TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER —

Welcome to empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:

• Date reminders. Reserves open Tuesday, October 25 and Applications (Canon | OC) open Tuesday, November 1st.
  
  
• OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are allowed. Those interested can also use the test drive. OCs do not need to be reserved.
  
  
• Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.
  
  
• Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.
  
  
• Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.
  
  
• First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format. We have also made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!

Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!


PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try?

• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request. Creating jobs for the purpose of the test drive is absolutely doable.

• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...

• Prompt D: The Boreas Harvest Festival is fast approaching, and the farmers are trying hard to work through the bleak weather conditions to get their crops in before they go bad from all the apathy. All hands on deck—but there may be too many unwanted hands roaming around.

1. Scarecrows. The scarecrows that have been set up as a festive reminder of the time of year have unfortunately come under the influence of some errant strong emotions from the farm hands that work in the fields. Unfortunately that includes trying to ward off anyone who enters the fields with pitchforks and is one of them carrying a torch? Maybe if they can be convinced that you are trustworthy they will calm down.
   
   
2. Invading rabbits. There are ton of rabbits ravaging the carrot patches. They're easily frightened, but some are more tenacious than others. Beware of the white rabbit with red eyes.
   
   
3. Save the crops! Several batches are already starting to spoil! The only thing that can save them is dumping as much positive emotions into them. Joy of good food, hope for a bountiful meal, love of eating—whatever will work. Just be careful. Too much and those things might grow and explode…

• Prompt E: Aiada, the Arehtei of appreciation and jealousy, has sent a personal request for those who are interested. There is a small island just beneath Empatheias that she has been cultivating over the many centuries. She wishes to contribute to the Harvest Festival with some seeds and spores. However, the recent atmosphere has also reached down there, and now it's all a mess! Giant mushrooms replaced the trees and there's slime and mold everywhere. The cure? Aside from getting a lot of heavy duty cleaners and pushing it off, appreciation will go a long way to help.

1. Goop brigade. Grab that bucket and shovel and clear the goop out! Just be careful not to have too much get on you—jealousy might take over.
   
   
2. Appreciation balls. To help hasten the effort, Aiada has given several tubs filled with light, green orbs. Once channeled with enough appreciation, they can be used as mini-grenades to help explode and wash the area with more positive energy. Those caught in the blast won't be harmed. If anything, they'll just be very thankful.
   
   
3. Watch the ledges. Careful, it's a fairly small island and the goop and slime has made things slick. If you fall… That's not a good way to go, let's just say that.

• Prompt F: Various parties are interested in the emotion shards scattered all over Thera. But this time around, the focus is on the medical laboratory as the equipment and potential research there is also of interest. For three days those who volunteer are sent back to try and gather as much as possible—but of course this won't be easy.

1. Skeletal Scientists. The remains of the scientists who once worked in these rooms are still lurking, ready to protect their work. Fortunately they're relatively weak nerds, so not too difficult to dispatch. Just be careful.
   
   
2. Flying equipment. The various medical equipment has also taken life, scalpels and needles flying everywhere and stethoscopes ready to strangle.
   
   
3. Questionable liquid. Most of the easy shards have already been taken, leaving the more difficult to retrieve ones left. In particular they're found in strange, dark pink liquid. It's mostly harmless—except that upon contact intense waves of grief and suffering will course through. The longer the exposure, the worse it is. So hopefully a bucket full of it doesn't fall on you…

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include feathers and/or confetti.

For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!

Comments

Elize Lutus | Tales of Xillia II

[pinkidealist]

[ Was that tree always there? ]

{Well, this task doesn't seem so bad. She did this all of the time with Ludger back home, after all. The only problem now was.... Well... she had no idea where she was now.}

Uhm... Teepo... Do you have any idea of where we are? We came from that direction didn't we?

{Good thing she has plenty of shells to return, but now she has to find her way out. Send help.}

[ Straight into your soul ]

{This was a hell of a thing to come across after just returning back here. A farmer asked if she could help him out with his crop problem and she just couldn't say no to his ernest request. So there she was keeping watch on his carrot patch, but she suddenly found herself with company.}

Oh, hello there.

{What a cute little rabbit! As long as the patch was okay, the rabbit's presence was too right?}

I'm Elize; and I'm Teepo! Are you keeping me company?

{Naturally she doesn't expect it to respond back, but she found herself talking to it regardless. And then there were more. Maybe she should be worried...}

Wait. You can't go there! {Trying to keep them away from the victims.} Stop!

{She was managing until she felt a chill run up her spine. Turning to see a single white rabbit with bright red eyes staring at her was.... unnerving for some reason.}

Uhm.... No entry? {Halp?}

the tree one (sort of)

[seasaltkeys]

[He freezes when he hears her voice. He'd know it anywhere. He hears it and he's not sure what to believe. No, it's not that. It's that he's hesitant to believe. Scared really, because he knows that something out there in the universe hates him and it had been a while since he'd been reminded of that.

He's scared to even look.]

It can't be real.

[It's hard to say if he said it or thought it or what, but it's definitely caused just about everything in the area to close in and wall itself off. ]

Sounds reasonable to me

[pinkidealist]

{She didn't exactly hear him while trying to find the way out, but suddenly being closed in caused her to let out a surprised squeak.}

W-Woah! What in the...? What's going on? {But if that just happened, and she's sure she didn't do it, that meant that someone was around. Time to call out to whomever is there.}

Hello?! Is someone here? I'm.... sort of lost....

[seasaltkeys]

[He should answer. But he's finding the words getting stuck because again, he doesn't want to believe that this is real. If he doesn't, then maybe he won't get hurt by it. It can just be a dream.

(Except for the fact that he really does want it to be real)

So he stays quiet, trying to get a hold of himself, get back under control.]

Sorry.

[It's quiet, and again hard to tell if he's saying it or thinking it.]

[pinkidealist]

{She couldn't hear him for how quiet he'd spoke, but then...}

Hello? Is anyone-- {And then she froze for a moment.} Roxas?

{It only took her a moment to register, but it didn't take long for her to snap out of it and nearly tackle him.}

I'm sorry.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas is kind of taken aback by the tackle and doesn't quite reciprocate all the way. He's kind of dealing with an emotional pile-up that is his brain right now and if he opens his mouth right now, he feels he might say the wrong thing.

Any sort of plant life around them is tying itself into all sorts of knots.]

You...you're back.

[pinkidealist]

{Not that she fully expects him to.}

Y-yeah... I... Has everything.. been okay? {Probably not.}

[seasaltkeys]

[If he's being honest, the answer is No and probably not is more of an understatement than anything else. But it's kind of rude to be flat out like that. Settling on what he's going to say is a bit of a nightmare right now.]

It...i...I missed you. A lot.

[pinkidealist]

{She would say the same if she had realized she'd been gone in the first place, but she can understand why. So she hugged him gently this time.}

I'm sorry. I'm here now. I didn't... expect to leave.

[seasaltkeys]

[He knows. This place doesn't make sense and people come and go at random but he was actually starting to hope.]

Just don't go again.

[pinkidealist]

I'll try not to. {But then she remembered} Uhm.. Right... I'm... lost.

[seasaltkeys]

I cam from this way, so there's probably a way back.

[His reactions probably didn't help matters.]

[pinkidealist]

{She can tell, but it's better to push forward for now. So she'll reach for his hand and walk towards the way he said. As much as she'd love to catch up, they should probably get back to town.}

Okay! Off we go then.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas doesn't immediately take her hand, but he doesn't pull away either. It's just weird, to settle back into this, as if nothing happened. He's not sure how he feels about it, yet. It's going to take some thinking.]

[pinkidealist]

It doesn't take Elize long at least. She's obviously gotten used to this over the months that they had been dating here. She stopped for a moment to look around.

Uhm.. Which way from here? {At least she was somewhat familiar with this forest but not quite every area.} Oh, by the way... What were you doing here anyways?

[seasaltkeys]

Just wandering.

[He hadn't really had a purpose and had just felt like going for a walk. Maybe there'd been something taskboard related, but honestly most of those thoughts had disappeared the moment he saw Elize.]