TEST DRIVE #24

[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 April 21-28. Our next Jaunt will be Digital Frontier: Legacy Mode, a return visit to the Grid, where investigation of the secrets held by a new computer system will be investigated. The jaunt will be accompanied by the walkabout Northern Lights, where a ski resort in Finland is subject to some unusual happenings during the longest night of the year.

Prompt #62 is a Liminal Space that offers a chance to get clean, if you can work with its quirks.
Prompt #63 gives players a taste of the exploration setup used on the Grid previously.

#62

Liminal Space is a laundromat - the rows of washers and dryers stretch into the distance, occasionally punctuated by the doors to Travelers’ private created spaces. If you’ve been looking for a chance to wash your clothes, you can even do that; there are stacks of odd gold coins marked with five-pointed stars around, apparently of a perfect size to slot into the machines.

Of course, first you have to free a machine of its resident hamsters.

They’re not true animals - instead, they’re made of cloth. One might be flannel, another denim, and so on. They’re all running endlessly in the washer and dryers like they’re hamster wheels, and the detergent and fabric softener dispensers in the Liminal Laundromat look more like a drip-feed water bottle you’d leave upended in an actual hamster’s cage.

#63

(For a quick rundown of the Grid’s various factions, see here. Automata are not on this short list, since their functions changed significantly after the last jaunt and we haven’t formally sorted out how yet.)

It took quite a bit of scanning, but the Defenders in this system are now satisfied that the Programs visiting from the Grid to help with their data reclamation didn’t come bearing new and unusual strains of corruption. Their wariness isn’t uncalled for, given that Programs come in one of two colors, and the Grid’s visitors apparently have another three to come to grips with.

With the conclusion of the quarantine protocol, all Programs are now free to explore the area and see what they can find. The task goes faster in groups of Programs, and a fair amount of work is required before a sector is considered fully processed. You might find nothing, or you might find something - or you might find danger, in the form of corrupted data.

Comments

[vorenado]

Gale is not afraid of the newcomer and it shows. He's taken on things far more powerful than anything the Junkyard had to offer, so he doesn't tend to feel threatened often. Unlike most, he's not a prideful person. It's more a matter of factual evidence for him than pride, though it has this unfortunate side effect of making him seem arrogant at times. He's only recently learned to tone it back.

"I'm not interested in your Tribe's secrets." Which is a very strange thing to hear himself say. The former Bishop is standing at ease, a hand on his hips and shoulders relaxed. He's not carrying an assault rifle or any other weapon on him. They both know that doesn't exactly matter anymore, but it's the principle of the thing.

"But I would like to ask you something."

[teamblue]

This is considered with narrowed eyes. He could be civil, that was easy enough, and so far he'd been practically a saint as far as his tribe was concerned. He knew the occasional Brute had no issue with even offering advice to enemies to make it more interesting later, but Drake wasn't given to making things 'more interesting later', that got people killed.

And he knew the Embryon weren't as harmless as they looked. The Colonel hated their leader way too much for that.

"You can ask anything you like. I won't guarantee answers."

But if Gale has questions he better keep up because Drake turns and heads for another washing machine to peek inside, apparently actually intending to keep up his hunt for blue cloth hamsters.

[vorenado]

Gale is patient. He knows this soldier probably doesn't know the truth, or at least not all of it. Varion could have told them anything, or nothing at all. The answer given wasn't unexpected and he nods, moving to keep at least along side of the other man so he doesn't feel like he's being stalked.

"What is the last thing you remember?" A seemingly innocuous question, but an important one.

[teamblue]

"Sitting down to a lunch of somewhat charbroiled purple flavored rations with mystery sauce and equally charbroiled meat." That is a thoroughly unhelpful answer, and it's certain that Drake knows it. "I was thinking to myself to never ask Cloudy to cook again, because enthusiasm does not replace skill, and then I was here. Minus my lunch."

Well no. There was that bit with talking to an Arcana in there but frankly that's private and he's unwilling to discuss it. The lunch is easy enough to discuss, but it did leave an impression. Enthusiasm really didn't make up for much. But when all there was was leftover kills, rations, and mysterious sauces found in suspicious places, making do was how it went.