechapilot: (that's kind of odd yeah)

[personal profile] otomechapilot 2017-03-25 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Cool?" Ah, she doesn't get it. Time to thesaurize. "Cool, awesome, great, yeah I dunno why good things are cool either. Words are weird, and they only get weirder the more people use them."

She was going to argue about the rarity of chocolate, but actually? "Back home, it is kind of rare nowadays. Wasn't always, but there was a war..." She shakes her head. "What kind of stuff do you give as gifts back home? Now I'm curious."
maximumest: (13)

[personal profile] maximumest 2017-03-25 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
A sturdy female is infinitely preferable. The ones that looked like twigs tended to produce more that looked like twigs, and how could anyone conquer a planet when it looked like a good stiff wind could break them in half? ... Still, she's the wrong species, and he's having a bit of difficulty understanding everything she says.

He's got most of it, context really helped a lot once he actually thought about it for a little bit, but ... well, not everyone could fluently speak his language he supposed. It was sort of nice to have someone interested instead of terrified... "...It's not just for decoration." Really! "But you're not bad looking, for an alien."

A what?? Broly's gaze seems measuring; she'd sized him up and now he's going to return the favor. Honestly she wasn't bad to look at at all; she might not be a beauty by human standards, but by the standards of a race of space-faring savages who put more value in power than anything else... "You have a strong looking body and good muscle definition, that's really nice, and you're a lot bolder than most aliens I've met but..."

Actually she did seem to fit the definition of what a proper saiyan woman is supposed to be like, and she was interesting. Tough, determined, strong-willed.. "You don't have a tail, do you?"

The odds of him finding one of his own species, this far from the ruins of their home planet: surely nil.
unconventionalelf: (243)

48

[personal profile] unconventionalelf 2017-03-25 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
Well at least someone else was miserable as well. Because this... This bed was not where she had fallen asleep. She'd like the vallenwood back now please!

"I don't think that they're listening. Though what God created this place... I know not." She thought a moment. "Mind if I jump over? I'd rather not have to yell." She flashed a grin. "Maybe I can play something, make you forget about what's missing?"

Okay maybe it's more the small child looking being with long ears, doesn't want to be alone right now.
awitchdidit: (but what's puzzlin' you is the)

[personal profile] awitchdidit 2017-03-25 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Beatrice smirks, at least. "Many witches are. I hope to be inspired by their skill...although for my part, I've been spending my time examining the cage for now. It's impressively difficult. Did you notice we're not in any particular Fragment right now? Rather, this is the Sea between them."

She sips her drink. It's bland enough that she starts considering that even her passive-aggression can come back to her with the same alacrity as her actual aggression. "Or perhaps it's a Sea of Fragments within another, single, larger Fragment, but I leave that level of metaphysics to the experienced Voyager Witch."
pearlyspirit: (Pearl [Shocked])

[personal profile] pearlyspirit 2017-03-25 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
The doors open and the vastness of space stares back at them, the artificial gravity giving way to the vacuum of space. "Whoa--!!" Pearl clutches onto Charoite's hand, not having really expecting that and panicking until the safety rope clearly does its job. Then, she's staring around at the stars with wide eyes. "It's so beautiful..."
pearlyspirit: (Pearl [Kitty])

[personal profile] pearlyspirit 2017-03-25 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
Pearl beams in delight. "Yeah! We channel the spirits into our bodies, so they can talk to people again. It can be kind of dangerous sometimes though..."

She trails off, expression growing sad for a moment as she remembers the most recent examples of this before gaining a determined expression on her face. "But I'm gonna grow up and be a great summoner, just like Mystic Maya! I'm going to do my very best!"
Edited 2017-03-25 02:21 (UTC)
butthemiracleneverhappen: (:bored)

[personal profile] butthemiracleneverhappen 2017-03-25 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
"It would be possible to contain a Sea. I have managed," she says, nodding. "But it speaks to the impressive power and skill of the Arcana to infuse a sea to their tastes."

She tries her tea again, speaking of infusions. Oversteeping has brought out it's bitterness. It will do. "You have been journeying here at their behest for a considerable period of time, then?"
Edited (reading comprehension, sorry, last one) 2017-03-25 02:23 (UTC)
pearlyspirit: (Pearl [Cheerful])

[personal profile] pearlyspirit 2017-03-25 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
Pearl smiles, nodding. "Um... I was here for one of the- the Jaunts? But then I guess I kind of went somewhere else for a little bit..." Not that she'd really had much of a chance to get her bearings before then, but she at least has enough context not to be completely panicking.

"This is the uniform for the Kurain Channeling Technique!" she explains, pleased to be talking about that, "I'm still not the best at it, but I'm going to work hard to get better! I like your dress, though..." It looks like something from one of those shows Mystic Maya likes.
unconventionalelf: (009)

Taleen Flyleaf : Dragonlance OC

[personal profile] unconventionalelf 2017-03-25 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
#47

Taleen was a little unnerved when she first opened her eyes that it was dark, the sounds of water moving around her told her she was in some sort of river cave. When her eyes adjusted, a little more she saw that she was in some sort of boat and that there was someone else with her...

That was when the lights came on, blinding her for a moment causing her to actually cry out. "Stupid magic." She sat back on her side of the boat waiting, again, for her eyes to adjust. And what is that smell? Too thick with unnatural flowers." Yeah someone is not liking this one bit.

#48

She didn't remember falling asleep in a bed. If anything she had been in the woods near Solace, and had made camp near one of the great Vallenwoods. Waking lying on a bed, even if it had the nice warm earthy scent of the roots she had lain her bedroll for the night, the gentle swaying had her realize she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

Peeking out and seeing no ground she stayed low to the bed growling low. "What dark magic is this?" What was more troubling is how she could sleep through being moved. The contraption holding her aloft looked about as safe as any tinker gnome contraption, which made her more wary. "I was nowhere near the Gnomes... Whomever's behind this I demand to know what reason there is for this!" Hey, it could work right?
Edited 2017-03-25 02:31 (UTC)
otomechapilot: (:\)

[personal profile] otomechapilot 2017-03-25 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Sara dismisses the danger with a sweep of her armored arm. "If we let stuff being dangerous stop us we'd never get important stuff done. As I have had to explain to my brother a couple of times."

She does notice the sadness, and doesn't press it directly. She mirrors her expression for a moment. "Sounds really nice, actually. To talk to people who are gone. People we miss."
Edited (very minor typo) 2017-03-25 03:53 (UTC)
cottonshogun: (Game. Set. Match. I win~)

[personal profile] cottonshogun 2017-03-25 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Thankfully, Yoshimune has been a Traveler long enough to understand that not every Traveler is human. But really, that just perks her interest.

She grins at him, closing the space between them and boldly running her fingers down his chest. Oh yes, superb.

"I am most flattered. My body is a product of my dedication to the martial pursuits, and much passion, of course. I am very much a hot-blooded woman!" And proud of that fact.

The question makes the ghost of a frown flicker over her face. "Sadly, I do lack a tail."

The idea of a tail is very intriguing though. She won't directly ask because it would be rude and ruin the mood besides.
happyhalloween: (CX)

47

[personal profile] happyhalloween 2017-03-25 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"And it's super yummy!" his companion on the boat says agreeably, gnawing at the side. "Do you know what the pink stuff we're floating on is? It's got bubbles!"
thornsofmalkav: (happy (rock))

[personal profile] thornsofmalkav 2017-03-25 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
"It is," Charoite agrees. "I think the first time you space walk might even be a more profound experience than the first time you leave the planet." She looks around at the glittering stars. "They almost all have planets, you know. And some of those planets have people living on them."
awitchdidit: (but what's puzzlin' you is the)

[personal profile] awitchdidit 2017-03-25 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
"You and I both know that time is entirely in the eye of the observer," she says, "but from my subjective perspective, it's been almost a year and a half."
all_onis_are_true: (This is new)

Re: 47

[personal profile] all_onis_are_true 2017-03-25 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Please don't eat the boat until we've reached land at least."

He leans over, sniffing the river a bit. "And I believe this might be alcoholic, so I would advise you not to partake of it. Assuming drinking the liquid in a carnival ride was ever a good idea to begin with."
maximumest: (01)

[personal profile] maximumest 2017-03-25 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
It's definitely better than being feared, and touch that had nothing to do with fighting was odd but very nice. He's certain his father would have no problems with any of this, since they'd have to look elsewhere for compatible mates sooner or later or watch their race go extinct, but it was still strange.

The strangeness is why he catches her wrist very carefully right before she can reach the thin, pale scar just beneath his sternum. "And you're okay with that? We're not the same kind." As if to demonstrate this, he shifts just enough to unwind his own tail from beneath the cloth that usually hides it, long and covered in a layer of plush brown fur. It's coiled idly into a loop. "See?" Plus she's itty bitty. And the things the walls were showing were hardly just idle touch!!

Wait there's one that looks awfully like said itty bitty woman and a strapping conquest.

... And a shrub.

Maybe she'd change her mind! She's hardly dealing with a being from her own world. Hopefully that wouldn't involve a lot of screaming and possible violence though, even with the countless emotional inhibitors he wore that might well be problematic enough to put the electronics to work.
awitchdidit: (just as every cop is a criminal)

[personal profile] awitchdidit 2017-03-25 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"That does seem to happen. People who come in in fits and starts instead of all at once...," she says, but more interestingly, "Channeling Technique? As in the channeling of otherworldly beings?"

She smiles nearly genuinely at that. "How very interesting! As for my dress...you could say it's the uniform of a Witch."
helborn: (nope too cute to function)

48

[personal profile] helborn 2017-03-25 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
Someone doesn't even need to walk in the air. Casper flaps his big, black wings towards the person jumping from bed to bed. He glides along with her for one of her jumps before turning to her and grinning. "It's fun, isn't it?"
ladygeryon: (sarcastic)

47

[personal profile] ladygeryon 2017-03-25 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
Nira leans on the other side of the boat, watching as images of her and her husband, a red-haired man with what looks like a permanent grin on his face, play out in the dioramas.

"Hey, I'm not that old," she protests. "I can still fight with the best of them, you know!"
ladygeryon: (rolling eyes)

Nira Tyr | Pokemon OC

[personal profile] ladygeryon 2017-03-25 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
47

[Nira stares at the person sitting across from her in the cafe, staring at the list of questions. She has a scowl on her face, and is tapping her fingers on the table. She also has a green bandanna tied around her neck, covering up most of her scars. People keep asking, and it gets annoying.]

They do realize I'm married, right?

48

[Oh crap, flying. This is one fear Nira's never really gotten over. So she'll be lying flat on her back, staring pointedly up at the sky, only turning her head occasionally to see the people beside her-until she sees someone walking or flying through the air.]

What the heck? How are you doing that?
ladygeryon: (actually happy for once)

47

[personal profile] ladygeryon 2017-03-25 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Nira is ignoring the images on Orion's side of the tunnel as well, although her hand clenches and unclenches over the walking stick she's holding each time they pass one.]

Hey, some people like chocolate in their alcoholic drinks. My husband, for one.
haremtrap: (Dude.)

Kohaku Yuhara | OC

[personal profile] haremtrap 2017-03-25 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
-47-

Kohaku leans back in their seat on the boat, legs kicked up on the bow, eyes closed. The darkness held no secrets from them, but they kind of wish it did. Stupid supercharged senses meant they could read out every sordid detail on the walls of the tunnel.

Oddly, Kohaku's side is almost completely bare of imagery. A few stylized childhood crushes, but beyond that...just blank wall.

"I hope you don't mind if I just take a nap? Wake me up when this is less a waste of my time."

-49-

Kohaku stood in the airlock, nervously. On one hand, the concept of being surrounded by hard vacuum that could killer them in seconds were it not for a few thin layers of space suit was fairly unnerving. On the other hand, what kind of person could be offered the chance to walk around in freaking outer space and say "Nah, I'd rather hang out on this semi-barren ball of rock down below me"?

They'd triple checked every step of putting the suit on, but they were still unnerved.

"I'm not, like, gonna get sucked out into space when the door opens, am I? Should I be holding on to something? I'm gonna hold on to something."

Awkwardly, the only other thing to hold on to in arm's reach right now is the other person in here. Kohaku hesitated in just grabbing onto another person just long enough for the outer door to open and all the air to get sucked into space.

-46-

Kohaku adjusted their toga self-consciously and eyed the games the men were playing. They could sort of pass for a kind of effeminate boy. Maybe they could get away with getting in there and showing all these dudes a thing or two.

They quietly slipped on to the one side of the ball game. Their rather slim figure got a few odd glances, but they insisted that they were a boy. Maybe some good exercise would put some meat on their bones, some of the more traditionally minded men grumbled.

Then the game started, and Kohaku was a sight to behold in motion. The normally reserved youth leaped into motion with frankly unbelievable grace and precision. They weren't really much faster than anyone else, but they seemed to almost react to things before they happened, and somehow always could pick out that tiny weak spot in the opposing team's formation that just BARELY had room to slip through.

Page 4 of 25