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

[majorgeneral]

Mostly give my Lieutenant General a hard time.

[ when not on the battlefield that is. he takes his job very seriously as well as the lives of his comrades, sometimes needing to make tough decisions where emotions are put in check for the bigger picture. ]

It's all very boring and not nearly as interesting as housekeeping I bet.

[ he might be teasing her a little there but he laughs again to show he means no ill feelings regarding her talent. ]

[scrapture]

[Talkin' shit about him, huh? To himself? How dare you, omnic. Junkrat's all ready to squawk out a nice long string of (Australian) curse words at Zenyatta, when all the bluster and fury starting to bubble in his telepathy suddenly vanishes. Like heat blown away by a quick breath.

Junkrat, the wanted junker.

Junkrat's wide grin can be felt, now, if not heard in his head-voice:]

-- Yeah, that's me all right. Better believe all those reports you've heard! [Yes, all the reports about him being so dangerous and scary and not the ones about him being an idiot.]

Maaaaybe you can tell the rest of your omnic buddies you talked t' me and got away without a scratch! That's a story for the ages if I've ever heard!

[majorgeneral]

[ from the looks of it, the larger rabbit that's isolated itself off to the side is not as social as the others who she's gathered up as resident bunny leader of the carrot patch.

there had been word about a certain rabbit (white with red eyes was it?) that was a little more difficult than the others. could this be that rabbit? ]

Hm, if I were to take a guess, I would say it's not just another bunny. Looks to me like he's a bit of a grump. [ he chuckles a little, a hand resting on his waist. ] There's one if every group, isn't there?

giorno giovanna | jjba ( vento aureo )

[digiorno]

B. the first rule about fight club

[The advertisement said: Street fights. Prove your strength. Win money. To the victor go the spoils. No dunamis, magic, or technology allowed. Just strength and skill. Leave a message for further instructions.]

[Giorno had, and had followed up, and come here in the end for one reason and one alone: throwing your opponent off-balance is halfway to winning a fight. He certainly doesn't look like he's come here to win. He doesn't look anything close to strong and, in fact, has downplayed his strength--as usual. It's automatic at this point to look harmless, from the wisps of curl framing his face and the braid hanging past his shoulder to his delicate hand-tailored clothing to the slimness of his waist to the subtle pink of his nails. He doesn't look armed. He doesn't look like he knows how to hold a weapon anyway.]

[He looks a little lost.]

[The thing is, though, that he's never going to lose another fight in his life if he has anything to say about it--and there's a knife in his boot. Maybe don't judge a book by its cover, that's the walking moral Giorno Giovanna always tries to be. Hopefully you know it already, since he's walking up to you with a curious tilt of his head.]

Are you my opponent?

C. read my mind

[Well. Okay, so: telepathy isn't something he's really interested in. If he could afford to avoid this forever, he would. But that's not practical or even feasible, so he might as well attack it now.]

[Maybe the word "attack" is a little dramatic in the context of using what sort of amounts to the internet. But he's still going to use it, at least in his own head.]

I wonder how often this way of communicating goes comedically awry. Statistically speaking.

D. patronus gardening 101

[To say that Giorno is frustrated at the fact that he can't just fix these particular flowers with the power of Gold Experience would be an understatement on par with saying that eternal winter would be kind of a downer. It's highly annoying. This is sort of his thing, and it works on other plants here, so why not these?]

[Someone tells him, eventually, the way he has to do it--with happy memories--and he smiles and says thank you, knelt in the dirt as he is with dirt under his nails. But he's not at all pleased. Because the fact is that he doesn't really have that many happy memories to work with.]

[He thinks back to things that he considers happy. Tries a few of them. Some cause a little perkiness in the leaves, but that's all. During this grueling and frustrating process, he begins to realize that even his happy memories aren't really. Some, like killing Diavolo, are triumphant; some, like meeting Bruno, are satisfying. But very few of even the positive memories are the sort of positive that these flowers need.]

[So Giorno sulks. In the dirt. For . . . a while. Until finally he just flops over, using a flowerbed as a pillow, and starts examining what exactly he's trying to fix. Some of it's familiar-ish, some of it isn't. And once he gets caught up in the joy of the living things under his hands and all around him, he finds them growing after all.]

[It makes him laugh. So: there he is, lying in the dirt, half-buried in flowers, giggling at what appears to be nothing. This may or may not be a red flag.]

[eyeswideopen]

[He already knows based on the color. Komaeda smiles brightly, running a light finger over the snowflake.] Elios. I like him. While he can be...nosy about love he does it out of the goodness of his heart.

But it might be Thras. I doubt it, his runs towards pure gold. Elios is the colors of flame. [He tucks his own crystal away while running things over in his mind.] There are a number of ways to check.

What is your last memory from home? It usually is the easiest way to know.

[fivenareff]

I'm quite enjoying the conversation, actually.

[It's a dangerous game he plays when he annoys Dio. Each dark expression feels like a victory, but there's only so far he can go.]

It's fascinating to learn some of your hobbies. Unless you have something better to discuss?

D

[fivenareff]

[On the one hand: it's terribly nice to hear Giorno laughing. His don doesn't laugh often enough for a boy his age, and to hear it coming from the garden bodes well. On the other hand, Polnareff reflects as he comes outside, there's something to be said for dignity. Not much, admittedly, but something. That's an awfully expensive suit he has on, after all.

Oh, well. It hardly matters. Polnareff's smiling as he stares down at his son, half buried in flowers.]

Having fun?

[digiorno]

[Oh. There's Polnareff. It's fortunate for Giorno that his perception of societal customs is generally from the outside looking in (that is: they generally don't apply to him), because otherwise he might be embarrassed. As it is, he just rolls onto his back and looks up at Polnareff, eyes bright.]

I figured it out, [he informs his consigliere solemnly.]

[fivenareff]

I can see that.

[Does he dare get to his knees and join Giorno in the dirt? Mm, not quite yet, but it's a pretty likely possibility. For now, Polnareff leans forward, his own eyes just as bright.]

Am I allowed to know how, or is it a secret?

C, assuming they've already met

[morewithhoney]

[There are very few people who would be sending that level of seething hatred Giorno's way from the moment they begin to answer.

Doppio hasn't learned how to tell the 'sender' of a message before actually listening to it yet. If he had, maybe he'd ignore everything Giorno says on principle. But then again, he'd miss on information that way, so maybe not.

Either way, once he's listened to Giorno's voice, he can't keep himself from answering. It's a character flaw.]

Probably less than with phone calls. It's hard to get a wrong number.

[He is the expert here on phone calls. Some people don't even know what phones are, it's terrible.]

[digiorno]

You can know. But it's pretty difficult.

[And . . . sort of sad, when he thinks about it. So he tries not to, because if he does, the flowers will wilt. Instead, he wrinkles his nose and rolls his eyes.]

You have to be happy.

yeah!!

[digiorno]

[Oh. He probably shouldn't . . . find this quite as funny as he does. But he can't help it; there's a ripple of amusement that really can't be mistaken for anything else. He puts his fingers up to cover his mouth out of principle, even though obviously it doesn't make a difference.]

You seem displeased by your connection, though.

[fivenareff]

Ah.

[Well. No wonder it'd taken Giorno a fair bit to figure it out. But saying that would be both useless and depressing, so instead:]

Fits into the general theme of this place, I suppose.

[Now he slips out of his wheelchair. Carefully, of course, but soon he's out of it and onto the ground, legs drawn out before him. Leaning his weight back on one hand, he sits in the dirt, fingers curling into it.]

Come show me?

[morewithhoney]

[Telepathy can't save Doppio from himself. The opposite, really. It's a terrible enabler.]

If I knew it was you I wouldn't have listened to a damn word out of your mouth.

[...it's not technically out of his mouth but that's not important right now.]

a; i'm l8 but gr8

[digiorno]

[There are flowers all over Giorno's feet.]

[What's funniest about this is that the person who grew the flowers is apologizing to him for it. There's already the bubbly beginning of a giggle growing at the back of his throat, but that makes it burst out into the air between them. He covers his mouth, but his eyes are still smiling, and the flowers stand a little taller and bloom a little brighter as a result.]

No, no. I like them! They're lovely. Please don't apologize.

[sobored]

Oh come on, you know me, I've got all sorts of things going on, and I've done all sorts of things in my time here. I'm not the type to slack off.

[Okay, so she hasn't plunged this world into the depths of despair, but she's definitely kept busy.]

This is just a little field trip for me. But before I get into what I've done, do me a favor, okay? Can I see that shovel? Just for a second?

[digiorno]

Perhaps you should be more discerning in what you listen in on. Who knows what you might hear?

[(－ｏ⌒)]

[But really: there are limits. He makes a vague attempt to rein himself in.]

It's good practice for both of us, perhaps. With regards to controlling how much of ourselves we allow to seep out into the world via this method of communication.

[digiorno]

[Giorno blinks. Show me--how to be happy? He isn't certain he knows how to do that. But after a pause, he comes and sits next to Polnareff, his legs crossed under him.]

Do you want me to show you how I did it? Or . . .

[dyedsnow]

Really? I find that hard to believe!

[Despite how much she waxed poetic about it, she knew all too well that most people found housework extremely dreary.]

You must've been in a lot of interesting battles yourself, Major General Hiiragi. Maybe you can tell me about some of them?

[churchbelle]

[Hang on, he just touched a tree to keep his balance stepping over something gross and the tree was also gross. Spare him from this fresh hell.]

—Hazel. [why are we talking about this now my guy,] It's a pleasure.

[fivenareff]

Yeah. Let me see you grow something. If that's all right.

[He leans over, nudging him gently with one shoulder.]

[nanoscope]

So just because I see an old ally in danger and choose to aid him against someone who I had assumed was an enemy, you choose to mark me as an enemy?

[Until she'd literally ripped his mask off, Reaper was a stranger to her. As far as she knew, Gabriel Reyes had died in that explosion. Meeting him in Egypt... it changed things, raised far too many questions.]

I don't know what happened to you or Jack, why you became... like the way you are. [Both physically and morally.] I for one want to know why.

What happened while I was gone? What happened to you, Gabriel? [He says they abandoned him... she has no knowledge of why they would do that. They were a team, weren't they?]

[nanoscope]

[Even if it's something as mundane as tranquilizing a bear and relocating it, it felt good to be working with someone who she was familiar with working with and whom she knew was reliable.]

[She shakes her head at his question, pointing at the nest.]

No nest, but she seems very protective of that.

[nanoscope]

[As skilled as she was, Ana was still old. And as much as she was loathe to admit it, she couldn't quite pick up and load a bear into a transport vehicle on her own. So if anything, Winston was muscle where she lacked it.]

[Not to say she didn't like working with him. He was always very pleasant to work with. She smiles at him before adjusting her aim.]

This should knock her out long enough for us to load her. [Should being the keyword. It worked on Earth bears, but otherworldly ones? Well... nothing ventured, nothing gained.]

[She lines up the shot and... fires the dart.]

[gr1m]

Everyone chose his side, I don't see why you'd be any different. More so now.

[It was only natural, despite how she'd once been just as much his friend as Jack's. She wasn't free of suspicion, finding her alive after so long. He couldn't be sure of anything-

Talons tightened on the back of the chair, the wood creaking from his grip.]

They killed me, he is why I'm like this. He stopped listening to me, turned his back on me. They all ignored it when something was wrong and I paid the price! [Thin ribbons of flame curled in the air, flashing in and out of existence as anger was barely contained.] I was left behind and forgotten.

They still don't see.