synodiporia_ooc | Test Drive #21

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"But someone has to do it, yes?

You should stay, though. It is calm and unchanging here and if there's two people it will be more lively." He doesn't like the outside very much. Too much chaos.

Yeah, he doesn't think so. Time for plan B, to see if it actually works. Stone considers, and after a moment warns, "Don't scream."

And then he shifts. He goes from a tall, lean old man with gray skin, to a cloud of dark mist, to very large... dragon? He's vaguely humanoid, though he looks like he'd be comfortable on two legs or four, with a long snaking tail and a pair of broad scaly wings. His scales are uniformly matte black, with no sheen of any other color, and there is a mane of spines and long, soft scales almost like hair running down his neck. His eyes are the same, bright blue with one clouded over. He's a little hard to see clearly, form slightly blurred around the edges, but it's obvious he's big.

Russia watches in fascination. As a child, he would probably have run screaming, but he's enlightened now and knows that you won't be stolen by fairies and witches if you go out into the forest alone when there's mist on the ground, and he's seen strange things here so he's not that surprised.

Still surprised. He leaves his rock to have a closer look - just a small break, no more. He's going to return in a moment.

"What are you?"

Stone tilts his big head and cocks some spines, making a rumbling sound, but not answering with words. He can't speak in this form, not anymore, and he hasn't figured out the telepathic network yet to get around that. Instead, he holds out a hand-- claws retracted, like he's offering it to Russia to inspect. Hopefully, it will get the humanified nation to come closer. Stone can't quite reach him to snatch him out of the trap yet.

The nation cocks his head but does come closer, trying to figure out what is going on.

Oh. Of course. "You want to be friends, yes?"

Well, that, too, but first things first. Stone reaches in and snatches Russia out again, clutching him to his chest long enough to take several hops back, wings mantled to give him a little more lift and distance.

And then he sets Russia down. With luck, it happened fast enough that there won't be any screaming or pummeling, but his scales can take a little pummeling if they have to.

There is no screaming or pummelling.

There is a surprised yelp, and then Russia just hangs there, patiently waiting for whatever this is to get to a point. He turns around once it does, turning to look at the bigger man. "Why did you do that?"

That's a remarkable lack of freak-out for being snatched by a twenty-foot dragon monster. Interesting. Stone shifts back to his groundling form, and says, "To get you away from that rock. You're not the only one who's been doing strange things, and I thought I'd try moving you in case that got you to stop."

Russia looks back at the rock, and indeed... it's not like anyone told him to roll the rock up that hill, did they? And looking at it now, it doesn't feel like the need for it exists, either.

"I think the rock wanted to be rolled." What a badly behaved rock.

"Well, you don't have to do what it wants," Stone says, grumpily. He's just glad he's managed to avoid the pitfalls himself. Possibly due to having wings-- there's plenty of room in here to fly. "Are you good now?"

"Yes." He fully turns to Stone now, gracing him with the most cheerful of smiles, curiously regarding his exterior. "Are you a fairy?"

"A what? No, I'm a Raksura," Stone answers, shaking his head. "A shapeshifter. Not sure what a fairy is, but I'm pretty sure I'm not it. What are you?" Because he doesn't really smell like all the other humans, and if he's going to be up front about asking, so will Stone.

"I'm a nation," he says pleasantly, expecting to be told that that can't be or that it is ridiculous. People can be very silly about his kind existing in places like these. "Russia. It's good to meet you, friend."

Stone has no idea what actual Russia is, and a wide range of ideas about what constitutes a "nation" in his world (most species don't even quite have a concept of "state", and those who do tend more towards city-states and empires), so in this case, Russia is going to just get a nod. "And you. How'd you wind up in there, anyway?"

That's a good question.

"I don't remember." Maybe he fell in. Probably? He was really not looking where he was going, so that's not unlikely.

"Maybe it tripped me in." It's a very badly behaved rock, so that might be what happened. "We should find a way to close those holes."

"From what I hear, they'll only fix themselves again as soon as we leave," Stone grumbles. This place is stupid, and he doesn't like it. "Just keep your distance. There are rooms behind doors over that way that are safe." He gestures in the direction of the huddle of personal spaces, including the Workshop.

"...We can just walk into all of these doors?" He's been snooping around the doors a bit to see if there were windows through which he could look into the rooms behind the doors, because he didn't want to just barge into strangers' houses, but if they are okay to walk into he'll definitely do that.

"If they're open, yeah," Stone shrugs. "If people don't want visitors, they keep them closed or locked. If you're worried about it, knock first, though the one they call the Workshop isn't anybody's homes, it's more like a hostel or caravansarai, and probably half of the doors lead to places to eat, not people's homes."

"I will have a look at them, then." This all sounds nice, and perhaps one of the places to eat needs someone to cook, too. He's always enjoyed cooking for others. It's a feeling of home and closeness.

"This direction, yes?"

Test Drive #21

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