Test Drive #21

[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 than 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 September 16th–26th. Our next Jaunt will be Night Falls on Yensid, a fantasy Jaunt taking place in a formerly magic kingdom whose history went awry when other Travelers failed to properly complete a previous Jaunt there, one of the many forgotten Jaunts from before Synodiporia properly began as a Dreamwidth game. There will be no Walkabout run alongside this Jaunt.

Prompt #55 takes place in a punishment Liminal Space for a Jaunt that the Travelers failed to solve.
Prompt #56 takes place during the first Jaunt the Travelers made to the Kingdom of Yensid, during its Golden Age.

#55

It’s difficult to make out the shape of this Liminal Space, at first, thanks to the decor; it’s somehow both pitch black and eye-searingly bright at the same time, the pulsing rainbow patterns cutting through the darkness making it all but impossible to properly judge distance. The truly persistent, or those who manage to abuse Liminal ‘down is relative’ gravity without hitting a pitfall for long enough, may eventually determine that it seems to be a giant egg. More so than many iterations of Liminal Space, it’s completely closed off.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be very difficult indeed to figure out. It’s not just the impossible coloration that makes navigation difficult; there’s a terrible storm raging, and the whipping winds and cracking thunder make it all too easy to stumble into a pitfall by accident. And those pitfalls don’t exactly want to let go of anyone they ensnare, either. Errant Travelers may find themselves supporting an impossibly heavy overhead weight, or pushing a boulder eternally uphill, or trying to catch an ever-lowering drink of water, or pouring water into a tub riddled with gaping cracks, or any number of other seemingly endless, pointless tasks. They can be escaped with help from another Traveler, or one person can be released from the task when another stumbles in.

The only respite from this - the colors, the storm, the punishments - is in the form of Travelers’ created spaces, but those are as difficult to get to right now as everything else. Good luck.

#56

It's a chaotic time for the Kingdom of Yensid. The Amulet of Yensid, that fabled magical artifact that must be rejoined each lunar year so that the kingdom's three races can continue their peaceful magical coexistence, has gone missing. Two-thirds of it, the humans' fragment and the Forest Folk's fragment, are nowhere to be found. The capital city is just as bustling as ever despite this, with reptilian Stonefolk flitting from place to place in their usual parkour-like fashion, small animal-like Forest Folk hawking various potions and crafts, and humans making all sorts of deals.

There's an undercurrent of urgency to the day's business. Small groups of three or four of various species move through the city with enchanted mirrors, dowsing rods, fishing lures, and all other manner of magical items designed to aid in the act of finding something, but so far, no one's turned up anything solid yet. A few of the stronger magicked items are leading their owners out towards the foreboding Birdlime Mountains, but that's the most promising lead anyone has.

Comments

[morethanashadow]

Oh good. That makes this more interesting.

Phillip continues to smile, which would be all charm if she hadn't literally just seen how much of a jackass he can be. "What do you think it means?"

[glampuss]

"I think you're being nasty again," she says. "And you're trying to blame me for it, when really it's all your own fault."

[morethanashadow]

"If you're trying to insult me, you're really failing and mostly just getting songs stuck in my head." Being a literal death monster gives you thick skin for petty insults. Also acting. Basically Phillip is kind of incapable of recognizing when insults should hurt him, which might actually be somewhat of a problem.

[glampuss]

"I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just telling the truth," she says, before airily flipping her long blonde hair over one shoulder.

[morethanashadow]

Phillip just shrugs. "Whatever floats your boat, I guess. So are you leaving or staying?"

[glampuss]

"You have to take me back," she demands. "I can't go back alone! I just can't!"

[morethanashadow]

"I don't have to do anything." And boy would he love to see you try and make him. "You can go alone, you can see if anyone else is willing to put up with you, or you can come with." See, look how nice he is, giving you options. "...Or, I don't know, I can turn you into a bird and you can fly down." That would be hilarious.

[glampuss]

"But I can't go alone!" she says, her voice rising in panic. "I'm not brave like that, I'm just not. And..." Suddenly, she stops, and blinks.

"You can't turn me into a bird," she says, exasperated. "Now you're just being stupid."

[morethanashadow]

Well... at least she knows it, he guesses? Having no sense of self preservation himself, Phillip has no idea why she's so panicked, but at least she seems aware she's being kind of ridiculous.

Oh, but then there's the disbelief, and Phillip grins. "Wanna bet?"

[glampuss]

She is not being ridiculous. She's perfectly reasonable. She's not like Sunny, who's brave all the time. Sunny knows tae-kwan-do. She's not delicate, like Richelle is.

"No," she scoffs. "Not with you. You're untrustworthy. You'd just refuse to pay up when you lost."

[morethanashadow]

Phillip considers this. It is not entirely unrealistic that he would be able to talk his way out of paying if he lost, it's true. "Well, we could just bet that if I win, you get turned into a bird, and if I lose, then you don't get turned into a bird." This is totally fine.

[glampuss]

"That's stupid," she says. "I don't get anything out of that. That's not even a proper bet."

[morethanashadow]

"You not being a bird is nothing?" Well, for Phillip it would be, he likes turning into a bird, but she doesn't seem like she'd enjoy it.

[glampuss]

"I'm already not a bird. You're supposed to get an actual prize if you win, and everything staying exactly the same isn't a prize at all," she scoffs. "Especially since you can't turn me into a bird. This whole thing is stupid."

[morethanashadow]

Phillip shrugs. "Well, this'll be a prize for me, then." And Richelle will find herself transformed into a very colorful and tiny bird.

[glampuss]

The's a moment of stunned, shocked silence.

And then the bird starts to screech, flapping it's wings in a mad panic.

[morethanashadow]

Wow, that might be the only thing more annoying than hearing her talk. Phillip will let the panic continue for a few more long moments before turning her back. "Well, that was fun."

[glampuss]

Richelle blinks for a moment, after returning back to herself again. Then she shrieks. "No it wasn't!"

And then she stomps forward and kicks him in the shins. Hard. Harder than you might expect, but Richelle's been doing ballet since she was little. She might call herself delicate, but she's got calves made of steel.

[morethanashadow]

"Hey!" That hurts, but he's also been semi-recently stabbed through the fucking heart so he has a basis of comparison that dampens his response. He does shake out his ankle, though. "Why not?" Ok, so he knows why kind of, but also being a bird is fun and she's just a spoilsport.

[glampuss]

"Because I didn't want to be a bird!" she shrieks. "You just wanted to play a trick on me!"

[morethanashadow]

"How was I supposed to know that? I thought you just didn't believe me." He absolutely knew that.

[glampuss]

"I didn't!" she says, her voice somehow climbing even higher in pitch. "People aren't supposed to be able to turn other people into birds! You...you freak!"

[morethanashadow]

That... hits somewhat of a nerve, actually. That's one he hasn't heard in a while, and even though it was actually rarely directed at him, it's sure been shot at people like him a lot. "You're really not gonna like it here," he says darkly, and he doesn't feel sorry for her at all.

[glampuss]

"Of course I don't like it here!" she says. "I don't have any of my clothes, and they don't have proper bathrooms, and I don't have anything to wash my hair with, and everything is strange and different and none of my friends are here and my parents are probably wondering where I am, and...and..."

She sniffs, and she is mortified to find that tears are prickling at her eyes. Oh no. She can't cry, not in front of him this horrible boy who keeps making fun of her and doesn't care at all about her feelings. She sniffs again, trying to hold the tears back, but she can't stop. They just keep streaming down her cheeks, no matter what Richelle wants.

[morethanashadow]

Oh for fuck's sake.

Phillip sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He still doesn't feel bad for her. He doesn't. But he does... get it. "You say that like it's any different for the rest of us," he sighs, mostly under his breath.

...He will summon a tissue box for her, though. He's not quite that mean.