Test Drive #5.

[powersthatbe]

Welcome to the Synodiporia Test Drive Meme! Below the cuts there are three 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 that a forest of bare toplevels! OCs are especially welcome!

Prompt #17 is set in an unknown location, probably Liminal Space, where Travelers have little except their imagination to guide them. Confusion is expected, but what would you do, if you were floating in the shadows of the night sky, surrounded by unseen strangers and animate constellations?

Prompt #18 is an example of a steampunk jaunt, either far in the game’s past or somewhere in its unknowable future. Improvising Infiltrator backstory and playing out diplomacy, intrigue, or mad science in the skies above the Takla Makan desert is greatly encouraged!

Prompt #19 is a popular Liminal Space the travelers have visited before, a look at the dream-logic and nonsensical whimsy Travelers are trapped in during their downtime - though it can also be a source of clues they desperately need, the only form of communication from the Trumps they ever get. What does it all mean? If anything.


Prompt #17: Starry Night

You are floating in a weightless, lightless space, slightly chill. In the distance, motes of light forming abstract shapes move, jerky, robotic perambulations as they circle, but the light is too dim to show anything but the phosphor-dots itself. Whenever you speak, stardust spills from your mouth, illuminating, for just a moment, the lower portion of the speaker’s face, and there are other twinkles of stardust in the distance, but the cool air feels thick, and the light does not travel far before dissipating. What do you do, here in the dark?



Prompt #18: A Zeppelin called Zeitgeist

You’re on the observation deck of a luxury zeppelin. It's a rocky ride, the craft being buffeted below by a swirling sandstorm, but perhaps of more interest to most inside are the furnishings. A steam-powered calliope plays music in the corner. The bar, an elegant contraption of brass and stained glass, is automated and coin-operated, a rube-goldbergian series of chutes and levers clicking and unlocking bottle and glass, pouring and mixing as the coins slide down through the mechanism and click the right counterweights into place. And scattered across the floor is a late gentleman of similar composition, six spiderlike telescoping arms connected to pneumatic pumps; his face a marble mask, but his tuxedo is torn and the arachno-mechanical marvel was apparently dismantled by repeated collisions with sharp objects.

Anyone who finds the scene familiar will remember that this airship, the Zeitgeist, is the Flying Cossacks' primary exploration craft, now taking one last tour over the Golden Khanate before being mothballed. A diplomatic voyage, it's been marked so far with a number of dangerous assassins striking at the envoys aboard... it's the summer of 1896, if you're an undercover agent of the Vatican (Vatican librarians being among the most fearsome and well-informed secret agents in the world); or 1314 if, like most of Europe, you're a Sufi and part of the Ummah Caliphate. Steam power rules the world, although clockwork is fast catching up. And you might be on some sort of mission yourself…



Prompt #19: The Bouncy Castle

Color is everywhere in Liminal Space. A giant moon-bounce castle dominates the landscape, surrounded by a ball-pit moat. The sky beyond is very obviously a matte painting and not a real sky; turning slowly above them, the sun and moon as tinted spotlights. Gummy fish jump and swim in the moat, and balloon animals wander the halls, gliding along the walls thanks to helium and friction.

There are a number of more remote locations - the dungeons, accessible down a slide in one corner. The gatehouse, which has floors which are entirely trampolines, with no pretense, nothing to mitigate the bounciness - and cushioned ceilings. The cistern, a dark little room in one corner which has its own deep, round pool of multicolored balls. These places, at least, are a little more private, for anyone looking for peace and quiet amidst the rainbow extravaganza.

Comments

[tealeafs]

At least he's enough of a friendly kid.. she's glad to see that, at least. It's always a little worrying to have children around since.. well, the Jaunts are dangerous. Even to her, and she's already in her twenties and has demon healing powers, let alone to someone who - for all intents and purposes - just looks like a little kid.

But that just gives Chizuru more of a reason to look after him for a bit, walking over to his trampoline to lean on the side of it a bit and smile up at him.

"You're sure? You must be a champion at jumping like this." She's indulging him a little, okay.. But you better bet she's especially keeping an eye out to make sure he doesn't just accidentally jump off the trampoline. Even if her chances of catching him aren't.. too great. But ssh, we don't have to mention that.

[darkhourdear]

He looks like a kid, walks like a kid, and acts like a kid, so he must be a kid. Just don't bring up fate or death and he will talk like a normal kid, too.

The compliment is not lost on Phillip at all, and he smiles. "Thanks! There was a trampoline park thing back home that was kind of like this, only there was also a foam pit and dodgeball and stuff."

He stops bouncing for a moment, realizing what he said before looking up at her. "So, um... this is fun and everything, but when I get tired, d'you know how I get back home?"

[tealeafs]

Ah, we've reached the more awkward topics really quickly here, haven't we.. Chizuru sure doesn't want to have to tell little kids that they probably won't be home for a while. Especially since they might start to miss their parents and oh gosh. Even if Chizuru's a pretty good babysitter (for kids, but sometimes also for grumpy samurai) that doens't mean she thinks she's particularly equipped for something so heavy.

But she doesn't want to leave it unanswered either, so after tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with - what she hopes is - a reassuring smile, she speaks up again. "Um, it's a little of a difficult story. Do you maybe just want to sit down while I talk about it? You might get too tired if you keep jumping."

[darkhourdear]

Uhoh. Phillip knows that conversation starter. It means it's going to be serious, and anything with that kind of seriousness because a topic of going home probably doesn't mean anything good. As a result, he's a little hesitant before he stops bouncing, though he doesn't move over to her yet. "What's your name?" he asks first, because otherwise she is a stranger and he shouldn't really talk to her.

[tealeafs]

"Chizuru." She bows politely for him, at least.. she wants to show she has no ill will, because-- well, she doesn't. Chizuru wouldn't hurt a fly, after all, and especially not someone who seems like just a little kid to her. (It's also why she understands his apprehensiveness - she, too, was told not to talk to strangers when she was younger.

"Yukimura Chizuru. It's very nice to meet you, even if the circumstances are a little weird.."

[darkhourdear]

Phillip tries to mimic the bow but, well. It's clearly not a natural response to him. "I'm Phillip Santorini. It's nice to meet you too."

And yeah, he guesses the circumstances are a little bit weird... he's not in New Jersey anymore. He'll sit down next to her, swinging his feet over the edge of the trampoline a little nervously. "So... what were you going to say? About going home."

[tealeafs]

Yeah, at least she realises it can't be natural - that name isn't Japanese in the slightest. More western. But it's okay, she's dealt with western people here before, she can totally.. do this.. yeah...

.. she'll try her best, at least.

Chizuru patiently wait until he sits there though, trying to face him with the most gentle smile she can manage. She knows this is tough news, and it especially must be for a child - she can't help but think of when Sakura was still here, really - but..

"Hmm, well, there's a small problem.. you see, we can't go home just yet."

Baby steps, okay.

[darkhourdear]

Yeah, Phillip was right. That's not really a good start. Sure, this place is cool and all, but he really does need to get home or his parents will freak. "What d'you mean? If someone got me here, then... they have to be able to send me back, right?" That only makes sense to him.

[tealeafs]

"Exactly, they can bring you back home!" Not.. that even that much has ever been confirmed, but Chizuru's opting to believe it over here. She doesn't want to think of the alternative, and even if she knew, she's not sure if she would want to present it that way to a little kid.

"It's just.. they can't do it right away. It might take a little while more."

[darkhourdear]

Hm... Phillip doesn't look completely convinced. Mostly, because he's not. That seems very suspicious. Phillip's gotten better about spotting suspicious things, recently. "Why would it take more time?"