TEST DRIVE: MARCH

[empevents]

— 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:

1. 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…
   
   
2. 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!

Comments

Venom Snake | Metal Gear Solid V

[anothermission]

Prompt E: Deadly Aroma

A whole field full of beautiful flowers, not a soul around but his own, and Venom felt some relief at long last. Out here he didn't have to think so much about where he came from or the claustrophobic throng of people back in town. He had a job to do, and it was good to stay busy, but it was also good to be out somewhere in nature as beautiful as this. The gas mask kept him safe from the lovely, dangerous aroma of the field of flowers without blocking his view either.

The locals had given him a canister full of spray to test on the flowers with the intention that it would wilt or kill them without releasing the overpowering ash which fire would cause. Venom was content to take the job for a few extra sylvs. After living at sea for so long with various trips to the desert, this was nice - even if he was trying to kill the things, which he felt a little guilty over. Venom tried to keep his thoughts to a minimum and let his contentedness settle on thick and relaxing. Briefly his mind set on the effects of the spray and he was hoping that any little critters that made their home in this field of flowers were not harmed by the spray. Venom had looked over the canister before even setting out and saw no warning labels or even list of chemicals inside. Just what it was made of, he could only guess at. Once he had set to spraying, peace came to him with the view, and he didn't think too much about any one thing in particular.

Until he saw someone. At first he wondered if he was hallucinating, and he stopped and stared for a good few long seconds. His one blue eye squinted against the soft sunlight, until his boots slowly moved through the thick flowers to get him closer for a better look. Venom Snake was cautious by nature, bordering on paranoid, and so the approach reflected that. He was as silent as he could be, moving slow and careful, until he finally could see that it was in fact another person.

His heart thumped hard in his chest at the implications of this discovery, and the canister was dropped as Venom moved quickly to the stranger. "How long have you been out here?" speaking loudly so as to be heard through the gas mask which muffled his voice.

[b0mbshell]

When the man looks over his shoulder, he's hardly a stranger (unless you count ten years removal). "Boss?"

The words are entirely too bland, too empty, and whatever memories Venom Snake might have of this version of Kaz would be that even with those glasses on there was always some sort of brightness about him. The one that Snake knew was tattered remains of this, and even he couldn't hid an unhappy twist of his mouth or creasing of his forehead between steep eyebrows.

He should have been more worried. Snake looked haggard, a metal arm worth of Zadornov and scars visible even behind a gas mask. There was what looked like a horn, dangerous shrapnel embedded in the right side of his skull. Not to mention that, in general, he just looked older.

Only he wasn't worried, he just put down a flower and dryly said, "I don't think I'm supposed to be holding this, am I?" There didn't seem to be anything wrong. What was wrong with just not caring?

[anothermission]

"...gotta get you out of here." The toxins were already well in effect and by the looks and sounds of it, Kaz wasn't at all able to be a reliable historian for himself. There was no telling how long the flowers had been draining him of emotion. Venom had lived in this strange emotion driven world long enough to know that people could come from the past and future, people you knew but might not know what they should compared to the same person in your own timeline. Thus far, Venom had only heard about such oddities and fluctuations of time. It seemed now he would get to experience it first hand.

And that was seriously daunting. There was so much to say, and no time at all to say it at the moment. Kaz needed help. It wasn't just a matter of getting him out of the field but they really needed to get his emotions back to him. He couldn't guess what would happen if they left now; it would be tragic if Kaz didn't recover. Venom's memories of a Kazuhira this young were broken and pieced together, but he remembered that flame which couldn't be extinguished, all the hope and brightness.

V couldn't let that disappear. "Put this on. We have to buy you some time while I burn this field." That meant not getting his paycheck but that was far from his mind as he unbuckled the gas mask from off his face and started fitting it over Kaz's head. His plan was simple: get Kaz up on one of his shoulders, run, and shoot the pressurized canister from as far away as possible. Hopefully the explosion would burn the entire field up and give Kaz every drained emotion the damned flowers had ever taken.

[electramoon]

Chibiusa had been out in this field since sunrise to appease her natural flare for competition and ensure one of the hierarchies of necessities to feel safe and secure: payment. She had run away from everything and everyone and even though so many of those she had run away from were actually here; she wasn't sure she wanted to be under their roof. Rather, this independence had really gotten to her head. She would soon have to pay for boarding alongside the prepared food she bought every meal and that was going to be expensive. She would need to work extra hard to afford all of it.

Of course, at the time of her running away she had no idea where she was going and showing up in this whole new world and/or universe took her some time to acclimate to the idea that she really wasn't home by no stretch of the imagination. She was in a different galaxy where her moons, planets, stars, and existence would not exist.

If there was anything she knew, it was her universe and all the planets and regions of space that pertained to her and earth and moon's protection.

The voice behind her startled her and she tipped forward before she rolled to her back and looked past her belly to a distant one-eyed man asking her about her business! "Wha?!" She sat up with a quick kick of her feet forward and with a furrowed brow she pointed to him. "How long have you been there?!"

[anothermission]

"I've... uh. A few minutes." He hadn't expected the question tossed back at him. Snake frowned under the gask mask, his one good eye blinking at her several times. "You okay?" The man moved closer and crouched down, resting on one knee as he offered her a metal hand to hold onto to get back up again.

She was cute, which made him a little nervous. If she was a local it was all well and good but if not, that meant she'd been ripped from her home. She looked well taken care of and healthy so someone had looked after her even if she didn't have a proper family. Knowing all the war orphans he had, Venom was very aware of what broken families looked like but that didn't mean there was no one who might care for her here either. Some of the better families were those which were made, not those which you had no choice in belonging to. "It's dangerous out here," he added.

[electramoon]

Her eyes widened at the metal hand and she moved a tentative hand forward before her small fingertips smoothed across his mechanic hand. "Are you okay?" She then realized she was basically parroting two thirds of what he's said thus far and she frowned before she took her other hand and pointed at his hand. "Okay," she commented before her hand went down to her lap to grip her pants before he pulled her up to stand. It was dangerous out here for sure.

"Well, I was here first." She took her hand back from him and gestured to herself. "You're on my turf. I been out here since sunrise .. taking care of this area for the pay.." She grumbled softly which nearly sounded like a whine.