empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

— 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.

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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.

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.
Flying equipment. The various medical equipment has also taken life, scalpels and needles flying everywhere and stethoscopes ready to strangle.
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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He chuckles and puts on a grin, not even missing a beat.] Sure thing, kid.

[He comes forward, avoiding the pitchfork the scarecrow being thrusts at him.] Careful now, you're going to hurt someone with that. I just want you to apologize for ruining my poor daughter's hat. [His statement confuses the scarecrow for a moment and then it decides to try and hit him again. He'll grab onto that pitchfork this time and with a quick motion, was able to take the pitchfork away from the scarecrow.]

So, what did you do to get this guy all upset? [He addresses Trucy while the scarecrow stood there dumbfounded and hopping in place. Some random guy just took it's pitchfork. No one does that!]

Thank you! You're my hero! [ No, seriously. She has to fight the urge to childishly stick her tongue out at the stupid scarecrow because the last thing she wants to do is further irritate it, especially now that Dhurke is involved.

The man's question quells that urge pretty quickly, though, and she clasps her hands together. ]

I didn't do anything! All I did was walk past it, and say, 'Hello, Mr. Scarecrow!' and then it went nuts! At first I thought it was a prank, and then I remembered where we are. And then I ran like the wind itself!

Huh, was that really all? Maybe you startled it.

[Because a scarecrow totally has feelings--wait. The scarecrow in question is slowly inching closer to Dhurke. It really wants it's pitchfork back :|]

Maybe! Um, except it had friends chasing me at one point, too...

[ Hey, scarecrow. She sees you... and now that it's not wielding a sharp scary object, she casually just sort of pushes it down... she's not being a bully, ok. ]

...Just when I think this place can't get any crazier, it does! I hope Mr. Hat doesn't get possessed or something.

[Pff, even if it was inappropriate, Dhurke laughs when Trucy pushes the scarecrow down. It flops helplessly like a fish out of water.]

My hero. Let's call it even now, but we probably shouldn't leave it like this. It was probably just doing it's job watching the fields.

[He stabs the pitchfork into the ground and helps get the scarecrow back up, where it stood there, doing nothing. W-What just happened?] And just who is Mr. Hat?

[ Dhurke is way too nice for his own good, at least she certainly thinks so. Really, as much as she'd like to leave the stupid thing to flop around lamely, he's right. Probably. ]

Okay! Ah, I suppose so... still, it shouldn't have just gone flailing sharp pointy objects around. No one wants to get murdered here, and anyways, how would a scarecrow trial even go? Would it get away with murder because it doesn't have opposable thumbs and therefore there'd be no real evidence?

[ These are all pressing, hard hitting questions Dhurke. He'll have to excuse her weird imagination, it's probably only going to get a lot worse from here. ]

...And a distinct lack of fingerprints. Maybe it would leave hay trails or something... [ Now she's just kind of eyeing that scarecrow, sizing it up. It's then that she lifts a hand and points two fingers at her own eyes, and then points them back to the living object. She's got her eye on you, Mr. Scarecrow. ]

Oh, Mr. Hat is my puppet! I'd bring him out, but I don't want to tick Mr. Scarecrow off again...

Good question. And you can't exactly get a testimony out of them. But, if there was a murder, there would be blood traces. Unless they scared the victim to death, that would be harder to prove. [...Yep, he's going along with this. It's a fascinating thought though.]

A hay trail could easily be misleading evidence. Have you seen how easily hay falls from these guys? They could easily frame one of their pals for murder. [The scarecrow meanwhile is just standing there. It hasn't tried to do anything to either of them and just looking between them. Is this for real?]

Well I doubt our scarecrow friend is going to be able to do much without this. [Saying as he grips said weapon.] So don't worry about that. And who knows, maybe our friend would like to meet Mr. Hat too.

Yeah, giving someone a heart attack would look like a natural death. What a great murder weapon, using themselves! [ She sounds a little too enthusiastic probably, but she doesn't really mean anything by it. Probably. ]

Ah, you're right! They could frame one of their buddies or a cow. Or even a horse! Anything that is made of and or that eats hay could get the blame! [ ...Poor Mr. Scarecrow. It seems so confused right now, maybe this is punishment enough.

Still, if Dhurke really wants to meet Mr. Hat... ]

Okay then! I hope he does, he should also know that Mr. Hat knows Taekwondo... [ She doesn't want this stupid scarecrow trying to beat them with his hay filled fists, after all. She shifts a little bit, and out the large puppet comes, stealing her hat off of the top of her head as per usual. ]

--This is Mr. Hat, magician-assistant-extraordinaire!

Whoa! [Dhurke wasn't sure what he was expecting, but that sure was an entrance. It even startles Mr. Scarecrow. The sounds of firecrackers can be heard, created from Dhurke's shock. ]

W-Wow, you just popped him out of thin air. That quite a hat trick! [And he's already bouncing back with a smile on his face.] Well hello there Mr. Hat. It's nice to meet you.

[The scarecrow just leans forward, as if trying to examine this new intruder....and yet a kindred spirit?]

[ Trucy can't help but laugh good naturedly, because it's always amusing when people jump at Mr. Hat's entrance. ]

Well, when he wants to come out, he enjoys making a flashy entrance, you know? Say hello, Mr. Hat! [ The puppet in question seems to have a life of it's own as it tips his -- or rather, her hat at Dhurke before 'speaking' to him. ]

"Hello, pleased to meet your acquaintance! Oho, and who is this handsome fellow?" [ Mr. Hat's attention is now on the scarecrow, staring at it with his own beady wooden eyes. Clearly, they need to be best friends! ]

Hah-ha-ha-ha! That is definitely one extraordinaire assistant!

[Dhurke is so impressed by how much she can do with this puppet right now. Like this is really cool to him.]

Oh that fella there? That's Mr. Scarecrow. [At being addressed, the scarecrow just shudders. Was it being shy?]

TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

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