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

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"Really? How old are you?" Eliot asks, venuinely surprised. Though maybe the blond is younger than he looks - a teenager, instead of only a few years younger than Eliot, as he'd initially guessed.

[cameracoded]

"T-twenty." He murmurs, eyes dropping off to the side towards the fire. Totally nothing to be embarrassed about here, nope.

"Should we be doing this here? I mean, who's couch are we ruining right now?" They did just drop soaking wet into someone's house. Technically.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"Woah, slow down, cowboy, I said I'd I fudge, not that I was quite ready to move to kinky public sex," Eliot chides, then shrugs.

"And who knows? No one's shown up yet. Besides, if they kidnapped us, they really should be prepared to entertain us. Shamefully rude otherwise."

[cameracoded]

"WHAT! That's not what I meant! I just-" He sighs in frustration and covers his bright red face in his hands and leans his head back against the couch.

"Something can sneak up on us if we're not paying attention!"

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"I'm paying attention," Eliot says calmly, "You're the one that seems so distracted. It's all right, I have that affect on people."

[cameracoded]

"You're being distracting!" Never you mind that he's the easiest person ever to distract. He drops his hands away from his face, but continues to drape back against the couch so he's looking up at the ceiling.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"This is not me being distracting. I have the feeling you can't handle me being distracting," Eliots says, smirking.

[cameracoded]

That is probably very true.

He sits up again, huffing and folding his arms indignantly. "Well I think you're just naturally distracting."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

Eliot's smirk widens, "Aw, does that mean you like me, too?"

[cameracoded]

And just then it clicks as to what he just said sounded like. At first he just gives Eliot I sideways glance trying to look stern, but on him the expression just looks amusingly pissy. It doesn't last long either way because he can't hide the growing smirk if he tried.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"You do!" Eliot claps his hands like a delighted child, "Oh, splendid! We shall ever so much fun together, you and I. And go on so many marvelous adventures!"

[cameracoded]

Prompto shakes his head and laughs. "Wow. You sounded like a legit wizard there for a sec."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"Oh, god, do you have Harry Potter in your world, too?" Eliot asks with a shudder.

[cameracoded]

"No? I don't think so." He shrugs. "But everyone knows it's the wizards who barge into your personal space with promise of adventure."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"Ah, the legacy of Tolkien," Eliot snorts, "Or whatever your world's equivalent is. Are we all supposed to have beards and robes, too?"

[cameracoded]

"Only if you're trying to be authentic to the source material." He smirks. "I don't got any shining armor either so I guess we're even."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"I am the source material," the magician declares, raising his chin and spreading his hands as if to indicate his long, lean body. "But it would be a shame to put you in armor, anyway. It hides far too much."

[cameracoded]

"Yeah, no thanks." He really doesn't want to to think about being put in a suit of armor. At all. Ever. "My uniform is badass enough."

Bedecked in skulls though it is.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"What uniform?" Eliot asks, eyebrows raised. He's genuinely confused - there's no way he would ever consider what the gunner is wearing as a uniform.

[cameracoded]

"This!" He says, gesturing to himself. With the patches and mismatched patterns, the skull motif that runs throughout definitely makes him look like he's more part of an eccentric street gang than a group of effective knights.

"It's my Crownsguard uniform. They're all personalized to the person, so they don't all look the same."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"I didn't realize when you said 'knights' that you meant you were part of a biker gang," Eliot says, though he leans in, peering closer at Prompto's still damp clothing.

[cameracoded]

There are actually quite a number of rough looking patches to be found on his vest that and more down the side of his pant leg if one pays attention, all of which seemed to be blackwashed like his spotted pants to blend them into the darkness of the leather and fabric.

"Nah, dude. We have the sexist car on the road." He says with a grin and no small amount of pride. It's not his, but he's gotten to drive it. Which is still pretty damn awesome.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"You know you literally have a motorcycle patch, right?" Eliot touches it with one finger, pressing lightly against the bond's side. "What's 'ULF'?"

[cameracoded]

"Well, yeah? It says motorcycle right on iiit!" He leans away from the poke, clearly ticklish. "Ultimate Land Fliers. They were a big chocobo racing group in Insomnia."

[unapologeticallyaffected]

"Chocobo?" Eliot asks skeptically. It sounds like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.