The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2017-03-24 12:01 am
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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.
ohboyohboy: (i am ready for the ball)

[personal profile] ohboyohboy 2017-04-03 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"You can get a ball?" That is the best news! He will stand up now, and he will wag his tail even harder! "Please get a ball! Oh please, oh please get a ball! I will not fall off of the boat, I promise!"

He has never been on a boat, but he is sure that he will not fall off. He is very good at seeing in the dark.
morethanashadow: (Phillip [Slight smile])

[personal profile] morethanashadow 2017-04-03 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Phillip grins, ruffling the fur on Dug's head. This is basically what he knew dogs were like, it's just nice to have actual verbal confirmation. "Ok, ok," he says, summoning a ball from thin air. ...There's probably actual solid ground in here somewhere, or at least a room, but oh well.
ohboyohboy: (i am making the bird my prisoner)

[personal profile] ohboyohboy 2017-04-03 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh! Oh! Oh! A BALL!"

He is so excited, he will run back and forth. He runs from one chocolate-smelling wall (actually the side of the boat) to the other. (Unbeknownst to him, this causes the boat to begin to sway.) Then he will stop, and he will sit, because he is a good dog....

"Oh please, oh please, oh please give me the ball!"

He is too excited to stay still. He will run back and forth again!
morethanashadow: (Phillip [Grin])

[personal profile] morethanashadow 2017-04-03 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
They are going to fall out of this boat, and Phillip cares not at all. He can swim, he's pretty sure dogs have a natural instinct to swim, it's fine. "Alright... fetch!" He'll throw it to the other end of the boat for now.
ohboyohboy: (i am here with the ball)

[personal profile] ohboyohboy 2017-04-27 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh! Oh! BALL!"

He takes off after the ball. He will get it! He will! He is very close to it now, and he will not slow down until he gets it...!

He snaps his teeth shut, and he has the ball! HE HAS THE BALL!

His claws scrabble against the chocolate smelling floor, and he spins to face Phillip. He hopes that Phillip is looking! The ball is in his mouth! Just look at it!

He will hurry back over to Phillip now, and he will show him the ball that he has caught.
morethanashadow: (Phillip [Grin])

[personal profile] morethanashadow 2017-04-27 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Phillip grins, happily ruffling the top of Dug's head. "Good boy," he says, and holds his head out under the pup's mouth. "Give it to me and I'll throw it again!" He kind of wonders if he's going to have a hard time getting it back.
ohboyohboy: (i am cute)

[personal profile] ohboyohboy 2017-05-03 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
He is gnawing happily on the ball when Phillip puts out his hand. Oh! He knows what that means! He will give the ball to him, because he is a good dog.

(Fortunately for Phillip, the ball isn't slimy. Just a bit wet.)

"Yes! Yes! Oh please give me the ball again! I would like that very much!"
morethanashadow: (Phillip [Grin])

[personal profile] morethanashadow 2017-05-03 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good boy," Phillip praises heartily. "Go get it!" Aaaand he throws it again.
ohboyohboy: (i am ready to go)

[personal profile] ohboyohboy 2017-05-04 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
He is a good boy! He loves being a good boy. He will be a good boy, and he will get the ball again! He takes off after it, running full speed after the ball. He is almost there! He will jump, and—

HE GOT THE BALL!!!

Aaaaand he splashes into the pink champagne stream.
Edited 2017-05-04 03:48 (UTC)
morethanashadow: (Phillip [Grin])

[personal profile] morethanashadow 2017-05-05 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeeeeah, Phillip figured that might happen.

He leans over the edge of the boat with a wide grin. "You ok?" he calls to the dog, fully prepared to jump in for DOG RESCUE if need be.