Test Drive #6

[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!

Our upcoming app round runs January 1st-7th, after which we’ll have a Victorian Cosmic Horror Jaunt - the madness of the Cthulhu Mythos in rural 1800s England. With that in mind, here are some darker prompts, to catch the feel of how your characters react in troubling times...

Prompt #20 is a flashback to the Cursed Kingdom jaunt, where werewolves hunted, deadly magical creatures roamed, and magical curses and traps struck without warning. Feel free to play an investigator, a werewolf, or simply a citizen of the magical kingdom who’s become unfortunately lost...

Prompt #21 is a glimpse of a Jaunt, either far in the past or sometime in the future. In the mining village of Enterrado, a gang has taken control of the flow of silver into and out of town, and the only folks with the hope of running them out are a vengeful band of vigilantes and outlaws. With half the Travelers brainwashed into believing they belong to one gang or another, friends are ready to kill friends, and it doesn’t seem like the few sane folks remaining can stop the bloodshed...

Prompt #22 is set in Liminal Space, during a time of instability, where buildings are collapsing and re-forming, and the worst fears or greatest desires of Travelers are appearing (and vanishing again) like all-too-solid mirages. What would your character imagine, and what kind of threat would it present… ?


Prompt #20: Dark Forest
The trees are too thick to let in any hint of sunlight, if there is any, but more likely the world is just as dark everywhere else by now. Tendrils of mist wind between the trees - most of them harmless, but every now and then one will latch onto a passerby like a leech and begin to turn pink as it drains blood. In the open hollows between the trees, shallow puddles of brackish green water contain hidden sinkholes, or startling arcane visions of the dead. Slowly, snakelike, briars grow and slither like a cage from tree to tree, enclosing anyone too slow and cautious in a pointed hedge-maze. And somewhere nearby, a wolf howls...



Prompt #21: Wild West
They've taken to calling the tavern at the end of the street the Bastille. Its windows have been shot out and barricaded, and some of the tables inside have been upturned for cover. But still, despite the tension, people come in to drink. For all that the miners and the vigilantes have exchanged fire in the streets, and three men have been shot dead in this very saloon in the last day, it's the closest thing left to neutral territory. Desperate bargains and parleys are discussed, struck, and abandoned. Drinks are downed in quantity, and it's almost true that nobody gives a damn any more who's cheating at poker. If you're looking for an old friend, or one of the mad strangers from out of town, or even for someone to draw down on, you won't get better terms anywhere else than you will in the Bastille. Come for the whiskey, stay for the knife-fights.



Prompt #22: Chaos Given Shape
Liminal Space bends and drips like a Dali painting, one landscape sagging into another, buildings settling, leaking water or dirt from whatever alien environment is above them; walls collapsing only to reveal something new on the other side, like a caterpillar molting into a butterfly. Calm meditation and focus by Travelers seems to stabilize the environment briefly, but if one person exerts too much mental influence, the surroundings begin to resemble the territory inside their heads. Old fears and nightmares, lost loves, desperate desires all form out of the fluidic landscape - and that's enough to break almost anyone's calm. But two people, working together, can sometimes strike a safe equilibrium...

Comments

[wantedittobeagame]

It took Adachi a moment to realize who "Yosuke" was supposed to be, used to hearing him either by "Hanamura" or "Hana-chan"... at least he was actually used to hearing him mentioned in past tense. He flinched, letting her hand go.

"Well... I'd more say stubborn, but that works too," he said, forcing a smile on his face.

[shiroganeheir]

"Well, I am that as well..." She trails off, giving him an odd look. "What is it?" And then it hits her. "Yosuke-senpai was one of the victims?"

Well, that's... interesting. She was not very close with him, but the thought of him dead was not a happy thought.

[wantedittobeagame]

It was obvious he didn't want to say it, from the moment Adachi flinched.

"...the second, yeah," he said softly.

[shiroganeheir]

"Oh." Naoto blinks for a few moments, staring into space blankly.

As much as she was attempting to be cool about it, the thought of the Senpai she knew and cared for actually killing Yosuke was hitting her hard.

[wantedittobeagame]

Adachi shifted on his feet. "...he was... really empty," he said softly. "I'm glad to know that he's not really supposed to be that way, but..."

It didn't save anyone he killed on his world, in the end... or him, for that matter.

[shiroganeheir]

"I do not know about supposed to be, but he is not that way in my world, no."

Naoto takes a breath, then shrugs. "As I said before, it is choices that shape our worlds. I cannot speak for the choices of others, as much as they might stun me to hear."

[wantedittobeagame]

"That's a very brave way of looking at it," Adachi replied. "I'm... still trying to make sense of it all myself, and I was there."

[shiroganeheir]

"I am not certain about brave. Disconnected is more likely." Naoto shrugs. "There are days that I am still attempting to make sense of what I experienced at home. Answers never come easily, especially when things are as intense as that case was."

[wantedittobeagame]

"Yeah, tell me about it," Adachi replied, rubbing at his neck. "How... how bad was it on your world?"

[shiroganeheir]

"There were only three actual deaths, two through the television, and one copycat crime, however, five people were kidnapped and thrown into the TV, the last being Nanako-chan." She pauses. "She died, but came back to life. I think it might have had something to do with Teddie, but I am uncertain."

[wantedittobeagame]

Adachi flinched again at the mention of Nanako.

"Sorry to hear that's the same between our worlds," he replied, folding his arms over his chest. "I mentioned before there were seven murders. There was also a copycat murder, though it was more of a manslaughter case than an actual planned action. And kidnapped... six, including Nanako-chan."

[shiroganeheir]

Naoto winces. "That was... quite a lot worse than what we had. My sympathies."

A pause. "I do not mean offense, but sometimes hearing how it could have been worse puts things into perspective."

[wantedittobeagame]

"Nah, I understand. I'm almost jealous; Inaba probably wasn't as tense on your world as it was on mine."

[shiroganeheir]

"No, likely not. Inaba was, as it always is, a hotbed of gossip, overblowing situations, and jumping to conclusions. Nearing the end of the entire situation, people were certain that the Junes Kingdom was invading. Not to mention the fact that Kanji's incident turned into a hundred bikers and he took over the gang." She rolls her eyes. That one always amused her.

[wantedittobeagame]

Adachi had to laugh at that. "Yeah, same here. You should have seen Saki when someone was going around screaming about the 'kingdom of Junes'. Wish I had gotten a picture of her face."

[shiroganeheir]

"Saki?" There's a bit of an odd look on Naoto's face. "Oh." Well, if Yosuke was the second victim, it would probably follow that Saki wasn't a victim.

[wantedittobeagame]

"Hm? Yeah, Konishi Saki," Adachi explained. "She was the one that dragged me into this whole mess."

He paused, catching on to her expression. "...let me guess. She's dead on your world."

[shiroganeheir]

"Yes. She was the second victim." A pause. "Who was the first for you?"

[wantedittobeagame]

Adachi pursed his lips, though he couldn't say he was surprised.

"Satonaka," he answered. "You?"

[shiroganeheir]

Chie-senpai? Naoto winces. How many of her friends were dead in that universe. "A television announcer by the name of Yamano."

[wantedittobeagame]

"Yamano?" Adachi echoed in surprise. "Damn, she was my copycat victim."

He had to wonder how that had even come to pass. Why would he kill her?

[shiroganeheir]

"The copycat victim in our case was a teacher from Yasogami, Morooka-sensei. He died before I started at Yasogami, however, he was killed by a former student."

[wantedittobeagame]

"...hunh," Adachi replied, rubbing at the tip of his nose. "Morooka was one of the victims too."

He paused a moment, before explaining, "What he would do was while we were busy saving one of the people kidnapped, he would shove someone else in the TV, so they would die before anyone ever had a chance to see them on the Midnight Channel."

[shiroganeheir]

"Fuck." Naoto rarely swears, but this is certainly a moment for it.

She's stunned for a moment. "Well, Senpai is quite intelligent." A pause. "What about Kanji?"

[wantedittobeagame]

"He's the one we were saving when Morooka was killed," Adachi replied, raising an eyebrow at Naoto of all people swearing. "'You' were with us by then. It was... an interesting experience."

He almost threw in a pussy cat joke, but managed to keep himself from doing it.