empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: MARCH

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!mod,
*test drive

TEST DRIVE: MARCH

— TEST DRIVE: MARCH —

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 Wednesday, February 22 and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on March 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 rainbow colored paint darts are back and "improved." The colors match those of the Arehtei, so purple is anger and calm, orange love and hate, pink joy and grief, etc. There are two different versions of these guns:

Emotion Seeking. The darts will actually seek out those who match the negative emotion of its type. So if there is a pink dart, it will seek out someone who is currently feeling grief. When hit, the intention is to make them feel the more positive emotion and thus hopefully improve their mood. Keyword: intention. Sometimes it can just make it worse…
Random Target. The darts are completely random and will hit whoever the gun is aimed at. Again, the intent is to help spread positive feelings, even make a happy person feel even happier! But like the other type, it can make it worse instead.

So either grab a gun or be an unwitting target. Note: it's possible to be hit with more than one dart, so have fun with that.

• Prompt E: There is a new type flower that has started to bloom around the island. No one knows its origins, but its scent is so wonderful and colors so vibrant that they are already spreading all over town. However, researchers have discovered something alarming: the flowers are actually absorbing the emotions of those around them and are related to the plant that had produced the apathy toxin from a few years ago. While locals can help collect those already in town, help is needed in destroying and containing the plants out on the island.

Kill it with fire. Best way is with fire, so grab a torch and help produce some controlled fires. Of course, if it goes out of control, you'll want to put it out fast. There is one side effect to this method. The ash and smoke released from the flowers contain all the emotions they have absorbed, so there may be some unwanted effects happening around the environment. Maybe even influencing your emotions.
Deadly aroma. The sweet scent actually carries a type of toxin that relaxes the mind and muscles, making the victim feel so calm that all they want to do is just sit there and continue to be with the flower. Sounds innocuous until you realize that it's just a way for the flower to drain out the emotions to a complete apathetic state. When it's just one or two, it's not as harmful, but when you're in a field of them… Just be careful and wear the mask. Otherwise, you may find yourself lying in the flowers forever. If you see someone in this state, get them out quickly!

• Prompt F: Interior designers have been hard at work designing new things to make homes, buildings, and even the area outside of those two look vibrant and ecstatic, and their newest creation is flooring that responds to your feelings! The color and design will change to match how you’re really feeling at the time… or most of the time it will. They’re being shown outside in wide-spaces, to get as many people to test them and enjoy them as possible, and the color and design is based on what the person standing on them associates with that feeling.

Mismatching. While most of them will, in fact, work as advertised, there’s a good portion of them that will actually show a random color and design—for example, if you’re happy to see someone, maybe it’d normally be yellow with a lot of hearts! ...But in this case, maybe it’ll be red with a lot of storm clouds, as if you’re angry and upset to see them.
Holesome fun. Younger locals have made a game out of these floors as well : one person holds up a card with a certain color and design (you decide), and the person on the tile has to match it exactly, using whatever emotions they can to try and manage it. For example, blue with flowers. Of course, it’s a little harder if you happen to be standing on one of the mismatched ones… Adding to the pressure is a time limit: if you can’t manage it in five minutes, the tile the person’s standing on will actually break and they’ll fall through the ground, thanks to certain nanobots’ rising popularity. Don't worry, you'll be helped out. Or stuck there to be laughed at.

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include geese and/or potatoes.

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ This... just might be a voice that she is familiar with. Possibly. ]

Are there so many important things that you are so eager to forget?

[Crowe can count the number of times the king has addressed her directly and still have plenty of fingers left. Physically she straightens, and so follow her thoughts, at attention as practiced.]

No, sir. [Your Majesty? Probably ought to have been Your Majesty but thoughts are fickle and hers are ever so slightly shorting out.] It's more...things I'd prefer nobody else joins me for remembering.

[Amid a backdrop of pure uncertainty. Is that distant yet truthful enough?]

[ Regis is ... practicing, with what this crystal can do, and he tries to radiate reassurance through the connection. Whether he manages it, or if it helps... ]

I think this allows you to keep much of your actual thoughts to yourself. Closer to a phone conversation, it seems, than a complete openness.

[ Regis hesitates a moment, then - head bowed in real life - he adds a little bit which is a guess, but her reaction...

Well. He sincerely doubts that at-attention is what he would be getting from Drautos, not here, not in his mind. ]

In case you - with complete justification - would rather avoid me in the future, please allow me to offer my deepest apologies.

[ He is not asking her to accept them. That will be up to her.

But he owes them to her, and he means them most sincerely. He should have seen the betrayal sooner, if nothing else. ]

Avoid you? [A stray thought, one escaping into her focus but out of her control. It sounds surprised, confused, and she wonders - to herself, thankfully - whether the trouble in the Kingsglaive went even deeper than she has come to learn in the past few days.

One of them was bad enough. Crowe rubs her eyes with both hands and shakes herself out of that particular mental path before it can start.]

You needn't apologize...Your Majesty(?). [Really, she can't quite believe he's talking to her, much less thinking in the same thought space or trying to reassure her about both the way brain phones work and...and her responses to him. It is comforting, and it spreads her respect for Regis wider.] None of us knew. We...would have stopped it.

[Above all things, she has to believe that.]

[ His mental voice is soft, but steady, too. ]

You are not bound by a war, here. Not to me, not to anyone who may bring you bad memories. I do not know why we may be here, but there is a chance for you to find out who you can be without ... everything that you took up to protect people against, ho-- in Lucis. You have done so much for people who will never understand - you have my eternal gratitude and respect for it. You have fulfilled your duty, and more than.

[ It is Lucis that has failed in its duty to her, but - those are not the words he needs to add. She can try to be happier, here, and he means for her to have a chance. ]

If you choose to not avoid me, it would be my honor and privilege. But you have choices you may not have had, before.

[ She's not cast out. But she's not beholden, either.

And trying to give her a chance for a better life, instead of pain, is also why he carefully keeps the image of a shattered head plate of a huge armor, and a familiar face peering out through it away from the mental link. Instead, he focuses on somebody else. ]

I am aware that you would have stopped it. Even in the midst of the worst, at least one of the Glaive did incredible things, for Lunafreya and for Insomnia both. Nyx Ulric more than made up for... what others might have done.

[ Regis does not doubt it, or her. He believes in people, still.

Only not necessarily himself. ]

[The king's words are tempting and troublesome. There was a life, a Crowe, before the Kingsglaive, and what she retains of it is...lacking. It is a time she prefers to keep to herself. Hearing Regis extol the work she and her fellows have done on his behalf (she does not dare think for his safety because though others ground her order into dust beneath the heels of their words, the king respected and felt for the refugees able to fight with his power) hurts also. How many of them were paying him only lip service until something better came along?

What would such a life entail, one with no war and no hard promises? They were so sure of defending their home, as it were, from Niflheim, to the last man. It is all she knows how to know...or so she tells herself.]

I'm a Glaive. Sir. Choices or not, war or not, I don't think I could ever stop being one.

[To survive, you must live as one, and in doing that you will likely die as one. Crowe knew the offer she accepted all those years ago, and now she knows the price of her loyalties. ...And maybe the exchange was fair. She thinks about punching Nyx on the arm and exhausted but good-natured toasts in the dark of a noisy bar and the sight of Niffs retreating in the rare times they managed it.

Ah- he said Nyx. Crowe laughs aloud and silently.]

He always was the kind of hero who needed a big show. [But it is full of affection and respect and worry. The chair she's sitting in becomes suddenly uncomfortable and every shift that touches a new surface creates a static pinch.] I'd bet he'll find a way to make it grander than it needs to be when he tells it later.

[Crowe that's the King of Lucis.] Ah, um. Your Majesty. [Can one clear one's throat mentally? She's trying.] Best of the best, though.

[ At his own end, Regis bows his head, exhaling, but also relaxing a little, and the gratitude - and affection, and honestly - seep through the connection. ]

And I will be your king, as long as I am able to.

[ Regis... he truly wishes that he could have done more. That he had had the energy and resources and... future to give to those who risked their lives in a war that they didn't start, and they lost so much to. (He could not start it, either, though he did fail to stop it...) But it does not matter. Even those who wished otherwise had fought so that those who could not fight had been safer. That was enough. For those who mean more...

Regis's thoughts clear up with her laughter, his focus returning to the present, rather than treading the paths of what was and might have been. The chill that has started lightly permeating the air around him dissipates, into a glitter quick like frost flecks reflecting bright sunlight.

Instead of memories, he blinks for a moment, warmed by the sharp, unconditional, knowing affection that she has for Nyx Ulric. He has... he has had friends like that. And he is truly happy that such bonds are there and just as unbreakable. ]

I think you will need to speak with Lunafreya about the details on how grand a show he made, but the last part, I do not doubt.

You have worked close with him?

[ Safe topic, no? And as neutral phrasing as he can manage, even if it is wrong, and he knows it is wrong. Fought by his side. That is the right phrasing. But maybe a little breather from the memory of fighting will be best.

She is a Glaive, and will remain a Glaive, but all soldiers have off-time. And it is not to be taken away. ]

Close enough.

[Regis is ranked astronomically far above her, is the source of her power, is the final determiner of the fate of her friends' homes no matter how she wants to believe differently... and so that's where she should want to leave it.

But physical discipline and marshaled thoughts are not the same. For the woman with no family, Nyx and the others are - were - what she thought family must be, annoying and insufferable and overprotective fools whose deaths she would hear no talk of, ever, because to lose them was unthinkable, even as they were ever the more certain to lose one another in this damnable war.

It reaches through the telepathic void as brotherhood, as rolling her eyes at Nyx's cautions when he himself defined incautious, as screaming his name when he charged back into the fray against orders.]

We're here to protect the city and the crown, but that'd be useless if we didn't protect each other too.

[Passing over the thought of talking to Princess Lunafreya because it's about as unlikely as talking to King Regis was (before right now) and it didn't work out well the first time.]

[ While Regis knows that Lunafreya is here, so... that was not an idle suggestion at all.

But people ... here meet at their own time, not by another's design - and certainly not by his design. So he lets that go, easily. ]

You are wise. [ No condescention. Just gladness, that she has reached that conclusion, that she has had people who helped her reach it. Those are all a good things.

A moment, and warmth, over the connection. ]

See, you are not doing that poorly at all, over this connection. You do not need to forget anything that you do not wish to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE: MARCH

C for YELP?

This thread brought to you by the letter OH NO

I would apologize but. CROWE!

I need to hug this king

AW. All the blankets for Reggie, he tried.

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