Test Drive #22

[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 December 30–January 6. Our next Jaunt will be Ouroboros Retrograde: a return to the setting of our Questing Country Jaunt, in which lucid-dreaming magical warriors battle the nightmares of their various species. Here, the Travelers will find that the Champions and Oracles of the Dreaming Peoples are looking to help them escape the influence of the Arcana--but time has gone strangely out of joint and making an alliance is easier said than done.

Prompt #57 takes place in a previously unknown Jaunt to a desert world where people farm and harvest crystals to enhance their natural psionic powers.
Prompt #58 takes place in the magical-girl dreamland of Questing Country.
Prompt #59 is a liminal space setting from between Jaunts, in which everyone is getting an extra hour in the ball pit snow globe sphere.

#57

The soil is loose enough to flow like water, and the people trudging through it sink in up to the calf - deeper, sometimes, when they find sinkholes that drop them down deep enough to swim, or drown. The air is crisp, cold, and dry, the sky is dark but crackling with auroral discharges that hide the stars. The goal of the veiled folk wading through the soil-sea lies on a cracked ridge a hundred yards distant - spars of crystal budding like fruit trees, ringing quietly in the wind. The gem harvest there is the prize - reverberant crystals that can enhance and weaponize telekinesis to shake apart objects, or structures - or people; archival crystals that can store experiences, feelings, and beliefs - and train others in them, even indoctrinate them -- sympathy crystals which magnify and broadcast thought and emotion, letting telepaths connect over long distances, or driving troops into killing rage or enemies to blind fear.

But between here and the ridge are a dozen things that could go wrong - sinkhole collapses could suck the raiders beneath the surface, or legless albino sandcrocs could be lurking in wait for a meal. Some of the crystals could be primed, energy stored within them to act as booby-traps, activating their functions on unauthorized contact. Or there could be guards - hidden berserkers with reverberant blades, guerropaths whose very thoughts are weapons, snipers who direct crystalline blades with the speed of thought and intensity of emotion.



#58

The Forest Pools are a very special place in Questing Country. Some of the trees are earthlike, some are massive fungi, some flowstone stalactites, some vibrant-colored wood whose branches and trunks twine and braid with themselves - the idea of ‘forest’ means different things in the dreams of half a dozen worlds, all represented here. The pools, too, are different - tidepools, mirror-bright rippling puddles, bubbling hot-springs - but each is fed by a fountain, whether lively or quiet, and each looks drinkable, desirable to the folk who recognize a given pool as belonging to their homeworld.

Mist hangs heavy over the trees and ‘trees’, but not just cloud-vapor; this is the glowing pearlescent dreamstuff that Questing Country breathes out its magic in. These pools are the places where many (perhaps most) new-woken Champions first meet their Spirit Companions, the mystical, mythical animal guides who speak with the voice of Questing Country; and where many young Champions also make their first friends. There are no nightmares in the forest; but there are sometimes free-spirited Adversaries (the selfish former Champions who use magic for their own gain) who seek to trick the young Champions - though those Adversaries must contend with the fact that in the Forest Pools, their own Spirit Companions are always mischievously turned against them.


#59

Liminal Space is up to its old surrealist shenanigans again and currently, it seems to be in the shape of a hollowed out sphere, with a radius the size of a football field. Gravity is localized to the “wall” of the sphere, and any traveler that is sure-footed enough can easily walk the circumference of it without even bothering to invoke special ways of liminal movement.

To call the sides of the sphere a “wall,” however, is somewhat inaccurate. To be a wall implies that a surface is all of one piece--or that the smaller pieces that make it up have been welded or cemented together. Instead the “walls” of the sphere are made of hundreds upon thousands of loosely packed balls that look like glass and feel like plastic. Inside these balls are tiny little models of various locations--some of which are recognizable as former Jaunts or Traveler homes, but many of which are places that are completely alien--and when one picks one up and shakes it, what looks like snow will start to swirl all around the tiny models inside. (Well. Many of the balls have snow. On occasion it’s glitter that swirls around or just colored or black flecks.)

Any attempt to burrow through these balls to reach the outside of the sphere will just result in the Traveler in question emerging from the balls elsewhere in the inside of the sphere.

Comments

Bayek | Assassin's Creed Origins | probably a veteran

[firstcreed]

#57: Investigating
The way the ground shifts and swallows is almost familiar, and the achingly dry chill of the night is too. Bayek would wonder if this was a part of Egypt if not for the sky, and blending in with the group of travelers is easy enough. What the value of the crystals is, Bayek is still listening to discover, but for now it's enough to know that they are. He moves with almost as much ease as the natives do, scanning surroundings constantly and hand hovering near the local weapon.

A shift in the dark and-- "Stay back!"

Bayek is on the sandcroc exploding out of ambush in an instant, and while the exact weapon is unfamiliar, weapons in general definitely are not. The creature is dispatched quickly, but bloodily, and Bayek ends in a crouch, one hand extended over the pale corpse. His murmur is meant for himself alone, but the breeze might help listening ears pick it up.

"Children of Sobek, even here."

#59
There's an eagle in Liminal Space. She's flying with some effort a fair distance over the ground of snowglobes, with flapping to gain height and then a slow circle back down. She circles most often over Travelers, or doors to private spaces. If someone stops to watch, there's almost a pattern to her flight, as if she's methodically mapping the whole of the sphere. If someone keeps watching, or tracks her, long enough, she'll eventually dip down in an area as well hidden as any in Liminal this iteration.

There's a man there, hooded, and dressed in light armor, a variety of weapons bristling on his person. He's kneeling and holding one of the globes in his hands at first, but puts it aside to hold out his arm for the eagle to perch. His intense expression softens to a smile as he trails a knuckle over her feathers.

"What do you think, old girl? Nothing like home, and yet..."

He trails off, glancing at the globe he'd just put down. It's a simple scene, depicting a precise and very deliberate arrangement of standing stones arranged in a circle, surrounded by sand. When shaken, the glitter makes it look like a sandstorm.

((ooc: Forgive the lack of icons; still working on gathering those.))

[smokeandcarbs]

#59

Jean is particularly fond of birds. It's only natural for him to follow the unusual eagle. First with his round blue eyes, then with his not particularly athletic legs. He is intrigued by the deliberate way the bird seems to move. Hunting, perhaps?
Whatever the case, he does enjoy a puzzle and bird watching seems like a pleasant way to spend the time without getting in trouble, or so he thinks.

It was not his intention to intrude on a stranger reminiscing with his avian friend. Let alone a stranger wearing armor and carrying weapons. Even after a couple of months in Synodiporia, Jean can't get himself used to those at all.

"I'm sorry..." he mutters, ready to turn on his heels and leave as unobtrusively as possible, but the globe catches his eyes. "Oh."

He knows a couple of places with sandstorms at home, but nothing like that. It's the sort of scenery one would expect from a fairytale.

[firstcreed]

Bayek is aware of the stranger's approach, but knows that there are few, if any, active threats here, thanks to Senu's scouting. So aside from being watchful, he offers no protest.

When the stranger apologizes, Bayek shakes his head as he stands and Senu takes to the air again. "There is no need to apolo--"

To hide the flash of discomfort at someone else looking at something that's meant so much to him, he picks up the globe in an easy movement. "This place and what it shows us is always strange."

[smokeandcarbs]

"And traumatizing at times." he says, giving the armed man a careful look. Senu is right. Jean is far from being a threat. Unless one counts that way innocent and naive people frequently become a threat without even noticing. He is, in fact, quite talented at attracting trouble. "And cruel. In fact, I'd say one of its greatest acts of cruelty is to show us glimpses of home."

He has gone through that quite recently, so he has nothing but sympathy towards the dangerous looking fellow.

"I'm afraid your friend brought me here." he apologizes again, just in case the stranger wishes to change the subject or send him off. But also in the off-chance that he'd like some non-aviary company for a change.

[firstcreed]

A shadow passes over Bayek's expression, there and gone in an instant. His fingers tighten over the globe, but his voice is even, not betraying his feelings on the matter. "That I will not argue with. I am Bayek--"

There's a pause there. 'Of Siwa' is the phrase that wants to complete the rest, but can he truly say he is, anymore, having settled the Hidden Ones in Memphis? Doubtful; what made Siwa home is no longer there, and neither is he. On the other hand, Bayek can't and won't reveal what he is, so he just leaves it there for a moment, dangling awkwardly.

"And you, traveler?"

Then he laughs, smile going all the way to his eyes as he glances up at the bird circling overhead. "Ah! Someone who has learned to look up. What a rare skill you have mastered!"

[smokeandcarbs]

He notices the fingers tightening over the globe and the pause, as if the man had a family name on the tip of his tongue.

"I'm Jean." he says with a sympathetic shrug, and he is about to add his own family name, for its sentimental value if nothing else, when he's startled by Beyek's laughter. What a peculiar sound.

"I like birds" he replies, a smile of his own tugging at his lips. "And I'm bad at looking where I'm going."

He really is. Walks into traffic and all.

57

[stormcell]

That Thor is disinclined to listen to any directives that would keep him away from a threat goes, perhaps, without saying. It's only the distance between his place in the formation and the ambush that prevents him from interfering directly - while he trusts his aim, between the proximity and the dark, there's too much risk of hurting ally as well as beast if he were to attack at range. By the time he closes, the fight is done, so he simply gives Bayek the respectful nod of a fellow warrior, and offers his canteen and a cloth with the amiably-voiced explanation of, "For the blood." Which is bound to attract more predators, if there are any within scenting distance.

Despite his apparent good cheer, and the ease of his bearing which suggests he's no more concerned for his own health than he might be while strolling on a summer's morning, his gaze doesn't really focus on Bayek for long, instead scanning the surrounding sand pools with an alertness that speaks to familiarity with treacherous terrain and hidden threats.

[firstcreed]

"You have my thanks."

That's said with a small nod in Thor's direction. While Bayek gets the blood off with the casual movements of long familiarity he first looks Thor over, gaze sharp. Then, satisfied that he's secure enough, Bayek closes his eyes and stretches out his senses to see what Senu can scout out.

That means for a moment or two, Bayek doesn't respond to any attempt to catch his attention. He hums a thoughtful noise when he does come back to himself.

"The water is better saved. There is at least one more of these close enough to our path to consider ambush and that is only the beginning."

[stormcell]

There's a moment's pause as Thor considers the statement - and then he nods, and stows the canteen, apparently willing to take the prediction of what lies ahead at face value rather than question where it might come from too closely. They're meant to be allies, after all, and neither prophecy nor clairvoyance are, in his experience, particularly far-fetched possibilities.

And so he only asks, still friendly but with a note of gravity, "How far does your sight extend?"

[firstcreed]

"Far enough." It's not the answer Bayek suspects the man wants, but Bayek doesn't want to reveal Senu. She's more vulnerable than he is, especially when she's in the form of one of the local flying creatures. Senu has returned to circle above his head, awaiting Bayek's action, and he carefully doesn't look up, although he wants to.

What he can do, however, is point out the biggest threat he's found through her eyes, so he gestures to a spot near the crystals. It's near the top of a slope that the caravan will have to climb. "There are men hidden beneath the sand there. Only four, but they have the advantage of position, even without the advantage of surprise."