synodiporia_ooc | Test Drive #22

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test drive

Test Drive #22

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.

Threaded | Flat

58.
By the side of one of the pools, a young man in a close-fitting blue and white outfit is curled up, knees to his chest, protesting at and pushing away a grey and tawny creature with an owl's face and a tubby, kittenish bipedal body.

"Go away! I can't take care of you - I don't even know where I am!"

59.
The first time he'd emerged from the snowglobe spheres, Shinji had squawked in conspicuous alarm and managed - despite Liminal gravity being largely a matter of expectation - to tumble downslope a good distance before finally sprawling, panting for breath, in the alcove of a doorway into a private room. Every time he glances out at the expanse, he curls up further, more miserably tight, trying not to look - and yet, a sense of wonder making him squint from behind a screen of his fingers again and again. When anyone approaches, he doesn't notice them at first, hyperventilating and trying to keep it under control by chanting his way through prime and semi-prime numbers.

"Okay, seven - and nine is the square of a prime, so it's semiprime, ten... is ten right? What is this place?! How did I get here... Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, seventeen... nineteen, twenty-one is three times seven..."

Edited 2017-12-22 01:23 (UTC)

57 - Unfortunate Sand Croc (CW: body horror)

Saya's battle awareness was good, but not good enough to catch the subtle shifting of the sand underneath her feet. In the very next instant, jaws snapped close on her leg. For another instant it seemed like she was in peril, but then she just began cursing as spikes erupted out of her leg, impaling the sand croc. "Fuck you, those pants were nice!" And strangely enough, the croc's head budged into a tumorous mess that fell apart, leaving her leg free. The spikes retracted back into her leg, and the teeth wounds closed themselves. "Fuck that thing, seriously. Oh, hey, you there. You have spare pants?"

58 - A Far Nicer Prompt Than That

If there's one thing Saya definitely was, it's charmed by the beautiful and unusual scenery of the varied forest and the many pools. She splashed her feet into the water, swinging them back and forth as she sat on the rock jutting out into the hot spring. Ahh, this was just so nice on the feet. It's too bad she didn't have appropriate wear for this, or she'd go straight for a dunk in it. It was then that a strange four-earred fox came over to her and nudged at her with its muzzle. "Aw, you're so adorable," she said.

59 - An interesting puzzle

Okay, she had walked around the interior of the curious sphere of snow globes. She had tried squeezing through the snow globes only to end up on the other side. She had tried to make a hole by removing as many as she could just to find more. Now she was tossing snow globes up in an arc into the air, each arc higher and higher until the last one was caught by the gravity on the opposite side, falling with a thud onto the 'ceiling'.

"Huh," was all she could say.

Edited 2017-12-22 03:57 (UTC)

[ #57: the action option ]

Several people had already been lost to sinkholes or dips in the soil sea. But as the people trudging through the soil seas approach the ridge, it seemed like they might reach their destination. But the soil in front shifts oddly - the only warning before several guards burst out from underneath the surface. Most of them wield blades embedded with crystals, though some have no weapons at all.

This close, there's no time to run. One of the guards swings a heavy blade at the nearest person, but somebody else intercepts. A girl with long blond hair blocks the blade with a gloved hand. The blade cuts through the glove, but it stopped cold by the girl's hand. He looks confused for a moment, then attempts to pull the blade back - but fails to do that as well, as the girl grasps it with her fingers.

"You've ruined another glove," she intones, sounding serious and more than a little intimidating. "I'm going to make you pay for that." She squeezes, and the sword shatters in her grip. She moves from that into a backhand, sending the guard flying.

She spends a moment to remove the ruined glove - showing green scales on the arm underneath it, and claws at the end of her fingers. "Don't just stand there," she says to the nearest fellow jaunt-er. "Let's finish this up. Assuming you can pull your own weight."

[ #58: the lazy option ]

The gentle fountains, rippling ponds, and bubbling hot springs are soothing noises at any time. So it can't be that odd to find a girl sitting with her back up against a large tree, eyes closed. She's sleeping, and does so with grace - by appearance, it's the slumber of a fairy tale princess. Too bad the snoring takes away from that graceful image.

A small red lizard rests on a branch overhead. At least, it looks like a lizard... except for the wings. A tiny dragon, then? It watches warily as somebody approaches, then shoots out a warning jet of fire. This, unfortunately, is not the best aimed... and sets the hem of the sleeping girl's dress on fire.

She's still asleep. That dragon is still watching warily, seemingly nonplussed that it just set this girl's dress on fire. What do?

[ #59: the typical option ]

If Toyo was particularly shocked by these strange surroundings, she doesn't show it on her face. She experimented with the "snow globes" for a few minutes, but abandoned that once she spotted somebody else.

Instead, she saunters over, moving along the strange liminal surface as easily as if she had done this her whole life. "So tell me, what's the point of this place? You've been here before, right?" She stops walking once she's close enough to carry on a conversation, putting a hand on her hip. "What are we supposed to do here?"

58
"Oh my goodness...!"

The small child - very small, so short and skinny for someone on the brink of puberty - is turning slowly on the spot, dark eyes wide with delight and awe as he takes in the forest - perhaps forests, plural, judging by the highly varied selections of fauna, they've got to be from so many different climates and planets--

Oh gosh, Angus is so distracted, there's so much to study, and he's rushing around the Forest with a notepad and pencil in hand; and following close by his shoulder, twirling excitedly in the air behind him, is a baby jellyfish with long tendrils, and a constantly-changing galaxy of stars inside its bell. "E-excuse me! Can I ask you something?"

59
Angus McDonald, Boy Detective, holds one of the balls close to his face, the magnifying glass in the other hand the only thing protecting himself from just jamming the globe, containing a delapitated theatre with the words ROGA EAT the only signage remaining, into his own eye to try and get a closer look. There's red and gold glitter settling inside, making it look like the building is aflame.

And then he puts it down and makes a little note on his notepad. He's got several pages of it flicked back, all of which are covered in neat shorthand: a concise list of the balls, and the universes they contained, is well under progress.

57a

Phi has to admit that this reminds her a bit too much of Nevada. There's sand and dust everywhere and a lot of work is being done in the name of psychic power development - which, as a natural esper herself, admittedly isn't the worst possible thing, and there sure seems to be less Death And Suffering involved.

Then there's the faint sound of something flying through the air at high speed, and the next instant two things are different: there's a crystal lance half-buried in the sand behind her and a pretty severe gash in Phi's left leg. She yelps in pain, but retains enough composure to telepathically call for help.

Some asshole just threw a spear at me and I can't move!

She's clearly not happy about anything happening here.

57b

Phi has to admit that this reminds her a bit too much of Nevada. There's sand and dust everywhere and a lot of work is being done in the name of psychic power development - which, as a natural esper herself, admittedly isn't the worst possible thing, and there sure seems to be less Death And Suffering involved.

Then there's a kind of flash and Phi immediately dives to the side, just in time to dodge the crystal lance that's now half-buried behind her. A short distance away, the raider that threw it takes a step back, clearly not having expected her to dodge. You might not have seen the attack coming either, even if you were nearby.

Phi, meanwhile, runs right at the raider and goes for a flying dropkick to the face.

58

What do you do when trees are not trees?

They're certainly tree-shaped, but the strange images dancing on them and the way they move clearly marks them as anything but. If you stare for long enough, one of the trees might show for a split second something you remember, just as you remember it, before flickering away into something else. What's more, the branches are growing and dying out at a rapid pace, forming new paths and destroying them in equal measure. The almost blindingly glowy pool of energy here seems to be the only constant.

Phi, slightly older, definitely a lot bustier, and in some kind of hybrid shrine maiden outfit slash armor, can't approach the pool without tripping over new branches at every turn, thanks to... herself?

"You know how this works by now, right? Maybe it's not your turn yet, or it could be," says her duplicate matter-of-factly, "What are you going to do?"

Phi grits her teeth, but says nothing.

59

She may have experience with non-Earth gravities, but this is something no one could have prepared her for.

Phi doesn't cross the outside of the sphere by walking so much as wading. One of the smaller snow orbs, depicting a tropical island, catches her eye, and she takes it in her hand.

"Who'd have thought I'd see it like this?"

It's probably someplace she knows, if you want to ask.

----
[OOC NOTE: While personality-wise Phi isn't all that different from canon, she knows Kyrie Ushiromiya, Technically Even The Fact That She Exists Is A Spoiler (Higurashi Edition), and Gangrel the Mad King from her previous game (as well as about 29 other people from other canons which aren't also being played from here).]

57

Crystals that hum with power aren't exactly new to Cloud, they're fairly common back on Gaia where mako springs bubble on the surface. He's here because playing bodyguard is an old role that's as easy as breathing. The rather massive sword slung across his back helps with him being convincing as one anyway.

He hasn't talked much through the entire trek, enough to be polite but not much beyond that.

"Almost there." He says, turning to offer his hand to whomever's closest as the footing gets slippery again.

58

White, leafless trees that glow faintly in the mist cause Cloud to pause. He's never been sure if they're wood or stone, and the pool of water nestled among them is too clear and serenely still. It's almost a little piece of sacred ground.

He kneels at the edge, hesitant.

If there's anywhere a Traveler can get in contact with something like the Lifestream, it's here. He just doesn't know if he can, or better yet if he should.

59

Cloud can't help the bit of a smile on his face as he sits holding one of the orbs. A tiny rendition of the Golden Saucer amusement park is within, along with a gold chocobo and pink glitter.

"Hey, can you firm this up?" he asks whomevers closest. "And maybe a few others too... I think I saw a moogle one somewhere."

58

"You know, I think they might be messing with me. I'm bad at outdoors and the first place I get sent to is all about that. Not that this place doesn't look cool or anything, but this definitely isn't like the Olkarian forests where I could connect and make cool stuff..."

Pidge is sitting by the pool, rambling on to her Spirit Companion (a small lion cub with distinct green eyes) who seems to just look at her with everlasting curiosity. She doesn't seem too phased about her Champion rambling on and on, which is probably good considering she won't be stopping for a while.

"You need a name. Or do you already have a name? You've only talked about this Champion stuff but nothing about yourself? No? Hmm... if you were a boy, I'd name you Matt because Matt has a dragon that's named after me, but since you're not... hmm... "

They might be here for a while.

59

Pidge runs around, looking at the different kinds of spheres with curiosity in her eyes. Rather than the sceneries, she's more interested in how the spheres work and she shakes a few of them to see what kind of changes occur. Then out of curiosity she attempts to get out of the sphere and ends up somewhere else.

"Wow! Was there are portal over there from here? If I go through this wall, will I get back there or somewhere different? Though if I go through a wrong one, will I end up somewhere I don't want to go...? Though I guess I can't end up anywhere outside of Liminal Space..."

Edited 2017-12-23 15:36 (UTC)

57

After being in the stomach of a Weblum, you'd think you'd be used to all sort of risks and dangers. Well, the life of a Traveler had started to prove even trickier than the life of a Paladin. After almost falling into five different sinkholes and being almost eaten by hungry sandcrocs, Keith is very on the edge about this whole place.

There's finally an area he can rest for a bit, but unfortunately the crystal he ends up touching for a support is one of the booby trapped one and leaves Keith - who is already very annoyed - filled with rage and sends him to attack the nearest person without caring who they are.

58

The Adversary of Instincts is a quiet young spartoi, walking in the forest near the pools, looking for people he knows. He's accompanied by a five tailed, back fox.

Notable changes to Keith's normal appearance are his sharper teeth and the long, inconvenient nails on his hands that don't even seem to break (he needs to be careful of not poking himself or anyone else as well as not biting his tongue). He's not very shocked about the change in his appearance, eve if he doesn't exactly like it either.

"So you're not going to tell me anything useful about this situation? Even if you're supposed to be my ally?" Keith addresses the Spirit Companion fox who just looks away as if he didn't hear anything. "Great."

#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.))

57
Crystals, again. It always comes down to crystals, doesn’t it?

Naturally, Ringabel has taken the keenest interest in the local manufacture of memory crystals - idly playing with a more familiar example of the craft in the form of his Black Magi’s Asterisk, rolling it between his fingertips in one hand while updating his journal with the others. The local ‘espers,’ as the sorcerers here are called, practice a form of battle magic that he can fake with the aid of that Asterisk.

And from the hue and cries of ‘Ambush!!’ coming from outside the austrech-drawn caravansary wagon, he’ll have to. With a theatrical sigh, he closes the journal with its ornate silver “D” monogram and exits the wagon.

Brigands, it seems. Two with crystalline spears and metal armor, one adorned in pendants and fetishes and a staff. Troublesome. Ringabel hangs the Asterisk from his neck, touching his skin, and spreads his fingers so the lightning can arc between them and from them. Thunderbolts for the armored dragoons, he thinks, and as for the psion...

“Assistance would be most welcome, if it’s forthcoming,” he says to any Travellers or, indeed, capable natives.

58

Ringabel regards the green-haired, eight inch tall faerie with an appraising eye and a sinking feeling in his stomach. Still, he bows greetings, then extends a finger for her to land on.

“These fine fellows call me Ringabel,” he says. “Who have I the pleasure to behold, milady fairy?”

”Your spirit guide, o Champion of Memory,” she says, curtsying upon his fingernail. ”My name is the Lady Cognita, but you may call me Terra.”

“Of course it is,” Ringabel replies, sighing. “A pleasure to meet such a lovely vision as you, Terra... but to call me a Champion of Memory is a jest in poor taste.”

He turns to his companions. “Tell me, friends. Was this ‘Questing Country’ so steeped in irony the last time you dreamed of it?”

Edited (second prompt, now with BD-tier punny names) 2017-12-28 22:54 (UTC)

57

Crystals capable of granting those that gather them a vast assortment of powers? That's hardly an unfamiliar concept to Nero, albeit one he hesitates to approve of. He'd not be surprised if something grand and terrible happened if one piled enough of them together and said enough prayers... but he's also willing to be proven wrong, and that itching curiosity was more than enough to convince him to accompany a caravan of crystal-seekers and adventurers. It's not long before he has a chance to prove his value, for a straggler has caught the attention of one of those sandcrocs, which has sprung forth with snapping jaws.

In a smooth motion, he draws his gunblade and puts several shots through the beast, killing it neatly. "Do watch where you're walking?"

59

Eternally inconsistent as Liminal Space tends to be, Nero is still intent upon inspecting it down to the finest detail. He'll take any clue that can give him the slightest edge against these 'Arcana'. Though he finds himself briefly distracted from his mental notes and comparisons of notably familiar previous Jaunts and unfamiliar landscapes when his hand falls upon an orb containing an unmistakable landscape of Mor Dhona, with both the Crystal Tower and the remains of the Agrius jutting skyward. He frowns to himself, picks it up, gives it a shake, and marvels briefly as flecks of transparent purple glitter swirl about. "...no attention to detail was spared, I see."

A twist of his wrist, and moves to slip the sphere into his hammerspace. He found it first. It's his, now.

58.
Through the "fog" in the forest strides a man with thick and wavy grey hair in a black velvet suit with red piping, a blue shirt with neat ruffles just under his chin and at the wrists, a black coat with an elbow-length cape with red lining. His gaze sharpens as he takes in the surroundings and he can be heard to mutter "Not Spiridon again." He pauses, looking over his surroundings and shakes his head, sniffing the air a little. "No." He puts a gloved hand behind his head and rubs, slowly turning.

59.
Appearing for the first time in Liminal Space, and nearly tumbling to his knees, he looked around in utter confusion and shifted a bit, seeming to almost be walking a tightrope with his arms raised and his eyes downward for a few moments, then he seems to relax a little. "Localized gravity?" He said to the air as he looked around to the untold rows and stacks of spheres around him.

Threaded | Flat

58 & 59 - Open To All

Saya Yamada | Original | CW: body horror in prompt 57

Toyo Seiryu | Aegis Academy (original setting)

OTA

Phi | Zero Escape (+Trustfell 4 CRAU) | important OOC note below

Cloud Strife | Final Fantasy VII - Mobieus Vet!

Katie "Pidge" Holt | Voltron